Ok so lets back up, my brother got married in March. I would have told you all about it, but I didn’t have the blog then so I will fill you in now. He had his wedding in Vegas of all places. Which for me would have been a rock’n blast of a good time except, that I had Keaton, and he was only 9 months old. I didn’t want to leave him for the first time and be far away from him for so long. So we did the unthinkable and took our kid to Vegas! This is how it feels to try to get a baby thought the airport.
I know the clip below doesn’t work but I put in the link to it anyway. Because this is what every man should do for his wife, if they have to take a baby on a plane.
http://www.trailercodes.com/tv/up-all-night–travel-day/handling-it-like-a-champ
Vegas was great I really enjoyed Keaton waking up at 4am and falling asleep at 4pm. We touted him every where in pj’s, because of the time difference for us. It was kinda crazy, it felt like that scene in Sweet Home Alabama, where she says, “you have a baby.. in a bar”. Because all of Vegas feels like a bar, well most of it. Anyway, my brother Lee and his wife Amy ended up having to get married inside, because of a dust storm, yes really. I told you if there is craziness to be had it will find me, I am just a magnet like that. The day after the wedding Duane, Keaton & I were all sick as dogs throwing up and everything it was horrible. My mom got us all sick! Duane literally puked, then went to the store for Pedialite and I honestly don’t know how he made it back. I’m pretty sure he threw a $20 to the bell hop to bring up the groceries while he ran to the room. We were fine in two days, but the little man was sick for 5 days! It was awful we had to fly back home with a sick little baby. Man flying with a kid sucks, sometimes. To all of you with two or more kids you guys are my heroes. So, my brothers wedding was more than just a great time lol.
Lee and Amy missed out on a lot of outside pictures due to the dust storm so they wanted to do a kind of trash the dress/ bridal portraits kinda thing. So since I absolutely adore my sister in-law, she really is a blast, I agreed. Thank God my brother married her really, cause she’s the only one he’s dated that we all liked. We where probably more like if you don’t marry this girl we will harass you about it to the ends of the earth. So they decided they wanted to go to Maymont Estate in Richmond, VA which I had never been to before but was gorgeous, even in November. It was a little bit of a drive for us but, a sure thing for location shooting, love it! We get there, change her into her dress and were walking down the stairs and heard a little girl say to her parents, “mommy look its a princess, you’re a princess”. It was so cute. Hey who doesn’t want to be a princess for more than just your wedding day. I think you should get to wear a wedding dress for every anniversary, just saying! However if you’ve ever done one of these sessions you know that people stare, say weird things, and take pictures. I never understood why someone would want a picture of someone they don’t know all dressed up, weird! People congratulated them and my brother would throw out “we’ve been married for 8 months, but thanks anyway!”. I told you we are pretty random 🙂 It was a great time though.
We actually kicked some people out from under this beautiful yellow tree, I think they were picking up nuts or something. It’s November and there aren’t too many trees that still had leaves on them, so we got so lucky that they had this beautiful tree. It adds almost a fall feel to the pictures even though that day felt a whole lot more like winter. 
This image below is soo my brother! Photographing family is probably one of the hardest things, and with my brother it’s that and comedy. Here is him ignoring a kiss from his wife and making some crazy comment to me.
I do love this one though with the branches of the tree hanging down.
I love this series of three, sorry I would have put them (and a lot more of them) into storyboards but, alas I am on vacation without Photoshop. Omg yes it happens lol.
This one below was taken in the Italian garden under the pergola.
I really enjoyed this park not only because of the beautiful scenery, but because of the cozy corners and layers of shooting locations. Some parks you go to are entirely flat. This can make it difficult to shoot a whole session without all the images looking too similar like you didn’t really “go” anywhere. We went down the steps and came to this stone balcony area. Areas like these are what add to a locations charm for a photographer.These are the stairs to the Japanese gardens. I just love that you could shoot here every day for a month and still come up with so may different images and ways to use the architectural elements that they have put into this location.
Below are the Japanese Garden. When you’re facing the other way you have a huge water fountain that would look like it’s behind them. However, it was shut off because it was November. Instead of water there was mostly mud so shooting at this angle was soo much better. I did have to stand back a little ways which can be comical when you yell out directions like Kiss and everyone stares at you and laughs or starts kissing people which ever! You can’t be responsible to other random people kissing lol.
I love this one. I know she’s not looking, but it was one of those moments where my brother said something stupid and she was laughing at him. Did I mention we like her 🙂
After that I figured I would have her lay her head on his shoulder, cause well he’s short and she was on a lower incline of the bridge than him.
This is where little things make all the difference, we go from her trying not to laugh out loud at my crazy brother to…
letting him get the best of her and laughing at his ridiculousness.
This is soo my brother! I can just see what he’s thinking…uh hum, yea you think I’m awesome, sure sure Chrissy, what I wasn’t really paying attention, just sitting her being awesome!
This is one of the biggest reasons we came to Maymont, the Japanese water garden. Luckey the water stones are fairly big, because I was a little worried I might fall off into the water and get eaten by koi fish. I also had to explain to Lee how to sit like a girl so that he could fit behind Amy without knocking her off, because the stones are not connected to each other.
I did have them get up half way though so we could let gawkers though. Although people can be very rude, because while we were waiting for them to pass, their tween age children decided to stand there and poke the fish with bamboo that they had pulled out of the ground in another sections. I asked them to leave (apparently you can do that when you pay the park $50 for a photo pass here, which we did!) so I did. I told them, “look we only have so much light with the sun going down and we are waiting for you to pass and I’m sure the fish don’t approve of you trying to spear them. Too harsh? I donno I just get frustrated when kids purposely are trying to harass animals, it just bugs me.
This is Lee pointing at all the gawlkers that had assembled after I yelled at the kids in a little hut that overlooked the little lake.
Another fall looking bonus were these trees, don’t they kind of give it a fall feel. We walked though this area a little bit and then decided to turn back. It was a decently long walk back, and it was getting way too cold with the sun going down, but also the best time to shoot. So of course we did some shots here and every other place on the way back randomly. What are your favorite tricks for working with couples in the cold? I was surprised how warm all of us stayed for most of the trip, I think it had to do with all the walking.
These are at the top of the stairs, at the bottom of the Italian gardens.
This one would be perfect as a timeline cover for Amy, right guys, just saying lol.
So remember I said I made them stop randomly all the way back? Well they looked at me like I was crazy, but I really loved this tree.
They though this was a funny set up, but people don’t realize how some poses are fun and then lead into really sweet ones. I like this one, it’s playful, like honey I am going to choke you if you don’t stop horsing around.
Then led into this really adorable one of them.
So here is just the bride herself. I really did laugh when she told me what my brother said after their session. He said ” you know I know it’s all about the bride and all, but you know she didn’t even take any pictures of me by myself”. Which is true, but only because I honestly didn’t think I could get a straight face out of him. That, and when I would give him direction he would just make me laugh. He wouldn’t stand there stiff, but more like a sloth or a teenager that’s like um when is my close up? Amy made me laugh and said he’s just being vain. I told her that her pictures would be great if his face wasn’t in them and she suggested I put one of those Yuck stickers over his face lol. I told her I would be happy to do that for their Christmas card.
This was one of the last pictures and I just love a genuine smile. Congratulations to my brother on his marriage, It really makes me so happy to see him with someone who loves and respects him and can harass him just as well as anyone else in the family. And a huge thank you to Amy for picking my brother and putting up with him. We all love you and can’t believe how lucky we are that you found him and we get to keep you as part of our family! Love you guys!Ps… um Merry Christmas Lee & Amy lol ha, ha, I love you guys!
