I photographed Kendra and Alex out in the suburbs of Philly in a circus gym. Alex is a gymnast, and Kendra is an aerialist who recently started working with Cirque De Soleil!

I love the documentary feel of the black and white portraits in the gym. They’re different from most engagement portraits I do, and that’s exciting to me. I love to change things up!

I’ll be photographing Kendra and Alex’s wedding later this year also!

 Catherine and Brian were married at the Pen Ryn Mansion in Bensalem, Pa. They had a winter wonderland theme for their January wedding. Despite the wintery windy day, Brian and Catherine agreed to pose for me outside for their portrait session and I’m so glad they did! I think Inna and I made some beautiful portraits of them, and you can’t tell that they’re freezing!

Brian actually plays the bagpipe in a full band that performed at the reception. And little did I know until the reception that Brian and Catherine and their friends are all Irish line dancers! They did some really fun synchronized dances that were so fun to watch.

Brian and Catherine, congratulations. Inna, Noah and I had a great time photographing your wedding.

Check out the trailer created by Noah Stoner here:

second shooter: the lovely and talented Inna Spivakova of Peach Plum Pear Photo.

I did a faux bridal portrait shoot with my good friends Melissa and Matt, who I dressed up to be a bride and a groom. If you’re thinking the couple doesn’t  seem to be madly in love, it’s because they’re not!  We had fun shooting in my backyard, on Septa, at the Diner on Broad and Ellsworth in South Philly, and in the restaurant XIX at the Bellevue in Center City Philadelphia. I like how these turned out. Maybe I’ll use one or two for some new business cards!

Melissa is wearing a vintage 50′s prom dress I bought on ebay for $75.

Her leather gloves were borrowed from my friend.

She made her veil the morning of the shoot out of some tulle.

I bought the yellow bouquet at Whole Foods the morning of the shoot.

Her pearl necklace is adorned with a leather shoe piece that fell off one of her shoes.

Matt’s suit is his own, and his pale yellow tie is Tommy Hilfiger, which I bought at Daffy’s!

2011 has been a break-through year for my business. I have really gotten more organized and focused and I’m so proud of what I accomplished this year. I want to thank my good friend Eleanor, the bride in the photo with the red background, an illustrator and the designer of this website, who works for herself and has been such an impressive example to me of hard work and discipline in running her own business. She encouraged me so much this year and helped me beleive in myself.

I know some of those sentences sound cliche, but they come from my heart!

For me, it has felt like the ultimate freedom to be my own boss. I’m so grateful for all I’ve learned this year and I anticipate an even more successful 2012!

Cheers!

I am blown away by how these girls could contort their bodies- so graceful and beautiful! And I am in love with Niff’s yellow feather head piece. I want one!

Eleanor and Peter were married on a stormy day in October. I photographed them in a diner on their wedding day, but we did a follow up shoot yesterday, December 9th on a beautiful day here in Philly. We went out to West Philly and I photographed them in front of the super cool love letter murals designed by Steve Powers. I adore these murals! A series has just been created in Brooklyn as well.

I also photographed them in front of their South Philly home and on their roof together. It was fun hearing congratulations and cars beeping since they had their wedding garb on. I love shooting bride and groom portraits on a non-wedding day. It feels more low key and relaxed!

Bride portraits of Eleanor to come tomorrow!

Stephanie and Brian met at a record store a few years ago. I love how they incorporated this record theme into their reception decor.

Congratulations Stephanie and Brian. It was a pleasure to photograph the two of you on your special day.

The strange hail and snow that greeted us all on Eleanor and Peter’s wedding day didn’t keep us from having  a great time doing photos. I photographed Eleanor, a good friend of mine, and her fiance Peter at The Melrose Diner here in our South Philly neighborhood for their alone session, and I’m charmed at how the shots turned out!

As a wedding photographer I really used to fear bad weather that would force me to use flash all day, but I’m getting quite comfortable with fun indoor locations and my new, trusty Canon 580 ex flash!

Eleanor and Peter met about 7 years ago at 7/11 where they were getting free slurpies on July 11th. I met Eleanor about 3 years ago at a bar through some mutual friends. Since then we’ve been good friends and I even lived with the two of them last year for a while. Eleanor actually created my logo and this website for me, and help her with all of her photographer needs! Check out her work at www.justeleanor.com

A few highlights from the reception- Eleanor and her father performed a song together called ‘My Darling Daughter’ with her father singing in a high pitched girly voice, and Eleanor singing her parts in a low pitched fatherly voice. It was totally entertaining and endearing! Eleanor’s brother Eoin gave a powerpoint presentation about Eleanor and Peter’s relationship complete with photos and a chart forecasting Eleanor and Peter’s growing love over the years. Another highlight was right after the cake cutting, Eleanor went on to feed wedding cake to lots of guests with her fork! Cute!

Congratulations Eleanor and Peter!

wedding dress- David’ Bridal

paper flower bouquet – http://www.etsy.com/shop/AccentsandPetals

bridal headband- http://www.etsy.com/shop/woomi

groomsuit brand- Men’s Wearhouse

bride’s shoes- Steve Madden

bride’s earrings- Anthropologie

hair and make up – styled by friend, Niff Nichols

ceremony location- St.Rita of Cascia Shrine South Philly

reception venue- The German Society

wedding cake- Van Earl’s Cakes

catering- A Full Plate

music/dj- Robert Botto

videographer- Noah Stoner www.stonermedia.net

My photos of this wedding are coming soon! For now, here is the short film created by the one-and-only, incredibly talented Noah Stoner of Stonermedia.