Its time to catch up on albums that have arrived over the past – yeek – year or so.   While I won’t blog every album we have designed or received, I have been photographing the books that could help couples to better visualize the various styles and options we offer and how they can come together to make a unique keepsake.  We’re hoping this blog segment will be particularly helpful to our many long distance clients who are unable to come in and see our books up close and personal.

Though Shaena and Travis, who were married at Norfolk’s botanical gardens with a small and relaxed reception at the beach house where they honeymooned, celebrated a very untraditional wedding, they wanted a traditional style album with a creative twist.  The blues of the sky at the gardens and the hues of the ocean water at their reception inspired them to choose an elegant blue, woven silk cover for their Queensberry matted album.  In addition, we added silver pagemounts (fine art paper borders) to offset the photos, particularly the black and whites, and designed a few layouts with large images that spilled across the page to create a panoramic feel.

These photos show how the blue silk and black mats come together to make a traditional album with a contemporary feel.  The silk has a slightly warm, metallic sheen to it for a very subtle shimmer to compliment the silver pagemount:

One of the signature features of Queensberry is the vellum introduction page that lifts to reveal the opening photo beneath:

Here are a few of the design layouts to give an idea of what an album looks like in the design phase:

These photos show how the blue of the cover bounces off the colors within and brought the design layouts to life in 3 dimensions:

Stay tuned for more design ideas!

Posted by Mel @ 5:05 pm, in Albums, Weddings | No comments | Permalink

Baby Cannon surprised his parents by arriving a month before his estimated due date and the week after Christmas.  Born at 4 lbs, 6oz and measuring 17.5 inches long, he was tiny but strong.  We waited a few weeks to make sure Jill, Todd and Cannon were recovered from the emergency surgery and settled into a routine together before planning his newborn shoot.  Cannon is gaining weight steadily and is absolutely angelic!

Despite the early arrival, Cannon’s nursery is surprisingly complete and truly adorable- kudos to Jill on that one!  The cowboy theme is so fun, Jill commissioned an artist to paint the letters spelling out his name above the crib and had a seamstress create window treatments, pillows and closet curtains with vintage style rodeo fabric.  Sweet accents like the a stitched denim burp cloth, cowboy boot piggy bank and Hushabye Baby’s Johnny Cash CD make the room both functional and cozy.  Giddyup!

I loved watching both Jill and Todd cuddling up to their perfect son who slept peacefully through most of the shoot.  Every newborn shoot since Fiver’s birth brings me right back to the newness of parenthood – the days where you watch your baby’s tiny face like television, totally rivited, the days of disbelief that something, someone, so amazing came from you.

The family pup, Louis, ran protectively to Cannon’s defense whenever he cried and was game to get in on the family shots.

The painting in the background is of the Tuckahoe Plantation House where Jill and Todd were married last spring.  It made a sweet backdrop to these family photos.

We even got some shots while Cannon was awake and aware.  I am a sucker for baby yawns on film and I just love that spikey hair!

Here’s a slideshow with my favorites and click here to visit the online gallery.  It was such a pleasure to shoot for such a sweet little guy and his family, I can’t wait to see Cannon grow big and strong!

Posted by Mel @ 2:35 pm, in Newborns, Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink

The snow has been great but the Worthington family is taking off for sunnier weather and will return on Wednesday, February 17th.  We appreciate your patience with edits and print orders while we are gone and we look forward to sharing more photos here upon our return… Stay warm until then!

Posted by Mel @ 11:03 pm, in Personal | 1 comment | Permalink

Shooting for Baby Hadley was especially meaningful for me since Hadley was born just a week after our son.  It was awesome to document a baby the same age as our little guy at home and  I couldn’t help but see Sam, Fiver, Arbus and myself in the interactions of Brian, Hadley, Nala and Louise.  As similar as Hadley and Fiver are in some ways, they each have their own distinct personalities, even at the ripe young age of four months: something I hadn’t really realized or appreciated.

Don’t let her seemingly small size fool you, Hadley is crazy tall like her dad and performing all kinds of physical feats… she’s rolling over, eating rice cereal with gusto, and full of smiles.  I loved watching Louise soothe her daughter with lullabies and watching Brian make Hadley laugh, reminding me that each parent really does have a unique roll in their baby’s life.

We always tell Arbus that she has a “three lick limit” when it comes to the baby but its awfully hard to enforce when Arbus hasn’t learned to count to three yet.  Like Arbus, Nala likes to lick her comparatively hairless sibling every chance she gets.  Babies might be funny looking pack members in the eyes of our furry kids but they get lots of love regardless.

The nursery is a fresh shade of lime with purple accents and sweet details.  Brian painted the purple panels over the changing table and, at Louise’s suggestion, wrote a dedication to his daughter on the back of a panel the day she was born.  The funny part was that he signed it, “Love, Brian” and had to cross out his name and write “Dad”… “Dad” hadn’t quite sunk in yet!  I think I’m still taking in the concept of “Mom” in myself…

You just have to love this little Wahoo bum:

Check out this slideshow from the session and you can visit their online gallery by clicking here.  Just don’t break my kid’s heart when you guys hit high school years from now, OK, Hadley?

Posted by Mel @ 5:50 pm, in Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink