Crystal and Jason seem to be like an adorable rain magnet. And if raining in the form of a hurricane on your wedding day is some sort of good luck, then having it rain againnnn during your anniversary portrait session you drove in from Charlotte to accomplish, then I’d say that they’re neck-deep in luck and need to play the lottery ASAP. 1870 Farm, where they were married, were gracious enough to have us return to shoot their portrait session. I got to pet a goat. It was great. They showed me all the areas that they were supposed to take pictures at had Hurricane Matthew not been an uninvited guest at their wedding. And this was the lake we were going to take pictures at! And this was the tree we were supposed to get married under! The tour was lovely, but interrupted halfway through by a turkey that meant business, and stopped me from spending as much time with the adorable goat as I would’ve preferred. Atlas, Crystal and Jason’s really cute little teddy bear dog, was also hell bent on killing said turkey, although I’m fairly confident he would’ve lost due to his small stature and the look of utter annihilation that the turkey had in its eye, and we moved on. We were supposed to shoot in the evening, but we moved it up to try and shoot in the space between the rain and were mostly successful, but it did start to rain toward the end. They busted out the white wedding umbrellas they used to shield themselves a year ago at their wedding and we continued onward. Rain cannot stop them. We are so glad to have been a part of their rainy wedding and their rainy anniversary shoot and their lives. Now please play the lottery and share some of it with us, thanks.
Category: Couples
Okay, so Melanie and Brendan make us look really great because they’re laughing in an adorable manner in nearly every photo. And I’d like to take credit for their sweet expressions but we’re actually not that funny, it’s more that Melanie and Brendan are just like that when they’re around each other. We barely had to direct them. At one point, Brendan just started giving Melanie a piggyback ride, which I think is the first time we’ve ever had anyone do that without a prompt from us first. They’re the perfect couple and someday I’ll put them in charge of teaching an instructional class on “How to Have Fun and Like Each Other During an Engagement Session” but for now, you guys will just have to take notes from their session.
Also, I should mention the adorable pups right? Seamus is the Pit Bull mix and Shiloh is the Beagle and they are so precious! They were adopted by Melanie and Brendan from one of the shelters where Melanie has worked. Melanie is a dog trainer and doggy behavioralist which sounds like the cutest job ever, except that she’s always trying to help dogs get adopted, so it’s also kind of sad because they’re cute and don’t have a home. It’s also safe to say that since they only have 2 dogs but always works around dogs that need adopted, she has far more self control than I do because at this point I’d probably be a hoarder. Melanie is also a vegan who really loves cake and musical theatre. Brendan is an ER doctor who eats a lot of peanut butter and gets upset when the ant dies in “Honey I Shrunk the Kids.” Together, their perfect day involves sleeping in, hiking with the dogs, hanging out with friends and watching tv. Obviously, they would look cute while doing all of these things, as evidenced below.
I’ll say it again – we had the best luck regarding our scheduling for being in New York! Between shooting a wedding in Rochester and attending a wedding in Rochester, we were able to hop on over to NYC for a few days to meet new clients, reunite with old clients, and photograph Aleigh+Joe’s engagement session in Red Hook! A lot of our Durham wedding clients are either currently living in New York City, or they used to live in New York City, and so we always have at least 2-3 pairs of clients in or around the city at any given time, and it’s nice to see them when we visit. Aleigh and Joe are having their wedding with us in Durham next year (wooo!), but just happened to e-mail us to request a Brooklyn engagement session, and we responded with YESSSssss because we adore shooting in New York, but also because we were going to be up around there anyway – yay!
These two are new clients for us and we love them already! They chose Red Hook for their engagement session location. Home to such things as a lot of awesome warehouses, graffiti, some empty parking lots next to a Snapple factory that has a pretty good view of the Manhattan skyline, AND a giant Ikea, it was clearly a great spot for their session. Plus there were a lot of adorable dogs getting walked and/or skateboarded around, and Aleigh appreciated this. Her and Joe were fabulously wonderful to work with despite unrelenting wind and me embarrassing everyone by wearing a giant backpack with Crocs in one of the most fashionable cities in America (I was traveling, dammit!). They and Joe are a ton of fun and also appreciate Brand New, a band also near and dear to our hearts. Most of the time you can find Aleigh and Joe laughing and being cute, so any and all moody shots below are brought to you by contemplating Brand New’s latest (saddest?) album.