WPPI 2009

Last week, Adam and I spent our week working REALLY hard ... in Vegas. I know, I know ~ our life is so tough. We were actually there for work, though we found a few minutes for a little play as well!

Hanging out at the Bellagio:


Every year, the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) conference is held in Vegas and this year it finally worked out with my schedule to attend! We stayed at the fabulous MGM Signature which we would highly recommend ~ and spent several days attending workshops and checking out the newest products available.

Our view from the Signature ~ not bad!



Our little industry is so full of fabulous artists and wonderful people. It's always awesome to see old and new friends, and, let's be honest, the sub-culture of the "famous" photogs, the newbies, etc. is always entertaining! We got to hang out with the guys from A Bryan Photo and saw a sneak peak of their WPPI Top 10 which I'm sure will not disappoint ~ be sure to watch his blog for it in the coming days!

So we are home and back in the loop. And, while we unfortunately won't be adding woven photo blankets to our product line, our heads are packed full of new ideas for our clients in 2009 ~ it's going to be an awesome year!!

Talking Tweet

So I was hanging out with some of my favorite people last week when the topic of Twitter came up. I've been pretty resistant to it thus far but my buddy Jonathan from Matchbook Creative convinced me to take the plunge ... so now I'm in and kind of excited about it!




See right there on the right? You can read what I'm up to on a smaller scale than my blog.

For those of you who don't know what Twitter is (aka mom), it's a constant update of what I'm working on, where I am, what chocolate item I'm trying to pursuade Adam is good for me ... you know, the usual!

Here's my link if you want to follow me (is that what I'm supposed to say? still figuring this out!!):

www.twitter.com/maryrphoto

Hope that you are having a great week!

Sweet Caroline

So I've been out of the office for a couple of weeks for a very good reason ~ I have a new niece, Caroline!


My older sister Anne had her first child a little over a week ago (time flies!) and I was so lucky to get to go out to Birmingham for the anticipation, birth, and first few sweet days of her life!



Here are a few favorites from my time there ~ isn't she great?
















I'm sure she'll be making many return trips to this blog, so look out for more of this sweet little one again soon!

Katie and Landon: Wedding

Katie and Landon were our last wedding of 2008 and it was a great night to finish off a great year!

The groom:


The bride:


Throughout the night, everyone affectionately referred to Katie and Landon's story as a modern day Green Acres! So it was perfect that Katie had a John Deere garter!


We were lucky to have a warm (although a little windy) winter day so we could play outside some ~ my favorite!



Katie and Landon choose to see each other before the ceremony which we are a big fan of! We were able to get some really great shots of the two of them together without rushing before the reception.

I love this first moment of seeing each other!









Congratulations to Katie and Landon!

Cami and Erik: 4 Years!

As I've mentioned, we have lots of blogging catch-up to do so I thought I would start with one of my favorite shoots from 2008 that never made it to the blog!


Cami and Erik have been together for 4 years and wanted to do something special to celebrate their anniversary ~ what a great idea to do a photo session together! We had so much fun hanging out and getting to know them!

A few favorites ...


I was in love with the tall grass on this hill ... they totally worked it!





So this is about the point in the session that I squatted down for a shot and totally ripped my jeans open on the ... um... backside. It was a really great moment. I'll spare you the photos that my darling husband took but just trust me that we got several good laughs about it! Totally worth it for these shots, though!!


A couple more favorites ~ love these:





Cami and Erik ~ thanks for a great session and congrats on 4 years together!

Megan and Barry: Wedding

We had 2 Christmas weddings this year which was SO fun! The first was the Saturday before Christmas ~ Megan and Barry! Here are a few favorites from the night!

The lucky groom ~ Barry has such a classic look ~ I love it!

The guys hanging out. They were such great sports to go with my "diving board vision" ~ I love the retro feel!


Megan of course was radiant ~ she was so much fun all day!



We had a few minutes after the ceremony for shots of the two of them. Winter gives us a great excuse to do some experimenting with indoor lighting and settings. Fun!



Reception details ~ the ballroom looked absolutely amazing!




And of course I can't go without mentioning the awesome party that the infamous Super T stirred up on the dance floor ~ it was SUCH a fun reception!




As Megan and Barry's party favors said, Married Christmas!!