James & Meridith’s Blog

This wedding was a rare opportunity for me. I had the chance to be the “second photographer” assisting our associate photographer Katherine. This meant that I had complete creative freedom and was not responsible for the schedule or any particular photos being taken. That was all on Katherine’s shoulders!

I had a blast, but have to admit that it was a challenge to switch gears and hang out in the background more than usual. I can’t say that I always did the best job of staying hands off like Meridith does, but I tried. Either way, Jill and Joe’s wedding rocked and so do their images

We also got to work with some really good people like Mel from Dogwood Tree Floral Designs and Cara from A Southern Soiree who (rumor has it) will be moving into an office space very close to us soon (oh the excitement!)

I took the opportunity to shoot a bit of film at a wedding for the first time in about eight years. Just 12 frames though.

Jill and Joe were married last week so I can bring out a few from her bridal session.

The perfect spring day in Chapel Hill. Warm breezes, flowers blooming, and a thick layer of pollen on absolutely everything. Luckily neither Matt, Caroline or myself seem to have allergies so we were good to go.

Although Spring certainly brings out the crowds of sun lovers on the campus of UNC, it’s a bit more subdued than fall. Interesting fact, If you happen to be near the planetarium (pronounced- planet….arium if you watch South Park) or by the old well on certain weeks in the fall you will see all sorts of things your mother didn’t tell you about before you went to college. Crazy people doing crazy things. I’ll leave it at that.

Anyway, back to photos.

Just got back in from our tour of the western part of the state.  This weekend was spent in the fantastic town of Asheville.  We’ve been busier than usual the past few weeks with engagements, bridals, magazine shoots and of course weddings.

I just did a quick inventory and it looks like we have created a few more than 22,000 images that I will be devoting this week to editing and distributing to all our wonderful brides, couples. publishers, and designers.

Do not despair however,  I will be posting some long overdue images by Monday afternoon along with my exclusive interview with John Mayer about what’s really going on with him and Jennifer Aniston.  (Okay that last part’s not true, but I will be posting photos of other hot couples so come back soon!)

Christianna was married yesterday so I can now share a few from her portrait a few weeks ago.  We were on the UNC campus for this session., with all of the indoor images taking place at the Carolina Inn.

Flowers by the fabulous Lyn Graves at Fresh Affairs

A truly remarkable day.  Beth had her heart set on a beautiful garden wedding and by about 2:30 it was pouring rain.  It rained until half an hour before the ceremony and then all at once it was perfect.  No rain, no humidity, no worries, and one happy Beth!

I have to give an extra special shout out to  Cathy Honeycutt at Barclay Villa.  She and her staff did an amazing job rearranging the ballroom to accommodate the guests for the rain plan and unlike many wedding directors I’ve worked with who will call the wedding inside at the first raindrop, Cathy went with the flow and helped make the day perfect.

It looks like we’re still cool like we were last year. We just opened the mail and discovered our 2008 best of weddings award!

If it’s anything like last year then the phones will be lighting up with interview requests from US Weekly, the Today Show and a feature on the Perez Hilton blog. Or maybe not, who knows

I guess we’ll never know who voted for us (unless you confess) but we thank you!

As photographers, Meridith and I like to decorate our world with photographs from other artists. It’s tough though, because we don’t necessarily want images of people we don’t know hanging on our walls and we’re not really into landscapes so it really narrows our options.

Every time we go to Charleston we stop by the Walter O. LeCroy Gallery and admire the interesting work on display. We have been looking at this piece for about three years and finally decided to take it home last weekend (actually we had it shipped, it’s way bigger than our car will hold)

The process Walter used for this image is “cameraless photography” which means that a very high quality scanner is used to create the images which are mainly of botanical subjects. This method gives a very crisp, ultra detailed look to the subjects as well as a razor thin depth of focus.

We are both really excited to have this in our home. Art you connect with just makes you feel good.

You know it’s going to be a good day when you realize that your clients are really cool, and the other wedding professionals you’ll work with that day are at the top of their field.  That was pretty much what we walked into at Kristen and Lee’s wedding.

From Lyn’s floral design to DJ Joe Bunn’s party, we had the best of the best making this day a hit, including Tracy Adams who kept things going smoothly and taught us all the Cupid Shuffle.  Don’t even get me started on the reception!  Between Lyn and Prestonwood it was that fairy tale scene that everyone wants but only a few designers can pull off.

As seen on the “Bunn Blog”

I just noticed that I must have a bit of an issue with authority lately. This is the second time recently that I have unintentionally incorporated trespassing into an *E* session. Although I don’t think we actually did trespass this time since we were on the outside of that particular fence.

Anyway, my quest for danger and the rock ‘n roll life aside, I think that Tyler and Jim had a good time walking around their neighborhood and making the neighbors look twice and whisper. At one point a neighbor walked by and asked if the photos were for their wedding announcement for the paper. I told them that Tyler had just won the Powerball and I was there from People Magazine to cover their story.  Of course none of that was true, but hey, if you’re going to get the neighborhood talking make it good right?