Sneak Peek address

More to follow!

Gladys and Maria. Mother and daughter sharing a moment filled with excitement, nerves, and expectations. Makeup being done by the very talented Erin Puri!  More to follow.

Hair and makeup all done! It was during this time I began to hear the story of how Maria met her Prince Charming.  When asked she simply replied with a big smile, “At the gym”!  There was more of that story to come during the toasts!

Standing in your parents bedroom with the image of a wedding long ago…. today the images from your wedding are about to be made. Memories captured!  Who must you be talking to that made you smile that big?  Do you know how proud your Mom and Dad are of you?  You have their heart in your hands since the day you entered planet earth.

Mom in Erin’s makeup chair.  There you sat looking all serene on the outside, but what you must be thinking.  All around you family, bride’s maids, hair stylists, makeup artist, and a photographer.  I watched you doing a hundred different things to keep busy. I heard you wonder when the tears would come.  All the while…….I could see a mother giving away to a young man one of her most valuable gifts…. her daughter.  Maria…all grown up….

The music changed, the doors opened, and there she stood and in that moment a tear found it’s way ok Keith’s cheek.  He no longer realized the church was filled with wedding guests, family, and bridal party. It was only her he saw.

“Who gives this woman”? “Her mother and I,” came the response.  The journey of love suddenly stood before the altar to declare “WE ARE NOW ONE”!  A union before God, sanctioned, consecrated, and blessed!

I knew I had an interview with a bride and groom for July 30, 2011 at 5:30pm.  It was clearly on my calendar.  Alarms were set. I would be right on time.  Me who hates being late so much I always arrive early……there I was 30 minutes late to my appointment.  I apologized to them several times throughout the interview. Meantime in my head was the thought that perhaps they were thinking, “If we hire you will you be on time to photograph our wedding”?

What happened?  Very simple truth.  I got lost in going through images from a recent wedding I was processing.  I didn’t hear the alarm. I lost track of time.  I love what I do so much that I can and often do forget about everything around me.

Was I wrong in being late? Very much so!  Here I am the day after blogging about it because it bothers me very much.

They were really delightful, cute together, and at locations I love to photograph at.  I sat there during the interview mentally posing them and thinking of ways they would look fabulous in their images.

All you can do when you make a mistake is come clean and be totally frank.  Then you apologize and mean it.   I am very sad over this one!   I have missed two appointment lately.   I need to rethink my calendar and alarms on events AND NOT EVER NEVER EVER DO THIS AGAIN!

Me getting eaten by the MISSED APPOINTMENT monster!

more images to come!!!!

you had to be there.   Boomboompartybus.com was flying down a rainy, windy, River Drive.  The music was blasting, and the beer was flowing.  I raised the camera…….  and………

Here I was double #1’s.  I felt just so special and knew they loved their photographer!!!  All kidding aside… if you know Matt and Megan……. well that’s another story for another image

Many thanks to the staff at the Phoenix on 2nd Avenue in Davenport.  They let us come in for photos when it was pouring down rain.

http://www.imagequix.com/photog.php?id=N9CYK9K&ec=meganmatt  pass= groom’s last name in lower case   Proofs

When I am the busiest the thing that suffers the most is the blog.  I want to do it, I plan on doing it, I lament I have not done it………….but……….it all works out the same……….no post.  Thankfully silence does NOT mean I have no work to post.

So, in the midst of a crazy week, day, and weekend wedding coming up……… without further comment……… let the images begin……..

Joe Cook and Lynnann Smith…… one of my July 2011 weddings at the Stadium…… I would call it by name, but they have me all confused what to call it.   Honestly I don’t keep up with name changes.  For instance… it is still 23rd Avenue to me……… Avenue of the Cities……..who knew?

Aren’t they adorable all snuggled up?   More to come!

Last night at Connections in Davenport the community came together to say good bye to a friend and fellow entertainer Morgan St Claire.  Twenty One female impersonators brought their talents to the Connections stage. Many of them were dear friends of Morgan St Claire, and they often expressed how they were nurtured and helped enter this field of entertainment by Morgan.

The evening was all about saying goodbye and raising funds for the family.  I had the privilege to photograph the evening and listen to Morgan’s friends and fellow entertainers express their love.

More images to follow. This is just a sneak preview.  There is only one Tara…….one of her many images throughout the night.

Slideshow of the Renwick …  Studio D has a love affair going with this grand old lady.  She’s still very beautiful. All it takes is a bride or party planner to see her out of the box.

To view slide show click on this link

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Kala and I had fun trying out some locations that are not just the same ol’ same ol’.  To make it even more special we shot these on her birthday!   See you soon Kala!

The Jones have 5 children, and if you count the fact that the groom was best friends with their son …six!  It took a lot of growing and reaching the adult world before the bride and groom suddenly discovered they were more than kids growing up knowing each other as friends.  The bride made statements through life about never going to get married.  Ah, but then she didn’t know the plans God had.

I for one noticed they sat by each other in church, but there was no show of affection or attraction.  I was caught off guard when she said she was engaged.  My first question,  “Who,  didn’t even know you were seeing anyone”?

So!  Of course a group of the women had to go to lunch and start asking questions about the plans for the wedding.  Before you know it a group of people were volunteering their skills and talents.  What fun it was to hear the plans unfold and see each piece added.

We sat on the grass in the very park they had chosen to get married in talking after we finished the engagement shoot.  Ryan and Bethany quietly touching each other and smiling a shared secret heart in love between them as they answered my questions about the details of the day.

Both of our pastors officiated at the ceremony.  Pastor Gary and Karen Ellis.  Pastor Willie and Denise McNeal. Karen prayed over the couple, and Denise blessed them.

No!  They are not running away from the ceremony.  They ran back up the aisle after the ceremony jumping feet first into their new life together!

The bride wanted locally grown flowers rather than those usually shipped in for most weddings.  The very talented Susan Anderson arranged that aspect beautifully.

Missy, I had to do a crowd search to find you!  Were you being camera shy? lol! Melissa Kraklow made the bridal gown.

Mother and daughter team extraordinaire….. Kim and Abby Farb somehow managed to escape the cameras!  Kim was the lady of the night being everywhere helping in any way possible to keep the reception moving smoothly along.  Her wonderful daughter Abby made the brownie strawberry tort  as well as brownies.  The bride decreed NO CAKE…..BROWNIES!!

The Smith family… Roz, Kenji, Christina, and Toby pulled off a wonderful dinner for all the wedding party, families, and guests.  Roz will kill me Sunday…….. she always comes to church stylin’, and here I go showing her after a day of hard work in a very warm kitchen!!  I think it appropriate to share my assistant Tony’s thoughts on the meal, “This is the first wedding this year where the green beans actually tasted like green beans and good”!  He was right.  The food was fantastic.

The lady on the right (and please forgive me for forgetting your name) had volunteered to photograph the wedding for Bethany and Ryan.  Unbeknown I came along and volunteered Studio D.  She graciously deferred to Studio D.  She came with her camera and worked just as hard as we did, and never once did she get in our way. Over and over I watched her frame her own shots that we were not getting.  All done with a smile.  That my friends is a humble heart that I dearly love!!  She could have been offended when we took on photography after she had already said she would do it! Her and DeeDee have been friends for years!

Joel Bickford!  You were the surprise of the evening in several ways.  I almost didn’t recognize you with the new hair style!  Second, that was a beautiful young lady you were with!  Third your sets were beautiful!

There were a number of others helping that I didn’t have time to grab names and photos of.  It was all a huge labor of love from all of us.  Why? Bethany and Ryan are young and just starting out.  Remember those days? Budgets are way smaller than they are later in life.  The whole church adores them both!  They would have had a beautiful ceremony and reception  without all of us.  Perhaps a wee bit smaller.  What is really important here………… I want to say………

Oh behalf of everyone that helped in any way…………… I’d like to say……………..

Thank you for graciously accepting our giftings and talents allowing us to participate in YOUR wedding. I think I speak for all of us………. it was special!