Jane and Alex are engageeeed(!) and getting married in MEXICO (jealousss) and hired me to photograph their engagement portraits (yaaaaay!) under the stipulation that we try our best to avoid ticks (ewwwwww). Jane has gorgeous hair and incredibly fit upper arms, and Alex has very impressive eyelashes in an almost-Richard-from-Lost type of fashion. They are very cute. They have also lived in every state beginning with the letter C, visited 46/50 states, and have both lived abroad, which is so impressive! We had fun discussing their travels, work, and hobbies. They met while they were both attending Wake Forest and now live happily in Durham with their two dogs. They spend a good deal of their time now browsing PetFinder, and trying to convince one another that they don’t need a third dog. When not contemplating the pitfalls of life with three dogs, Jane spends her time lifting heavy things, and Alex spends his watching baseball or playing video games. Together they’re rock-solid, and they can thankfully both lift each other in a pinch should the occasion arise where the floor would suddenly become lava and they’d need to take turns carrying one another to safety. I enjoyed working with them very much, and thankfully all ticks were avoided during this shoot.

We had all sorts of good times in Charlotte! This is Sarah and Jimmy, the second Charlotte couple we had the fantastic good luck of booking this year. :) They too live in Charlotte but are getting married in Asheville, and I was too excited to meet them. Sarah and I had talked over the phone and got along great, but it’s always nice to put a face to a voice. And, of course, to meet Jimmy – her other half. These guys are two peas in an adorable outdoorsy pod! Jimmy is a rock climbing instructor (neat!) and Sarah teaches Algebra 2 (yay teachers!).

They both love spending time outdoors and are in a transient phase of life (both are from Georgia, living in Charlotte, and possibly moving on shortly to the northeast), so we wanted their pictures to focus on them, their love for each other, and their love for the outdoors. Sarah suggested Freedom Park which, although located nearly in uptown Charlotte, is an awesome outdoorsy oasis! We took the pictures pretty early when we’d still have great light and, despite Jimmy, Geoff, and I yawning a whole heck of a lot, we had a great time and the pictures came out fabulous! Having a couple as cute as them makes it easy, though. :)

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

Freedom Park engagement session

It doesn’t get much more outdoorsy than this! I read somewhere that Charlotte is the #1 worst city in the US for springtime allergies, and I believe it. :)

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

These suspension bridges reminded me of Costa Rica… only not as fundamentally unstable.

Freedom Park engagement session Charlotte NC

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

Freedom Park engagement session Charlotte NC

Charlotte engagement photographer

So I found this giant boulder thing in the middle of the park and wanted to use it because it had some funky light going on that I wanted to work with. It seemed like a really easy spot to sit on, but it turns out that it’s really smooth and Sarah just continually slipped off.

Sarah: I’m slipping off!

Carolyn: Jimmy, can you hold Sarah up? There… that doesn’t look too awkward. :P

Sometimes you just have to go with it. :) Sometimes it works! Sometimes it doesn’t. But I liked this lighting and color too much to give it up!

Freedom Park engagement session Charlotte NC

Charlotte engagement photographer

Freedom Park engagement session Charlotte NC

My faaavorite of the day. :) You just can’t go wrong with a chain link fence and some awesome ivy and people as adorable as them!

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

Charlotte engagement photographer

We hope you love these, Sarah+Jimmy! We are so looking forward to joining you in July in Asheville! And to everyone else – the next blog post will be their ADORABLE dog Clive… my third Charlotte subject. :)

last month i held an end of summer contest to thank my blog and newsletter readers for referrals. the winner would receive a free session and 50 4×6 proofs. derica justice was the lucky winner! she wanted to use her session for new portraits of her and her hubby ian, who haven’t had pictures since their wedding a few years ago. i was super excited to work with derica as she is our fantastic invitation/program/thank you card designer for our wedding!! (pictures of our invitations and interview with derica coming soon).  we loved derica’s work and i thought it was cool that we got this chance to both sort of work with each other’s business. cool!

they wanted some fun and funky pictures downtown with their dog maggie, who was super adorable and well-behaved even though she is terrified to walk over grates, which i found adorable. :)

raleigh portrait photographer

downtown raleigh nc

downtown raleigh portraits

couple portraits

downtown raleigh photographer

north carolina portrait photographer

raleigh couple portraits downtown

they wanted their picture by the NC state logo which was sandwiched between duke and unc…and while duke got the cold shoulder, ian decided to take care of unc by positioning this hand over their logo. ;)

Untitled-5

successfully loitering!

raleigh downtown portrait photographer

i had a super time out with this adorable couple and the pup! congratulations on the win, guys! and be looking out for derica’s upcoming invitation vendor interview soon!