Here’s our first attempt at blogging, and we hope to include things that help you know what we are up to in our busy blessed lives. With this first post, I am going to summarize some highlights that have occurred since the beginning of the year. While we can’t post every photo shoot and wedding here, we will include some as convenience, permission and time allow. Had so much stuff I couldn’t include everything, but will share some highlights:
June 28, 2008: Today we did Kelly and Kevin’s wedding. The bride was beautiful, and her daughter who was the flower girl was thrilled to be a part of the wedding. Everything was very nice, however, the weather was formidable and stormy, so we had to forgo the outside pictures we had planned. However, with such a nice looking couple, we found some well lit spots and did the job!
JUNE 26, 2008: Today we photographed Pastor Stovall and Kerri Weems, along with their complete staff at Celebration Church. It was really great to be a part of this undertaking, and their staff is so actively involved in doing everything to carry God’s word to as many people as possible. It’s inspiring and sometimes leaves you breathless with all that goes on within the church. And to see so many young people coming back to God and being a part of this ministry is unbelievable! This week’s “One Prayer” theme was really awesome with our church joining churches all over the world to pray together, in unity as one church, just as the bible teaches us http://www.oneprayer.com/. Here’s three of the shots we took.
June 25, 2008: We went down to Gainesville, FL today to judge the PPSNCF Print Competition Salon, and it was really great to see all our valued friends and fellow photographers down there. As usual, they have so much talent and artistic prints and albums coming out of Gainesville. Lookout at the annual Florida FPP convention…they’re really rocking! It was so great to see and judge the event with photography great Bruce Evenson. Bruce, Steve is ready to come down and go kayak fishing with you soon!
JUNE 18, 2008: Today we photographed the Brut family down in St. Augustine Beach. We had previously photographed their daughter, Krista’s, wedding to John, and so enjoyed seeing them again, along with the new grandchildren, who are so precious! It was really windy and we experienced the usual North Florida afternoon thunderstorm and deluge, so it was a challenge to even get some pics, but we wanted them to remember their 2008 vacation down there with a family photo.
June 7, 2008: Drove over to Tallahassee (St. Theresa Beach) to photograph Lauren and Ben with their new Baby. We previously photographed their wedding, and found all family and friends to be so wonderful to work with, a lot of really great hospitable people! New baby Emory is so……cute, looks like a “little Ben”! Well, there’s a little of Momma in him, too. On the way home, stopped at a great little restaurant there in St. Theresa Beach and had dinner (Seafood buffet, our favorite!!)
May 31, 2008: Jessica and Matthew’s wedding was a lot of fun, and here’s a few of their pics. Reception at Jacksonville Golf and Country Club. A really sweet and super cute couple!:
May 18-22nd, 2008: Steve and I headed down to Daytona for the yearly “Florida School” sponsored by the Florida Professional photographers. Steve did a class on “Seniors” with Larry Peters, which also included an underwater shoot in the hotel pool (see photos below). This year, I had so much post production work, I stayed in the hotel most of the time trying to catch up (do we ever?), but I did get quite a bit done and working while I was looking out the windows at the beach and pool was very relaxing, despite the fact that I did not actually take in too much of the fun and sun! The school is always a tremendous educational opportunity for those who attend every year. Florida and FPP Rock!!
May 10, 2008: Our niece Autumn, and her new husband, Michael, came over from New Zealand to visit the family here in the states, and we did a photo shoot with them, along with a small family reception which was held by the Hamricks out at their magnificent “estate” in Callahan. It was so great to see Autumn again, and to finally meet Michael, our newest family member. Our son, Jordan, and his new fiancee, Liz, got to come up and visit with us while they were here too. We had lots of fun while they were here, family cookouts, etc., and got to spend Mother’s Day with them too. Hopefully, one day if we can ever get caught up on work, we will make it over to NZ to visit everyone there. We miss you guys very much, but know that you are a blessing to our family in your mission work! We pray constantly for your work over there!
April 19, 2008: Did Amie and Shawn’s wedding today and we really had a beautiful day, wonderful people to work with and a lot of fun celebrating!
April 18, 2008: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTMAS BOYS, SLOAN, AND OUR LIZ!! Four of our grandsons (Nathan, Matthew, Alex and Nicholas) have birthdays in April, starting on April 5th and going through the 20th, along with our neice Sloan, and soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Liz. So Happy Birthday to all our April Babies….we love you all!!
April 11, 2008: Our second April wedding was today with Stacy and Jason. This is very sweet, wonderful family whom we’ve worked with before, and love being a part of their important moments in life!
April 4, 2008: We photographed Katherine and Paul’s wedding today at Winterbourne in Orange Park, and found out just what a lovely and sweet couple they are to work with. Despite on-and-off again weather (they had to bring the ceremony inside), they worked so tremendously with us to capture their day and get some great images! And everything turned out really beautiful for them despite the rain.
March 23,2008: Congratulations Bruce and Addie Ann on your 50th Wedding Anniversay! What a blessing you and your family are!
February 23, 2008: We went down to Bonita Beach this weekend to attend the memorial service for Denise, the dear mother of our soon-to-be-daughter-in-law, Liz. The service was held at beautiful Lover’s Key, and the family held a full day get together for all of Denise’s friends and families to celebrate her life, and in a location where she would have wanted this celebration to take place. She loved the outdoors, hiking, kayaking, camping, and spent a lot of time with her family doing these things over the years. We feel so fortunate that we were able to meet and spend a weekend down there for Jordan and Liz’s engagement announcement, kayaking and enjoying her great cooking, before she took so ill and passed. Dale, Chris and Liz, our warmest prayers and condolences are with you, we know this is a great loss. The memorial service itself was probably one of the most beautiful services of remembrance I have ever experienced in my life. For all of us to be so lucky to have family and friends that cherish us the way Denise’s did. She was obviously very much loved by all, and you honored her greatly!
February 9, 2008: What a beautiful wedding…..Katie and Blake make such a fantastic couple, so attractive in every way, and from such great families! This is the 3rd daughter’s wedding we’ve photographed for this family, and they are always so much fun! One more daughter to go next year, and we’re really looking forward to that one also. The wedding was at the Ribault Club on Ft. George Island (my old high school stomping grounds). Beautiful wedding in every way!
January 8, 2008: THE TWINS ARE BORN! Our greatly anticipated wait for our twin grandson and grandaughter was over today. They were born at Baptist Hospital just after 12:00 noon to our son Jason and his beautiful wife, Amy. Both babies are doing great. Looks like Gillian favors Jason, and Spencer favors Amy….how neat is that. Family from both sides were there for the excitement and many tears of joy were shared to have them here. We had to leave Tampa’s PPA national convention to get back, and we just made it in time. Steve missed getting his national Photographer of the Year award, but said it that couldn’t hold a candle to seeing these little ones make their debut!
January 6-8th: The national convention for the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) was held down in Tampa this year, and that was really convenient for us (no flying across country this year). Steve received his much coveted Master Photography degree, and would have received his Photographer of the Year award on the 8th, but we had to rush back to Jacksonville for the birth of our twin grandchildren, which was so wonderful.
We ran into many friends from all over the world down there. It is so nice to catch up and see everybody we know and admire from all over the place! And, as usual, PPA put on a great convention. If you’ve never been, you just gotta go!!!
