The most wonderful time of the year

When I was growing up I wanted to be an artist. Trouble with it is that the word starving too often precedes the title of artist. Well, I'm happy to report that I think at this point I qualify as being "grown up" and I made it to being an artist but I'm much more a WORKING artist than a starving one.

The type of artwork I do is not necessarily the stuff that hangs in fine art galleries. (Well... I hope that someday my studio art endeavors will take me to a place like that!)  Just the same, my artwork is still hanging on walls all across the country. The images I help create are beloved family portraits taken just in time for holiday send outs, snapshots of those tender moments right after a couple betroths themselves to one another or just before a mother delivers her beautiful baby, and preservations of the incredible bliss that is being completely in love and newly engaged. I absolutely L-O-V-E doing the work I do because it's the kind of stuff that even after it does get changed out to make room for the next year's portraits, it always stays in the hearts and memories as a thing of beauty to be cherished and treasured.

This time of year is just about my favorite not just for the obvious reasons of the Christmas season but also because I get to see the fruit of my investment in creating images of true beauty come back to me in the way of seeing it pop up in the profile spots of facebook pages OR within annual holiday send outs. Nothing gives me quite a joy like that of opening up some good ol' fashioned snail mail to see my own handiwork staring back at me with well wishes for a merry Christmas and happy New Year from my wonderful clients.

This portrait was taken in the Baltimore area in the Fall of this year! What better way to wish someone a warm holiday than with the beautifully warm color palette that an autumn color palette offers.

Something unique I offer that goes far beyond photography is graphic design expertise!  I can snap gorgeous pictures of you and your loved ones just as much as I can pair them up with tasteful and polished graphic elements that make them more than suitable for holiday cards, birth announcements, save-the-dates, and invitations. I walk you through the design process from start to finish and provide you with an image ready for printing and MUCH cheaper than some of the big names out there that have only a catalog of templated designs that everyone else has. Just as the portrait work I do is commissioned artwork to me, the graphic design pieces are also ART in my book. I love using the gifts that the Lord has blessed me with to the fullest extent and you need only ask me how we go about creating something unique and wonderful for YOU and your needs.

Today puts us just barely 10 days from Christmas but don't let that deter you from dropping me an inquiry to get your annual family portraits done at the tail end of this year or at the tip top of next year. Ever heard of happy New Year cards?  We can get your portraits done and then wish your friends and family a beautiful start to their 2012 with your gorgeous portraits!

Featured today on Captiol Romance!

Last week it was Bayside Bride and this week it's Capitol Romance!

Just received word that Jamie and Colin's Union Station engagement session from early November is being featured on Capitol Romance wedding blog today. I submitted their images and Jamie and Colin's engagement story and wedding planning details a couple of weeks back and have been waiting to hear confirmation of its publication. The wonderful Bree (editor of Capitol Romance) sent me an email with a heads-up that it went live this afternoon.

Hope on over to Capitol Romance and check it out!!!

Featured today on Bayside Bride!

I'm delighted to share a wonderful collective of unique engagement and wedding ring designs presented by Bayside Bride...

The ring shot I contributed is toward the end of the feature and showcases a ring shot I did of my own engagement and wedding ring set. Here is the picture featured on the page:

I'm actually not a huge fan of jewelry (plus for my husband!) and I'm much more a lover of a beautiful piece of artwork (not good for husband since these are typically more expensive than lots of pieces of jewelry). I love my ring set because it's something that takes the symbolism that is a beautiful piece of jewelry and infuses it with the integrity of an amazing piece of sculptural artwork. If you can believe it, this is actually an "upgrade" from my original engagement and wedding set that I got last year around the time of my third wedding anniversary. Why the upgrade so soon? Well, my original ring set was vintage in style and had a tremendous amount of filigree and engraving within the design that I had pretty much destroyed because I am so hard on my jewelry. My regular dayjob is working in high school art education classroom and all of the different types of art media I might have deal with just plain whittled the designs down to almost nothing. Not good. Not good at all. The solution to this? Well, my husband indulged me with picking something new to replace it!

I searched probably almost six months until I finally found the perfect ring and wedding set for me on Etsy via an incredible artisan jeweler named Elizabeth Scott. Her inspirations are of the botanical sort and the specific inspiration for my ring came from a sapling branch that she found when she was hiking around the area where she lives and works in her home studio. One of the best things about my set is that Elizabeth really helped me to take her design and customize it to very precise specifications (like down to measurements in the millimeters!) so that it could be as structurally sound as a piece of jewelry that would take the beating it would end up taking like my old set. Elizabeth also allowed me to use a stone called a moissanite in lieu of a diamond because I am not keen on diamonds anyway though I like the look of them . Moissanite was a stone that was a great alternative because of it's hardness and look - most people seem my ring and think it's a diamond!

So that's it. That's the story of my ring and just wanted to share a little background about it because Bayside Bride was so kind of include it in the collective that they shared today.

Jamie + Colin :: Washington DC Engagement Photographer

I have known Jamie for over 20 years now.  We first met each other in the 6th grade and attended the same middle school together. It's weird to think about that type of thing now since we are both at stages of our lives that are so far from our middle school student government years. For the most part we've not done the greatest job keeping in touch with one another (unless you count keeping tabs via Facebook) but when she recently became engaged, I was honored to be called upon to document the bliss of her engagement.

Spending the late afternoon and early evening hours with Colin and Jamie was so much fun for me. It was like time fell away and we were able to pick up with conversation just as easily as we used to have it on the four square blocks at the school recess we once had. It was also wonderful to meet Colin and witness first hand the romance and adoration they obviously have for only each other. It's never too hard for me to cajole newly engaged couples into liplocking for the camera but for Colin and Jamie? I hardly had to mention the idea. Colin just couldn't get enough of showering Jamie with just a little more affection.

When Jamie made it "Facebook official" and announced her engagement, she did so in a very lighthearted and fun way - with a picture of her new ring and a caption that said just this, "It's pretty."

But even all of the sparkle of her engagement ring couldn't come close to the shine of being freshly engaged and deeply in love with one another the way Jamie and Colin are. They easily glow when they are anywhere near each other or are talking about each other and it's just the sweetest thing to witness.

Despite the fact that they are both actual transplants to the DC and NoVA regions, they are staying true to the place they have since found to be home to them and planning a wedding just outside of the district lines in Alexandria, Virginia. The chose Union Station's downtown location for the setting of the start of their engagement session and then we finished at the extension train stop in Alexandria where Colin used to catch all of his trains to travel back home to Philly.

They both share a love for ice hockey (though they root for different teams!) and also a love for the romanticism that is a good train ride so the train stations were the perfect place for them to bask in their newly engaged bliss!

Their wedding will be held at the temple pictured here in the background and though they still have a number of details to work out just yet, I have a feeling it's going to be quite a grand affair since Jamie is a master at things like event planning.

No doubt that Jamie and Colin are well on their way to their very own happily ever after. Congratulations to them both for a life that is only more richly blessed with every day that God gives them together.