Better Days

Brayden has seen better days! I had to post these. He was screaming at the front door, so I assumed he wanted to go outside. We grabbed his favorite toy, a football, and headed out. I grabbed the camera too because there was still a little bit of light left outside to make his blue eyes glow :-).

He cried the whole time we were outside too! So I snapped a few. Turns out, he was hungry and wanted a banana. Poor guy, how tramatic. He is smiling now!

Lifestyle Family Shoot

I did sneak a shoot in over Christmas! I was commissioned to capture this family while everyone was in town, so what a better time than Christmas. We had a great time. The two little ones were weary of the camera at first but eventually warmed up to it. They definitely preferred my style of shooting :-) We were trying to get everyone together for a 'formal' shot and that is when the fun began! I did manage to snap a few of everyone together. They are priceless! I love capturing people, especially children, exactly how they are. Sometimes they are happy, sometimes they are grumpy, but all in all it is wonderful way to look back over the years and remember exactly how they were on that day! Here are a few to check out!

Christmas Mishaps

Have you (those of you that have children) ever noticed that when it comes to Christmas time, one or more of the kids has a mishap? By mishap I mean something that will 'stand out' in all of the Christmas pictures. This time of year brings all of the cameras out and everyone is snapping away. Well, this year, 2 out of the three boys has had a mishap in the past two days.

Firstly, yesterday Brayden was coming around the corner and tripped. This caused him to fly face first into the corner of the wall. Luckily he walked away with only a little scrape and some blood. :-) Boo Boo Bunny took care of him and he was OK. However it left him with this on his cheek.


Then today, Christian decided to go into our bathroom and grab my beard trimmer. He decided to give himself a haircut! This is the result.


Brayden's face will heal and I gave Christian a total Buzz with the Clippers on #3 so it evened it out a bit. It will be great to look back on 2006 Christmas Pictures and see these gems.

Damon has not had a mishap as of yet. If he does, I will post it! Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!

Hey everybody! I am sorry for not blogging lately. We have been really busy, winding down and prepping for our Christmas! We have been taking a little time to ourselves and to focus on our boys. We hope you all are doing well and have a Very Merry Christmas! We will be sure to post some of our Christmas fun.

The Sarniaks

On Saturday, Bridget and I had a very special photo shoot scheduled.

First, a little background: The Sarniak Family (from our church) recently added their 3rd child, a boy named Christian, to their family. They already have 2 daughters, Taylor and Lauren. At about 20 weeks into Kim's pregnancy, with Christian, they discovered that he had Trisomy 18. Trisomy 18 means that there are 3 #18 chromosomes, which causes many complications. Kim and Bill were faced with a decision that nobody wants to make. Through prayerful consideration, they chose life and for things to progress naturally.

Knowing this for the remainder of the pregnancy was difficult because the Doctors did not expect Christian to be born. If he was born, he was not expected to live more than a few days.... Well, Christian was born on November 18 and is now 3 weeks old! He is truly a little miracle and has brought so many people together to support this wonderful family. The outpouring of love and support has been amazing. I always believe that God works for the good in ALL things, and although we may not understand, he is definately in charge.

Bridget had met Kim before and we prayed for them often. Shortly after he was born we decided that we really wanted to offer our services as a gift to them. We wanted to capture their family, in the 'day in the life' style that we love. Bridget contacted Kim and she was very happy to have us over. It was such a pleasure meeting all 5 of them. They are such a wonderful family and their strength and faith is amazing. We can all learn from this family!

Well, we accomplished what we set out to do. We spent a few hours with them and captured all of them. We are going to make a beautiful album for them to keep forever.

Thank you Kim, Bill, Taylor, Lauren and Christian for allowing us to come into your home. We are so lucky to know you and have you in our lives. Whether Christian is here for a little while or a long while, he has made a HUGE impact on so many of our lives. God Bless Him!!!

I ask all of you, family, friends, clients and blog readers to please keep this family in your prayers and keep in mind just how precious life is.

Enjoy the pictures:

Laurie + Bill get married

You may remember Laurie and Bill from their engagement shoot a few months ago. We had a great time that day and created an awesome engagement guestbook for their wedding day. Friday was the big day! Low and behold, it was an all evening affair with extremely cold temperatures! We were up for the challenge and had a great time with everyone. After the ceremony we headed outside for some fun shots with Laurie and Bill alone. They were absolute troopers, enduring the frigid winds. Bridget and I were freezing too :-) It was so much fun and we got some really different shots. This wedding was unique because it was all in the evening, so we had very different circumstances to shoot in. It is always fun to do something different.

We want to thank Laurie and Bill, as well as their families, for having us join them on their special day. We truly are blessed to have been a part of it. This wedding concludes our 2006 wedding season! Thank you guys!!! This has been an Awesome first year for us. We cannot thank everyone enough for all of the special memories we were enabled to capture. God Bless you all!

Now it is time to relax and gear up for next year.

Here are some pics from Friday:
Diamonds from Bill


Finishing Touches


Anticipation


The Groom


Here comes the wind!


The ceremony


Keeping Warm


The Happiest Man in the World!


First Dance

Elsie

The other night we went over to Justin and Tracey's home to grab a few images of their daughter Elsie. Justin is Bridget's cousin. Elsie, is soooo cute! She is 10 months old and growing quickly. Check her out!

kids

This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Taylor and Syndey. We had some fun, in light of the extremely windy and cold weather! We had been spoiled all week with weather in the 60's! Then... Reality hit us with cold. O-Well, it won't be long now and we will be basking in the sun again getting right back in to the heat of wedding season. I can't wait!

Here are a few pics:

slideshow

I have a slideshow of Liz and Jim's wedding to share!

Click on the Picture to watch.

Liz and Jim

What a great weekend we have had! A long weekend at that. We have had our family in from out of town and have been doing a lot of Eating... That is about it. haha.. It sure does seem like it though.

Saturday we had the bonus of shooting the wedding of Liz and Jim. The ceremony took place in Southside at the Calvary Episcopal Church. The architecture of this church is amazing. I would love to go back sometime and just shoot more images of the church. This was the first wedding, that I was told... 'No Pictures during the ceremony.' Zero. Zip. Nada. No Processional pictures and no flash at any time... I love a challenge though!!

It wasn't as bad as it sounds. We were aloud to be in the back of the church, before hand so we have some nice Pre-Processional shots and we were able to stand in the west balcony and grab a few shots during the ceremony. We made it work and the images are awesome. After the ceremony we hit the Pillars at Carnegie Mellon, PPG Place where the Christmas Tree is and then hit the West End Overlook. Our final destination was the LeMont on Mt. Washington... This wedding was First Class all the way! Liz and Jim were awesome!! We wish we could hang out with them more often. Everyone was so welcoming and loving to Bridget and I. We were treated as one of the guests. Thank you all so much!

The reception was intimate and absolutely gorgeous. The sky was clear and the lights of the city were shining brightly. There was a violinist during dinner, which is always so classy. The entertainment was elegant as well. The day ran flawlessly and everyone was so happy.

We just want to thank Liz and Jim for trusting us with their day! You guys are awesome and we wish you many years of love and happiness. God Bless!

PS - The Filet was out of this world!!! Thanks Guys!! (So was the cake :-) )

Here are a few shots:
The Church


The Groom


Getting Ready


On the way into the church


The Boys


Fun Lovin


Market Square


The Bride

Hey All! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did :-) We have been busy with family visiting and running around from place to place. Bridget and I just got back from a beautiful wedding today, here in Pittsburgh. Stay tuned for some images!! We were so lucky to have such perfect weather today. I thought it was September... Our nephew, Dylan, is getting baptized tomorrow. So off to bed... I will post some pictures tomorrow night.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are now in our favorite time of the year. Lots of Family, Friends, Love, Food and Parties! It's so important to take time to ENJOY everything we have been blessed with. The days go by so quickly, that I know I forget to pause and reflect. I have been making more of an effort to 'Stop and Smell the Roses'. It is amazing how much you can miss when you don't take this time. I am going to post a perfect example of this, below. Bridget and I were getting ready to go out the other night, so we had a babysitter come over for the boys. Of course, they get all rowdy and excited when the babysitter gets here. I was taking my camera with me and thought... 'This would be a great moment to get a picture of my boys in action.' They did not let me down! Christian is a big blur in the picture, because he was motoring through the play room. Even Dozer was having fun. I LOVE this picture!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! Please don't forget to take time to enjoy yourselves and be Thankful for all you have. God Bless!

New Model.

I have been wanting to practice shooting headshots lately. I am fortunate to have a live-in beautiful model... My Wife! Check her out. These shots are this weeks favorites for me. I think I will get a Giant Print made to hang on my office wall. (She can really keep her eyes on me then!)

She is sooooo beautiful.

Winding Down

Now that wedding season is winding down (we have 2 more this year), we have been very busy, planning for next year. It is nice to reflect on the year and see where our short-comings and achievements were. We have learned SO much this year and continue to learn daily. We absolutely love what we are doing and where we are going. We are so thankful for so many things. We are also busy designing wedding albums, storybooks and Christmas cards. Wow, I can't believe it is already Christmas Season! It reminds me of my favorite Christmas song 'It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!' performed by Andy Williams. If you have never heard it, get it at the iTunes store Here! This song brings back sooooo many memories. It is awesome!

Speaking of Christmas season we can also talk about cooler weather. Check out Bray's new Knit Hat!

Pic of the week

Have I ever mentioned how much I love photographs?? haha. Sticking with my Weekly Favorite, I found something a little different to post today.

I was at my father's house this evening and came across this picture of my Great Grandparents, Joseph and Hazel Shafer. Better known as Ma and PapPap Shafer. I never had the opportunity to meet them, because they passed away years before I was born, but I have heard enough wonderful stories about them to make me feel like I know them. When you look at the picture below, you will probably get that feeling too. My father tells me that Ma had more faith than anyone he ever met. He has many fond memories of them both. PapPap worked for the US Post Office and was also a cartoon artist on the side. My grandmother still has some of his creations. Priceless pieces from the past.

When I was growing up, I saw many pictures of them and heard stories, because I would ask questions. This one picture though, has always stood out in my mind. Whenever I hear their names or think of them, this picture comes to mind. I wanted to bring it home and scan it, so that I could restore it a bit and reprint it on archival paper. I want this picture to stay around as long as possible. When I look at the picture, it just makes me smile!

The funniest thing about this picture is that I always thought that they were in a real boat! Their expressions make the image seem so real, don't ya think?

Meet Ma and PapPap Shafer

Mary

Recently, I have been shooting a lot of headshots/portfolio images for local talent in fields of modeling, acting and commercial print. The first time I was hired to do a shoot like this, I was not sure what to expect. As it turns out, I love it! I hope I continue to get more and more clients in this area. I have such a great time getting to know my clients and helping them feel relaxed for their shots. Formal Portraits are usually a difficult thing for people to feel relaxed about. If you are not in the right 'company' (ie, some mean photographer that does not care about you :-) ) it really will show in your images. I pride myself, in the fact, that I take a little extra time to interact with my clients a bit so the images look 'relaxed' instead of 'stiff'. Once they are relaxed, I just focus on composition and exposure. It sure makes the job easier! Especially when you don't have to do any photoshop work!

Meet Mary. Mary has done both, acting and commercial print. She is such a wonderful person and fantastic to work with! As you can see by the images, she is beautiful and will have no problem getting work! What do ya think??? Thanks again Mary, it was great working with you and hope to do it again in the future.