Melissa: Bridal
Welcome to the newly redesigned blog! Now with 46% more picture-y goodness! (Seriously, I did the math.) If you haven’t dropped by our homepage lately, that’s also gotten a facelift, so you might want to check it out.
It’s pretty exciting to have two brides to share with you in two weeks. Melissa also got married last Saturday, but since Wendy and I were in Greenwood photographing Leah and Greg’s wedding and Melissa was down in Florida, getting hitched to Jon, we didn’t get to spend the day with her. Fortunately, she asked us to photograph her for her bridal portrait, so we got a sneak peek at just how beautiful she was going to be on her wedding day.
Melissa told me that she and Jon were getting married in a swamp in Florida. I’m still not sure how literally to take that, but nonetheless we figured it would be a good idea to reflect the outdoors in Melissa’s bridal shoot, so we headed down to Sesquicentennial State Park, where there was still some beautiful fall foliage on the trees.
Of course, we didn’t just stick this bride out in the woodsand make her stand around –we also gave her a chance to sit down…
…and generally be gorgeous while the sun set behind her.
Yup. She’s barefoot. We seem to attract that kind of bride. Thank goodness!
Finally, as the sun went down, we decided to have a little more fun with a bunch of balloons we brought along just for the occasion. They didn’t carry Melissa away cartoon-fashion which was, on the one hand, a bit of a disappointment, but on the other, kept me from having to explain to Jon why his finacée was floating over the city of Columbia in her wedding dress.
Jon and Melissa, we hope marriage is as magnificent for you as it has been for us. You’ve both found someone very special!
To everybody else, check back later in the week for adorable children and next week for Leah and Greg’s teasers!
Leah: Bridal
One of the hardest things about wedding photography is taking bridal photos, being really delighted with them, and then not being able to share them until the wedding. Well, we can finally share with you Leah’s bridal portraits. She and Greg were married Saturday in Greenwood and Wendy and I (and everybody else, as far as I can tell) had a fantastic time.
Way back in September, though, Leah came down to Columbia and we got to capture these lovely images of her in her wedding gown.
Since she was a little girl, Leah had wanted to have her bridal photo taken at the South Carolina State House. We certainly weren’t going to argue with a little girl’s dreams.
Wendy got this picture of Leah that really shows off her amazing blue eyes. Greg’s eyes are almost as bright as you can see from their engagement photos. Their kids’ eyes are going to be gorgeous! (Not that we’re rushing you, guys.)
We had so much fun with Leah that we wound up shooting until the sun went down. Even though there wasn’t much light to work with, we decided to get in a few more shots featuring the lights of Columbia. This was one of our favorites.
We have a lot of pictures to go through, but we’ll be sharing a few quick teasers from Leah and Greg’s wedding next week. Be sure to come back and check them out!
Merry Christmas!
‘Twas the night before Christmas
And strange as it seems
J.P. and Wendy were relaxing
Their apartment was clean!
They’d watched Lost off of Netflix,
Ten episodes or more,
Odd since they’d just started
Watching two days before.
They’d sung ‘long with Sufjan,
Read some Lord of the Rings,
Watched Peanuts and Garfield
From Bittorrent streams.
And soon they’d be dreaming
Of lenses and lights,
Softboxes and snoots
To make portraits look right.
But first to their blog
They posted scenes of cheer
To thank friends and clients
For a wonderful year!
Wendy and I are celebrating our third Christmas together as husband and wife and, if you’ll pardon a little bit of bragging, I’m reminded that I am the luckiest man on earth. Seriously, how many guys have a wife who can decorate cookies like this?
I’m guessing very, very few.
I’d also expect that there aren’t too many wives who would indulge their husbands in decorating their gingerbread men to resemble web comic characters.
Meet Faye and Marten…
…and Winslow and Pintsize.
Now say goodbye to Pintsize.
Besides decorating cookies, we got ready for Christmas by going to “The Lights Before Christmas” at Riverbanks Zoo.
(I think Wendy looks good in red, don’t you?)
I don’t know if the fish were in the Christmas spirit or not. Some of them were kind of sparkly, though.
Meanwhile the Lizards were decked out in their best Christmas green.
Wendy and I wish you a very merry Christmas and suggest that you put a star on your tree…
(Not this one)
…snuggle up with someone you love…
…or in my case…
…and have a happy New Year!
Christmas Social
When I (J.P.) am not taking pictures or playing music for children, I corrupt instruct high-schoolers in a number of subjects, some of which are vaguely related to my philosophy degrees. In general, I try to maintain an attitude of disinterested disdain toward my students, but, as you may have guessed from the Snuggie post, they sometimes get the better of me and warm my cold, cold heart.
The truth is, I have some of the best students any teacher could ask for. In faith, intellect, and character, many of the students I teach and have taught are shining examples of humanity who I actually *ahem* respect. Some of them have even gone on to become my friends, though if they try calling me by my first name I will disembowel them. Now, before things get too mushy, on to the post.
On Friday, the kids celebrated the end of the term with a Christmas social. I shot photos and some video for them and, as a way to thank them for being pretty amazing, made this video. I hope they, and you, enjoy it.
Getting ready for the holidays
I don’t know about you, but I’m both delighted and a little bit terrified that there are only ten days until Christmas. We’ve done pretty well this year: the tree is up and decorated (it never made it out of storage last year), the presents are purchased (and the elves from Amazon will be delivering them any day), and we’ve even made Christmas cookies (though a few of the gingerbread men appeared to suffer from some sort of skin disease). In any case, here are our photographic representations of three things we’ve encountered and you’ll probably be encountering between now and the new year.
1. Travel
I got sick just before Thanksgiving this year (thanks a lot, immune system), so Wendy drove us down to her parents’ house in Summerville. Just as we got off I-26 we saw this sunset. I…requested emphatically that Wendy pull the car over so that we could get a photo. She graciously agreed.
2. Food
My mother-in-law made this roast that is, yes, wrapped in bacon. Did she make this for Thanksgiving dinner? No, this was the night before Thanksgiving…you know, just to get us ready. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I won in every imaginable way when I married Wendy.
3. Gifts
Ah, exchanging gifts, what a wonderful way to celebrate the Lord’s birth! I’m fairly certain, however, that the magi did not participate in a white elephant gift exchange.
“Number three!”
“Ok, I think I’ll take…the gold.”
“Are you sure? Look at this lovely frankincense! Think how fragrant your house would be!”
They were after all, wise men, and probably knew that at a white elephant gift exchange you risk going home with something like this:
As Dave Barry would say, “I swear I am not making this up.”
Wendy and I came home from my school’s Christmas party with a rusty caulk gun and a (beautifully decorated) paint can.
Yup.
To be fair, at a later Christmas party we came out much better, with espresso cups and a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, so I’d say it evened out, all in all.
So, to summarize: travel safely, enjoy some delicious food, and be very, very careful with white elephant gift exchanges.
