Samantha's Senior session

This is Samantha and she is going to be a senior this coming year and she wanted something more than the others were offering. We spent the afternoon hitting some different spots around town looking for some cool backdrops, which turned out to make for some amazing images by the way. Samantha is a beach girl at heart and spends a lot of time with her friends hanging out and surfing when there are waves. Here are some images from her session with us, hope you enjoy.

Theresa and Gideon the wedding

What a great couple these two make, they are my kind of people, very grounded and very family and friend oriented. These two have been all over the place and have come back here to be married. They had a very nice ceremony on the beach followed by a heck of a party at the White Room in St Augustine. The music played on and they danced the night away with each other and all their friends. We wish them the best and here is their sneak peek. NJOY.

Ray and Karen

This is now MR and MRS. Worth. Ray and Karen were married and had an absolutely perfect wedding. Ray is a friend of mine and he happens to be a firefighter so he played it up at the reception with an awesome grand entrance with his gear on, he stripped some off and crawled over to to bride to retrieve the garter, the ladies all went bananas over it as did we. Ray and Karen both adore each other you can see it in their eyes and the way they kiss, which by the way is often. The World Golf Village is a great venue for a wedding and they showed how to do it right, with a great family and very helpful coordinator it was smooth sailing and should be for them to as they start their life together. Here is their sneak peek show we hope you enjoy

Victoria and Bobby get Hitched

Vicky and Bobby were married recently and we had the honor of capturing their day for all to see. If you keep up with our blog you will recognize them from a previous engagement session where we had a good day with them around Atlantic Beach. Well this time they tied the knot at NAS Jacksonville, at the base club. I really enjoy hanging out with Bobby he is an absolute trip, makes everyone else laugh as well. Anyway here is a sneak peek slide show, hope you enjoy.

Ashley and Chris

This past Saturday we had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Ashley and Chris. We have known the bride since she was about 10 years old and I am floored that she is old enough to be married! Her Mother and Father really went all out for their little girl. Marineland was such an awesome venue! People will be talking about this one for a long, long time. So MaryKay and John, are you ready for Lauren to tie the knot? How are you ever gonna top this one? Luckily they have a year and a half to think about it! Thanks for letting us capture this special day.

Theresa and Gideon THE ENGAGEMENT

These two are quite the couple, they know what it means to be in LOVE. They have fun wherever they go, enjoy each others company, and they feed off one another by seeing who can be the funniest. We had a blast hanging out with them for the afternoon playing around at Pete's famous bar, and enjoying a perfect day. Here is a sneak peek, Enjoy.

Keiser Pinning Ceremony

I had the pleasure of photographing the Pinning Ceremony for the Keiser University graduating class in Radiology last week. My friend Rebecca is graduating and delivered a great speech to her classmates. Best of luck to all!

Mike and Amanda

My very good friends are expecting, Mike is a great friend of mine and he and his lovely wife Amanda are now expecting their first child and HE will be here soon. Amanda looks positively radiant. We know these two are going to awesome parents because Mike likes toys as much as most kids ;) We had a great time and captured some wonderful images. Be on the lookout for the newborn images really soon.

Dare and John

Dare and John were recently Wed at the beautiful Club Continental in Orange Park FL. This day was a little breezy but the wonderful view of the river and style of the building made for a great venue. The couple had many friends show and they all partied well into the night, John and the boys enjoyed some high end cigars on the patio while the girls danced. We had some time set aside for some of those WOW images, and I believe that they turned out pretty darn well. Here is a sneak peak I hope you enjoy

Ed and Suzanne

Ed and Suzanne were wed at the Addison on Amelia Island on a wonderful Tuesday evening. The ceremony followed Happy Hour in the courtyard of the Inn where everyone gathered to have some wine and witness these two make their commitment to each other. The marriage was performed by Bob, the owner of the The Addison and witnessed by an entire crew of Addison guests. A good time was had by all. The couple was then whisked away by horse and carriage for a romantic tour of Amelia Island. What a fun afternoon!

Kathleen and Travis are Married

Congratulations to Travis and Kathleen! We had the pleasure of photographing the beach wedding of Kathleen and Travis. It was a beautiful oceanfront wedding at Serenata Beach Club and an absolutely perfect day. These two are made for each other and it was so fun to watch them dance the night away with friends and family. What a pleasure meeting both families and capturing such a special moment in their lives. Here is a sneak peek.......hope you enjoy!

Kayla & Matt The Wedding

Kayla and Matt had a wonderful ceremony at The Hilltop in Orange Park recently with their family and closest friends. These two starred in one of our favorite engagement sessions a few months ago and now we got see the sequel. We had a great time hanging out and photographing them. Kayla is a natural in front of the camera, and even has a patented pose....."the Kayla". We wish them all the best and look forward seeing them again. Here is a teaser hope you enjoy it.

Whitney and Graham Tie the Knot

Well everyone, it is official now, Whitney and Graham are MARRIED! What an amazing couple. These two are meant for each other, very lighthearted and very fun to be around..... and when they are together you can tell that these two will be making each other laugh for all their days. After all what is the key to happiness? Live Laugh and Love, right? Kim and I truly enjoyed meeting their families and sharing their day. The dads got on stage and tried out some vintage Sinatra with the band and the topper was without a doubt Grandpas rendition of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon on the old Oak tree". Again Congratulations to these two and we hope you enjoy this sneak peek!

Welcome Grady Courtis

Everyone, we would like to introduce to you Grady Courtis. Grady was just three weeks old when we shot these and he looks as if he is ready to go. This very handsome little man has got mom and dad right where he wants them. We look forward to him watching him grow.

Bun Bun in the studio

We just finished up our Easter photo shoots and want to thank BunBun for all of her hard work.....if you call sitting around all day eating carrots and alfalfa hard work. She was an awesome model, and the kids were pretty good too. We had a great time(even though working with kids and animals is kind of like herding cats). If you missed it this year, we will be doing it next year, bigger, better and yes, Bun Bun will return. Here are a few of our cutie-pies with our supermodel bunny.

Photo Contest

Two of our favorite girls are in a tots 2 teens photo contest and we need your votes! The votes are $1 a piece and go to a wonderful charity.....now I lay me down

to sleep. If you

aren't familiar

with the charity,

here is a link to the site http://www.nilmdts.org/. Here are the cutie pies....

to vote for Abbey go to:

http://www.sandypucvotes.com/pickpic/gallery/image.php?id=2201

Vote for Lizzie at:

http://www.sandypucvotes.com/pickpic/gallery/image.php?id=1817

We would love to see one of these girls go on to the National contest.

Kimberly and Nathan are Married!

We spent the 14th of March with Kimberly and Nathan and about 150 of their closest friends and family. The ceremony was at St. Pauls at the beach and the fabulous party was at Marsh Landing. We had so much fun with the two of them. They were up for anything......even rolling around in the grass. We hope all of those onlookers enjoyed it! We hope everyone enjoys our sneak peek video as well!

Holly & Chris

Holly and Chris just got hitched, and we had the honor of capturing their day for them and it was a nice one. Chris, like most of the grooms was calm and cool but very excited to finally marry the love of his life. Holly was full of nervous energy,but once the doors flew open and she laid eyes on Chris and he saw her, all the nerves were gone in a flash. Anyone who reads our blog knows that I am always looking to the eyes, they tell the true feelings, when these two look at each other it's like there is no one else on earth, they may not even realize it but they each get a small grin when ever they look at on another. We wish them the best of luck, but something tells me they won't need it.

New addition to the Rock Family

Here is the newest member of the Rock Family, Erin is just beaming with a proud mother smile. We get such a kick getting to be around these new additions it really makes you realize just how fast they grow up, so enjoying these few moments and capturing them forever is just awesome.Enjoy the show.

Random thoughts on wedding photography

There are seemingly endless wedding ceremony locations that could serve as beautiful backdrops for weddings at any time of the year. It's just one more choice in a long list that already includes finding a florist, choosing a cake designer, selecting a wedding coordinator & of course picking the perfect wedding photographer. However, there are some very important things that every bride to be should consider when choosing the ceremony location that should not be overlooked.

You have already decided without a doubt that your wedding photos are what are most important to you. One question that I believe some brides don’t think to address is, “How will my choice of ceremony location affect my wedding photographer?” With this, I’m referring to churches or venues with strict policies in place that may prevent the photographer from capturing the emotion & core of the day. With these types of restrictions, photographers may be limited to balconies, which vary from either the sides of the altar and/or the rear of the church or other undesirable locations. Be sure to inquire from the church coordinator their photography policy, if any.

With the latter, your wedding photography is limited to views of the backs of the couple. Of course there are reasonable restrictions, such as no flash, which is not really an issue. However, to be restricted to a balcony with limits to capturing different perspectives may be viewed as a challenge.

In the past I've had a client express to me how important the images were to her during our initial consultation. However, she selected a church that restricted ALL photography in the sanctuary. So here we are shooting through a glass door with a long zoom in an attempt to capture those afore mentioned moments. Not only was I limited to the rear balcony, the guests were also not allowed to, but many did anyway, take pictures. Learning this, I realized I wouldn’t be able to capture the bridal procession, the groom’s expression upon seeing his bride, the bride & her father coming down the aisle, a mother wiping tears of joy from her cheek, etc.

There are a few things you can do to avoid this type of surprise on your wedding day. Again, be sure to ask your venue coordinator and the officiate if there will be restrictions placed on your photographer. If you should choose a church or venue with photography restrictions in place, be sure to discuss possible options/solutions with your wedding photographer. It’s possible that certain shots can be recreated after the ceremony, thus capturing the images you desire and in some cases the photographer may be able to negotiate some leniency that may allow them to capture more of your ceremony as it happens.

Kayla and Matt

Kayla and Matt,
Will be getting married soon and we got a chance to spend the day with them just walking around having fun. You can see that they are in love and really enjoy each other after all that is the way it is supposed to be, right? Well what ever "it"is that you are supposed to have, these two have it by the bucket. We played around and they were up for most anything as you can tell, they even jumped in a store window display and "vogued' for us. We had fun and the engagement book came out great we are looking forward to the wedding day, we will see what they can get into then. Should be good.

Kim

This Is Kim, She is a friend of one our past clients who had the maternity session and she loved it so much that she insisted that Kim have the same. Somewhat apprehensive as they all are we put her fears to rest and came up with some great stuff, so here is a small sample we hope you love it.

Dusty Barber

Dusty is one hell of a guitarist, he is touring with the "Rev. Al Green", this has him all over the world. He does call Jacksonville home and recently Schecter Guitars liked him so much that they want him to play their instruments exclusively. Dusty wanted some cool pix of his new guitars so we said come on over and we will see what happens, so here is a small sample of what we got. Give us some feedback as to what you think.

Christy and her husband Brian
are expecting little Shelby to join them soon . As you can see she is, as they say "glowing". I think she was a little nervous at first but they warmed up and the three of them gave us some great images that they can enjoy for a lifetime. We will have the chance to meet Shelby in the coming weeks, we can't wait to finally meet her.

The Return of Princess Abbey

Abbey is turning 2.

She came over to get some beautiful portraits taken. She

quickly found out that the strawberries weren't real, but

that didn't stop her from trying one out. "Yucky!" Now I have a

fake strawberry with an adorable little bite taken out of it.

Don't worry, we didn't let her eat it!

We tried to get her to hold the "I am 2" letters for us, but Abbey has her own agenda.......being cute. She may not have done what we wanted, but we got some awesome shots. The camera LOVES her, look at those baby blues. No wonder this little lady wins all the beautiful baby contests!

Owenby Engagement

Gordon and Theresa
We got to spend the afternoon with Gordon and Theresa, watching and shooting, capturing their emotions on the camera. They played along and had a great time, Gordon at first was apprehensive but quickly rose to the challenge of all the kissing and caressing that we required of them. The wedding is coming fast and those will be posted soon.

Jen and David

This young couple have a tremendous amount of chemistry, they are truely in
love. David always has an eye on Jen, he just has that look look of a man who has his soul
mate. Everyone who has read our blog has to realize that I always say that the eyes don't lie, these two, the whole time kissing and caressing. I wish them the best of luck but something tells me that luck will play no part and they really mean "till dealth do us part". Here is to you Jen and Dave, many joyous years ahead.

Snavely family

A family completed, after flying in from California, got together to see the kids and grandkids. These are some wonderful people and
their love for each other was obvious.

Princess Abbey

All hail princess Abbey, oh my goodness is this little beauty queen adorable or what? Her mom had
an idea that she wanted something a bit different than everything she has had before, so we gave it a
whirl and here are some of the end results. We had a great time working with her, she is a hoot,
I just love those chunky legs and pigtails, we look forward to seeing this princess again in the future.

Lloyd family

Welcome to the world Brody! Everyone meet Brody, he is the son of a friend of mine Adam who happens to be a firefighter in Jacksonville. We decided to play up that fact and use his gear for a prop and I think is a touching image with the little hand clutched next to the 9-11 patch. Lacie and Adam are some proud new parents and with good reason, he is very handsome and already a full head of hair. Hopefully we will see him again.