April 13, 2011

Raleigh Engagement Photographer: Ashley+Rodney

Meet Ashley and Rodney, a very sweet and adorable couple from Zebulon, NC who are planning a wedding for 2012. :) Rodney proposed to Ashley on February 13th of this year and they’re just in the beginning stages of planning… not yet in the throes of planning panic quite yet. ;) Ashley contacted me for an engagement shoot at Perry’s Pond, a quiet little place a little north of Zebulon near Bunn. Her mother had her senior portraits taken here and the local high school still does a lot of senior portraits on this piece of land. Ashley changed high schools before they took their group senior shot here, so unfortunately she wasn’t able to have pictures here… until now! :) And a beautiful woodsy location it is! And although we would’ve loved for the sun to be out, it was at least warm and the rain held off to mere drizzle for 95% of the time, so it was a success!

Ashley has such a sweet smile and gorgeous eyes! And Rodney is such a sweetheart. They’re both really kind, down-to-earth people.

Oh, and meet Brodie too! :) How could we forget him. Here he is, below, smiling for the camera (love those teeth). Brodie is a Peekapoo and nothing, really, but a large ball of the softest fur on planet Earth. He is adorable, fiesty, and easily distracted… and I love him a lot!

For those of you who’ve had a session with me, you know my tendency to walk backward without watching where I’m going and tripping, falling, and generally causing a scene. That said, this was a particularly dangerous location for me with all the rocks and water. ;) But I survived without a scratch!

Quick change of clothes and some drizzle later… my favorite picture of the day!

Ashley and Rodney, you are wonderful! I hope you, your family, and Brodie enjoy the pictures. :)

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April 12, 2011

Raleigh Portrait Photographer: Gregory(baby)+Kuma(dog)+Bella(dog)

Prepare for two really cute two sessions in one! :) A wonderful woman named Melanie called me a couple weeks ago to set up a portrait session for her 11-month old son, Gregory, and her two dogs, Kuma and Bella. Therefore, this is half toddler-portrait-session and half dog-portrait-session… the best of both ridiculously cute and cuddly worlds! :)

We’ll start with Gregory first! Gregory, who is such a photogenic toddler and lover of the camera despite his cold at the time, is the happiest toddler in the world. He didn’t cry or get upset once, even when he was tired! He laughed and smiled the entire time. Even when he finally did get tired, he just sort of rubbed his eyes and looked like, “Uuuggghh… so tired… but I must… keep… posing…”. He’s clearly a baby modeling natural! I loved this little fella!

This is Gregory’s “Blue Steel” face… all CSP clients have one, even the babies.

And enter Bella! Bella is a large (very large) black and furry dog of unknown origin. She is a total sweetheart (her patience exhibited below) and Gregory just loves her.

Bella and Gregory get along. Kuma, ehhh, not so much. :) Kuma gets along with Bella, but not really with kids. She just does her own thing being A REALLY CUTE (but tiny) dog that looks like you took a Husky and shrunk them down with a shrink-ray and made a pocket sized version (technically called the Shiba Inu breed). Look at that face!

Enter Gregory+Kuma+Bella’s incredibly kind and beautiful parents, Melanie and Mark! Melanie is a software architect and Mark is a lawyer, and combined their children will be very smart and professional! Look at Gregory’s face below… he knows how to work it for the camera. :)

Look at this little dog! Ohhh, Kuma, I just want to give you lots of hugs but you kinda just do your own thing by yourself and I respect that.

So Bella originally was supposed to be 40 pounds full grown, but she obviously became much much bigger. No one is sure of her breed… all we know is that she’s very soft, furry, and giant. But she is so cute! I love her ears. She can look pretty wolf-ish sometimes and is just adorable!

I had a great time on this shoot and it was a pleasure getting to know and work with this beautiful family! :)

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April 5, 2011

Raleigh Pet Photographer: Vince+Jackson

Vince and Jackson are city dogs. Kind of. Actually, not really. Jackson’s pretty terrified of traffic and elevators, and Vince is perfectly comfortable chewing on sticks and chasing his bro around the park. However, their parents are city people and scheduled a portrait session for their dogs before their downtown Raleigh engagement session, so we took the pups to a nearby park and let them run free (sort of)!

Vince is the Boston Terrier (a breed I’d been looking forward to photographing for such a long time!) and was everything I thought a Boston Terrier should be… a hilarious diva dog. He was very smart and insisted upon being in front of the camera at all times. I had to delete a ton of pictures of Jackson because they all had a giant Vince blur running in front of the camera like, “HEY GUYS HEY GUYS HEY GUYS!!!!” Vince enjoys pepperoni, chasing Jackson, and chewing on sticks.

Jackson is an adorable mutt who belonged to Shannon before she lived with Phil. He’s very protective of Shannon and doesn’t particularly want to like Phil, but you can tell he does anyway. He goes back and forth between trying to ignore Phil and running up to Phil like, “HI PHIL HI PHIL HI PHIL!!!!” Jackson enjoys swimming, chewing on sticks, and my husband Geoff.