It’s pretty rare that I will take two weddings in one day. Weddings are emotionally draining for me, but after I had already booked one wedding for July 1, and Rachael called with a need for short coverage, it was easy enough to take on the roughly two hours of coverage for her wedding before my later wedding in the same location.
Poor House Farm Park is remarkably beautiful, and has more facilities than most people know about. In addition to a large converted barn which is used for receptions, there is also a large covered pavillion and a lovely gazebo in the middle of a large pond, which is home to many ducks and geese.
With only coverage of the ceremony and formals, there weren’t as many opportunities to catch people off guard, but there were plenty of opportunities to be creative and have a little fun.
We enjoyed the short time we spent with Rachael and Chris and look forward to working with them again in the future. All the best to the newlyweds.
A couple of months ago I get a call from a guy who turns out to be a former groom from a wedding we did in 2002. Of course, I believed his call had everything to do with that wedding or his wife Julie, or their 16-month old son.
After awhile, I learned that Kip was calling about a new venture he was starting that is based around a relatively new concept for this area. The magazine is run in concert with a website called tccsports.com (give it a visit if you’re a sports fan) that serves to highlight local high school sports. What he wanted us to do is to provide the sports photography for his local version of the magazine. This magazine has been highly successful and popular in the Loudoun County, VA area and he’s duplicating it here with the help of the publisher of the Virginia versions.
In short, it works like this. Six times a year, various players in seasonal sports are highlighted. The magazine goes out to all the area schools and is distributed free of charge. The website carries the same articles and photos, but also has game highlights and images, schedules and much more, including national coverage.
The concept is sound and like I said it is very popular in other areas. Kip has invested a lot of time and personal resources and we’d like to see him get started on a positive note.
I shot a few posed photos for the magazine for the football opener issue.
As the cover and feature photographer for Valley Homes and Style, I get to go to new places and meet interesting people. And for this particular assignment, I certainly ended up in a place I’m still not sure how I got back from. 🙁
Nevertheless, We shot the cover for the upcoming late Summer editing of VHAS using a table scene outdoors near a small barn and stream. There was a lot of work to do to find the best angles and prop arrangements to make it work with the cover layout. Don’t let anyone tell you that magazine work is easy.
While I can’t show you the images we are considering for the magazine cover (but the magazine is free, and we usually get several copies not long after it’s printed), I can tell you about a few of the characters.
While we were shooting, the owner’s cat strolled into the shot. At first, she considered shooing the little fella away, but as he laid down and got comfortable, we all agreed that it was the essence of a late summer day to also add that element of laziness. But like all good models, he eventually decided that the shoot was taking too long and left in a bit of a snit.
A small stream nearby gave me an opportunity to photograph some ducks that were swimming close to the mill. When the owner’s son Kevin came around to get them back toward me, I took a few shots – perhaps for later filler. This is the one that I liked the most and that Diana has offered to do a little “work” on. Perhaps we’ll make notecards and prints available. 🙂
At the end of the day, I trudged back home only to have to leave about 45 minutes later to make it down to Winchester for work for ANOTHER magazine. More on that later.
Enjoy!
Sorry that I’m just now getting around to blogging Jillian and Kyle’s wedding. Besides chasing wrens, it’s been a very busy week. Plus, I really wanted to edit and post pictures that I really liked and one that Diana had a chance to work on.
I did not meet Jillian until a couple of months prior to the wedding. Prior to that, I had only dealt with her parents. Supportive to the end, they wanted the best for their eldest daughter’s wedding, and set things up for her June wedding while Jill was away at college.
When I got there, nobody was there. It was a pretty sad sight, actually. The big, empty Hall behind the church had a few outfits, some flowers and a few things for a wedding, but no people. But when they arrived, pretty much everyone arrived at once.
When the bride started getting ready, she was the focus of everyone there. Four bridesmaids, including her younger sister (also her maid of honor), and two beautiful flower girls watched in awe as Jill transformed from Miss Jillian to the beautiful bride.
While the girls finished getting ready, I went in and took pictures of the groom and groomsmen – all in military uniform. Kyle is a second lieutenant in the Marines, and he had three groomsmen from the Navy and two who were Marines – all friends whom he’d known in his training, assignments, or in school. Dapper they were, too. And nice. “Sir” became my new name. :-
The St. Peters Catholic Church is as historic as Harpers Ferry itself. Used as a hospital during the Civil War, there are published accounts of corpsmen and soldiers walking out of the front of the church and immediately ducking as bullets whizzed by them. The priest used the history of this beautiful church as part of his homily, and I was fascinated by the tremendous role that this building played during a tumultuous time in our nation’s history. But this is not about the Civil War… I’m sure there are other blogs about it though. 🙂
Diana did a little work on the picture above. She gets these visions of what a picture should look like… we both do it. This one begged to be enhanced. I think it looks great. Look for more on our Impressions work at tlcphotography.com/impressions.
Following the wedding and communion, we had a great time with photos. Despite calls for storms and the like, the weather was cooperative enough to go out on the steps, despite the humidity and do some more photos than the ones in front of the altar.
I’ve told Diana before that sometimes I “see” in black and white, and this is one of those images that really hit me that way. We used the lovely backdrop of Harpers Ferry as well, but for the most part we didn’t want to keep the guests waiting. So, after packing up and slogging 80 pounds of equipment back to the car (UP hill), I drove to the Clarion in Shepherdstown.
Not unlike most weddings, there were a few surprises, and this was probably one of the nicest. Seems as though there are a group of ladies, all friends, who take songs, change the words and apply them to an event. This lovely group used “Goin’ To The Chapel” to create a story about how Jill and Kyle met, where he proposed and their wedding. The outfits were complete with veils, flowers and those big candy rings that the kids really like.
Once all was said and done, I was stunned that the time had just flown by. I’m not quite sure how Jill will accompany Kyle on his assignment at Quantico, but as a military wife I’m sure she’s already anticipating relocating.
It was a beautiful wedding and we wish Jillian and Kyle the best of luck.
So I’m adding something new to my resume: Bird chaser. :-
Monday was supposed to be a relaxing day. I had intended to paint the house some more, but the weather (yes, the tropical low which has provided nine inches to DC has dumped about 2.5 inches in our area in the last two days) has been uncooperative.
But I decided to get up early to go into the studio to do a couple of errands and download some files to edit Saturdays wedding (another blogged wedding is on the way!) While taking out the dogs before going to the studio, though, I saw two baby chicks from our house wren’s nest that hangs in the red maple near the corner. I have had my share of baby chick stories (I nursed one back to health back in ’89, helped two learn how to fly about six years ago, etc.) so I was more sure that leaving them alone was going to be better than doing nothing.
So I went to the studio and got my tasks done. After a stop at the store I came home and saw the two chicks still sitting in the same place – right in front of the gutter downspout extension (a ten foot piece of 3″ PVC) and was glad it wasn’t raining really hard or these two fellas were going swimming.
I went into the house and told Diana to come have a look at the babies. She did and we marveled for awhile, but then got concerned. We get a lot of stray cats around here, and live close enough to wildlife that we see foxes and other predators nearby all the time. This got us a little concerned. And… we decided to put the babies back up in the bird house.
Now, those who know me know I’m 6’2″ and at least 200 pounds. I’m no small man. So when “we” decided the babies needed to go back into their nest, and since Diana had no shoes on, this meant that I was elected bird catcher.
Imagine these little chicks… okay, here’s a picture of one who was elusive enough to hide behind the downspout block…
So here’s this big guy flailing around on the ground with big hands, big feet and crawling on the ground to get one little bitty two-inch long wren chick. Since no pictures were taken of this feat, you’ll have to settle on your visions. After I caught the first one, I was too gentle with it and it would jump out of my hand. So I cupped my left hand over my right so it wouldn’t get away. Now putting it back into the nest… I open my hands right next to the opening to the nest and PLOP, the little critter jumps out of my hand and five feet back to the ground. Thankfully there’s grass and clippings to break the fall. Not that it matters!! They had to have jumped or fallen out before!
So, three tries later I get smarter and create a cone with my hand and put the bird into it so his head peeks out the top and cover it with my other hand. As I get to the bird house again, I put the open end directly in front of the opening and he goes in – sort of. One of his wings gets caught on the opening and he squeaks a bit at me. So I adjust the wings and in he goes. I sigh a happy relief that I’ve preserved the life of at least ONE of the birds and go after the other one.
This one apparently was watching the entire chase of its brother and runs AROUND THE TREE to avoid me. Now you already have this vision of me crawling around on the ground chasing a baby chick, now add to that a vision of a tiny bird outwitting me by running around the base of a tree that I cannot get near because of the downspout extension on one side, low branches on one side, and my own lumbering bigness trying to avoid stepping on the poor fella. So as elusive as he was, he ends up standing right next to my shoe (two inches) and panting away while I’m looking down thinking “there needs to be an easier way to be Mr. Nice Guy.”
A few more maneuvers later, I capture the second chick and duplicate the cone transfer into the bird house nest. Thinking I’d done my best, I look to Diana who seems about as happy as I am that we have kept the baby birds from becoming cat snacks. And then PLOP, one of the jumps OUT of the nest… not falls… JUMPS!!!
This is when we decided it was meant to be. I later learned that they abandoned the nest due to some bug infestation. I won’t even go into that.
I took a camera out later and saw one of them headed for cover under the bushes in front of the house. I later found that both were under the side deck (which has 1″ lattice – no cat can get into that) and were still being fed by momma. Here’s a parting shot of the baby bird who was camera shy at first.
I’m not chasing baby birds anymore. And please don’t call me for advice. I’m not good at it. :-[
The last of the dance studios we do each year, this one usually has the longest continuously running show and a few surprises that we don’t even know – and we are insiders. 🙂
From beginning to end, it was chock full of flying dancers, cuteness and light, some eerie moments and the best entertainment for the buck for this weekend.
I wish I had time to post all 3,000 images we took (we actually took over 3,500, but editing brought that number down considerably), but it would take days to do so. They will be online for the dance parents, but you’ll have to talk to one of them to figure out how to see them. While we enjoy sharing our work, we value our client’s privacy more.
Here are a few from the show.
We’ve done some photos for Jacquie before as a student of Shepherd University. It was with great pleasure that we were afforded the opportunity to take some photos with her fiancee, Jonathan for their hometown newspaper and family pictures.
Jacquie and Jonathan are getting married on August 5 in Oak Hill, WV where they grew up and met in high school. Both recent graduates from Shepherd University, Jacquie is working as an English teacher in Loudoun County and Jonathan is working in retail management at the new Home Depot in Ranson, WV.
They are a darling couple with a lot of smarts between them (such as insisting on finishing their education before getting married). I enjoyed the time I spent with them, and was glad to have Diana sit in on the presentation of their proofs.
Both their families are still in and around Oak Hill, West Virginia, but Jacquie has a lot of family on her mom’s side in Guam. Since many of those relatives won’t be able to attend her wedding in August, pictures are very important to them.
We want to wish Jacquie and Jonathan the best of luck in their upcoming wedding. We just have to convince Jacquie to relax first. 🙂
This is a catch up post. Back in May I was so behind on my blog that it was hard to get caught up. But I am. This is about Marcia and Greg’s wedding.
They were married on May 13. Diana was their minister and it was probably one of the more interesting weddings I’ve been to.
Before the wedding, there was a reception. The reception was very much like a big picnic, with a huge tent, lots of food, and yard games. It was held at their home near Charles Town and the weather was just beautiful for it.
After a beautiful reception (sounds strange, huh?), the ladies all went to the Carriage Inn in Charles Town to get ready for the wedding, while the guests ate, drank and enjoyed the music (provided by our friend Greg Sanchez of GS Productions). After the ladies returned, the wedding got underway (albeit a little later than they’d planned), and it was just lovely.
Following the ceremony, there was a dessert reception where cake and other goodies were served. More music, lots of dancing and plenty of fun visiting with friends and relatives.
We did manage to get quite a few formal shots. The one I liked the most is below.
Many thanks to gracious hosts Greg and Marcia for their hospitality. Congratulations also on a wonderful wedding and best wishes for a long, happy marriage.
Mary Lowe called early in the week last week and asked me to take some photos of her family on Saturday, June 17 at a family reunion that she quickly put together. When I got there, there was a wedding party in the lobby having pictures taken.
As family members began to trickle in, and as the wedding party moved to another part of the Clarion, I set up my lights and got ready for the picture of the group. Essentially, it was my task to take a picture of about 50-60 people on the stairs in the lobby. Setting it up took some time, as people are often not as tall as they think they are or think that because they can see the photographer that the photographer can see them.
Well, as it turns out, we didn’t do so bad. It took six tries to get this one, but everyone’s eyes are open and I can see almost everyone’s face clearly.
I also took shots of other family groups for review by them. It was great working with everyone, and especially seeing Mary and her family again.
By the way… in case you’re viewing this Andrew – I DID remember your name eventually. Right? :-
Tony
When I first heard from Ashley late in 2005, she was adamant that *I* be her photographer. I was honored, of course, but was also anxious to do a good job. When I heard from her mother Terry a few weeks later, I knew I was in for a great wedding experience.
Saturday’s wedding was at 1:30 at the Tabler Presbyterian Church in Inwood. Small and very traditional, the church has a lot of Taylor history and was a natural selection for the bride for her wedding. When I first met Jeremy in early 2006 I saw both a man in love, and one who knew how to have a good time.
At the wedding, after the bridesmaids had come down the aisle and the flower girl and ring bearer had done their duties, Ashley entered the room. Jeremy was completely agog and I heard him say from only about five feet away “Oh my God, she’s beautiful.” I also took this image.
After a nice little ride up to Martinsburg in one of the cutest little antique cars I’ve ever seen, the party was about to begin. But not without its share of delays. A couple of the bridesmaids were delayed by a wardrobe malfunction (don’t ask – just leave it at that).
But when things got started, they were non-stop. Greg Sanches (GS Productions) was the DJ and knows how to keep a party going. No stranger to fun, the bride and groom and the wedding party all participated in the revelry.
At the cake, Ashley and Jeremy celebrated his brother’s one-year anniversary, a nice touch from a very thoughtful bride.
When it was all said and done, Ashley and Jeremy had a great time, as did I.
It’s pretty rare that I will take two weddings in one day. Weddings are emotionally draining for me, but after I had already booked one wedding for July 1, and Rachael called with a need for short coverage, it was easy enough to take on the roughly two hours of coverage for her wedding before my later wedding in the same location.
