Two of my favorite things

Hello Hello!!! Yes, I am still alive and doing photography! I know it is disgraceful that I have not blogged in... well, who's keeping track.
Two of my most favorite things are FALL and an outdoor wedding with gorgeous weather... when the two come together, I am ecstatic!!!
A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend Kelli Trontell helped me shoot a wedding at Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tn.
It was an amazing day for our bride and groom, Sara and Ben. They married under this unbelievably huge old tree in the plantation gardens and it couldn't have been more beautiful.
I can hardly wait to finish and post a slidehow of the day. You'll want to check back in and see it, but for now...here are just a few of my favorites!
Thanks for stopping by!!

Old Friends/New Friends

A few months ago a friend came to me and told me he was getting married....TWICE. That's right TWO weddings and they were a week apart! He had met the love of his life (total God thing) while having a brief stopover in Miami where she just happened to be briefly on a business trip. Lina's home was Colombia, South America and Kirk, well, he's a good ole boy from Mississippi. Two different cultures about to merge but to make it happen, it was necessary for two weddings...one in Medellin, Colombia and one here in TN. I was so happy when Kirk said that Lina had seen my photography and they wanted me to shoot their wedding here. I helped Kirk a smidge with some of the wedding planning but didn't have the privilege of meeting Lina until the day before. I knew within 2 min of meeting her that she was just one of those people that everyone adores!!! She is so beautiful and her personality is like diamonds...so sparkling!!! People think I have an accent, well Lina has her own going on and I LOVE IT!!!! I knew I would be so lucky to count her as my new found friend and she is. I have the privilege of going to their new home for lunch showing them all the photos from the day but I put together a little slideshow too... check it out! (Big thanks to Brad
Paisley for the music and ANGELA WARD for GREAT Make-up that day!!)

ADVENTURES IN THE WILD

I had the chance to get away for a couple of days last week and go home to East Tn to visit family. We really crammed in some fun. We started out with an overnight camping trip...4 of us in a 2 man tent...interesting. I had my first go with Wii - Mario Cart.. very fun; and I took Maggie and Sam (my niece and nephew-loves of my life) to a drive through Wildlife Safari...that's right, you heard me....Drive Through. McDonald's does it, Starbucks does it and now... Briarwood Ranch is doing it. We ventured out...me and the two little people in the family mini-van. We were the first to arrive, buy our 4 buckets of food, get instructions, and head out...oh, but not before having a feeding and play time with "Patches" the billy goat and a few others. Maggie was beside herself with excitement; Sam, not so much...in the back and serious concern on his face. I was loaded... TWO cameras and a camcorder ready for action. We were told "Just roll down your windows and the animals will just come right up to your vehicle to eat". I'm thinking..this is going to be SO cool!!! We pull through the gate and Maggie climbs to the front seat with food in hand and then it happened..... we were swarmed. It was like someone had opened Noah's ark and pointed the animals our direction.
Go ahead and picture it... there we were in the mini van literally surrounded by ostrich, deer of all kinds, zebra, lamas, buffalo, even a pot belly pig and they were NOT intimidated by us at all. I finally convinced Maggie to just roll down the window halfway and try feeding them but when the Moose got his whole head in the van and was eating like he hadn't had a meal in a week (throwing food all in the van) she was having no fun. We thought we'd drive on down a little and see if maybe we could find a smaller group to feed. We finally make our way through the masses and go up and over a hill to where we see 4 deer. We sigh with relief and roll down the windows for a few deer to come eat. It's all nice until Maggie yells "Auntie A, they're coming after us!" I look behind us and about 100 ft back comes the whole gang RUNNING at us. Maggie rolls up the windows and we peel out like we're leaving a bank robbery. Maggie's yelling, Sam's in the back crying... not how I saw this adventure going. We finally got out and went for another drive through AFTER the animals had been fed by others and were not so aggressive and we actually enjoyed it. He's a few shots from that day and the whole vacation.
Thanks for stopping by!

SO SO CUTE!

I had the privilege of photographing one of THE cutest little ladies last week.... Miss Chloe Grace. I can't even say it was "work"... she was a total delight. She had her cute little dress on and her pretty hair all fixed but her personality... WOW... like a sparkler! She kept me in stitches and the camera loved her!
Thanks for stopping by!

More to Share

So, sometimes my problem as a photographer is taking a bit too many photos, or at least I think but...frankly, when you are doing what you love and with good looking people, why not?! I can kinda be like the energizer bunny.... I just keep going and going and ... you get the point.
So I just posted photos from one of my most recent shoots with my friend Todd. It was such a fun day and we had such a great outcome, I thought I would just share a few more. Thanks again for stopping by! God Bless!

Roxette was wrong

Remember Roxette?... And the song "She's Got The Look"... well, I think they should've seen my friend Todd; I'm sure if they had, the song would have then been... "Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah, HE'S Got the Look!"
Todd is pursuing new avenues of work and wanted to get some new photos and I was glad to be able to help him out. He wasn't real sure how this was going to go being that his last real photograph was his Sr. yr. in high school, but I was confident the camera would love him and I was right. I gotta say... he's kinda like eye candy. As my dad would say, he took to having his photograph taken like a duck does to water. (Gotta love good ole country sayings) :)
Hope you all are well... thanks for stopping by!! Look for more soon!!

Sweet 16!!!

Well, Kaitlin isn't new to making the blog! (Aug. 2008) She just celebrated her SWEET 16 and I got to be there and photograph it with my talented friend Kelli Trontell. I think my sweet 16 consisted of sharing a pizza with 4 friends and a movie. Kaitlin's party involved a bit more...we literally rolled out the red carpet! There was dancing, food, a great DJ, a beautiful chariot to whisk the princess away at the end of the evening (her new Red JEEP) and her first kiss with prince charming (her sweet boyfriend Aaron). I think it was a night she will never forget. Congratulations again Kaitlin!

Major Cutie

So occasionally I have the time to do a little "test shooting" where I just pick someone that I think may photograph well for an idea I have and we just have fun.
A few months ago I was at church one morning talking with a girl and this guy walks by and I was like "Who is that?!" Now in my head I am thinking...."Dear God, let him love you, let him be my age, and cause him to somehow notice me!" To which God replied "He does (love Me), and he's not even close so forget it!"
So I think "Well, a face like that just can't go to waste so, the girl I was talking to knew him and asked him if he wanted to do a test shoot with me and bingo... he's in.
Now, I gotta say with my past (slightly tainted) view of men that are very handsome, they usually know it and it shows which totally turns my stomach...in a bad way. Am I right ladies or am I right? Not so with this guy... Kyle has no clue...no clue that he's a major cutie anyway. He, like Marisha in my last post, is what I would refer to as "the total package". He really is sweet, thoughtful, so humble, loves God...and handsome. If only he had an older brother. :/

Oh so pretty

When God was handing out the good looks.... my girl Marisha got a double portion. She is the sweetest thing AND is super fun....she is what I would call the "total package"! I challenge anyone to disagree. HA.
Check back for more new stuff...coming soon!