April 25, 2011

Raleigh Engagement Photographer in Charlotte: Sarah+Jimmy

We had all sorts of good times in Charlotte! This is Sarah and Jimmy, the second Charlotte couple we had the fantastic good luck of booking this year. :) They too live in Charlotte but are getting married in Asheville, and I was too excited to meet them. Sarah and I had talked over the phone and got along great, but it’s always nice to put a face to a voice. And, of course, to meet Jimmy – her other half. These guys are two peas in an adorable outdoorsy pod! Jimmy is a rock climbing instructor (neat!) and Sarah teaches Algebra 2 (yay teachers!).

They both love spending time outdoors and are in a transient phase of life (both are from Georgia, living in Charlotte, and possibly moving on shortly to the northeast), so we wanted their pictures to focus on them, their love for each other, and their love for the outdoors. Sarah suggested Freedom Park which, although located nearly in uptown Charlotte, is an awesome outdoorsy oasis! We took the pictures pretty early when we’d still have great light and, despite Jimmy, Geoff, and I yawning a whole heck of a lot, we had a great time and the pictures came out fabulous! Having a couple as cute as them makes it easy, though. :)

It doesn’t get much more outdoorsy than this! I read somewhere that Charlotte is the #1 worst city in the US for springtime allergies, and I believe it. :)

These suspension bridges reminded me of Costa Rica… only not as fundamentally unstable.

Freedom Park engagement session Charlotte NC

So I found this giant boulder thing in the middle of the park and wanted to use it because it had some funky light going on that I wanted to work with. It seemed like a really easy spot to sit on, but it turns out that it’s really smooth and Sarah just continually slipped off.

Sarah: I’m slipping off!

Carolyn: Jimmy, can you hold Sarah up? There… that doesn’t look too awkward. :P

Sometimes you just have to go with it. :) Sometimes it works! Sometimes it doesn’t. But I liked this lighting and color too much to give it up!

My faaavorite of the day. :) You just can’t go wrong with a chain link fence and some awesome ivy and people as adorable as them!

We hope you love these, Sarah+Jimmy! We are so looking forward to joining you in July in Asheville! And to everyone else – the next blog post will be their ADORABLE dog Clive… my third Charlotte subject. :)

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April 23, 2011

Raleigh Engagement Photographer in Charlotte: Molly+Carla

Horray for Molly+Carla!! :D When Molly and Carla first found me, Molly and I spoke on the phone for over an hour… mostly talking about things not related to wedding photography. But it’s very important that you get along well with your photographer since they’re in your face all day, so it’s a good sign when you can just sit down and talk! Anyway, Molly and Carla live together in Charlotte, NC and will be having their wedding in Asheville, NC. They really wanted engagement portraits in Charlotte, so we were trying to figure out a way to make that happen when I realized that Geoff and I were going to a show at the Fillmore in April! So my two Asheville weddings this year (both couples live in Charlotte) were able to get engagement pictures last weekend as we ran around Charlotte, visited Ikea, and saw Coheed and Cambria. :) It was a great weekend!

Molly and Carla are both nurses and awesome and hilarious people. I don’t think I’ve laughed this much during a session in a long time! They kept apologizing for their awkwardness (which was non-existent) and cracking up. The result is that their pictures are very natural and adorable and I love them! Kudos to them for wearing awesome happy clothes too and driving Geoff and me all over the place. :) You guys rock!! We can’t wait for your wedding and we hope you loooove these!

Do you see what I mean about the cracking up yet? They’re adorable. Also, uptown Charlotte (which is downtown…) is an awesome place for engagement photos. I was kind of nervous because I hadn’t shot there before, but actually I found it really fun to be like, “OOOOooo, look at this, let’s shoot there!” without thinking of ways to make it different from other sessions I’ve done in the same location.

Molly is blue shirt/tan vest, Carla is red shirt. Hello, awesome Charlotte mosaic wall!!

LGBT engagement photographer North Carolina

Geoff: “It looks like the Death Star.”

Molly: “It’s very popular in Charlotte.”

Me: “Death Stars?”

Molly: “…No. The sculpture.”

Me: “Oh! Right.”

Downtown Charlotte engagement session LGBT engagement photographer

How lovely are these ladies! And so so so in love. Also, they both have rings, which is pretty awesome. Molly proposed to Carla, but afterward became jealous that she didn’t have a ring too, so they got one, hahaha. Which is more fun for me because it’s like double the ring shots on their wedding day!
Charlotte engagement photographer

After we shot uptown, we hopped on over to NoDa, a hip little historic section of town with a bunch of bright funky walls.
Charlotte engagement photographer

Downtown Charlotte engagement session

Thank you to Molly and Carla for being the best sports ever! We saw a graffiti wall and wanted to shoot there… but then realized it was just a GIANT SKULL FACE. So, of course, we still wanted to shoot there… despite unsure looks from our lovely clients. :) As Carla said, “…Because nothing says ‘engagement’ like giant skull teeth.” Exactly. Thanks for being good sports… as we know you’ll probably use this picture for nothing, hahaha, but we just love it!

Downtown Charlotte engagement session Charlotte engagement photographer

We made it to their hospital rooftop juuuust before we ran out of light for some skyline action! These gals were troopers. Thanks for having us all the way over in Charlotte, and we’re excited to reunite in Asheville in October! :D

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April 15, 2011

Raleigh Engagement Photographer: Jen+Rob

It actually surprises me that my computer didn’t catch on fire and erase all of my hard drives and back up files before I actually got this up and on the internet because that’s kind of the luck that Jen, Rob, and myself have been having over the past several months. :) This wonderful couple had to change their wedding date several times and then had to make extra date accommodations to work around my crazy schedule so that I could be their photographer, and I am so grateful for that. So after we dodged a few obstacles around their wedding date, we finally set a date for engagement pictures. Then we had to reschedule 3 times… count ’em, 3… because of really crappy weather on every single one of their days. :( Wet, soggy, overcast. Jen, who knows what she wants, really envisioned a bright, happy day to have their spring themed session. She had bought a BUNCH of cute spring props and wasn’t prepared to let the overcast day win!

So on our 4th try the weather was gorgeous! We met at a location to take their photographs, a historic park where Jen and Rob frequent quite often. However, it turns out that you are not permitted to take photographs there. :) Usually I check with every location before shooting to double check that we have permission to shoot, no fees are involved, etc., but we were all under the impression that this was just a regular park. But we were mistaken… and on we went to a second plan, which was downtown Hillsborough. But it turns out that downtown Hillsborough has an equally adorable and gorgeous little park that has beautiful light. FINALLY! Mission complete. :) P.S. I love these two. Not only are they completely and adorably in love, but they’re just the nicest people and willing to put up with all my ridiculous suggestions. :)

Jen said, “Yes… let’s hide our faces behind these balloons because that’s the kind of day we’re having.” Hahaha. So they did. And you can’t tell looking at these pictures all that we went through!

I love this picture. And doesn’t Rob have the best hair?! I think I told him that like, ten times and probably made him pretty uncomfortable. But the guy has great hair, what can I say?

Jen wanted a very springy engagement session and had seen photographs using peeps and wanted to incorporate them. So we did. They were (obviously) good sports. And Jen, you have great eyes! They look great with her awesome yellow dress that I loved.

DR. PEEP TO THE E.R. STAT.

The cutest thing about this whole session was the fact that ROB LOVES JEN SO MUCH. You could just see it! A lot of the time people get nervous in front of the camera. If Jen and Rob were, I couldn’t tell. But everytime I posed Rob anywhere doing anything, he always did it better than what I asked him to do just by looking so incredibly in love with Jen… and it was adorable. They are just very comfortable and cute together.

Jen wanted to incorporate a quilt that her grandmother made into the session. What an adorable idea. :)

And a quick change brings us to our House Divided pictures as you can tell. :) Seriously, Jen brought a big bag full of props and was READY.

Raleigh photographer

house divded engagement session

Raleigh engagement photographer

Jen and Rob, I am very much looking forward to your awesome wedding in November (Cafe Luna)! I hope that these pictures are worth to you all of the hoops we all jumped through to get them! ;)

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Category: Couples