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???

halloween fun

The two little guys got dressed up as Pirates for Halloween! My Mother and Bridget made the costumes for them. They are so cute!! Christian initally did not want the beard and mustache put on, until he saw Brayden with it. Then he wanted it. It definately added a touch of character to the costume. In spite of the rain, they still had fun and got a bunch of candy too! Click either pic to see a special slideshow!

been a while

I haven't posted in quite a while. Lots of good things going on, that is for sure. Had a very busy weekend. I took a quick trip to Atlanta, went to a few weekend Halloween Parties and celebrated some birthdays. My Grandfather (Pops), Father (Stonepa), Sister (Laurie) and Christian all had birthdays! Pops is on the 27th and the other 3 are on the 29th!! Happy Birthday to all, again :-) . I have to go through some pics and post pics of all of them.

Here are a few pics from my Atlanta trip:
The weather... I have never seen it rain so hard in Atlanta.


Captain Fred took me to Al's Diner. Here is a patron reading the morning paper.


This diner has all kinds of funny things littered around the place. Al is behind the counter.


This is Wild Man in his Civil War shop. I didn't care for the shop too much, but thought he made and interesting portrait :-) Those are 2 .45 caliber pistols on his belt!

WPJA Member!

Today is an exciting day for me! I was just accepted as a member to the WPJA, which stands for Wedding Photojournalist Association. What is it you ask? "A highly screened, critical organization. Less than 5% of wedding photographers out there qualify for membership. Leading the way in Wedding Photojournalism, WPJA represents the most discriminating talent around the world technically, creatively and visually. Qualified members hold industry-leading standards, skills and business integrity."

That's a mouthful! I am honored to be accepted and am very proud. There are so many amazing photographers in this Association! Check it out http://www.wpja.com .

Another Family Shoot

Sunday, after I was at Maura's home I went to Schenley Park to meet Susan and her family. Maura introduced Susan to us, so that is how we made the connection. We are always so grateful when our clients refer us to other people. That is what helps us grow. Thank you Maura!

We decided to meet at Schenley because of the variety of landscapes available to us. We ended up in a corner of the park where there were awesome trees, water fountain, lots of colors and of course, my favorite... open shade! We had a great time and I was able to capture a variety of shots. There were a total of 7 people to photograph. We got some group, some solo, some candid and some posed. I think we covered all bases! Again, this is another beautiful family, that I am honored to have the pleasure of meeting and working with.

Here are a few that I picked for this post:

The Boys


The Family


Playing Chase


The Girls

Family Favorites

One of our favorite clients, Maura, had me over to photograph her family for the fall. We had a shoot earlier this year (in the spring) with their extended family which was a lot of fun. This time though, it was more focused on the children, Riley and Mack. Brian and Maura welcomed me and we got the kids geared up to go outside. We were having so much fun in the leaves and on the swingset! We eventually moved inside to capture some more fun in the house. I was having so much fun, that I hated to leave. I had to get to another shoot (those double shoot days are a doozy :-) ).

You all know that kids are my favorite subjects. The picture opportunities are endless. When you just play and hang out with them they do the cutest things, naturally. That is when you click the shutter. I look forward to working with Maura, Brian, Riley and Mack in the many years to come! Thank you all for inviting me into your beautiful home to help create some lasting memories.

PS - I will post my other shoot tomorrow.

Here are a few:

Riley hiding in the tall grass:


Mack was telling me his prayer:


Climbin the Wall:


Family Shot (this was Riley's idea. She set it all up! I am going to hire her for posing expertise. Thanks Riley!)

Susan and Michael get married!

We had an awesome weekend! Saturday was the perfect autumn day. The sky was blue and the colors were poppin! Susan and Michael could not have asked for a better day for their wedding. Last month, we met down at Station Square for an engagement session (Click here to see). We had fun there, which was a great precursor for the wedding. Engagement sessions are key in our relationships with our clients. They really help us to connect, so when we show up on the wedding day, we are like old friends! Saturday was no exception, we showed up to Susan's parents home, fit right in and started shooting. We captured so many amazing images, that it is very hard to edit out files :-). Not that it is a bad thing!!

As the day moved on, we went to the church to meet Michael and his men. We hung out with them for a while and then headed inside while the guest were arriving, just grabbing a lot of candid shots. After the ceremony we headed to Valleybrook Country Club, in Peters Township for the reception. Once there we had an evening packed with lots of love and dancing!

All of their family and friends were so warming and loving. They made us feel like part of the family. We are so thankful that we have gotten to know Susan and Michael. They are off to North Carolina to begin their marriage together. We are hoping in the near future to connect again and hang out for an evening! Thank you all for trusting us with your precious day. Best wishes on a life of love and happiness. God Bless you all!!

Here are some things that we saw throughout the day. PS - below all of the images, there is a link to a slideshow that we showed during the reception. Little Bonus this Post! Enjoy!!!

Susan (backlight is my favorite!!)


This little girl kept looking back at me, isn't she adorable?


Picture of a Picture (Michael hugging his mother during the ceremony)


I love the look in Michael's eyes


B with her big Nikon!


The Sword Ceremony (Susan just got tapped on her behind by a sword, which is a part of the tradition)


Little Detail (Do you recognize the image? I love it!!)


Candid of Michael getting into the golf cart


These 3 little girls were patiently waiting to get back on the dance floor, during the first dance.


The Men


This couple was so cute and dancing like crazy all night!


Michael's mother got me to dance too :)


Here is the Slideshow we created at the reception.