Trying to tie up a bunch of loose ends this week before I head out for the holidays, so forgive my unusual lack of long introductions. ;)  Here’s a quick glimpse into Raleigh’s 2011 Winterfest that I was kindly asked to photograph by my friends at the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. :) It was a beautiful evening! It was sad to see Mayor Meeker light the tree for the last time, but we welcome in Raleigh’s new mayor, Nancy McFarlane, with open arms. :)

Contracted out by the Downtown Raleigh Alliance to photograph their very successful Taste of Restaurant event at the Farmer’s Market last week! There was a huge turnout and lots of tasty samples were enjoyed by all. :) Stop by and visit the Farmer’s Market every Wednesday from 10am-2pm in City Plaza. There are lots of great people, great products, and great food!

This project was so much fun and I was so glad to be asked on board. :) All 4 Paws, a new animal hospital that recently opened in Apex, NC, found my website while searching for pet photographers in the Raleigh area from whom they could get some artwork on their walls. This later turned into me taking photographs of their office space with the help of some furry friends. ;) Dr. Jerauld and Dr. Dorsett are wonderful to work with and their new practice is beautiful! It’s a very bright and cheerful space with a happy look to it. Special thanks to all the staff and the human and animal models. No furballs were harmed in the making of these photos. ;)

Congratulations on your opening, Dr. J+D! We wish you the best of luck and success in the coming years!

Photographed the ladies luncheon for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance at Marbles last week! It was a pleasure, as always, to be among the immense talent of women in downtown Raleigh. This year’s theme was Women in Downtown Raleigh: Inspirations in Music and the Arts, and here are a few select photos of the day.

Moderator: Angela Hampton, Anchor for ABC11, WTVD Raleigh

Panelists:

- Sue McKeon – VP/Marketing and Audience Development, NC Symphony

- Lisa Grele Barrie – President and CEO, NC Theatre

- Sarah Powers – Executive Director, Visual Art Exchange

Performers:

- Leigh Stringfellow, Harpist

- Sandra Dubose-Gibson, 2011 Mrs. Black North Carolina, Dubose Entertainment

Last Wednesday was a  beautiful day for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance and co. to put on the first Farmer’s Market of the year in City Plaza! I was there to photograph the event for them and had a great time, as usual. :) So many great vendors and people there! It’s held every Wednesday from 10am-2pm in City Plaza through October. The vendors come from all over North Carolina and not only have vegetables and fruit, but also fish, flowers, jewelry, crafts, cookies and cakes. :) Check it out!

Mayor Meeker ringing the Farmer’s Market opening bell of the year. The mayor recently announced that he will not be running for re-election, which made me pretty sad as I’ve been photographing him in various locations doing all sorts of things for a while now. He’s always polite, kind, and has done incredible things for the city of Raleigh.

Shaw University was holding an awards ceremony for its athletes which had to be held inside the Marriot lobby due to the brief rain we experienced. Shaw University was badly damaged during the tornadoes a few weeks ago, with them having to cancel classes for the rest of the year and their student union destroyed. They are holding strong and receiving donations from the community to help rebuild, with this ceremony discussing their hopes and plans for the future.

Guys, these are cupcakes!! Adorable cupcakes! Tammy Calaway of Sweet-T cakery made these little guys in honor of opening day at the market. And if I could eat gluten, I’d totally have eaten like ten of these. The peas in the pod are my favorite.

I was so so excited when I received the invitation to photograph the Downtown Raleigh Alliance Annual Meeting and Award Ceremony. :) This year’s theme was Breaking Ground with the Creative Class and focused on bringing entrepreneurs and creative visionaries into downtown. Not that they’re not there already – downtown Raleigh is one of the most artsy, beautiful cities I’ve been in with very few chain anything, relying more on indie restaurants, shops, and boutiques that bring back their regulars again and again. Nonetheless, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, which sponsors downtown activities such as Winterfest, the downtown Farmer’s Market, First Friday, and other fantastic events centered their annual meeting around Raleigh’s business owners and drawing more people to live and work downtown.

It was held at the Raleigh Convention Center which is a really modern and stunning venue. The decor was awesome (sequined purple tablecloths? yes, please!) and I had the opportunity to photograph Carol Colleta, President of CEOs for Cities. She was the guest speaker that evening, being interviewed round-table discussion style by Steve Daniels of ABC Channel 11 News.

What was extra special cool about this evening for me was seeing the Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s Annual Report, a printed booklet summary of all the awesome things the DRA  and Raleigh has accomplished in the past year. This year I was happy to find out see that the front cover, as well as a ton of pictures inside the Annual Report, were taken by yours truly. :) It never gets old to see your work in print, and I was very proud and thankful for the DRA for all the opportunities they gave me in 2010.

I love love love client reunions! It’s so great seeing clients after their wedding, and even better to continue shooting for them. Last week I had the awesome experience of photographing my past clients’ new business in Durham, NC! Dr. Dice and Dr. Nall (you might better know them as Cortney and James) have a beautiful office in Durham where they specialize in chiropractic services with a positive healing approach. Dr. Dice’s father has his own chiropractic business in Pittsburgh, PA as well! They’re all an adorable family of chiros and I was so happy to see them again! We did some office shots, some head shots, and some couple shots. Enjoy their office’s awesomeness! And if you’re ever in need of a chiropractor, please visit their website.

I had the opportunity to photograph the events of Friday evening at the 2011 NHL All-Star Wide Open in Raleigh, NC for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance! It was packed and chock-full of goodness and eccentricities. Best of all, it was full of a lot of Pittsburgh fans. ;) Kids and adults alike sporting Pens jerseys. Even the buildings downtown had big posters of Crosby. I’m not a big hockey fan, but I do love the hometown so it was nice to see. :) And Raleigh, my second hometown, is such a genuinely beautiful city. I always adore photographing down there at night.

Ms. Deborah Morgan and I meet again! I had the opportunity to photography and meet the WRAL anchor through the DRA last year. She’s such a nice lady!

Below: Representin’ the ‘Burgh in the south commercially…

And representin’ the ‘Burgh in the south with fashion. You go, kid!

Shot down Fayetteville St. of the Capitol Building in Raleigh. Raleigh does a lot of awesome things here throughout the year where they shut down Fayetteville and surrounding streets to cars in order to have festivals, markets, and other activities.

So this is where things get creepy. Before now there was a cupcake eating contest, people were ice skating and watching WRAL’s broadcast, just generally hanging out and exploring the city. I’m not quite sure when and how this happened, all I know is that the Carolina Roller girls came out with some sort of drumline behind them… followed by GIANT PUPPETS. And I mean giant. They were huge. People were holding said giant puppets, others were in them and on stilts. Still others just had on giant puppet heads and were walking around.

Woah. This is all getting very Pan’s Labyrinth here.

Giant scary monster puppet on stilts… bringing down her wrath on this innocent videographer.

…And before you knew it, it was back to your regular programming. Ice hockey, everyone!

Local cheerleaders from the high schools held a pep rally and I was super fond of this Jaguar. Giant animal mascots crack me up – especially when they’re stuck in a perpetual roar.

Goodnight, Raleigh!

i’ve happily shot for the downtown raleigh alliance a lot this year and was very excited to document the first day of their shop downtown campaign for them (second one is on the 11th! make sure to check it out). the DRA, partnering with local businesses, brought shoppers downtown to explore the world of free parking, major discounts at the shops and boutiques downtown, christmas carolers, and free tastings from a bunch of the tasty local restaurants. i was excited to get to go inside a bunch of my favorite stores and photograph them, while geoff was happy to come along and pick up the free food. ;) here are some faves of the day (including one i got of mayor meeker shopping in stitch – BONUS POINTS!):

ahhhh office parties. who doesn’t love them? it brings to mind that seinfeld episode where elaine’s boyfriend fell off the wagon and they hid under the desk like it was cape fear. :)

sportsmedia, or SMT, celebrated its 20th anniversary last week by hosting a casino night. geoff works at sportsmedia (they make the yellow lines and scoring for sunday night football, xgames, NBA TV, MLB network, etc), and i was photographing the evening’s event for his office. it was a pretty cool idea for an office party! they rented tuxedos for all the guys that work there and hired a party company to come set up and deal casino games. the more “money” you won, the more times your name went into a drawing to win one of three ipads. it was neat!

geoff gambling… he ended with a little over $59,000! that would’ve more than paid for our wedding, honeymoon, and a down payment on a house….if it wasn’t monopoly money. :(

the owner of SMT and a few of the workers have a band (augmented reality) and they played at the end of the night. gotta love guitar shots!

the owner’s mom was there being adorable and gambling with the best of them!

as she was about to pull the final raffle winner out of the bowl she said, “watch, i bet i’ll pull my name!” and sure enough, she did!

our friend travis, modeling how suspenders are perfect for doing that old-timey-thumb-holding-suspenders-thing.

i photographed my second farmer’s market for the downtown raleigh alliance recently, but this time the toyota farm-to-table tour was present! toyota picked a handful of farmer’s markets across the country and organized various local chefs and farmers, paired them together, and had the chefs create dishes based on the ingredients from the local farmers. they then handed out free samples (yum!) while attendees had the opportunity to test drive a prius and receive free cutting boards from toyota. :) it was pretty awesome that they chose raleigh for one of their stops!

the kids made vegetable puppets after the veggie puppet show and it was just about the cutest thing i’ve ever seen. who doesn’t want to put googly eyes and straw hats on vegetables?!

this was one of the chefs from the busy bee cafe preparing some of the samples. diggin’ his salt tattoo on his left arm. paired with his picture is the samples of yellow tomato soup that the mint handed out.

also – don’t worry. most conferences with our mayor don’t end up like this. i think.

the band american aquarium played at this farmers market and was awesome. i already liked them, but then they did a cover of thunder road and i was totally won over.

farmer’s market ends at the end of october for the year, so make sure if you’re out and about on a wednesday downtown that you stop by and visit them!

i love shooting for the downtown raleigh alliance! they’re a great group of people who do awesome work for the city. last week i shot grazefest 2010 for them, a special event happening at the raleigh downtown farmers market. this amped up their weekly farmers market (every wednesday from 10am-2pm) to include an ice cream eating contest, local music by the old habits, and an “eggstravaganza” egg race for the kids. it was good times! i met a lot of awesome and interesting people selling everything from fresh flowers, fruit, and veggies, to shirts, earrings, and cupcakes shaped like farm animals. :) i highly recommend going down on a wednesday to check it out!

i had the pleasure of photographing the ladies luncheon for the downtown raleigh alliance a few days ago at marbles kids museum. it was such a fantastic experience! there were approximately 200 women in attendance, all business owners, ceos, presidents, and other successful women in business in raleigh. how awesome is that?! the ladies had a great time exchanging business cards and information, having lunch, and listening to the panel of 3 powerful raleigh women discuss raleigh’s past, present, and future.

and folks, i just can’t get enough of marbles. someone please have your wedding there. there are just too many fantastic photographic opportunities.

the moderator for the afternoon was WRAL’s debra morgan, who was an absolute pleasure to meet along with the panelists and every other lady there, really. everyone was so fantastic!

representing downtown raleigh’s past was katherine peele – VP, Managing Principal, LS3P Architects:

representing downtown raleigh’s present was jill heath – President & CEO, Mulkey Engineers & Consultants…along w/ a picture of all the business attire donated to up-and-coming women in raleigh:

representing downtown raleigh’s future was rita anita linger – President, Southeast Raleigh Assembly (SERA):

thank you to all the women who came and made it a success! i had a great time sponsoring the luncheon and having the opportunity to meet so many wonderful women downtown!

so a little over a week ago geoff and i had an event that we shot for con-way freight out of ann arbor, michigan at the angus barn in raleigh. the people were outstanding and we had a wonderful time, not to mention ate wonderful food! although i’m known to have a thing for any type of pasta, i decided that i had to have filet mignon since i was at a renown steakhouse instead of, say, their cheese ravioli. the steak was wonderful! we ended up with a lot of wonderful shots of the great con-way freight crew and the beautiful angus barn (pictured below):

this was the cake that the crew got the angus barn to give to their boss…it was going to be his birthday in a few days. awesome!

i’ve been super busy with clients lately and getting things figured out with my canon (a few pixels are dead and i’m going to have to return it)… also, my friend is coming in from out of town this weekend, so i’ll probably be updating next on monday…maybe in between if i get a chance. :) have a great weekend!

here’s to you… up late… sitting on your couch watching, well, whatever is on wednesday nights. i am here to satisfy your late night munchies. that is, of course, assuming that by “late night munchies” you mean “strong craving for lots of heavy german food.”

i don’t have a “commercial” section on my portfolio page because i simply don’t do commercial stuff that often. so i’ll be posting the stuff from the bavarian brathaus in my blog for the next couple of days. and you know, for all of the talk about how german food looks unappetizing, their chef does a fantastic job of making everything look spectacular. hats off to that guy.

and what’s the fun in eating german food without a little drinking?

super place – more to come in the next few days.

-carolyn