A Lifestyle Family Session

Objectives: to photograph the amazingly talented and gorgeous Perry Vaile of Perry Vaile Photography alongside her handsome husband Shawn. Also, to photograph the slightly elusive and slightly adorably-crosseyed cat Lexie. Also, to photograph the previous racing dogs learning how to be precious house dogs Huckleberry and Finnigan. This was the mission I accepted at their house. The second mission was to go to Perry’s neighbor’s farm down the road and photograph them there… where there happened to be the most adorable miniature donkeys ever.  Now, I’m not sure that “ever” really describes it as I’m fairly certain that miniature donkeys ANYWHERE would be the cutest ever, but, you know what I mean. So the house mission combined with the farm mission was total cuteness overload and WAY too much cute to photograph in 2 hours… so just know that I tried, Perry, but your family is way, way too cute… and thus this was only a glimpse into its cuteness.

I was super honored to be chosen by Perry to photograph her family this year as she is a WONDERFUL photographer and I was crazy nervous a bit like this. She and Shawn were so amazingly sweet to me and made me feel perfectly comfortable though… and I’m so happy to have worked on this for them!

This lovely client found her way to me by inquiring about real estate photography for one of her clients. I referred her to someone else, and shortly after received another e-mail from her… this time asking me to take her portraits. :) When she told me about her company and products, I was so excited. Stephanie Wetzel is the brains and beauty behind Trading Pounds, a business centered around her recent weight loss (she’s lost over an amazing 170 pounds so far since January 2010!). She’s already written and published one cookbook and is in the process of writing her second. Trading Pounds includes a blog, free e-books, and other personal coaching tools. Stephanie wanted some new photos to show her kick-butt new look and I was more than happy to help. She’s a ridiculously fun girl who has two cats, is a self-described nerd, and whose favorite recipe is pot pie with rosemary. :)

Along with her entourage (manager Elise and best friend Travis), we went into the naturey parts of a local park per her request to photograph Stephanie looking gorgeous. This was my first shoot of 2012… held on one of the coldest days in Raleigh I’ve encountered in a long time… and we all had very limited motion in our extremities by the end of the shoot. :D Thank you for your bravery, Stephanie… and for your awesomeness and help, entourage!