Every year, Kinston hosts a week-long (away from home) camp for rising 6th graders through 12th graders. The goal? To attempt to generate racial harmony by means of Spiritual guidance, community projects and hands on experience mingling with people and cultures that aren’t your own. It’s probably the best thing a teenager can do in this area. And my oldest was taking part for the second year in a row. He loves it. In fact, he loved it so much the first time he went that Jeff and I made the decision to volunteer in some form the next time it rolled around. Of course, the most obvious choice was to take pictures of as much of the activity as possible. And so we did! But also, Jeff sacrificed several nights worth of decent sleep to help out as a dorm dad in the huge “boy room”. God bless him.

Here’s a slide show I put together to highlight the week’s purpose and outcome:

If you’re interested in seeing what an Erasing the Lines week looks like, check out the gallery!

If you want to know more about how to take part, or how to get something like this going in your own town, then contact Sammy Hudson with The Refuge (remember our fund raiser??). He’s the master mind behind it all and can give you all the information you need, I’m sure! If you can’t figure out how to reach him, give us a call at the studio and we’ll hook you up!

It’s not often that I get to do the weddings of people I know. And when it happens, it makes me happy AND nervous. Cause, I mean, it’s not like I can hide from them if they don’t like the way it all turns out! But I really didn’t have anything to worry about with this family… they’re so loving and full of emotion. I knew that we’d get great shots. It was SO dadgum hot… and because of that, the outdoor stuff was limited in order to keep people from passing out like flies. But I think we got some really great images. This whole day was more “moment” based than my usual weddings. I don’t know if it’s because they were friends and I was feeling things along with them, or if it was just because of who they are. Either way, I was happy to be there.

Kristen wore her mom’s veil. At one point, she said it was like a security blanket to her… and when she got nervous, she’d grab on and start rubbing it between her fingers. I saw it happen several times throughout the day… and was able to get a sweet shot of it without being a distraction. It’s one of my favorites… mostly because of the story.

What a BLAST this was! I never knew how much we could get in tiny little sessions! I think the mindset just changes and you stop trying to think so much and just go on auto-pilot! Of course, we also had great parents who kept the kids on track, too! No one wanted to waste a minute of their session time… and as a result, we got some AWESOME images (if I do say so myself).

I don’t have the time to create web-sizes of everyone (sorry!!!), so I’ll just add a handful of my favorites from the rest of the days we shot. You can BET that we’re going to do more of these. It’s a great way to get people in without having them wait a year! Sure, you’ll sacrifice the amount of final images you end up with, but what you won’t be sacrificing is coverage of that specific time that you’re wanting to get photographed!

And just to prove that not everything is “picture perfect”…

But now that the clients are up, I have to post the latest shot of Mabry.

Sleeping Beauty

It’s the week we’ve all been waiting for! Day one is over and done and we had some GREAT families come in. If you haven’t gotten a coupon, there are a few slots left for later in the week. Just thought I’d give you a taste of what we’re able to do in 15 minutes. Most of these families got at LEAST 15 images or so for their time. We were clicking like CRAZY!! It was actually quite a fun challenge to give myself! Tack on that The Refuge gets some much needed donation money and I’d call this the start of a great week!

I even got a little creative toward the end of the day!

The very first “real” bride and groom in my modern day, digital photography business came back to me today to shoot their maternity session. It’s exciting to be a part of couple’s lives beyond their wedding. Corey and Lindsey also happen to be friends of ours outside of work, and I’m so happy to see them become parents! Corey is a GOOF, as can be noted in the majority of their images.

Not quite as dramatic and graceful as their wedding day dip… but it’s still fun!

The rest of their shoot can be found here.

I know, I know… post more clients and less of my own kids. I promise to get on that. But we had a cute little impromptu time with Mabry while I was testing lighting. And she’s just too darn adorable to pass up.