One of the reasons that I went home last weekend was to help celebrate my dad’s birthday! His is the first of 4 birthdays in our family that fall under the sign of Leo. (Yeah Leo’s!)
My whole family was there (though mom and the in-laws are missing from this photo). His birthday cake was a homemade blackberry puff (made from my Grandmother Webber’s recipe) and a peach and plum crisp. yum.
In an effort to blog more about my personal life and not just my work life, which is a bit of a conundrum as they are so closely related, I am bringing to you photos from my trip to the dog park yesterday.
Margaret and I met out at the James Island County Park to photograph and interview Skirt!‘s September’s “Girl Power” feature (who by the way is a fun and chatty eco Girl Scout, so be sure to pick up the Sept. issue). So we decided to bring our dogs along with and let them play at the lake out there after we were done working.
Here are a few characters…
This is Rooney, Matt and Margaret’s dog. They just rescued him from the Dachsund Rescue of North America. He’s so funny and acts like he’s been theirs forever.
He’s named after English super star “football” (ie: soccer) player Wayne Rooney, as Matt is English.
Run! Rooney! Run!
There was this mystery dog there who I thought might be a white weimerainer. But nope. He is an albino Doberman. He was quite striking, but it was hard to get a photo of him.
Sullivan is a pup who was also recently rescued. He got caught up in a train of dogs running through and got the wind knocked out of him, but he was ok.
Bella looking very regal in black and white.
And that’s Bella in the foreground. I don’t know the dog in the back, but I liked the composition of this one.
If there is an award for the happiest baby, then it belongs to little Nikki. I went out to photograph her on Tuesday and she just smiled and laughed and looked adorable the entire time! Her grandfather was so concerned that she hadn’t cried in three months, that they actually took her to the doctor. The doctor said that they are part of the very lucky 5% of parents out there with incredibly happy babies!
And not only is she happy, she’s super cute. There’s one shot of her that really reminds me of a baby Gap ad.
Because of the intense July heat, we started by taking some photos of Nikki in her sunny playroom, and then moved outside to play in the gazebo.
Here she is smiling!
Occasionally, not often, it is the groom who calls me to see if I am available for a particular date to photograph his upcoming wedding. I love to see that as obviously it shows how involved and excited the groom is. And this was just the case with Sloan and Julie’s wedding. Here were two people who were very smitten with each other and their love was palpable.
They invited 50 of their closest friends and family to Charleston for their destination wedding, which was held at the Mills House downtown. The ceremony was held outside on the terrace overlooking Meeting Street and downtown Charleston, and the reception followed inside with a sit down dinner and the Joe Clark Big Band playing some jazz numbers.
The indomitable Jebb Graff helped me shoot this wedding. He’s really gotten me into using the Nikon lighting system (off camera flash) even more. Thanks, Jebb! Check out his site for some more shots form the wedding.
I love to capture the details of the wedding day, such as Julie’s shoes, because so much thought goes into the details. And they had great light in their Mills House suite!
Here’s the bride, looking glamorous!
I overheard Sloan telling someone that he had wanted to get her rings that would sparkle bright enough to keep all the other guys away and let them know that she was taken. All they’d see were the sparkle on her ring finger!
Here’s the handsome groom.
Julie’s father walked her down the aisle.
From the terrace, you could see a great shot of St. Michael’s. And that’s the column of the Hibernian next door.
We walked down Meeting Street to Chalmers to do a few shots of the new Mr. and Mrs. Dean. I love how traffic stops for brides! It doesn’t stop for photographers though.
A very Charleston shot here!
The nice thing about summer weddings is the great light that you get with the sun setting so late in the day.
Sloan’s mom is one happy lady dancing with her son.
There was a bit of a cake fight between the two, which I totally was not expecting.
The Mills House at night.
This is Charles and he is almost 2 years old. He was quite the explorer this morning during our photo shoot… He fed the koi fish, played with a bird’s nest, jumped in the sailboat and ran around the yard as his mom, grandmother and I all chased after him “ooh-ing” and “whoa-ing” and ringing cell phones all in an attempt to get him to look my way. I’m sure we were quite the scene!
Charles was a really good sport though and I loved photographing him. Here are a few of my favorites… Isn’t he the cutest?
On June 28, 2008, Lilla and John had a fantastically Southern wedding in Columbia, SC. I had met Lilla’s family a little over a year ago when I had photographed the wedding of close friends of their’s, John and Elizabeth Funderburk. I have found that word-of-mouth referrals are by far the most effective method of advertising, not to mention the fact that it makes me feel good when someone passes my name along!
Lilla is from Columbia, SC and John is from Juneau, Alaska and they met while at college at Stanford. There were guests that flew in from all over the US to enjoy the South in the summertime. Thank goodness there was AC piped into the reception tents!
The ceremony took place at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and the reception was held at the bride’s late grandmother’s house, a large Southern estate home full of history and family photos. You could feel that family is very important to both the bride and groom. Jebb helped me photograph the wedding and get around Columbia, as he’s a former USC guy.
Lilla and her bridesmaids got ready at her childhood home. Check out these stylin’ shoes! I love it!
This photo is destined to be used in Patrick, the ring bearer’s, slideshow one day when he gets married! Notice that he’s holding the Iron Horse Wedding Cuvee, from Sebastopol, CA.
Lilla arriving at the church, after the rain finally subsided.
Part of what made this wedding a particularly Southern affair was that the bride and her attendants all wore elbow length gloves. Now it’s ok to sip champagne in gloves, but no eating with them on.
I like this triptych of photos of Lilla with her dad moments before the ceremony.
John and Lilla tear it up on the dance floor!
And I think that this looks like a classic wedding photo from the 50′s with their stylish glasses on. Congrats you two!
For the 4th of July, I drove up to Denton, NC to hang out at “Camp Esposito”, as I’ve come to name it. I was with my sister and her family, along with her in-laws and a variety of relatives and friends. It was a 100% American experience, perfect for the 4th.
We were on Highrock Lake, which is still very undeveloped and reminded me of Lake Hickory where I grew up, (before the big houses and big money moved in). I kept finding myself singing “Summer Lovin’” from Grease and/or thinking about the film, Dirty Dancing- and making sure that nobody put baby in the corner. It really made me appreciate getting out of my own “busy” life and taking it down a notch to enjoy the little things, like watching my nieces catch butterflies and run silly around the yard, careening from one outrageously fun activity to the next. Their freedom was contagious and it made me want to relive my own childhood. I had a great time!
I went for a walk down the dirt road and saw this sign, so Southern!
Emma gets the water gun artillery organized for the 4th of July water war.
There was lots of blond hair blowing in the breeze as we rode on the lake.
I thought this picture just says “Summer”. I’ve been thinking a lot about painting recently and what I’d like to paint. I might have to start with this. It reminds me of Wayne Thiebaud, whose rich paintings of iconic pop images, such as a slice of cake, look good enough to eat.
This is my sister Audrey with her festive hat on.
When I look at this photo in December, I am going to long for Summer.
On Highrock Lake, there is a boat parade every year on the 4th. Every gets their boat decorated and comes out to parade around the lake. Water guns are optional.
Addie looking very grown up.
Janice has the most amazing garden, which she tends to as if they are her children. It’s a beautiful labor of love.
This summer, I’ve been to Wild Dunes, Edisto, Sullivans Island, Isle of Palms, and Fripp Island to photograph families on vacation. As much fun as it is for me to come out and spend an hour or so on the beach playing with kids and taking their photos, I am always a bit envious as they go back to their beach house and I have to go back to work. sigh…
But I am finally getting a little vacation for myself this summer and I am very excited. I’ll be out of the office for the rest of the week to enjoy the 4th of July. It falls on a great day this year and I can’t wait to eat watermelon and watch the fireworks. Enjoy your 4th!
