We always try to blog our 3 hour Elite senior portrait sessions (especially on location) and Alex and Alyssa proved to have some awesome visions for their senior portraits. Josh and I hopped on our motorcycles and cruised to a farm for Alex and Victorian House for Alyssa. It was so refreshing creatively for us to step into new locations we hadn't seen and capture these images for these young women full of personality. These images were so fun to edit, it is now 1:30am and I need to leave the studio! The people coming out of the bar upstairs are giving me weird looks... :) -Judd
Alex / Farm shoot session: FFA, Rachel and Nicole there to help close the cow pens, us shooting until the cows came over, me falling though the floor in the barn, little Henry tagging along, Josh testing fantastic light coming through the barn, and a shot with 86-year-old Nana on the front porch. What an awesome night, until Josh had his gloves slip off his motorcycle and we had to backtrack. :)
Alyssa / Victoria / Gothic / Edgy session: Nikki and Deb (the dynamic duo) there to assist, amazingly cool architecture, harsh shadows, video lights, and Alyssa with an amazingly cool and creative vision for her senior portraits. Hopping in the fountain "Friends" style with Nikki was fun at the end!
We can't keep up with portrait blog posts with the number of portrait sessions we're doing now in Stillwater, so just check our facebook page after your ordering meeting. Most of the facebook images are not retouched by master retoucher Josh yet, but feel free to tag yourselves!
Two beautiful venues for today's wedding of Joe and Amber. Amber did hair & makeup for our bridal fashion session a couple months ago, so it was fun to turn the camera on her! We've shot a couple hundred weddings now and think we've seen it all but we had THREE "firsts" with Amber and Joe: 1. Limo breakdown and subsequent jump start (video to come later), 2. Tornado Watch sent all guests to the basement of the Millennium hotel (we had a great view of the storm from the domed ceiling of the hotel! and 3. Groom Joe wiping out on the dance floor for both dollar dance and garter toss. :) I got to polka with Amber as well, not sure if that was a first...
The Church of St. Michael is a beautiful historic church in Stillwater, and the priest actually married Amber's parents, Amy and Steve. Usually during the message of the officiant I usually take a little break, charge batteries, kick my shoes off or something but something somewhat magical happened Saturday. Somebody comment with the guy's name - it was a guest preacher and he told this story about "true love" that had everyone on the edge of their seats:
(Abridged version) He was sitting in a park enjoying the summer day when along came an elderly man pushing his wife in a wheelchair. She was smiling as they passed by him on the bench. The man pushed his wife up very near to the swings, helped her out of the chair and gently onto the swing. When he gave her a gentle push her smile lit up even brighter. Then the man said to his wife, "Now get ready for the run-under!" and proceeded to 'run' along side the swing and push her even higher; both of them beaming. You could hear a pin drop in the church... what an amazing storyteller. He told Joe to always give Amber the "run-under." Awesome.
Remember when you were a kid on the swings and you started getting "in sync" with the person next to you and you called it "married" to that person? Funny but it's really true that as a couple you need to be on the same page otherwise it's pretty crazy trying to communicate, and I think we all can relate to that! Joe and Amber have been dating since 7th grade so they are pretty in sync. The guests were peppered with our portrait clients and models so we ended up staying late until the tornados passed. :) I'll post their video soon but here are some of our favorite images to start below. -Judd and Joe
Jon and Lisa were great! We had such a fun time. The weather was erratic to say the least, but we got to see some sun, some torrential rain and later a tornado warning. Jon has a friend that he brought to the wedding, but not a friend in the usual sense; Jon has a glass bunny. When asked about the bunny I discovered it used to be a conversation starter/ pick up line, and now he is a companion to special events - too funny, bunny. Right before the ceremony the sky opened up and let loose its fury. Usually this is not a problem, but Jon and Lisa were having an outdoor wedding. Luckily it stopped long enough for the bridal party and several others to towel off the chairs. The reception was fun too, and it got even better when the storms started up again and about 15 minutes after a tornado warning we lost power to the hotel. Some people might have been bummed out about the weather, but not Jon and Lisa. In fact, they put their rings together and became...the stupendous married duo! Thanks Jon and Lisa, you guys were a pleasure to work with!
My oh my what a day!! Things were off to a great start with the weather cooperating (almost) the entire day, which allowed for some great sky shots! This day featured a little bit of everything from being in a beautifully remodeled church (Saint Peters, North Saint Paul), hanging in the city (Saint Paul), to bars with gnomes everywhere (The Happy Gnome), to walking on stairs that played music when you stepped on them (Science Museum). The most memorable part of the day had to be when TJ (one of the groomsmen) was sitting at a table with people he had never met before at the Happy Gnome just shooting the breeze like he had known them the whole time and then proceeded to take a shot with them! Haha, thanks to Julie and Kevin for being such a great and outgoing couple to take pictures of, Chad and myself definitely felt like it was a sign of thing to come for those two!
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