It's a New Year! Time for a Flashback

Normally my first blog of the year is Imaging USA, which is in New Orleans this year!  I can't wait.  But I just noticed a blog by a photographer I know, Kenneth Rodriguez, who posted his 15 favorite images of his from 2011.  "What a great idea!" I thought.  "I'm totally stealing it!"  So here I am, making elena-dee's Eleven Best Images from 2011 (in no real order).  I hope you guys agree!!

First off, my little cousins Brian and Mikayla!  Their dad, my cousin Paul, asked me to do family portraits for them over the summer.  We did a lot of traditional portraits of the family but I also got some super cute shots of the B and Mik just playing around.  They're such great kids and I absolutely love them.

Rowan.  I've known her family pretty much my entire life and so got to take some fun photos of her with cupcakes.  She was psyched because she got to eat some of them.  I wish I remembered what her dad said to get this look!

Melody.  Crazy little model/musician, her shoot was SO FUN!  She had great ideas and awesome outfits/props.  I adored the lighting in this shot, and her angles.  Girl knows how to pose!

I didn't shoot as many live shows as I usually do this year, but of them, Livan's set at the Hard Rock Cafe definitely stood out.  Maybe because it this was the first time I used my new 85mm f1.4 lens, maybe because we talked to him for awhile and he had a lot of really interesting things to say.  Or it could also be because this is a freaking sweet picture.

A couple years ago, when Resistance 13 started up, I did their promo shots out I don't even know where.  Ohio, I think?  It was awesome and we got some really sweet pictures.  They've gone through a line-up change since so new photos were needed!  Once again we got a lot of great shots but this is definitely my personal favorite.

 A couple years ago, when I started doing senior pictures, a girl named Janelle had me take hers.  This year, her cousin Abbie wanted me to do hers as well.  She mentioned an abandoned train station that I had actually always wanted to shoot at and never had.  I love Abbie's style and at the station she managed to look straight out of the 1940s.

I do a lot of senior pictures and they're always fun and interesting and I get such great kids.  Allie's shoot was really special to me though - her aunt Whitney and I were best friends for about a decade before Whit died in a car crash three years ago.  When I was asked to do Allie's photos, I was thrilled.  It was like seeing part of a long lost family.  All the sad stuff aside, this is one of my favorite senior shots of the year.  She has her letterman jacket, nice background, great smile....  I love senior pictures!

Rick has been coming to my family's bowling alley as long as I remember, so when he and Lisa asked me to photograph their wedding, I was thrilled!  Weddings are a lot of work but the results tend to be beautiful.  They got married at Shakespeare's, this amazing restaurant/golf course/castle.  Yes, it's a castle with enormous (and heavy!) front doors.  I love all the photos from Rick and Lisa's wedding.

I had only planned on putting one wedding photo in this list because I don't shoot too many.  Then I remembered this insanely adorable shot from Jason and Danielle's winter wedding last February.  It's just too cute, you can't help but smile!

After the romance of the couple photos, we need a romantic location!  I went with my boyfriend's family to Niagara Falls in September (and actually again just a couple days ago for New Years!) and got a few photos.  The boats, the birds, the mist, I love it all!!

OF COURSE this is at the top.  It's my adorable little cat Trigger Happy Jack, cuddling with my bearded dragon, Kitten.  We very nearly were in Professional Photographer Magazine for this image and I was amazed at how good the vertical version of this photo did.  2000+ views and over 250 votes!!  Other photographers were emailing me saying they hoped I would win and people were posting the link to the magazine cover contest all over Facebook....  It was kind of crazy but so awesome.  Thank you to everyone who voted!!!  I'm so grateful for all your support.

Looking through this list one last time, I realize a couple things.  First off, I'm super indecisive.  I knew this already, but you have no idea how many photos were on this list and then weren't and then were again and I love so many it's hard to choose!!  I also realized that I absolutely LOVE my manual focus lenses.  The 50mm f2prime?  Yeah, that's definitely my favorite.  Pretty sure the new 85mm f1.4 is going to get a lot of use in 2012 too.  It's going to be a good year - I have a new job lined up photographing newborns that I'll be starting in a couple weeks and am going to try to build my senior and wedding business up more.  I'm feeling optimistic!!

Wedding - Melissa and Jake

When I first was asked to photograph Melissa and Jake's wedding, I knew this was going to be a fun wedding.  They know Dawn and Brandon, whose wedding I photographed last year, and their (and my) friends Boo and Mason.  If they're friends with this group, I figured, it will be a blast.

It was definitely a chill, laid-back production - the wedding was in the afternoon, the reception was at a fire hall next door to the church.  Downside was it was cold and rainy.  The church was tiny, and there were a ton of people!  Everyone turned out for this wedding; Melissa and Jake have been together for something like 15 years, high school sweethearts, the whole romantic shebang, and you can tell they were thrilled to be finally tying the knot.  I love it!

We did photos inside the church, and then a few quick wedding party formals outside.  We had originally planned on going to a gazebo, but the weather killed those plans.  Definitely still got some wonderful pictures though!

The reception was so much fun.  There were a ton of people, everyone was drinking and dancing and having a great time.  I got all kinds of absolutely hysterical candid shots!

 This one just above is one of my favorites - I love how both Melissa is turned to her maid of honor and Jake is turned to the his best man.  They're married and excited and sharing that excitement with their friends and that's just awesome to me.

September

I've been meaning to update for three weeks now!  It's been a crazy month, and October is sure to be too.  Let's see....on September 3rd, I photographed Rick and Lisa's wedding - it was at Shakespeare's, this beautiful castle restaurant/gold course out near Ellwood city.  It was a small and sweet wedding.

That same weekend my friend Sherry came in from New Jersey to celebrate our 24th birthdays!  Hers is September 4th and mine is the 5th.  On the 4th we went with some of my friends from River Runs Scarlet to go see Evolove in Cleveland.  RRS opened for Evolove when we were in LA last summer, so it was great to see them again!

A week after my birthday, I moved.  Only about a mile away, but this means I currently do not have studio space, so shoots are all being conducted on location (studio shoots in people's living rooms, that sort of thing).  Luckily my entire set-up fits in my car and I just bought a portable power pack for my lights AND, yesterday, another light (thank you, Shannon!).  Neither of the new things have been used yet and I must admit I'm getting a bit antsy.

Let's see.....what else have I done this month?  ADORABLE pictures of a little boy named Nathan!  His mommy is in Afghanistan, so his aunt wanted photos taken of him.  In this one, he's holding his mother's dog tags.

I need to do more photos of children, they're so fun.

Yesterday I had a senior portrait shoot with my friend Elizabeth, but she's going to get her own post tomorrow.  I have a few more senior shoots coming up within the next few weeks, as well as a wedding, headshots and a band shoot!  Busy busy busy.

Recap of last month

I know, I know, I haven't updated in a ridiculous amount of time.  Like, 6 weeks.  Ooops.  So let's recap!!

Mid-February, I photographed Danielle and Jason's wedding.  Beautiful wedding and you should see this dress!!!  Oh wait, you can.

Gorgeous, right?!

Almost immediately after that I got the flu, so was out of commission for about a week.  It was terrible, but I'm better now and ready to shoot!

Got a new Alien Bee B400 (it's pink like my hair!) in at the beginning of last month, so that's been crazy exciting.  So far I've taken pictures of my brother, myself, Trix, and my friend Artie's insanely adorable little girl Rowan.  Gotta say, February was (aside from that whole flu misery) a pretty good month!

10/10/10 - Wedding favors and the undead

10/10/10 was, in Pittsburgh, World Zombie Day.  You know how I love zombies, so of course I had to go.  But first, there was a wedding.  I didn't actually shoot the wedding though, just the set-up, for The Venue At Harmony Ridge.  My dad is friends with the people who run it (Greg and his wife Ricki) and Ricki wants to advertise my photographic services to her wedding clients.  To do so, I took some pictures for her to put on their website.  Most of the images were of the venue set-up, but I did some portraits of the bride and her mother as well.

After all that, I was able to go to Zombiefest with my friend Emily, where we ran into all sorts of interesting looking people.  A photo I took of my friend Kym and the group she was with even ended up on the news the next day!!  http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/video/25352531/detail.html  Go to 2:15 to see the clip on Zombie Day and my image!  As for the other pictures I took, they're pretty sweet too.

 This is the one that ended up the news, most likely because Kym (on the far right) used it as the default for a group she made on Facebook to share photos from zombie day.

 There must be brains in that cup.

 These guys really played it up!

 Child zombies are the best.  Child soldier zombies?  LOVE!

 Look at the sign!  It makes me giggle.

 Her eyes are so big and wide, it's scary

 Where's Zombie Waldo?

ELVIS IS ALIVE!  Or at least undead....

Campbell-Brooks - Dawn and Brandon's Wedding

Let us just say that it's taken me nearly a week to write about this wedding because it took me a couple days to recover.  Exhausting, but fun and beautiful, so all was well.  Dawn and Brandon are super cool and very chill about everything, so it was really just that it was long.  I did a lot of running around.  Got to Dawn's mom's house a little after 8am while she was getting her hair done (there were English Muffins for breakfast!!), then at 10 we went to Macy's for her makeup.  Swung by the reception hall after that to drop off my photo booth setup (Alien Bee, softbox, white backdrop and stand) and so she could make sure everything was going well there.  Left there for the drug store where I had earlier dropped off some files of their engagement photos to make 5x7s, went back to my apartment to load the hair/makeup photos onto the iMac and then to the church.  I'm so glad everything was within 5 or 10 minutes of each other.  I got the church before everyone else, so waited around in my car and snacked on some apple-cinnamon granola for a bit.  Then the dressing began.  That was fun, but because we had to wait awhile, I went and took pictures of Brandon and all the guys hanging out before the ones of Dawn and the bridesmaids.  Grabbed a couple quick shots of the lovely ladies posing.  Loooove my fisheye.

These guys are actually the ushers, directly before the ceremony.  Star filter, anyone?  Then the ceremony began.  I ran around a lot, trying to get everything at once.  Next wedding (especially if it's as big as this one - SIXTEEN people in the bridal party) I may hire a second photographer, just to be on the safe side, but I'm confident I got what we need.  I pulled out the fisheye again to get a couple shots of everyone on the alter, because they just wouldn't all fit with 18mm!!  I was down to 11 or 12mm for this shot, and then cropped off a bit of the top and bottom because the extra space really was unnecessary.

After the ceremony - PARTY BUS!  Dawn and Brandon, instead of a limo, went for this sweet bus where everyone could fit and we drove around for awhile before stopping off at the Center baseball fields/park to get some formals.  My favorite is probably a sweet candid of the two of them though, seen below.

Then we went to the reception, where I took way too many pictures of people dancing (it was fun!) and not as many pictures of people in my photo booth as I would have liked.  It was worth bringing it though, because I got a really cute shot of Dawn and Brandon at the booth, and they're the important ones!