When Jay’s mom called to set up an appointment for his senior portraits, it was like a blast from the past. We used to work with Donna, and befriended her and her family long ago – even before Diana and were married. While her family dynamics have changed a little, Donna has not. She’s still funny, still direct, and still completely devoted to her children.
Jay was a willing subject, even climbing a tree for his photos. I remember Jay when he was about three or four. He could probably climb trees then, too.
On this, my older brother’s birthday, we went to Reston Hospital to sit with mom while dad was getting chemotherapy. As many of you may remember, my father was diagnosed with cancer last year, and has been doing quite well since then. He is presently in remission, but the doctors wanted to “put some icing on the cake” and administer two more rounds of chemo to give dad a more solid chance against the cancer returning.
So we sat and talked with mom. I also edited pictures, Diana knitted and we generally had a nice visit. As with so many hospital visits, there was a lot of waiting. It didn’t seem to bother dad. His approach is “I prefer this over the alternative.” A positive outlook, indeed.
We also had lunch with my sister, her husband and my nephew, Andy. I ate half a chicken. Okay, I shared a couple of bites, but I’m not big in the sharing department when it comes to chicken.
We left around 4pm to beat the worst of the traffic, and dad was grateful we made the trip. It’s always great seeing him (and mom, of course) and we were glad we had the time with them.
Today was an adventure.
“There’s a fiber festival in Montpelier Station, Virginia,” Diana says.
“Um… where?” I ask in hopes that it is in our neighborhood.
And so the adventure began. Our limited free time sometimes takes us to new destinations in a quest for something we haven’t seen before. This day it was a fiber festival in Orange, Virginia, near Montpelier, Virginia. We all know what famous home rests there, right? NO!? go look it up! (Hint: His wife was quite the Dolly)
We got there just after it opened, not having got lost (much) along the way… sometimes online directions aren’t all they are cracked up to be. I need to have a talk with NavTeq about locations outside the big cities.
Anyway, we met up with a friend of ours, who lives a little closer to the festival site. It was ridiculously hot (like 98 degrees). But there were herding dog trials, so I had somthing else to do besides look at endless miles of yarn and yarn products. I do like the colors and textures, but I’m about yarned out when I get to the second hour or so. So watching the doggies was fun.
We made it an early day because it was just so hot, and miserable. We left at mid-day and took a slightly different route home… and don’t ask me how we got there. I’m surprised we got there. We did have one interesting a fun stop along the way, though.
We stopped at a convenience store for a beverage. When we walked in, I think we also walked backwards a couple of decades. Wood floors, chairs sitting around for people to sit down. No tables, these are chattin’ chairs. And aside from the shop owners, there were 2-3 people in there “chattin'”. One lady was showing off a young puppy, and offered it to us. We declined (we have three dogs now), paid for our drinks and snacks (peanuts) and left.
And there was an antique shop across the road. Well, we had to run through there. I saw a few old cameras, but I’m more of a new camera model type. There was a very intersting old tripod, which was more suited to the equipment used in land surveying than photography. The funny thing is that the store cat followed us – everywhere. I was beginning to get the impression that he was the store detective. He showed us out as we left, too.
Good kitty.
I love working with people who know what they want, and who aren’t afraid to express their ideas. Sarah wanted me as her photographer, and made sure I understood that she didn’t want to have to select posing and tell me what to do and when. That makes my job a lot easier, because I can look around and see what works best.
My coverage for this wedding was short, but we managed quite a bit in that time. The picture below is of the groom just moments before he was to enter the church. A few well-placed jokes by his groomsmen was why he had the smirk.
The ceremony was practically seamless. There usually ends up being something that comes up, but not here. Both were a bit nervous, but everything went off well.
We took a few more portraits after the wedding, and they seemed so much more relieved to have the ceremony part of their day done. The bright sunshine gave us plenty of warmth, but also a little challenge here and there.
Once at the reception, I was only there for an hour. Their first dance was a particular favorite of mine because they laughed, teased and danced throughout. They enjoyed it so much, they came back a few songs later. Here, Sarah is probably telling Dave that the salad had red onions and she specifically asked for yellow ones.
Or maybe not.
I was very happy when I got a note from Sarah just a few days after the wedding:
“I was blown away by the photographs! I wasn’t expecting to get many pictures from the ceremony, because you were so discreet. But, there were so many good shots. As a journalist, I can really respect that. Thank you for your professional demeanor and wonderful photography!”
Well, Sarah you are quite welcome. It was my honor and pleasure to capture your wedding memories.
So, we often have opportunities to work with seniors who have some ideas of their own, and we welcome that. Kassidy had about six pages of pictures from other photographers she’d seen online. I was happy to recreate some of the ideas I saw in those images for her.
Like so many senior sittings, it started out with Kassidy being a bit reserve. But since she knew she had provided us with a set of ideas, and we mixed in a few of our own, it wasn’t long before we were working quite easily together.
Kassidy’s mom was along on the sitting and suggested that she take her shoes off for the portrait below. It’s that perfect “care free” approach we like to see, and made for one of the most popular of all the portraits.
We do a lot of executive-style headshots for people who are updating their business cards, brochures and websites. Christine and her assistant were looking for something that really brought out the friendly nature of their business (real estate). We took the time to show her that a more subtle brown was a better background for her picture than what she’d had before.
In the average year, we do 50-100 local headshot portraits.
I was contacted by a long-time client about making a copy of a painting… a portrait which depicts a former owner of the house in which they currently live. Her objective is to get a portrait of each former owner (back to its origin which is in the 1800’s) and put same in the foyer of their home.
The question that was brought up was permission to copy. How often do you want to make a copy of a picture and think, “is this legal?” Probably not very often. My venture was safe because the original artist had made these works over 100 years ago.
But without getting too preachy, you might want to understand a little more about what the word “copyright” means, and how it applies to you and pictures. When you get pictures taken by a professional photographer, you are asking them to make images for you. The images that they make are copyrighted by the photographer. This means they own the images. They don’t own you, just the pictures that you are in.
When you view the pictures from the photographer, and ask them to make a print of them, you are asking them for a copy of the image. A copy of the image which is printed on any media is yours to display and share with family and friends. However, it cannot be legally copied. The reason is that all artists and authors who produce images and written works are protected under the Federal Copyright Act. Their works, called “intellectual property” are something that they designed and so therefore have all of the “copy rights” (rights to copy without permission) to that work.
So when you get a copy of an image from your photographer, it is not okay to make a copy of it, even at home, for any reason. Most major stores where you can copy photos have big signs posted and closely watch what is being copied to prevent you from doing so. The reason is that they are also liable if they permit you to copy a photo that is copyrighted material.
It’s more difficult to understand sometimes because you know that a) the photographer gave you a copy of the photo, b) you are in the photo, and c) nobody’s there to stop you. But if you are caught, the penalties can range as high as $10,000 per image, per COPY! I don’t even want to think about the bill you’d get for copying all the pictures from a wedding. Eek!
The best thing to remember is that if you paid to have the pictures taken, then ask your photographer for copies of the photos. Most or many will be happy to help you.
Yes, I still shoot high school sports. I shoot a lot of sports. I don’t post it here because there’s so much it might overwhelm things.
But I shot freshman volleyball and had a good time… I discovered I didn’t like shooting indoor sports as much as outdoor sports. For those who are local and like to see the high school action photos, all fall sports are online for Jefferson High at
www.tlcsports.net.
Sentimentality is one of the reasons I’m still doing weddings after 25 years. And if there was anything missing from this wedding, it certainly wasn’t sentiment. Another later in life couple, Shannon and Dave are a very special duo.
Before the wedding, a few of the bridal party members started the celebration early. I wasn’t supposed to let you know that. But hey, it was truly a celebration.
Shannon was very emotional coming down the aisle. But Dave was quick to say something to make her smile and settle into their ceremony. It was made more solemn when a candle was lit in honor of fallen parents.
Peek-A-Boo!
A beautiful location at the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown lended itself well to images like this. It’s easy to see how happy they were.
The toast was also emotion-filled, but brought out the best in everyone. The reception began shortly after that, and there was plenty of time for talking with old friends, relatives and others.
We have enjoyed working with Shannon and Dave, and look forward to prints, albums and other things from their wedding.
So, you remember how many passport photos we took at the last passport day? We eclipsed that… considerably. This time we took 116 sets of passport photos. There were lots of people and plenty of questions.
We were pleased to see so many faces, people we knew and new people we didn’t. The Shepherd Study Abroad Program was very accomodating and helpful. We kept a tote board updated as we went along, and it seemed like we were always “behind” getting new counts up because there were so many people getting passport photos.
Thanks to all who visited. We’ll look forward to seeing everyone at the next one!
