UPDATE: Sara and Andrew’s site is now live! Right now you can enjoy a slide show of additional images and next week check back for the Signature Print. The album design will follow, as will all the wedding proofs.

I grew up next to Faith Presbyterian Church. It is literary 1,000 feet from the home I grew up in. I often played football and flew kites in the open field behind the church, yet I had never been inside of it… until now.

My first impression is that it is a church from another time. It matched the classic, simple feel that Sara and Andrew had for their whole wedding day. Classic is the word I would use to describe most of the day, like Sara’s dress and true face-covering veil, all the way to their exit.

My favorite classic touch that Sara and Andrew had was their actual planned exit from the reception. Most often these days a bride and groom do an exit from the ceremony, yet are the last to leave their own reception. Sara and Andrew ran out in a shower of birdseed from all of their guests to a comically decorated car. They then proceeded to literally drive off into the sunset. It was nothing groundbreaking or wild, but it was real, true, and earnest. All qualities that I would use to describe them as a couple.

-Michael

UPDATE: Carlie and Eric’s personalized website is now live! Sit back and enjoy a few more favorites in the introductory slideshow. The Signature Print will be chosen next week, be sure to click the “Purchase Images” link to register to be notified as soon as the album design and full proofs go live.

The gifts a bride and groom give each other on their wedding day can easily become an afterthought with all the other planning that can go into the event, they can become secondary with all the other grand things happening that day. The gifts exchanged by Carlie and Eric were the polar opposite of this. The happy couple had both been emotional rocks the whole morning up until opening the gifts when both of them began to tear up.

In fact Carlie’s gift to Eric was so powerful that it literally left him speechless for a good while after opening it. After Eric was able to collect his thoughts and described the gift, there was not a dry eye in the room. I was even tearing up a bit.

The gift that caused a room full of grown men to all well up was as follows; a hand decorated heart shaped “memory box”. Inside the box were concert tickets, sporting events, gift tags, and many more paper memento’s each with a hand written note on it about a memory Carlie had associated with that day. Then at the heart of all of this was a pair of custom cufflinks that displayed maps with a heart marking a location. A note attached to to each one, “Where I fell in love with you.” and “Where you fell in love with me”…..YA WOW…

Stay tuned to this post during the coming days as their personalized webpage  is being built that will have a slideshow with even more images and their album design. For now  you can purchase any of the posted images here by logging into the Wedding Gallery here.

Finally a big big thank you to Hussam for helping me out all day. I have already found some shots that you took that will most likely be in Eric and Carlie’s album, and I could not work nearly as quick and efficient as I like without your help. Thank you again sir.

-Michael

UPDATE: Mitzi and Ron’s personal website is up. See more favorites, their Signature Edition Print, and click the “Purchase Images” link to see the Engagement Session images and register to see all of the photos when they go online. You’ll also be notified as soon as the album design is available to view.

The combination of Mitzi and Ron’s families mingling together in one house was powerful. Last Saturday there was way too much food for the kitchen, and the aromas filled the house. Way too many people for the space, and the hum of conversation and laughter was constant. No matter where you went you could not escape the sense of family, family, family. I have been a fan of the backyard weddings since the very first wedding I shot years ago, and after last weekend I am an even bigger fan.

Stay tuned to this post as the weeks go by. We will have a personalized web page up with a slideshow on Friday, followed by an album design 10 days after that.

-Michael

I am going to make a point of encouraging morning shoots during the summer! The heat wave of the past month has made working outdoors difficult on hair and makeup.  The day I shot the Wilson family it was yet another day with highs in the 90′s, however at 8am when we shot it was only high 70′s. Along with the weather, the Wilson’s laughter made for several killer candid shots. I shot most of the time with the 200mm long lens, so I have no idea what they were saying to each other that was so funny. I’m just glad they love to laugh so much.

Those of you who follow the blog may notice a new retro/vintage split tone edit on image 3 and 4. Probably heavily influenced by my iPhone istagram/hipstamatic personal shooting. I like it a lot, but would love some feed back. Free to comment below and let me know what you think of it.

-Michael

The downtown area here is so great for taking a quick photo walk. For this session we went down Main Street just across the walking bridge to Tapawingo Park, a great location for shooting kids and families. I love working in spots where you can get many different looks in the same place. Simply changing an angle or walking 20 feet can get a whole new feel. Tapawingo does exactly this.

I have shot there many times now and I keep finding new little spots. My big discovery on this shoot was simply a picnic table with that was catching a nice balance of direct highlights and soft bounced light. The result being even shadows on most of the face with a large highlight, giving the faces some shape and warmth.

-Michael

If you follow our blog at all you will recall our Virtual Easter Egg Hunt from back in April. The morning after the the hunt was announced I got a phone call from Dave:

Dave-”Are you sure you hid all your eggs?”
Me-”Ya, I triple checked it…”
Dave-”Well Tressa Heath has been emailing me saying she has looked every where and they are not all there.”
Me-”That’s no good… let me pull up the page… ya they are all there Dave, I can send you the Posts and image numbers.”
Dave-”No, No I’m sure its fine. I think she just really wants to win…”

Well Tressa was not only first to enter, but by a stroke of Karma was the the drawing’s Big Winner! Here are a few images from her winning session.

-Michael

When Tami and Andrew said they were open to anything for their engagement session I don’t think they, let alone myself, saw us going to this place with it. I justified the headgear as playing off of the fact that they are getting married on Halloween eve, but lets be honest… it just sounded like so much fun!

Fun is a primary goal here at the studio. When you are having fun taking the picture it almost always shows up in the end result. Not only were we laughing the whole time shooting, but I was giggling long after into the rest of the week. Finally I owe a big thank you to the people at Midwest Rentals for hooking me up with such crazy headgear. They truly do rent just about anything. The knight helmet named “pig face” was my favorite hat. What is yours?

-Michael