Jill & Joe’s *E* Session

At the beach with a twist.  While still at Wrightsville Beach, we began shooting in a few less beach looking locations.  These two climbed a tree!  That was fun, and the looks we got from the joggers and dog walkers made it all worth while.  It’s going to be a great time at their wedding in April, but I won’t make them climb anything unless it’s their idea.

Merry Christmas!

Well it’s off to Grandmas house in a few minutes. Before we left I wanted to share what I got (myself) for Christmas. A brand new (really old) camera. It’s a bit over 40 years old and still in like new shape in the box. Don’t scream the next time you see me shooting with this thing (cause you will) I’ve got an old school personal project in the works and this will be a small part of it. That’s enough info for now.

Great Booger Mountain

So every day I pass the Booger Mountain Christmas tree place and think to my self: “Booger Mountain, there’s gotta be a good story there”.

Well there is a story, and it’s a long one.  It has to do with a man who made moonshine on a mountain and one Christmas eve a type of boogie man which the mountain folk call a “booger”, came and got the man and his whole family and they have not been seen since.  And of course trees won’t grow where the cabin stood and so forth.  So for ever more that area has been named “Booger Mountain”
We did get our tree there, but that was weeks ago.

Jennifer & Lee- Winston Salem, NC

Imagine our surprise when right in the middle of the worst drought in 30 years it finally rains on a wedding day. Meridith and I were excited to be back at Grayln again for a wedding, but bummed that it could not be in the garden as planned.

Jennifer and Lee are both photographers and were great to photograph! This was not your typical white dress and tux affair. Many of the guests dressed in period clothing and partied like it’s 1499.

The cake was so detailed

Jennifer had her dress made from fabric she selected. It was so cool.

They literally “tied the knot”

I’m finding that people are expecting a whole lot from their cell phones lately.

I just love curvy English cars!

What the….?

I don’t typically blog about this stuff because I know that most of our blog readers want to see pretty wedding photos, but it’s Saturday and I’m trying to live up to my blog a day goal so let’s call this open subject day.  Plus, this has been bugging me for a while.

I just received two emails from Jaguar (the car maker) touting their two new models.   The first one I saw made me say EEW!  The second one I said OH, YEAH!  I judge cars by their design.  I don’t look for safety or power as some might.  It’s important for a car (costing what these do) to really make a statement.

First for my disappointment.  It’s called the XF and quite frankly, it looks like any other Lexus or Infinity.  Nothing against those cars they are cool, but styling wise, Jaguar has always designed a very distinct looking car for all of its models, this one would easily get lost in a crowd.  The real bummer is that it seems really nice in all other aspects.

Next to what they did very right.  The new XK.  I’ve never really been a sports car person, but this thing is just pretty.  You can tell that the designers at Jaguar have been having lunch with their buddies over at Aston Martin.  The design is similar enough to draw a comparison, (and I really don’t know much about cars)  At about $80,000 less than a comparable Aston Martin I can see a ton of baby boomers jumping onto a new XK this year!

Happy Driving!

Judy & John- Raleigh, NC

Judy and John both fascinate me because they are very musically inclined.  I always wanted to have musical talent, but found a home in the visual arts instead.  What a great couple!  Judy is a ray of sunshine and you rarely catch a moment when she is not smiling or joking with her friends.  The best parts of the day for us were the times when we had the two of them alone.  It made for many great images.

Rubik is Back!

Almost thirty years since it was introduced the Rubik’s Cube is making a strong comeback.  I didn’t believe it when I was walking through the toy store a few days ago, but there it was.  Yesterday Will had to get four shots (yikes) and so when Meridith took him out for a treat guess what he picked?  Yep, he picked the cube.

I never could figure the thing out, even back in the 80s.  I’m not a puzzle person and I have all the patience of…  well, I have no patience at all if you must know the truth, but this time I noticed something in the package that I had never noticed in the days of my youth.  Instructions!

Apparently, any cube should be solved with a maximum of 20 moves, though it takes an average person 45 moves.

For me, its just pop sculpture, because beyond peeling of the stickers, that things never going to look like it did in the box.

Coming Soon…

We’re very excited to be releasing our new web site in 2008. It’ well overdue we know, but I think it will be worth the wait. We’re spending this entire week going through the hundreds of thousands of images we’ve shot over the past 18 months and compiling the favorites for the new site.

I won’t give too much away, but this site is going to be a bit different than the typical wedding slide show/ gallery site. One hint is that it’s all about the photos, and seeing what you want to see. So check in to the blog daily, but check our new web site in the new year!

Molli & JJ- Raleigh, NC

You know those people who are having a good time wherever they go? That’s Molli. She’s one of the happiest people we have met and it’s a contagious thing too, because everyone around her is full of fun and laughter. Downtown Raleigh is a cool setting for a wedding. The streets, the Capitol grounds, the kinda gritty parts that make people look at me funny and at the same time make for great photos.  James had a great group of guys and the best ring bearer ever!

My Yearly reminder to BACK IT UP!

Imagine my surprise a while back when I restarted my computer and one of the hard drives did not show up.  Not just any hard drive, it was THE hard drive that contained every wedding we have done this year.  It had all the engagement sessions, bridal sessions and album designs.  After trying a dozen different things to determine if it was just some error or if the drive was really dead it was determined that this hard drive was toast.

What to do?

Well it’s for sure I was mad, but I wasn’t really worried, because after I returned from the store with a brand new hard drive, I simply copied all of the weddings, engagements, bridals and albums from my back up drive to the new drive and went about my business as if nothing had happened.  All of our work is backed up in at least three to four other places at any given time, so what do I care if a drive fails, I expect them to.

So this holiday as you are busy snapping photos of the family opening gifts, remember to figure out how you are going to keep an extra copy of those photos around so you won’t be disappointed when the drive in your computer crashes.  Because someday it will.