Lumos Studio

South Carolina Wedding Photography Blog
Posts Tagged ‘Vacation’

Loren: Uniform at Night

If you’ve read this blog more than once, you’ve probably encountered a reference to Loren, our photographically-gifted, adorable-nephew-making brother-in-law. What you might not know, though, is that in addition to his aforementioned talents, Loren is also a lieutenant in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. If I try to explain exactly what that is I’ll fail miserably, so I’ll simply call it the “meditary” and assure you that he’s working to protect us all from the Swine Flu.

Ever since Loren took his position with the Commissioned Corps I’ve had the photographs below in mind. When Wendy and I visited with Loren, Betsy, and Ethan in Hilton Head back in June I finally got a chance to actually take the pictures. Big thanks to Loren for dressing up in his uniform, going out on a hot South Carolina night, and getting eaten by mosquitoes while while we took these photos in the dark next to a graveyard.

Loren in uniform in front of flag close-up

Loren poses in uniform in front of an American flag

Don’t worry, those six adorable kids will be showing up later this week. Check back soon.

Loren: Uniform at Night

If you’ve read this blog more than once, you’ve probably encountered a reference to Loren, our photographically-gifted, adorable-nephew-making brother-in-law. What you might not know, though, is that in addition to his aforementioned talents, Loren is also a lieutenant in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. If I try to explain exactly what that is I’ll fail miserably, so I’ll simply call it the “meditary” and assure you that he’s working to protect us all from the Swine Flu.

Ever since Loren took his position with the Commissioned Corps I’ve had the photographs below in mind. When Wendy and I visited with Loren, Betsy, and Ethan in Hilton Head back in June I finally got a chance to actually take the pictures. Big thanks to Loren for dressing up in his uniform, going out on a hot South Carolina night, and getting eaten by mosquitoes while while we took these photos in the dark next to a graveyard.

Loren in uniform in front of flag close-up

Loren poses in uniform in front of an American flag

Don’t worry, those six adorable kids will be showing up later this week. Check back soon.

Shayne: Trash the Dress

Two weeks ago Wendy and I went down to Hilton Head to visit with Ethan’s parents, Loren and Betsy. Despite that, there are no pictures of Ethan in this post. I have some self-control.

While we were there, Wendy, Loren and I did a Trash the Dress shoot with Loren’s sister Shayne. In general, a Trash the Dress shoot is where a bride, recognizing that she will in all likelihood never wear her wedding dress again, goes out and gets photographed doing all kinds of things one ought not do in a wedding dress. This wasn’t quite like that. Shayne decided not to trash her wedding dress, but instead to trash a dress she bought specifically for this purpose and on which she got a great deal. I’m absolutely fine with that, and we hope you will be, too.

We played for a while on the playground and let me tell you, Shayne is no slouch on the swings. I would have posted a picture of her in action but somebody would have accused me of doctoring the photo. She’s a daredevil. This shot doesn’t really capture that.

Shayne on swing

Later on we moved on to more traditional Trash the Dress fare.

Shayne standing in the pool

Apparently tule lacks the aqua-dynamic properties of say, a wetsuit, so big props to Shayne for not drowning (a big plus for any shoot) and for managing to find a dress that pink.

Shayne in the pool

We kind of fought with the sun for a lot of the shoot, but when it worked with us, it was good.

Shayne in golden light

Loren is a much braver guy than I am when it comes to his gear.

Loren in pool with Shayne

I liked this last shot so much that I slapped our studio name on it. All the cool photographers are doing it.

Shayne floating in the pool

Thanks for following the TEN (business) DAYS OF BLOGGING. If you’ve stuck with us for the past eight days, tomorrow ought to be one of the big payoffs (assuming Wendy and I can get it ready in time). Remember, comments on posts are always appreciated (as long as they’re glowing praise). See you tomorrow!

Our Spring Trip to Maryland

Wendy and I began our spring break on Friday! This is doubly cool because both Wendy’s birthday and our anniversary fall on this week. We spent some time talking about what we’d like to do, opting for something both fairly economical, but also unequivocally awesome. The conclusion?
Visit Ethan. (Oh yeah, and Loren and Betsy.)

Wide-angle photo of Ethan taken with Sigma 10-20mm

Just before leaving for the trip I bought the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens, so I couldn’t help trying it out. (Okay, I actually kept it on the camera almost the entire trip.) I really like this lens, but it’s not really designed for portraits, as you can see above.

Betsy and Loren suggested that we take Ethan to an amazing local park that has everything from outdoor percussion instruments to a pirate ship to a climbing wall. Ethan–not quite ready for the climbing wall. Loren, however, flexed his simian side.

Loren showing off on the climbing wall while a little boy watches

While Loren monkeyed around, Ethan found a bridge that swayed and jiggled while he walked on it, and walk on it he did. I’m going to guess that he crossed that bridge thirty to fifty times while we were at the park. Even getting him to go down the slide involved some pretty intense persuasion.

Ethan on his favorite bridgeEthan coming down a blue slide

Finally, Wendy had to put Ethan on her back and run so fast that the sheer excitement of the ride distracted Ethan from the awesomeness of the bridge which he was leaving behind.

Ethan beats a hasty retreat on Wendy's back while Loren and Betsy try to keep up

The next day, given all the museum choices available to us in DC, we opted to visit the one featured in a mildly entertaining Ben Stiller movie.

Elephant in the Museum of Natural History

While there, I learned a few things about the Museum of Natural History:

  1. -One-year-olds would rather watch a video of a fish eating a worm than see the BONES OF ACTUAL DINOSAURS
  2. -The lighting in the Museum of Natural History was not engineered with photographers in mind
  3. -The insect exhibit is sponsored by Orkin.

Given that I was once a ten-year-old boy, you can probably guess what my favorite part of the trip was. (Special thanks to Loren for holding the flash for me while I took these pictures.)

img_0138

Tyrannosaurus Rex at the Museum of Natural History