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.

Christian Joel

Well, it has been a 2 week celebration for Christian's 4th Birthday! We had his actual party yesterday with family. I didn't have a proper post for his birthday, so I wanted to revisit with some images of yesterday. He had so much fun. He got some nice clothes, shoes, DVDs and a bow & arrow set (with suction cups of course). He was a riot with this thing. Check out the pics. We love you Christian! Happy Birthday little buddy :-) Christian continues to brighten our days with all of his personality...

On a mission


Gonna Fire:


Oh Yeah:


Happy Birthday to Me:


Make a wish:

Weekly Fav

I have started to (slowly but surely) go back through all of our 'Family' pictures from this year in order to create some prints and make an album or two. Being a photographer you would think that we would have tons of pictures of the family. The truth is, we do! They are, however, all on the computers, hard drives and backup DVDs. :( That is one downfall of digital... You snap away and capture all of your family memories, but the images tend to stay in the 'digital' world. It is SOOOOO important to take the time and create finished prints and albums. When I create an image from a wedding or a family shoot, I cannot wait to see the finished prints. There is just something about touching the physical prints that make a photograph so special. So, while the season quiets down a bit, I am going to go through our thousands of pictures from this year and pic a bunch for printing.

I am going to start posting a weekly favorite when I come across them. This one is of Bray Bray! We were at a Pumpkin Carving Party a few weeks ago and I saw Bray peeking over the back of a bench. Isn't he a cutie???