Abby+Rick // Durham Engagement Session

Sooo many pups lately! We’ve had a ton of them accompanying us to shoots, but we can’t complain because who doesn’t love fuzzy adorableness? I am a sucker for fluffy dogs and especially Huskies, so when Abby and Rick told us that they were planning on bringing their eight week old Husky pup named Athena, I went to work on devising a plan where we could pretend like we’re posing and photographing the couple, but really just photograph Athena the entire time. Then when Abby and Rick would see the pictures later, they couldn’t even be mad that there weren’t any pictures of them because Athena is so cute.

But it turns out that Abby and Rick were also really cute, and really nice, and the light was SO GOOD on this morning session in Durham that we decided to suck it up and not just photograph Athena, but also photograph her owners as well as her adorrrrrable and very very sweet older brother, Atlas, a Black Lab/Golden Retriever mix. Atlas is ridiculously calm and well behaved for his age (ten months), and also fiercely loyal to his mother. He cried whenever she’d walk around the corner despite many pets and reassurances from us that we weren’t kidnapping her. The pups kept Abby company while Rick was away on deployment, and now they are all very happy to have Rick back home to spend time together hiking and being really, really cute.

Big Dog Little Bed Productions

We met Janice at a wedding we shot a couple years ago (how has it been so long?) and we liked her a lot. Then we found out her business name and we liked her even more despite the fact that we don’t have any dogs. Janice is the mastermind/owner/videographer behind her business Big Dog Little Bed Productions, aptly named after her bigger dog always tried to sleep in Murphy’s bed (you guessed it – Murphy is the little dog). The bigger dog whom the company is named after is unfortunately no longer with us, but she did adopt another bigger dog named Toby who is… well… he’s my new boyfriend, he just doesn’t know it yet.

But anyway – Janice is an absolutely wonderful videographer to work with and produces amazing videos all while being super unobtrusive and adorable. So when she wrote us to confess her love for our photo skillz, we were more than happy to work with her. The goal was to take some headshots and promo stills for her to use for her website (some of which took place in her coworking space Mercury Studio in downtown Durham and some of which were taken at her home, which she renovated and designed herself) and also to take some photos of the pups. Enjoy the cuteness all around!

Headbands of Hope

Hey friends! This is a bit of an out-of-the-ordinary blog post for us, and so I’m going to step aside and let Jess Ekstrom, founder of Headbands of Hope, tell you a bit about her amazing company. Needless to say, her mission really captured my heart and I wanted to do what I could to help them spread their message. :) Take it away, Jess!

“During the summer of 2011, I did an internship at the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I found that girls loved to wear headbands after losing their hair to treatment, but there were no organizations that provided them.

Therefore, I founded Headbands of Hope during my junior year at NC State University. For every headband purchased, one is given to a girl with cancer and $1 is donated to fund childhood cancer research.

Since launching HoH in April 2012, we’ve now donated headbands to every children’s hospital in the United States!

One moment in particular, a girl received her headband in the hospital and sadly passed away a week later. Her mom called me asking if she could have that same headband for all the women in her family to wear to her service the next day because that headband meant so much to her during her last week of life. It’s moments like this that prove how powerful one simple headband can be.

Starting Headbands of Hope has also led me to meet wonderful people, like Carolyn Scott. I had originally reached out to Carolyn in hopes that she’d use one of my headbands for one of her many bridal shoots. Instead, she so generously offered to do a complimentary shoot for Headbands of Hope. I was over the moon!

Not only is Carolyn beyond talented, she was also a blast to work with. Because of her generosity, Carolyn is really helping us spread the word about Headbands of Hope to the bridal community. We feel that our headbands can make perfect bridal headpieces and also give them the chance to give back on their wedding day.

It’s such a great feeling to meet people like Carolyn who want to use their talents for the greater good.

I also want to give a special thanks to all the models who came out for the shoot, Vestique for providing the clothes and Molly’s Musings for the awesome hair styling!”