Lilah

I first met Lilah last year when she was the flower girl in her "Aunt Lissy's" wedding. She was adorable then and is still a definite cutie. Her pumpkin dress really put me in the Halloween mood and I have to admit that I encouraged her to make a face for the camera. But I really LOVED her green dress with the chicks on it. She has the most expressive little face that I once again pulled out the brushes and did some "painterly" effects on the photo where she is holding the tree. I thought her eyes were just so beautiful in that photo!! Hope everyone is getting the trick or treat candy ready because Lilah has reminded that Halloween is coming.

Beautiful . . . in his eyes

Please don't think that I always come up with all the ideas for wonderful photos. I was photographing Wendy and Keith's wedding last weekend (still working on the rest of the photos) and we were standing out on the front steps of the church getting ready to leave when Wendy said, "Can you get a photo of me reflected in his glasses? I'm looking at myself." I looked more closely and she was absolutely right. A gorgeous sunny day and there she was -- beautiful in his eyes.

My Buddy Carter

My little friend Carter from Greenville came for photos on Monday and he is a sweetheart. His session went great and we got tons of great photos of him. I loved this particular expression on his face and in his eyes so much that I decided to try and refresh my skills from my "Painter" workshop I took earlier this year. I had so much fun with that class but I've been too busy to pull out the brushes and use what I learned. It's not perfect but I love the soft effect.

Woodstock Revisited

I know I've missed the Woodstock anniversary by a few weeks but I was having fun this week taking some of my senior portraits and giving them a "pop" edge. I thought it was fun and it just reminded me of the 1960's. I enjoyed making members of the Class of 2010 look like they belonged on an album cover!!

Inchworm

Let's start Monday morning off with a smile. You can't look at Sara Grace's little face and not smile but I also wanted to show her on her new, birthday-gift inchworm. Peggy was working the day Sara Grace came in and was so excited to see that they still made the inchworm toy. She told Sara's mom that her daughter, Michelle, had one when she was a little girl 40 years ago (sorry, Michelle, for giving away your age) and that all three of her children played on it so hard that they eventually broke it in the middle. Sara Grace hasn't started playing on hers hard enough to break it but I think she'll get the hang of it soon.

Butterflies

I'm working to try and finish the photos from Abby and Jason's wedding last Saturday near Hertford. It was a beautiful fall day and they had a wonderful, enthusiastic group of family and friends to help them celebrate. I had always heard about weddings that had a butterfly release but had never photographed one before so I was excited when I found out about it. Jason and Abby came out on the front steps of the church after all their guests had exited and their pastor shared a beautiful reading about whispering a wish to a butterfly and then releasing it. They opened the box and I think Abby expected a big "whoosh" or something because she was leaning backward just a bit. Everyone really enjoyed seeing them flutter out and fly away. I wish I could have experienced it a little more with the rest of the guests but I as trying hard to get photos of the butterflies before they got out of sight. Luckily a couple of them stayed around and even landed on Abby's dress and one of the bridesmaid's bouquets so they got their own special close-up shot. A lovely way to end the wedding and head off to the reception.

Buddies

Lauren and Cody are seniors at Windsor (VA) High School and are the best of friends. When I was taking some family portraits for their respective families this past summer at Nags Head, they asked me to do a few of just the two of them. We only played around for a few minutes but all of us had fun, especially Laurent and Cody. Hope they're having a great senior year!!