I love having these two little girls in front of my camera… this time we meandered down beautiful garden paths in pretty dresses, while Lia tried hard not to get anywhere close to the ants!

Coreen and I were emailing back and forth before the shoot and she told me she had not decided between two dresses for Selma, I am so happy she chose this one because I think it is perfect for this shoot!

a favorite:

Coreen, thank you! Your girls are beautiful and I always look forward to seeing you all…

Krew (love that name!) is a sweet baby boy only a few days old when we took these….

Love these two shots of his sweet little hands….

Derrick and Emily, he is precious…..Congrats!

Ahhh, I’m baaaack!

I spent a week in Gatlinburg, TN with my in-laws, then came home and left again for a beautiful wedding in Charleston, SC. And I did not have internet the entire time. Yep, no email, no facebook, no blogs, no internet at all. Just as we were walking out the door I decided not to take my computer, I figured I wouldn’t have a lot of time to get on it and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the computer anyway. I wanted to just relax and spend time with family. So that is what I did. We went swimming, we rode go-carts, we walked around downtown, we took a trolley ride, we explored and played in a creek, we played games, we grilled out, and I read books while my girls napped. It was great! (I finished Black Heels to Tractor Wheels and started Rebecca….loved Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, I think I laughed out loud through half of the book!)

Guess what else I didn’t have with me? …………………………………………… My CAMERA! Not by choice, I forgot it! Sigh… I could not believe it when I realized I had left it at home.  We decided that this was a good time to buy me a point and shoot, since I have been wanting/needing one for awhile now. Once we got there and got settled in we went to Walmart – the only place we could find to get one. And they really did not have a good selection. So I picked one, without being able to try it out before buying, and as soon as I took the first picture I knew it was not going to be a keeper. That thing was so slow I could have napped in between pictures. And by the time it actually took the picture whatever I was trying to capture had already moved on, stopped smiling, etc. But I hung in there and used it as much as I could, then returned it this morning! I’ll have to post a few pictures once I get time to go through them if any of them turned out.

Here are a few I snapped of Kennedy using my phone…. this first one cracks me up!

The BEST part of the trip was going to see fireflies. It is a phenomenon that happens once a year in Gatlinburg, and I heard that it only happens in one other area - in Australia, but that I do not know for sure…..   My sister-in-law saw an article on it in the June issue of Southern Living, and it just happened to be happening while we were there. So we made the trip. Not that it was really a ‘trip’ considering it was very close to where we were staying. But we had to go get our car parked a few hours ahead of time in order to assure we had a seat on the trolley, then we had to go back and stand in line, get on the trolley which took us up the mountain a ways, then walk down a dirt road, then sit and wait for total darkness to fall (about 9:30) then the fireflies started their show. And let me tell you, it was incredible! They were in sync with one another and they were a blue color – not the typical yellow/orange that you see. It was awesome. The woods would be be totally black then suddenly the fireflies would light up and twinkle throughout the woods. Then, all would be dark for a few seconds and it would start all over again. If you get the chance, I would highly suggest going    Here is one more camera phone shot I got of Kennedy – with her cousin Owen, this time waiting in line to get on the trolley.

Happy Monday!

I love capturing my girls just doing their thing. Nothing posed. Nothing planned. Just being them. I had my camera at Mimi and PopPop Browns house a few weeks ago and captured a tea party that was happening as we finished up lunch. PopPop Brown has the silliest English accent that he uses when they bring out the tea set and it never fails to make them giggle, they love it!

Kennedy takes the task of pouring PopPop more tea after he has drained his cup (pinky finger stuck out and all) very seriously…

and my baby girl with her bunny ears…I could just eat her up

Happy Monday!

Three sisters got their kids together for a shoot as a gift for their Mom (who happens to by my Aunt ) for Mothers Day. And I think she liked these, a lot!

Here we have Kourtnie, her sister Maci, Jax and baby Jesse Ray (his newborn shoot is here)

Jax was not happy at first…

But he got over it and we got some great shots

Side note here…. instead getting stressed out and trying to force Jax to smile, his Mom, Ginny just said “Go ahead and capture him throwing a fit…I’ll want to remember this one day!”  I was impressed…because it is stressful when you’ve worked hard to get your kid ready, taken time to get to the shoot, then get there and he throws a big fit. But she stayed cool and we got both the fit throwing and the sweet shots. Love it!

Maci is full of happy smiles – so adorable!

Jesse Ray got comfy and went to sleep…

Joanna, Ginny and Emily…thank you for asking me to take these for you!

I had intentions of posting all of Kemp and Katies wedding last week, but only got 2 parts of it up…Here is the final post of their wedding (I guess 2 out of three posts last week wasn’t too bad, huh? )

A few parents/grandparents shots we got….

This little boy was ‘beating Kemp up’ for taking his Katie! Katie has babysat for Brandt since he was just a baby, and he had big plans of marrying her one day

Katie with some close friends…

Kemp and his niece Sienna…

Katie made the birds on top of the cake, aren’t they adorable?

Now for the get-away! I am posting several of these because I just couldn’t leave any more out. I love this part of the wedding, your ‘big day’ is coming to an end, friends and family line up to throw bird seed at you (and it hurts!) but it feels good too. It is a giddy feeling. I love the fun, happy rush these next few pictures portray…

Whew. There you go. Kemp and Katies wedding in 3 parts! And at this moment when they pulled out is when I realized I was so hungry. So I put my camera down and feasted on the leftover food. (I did have several people offer to fix me a plate, but I just was not hungry till it was all over!)

Kemp and Katie, Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for asking me to capture your day. I wish you both a lifetime of love and happiness. XoXo

Hello! We have been busy and the blog has been neglected.

But we’ve had beaters to lick….

and snuggling to do….

We’ll get back to posting soon

Hope your Memorial Day has been wonderful!

Today, I am posting pictures of just the bride and groom. Enjoy

(If you missed yesterdays post of Kemp and Katies wedding, you can click here….or just scroll down!)

More to come!

Kemp and Katies big day started out rainy, then progressed to torrential downpours, storms and a few tornadoes that touched down nearby. But all of  it cleared up just in time for the outdoor ceremony and reception. It was sunny and beautiful. And windy, I might add!

I do not typically shoot weddings. And I’ll just be honest, was so nervous! But, I am happy that I did this. Kemp and Katie are both my cousins (don’t worry, it is not as it sounds! Kemp is my cousin on my Dad’s side and Katie is my cousin on my Mom’s side of the family) so it was hard to say “No” when Katie asked me   And, I am glad I did not say No I might add… now that it is over! (haha!)

Going through these images to blog, I feel like they bring back the feelings of that day. The energy, the excitement, the emotion. And I love that. I love feeling that I captured all that. So why must I be so afraid of it?! Many of the things I love about a wedding, ironically, are the same things that I am afraid of. I love how a wedding just happens, and we – as photographers – just stay back and capture it. But that also scares me because it is not something that I am in control of. I am not able to say “Move over here, where the light is better…” I just have to work like crazy capturing the moment, letting my fingers fly as I change settings, re-compose, get the right angle, focus, and shot. All in the time it takes for a first kiss, a walk down the aisle, a quick glance at each other, a special smile, a hug from friends and family, laughter, tears, etc. 

I’ll be blogging this wedding in at least two blog posts. Because I have a lot I want to blog, since I don’t normally shoot weddings I might as well blog a lot from the few I do shoot! And, since this is family I’ll be blogging extra for our family

Julie did her hair…

I love the ‘getting ready’ process…the anticipation, the buzz of excitement as close family members pop in to see how things are coming and smile with pride and happiness as they see the bride…

Just before walking out to get married…

I love how she peeked around to get a first look at Kemp…

They got married on the front porch of mysisters house…

These last three are shots of what Katie had planned on using on the tables as center pieces…but due to the high winds, they didn’t put any of it out.

More to come!

I have talked about Monica here on the blog before, but since I just picked up some adorable hair flowers from her over the weekend, I am going to talk about her again!  (not sure that hair flowers is the correct name for these, but that’s what we’ll call them!) Anyway, Monica does such an awesome job, and I love these latest ones we got

Kennedy modeling one for me:

And, I even have a shot of the talented McGeeMommy herself! This was taken at Kemp and Katies wedding… I plan to blog more of that this week

She does other things as well… diaper bags, burp cloths, pillows, etc. So if you are in need of something unique and special, get up with Monica, she is wonderful!

We also had some good ‘ol summer fun outside this weekend….we pulled out the kiddie pools at a playdate with friends on Friday :) 

Ohhhh, yes…love those sweet baby rolls in a bathing suit!

Happy Monday