September 2010
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Prom Photos!

All right, I finally got the Prom photos not only finished but uploaded! One would think they wouldn’t take long but my life has been a little bit hectic. OK, even more so then usual.

Remember Prom? The corsages, the fancy dress, and the dancing! What’s not to love?

Three couples headed out for their night on the town looking like a million bucks! I hope they had as much fun as it looked like they were ready for.

Don’t they look ready for some fun? If you want to see more, check out the gallery here!

Stay tuned for some early release photos from the wedding I went to on Saturday! (Tie dyed satin wedding gown is a must-see!)

Have Camera, Will Travel (and hang out with fun people)
JS

Greg and Marie – Married!

You saw the preview pictures of this sweet couple and now that I’m done I just have to say one thing: Reliving the day while going through the photos was such an emotional time! This wedding was funny and tender and sweet all rolled into one very crazy day!

Tomorrow is their six week wedding anniversary and I hope that the last six weeks have been just the best six weeks ever for Greg and Marie! They are a great couple and I am so glad to not only get to work with them, but to share their special day.

The good news is that my cyberstalking on facebook has yet to come up with me photobombing any of the guests photos. Thank goodness!

Here’s some of the exciting and glorious day for the two of them!

You are cordially invited… take a look at their program:

Ok, so this is really from the rehearsal, but it is just so funny! As a joke the wedding party decided to hold their bouquets this way for the rehearsal. Really, you just had to be there, but it is still funny to look at the photo! I love that even as things start to mount to the big moment, everyone was still able to joke around.

Marie was a bride with a plan. Her plan involved being a little different from most brides. Because her gown’s hem and train were the most lovely shade of red, she wanted red shoes. She also thought that with all red gowns, her bridesmaids might like to not have red shoes, so she wanted white for them. As it turns out this caused panic attacks on the part of the shoe people thinking they had completely messed up her order. But you know what? She totally made the right choice because look at how stunning her shoes were:

In the Bridal Beehive as I like to call it, the buzzing of activity was high yet we had time to rock out with music provided by the maid of honour:

I love that her gown had all this red that she carried through on the veil… it was absolutely beautiful!

While the bride and her attendants were in a flurry of motion, I popped down to check on the men. Don’t you know they were just kicking back. Must be nice to be able to just lounge around! This is a groom without a care in the world:

I took the men out back to get a photograph and let’s face it… the ring bearer steals the show with his posse behind him!

Back in the beehive Marie’s just about ready to go as her worker bees help her get dressed:

And then there’s this lovely jewelry made for the wedding by her maid of honour (which by the way I think if she starts selling her stuff on Etsy I’m gonna have to start promoting because hello gorgeous!):

The Ring Exchange:

The family that prays together, stays together! I loved that the minister had them have their very first prayer as a married couple… it was such a great moment.

We arrived at the reception with a fanfare… led by the flower girl. I gotta say, I love her moxie! That’s right, the party can finally start because she is here:

Ok, seriously, is this not the most awesome cake? It so matches the theme perfectly! Yeah once more she dealt with the whole, “You want a RED…???” and I say “Red, FTW!”

We went out back of the lovely Lightfoot Restaurant, the reception venue, and took some pictures next to a little waterfall. Here’s just a couple of shots:

So there’s just a few of the photos from the wedding of Greg and Marie. They are a great couple with big hearts and a great sense of humour!

To see more of their photos, here’s a link to their slideshow on my smugmug: SLIDESHOW HERE **Warning – it’s LONG because there’s lots to see!**

–Have Camera, Will Travel (and have a rip roaring good time with ya)
JS

Dancing the Night Away!

It is now May and while the month is escaping me, it’s a busy time in Teen-Land! Those of you with teenagers know the insanity that begins around this time as the school year wraps up and there is a wild push of activities filling up the lives of your beloved sons and daughters.

Saturday was the prom for some of the high schoolers in our area and I got asked to take some pictures. Silly me thought that even though it was Mother’s Day, my birthday, there was a contest that I entered and needed to do printing for, and my husband needed to travel out of town that I could get my sneak peek up before oh… Thursday. What WAS I thinking?

Oh yeah, it was my usual self… NOT thinking! Welcome to my world where I jump in and try to do far too much in far too little an amount of time.

At any rate, sorry to the teens that their sneak peek took until Thursday morning… but here’s a picture of each couple to get them geared up for their final proofs in a few weeks!

First it is John and his date, aren’t they a lovely pair?

John and his date before Prom

John and his date before Prom

Ok these two are just adorable… I love that his tux perfectly matches her gown in colour!

And finally, the last in this triple date to Prom:

I hope you enjoyed your sneak peek and that you had a great time Saturday!

–Have Camera, Will Travel (I even have dancing shoes!)
JS

Aaron and Tara are getting married TOMORROW!

Tara invited me to the rehearsal so that I could get a good chance to figure out what was going to be going on inside this historic church they are getting married in. I’m friends with Aaron’s family so it worked out well. I was able to catch up and figure out the lighting and where I could duck and hide for photos and whatnot.

This church was not designed for ease in photography, but it’s a photograph’s dream location. For you history buffs, the church building was completed in 1855. It actually served as a Civil War Hospital. Pretty cool, right? So as you can imagine the sanctuary was not really meant for a photographer to quickly get around. It’s all right… I’ve got a game plan and that’s what is important!

I snapped this picture of one of the stained glass windows while there tonight. I gotta tell you, I love stained glass. I know the new style of churches are very welcoming to everyone and you can rock out and all… but I really miss the traditional churches. There’s just something about light filtering through stained glass and actual pews and whatnot. Makes me go “Squeeee” in spiritual delight!

Nice, right? I love it!

I grabbed this while Aaron and Tara were walking from their dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant. Sweet, right?

No, I have no idea why he’s got a hard hat. They were taking turns wearing it. I guess they’ve already figured out that weddings are a dangerous business! HA!

Finally, when I got back to my car the sun was low in the sky and it was bouncing off the church’s steeple. Talk about beautiful. I laid down on the ground and just grabbed this real quick.

I love our historic churches here. It’s real cool that they have not only stood for more than 150 years but that they survived major battles and earthquakes and the growth of the town and the expansion of technology.

Aaron and Tara, I can’t wait to see you in the morning. I can’t believe you are going to get me up at 6 AM! Feel free to take bets on how late I really get up! HAHAHA!

–Have Camera, Will Travel
JS

Paul and Melodie – Everyday

One thing I love about visiting my in-laws in NJ is having them show me the latest thing they’ve done to their house.  Sometimes it’s huge, sometimes it is small.  I don’t know that I’ve ever been there with the living room furniture done in quite the same way twice.

They are definitely people after my own heart.  I love to rearrange furniture and now that we’ve got our own home again we are loving personalizing it!

I don’t think they’ve had a new portrait taken in this century.  I mean come on… it’s the dawn of a new age.  They need something, right?  Something that really shows who they are today.

Now I really hate taking pictures in the early afternoon but you do what you have to do sometimes.  Seems I’ve been taking a lot recently.  The light is just not friendly to anyone.  That said, I still thought that going outside to their yard was a primo idea.  Their yard is so beautiful and they really spend a lot of time.  We walked around it Saturday and learned what everything was.  It’s really like having their own personal park out their back door.

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We started out in front of their willow trees.  I happen to love willow trees.  I don’t know why, but they make me happy even though they are “weeping”.

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In one corner of the yard there’s a wooden swing for two.  My husband and I spent some time in it Saturday night.  It’s a lovely spot to just sit and relax.

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We cleaned off the picnic table and used it for some great shots.  Paul is a volunteer fireman and has put a fire ring in the corner of his yard near this picnic table and we’ve got some good memories of cooking over the fire and eating at the picnic table.  The whole fireman angle… well that’s a story for another time…

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Just off their back deck they’ve got some wonderful plants.  I love the red hot poker’s to the left of them.  They’ve got a bunch of bird houses hanging around and we enjoy birdwatching from the kitchen window.

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I wanted to make sure I got at least one shot with the house in it.  Here we are in the front of the house by their flagpole.  Stars are a part of buildings in my hometown and I love that they have one on their home.

Mom and Dad, I love you!  Thanks for letting me take some new photos of you and letting me share them!  Thank you also for welcoming into your family and being so supportive of everything I do!  I hope you like these pictures and I can’t wait to come visit again!

–Have Camera, Will Travel

JS

Ken and Phyllis – Everyday

Whenever I go to NJ I seem to find work to do.  Sometimes it’s fixing a computer, sometimes it is photos, but it’s always something.  Which is fine.  I’m really not the vacation sort.  As much as I like to just lay down and read or whatever… I don’t do that well when away from home.  I feel like I should be out and doing something!

The good thing about that is it always keeps me interacting with people.  It’s fun and rewarding, especially when I actually can help.  Every once in a while I seem to be able to help, so yay!

On Sunday morning before Church, my husband’s Uncle came over with his wife.  I’ve always loved them mostly because they are good people.  They are kind hearted and fun and just a pleasure to be around.  They always try to get over to see us when we come for a vist, and that’s very thoughtful.

I grabbed them just before they left and shot a handful of photos.  Nothing special, but they were long overdue for a new photo.  I figured I could grab something for them in the couple of minutes we had and I’m rather happy with the outcome!

This is my pick for them:

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I just love it!  Can you tell that’s a couple that still cares deeply for one another?  I can only hope that is how I am someday with my love.   *SIGH*

Working with couples can sometimes be difficult.  We’ve trained ourselves for bad posing.  Shoulder to shoulder and eyes straight to the camera.  Throw in the super cheese smiles that make us look like we’re constipated.  Yikes!  Don’t we like the person we are with?  Of course!  Aren’t we glad to be there?  Yes!

I love it once couples relax and get into the groove.  I got these other three photos of Uncle Kenny and Aunt Phyllis.  I hope they’ll like them, too.

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–Have Camera, Will Travel

JS

Jared and Rosemary are Married!!!!

June 25, 2009 I got to watch Jared and Rosemary get sealed for time and eternity in the Washington, DC Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

What makes this most special is that Jared is my husband’s brother!  This wedding has been a long time coming and I’m so glad that we finally got there.  They are so in love and absolutely adorable together.

The other thing about this wedding is I was not the photographer.  However, I got with the photog and asked if he’d like someone to play second photographer and he totally went for it.  So he pretty much ran the show and I was just along for the ride.  It was interesting to see the way another photographer works.

I hear the photog isn’t going to be at the reception in NJ tonight so I plan to take my trusty camera and we’ll see what all we can get. Watch for another blog entry… but probably not quite as fast.  I rushed through these, staying up until all hours of the night, so that I could get them done for family.

I ended up with some neat photos and I hope you enjoy looking at them.  Because of how many photos there are, I’ve decided to embed them as a slideshow.  So you just have to sit here and watch instead of having to scroll for 18 miles.  Aren’t I just so nice? Let me know if you like the slideshow vs the…well… 18 miles of scrolling!

Sit back, and enjoy the ride. There’s 76 photos for your viewing pleasure!

–Have Camera, Will Travel

JS