After we were done with our game, Kathie and I decided to soak in the hot tub, which was inside a pool area with an East Indian motif. As we got in, an older gentlemen offered us something on a cracker (looked like pate). We each gladly accepted, although I had a hunch Kathie didn’t know what she was really eating and probably wouldn’t like it, so I didn’t say anything. As Kathie started chewing it up, she gave me this look like, “I’m not so sure”. To which I responded, “How are the fish eggs?” She nearly gagged on the spot and quickly left the hot tub to dispose of the caviar in her mouth.

So we both decided to leave the hot tub and continued exploring the boat. We perused through the library and gym, and eventually headed back to our room for the night. We stayed up a while longer looking through the information for our first port in Villefranche the next morning.

The next day we got up early and had a huge breakfast, as we would end up doing every day. (Our strategy was to stuff ourselves on the mornings when we ported so that we could make it through the day without having to stop for food very often.) We lubed up with sunscreen and went down to the exit deck to get off the boat. At this particular port, the cruise ship didn’t dock but instead had smaller tender boats that took around 50 people at a time to the harbor.

Here’s the view from the ship as we approached our first port

The city of Villefranche was unlike any city we had seen before. It was fascinating to see it from the water.

This is where the cruise ship anchored; the tender boats would take us in to the harbor from here. Such a great view of the city.

We walked through these narrow streets/walkways. In the room on the right hand side with the door open, we met an interesting couple (see next pic)

This is Bernard, and he and this lady were renovating this space to be an art studio. Apparently he’d never heard the name Jeremiah, so after trying 2-3 times to say it (unsuccessfully), he laughed and said, “Your name is much too hard. Can I call you Paul?” and then erupted into laughter.

The first place we wanted to go was Nice, and as we were headed to the train station we saw this adorable little maestro carrying a fresh loaf.

The train ride to Nice was short, and cost us 3,20 Euro each for round trip tickets. Upon arrival, we were greeted by this beautiful view of the French Riviera.

The first place we went to in Nice was the Cours de Salaya, an open market with all kinds of really interesting things for sale. Food, flowers, spices, and more food.

That’s a lot of soap. Too bad not everyone uses it over in Europe.

Here’s another guy we met in one of the streets/walkways. His name was also Bernard, and he was a bread making machine who loved the camera!

We loved wandering the streets and alleyways. The were so vibrant with color and fun to walk through. We were also impressed with the technique of the locals for drying their laundry.

Next we went up to Castle Hill. On our way up the long set of stairs, we paused for some breathtaking views of the city.

Self Portrait

After exploring the Chateau we came back down to walk on the beach

This is what the entire beach was made out of – all rocks and no sand. Didn’t seem to bother anyone. As we got closer we found that we must have missed the memo stating that all guys must wear Speedos and tops are optional for women.

Sweet toilet pods. Love the stone camo finish.

We started walking to the train station to get back to Villefranche as we wanted to spend some time there before we had to get back on the ship. Here’s a couple of the scenes as we walked back through town.

Back at the train station, trying to make sense of things.

When we got back to Villefranche, we walked down to the harbor to get this picture for Wrigley

Next we found a small cafe with internet access to check up on the kids via e-mail. Interesting thing – businesses in Europe advertise internet access by showing a sign out front with the “@” symbol. We enjoyed an incredible ham, tomato, and mozzarella panini along with a delicious $6 USD water.

As we walked through the streets of Villefranche, everyone was very friendly and we enjoyed saying “Bonjourno” and “Merci” to everyone. We totally blended in… with the rest of the tourists that is.

The last place we stopped was this church right in the heart of the city. On the outside it looked like most other buildings, but the inside was very ornate.

My beautiful wife :-)

Finally it was time to head back to the ship for the day. We thoroughly enjoyed our time but were also looking forward to cleaning up and having a nice dinner. Some random observations from the day:

• It seems like just about everyone smokes. Young and old, men and women alike
• Fashion is very different than the US. Men wear a lot of white, and it’s tight. Women have short skirts and revealing tops
• Many advertisements would make Victoria’s Secret ads look modest
• Much of the art in the city and shops are obsessed with nude woman
• Lots of people in the streets sell their paintings and art

That evening we had a fantastic dinner and then wandered around the ship some more. It was like a small city. We found some gifts shops and an art gallery where we guessed how much a Picasso painting was worth. We also played some putt-putt on top of the ship (I won), and then eventually retired for the night, where we looked up info for the next day in Italy.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for scenes from our next stop – Florence, Italy!

Because today marks the 15th anniversary of our first date!

On February 12, 1997 I was a sophomore in college playing baseball and studying electrical engineering. Those were my first two priorities, but close behind was the study of the opposite sex. (Often times that became the highest priority). At the time I had a massive crush on Kathie, who was a spunky softball player studying nursing. Well I was all about wanting to “play doctor” with her (if you know what I mean, elbow-elbow) but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The first step was to ask her out.

So on Wednesday the 12th, I arranged for a hand made card with balloons attached to be delivered to her, inviting her to go on a date with me on Valentine’s Day. Due to a combination of my incredibly good looks, irresistible charm, and insane sense of humor, Kathie was powerless to say no. (Truth be told, it was simply because I asked. And… she also later admitted she thought I looked hot in my baseball pants.)

Here is a picture of Kathie and I at a fall festival in college, close to the time we had our first date

Two days later was the big night, and on Friday evening, February 14th, 1997, I took Kathie to the Homewood Flossmor Ice Skating Rink in Illinois. It is half an hour away from our college and was perfect because it was far enough away that we didn’t run into anyone we knew. Here is a picture of the actual skating rink, compliments of the HF Ice Arena Facebook page:

Under the influence of love, I will own up to making a bet about whoever fell first owing the other one a milkshake… and then proceeding to intentionally throw it. It was mostly a lame attempt to secure another date, but if I was completely honest I would have to tell you that the romantic in me partly held out hope for both of us to fall together. And as we fell I’d catch her and we’d be laughing together on the ice. And then it would happen – our eyes would meet, she’d softly bite her lip, and we would kiss.

Well that’s not at all how it went down, but nevertheless we had a great time skating together. Overall it was a big win for me; I had selected a creative and memorable activity and even managed to hold her hand in the process, cleverly disguising it as a move to ensure she didn’t fall down.

After ice skating we went to Applebee’s for a treat before heading home. A friend of mine was our server that night and “accidentally” charged us nothing on our receipt. I left a $10 bill to cover it and we left. As we got in the car and headed out, we decided to complete the date by going to my parent’s house to watch a movie. We rented the movie Phenomenon and rolled in to my parents house about 10 o’clock – which is like the early afternoon for a college student. My parents of course were asleep, so we went downstairs to the TV room and before we could even finish the previews, my dad and mom had wandered down to see who was there. Embarrassed, I quietly sat by and endured them asking Kathie all kinds of questions. I spent the entire time intensely focused on trying my best to send mental brain waves willing them to leave. Eventually they did, and Kathie and I watched our movie.*

* The proper thing to do would have been to wake my parents and introduce Kathie to them upon arrival. Part of me didn’t want to wake them, part of me was embarrassed to bring a date to the house, but mostly I was just a dumb college kid and had no idea how inconsiderate I was being. In retrospect, I wish I would have done the proper thing.

After the movie ended we drove back to college and I walked her back to her dorm. And right there, in front McLain Hall at Olivet, we shared our first kiss. I can still remember it like it was yesterday… it was a powerful feeling of heartfelt love and emotion that I will never forget as long as I live. It was like tractor beam – sucked me right in. It was also the feeling that I was home.

So as I sit at home tonight 15 years later I don’t feel any different, and as time moves on I continue to grow closer to Kathie and appreciate every Valentine’s Day I get to spend with her.

Happy Valentine’s Day Kathie!

After a few years of being married we had the first of our loin fruits, Alyssa. Over the next 6 years we would proceed to have 3 more loin fruits – Emily, Wrigley, and Brooks. That period of time was somewhat of a fog for us, and we would inevitably talk every year about planning a trip for the two of us, but it just never seemed like the timing was right due to the need to nurse a baby or go through subsequent pregnancies.

So once our last child, Brooks, turned 1 we knew that it was actually possible to begin planning a vacation for just the two of us. Our 10 year anniversary was coming up the next year, and we desperately wanted (and needed!) some time for the two of us to be free of kids and reconnect with each other. We both knew that we wanted to go somewhere we’ve never been, and we also really seemed drawn to the idea of going to Europe. So the first step was to start saving… which we did by literally hiding a large, empty vanilla yogurt container in our bookshelf that we would add to with whatever cash we had left over at the end of each month. It became an exciting ritual to go to the bank at the end of each month and make a cash withdrawal that we would then go home and stash.

The next step was to decide where in Europe to go. We began researching and reading about all sorts of places to go and things to see and eventually landed on the idea of touring England and Scotland. Our plan was to spend a few days in a city like London and then take the train to another big city and stay for a couple days. But the more we looked into the travel arrangements of booking lodging in different cities and trying to coordinate the best times to visit each city, the more we questioned if that is what we really wanted to do.

And finally one day it hit us, why not a cruise?

After looking the idea of a cruise I quickly realized that Kathie and I would be able to see so much more than we could trying to visit different cities ourselves. The only travel arrangements I had to make was getting to the port of call. From there the cruise ship would take us all over and most everything else (food and lodging) were included. It didn’t take us long to decide on a Mediterranean Cruise with Royal Caribbean.

The itinerary we chose was a 12-day cruise that started in Barcelona, Spain and made stops all over France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Once we booked our cruise and airfare, we spent the weeks leading up to the trip (especially Kathie) pouring over internet research on the cities we would visit to learn as much as we could to help prepare us. The most helpful item in this planning was Rick Steves website and a guidebook he wrote on touring Europe. Throughout our trip that $30 guidebook proved to be insanely valuable and was probably the best investment we made for the entire trip. His tips and advice were always spot on and literally saved us hundreds of dollars. But more importantly his guidebook saved us valuable time and greatly increased our productivity within every city we visited.

Since we had to fly so far I didn’t want to run the risk of airline delays causing us to miss our ship’s departure. So I chose to fly into Barcelona a day early. This would give us plenty of margin with our flights, and if all went well, then we would have a full day to tour Barcelona. Fortunately all our flights went smoothly (although the connection at Paris was a little dodgy) and we arrived in Barcelona around 9:30am local time. I had a harder time sleeping on the plane ride over, but we were both tired, so when we arrived at our hotel around 10:30am we took a short nap before venturing out.

Here’s me in the room after waking up around noon and showering. I’ve got the iPad and a local map and am plotting out our adventures for the day

Our first stop was the main street in central Barcelona: La Rambla!

For lunch we enjoyed a sandwich from a local bakery that we stumbled upon. We took a lot of side streets to get away from the congested areas with tourists (like ourselves) to explore and see what we could find. We loved the timeless look of all the buildings and alleyways. They were full of plants and streetlights and people walking together. Very poetic and romantic.

There were a number of street performers on La Rambla. We didn’t realize this lady wasn’t a statue until this joker stood next to her and she put her arm around him for a picture. The guy on the right is actually making an incredibly awesome work of art using a wood burning instrument. The dude was in a zone. I almost told him I loved him in Ocean’s Eleven.

All over the city there were beautiful mosaics like this one on various parts of the buildings. It was really interesting. Probably even more so if I could read what it says.

What, I look like Jason Bourne? No, stop. I was a big fan of the architecture. It was so different than anything I’ve seen here in the states. I especially liked the majestic doorways on many of the buildings.

Just seeing this wall of chocolate caused my insulin levels to spike. As did all that honey. Who has that much honey? This guy.

This street corner reminded me of New York. I think it’s a combination of all the people along with the massive billboards. I was just surprised to see a soccer billboard, I didn’t know that soccer was big over here…

Self portrait. 1 of many.

We stopped for a rest at a spacious public park. Complete with nude statues in the middle of their fountains. On the right is the Sagrada Familia. Probably the biggest, most intricately designed building I’ve ever seen. All I could think of was a quote from a movie – “I didn’t know men could build such things” (Anyone know what movie that’s from?)

Waiting in line to get inside…

This is actually just the “small” chapel underneath the main building. There were all kinds of little transepts such as these. The one on the right is the tomb of Antoni Gaudi. He’s the guy who designed the Sagrada Familia, along with many other architectural masterpieces.

It was completely silent in here. That’s Kathie sitting in the front pew on the left hand side.

As you can see, it was very awe inspiring.

The Sagrada Familia is still under construction and won’t be done for another century. Give or take.

Our final stop for the night was the Magic Fountain of Montjuic. Pretty much every night throughout the year they have this fountain going complete with a music and light show. We were completely exhausted at this point in the day, but we were in awe of this beautiful attraction and enjoyed watching it for about a half hour before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Here are just a few examples of the seemingly endless combinations of colors and patterns. It was incredible to watch. It was also EXTREMELY packed. At one point I was reminded of how Zacchaeus may have felt as I scrambled to find some high ground nearby to see the main attraction and get a clear picture.

We were so tired from walking in Barcelona all day (and from jet lag) that we completely slept in the next morning and woke up at noon. Incidentally noon was checkout time, and when we realized this it gave us an instant shot of adrenaline that surged through our veins and allowed us to shower and gather up our stuff and make it down to the lobby in 15 minutes. (For the record, I severely dislike waking up like that)

From the hotel we took a taxi about 25 minutes to the cruise ship. Oh, and while we were in the taxi, our driver rear ended another car. Apparently that’s the American equivalent to cutting someone off in traffic, because each party barely acknowledged that anything even happened. If it hadn’t been for our taxi driver briefly shaking his fist at the driver in front of him I would have concluded that he was complete unaware of the occurence.

This is us getting ready to board our cruise ship, the Brilliance of the Seas. Taken with our point and shoot camera by some random, fellow passenger.

Our view looking out from the back of the ship. It’s hard to get an idea of how big these ships actually are if you haven’t been on one. Pretty much a floating city.

There was also a freight yard nearby in the same port. It was also really big, and rather interesting to watch it being loaded. This last picture was mostly taken for Riggs :-)

This was the beginning of our 12-day cruise, where we ported at 7-8 different cities. Over the next several weeks I will be posting pictures of our adventures from each of these cities and sharing a little about our trip. Enjoy ~ Hasta Luego!

Happy Tuesday!

It doesn’t look like a camera bag, in my mind, should look. It doesn’t even have awful canvas fabric that most seem to use. No, this bag is made of leather and well thought out. So here are a few reasons why I just simply must use my Kelly Moore bag for every session we do, whether it is walking about with our High School Seniors or Spending a day shooting a fabulous wedding.

Reason #1: It looks good. I have the Classic version of the Kelly Moore bag and it goes well with my attire whether shooting a wedding or walking around downtown for a session. I have had this bag for almost 2 years now (Since June 2010) and the leather has not faded, cracked, or worn. This is super impressive for me since I set my bag down on concrete, rocks, dirt, and grass. Now I don’t go purposely looking for dirty places to set my bag, but that is just a bonus when I don’t have to worry that the bottom will be ruined if I do set it down.

Reason #2: It is so very functional: It has a nice long, adjustable strap that I can wear over my shoulder like a purse, across my body like a messenger bag, or (with the strap at its shortest length) carried like a little tote if I am not in the mood to have something on my shoulders.

Reason #3: It holds a lot of stuff: It has 4 interior spaces for lenses, camera body, bottles of water…etc. I typically keep 2 lenses (my 85 and 135) and  a flash (Canon 580 EXII) in 3 pockets. The last space holds my keys, wallet, bottle of water and any other snack I have with me. The dividers are held in place with velcro so they can be moved around or removed to your liking. The front of the bag has two very spacious pockets. I keep my memory cards in one with note cards and a pencil (in case I need to jot down something from our session to add to the blog). In the other pocket I usually have some business cards, my iPhone, notes about the couple or the wedding day, and any extra items of importance I think I might need for that particular session.  The back of the bag has a nice large pocket with zipper closure. This pocket for me is just an extra added bonus! It can hold my iPad when I need to take it. I have put photos of inspiration in there, lens caps, a notebook for jotting ideas, etc..

Reason #4: It comes in lots of colors! I chose black because I thought it would go with just about any outfit I chose to wear. I have my eye on the Kelly Moore Mimi bag in grey  next. I don’t need it now, but for my next birthday it will be on the list :)

Oh here is a pic of me with my bag. Jeremiah took this while we were scoping out a spot for an engagement session we did last fall. I am not sure why I look so serious as I talk on the phone, but don’t pay attention to that… look at how great the bag sits right at my side holding all my stuff so I can talk on the phone and keep a hand on my camera.

That’s it for a Saturday review. Next week Jeremiah will be reviewing something he likes with regard to photography so stay tuned!

We have been using the better part of January to prepare for the rest of the year. We have been planning out our goals, looking over plans for the weddings scheduled this year, and fitting in a lot of family time with the kids. While we won’t share all our goals with you for fear that you might not make it past the next paragraph without falling asleep we would love to share with you what we have been up to this last month. We didn’t want you to think we have just been goofing off this whole month… although we do  love to play with our photo booth set up when we have some time :)

I (Kathie) have been diving into books again… I LOVE to read and I have set a goal to read through my entire bookshelf before I buy another new book. This is huge for me since I hear about new books coming out and want to run right out and purchase them or borrow them from the library all the while I have many that need to be read. I think Jeremiah nearly fell off his chair when I told him I would not purchase another book until I met my goal. He knows how much I love to read so I think he is wondering how long I will last with this one :) I have a short stack of books on my nightstand so that I am reminded daily of the books that have captured my interest which are sitting within arms reach. Here is a pic of the books I have read this month. There are a few missing because they are at Miah’s mom’s house. She gave them to me to read before I decided I needed to read my own so technically I did not break my own rule. I am keeping a log of the books I read and my own rating system just for fun and at the end of the year it will be neat to look back and see how many books made it to the list.

Another thing that has kept us busy is our gym membership. Can I get a hallelujah on that?! Jeremiah and I have not had a gym membership in 9 years. The last time we stepped foot into the Y was when I was about 8 months pregnant with Alyssa and once I was on restricted activity it was goodbye gym hello baby and family life. We have enjoyed working out at home and keeping busy with our little ones, but now that they are old enough to go with us it is so much fun!!!! We take the kids to swim 1-2 times a week and then we take turns working out when the other one is with the kids. It is such a great feeling to be doing this as a family and the kids are always excited to get to the pool. They are like little fish in there… hopefully all the swimming will pay off and when summer is here they will be comfortable and confidently swimming well. Our goals for working out are different. Jeremiah is always in shape and he eats really well so he is playing racquetball, swimming, and just enjoying working out when he can. My goals are usually quite lofty and thanks to Jeremiah’s brother Ben they are being pushed to the limits. I am setting goals for running a certain number of miles each month so that I can maybe run a few races this year or just improve my overall running capability. I have a good friend who is meeting up with me at the crack of dawn several days a week so we can challenge each other either in the pool or the on the treadmill. She is killing me in the pool since I am not a strong swimmer :( and I am determined to go all “Jillian Michaels” on her when we run on the treadmill. It is all fun in a strange sort of way! Here is an image of our family from a hike at Sharptop. We love to be active whether it is indoors or out.

Thanks to a few good bloggers I am officially organized and ready to go starting today. One of the bloggers was a former bride of ours (you can see her images here) and she is such a good writer! She is funny, creative, and she never fails to have a great recipe that I can try. I love that I am learning so much from Sherri. If you want a good blog to follow, Life of a Wife, click here to read her posts. You will not be disappointed! So when I am not getting tips from Sherri I am finding some more fabulous ideas from her sister’s blog, Only From Scratch, which you can see here. Lauren also writes very well and I just love all her posts. One that had me working hard the last two weeks was her post on the family management notebook. I finished mine last night so I would be prepared to start as of February 1st. I am very much into organization and this helps me keep everything in one place. I will not go into detail because Lauren has links to everything, but I will post an image of my notebook completed and ready to go.

Jeremiah has been busy trying to make our house run more efficiently in a different kind of way. While I was all into the scheduling and paperwork, he was diligently installing our new thermostats! We were on a waiting list to get them starting back in October and they just arrived this week. These are not like any thermostat I have ever seen and if I was not married to Jeremiah I would probably still not know what they were. It is called a Nest Thermostat. These things work from our iPhones too… that is so cool because really there isn’t much that the iPhone can’t do and when Jeremiah told me I could turn the temp up even from my phone I was so happy. This is huge because whenever we take trips he turns the temp wayyyyy down, like Alaska temps people. Then when we get home it is freezing and we have to wait for the house to heat up… not so much fun for those of us who despise any form of feeling cold. Now we can just tell our little thermostat to heat up even if we are in Alaska… how cool is that! Seriously I never thought I would get excited over a little round metal thing on the wall, but this is worth posting a pic of. It is our little Nest.

Well, that pretty much sums up what we have been doing for the last month so now it is back to business. Here is one last image of our kids at the beach from this last summer. I love my kids and I love how sweet they are in this pic so I thought I would share it. Maybe it will help my brother (who actually does live in Alaska- true story) think about being warm while he is enduring -18 degree weather… ugh… that just gave me chills as I typed :)

You will understand this question if you spend a few fun hours with Nicole and Gary. They said they were not really into PDA and we were totally cool with that, but they certainly have chemistry and when there was a little public display of affection it was soooo sweet!

When Nicole called us up and asked to come out for a consultation we were thrilled because we love getting the opportunity to work with brides who have already seen us in action at a wedding.  We met Nicole back in 2010 when she was a bridesmaid in the wedding we photographed for her brother and his beautiful bride. What we didn’t know is that we were also photographing her future husband at that wedding. We do have some sweet photos of Gary getting his dance moves on at Jenna & Daniel’s wedding… feel free to mosy on over to the blog and view the images for yourself :)

O.k. so fast forward a little more than a year and we now get to spend time with Gary & Nicole. We met up downtown and immediately we knew this was going to be good as we watched their interaction with one another through our lens. Nicole is cute and sassy while Gary is a little more relaxed and funny – together they made it easy to capture very candid and natural images of the two of them. They were willing to walk the path out at Percivals just to get to a spot we have been eager to photograph. They climbed up on parts of bridges, they took a mini hike down a sandy hill to get to a wicked cool tree and they humored when we put them on the spot for getting one another to laugh. Little did we know how funny Gary really is and that we had actually been invited to the Gary Straw show (it had to be said). The way they look at one another in these images just makes us smile.

We enjoyed our time spent with you two and we are looking forward to the sequel to the show in May!

Picture Jeremiah and I taking turns hurling tennis balls as hard as we can to opposite parts of the court so we can get shots of Will in action…then picture Will graciously obliging us (and probably cracking up at our feeble attempts) as he got his game face on for the return shot. It was such a great start to the session being able to hang out on the tennis court for some creative images.

Next we headed over to Bedford to finish up Will’s session. Will was easy to get a genuine smile from as soon as we found what made him crack up. FYI…mentioning lines from a few Will Ferrell movies was a great way to make him instantly relax and usually smile :-)

Enjoy some of our favorites Will!

Brittany had mentioned that she really liked the idea of being in the woods for her session so that is where we headed. We walked the path through the woods and found some spectacular light peeking through. We had a few spectators walk by and one in particular brought us a little humor for the day. Throughout the morning we had no problem capturing emotion between TJ & Brittany. They laughed at one another, made some faces, and snuggled close for warmth. They walked hand in hand through the woods as if we truly weren’t even there and it was sweet to capture.

We ended the session at a little creek bed so that we could grab a few shots of them in their opposing team shirts. TJ is a Gators fan since he went to school at University of Florida. Brittany (although she attended LU) is a Hokie fan, along with the rest of her family.  They both love to watch football and although TJ had plans of catching a game that Saturday afternoon, he was being a great fiancé and going with Brittany to meet up with a DJ and then hang out with some of her friends.

We hope you guys enjoyed your session as much as we did. Here is your sneak peek from the morning and the rest will be up this weekend. We hope your Gators win this weekend TJ!

While TJ and Brittany made their last clothing change, we went down to the creek bed and scouted things out until they were ready. Kathie’s new favorite session accessories are her rain boots :-)

Zane is a Senior at JF.

He is a Cross Country Runner.

He plays the French Horn.

These were three important facts that we knew had to be made clear through the images we took. We started out at Wolf Branch Farm where he ran cross country. He braved the cold for us when we asked him to strip down to his uniform for a few really cool shots… mind you we were in about 4 layers just to keep warm. Thanks for being so accommodating Zane! His parents were there to enjoy the session too. They stayed off in the distance just observing what was going on and coming up with a fabulous idea for a shot with the french horn and running shoes… kudos to Zane’s dad for that one!

After we (and by we, we mean Zane) ran around Wolf Branch a little, we headed over to West Manor to finish up the session. We stayed over by the barns and caught some relaxed portraits of Zane along with some fun ones. We saw a massive (larger than life…o.k. maybe the size of a pinky nail) black widow that was fascinating for a few moments, and then we moved on to the french horn shots.

Zane donned a tux and looked like he was ready to attend a black tie affair. We stumbled upon a gem of a spot with the evening light peeking through and captured some hallelujah chorus moments… you know what we are talking about… those times when you see a photo in camera and you want to sing the hallelujah chorus because it is that cool!!!! His parents probably thought we were crazy for stopping by the end of someone’s driveway for a shot of Zane playing his french horn. When we showed them the image in camera they got it and it was such a great moment to be able to share why we love this so much.

This was just a great session with great people!