Woo Hoo!! 13 Years of Bliss!!

Wow, today is our 13 year anniversary!
Happy Anniversary!!

My wife Angel and I were Junior High School sweethearts that met when we were 13 years old! Those are some pictures from the past few years from friends weddings, Chuck E Cheese, the Mall’s photo booth, and a night at Metro downtown. We are just as schmoopy as we look in these photos (sometimes more so!) and thoroughly enjoy our lives with each other, we spent about 30 minutes last night laughing at Scare Tactics, America’s Funniest Home Videos, and my own silliness (don’t ask!). Looking back on the past 16 years, these have been the happiest of our lives!

I love you Sugarbear!

Michael

A busy weekend! (Justin Cash, do not scroll down!!!)

Wow, we had a busy weekend! A wedding on Saturday and Bridals in Altavista on Sunday.

First the wedding… I had been contacted by an associate of mine to photograph a wedding for a local school administrator. The bride and I spoke on the phone and discussed some general information, after agreeing that we could accomodate their needs I setup a meeting at their house (also the wedding location). Upon arrival I knocked on the door and was greeted by Kathy, after showing me to the dining room where we would meet Kathy turned to the stairs and beckoned, “Paul, Michael is here…”. I thought to myself “No, it couldn’t be, that would just be crazy” I had seen a truck in the driveway with a license plate that referred to volleyball, my old coach’s name is Paul, he’s a volleyball nut, nah… that would be a huge coincidence. “Coach Barrell!” I said as he came down the stairs! Sure enough, I was here to discuss the wedding of my Junior High PE/Health teacher who was also my Baseball Coach during that time. Not only that, but he was also coach and teacher to my two older siblings! What a small world! Well, Kathy put together a beautiful ceremony with readings, poems, song, a tribute, and personal vows. As I watched the ceremony unfold I could see that these two were perfect for each other! Well enough of my mindless blathering, here is their teaser image…

Kathy & Paul Teaser

We’ll see more from this wedding in the coming weeks.

Well, back to the busy weekend, we then traveled (on Sunday) to Altavista for a bridal session with Lauren who will be getting married in September of this year. The ceremony will be held at Avoca museum in Altavista, this Virginia Historic Landmark is an excellent example of 19th Century American Queen Anne architecture. We can’t wait for the wedding day to arrive, this place is wonderful! Lauren’s beauty definitely steals the show from this location hands down. We toured around both inside and out utilizing every area we could in the time we had. This image is using natural light in one of the living rooms of the house, while beautiful by itself, just wait until you see the rest!

Lauren's Bridal Teaser

A Bridal session with Janece…

Janece and Greg will be married in mid-August at First Presbyterian Church at the base of Mill Mountain. We photographed their engagement session a few weeks ago and got to know them during that time. We had a chance to get to know Janece during her bridals and we worked together to get some great images of this beautiful woman in a gorgeous dress. So after the E-Session with her and Greg, and then her bridal session, we will all feel like old friends when the wedding day get here which makes for relaxed images, genuine smiles, and overall a great time with some oustanding images! Well I won’t delay anymore, here is a sample image from her session…

janece bridal

We will also post some more from their E-session as well as more from the bridals as the big day approaches. Well, that’s all for now, we have a wedding on Saturday (a very cool couple to be working with might I add, I’ll explain more after the ceremony) and bridals on Sunday for Lauren who’s wedding we’ll be doing in the fall of this year.

-Michael

Dark and Scary anyone??

So I’ve been looking at images that I’ve already created trying to find an area of improvement… I was trying some new techniques and just kept going and going… While this is far from perfect (or finished) I liked the final image here (so far)and thought I’d share it with you…

Original
Winged Angel or Devil? (Before)

and After
Winged Angel or Devil? (After)

Oh yeah, by the way, this was from a photoshoot for Metropolished Model/Talent Agency that we did the other weekend, Kyle is an old friend making it big in Cali!

I left the camera at home…

I love fireworks!! Although as a youngster I had my time with bottle-rockets, firecrackers, saturn rockets, and roman candles, right now I’m talking about BIG displays… Like Roanoke Times’ display at River’s Edge. WOW!! Did you see it? It was amazing, this year’s display was by far the best I’ve ever seen from the Roanoke Times. Starting with a remarkable “low-flying” dispaly with showers of sparks, turrets of fast firing rockets, and lots of “ooohs” and “ahhhs”, followed up with a large, extremely colorful, well choreographed, big-bang, high shootin’, display.

Oh, by the way, I didn’t forget the camera, I left it at home. I had fun with my wife, son, and family enjoying the show, celebrating our freedoms, remembering those who protect it, and loving life. Next year we’ll have an army of cameras, tripods, and enthusiasts to capture the display…

Here’s a couple of images from a few years ago…