Kristin + Eric: Engaged!

When a bride is excited about her engagement photos, I get excited about her engagement photos!  There's just something infectious about it.  Kristin had so many great ideas and she knew exactly what she wanted.  And in turn their photos are unique, personal, and beautiful....just like Kristin + Eric.

Kristin + Eric will be tying the knot June 30 of this year at my alma mater.  As if that wasn't already perfect enough, they topped it by having their reception at The Luhr's Center on campus: the same place Aaron and I celebrated our big day!  To say I'm excited for their day is an understatement.

This is definitely one of my favorite sessions to date.  They are so comfortable and in love with each other it made my job crazy easy.  Their love is sweet, tender, and caring...and it's evident in the way they interact.  Plus it doesn't hurt that they are so beautiful!  Congratulations again on your engagement guys and I cannot WAIT for your big day!!

Seriously, J.Crew called and was wondering if you guys are available??

One of Kristin's ideas was to incorporate Scrabble.  I was lovin' this idea from the very beginning and it turned out perfect.  They are both avid players, but the verdict is still out on who's better!

Love this next set.  Everything about it is extremely swoon-worthy!  The funny part is that even though this session was shot on January 7, it was almost 60* that day.  But they still did a good job of cozying up!

Eric loves to fish and Kristin loves to hang out with him while he's fishing.  So they incorporated that into their photos as well.  Super cute!



Tags: Chambersburg, PA children photographer, family photographer, Greencastle, PA, Hagerstown, MD, Frederick, MD wedding photographer, Harrisburg, PA, engagement photographer, Carlisle, PA, Mechanicsburg, PA, Shippensburg, PA, Washington DC 

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New Product | DVD Presentation Book

I am so so so excited to be offering Asukabook's DVD Presentation Book.  I found out about this company during our trip to New Orleans for the ImagingUSA Convention.  Recently I have been looking for more to offer my clients and when I saw this product I had that "aha" moment!

Today's consumer wants the disc of images from their session.  I get it.  When I was married a million years ago (okay, 5) this was a new concept and I had. to. have. it.  I didn't know why, I just knew that I wanted access to all my wedding photos all the time.  And the same goes for today's weddings and family/children/newborn sessions.  However.  I also believe that you should have a tangible product in your hand after the wedding or session.  Not just a digital product.  Many would argue that they make prints from the disc and that is a tangible product, but are they making the right prints?  As in NOT from Walmart/Target/any other not-so-great printing service.  Okay I'm getting off track, BUT please please please make prints from a local lab or Kodak's Professional Printing or Mpix.  Those are the only two I can really vouche for, but their paper and printing process will make your beautiful images even more beautiful and last much longer than any other form of printing.  Okay, so back on track.  The presentation book meets this need by not only giving you the disc of high res. images, but a 10 sided book of your favorite photos.  And this is why I love it!  Plus it's totally customizable with your name/date/anything you want on the cover.  And the best part?  When DVDs and CDs are loooong gone, books will always be around.  Below are a few examples from Asukabook's website, these are not my images :)

Here are the colors you can choose from:  Cream, black, pink, light green (even though it looks blue it's not trust me I saw it and loved the soft green color!)

The book is removable in case you want to take it with you, but leave the DVD at home.

I'm going to start offering the DVD presentation book ASAP.  Please contact me if you would like more information or if you're interested in adding it on to an existing wedding or session!

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2012 Wedding Wire Bride's Choice

We are so honored to have received the 2012 WeddingWire Bride's Choice Award!  Without the amazing brides and grooms this would not have been possible.  So thank you thank you sooo much from the bottom of my heart!



The WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards ™ recognizes the top local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network that demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism. Unlike other awards in which winners are selected by the organization, the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ are awarded solely based on the reviews from over 1.2 million newlyweds. Awards are determined by a combination of four factors: Overall rating (quality), total number of reviews (quantity), review performance from 2011 (recency), and consistency of reviews from year to year (consistency). This year’s recipients represent the top 5% of WeddingWire’s vendor community, across all service categories and all regions throughout the US and Canada.

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New Orleans

What a week!  New Orleans lived up to everything we hoped...and so much more.  The photography conference was so inspiring and eye opening, I can't wait to implement all the wonderful ideas and, best of all, start offering a few new products that I fell deeply in love with.  

But first, here's the city.  I took this shot from a 20+ mile bridge that crossed a gigantic lake.  Seriously, if you have a fear of bridges...definitely don't take this one!

We drove down.  Yes I know most think it's crazy, but Aaron and I LOVE road trips and I have a major fear of flying.  But I'm okay with bridges.  The next two photos were taken with Aaron's camera (a mini point and shoot) with not-so-amazing quality :)

16 hours later we finally made it and I was sooo ready for a sit down meal and drink..haha!

Day one of the conference!  We were pumped :)  And Aaron is such a model - it comes from years of me asking him to just stand there so I can test out a shot!

The conference consisted of classes and a trade show.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos during the classes, but I did get a few from the trade show.

Some of the booths were so elaborate.  This is the lab I use and I loved their set-up.

I found this amazing album company called Leather Craftsman.  I am soooo in love with their wedding albums and I plan to start offering them ASAP.  The quality is the absolute best in the industry and I know my bride and grooms will appreciate that!

The conference only lasted three days.  So for the rest of our time there we took complete advantage of everything the city had to offer: 

This cafe had some amazing breakfast and since we were there we tried the Beignets.  Basically it's just a fancy French form of a donut.  It came out warm and was loaded with lots of confectioner's sugar.  Good thing we walked a ton!

And speaking of food.  You CANNOT visit New Orleans without trying a Po' Boy.  There are many variations of this sandwich, but I'm pretty sure I had the best one.

I am a huge fan of seafood so lucky for me this city did not lack in that department.  I ate some sort of fish or seafood every night we were there and loved every second of it.

In addition to great food, I love architecture and houses...a lot.  I'm pretty sure if I wasn't a photographer I would somehow try to work it in as a career.  Aaron and I really enjoy taking an ugly house and making it pretty.  It has to be older and have pretty good bones, but there really isn't a house that I don't see some sort of beauty in.  Anyway, the architecture in New Orleans is so unique.  Instead of intricate wood work there is a lot of intricate iron work.  Here is just a small sample of some of the amazing homes and buildings:

New Orleans is right in the middle of Mardi Gras.  The parade isn't for several more weeks, but the decorating and festivities start right after the New Year.

So Bourbon Street is crazy.  If you've been there you know EXACTLY what I mean, if not, well it's not easily explainable, but just trust me when I say it's crazy.

We also went for a swamp tour.  Unfortunately there's not too much going on in the swamp in January, but we did get to see one alligator!

Captain Dave - he was super cool.

Aaron was so proud of his shot.  What can I say I taught him well!

We rode one of these 150 year old street cars.

Aaron managed to sneak in a few shots of me in action.  I never get to see this, but you guys do!

Wow - what a dork.

We absolutely loved this city and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to truly experience it.  The culture and pride of the people who live there is so evident and strong.  And I loved that.  I don't think there would have been a better place to inspire me this past week as much as New Orleans did!    

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