Cousins

I have a great family.  A great, big family.  My brothers and I have always loved the beach.  And our children are no different, thank goodness.  We always worried that one of us would have a child who didn’t like the ocean – and then what would we do with him/her?  But, we were lucky and our children are beach bums just like us.

We all still vacation together whenever possible – at least the ones of us on the east coast do.  When the children were growing up, they played extremely well together on the beach.  It was wonderful to have built-in playmates.  Now, decades later, the children still play well together.  They enjoy the beach during the day – and the beach bars at night!

I took a vacation from my camera this year – and only took one picture of the family the entire week.  This is a quick grab of the girl cousins getting ready to go out. They had a great time and are looking forward to another vacation together.

Rain, Rain . . . Good for Emily and Dan!

In eastern NC, we’ve had thunderstorms nearly every day for the past week. Today was a bit hot, but gorgeous. Of course it didn’t storm today – my only portrait session was inside! I’ve been rained out three times this week alone. But, all the rain gave me more free time to edit which means Emily and Dan’s pictures are ready a week early. I’m delivering the package to Cathy tomorrow, so I’ll be posting the proofs online tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon over a week before I was scheduled to get them posted.

To view and order pictures from Emily and Dan’s wedding, go to www.elisebeall.instaproofs.com. Click on the name of their gallery and you will see all the pictures from the wedding. If you order within the first two weeks, you get a 20% discount off the already low print prices.

Jake

I received the nicest thank you note this week from Julie, Jake’s mom. Inside, Jake had written me his own thank you note – which is now displayed proudly on my refrigerator. It says, so eloquently, “thank you – go wolf pack.” If you’ve read my post on the Wolstenholmes, you’ll understand this post a little better. I received Jake and Julie’s notes after a very long, very hard day. Both notes brought a smile to my face – but Jake’s made me laugh out loud. I love getting thank you notes – but I hate writing them myself. This has convinced me I have to do better.

Here’s a quick, mostly candid capture of Julie and Jake. I was taking family pictures for another part of the family when my ever-observant assistant, Karen, noticed Jake and Julie cuddling in the sand off to the side. I swung around to grab a candid – but Jake saw the camera and couldn’t hold back his infectious grin. Julie was oblivious to the whole thing. I love this picture. Can’t you just feel Julie’s love for Jake?

I hope Julie still has this picture when Jake is a teenager so she can remember how adorable and sweet Jake was – once upon a time!

Jessica + Bob – Part Deux

I’ve been really, really busy this week – but you surely wouldn’t know that from looking at my blog. Most of the week was spent proofing the weddings I shot the end of June, getting orders printed and delivered, and generally catching up on the business part of this photography business. But, I did take time to finish Jessica and Bob’s engagement shoot that I started months ago. I started their session at the beach in April. And while we loved a lot of the pictures we got, it was just too windy so we wanted to try to get some pictures where hair wasn’t blowing EVERYWHERE. The plan was to take just a few more pictures at a local park to finish up their session. But, it’s just not possible for me to take just a few pictures when I have great models and great light! I’m a huge fan of black and white – so all I’m showing from their session are a couple of black & white and a mocha or two. Mocha is a type of black and white. However, instead of having gray undertones – there are brown tones. It’s very pretty and looks particularly good with nature type shots.

The King Family

Many months ago the King family scheduled a family photo shoot at the beach during the week of July 4th. But, the best laid plans sometimes just don’t work out. On Tuesday, the day the shoot was scheduled, the wind was blowing too hard to even try. So, we rescheduled for Thursday. As luck would have it – Wednesday was beautiful and calm. But on Thursday, the wind kicked up again. Other than the wind it was a gorgeous day, so we decided to shoot. The sky and the water were the most beautiful shades of blue. Although I haven’t been to the Caribbean, the colors reminded me of pictures I’ve seen from there.

Here are a few of the family pictures.

I love the beach. I mean SERIOUSLY love the beach. It’s the one place in the world that soothes my soul. But, as much as I love the beach, I don’t enjoy being covered in sand. That didn’t bother James and Mary Patrick at all. The sandier – the better for these two.

It was very nice to meet the King family – and I enjoyed working with them. I hope to have the rest of their pictures edited by the end of the week.

Emily & Dan

Emily and Dan have been planning their wedding for nearly a year. They chose Bellamy Mansion in Wilmington for several reasons. First, it’s an absolutely exquisite example of antebellum architecture. And, the mansion is surrounded by beautiful gardens where the wedding and reception were scheduled to take place. Also, Dan is a Civil War buff – so the history was important. However, the one thing Emily and Dan couldn’t plan was the weather. All day Saturday, June 30th, rain threatened. There would be large, dark clouds one minute – and clear skies the next. At 4:30 when I was driving to Bellamy, it was raining. I expected to find complete chaos, but instead I found caterers busy working, the mother-of-the-bride putting finishing touches on the wedding cake, the bride preparing to dress – and everyone as calm as they ever are a couple of hours before a wedding. We assured Emily that it was good luck when it rains on your wedding day. And we knew that there was still time for the skies to clear before the ceremony.

Emily and Dan decided to see each other before the ceremony so that we could get all the formal portraits out of the way. This is Dan seeing Emily for the first time as she descended the main staircase. Dan had the sweetest expression when he saw Emily in her wedding gown.

And why wouldn’t Dan be happy to see her? Emily was so beautiful it made ME smile. Everything about Emily was perfect – the gown, the veil, the hair, the make-up, the flowers, and probably most of all the cross she wore. Emily’s “something old” had special meaning for Dan’s family. His grandfather gave the cross to his grandmother on the day they were married. Then, Dan’s grandmother gave the cross to Dan’s mother on her wedding day. Dan’s mother placed the cross on Emily just before she started down the stairs.

About an hour before the ceremony was scheduled to begin the rain stopped, so the family made the decision to have the ceremony on the back steps as planned. It was a beautiful place for a wedding. This is the proud father escorting his youngest daughter to Dan.

After the ceremony, I took a few pictures of the entire wedding party. They probably thought I had lost my mind when I stepped into the middle of busy Market Street and stopped traffic so they could cross to the fountain where we wanted to shoot. Thankfully all the motorists were smiling and honking at the newlyweds so nobody got angry. The fountain was a beautiful place to shoot – but it was getting dark quickly and lighting the large group was difficult.

The couple had planned to do their dances on the 2nd floor balcony – but by then it was raining again. So we moved inside. I love this picture of Emily dancing with her father. You can see the love so clearly written on his face – and if you look in the mirror, you can see Emily’s reaction.

Bon Appetit catered the buffet supper. I was so busy I didn’t take the time to eat, but everything looked delicious. I did make it to the dessert table later in the evening and I can vouch for the carrot cake. It was very tasty – and perfect on a hot June night. As people were eating, I heard them talking about how good the chocolate covered strawberries were. But, by the time I made it into the room – there was but one, lonely strawberry left on the platter.

I have to say, one of the high points of the evening for me was listening to the toasts. The Best Man, Matron of Honor, and both fathers made beautiful speeches. There was a lot of laughter and I had tears in my eyes more than once – and so did Emily. Dan was just excited to learn that he is a step closer to getting the Martin secret barbeque recipe!

So all in all, a little rain didn’t dampen the day for Dan and Emily. I believe their wedding was everything they hoped for.