new goodies for 2012 weddings = a gorgeous afternoon of practicing in the front yard. the photographer? me. the subject? my sweet daughter who patiently works with me as i experiment with every knob, button, and facet of the new gear.
today will warm up to a gorgeous 60+ degrees, and the sun is shining bright in the blue sky. this weekend…not so much. to make me feel better over the fact that all of my sessions from the past couple of days got postponed due to weather, i thought i’d post something a little cheerier. meet the meriwethers…
thank you so much for inviting me to your home and for sharing the afternoon with me. it was a joy to meet you all, and i adored my time with your precious family!!
i’ve been working with them for ages now, but there was something totally different about this last meeting. whereas our other sessions have been focused on their beautiful cady, the spotlight shifted a bit to the newest member-to-be of their wonderful family.
but of course we had to have cady make a sweet appearance. after all, what’s a baby brother without a big sister to love him?
they’re one of those families that i just adore seeing and spending time with. and carson? well, i’ve got a super-soft spot in my heart for him. i guess that’s what happens when you photograph a baby taking his first breaths in this world.
it might sound as if i’m gushing like i’m related to this little pumpkin, but he’s just so stinking adorable. like somebody-please-submit-him-for-the-world’s-cutest-baby adorable!!
thank you, korey and jennifer, for letting me take part in some of the sweetest snippets of this journey called parenting. you’ve been so richly blessed!!
normally i wouldn’t have had high hopes for a session that concluded with my being instructed by a uniformed police officer to vacate the premises. but on this particular day, mr. kindly cop might have just been our good luck charm because i’m totally smitten with brynn and tyler’s engagement photos.
in our pre-session chat, i started to get a pretty clear picture of what makes brynn and tyler who they are. he’s incredibly attentive to her, she’s loving and affectionate toward him, and somewhere in there they’ve got a self-proclaimed mix of nerdiness and fun. look closely and you’ll see it all…
now brynn is going to be the dream bride. she’s laid-back, fun, and let me tell you…the girl can bring it!!
but combine her with tyler, and they’re absolute perfection. (and for the record, i can’t find an ounce of nerdiness anywhere around here!)
brynn and tyler, i had such a fantastic afternoon shooting with you, and i’m so thankful for the time to have gotten to know you better. much love, my friends!!
*tip for the day: shooting photographs on train tracks is illegal. ask me how i know.*
it’s kind of the running joke around here – that i don’t see things the way most people do. oh, the lighting is killer in this part of the yard OR hmmm, i think the landscaping needs a little more contrast and saturation. so it should come as no surprise that when my girls were playing in front of an open door recently that i walked by, swooned over the gorgeous light flooding in around their sweet blonde heads, and raced to get my camera. i tiptoed around the corner and snapped this gem of them playing dress-up and whispering secrets to each other…
then leading to many mommy-squeals-of-delight, my boys plopped themselves down in front of the door and asked me to take their picture as well…
two of the most common questions i get when people learn that i have a delightful brood of little people at my house are are your walls totally covered with photos of your children? and do they always take beautiful, perfect pictures? NO and YES. no, my walls aren’t papered with pics of my little ones, but i’ve got several groupings in their bedrooms and the living room that i love. and YES, my children do always take perfect pictures. in fact, i’m pretty sure they’ve never taken a bad photo.
and they’ve never done anything gross like shoot slobbery raspberries that when backlit, make my pregnant tummy churn. (if that were to happen, though, they would never, ever giggle about it.)
no, in all seriousness i have a whole host of photos that document the good, the difficult, and everything in between. i adore these little ones and want to remember all these sweet details of their childhood.
and speaking of treasuring memories, i can’t believe that we met this darling for the first time one year ago this week…
we praise the lord for the joy that he brings to our family!!
i ADORE bridal season and the rush of weddings that come every weekend. but the quiet winter does offer one little perk…i have time in my schedule to work with darlings like this.
only in an alabama january can you shoot naked baby photos outside – love it!!
it was really ironic the way the timing of our session worked out. no, it must have been divine perfection. they showed up that chilly morning with a single photograph in hand that they wanted to include in our time…a photograph of a small, scared-looking child.
you see, exactly one year ago that same photograph had appeared in their inbox and when they opened it, for the first time they saw the face of their daughter. a lot’s happened over the last year, and it all culminates in this: as deeply as i searched through the lens of my camera that day, that fearful little girl was nowhere to be found. in her place was a child full of joy and contentment, a child who now knows the love of a family.
thank you, nathan and stacie, for spending such a sweet time with me and for letting me love on your beautiful daughter. you have all been blessed!!
she came on the scene unexpectedly several months ago, and as soon as i saw her i was in love. i hadn’t exactly been planning to add to the team, but it was one of those situations where as soon as she joined us it just felt right. so it’s official now…allison lewis photography is adding a new full-time assistant!
here’s the plan for my new assistant: she’s really eager to learn the ropes, and since we love our time together so much, she’ll be joining me on all of my weddings and sessions over the next few months. i’ve already introduced her to each of my 2012 brides, and they’ve been so sweet and excited to have her as part of the team. (i love those girls!) so i suppose the next step is to introduce my new assistant to the rest of you – my awesome clients and friends. so without further delay, it’s my utmost joy to finally introduce you to the newest member of the allison lewis photography crew (aka “the summer intern”)…
HAVE A DELIGHTFUL TUESDAY!!
it’s totally honest for me to say that i’ve loved working with every single couple whose wedding i’ve been blessed to shoot; we laugh, we share inside jokes, and somewhere in our months of working together, we move from photographer/clients to friends. but every once in a while, i meet one of those couples. they’re the kind that make me come home from our first interview meeting and tell my husband, i really, REALLY want to shoot their wedding.
molly and i sat in the cushy orange chairs of a local coffee house and talked about a little bit of everything – her life with hew new fiancé, paul, her recent career change from the ER to being an L&D nurse, the pain of losing her mother two years earlier, and some of her favorite things to do in her new home city of savannah, georgia. eventually we hugged goodbye and she said she would call after she’d had a chance to talk everything over with paul. and me? i went home and told my husband, i love her and i really, REALLY want to shoot their wedding.
move the calendar forward eight months to this past saturday. the planning was complete, they were surrounded by a host of family and friends, and the day had finally arrived for molly to join her life with paul’s. the morning began with an almost-tangible excitement as molly’s best friends helped her dress for the fabulous day ahead.
once they themselves were dressed, it was time for all of the girls to show their skills (of which they’ve got plenty!). i will neither confirm nor deny the rumor that i had serious shoe envy.
but the girls weren’t the only ones with moves. paul and his groomsmen were fantastic in front of the camera (their awesome vintage putters helped).
what came next was one of my favorite details of the day. molly had spent ages deciding how to honor her mother’s memory on such a precious day, and in the end, she chose to begin her life with paul in the same church in which her parents had done the same 34 years earlier.
gracious, i love these people!
ok brides, listen up. molly stumbled across one of birmingham’s best-kept secrets, and i’m officially smitten. i can’t possibly say enough good things about her reception site, woodrow hall. the staff was amazing, and i think it goes without saying that the venue itself is stunning.
molly and paul ate in a private suite with an amazing sunset view and then joined their guests for the night’s first dances.
the peace of those moments, though, quickly took a turn and headed straight for a full-blown party!
their friends and family ate a delicious dinner by yellow bicycle catering and danced into the night. the hours flew by and eventually the time came for the bride and groom to leave in their gorgeous rolls royce by vintage auto chauffeur. first, though, came what ended up being my very, very favorite part of the whole day. as the guests made their way outside to prepare for the big getaway, molly and paul had an intimate and emotional last dance alone in the ballroom as music floated quietly around them. swoon.
molly and paul, i truly can’t thank you enough for asking me to take part in your perfect wedding day. every detail was amazing, and spending the day shooting with you was every bit as wonderful as i thought it would be. much love, my friends, and enjoy costa rica!!!
special thanks:
reception venue – woodrow hall
caterer – yellow bicycle catering
cakes – magnificent cakes
flowers – irene pate flowers
car – vintage auto chauffeur
and as always, a tremendous thank you to anna wamsted for being the world’s best second-shooter. she blew it out of the park!!!!
