Gettysburg in winter

Last month I spent the better part of two days in Gettysburg, PA doing an installation and training for a client (for my full time job). Upon leaving the first day to head back to Leesburg, the sun was setting as I drove past the battlefield. I'd not actually been through the battlefields in many, many years, and since it was pretty much deserted I thought this would be the ideal time. I didn't have my camera with me, but I think I put my iPhone to pretty good effect!

Key West Wedding: Portraits

I wrote a post here earlier this month showing some photos I took at a very good friend's wedding in Key West. (Side note: thank you all for making that post the second highest viewed of all time!). In addition to the photos I took with my phone, I was able to take some "real" portraits of the bride and groom as I drove them around Key West. These were all taken at the Key West wildlife refuge - such a novel and lovely place to take wedding photos, and so fitting for the two of them!

Note: I was NOT the wedding photographer for this wedding; he was amazing, and posing all of these shots. I was simply fortunate enough to grab some of my own from the side! 

Key West Wedding

Just before the end of 2013, I flew to Key West to be in the wedding of my good friend Amy. I've known her now for almost 17 years (that seems impossible!), and was honored to be a part of her day. Key West was lovely, she was beautiful, and the wedding was so much fun. Being IN the wedding, I couldn't take as many photos as I wanted, and because I couldn't carry around my DSLR all of these photos were taken with my iPhone, using the Camera+ app. But we know that any good photographer makes due with what she has, right?

Let me also start this post by saying that their wedding photographer, David Champagne, is amazing. Please check out his website and his facebook page - he does amazing work, and was such a wonderful guy. It was really great to see him work, and learn some from him! He's posted their first sneak peeks as well. I stayed out of his way, and felt fortunate to get a few shots of my own.

When we got to Amy's mom's house to get ready that morning, he had placed her dress in this door for photos. Could you have asked for a better location or light?!

Autumn in Vermont: Part 3

For the final part of my photo excursion in Vermont, I headed into the local town of Waitsfield. The (nearly) duplicate photos I took there begged for different edits, evoking different feels for the same view.

 

Autumn in Vermont: Part 2

These photos were taken after the ones I posted in Vermont: Part 1. This lovely river (the Mad River) wound its way through the area where we were staying, and made for beautiful landscape photography.

Autumn in Vermont: Part 1

When in Vermont for my brother-in-law's wedding, we had some time to kill on Friday before the rehearsal dinner. Given the beautiful autumn foliage everywhere, I really wanted to get out and take some photos. So we drove around the nearby town and I had the opportunity to capture these shots. The first is of the oldest covered bridge in Vermont.

Vermont Wedding: Rehearsal

One month ago, we traveled to Vermont for my brother-in-law's wedding. Not only was I a guest, but I was also asked to be the "unofficial" official photographer for their rehearsal and for the morning before the wedding, to document the bride and groom getting ready. I haven't done much wedding photography (with the only foray being this New Year's Eve wedding I photographed last year for a good family friend. Because this was family, I really wanted to get everything right  for them!

The wedding (and therefore, rehearsal) took place in a small but beautiful old church.

I wanted to gather some shots of the bride and groom without getting in the way during the rehearsal. It wasn't easy in the space and with the lighting, but I did my best!

The maid of honor, the bride, the groom, and the best man.

A day in Richmond

About a month ago I spent a couple of days in Richmond for work. I had some time one afternoon between appointments, and found myself in the downtown area, so I headed over to Maymont Park, as I hadn't been there in a very long time. I actually did not go where I had intended to, but instead found a lovely man-made lake with this beauty sitting in the middle. Time for the 70-300mm lens!

NJ Grounds for Sculpture

In August, I took a trip to NJ and had time in my schedule to visit the New Jersey Grounds for Sculpture. I'd heard about this place from a fellow photographer I met on a Facebook group, and was excited to have a chance to go and shoot. Unfortunately, I did not have my DSLR with me, but good photography isn't about the gear, it's about the eye, right?

The first thing I encountered was this sculpture of American Gothic. It was about 2.5 times taller than life size

Beauty at Monticello

On the last Friday in April I spent the day at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home) with my family. I posted kid/family photos on my other blog, but wanted to highlight the beautiful springtime shots I got here.

This one is currently my cover photo on my Facebook page, and was also my submission for "Signs of Spring" for the Weekly Photo Project two weeks ago. I absolutely love this photo!

Paris: Notre Dame

Continuing from my previous post...

We made our way to Notre Dame, as it's one of the places Evan was very excited to see (again).

Paris: Seine and Saint Chappelle

We arrived in Paris a week ago Monday, much later than planned but ready to hit the city after freshening up at our hotel. Since we'd each gotten a maximum of about 4 hours of sleep on the plane, we didn't have anything planned for the day beyond walking across the Seine to the Ile de Citie to visit Notre Dame and Saint Chappelle, both on the island. Just walking through Paris you see the most beautiful buildings.

And I'm off!

Tomorrow evening at this time, I will be on a plane over the Atlantic Ocean headed to Paris for a week. My husband and I had always talked about going to Paris (or possibly London & Paris) for our 10th anniversary, and somehow, despite many possible impediments, it's happening! Even better, we're going with two of our favorite people on earth, good friends of ours who are also celebrating their 10th anniversary this year (we got married within 3 weeks of each other; she and I were in each other's wedding).

I'm excited for so many things about this trip, but one of the most exciting things will be the photography opportunities! I can't wait to share photos here with everyone. I think I have all of my gear packed; most everything is in my new camera bag (from jototes.com) - I am in love with this bag! It doesn't even look like a camera bag from the outside, which is helpful as I've been told by so many people about the high risk of pick pockets/crime in Paris, so I'm glad to have something that would be difficult to steal (assuming I'm keeping it across my body, as planned).

WPP: March 10-17

The theme for this week is "Bridges". I had a few photos from some recent photo expeditions that I were possibilities, but I knew that my ideal photo would be from our trip to Australia in 2009. We spent a couple of days in Sydney, and I have many photos of the Sydney Harbor Bridge (along with the Sydney Opera House, Zoo, and the rest of that beautiful harbor!). Sadly, I had a simple Canon point-and-shoot at the time, so my photos are nowhere near the quality that I like to have now, but despite that I'm still very happy with this photo, and thus it was my submission for the week.

Taken near sunset, April 2009.

Rivers at Sunset

I previously posted a few photos I took on a trip to NJ/Philadelphia in January. In addition to this beautiful hanging art installation, I also had the pleasure to driving past two rivers as sunset neared and taking some lovely shots. The first three are of the Raritan River in New Brunswick, NJ.

Hanging art

Last week I traveled for work to Philadelphia, and despite the cold was lucky to have some beautiful weather in which to do so (unlike what we're seeing outside today!). I'm always on the look out whenever I go somewhere different for interesting photo opportunities; unfortunately often they occur while I'm driving solo and don't have a chance to stop and get out of the car to make the shot. Fortunately this opportunity presented while I was in the client's building, and lighting was good enough that my iPhone was sufficient to capture this beautiful hanging art display.

Photography lesson in Charlottesville

About 3 weeks ago I spent two days in Charlottesville, VA - the weather was stunningly beautiful while there, and I took my camera with me in hopes of being able to get some photos taken. Luckily I was able to shoot at both UVA and on the Downtown Mall.

Enchanted Forest

While in Wageningen, NL we stayed at the hotel pictured below - the Nol in't Bosch. The decorations inside were very pseudo-Victorian, but not where it mattered (e.g. bathrooms, which were quite modern). I didn't get many photos of the inside, but managed to get a couple of neat shots of the outside.

Canals in Amsterdam

I posted previously on my family blog a few photos from my two days in Amsterdam, and some explanations  for the places we went are there. I thought here I'd just show my favorite photos of the canals in Amsterdam (and a few other sites)...enjoy!

Toronto at night

Can I say how nice it is to have a camera that can take photographs at night without a flash? I love it so much! It's really letting me take advantage of situations where I would not have been able to get good photos before. Case in point: about 3 weeks ago I went to Toronto for a conference for work. I already posted a number of photos from my trip on my family blog, but I wanted to highlight my night time photography here.