We have been ordering and receiving many albums over the past month and while the final count on our holiday orders isn’t in just yet I can say with certainty that its record breaking!  For those who have been patiently waiting for their design we thank you for hanging in there and for those who are still mulling over the choices, check these out…

We’re a little biased, Queensberry Duo albums are our favorite of the option thus far.  Classic matted pages highlight key photos and portraits while flush mount pages combine images in a way that tells a story while maximizing space.  We love it when our photos can be big and bold across a layout.

We also love the variety of cover options available through Queensberry.  Check out Sally Ann & Clint’s wedding album: their large format aluminum bound album fits their style while the 9×9 parents copy is a little more traditional.

Sally Ann & Clint chose to include wing and flip pages into their design, adding an interesting constructional element.  The closed flip of the procession opens into a panorama of the ceremony and I love how it turned out, I included a detail of the wing too:

Taking photos of the actual album helps to demonstrate some of the details you can’t see in the preview layouts.  Sally Ann & Clint chose ivory mats with an ivory page: the page being the paper the photo is mounted to once its been trimmed just enough to allow the color of the paper to peek out from underneath the window mat.  By choosing the same color between the matt and the page, a depth effect is created.  Here are a few more snapshots from the design layout:

Liz & Greg chose the same ivory mats and pages but went for a 14×10 book for a more panoramic feel.  Like SA&C, they went for a non-traditional cover and chose sand leather, matching the groom/smen’s khaki suits.  They also chose a quarter photo front cover which turned out really beautiful:

I love the design of Liz & Greg’s album, its one of my favorites.  They added a couple pages just to make sure that there was a good representation of both family portraits and the day’s events.  Check out some details and a few snapshots from the layout:

Stay tuned because there have lots more lovely albums to share!

Posted by Mel @ 6:04 pm, in Albums | 2 Comments | Permalink

Baby Madeline has gotten so big since our last shoot and she’s just as sweet and chill as her parents.  I met up with the Hutters at their home in Palmyra where we took photos around the neighborhood near the lake.  Maddie seemed to enjoy the beautiful fall day outdoors as much as we did.  And just before it was time to take a nap, we played in crib with the whole family including dogs Nikki and PB.

Maddie likes to give kisses and, although she hasn’t quite gotten the hang the facial mechanics yet, its sweet all the same.  She loves kissing Mommy…

Enjoy this super fun slideshow set to Jet’s Are You Gonna Be My Girl and if you would like to the session online, click here.  Enjoy these Rorie and Stuart and thanks so much for your hospitality, its always good to catch up with y’all!  

Posted by Mel @ 10:24 pm, in Portraits, Wee Ones | 3 Comments | Permalink

While Southern tradition dictates a bridal portrait should be taken before the wedding, with Jessica’s crazy spring schedule and our equally crazy spring schedule we just plum ran out of time!  The more we thought about it, the more a post-wedding bridal session seemed like a cool idea: not a trash the dress session per se but an opportunity to have a little more fun on the shoot.  And maybe another chance to get all dolled up in the dress too, why not extend the fun from May into October?  Here’s a link to Jessica and Hudson’s wedding on May 24th of this year in case you would like to reminisce.

We met up with Jessica at River’s Bend Ranch near Luray, Virginia to take the shots.  Jessica brought along a parasol from the wedding day, her bouquet and an additional and awesome accessory: cowboy boots!  We had a great time walking around the grounds, hanging with horses and on country roads, playing on fences and Jessica even humored me with a tractor shot.  Jessica is the most adorable model, I’m glad we waited because I don’t think we could have had that much fun in the dress before the wedding.  And you can ask her just to make sure but from the looks of it, I believe the dress survived us!

Congrats once again to Jessica and Hudson, we hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed taking them.  If you would like to see the whole session, click here.  Thanks once again to the folks at River’s Bend Ranch for welcoming us to shoot there, we hear that they do weddings so if you’re looking for a great farm-esque event location, be sure to check them out!

Posted by Mel @ 11:24 pm, in Bridals, Portraits | 1 comment | Permalink

Its impossible to gloss over last night’s historical and emotional events as Barack Obama became our President Elect.  This post isn’t intended to be political, gladly I don’t believe it has to be, I just don’t know if I’ve ever been so proud to be an American before and thought it might be all right to express hope for a future as a stronger, united, more respectable and compassionate nation under this new leadership.  ’Nuff said!

Posted by Mel @ 11:23 pm, in Personal | 2 Comments | Permalink