Guys need something to get excited about shopping for wedding attire. On the quest of maintaining my favorite “Uncle-to-be” status, I present my favorite wedding accessory and one in which I can’t help but smile when I see them. They are not just normal flower girl shoes, but functional princess shoes:
Inspiration from this cute little purchase comes from two sources near & dear:
1. Flower petals. The subtle fushia colored tips on the white peonia bouquet I gave Krista when I proposed:
2. My utilitarian spirit. You see, these fushia sparkle princess slippers are not only made for a flower girl walking down the aisle under a banyon tree in Hawaii, but they can be used for ballet slippers, karate shoes, romping around the house, or even worn as aqua shoes in the ocean. Shucks, you could save $2.50 along with the hassle of renting bowling shoes and dress in style.
They are functional shoes fit for my little princess, featured here wearing little ice skates on her Patagonia lifestyle portrait session in Fort Collins, CO last weekend (Plum and Blue make Purple):
It is easy to get comfortable with what we know. I chose to shoot family portraits with wedding photographer Rachel Olsen and her family using a challenging, but rewarding tool: a Mamiya 645 medium format film camera and 80mm /f1.9 lens lent to me (thanks to Kevin Von Qualen and mentoring from James Christianson). I am excited to see the film results once they get developed and scanned. Shooting film again has really gotten me excited to push myself. It’s also scary, cause you never know if the film doesn’t turn out as expected. Here’s a special moment of the two new sisters holding hands created with my favorite digital rig, a Nikon D700:
*For which I am allowed to see, as Krista’s wedding dress remains behind closed doors in a undisclosed location.
Posted by R. J. on December 13, 2011
On the eve of my bachelor party, I share this photograph created last week from Carlos & Megan’s engagement session near Raleigh, North Carolina:
Be bold, especially if that is what clients wants. I stand proud to say some day this print will hang in glory in The Carlos Man Shed, miles from holiday dish towels and wedding planning magazines (no offense, ladies). His guy friends WILL be jealous.
My Inspiration
The quintessential “guy” movie, Scarface, inspired this image. Carlos is a accomplished solider. His gun collection rivals some guys car collections. And that gun is real. Guy genetics focused me in on these nuances.
The Tech Breakdown.
Noon sun lit this entire image. Photographed on my Nikon D700 with my favorite 85mm f/1.4 lens set at f/5.6, 1/1000 second shutter, ISO 200, auto WB. That puppy is sharp, sharp, sharp at f/5.6. And for all you photographers out there, guns and Norwegian cheek bones photograph very well in hard light. Perhaps it’s because they don’t see the light of day much this time of year considering we are two weeks away from the shortest day of the year. Here is the set up in a shed in the harsh noon light, a perfect studio space if you ask me:
I asked Carlos to stand against the door frame with his right shoulder, holding his favorite gun. He loved his experience being photographed in HIS element. His fiance, Megan, relished in seeing him enjoy his engagement photography session, a quintessential phenomenon in the wedding planning process these days.
Guys DO Matter
Few images created on an engagement session remind of how important the ‘guy’ matters in a photograph. I see lots of girly engagement images on wedding blogs these days… so often in fact most guys dread the very fact that they have to dress up to get their photo taken. Most times, the style of the shoot is determined by the bride-to-be. Nothing wrong with that. However, myself in the wedding planning process, I stand next to many guys find themselves nodding in agreement while thinking “I really don’t care” and saying, “Honey, that sounds great…. let’s go with it.” I really do want guys to have their say, especially when it comes to wedding photography. Most guys don’t have much of a say about the style of the flower girl dress, flower colors, or the choice of the champagne or wedding coordinator.
And a few more favorites since Carlos loves B&W photography:
A classic portrait of his bride-to-be:
To view the slideshow, click HERE (crank up the volume… this is their favorite song!).
Megan and Carlos, I thank you for inviting me in your lives and I can’t wait for your North Carolina wedding next September!
Posted by R. J. on December 9, 2011
Spring Hope, NC seems a fitting place to spend time with two beautiful, amazing souls perfect for each other. One loves numbers and tax audits as much as holiday decorating and fiction novels. The other, blends an entrepreneurial spirit and business aspirations, with love of a barbecue, guns, and most of all– quality time spent with family. Both love what they do and their passion for their craft comes through in just a few minutes of conversation.
This weekend I met up with Megan and Carlos for their engagement shoot at their home in Spring Hope, NC.
They are a perfect yin / yang of love, complete with muscles, numbers, hugs, and thoughtfulness. Together, they decorate their souls by remodeling old homes and creating a sense of place for entertaining for friends and family. They invited me to their lovely home to share… a privilege and honor to experience.
They love their cute, historic home!
Earlier this year Carlos wrote a very special letter to Megan… then walked her to the mailbox to read it… 
The proposal letter met Megan with complete surprise and joy! They found the same letter, but this time they read it together outloud, remembering their proposal story all over again. 
Little slices of time and life like this remind me why I love my job so much! What a great shoot!
Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2, photographed from a groom’s perspective, including guns, cigars, the “Man Shed” and an image inspired from the Al Pacino flick, Scarface.
Posted by R. J. on December 7, 2011
To celebrate a banner year, we decided to go big with our holiday cards to showcase some of our favorite images from our travels. “Christmas isn’t a season, it’s a feeling,” a quote by author Edna Ferber, seemed to capture the sentiment we were after.
To design our holiday card, we used ProDPI’s 4” x 5.5” press printed accordion cards which fold into 4 panels. I got the idea from Seattle photographer Laurence Kim. He shares his tips on creating your own holiday cards in his tutorial here. The best thing is that they stand nicely on the mantel and look a bit different than a typical holiday card. I especially like that they focus more on the subjects and memories rather than holiday embellishments. Special thanks to James Christianson for creating such wonderful images from our engagement session and Roger Olsen in his ‘second-shooting’ role of photographing our actual proposal 
We chose the linen texture of paper which you can see here:
I find it easier to use Indesign instead of Photoshop to create the cards. Nothing like drag & drop simplicity (instead of juggling between layers). Here’s our final design as it was designed on the computer:
And ready to ship:
Here’s to a peaceful and joyful holiday and a great start to 2012!
PS- I ran out of holiday cards after realizing I didn’t order enough…. so stay tuned clients and loved ones a second batch to go out in the mail soon!
Posted by R. J. on December 5, 2011
Sometimes we work for money. Othertimes, money works us. Lately, my life looks like this:
Appalchia is a beautiful place, despite poverty, low wages, high substance abuse, and Bojangles (Paula Deene’s kitchen ain’t that bad).
However, today was one of those hards days I felt grateful to treat myself to a delight: I took a ride in a helicopter. Yes, a real ride in a helicopter for fun, just me, the pilot, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I splurged. There, I said it. And I felt like a million bucks seeing this heavenly view:
And I’d do it all over again!!!
I love to fly. And perhaps in my another life if my non-Lasik eyes were 20-20, I’d be a pilot, taking in a bird-eye views of Mount Lacunt (6593 ft) in Tennessee and Clingman’s Dome (6643 ft).
Wrapping up from teaching a workshop in Cherokee, NC, I saw a little sign offering “Scenic helicopter rides starting at $20.” I wanted to do a U-turn (read: You-eee), but needed some food at the grocery store. As I returned past the sign, I pulled right in a met pilot Adam Williams, fresh from school with 2.5 years flight experience. We hit it off and away we went in his a Bell 206b3 Jet Ranger helicopter. We took off at 5:05 and NAILED the golden light despite the 35 degree temperature in the unheated cockpit. It was a clear day with snow made for a beautiful scenic flight. The environmentalist in me didn’t like that we used about 10 gallons of fuel in 20 minutes at $7.00/gallon. That what I spend in two months in fuel for Liesel the Diesel.
$10 per minute never felt so good. However, it was a SUPER AWESOME experience!!!
I took about 400 images on that 20 minute flight, and figured that amounted to about 50 cents a shot, cheaper than film if I was standing on the ground. Yeah, I’d rather shoot digital in the air than film on the ground using those metrics.
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Posted by R. J. on December 1, 2011
All these lovely ladies offer up such great positive energy day-in-day out at OB-GYN Specialists, a wonderful place to go for women’s health (so I hear). Krista thought it would a wonderful addition to their girls-only office holiday party last night, so I brought the white seamless and the fun behind the camera (hard job, I know, but someone has to do it). It was my goal to bring out the personalities and fun in everyone in holiday spirit. Here are a few of the favorites from last night’s performance of wit and straight-up Midwestern humor:
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