Ashley & Steve

Hailing from Greer, South Carolina - and not too happy about it - we have Ashley and Steve!
I got a call from Ashley out of the blue one day, she had seen my website and booked me right over the phone. Awesome.

Steve and Ashley took the time to drive up to Asheville to do their engagement shoot a couple of weeks ago. We wandered a few back streets downtown that I hadn't been on before and then we drove down Riverside Drive scouting some cool locations.
Along the way we did the taboo of talking politics and religion almost the whole time. We both agree we'd vote Bush a third term if we had the option. Can I get an Amen!

Ashley got a sneak peak at her shots before they made it to the blog and here's what she had to say, "I wanted to email you and let you know how much I love our pictures!!! They are fabulous, I can’t wait for Steve to get home to see them!"

The wedding's only a few short weeks away! Stay tuned for more!

Erica & Josh

For your viewing pleasure may I present Erica & Josh!

We hit downtown Asheville on Mother's Day for our super fun-de-jour engagement shoot.
One of the highlights for me was getting into a new high-rise being built. Part of the fence had fallen over but I'm pretty sure the foreman would have welcomed us onto their constructions site regardless. One of the benefits to shooting on a Sunday :)









More coolness in the slideshow!

AARRRGGGHH!! I got me a pirate name!

I came across this fun website a few minutes ago.
Everyone ought to have a pirate name!

My pirate name is:

Red Sam Cash

Passion is a big part of your life, which makes sense for a pirate. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Seabrook Island, SC

After weeks of planning Jill Higgins had her second shooter flake out on her at the last minute.
So I got a call on Thursday from Jill asking if I could shoot for her the next day - at Seabrook Island, SC - 300 miles away. Five hours of shooting and a 600 mile round trip make for a long day but I was glad to help out, I don't get to shoot at the beach as often as I'd like.
This was a beach destination wedding for Emilie, the bride, who wasn't happy that it was overcast with occasional rain and major wind. She had to have her ceremony indoors but we still came away with some sweet images - once Emilie and Kevin saw each other it was all smiles. The groomsmen were a fun bunch too!
Here's a few shots from the day.

Thanks for having me out Jill, I had a lot of fun!

Wes & Martie!

This was one spectacular wedding!
Wes and Martie were married at the Kanuga Conference Center located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. With a pine wood chapel built in the 1940's to the beautiful lake backdrop and the awesome reception hall, I saw things shaping up nicely. Then you add Martie - the gorgeous bride - and her handsome man Wes and we're in for some sweet images! We're just pushing it over the top with their amazing family and friends and 14 attendants!

Wes and Martie both work in Washington and it's a downer that they're so far away. Hopefully I'll be able to shoot some weddings in D.C. so we'll have the opportunity to meet up again!

Thanks for allowing me to celebrate your wedding with you. I felt privileged to be a part of your day.















What's that? You want to see more pictures?
Well grab a seat and some popcorn - there's a nine minute slideshow waiting for you!
Make sure you have half an hour before you click here, you'll want to watch it a few times!

Amelia the Model & Trey the Actor

And Jarrad the photographer.

I went down to Greenville, South Carolina last week to hang out with my friend Jarrad Lister. He's a photographer based out of Spartanburg and he shoots a lot of models among other things. I tagged along for two of his shoots that day.






The first is Amelia. She contacted Jarrad because she needed some new shots for her portfolio as she's competing in the Miss Teen USA circuit. We took a break at Wild Wings and then we met up with Trey Moore. Trey is an actor who also had come across Jarrad's work and asked him for some fresh headshots. Trey is a young guy with a pretty impressive resumé already.

Here's a slideshow with a handful of images from the day. You can even find an image of the guy that was oogling Amelia and yelling to her from his car. classy.
Check out Jarrad's blog for some of his images as well.

Alicia, Elizabeth and Holly

I've kept these pretty ladies from seeing their images for almost two weeks but, here they are!
I shot Alicia and her husband back in October and she called me and said she wanted to do a shoot with her step-daughter, Elizabeth and her niece, Holly.

Three women, dressed-up, looking gorgeous - they want me to come hang out with them and take pictures. I've had worse jobs.





We met up in downtown Asheville and made an afternoon of it, walking and shooting. We took a break and had some pizza at Barley's and then headed across the street to Hannah Flannigans for some shots of a different kind - followed by some pictures on top of the bar.
Not a bad day at the office :)

Enjoy the show!

DavidAlliPalooza!

Welcome to DavidAlliPalooza!
As you might have guessed - this is David and Alli.
They knew their friends were throwing them a sweet party out in Weaverville so they decided to forgo a regular engagement shoot and have me come out and capture all the festivities instead. I had a great time, I got to meet their friends and I can tell you their wedding is going to be awesome!
It's only a week away!










Check out the sweet book their guests will have to sign at the wedding.
Definitely cooler than the ledger I have from mine :(

Let's take a walk

This is Hillary and Wes and you'll be seeing more of them.
These two are short on shy and long on cool and fabulousesness so we've gone out and shot three separate engagement shoots so far and their wedding's not till October! It helps that we're friends, we go to church together and we get to see each other every week.

These shots were taken during a stroll around Biltmore Lake and we've got more coming from their engagement party as well as our downtown Asheville shoot with rooftop shots from the Jackson building in Pack Square! Rusty fire escapes and gargoyles, stay tuned!

David Jay showing off

I had the opportunity this week to meet up with David Jay in Atlanta and get a closer look at an application he's developing called ShowIt Sites. This is a very cool app that will be bringing you my new webpage in the coming weeks.

David Jay is sort of like the Will Smith of the wedding photography industry; he's talented in a number of different areas and is a bit of a celebrity in his own right. In a few short years he became a wedding photographer and moved up to shooting weddings internationally and also began teaching around the country. He's begun a number of websites and forums that have helped tremendously in fostering a community among photographers around the globe. All the slideshows that are on my blog are also from an application that he developed.






We met at Liana Lehman's house, another talented photographer and national speaker, a casual get together to get an inside look at this latest David Jay venture. ShowIt Sites is a website development application for photographers that are high on standards and low on time. That's my assessment anyway and I'm anxious to start using it - when I get time :)
I had a great time in Atlanta; I was still talking in the parking lot past 1 a.m.




I realize the group shot is out of focus - my bad.


I stayed the night and hit IKEA the next day to pick up a few more items for our house remodel and then made the drive back to Asheville. I stopped in Greenville at a carnival I came across. I figured I'd stretch my legs a bit and get a few pictures too. I got a lot of strange looks since the place only had about 20 people total. Lots of lights - not a lot of action. One lady was very protective of her "game" and started yelling at me as I was taking a picture - she was afraid someone in Florida would copy her setup!? I'll honor her request and keep that gem off my blog.