Our first portrait sitting of the year was Martinsburg High School senior, Ashley. She didn’t want a lot of photos, but her mom wanted to make sure she got her band and softball photos, the drape and something “really nice.”
It was great fun taking some pictures with Ashley (whose nickname is Nikki), and trying to keep her from laughing at her boyfriend who was there with her.
Over a year ago, my siblings and I (Jon, Dennis and Debra) started talking about throwing my parents a party to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Off and on throughout the year, we talked about things, but didn’t really get going until October.
Jon provided the party supplies, including balloons and Rolos (gold foil covered) to weight them down. Dennis provided the sparkling cider for the toast and much of the muscle to move things around during setup (his son, Aaron and daughters, Ashely and Audrey), and Debra provided the cake and food.
Along with Diana’s help, I produced a DVD slideshow that featured photos from their very very early years, along with sound that we played during the dinner.
Our gift to them was a large print of us four siblings. Interesting story, that. Diana took the original picture of me, Jon (who lives in Baltimore) and Debra (who lives in Sterling VA). Since Dennis lives in Michigan, we asked a photographer there to take some photos of him and send us the files. He did so and Diana worked her magic and stripped the photo into the picture of the three of us to create a four-sibling picture. It was a beautiful photo.
When we got to the church where we were throwing the party, everyone almost immediately pitched in and started setting up tables, chairs and everything else. After about two hours of setting up and testing the audio/video equipment, everyone parted ways to get ready (Dennis was staying in a hotel and Debra had to take Andy, her son, to a doctor’s appointment).
When we got back, we finished the setups and the kitchen staff was preparing the meal. Everything was in place.
To pull this off as a surprise, we had to keep our presence a secret. So all of us and our families (except for Debra) had to hide in a back room. I found a chair that was about a third of the size of any other chair… sitting in it for two minutes was about 90 seconds too much.
When we all appeared at the opening, mom and dad were visibly moved. We each gave a little toast which was followed by dinner, music and some fellowship. Each of us spent a little time talking with mom and dad. It was very nice.
After dinner, we started the DVD, which chronicled their growing up years, their early marriage and many of the memories of the kids and growing up. At the end of the DVD, the last image is the one of us four kids that Diana had taken. When the full-size version of the picture was presented, mom and dad both were very moved. I was pretty emotional myself, just seeing how happy they were.
You see, it was the first time in their wedding history that they’ve had a formal picture of all four of their kids.
We spent the rest of the evening taking a family picture, which I’ll share at another time, then going to their home and exchanging a few gifts and talking about more growing up memories. It was one of the most enjoyable visits I’ve had with all my siblings, their spouses and children.
I will never forget it.
Christmas is one of my three favorite times of year. The other two are my birthday and my anniversary. Interestingly, these are also three times of year I get presents. 🙂
We left for Robesonia, PA right after the studio closed on Saturday. Diana’s mother and sister live there and we were headed up for the holidays. I love visiting my mother-in-law, so no jokes about that.
We exchanged gifts and had the big Christmas dinner on the 24th. I got some really nice gifts, including a really nice black hat, some new shoes (the AT version of Crocs), and a few other things.
On Christmas Day we all mostly just relaxed. It was good to have a day to just chill out.
We left for home on the 26th, making a few stops along the way.
Just before we left on our holiday week off, I did a little more work for the latest issue of Valley Homes and Style.
Our first destination was the Yellow Brick Bank and head chef Karl. One of their creations is a collapsed chocolate souffle. This one was adorned with fresh whipped cream, raspberries (which are out of season) and some mints to dress up the vision. Karl spent some time with us to explain why seasonal foods are so important to a good menu in his restaurant. As someone who both enjoys cooking and enjoys eating, I was fascinated.
Here’s his creation.
Then we visited a house in Martinsburg. The owners there have spent a lot of time renovating this old treasure, and showed us around for quite awhile. He wanted to show us everything, but we ran short on time. I took this gem in their beautiful front room. Email me if you’d like to see some more images from this house, or just check the latest issue of Valley Homes and Style.
Yes… I said horses.
A gentleman from a horse-racing partnership contacted me earlier in the year about photographing some of his company’s horses. I said sure, and he gave me some details of what he was looking for.
When he called back to set things up, he told me there were two horses. In short, I was going to be doing action photography of horses, with a few headshots if that was possible. Since I really don’t see horse racing as much different than sports action, the shots were pretty easy. Fortunately the weather cooperated.
This is one of about 20 shots of the two horses in full stride.
Meredith and John are getting married in May. Because John is still in school (working toward his doctorate at the University of Colorado) studying music, Meredith and John are living apart. It was good to see them together.
One of the hardest things to do with people in their engagement session is getting them to just relax and enjoy being together. It wasn’t until the last few minutes that we got the shot that I liked the most.
Each of the last two years, we have taken portraits at the ESSROC Holiday Party at the Holiday Inn in Martinsburg. It’s always been quick and fun-filled, and the people at the party have been just wonderful.
Most of the weddings we do are for people who aren’t married.
Teresa and Kenny have both been married for 40 years – to each other. But because they did not have the kind of wedding they wanted to have, they wanted to have a nice ceremony and reception to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
We were involved early on with this wedding. They first asked us to make mintbooks for them… these things are pretty cute since they are shaped like a matchbook but have a large Life Savers mint inside. The outside printing is customized, this time with their names and wedding and anniversary date, along with a Bible verse they both live by.
We took a portrait for the mint books, which they also used as the picture to go inside their signature mat. The signature mat was at their reception and was signed by most of their guests and family members.
The wedding was wonderful. Three beautiful songs (one by the couple’s grandson), some Bible readings and a lovely service made the ceremony perfect.
We took some formal pictures after that, and they headed off for the reception. They didn’t want any coverage at the reception, so we left them after they were in the limo.
We will continue to work with Teresa and Kenny for their album and photo selections. They are a terrific couple, and I have enjoyed every moment with them.
We have done a lot of work with Charles Town Dance Studio in the past, and even photos for their last Nutcracker performance in 2004. We were honored to have another opportunity.
It started out on Tuesday with posed photos of each of the groups and individual photos. We got started around 3pm taking pictures. As usual, there were a lot of cute moments, but none moreso than the littlest dancers. Of course, I can’t show you all of the photos because there’s not enough room here, but here’s a nice one of Clara (played by Stephanie) and her champion the Nutcracker.
At the dress rehearsals we also took action photos during the performance. Jeff did most of that work, and we managed to cover everyone on stage. Here’s one of the early shots.
So, holiday pictures clearly in mind, Lillian brought us another of her family group. The three adults are siblings, so it was good to hear them all talking about growing up together. All three live within ten minutes of each other near Annapolis, Maryland.
We took individual family groups, as well as a sibling photo, and you may probably recognize Holly and Vanessa from an earlier sitting.
