The Lumos Studio blog has languished for far too long, and so, as a new year dawns, we’re returning to the web with a vengeance. We have a year’s worth of beautiful brides, cute couples, bouncing babies, wonderful weddings, and annoying alliteration to share with you, dear reader. But it’s not just photographs we have to share. Oh no! There will be glimpses behind the curtain at Lumos Studio, tips and tricks, and perhaps the occasional philosophical musing. So, as you plan for this new year, ripe with possibilities, we hope that you’ll include coming along with us on our journey and saying “hi” from time to time.

The first stop on our adventure takes us back to March, when we took these photos of Kendra around the campus of the University of South Carolina. I’ve known Kendra’s family since high school and even taught with her mom for a  time. They’re a great family that turns out beautiful, sweet daughters like it’s their job.

 I have a confession to make about this next photo: I didn’t think we could pull it off. My lovely wife Wendy, though, was more confident in my abilities than I was and gracefully persuaded me to keep working with it until we captured this frame. I suspect the little jig I danced when I looked at the back of the camera suggested to her that she was right all along, but a little public validation never hurts, does it?

Kendra had a long and gorgeous veil that I think gave an air of mystery to these photos.

It always feels good to repose after a long shoot in a fairly heavy dress. The Inn at USC is one great place in Columbia to find that.

Wendy and I hope that your new year is filled with joy and beauty that is uninterrupted by the Mayan calendar. There’s lots more coming up, so please join us on Wednesday for our next post!

Wendy and I have been waiting since July to show you these. Now, some of you may wisely be thinking, “July? In Charleston? In a wedding dress? That can’t be a good idea,” and you, my friend, would be correct. Stephanie, though, is a smart cookie, and one thing she was absolutely clear on was that this shoot would be exclusively indoors. Yes, it’s true that natural light can make for beautiful portraits, but the South Carolina sun is not your friend when you’re wearing 25 pounds of satin. Remember, the air conditioner is your friend.

Our quest for indoor locations led us to the John Rutledge House Inn in downtown Charleston. The home was built in 1763 for John Rutledge, one of the fifty-five signers of the U.S. Constitution. Historical value aside, though, the Inn is beautiful and the staff is absolutely delightful.

Check that eyebrow.

The outside of the inn is covered in gorgeous iron work. As we were exiting, a horse-drawn carriage tour was passing by and the tour guide complimented Stephanie on her gown. She also got some bonus photography at that point, but I haven’t seen how those pictures turned out.

From the John Rutledge House Inn, we moved on to one of my favorite places in Charleston, The Dock Street Theatre. When I was in high school and college, the band Jump, Little Children would end each year by playing (mostly) acoustic shows at the Dock Street accompanied by fantastic guest musicians. Those shows stand out in my memory as some of the greatest art I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing…but I digress.

Here’s the bride:

So, do you think Steph likes Audrey Hepburn?

I love these next two shots that Wendy grabbed while Stephanie sat in the window.

And one more Audrey shot, just for good measure.

As you can see, Stephanie knows how to work the camera. Check back next week when we should have pictures of Steph with her new husband, Matt at their (almost) Halloween wedding. See you soon!

P.S.- If you like the photos, please let us know in the Facebook comment box below. We’re suckers for flattery. :-)

Sarah’s dress, as you can see, is amazing. What you can’t see is that  it was made especially for her. Sarah explained that she bought the base of it off the rack for a ridiculously low price then took it and the outer, lacy fabric you see here to a friend of hers who transformed it into the work of art she’s wearing in these photos.

These shots were taken in and around Walker Hall, where Kyle and Sarah are having their reception.

This was pretty awesome: there’s a stand of bamboo right across from Walker Hall, and Sarah indulged us by modeling in it. I think we got a sort of Heart of Darkness meets Runaway Bride look, don’t you?

No?

Anyone?

And here’s Sarah indulging us more, tiptoeing through the garden “like Alice in Wonderland”.

As we were finishing up, the setting sun illuminated Sarah’s veil and we captured this.

And here’s one last image from the day.

Check back in a couple of days for teasers from Sarah and Kyle’s wedding. See you soon!

Amie is about to finish her Master’s degree in library science from USC. Given that Wendy and I are bibliophiles, it didn’t take us long to come up with the idea of photographing Amie in Thomas Cooper Library. Fortunately, both Amie and the staff there were amenable to it. If you happened to be studying the day we were there and were distracted by a lovely bride striking poses while we whispered direction to her, you’re welcome.

Books are fun!

The image below is one of our absolute favorites! Amie was so patient with us while we took her from pose to pose.
(Please note that we don’t generally advocate stepping on books, but this was a special occasion and Amie is dainty.)

Yup, we’re still in the library.

And now just outside the library.

Finally, we capped off the shoot by visiting the beautiful Inn at Claussen’s. The Inn has a special place in our hearts because it’s where Wendy and I spent our wedding night. The rooms are gorgeous and the folks who work there are great. If you want a place to get away while you’re in Columbia we highly recommend a stay there.

We had tons of fun capturing Amie’s bridal portraits! Be sure to come back soon to see images from her wedding, as well as more brides, babies, and other photogenic things!

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!

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!

Lauren started off her bridal shoot at our place with some shots on a simple gray background.

One of the wonderful things about photographing Lauren, though, is that the shots didn’t stay simple for long.

After breaking out the cowboy hat, Lauren showed off her United States Air Force garter. (If I were single I would have actually tried to catch this one.)

We didn’t stay in one place for too long on this shoot, though. Next we headed over to the South Carolina State House where we took this shot on the gorgeous marble floor.  (Doesn’t her dress look like something Marilyn Monroe might have worn?)

By this point, we’d been shooting for a couple of hours, so we thought Lauren deserved a break.

Don’t you love the boots? You’d think that would be enough, wouldn’t you?
Not Lauren!

Why settle for just cowboy boots in your bridal shoot when you can also also have combat boots? (Answer: no reason at all.)

Lauren, you see, served for several years in the Air Force Reserve as a bomb loader or, as she affectionately called the position, a “load toad”. I’d love to show you tons and tons of pictures of Lauren with the F-16, but frankly, the guys at McEntire Joint National Guard Base scared me silly that I’d accidentally post something that gave away national secrets. (You might note that this F-16 has no weapons whatsoever on it.) The bicycles (they’re actually tricycles) in the background are apparently not weaponized…yet.

Despite my fear of being whisked away by armed men in a camouflage jeep, here’s one more picture of the beautiful bride and one serious flying machine.

New voice on the blog, by the way.  This is Wendy.  Don’t worry, you’ll have J.P. back soon enough presenting you with photos of Lauren (the same beautiful girl you’ll see below) posing in front of an F-16.  You know, the kind of run-of-the-mill bridal shots you see all the time.  Seriously – an F-16!  Yes, we had fun that day.

These shots are special because, well, they’re girl time shots.  So scroll on down to take a peek into the awesomeness that is the wedding dress fitting experience.

That’s Lauren.  She’s ready to do this thing.  Isn’t she glowing?

We weren’t about to let Lauren try on her perfected bridal gown without having a look ourselves, so Brandi, Natalie, Ashley and I came along for the adventure.  Even though the four of us had already walked down the aisle, we couldn’t help but peruse the colorful bridesmaids’ dresses and delicate white veils.

Finally, Lauren emerged from the dressing room in a gorgeous, silky gown that made me think of something Marilyn Monroe might wear.  And there was even more glowing!

The wonderfully helpful and sweet women at David’s Bridal helped us understand the workings of Lauren’s bustle.

That part took a while.

Lauren didn’t seem to mind.

After that, she tried on her air force garter (check back for a close-up of this baby – it so, so rocks!)…

…and we all enjoyed some just-us-girls conversation with the bride-to-be.

Group shot?  Why not?

Wedding dresses are so much fun!  Writing this post makes me want to go put mine on again and just laze around in it.

Thanks for stickin’ with the post.  Check back to see a bride wearing combat boots and standing next to a very impressive-looking airplane.

Although we’d initially planned some outdoor shots, the weather didn’t cooperate, so we found ourselves shooting indoors at the gorgeous Inn at USC.

Britt’s dress was modeled after Belle’s from the Disney film Beauty and the Beast. She even had the shoulder straps added custom to complete the look. As awesome as that was, however, I was thrilled by her choice of footwear…

After we’d finished up at the inn, we decided to do a few simple shots, just to round out the night. Britt, though, is not only lovely, but a fantastic model, bringing serious style even to a simple gray backdrop.

Come back tomorrow as the TEN (business) DAYS OF BLOGGING continues with a slideshow-licious treat!

While you wait with bated breath for the wedding images to appear, let us whet your appetite with a few favorites from Becky’s bridal session. She was a great sport as we moved her around from place to place and stuck her in funny positions. We think her tolerance paid off.