Our dear friend Jennifer LaMountain dropped in with baby Garrison last weekend and requested some new headshots, for which we were happy to oblige. We braved the icy winds and Jennifer did her best not to turn blue while we cracked non-stop silly jokes just to keep ourselves laughing and warm. The laughing part is not difficult with Jen around. She’s also one very pretty lady. We love you, LaMountains, and we hope to see you and and the whole family again soon! And while you’re looking, buy some of Jennifer’s music here.

The Ilies attended a Morning Song Concert in Duluth, GA and walked away the winners of a free family session from ADP! It’s taken us a while to get our schedules to mesh, but when they called and told us that their daughter and grandson were in town from Idaho, we made sure it happened! The Ilies are from Romania and fed us until we were bursting! Now we’re quite spoiled, all you future clients… Thank you, Ilie family. We had a lovely time with you.

Sierra and Daniel are such fun friends and we were thrilled when we heard that they had started dating, even more thrilled that they were engaged and ecstatic when they asked us to photograph the event! We’re partially excited because these two have flawless style and taste, so we really look forward to their wedding day details and secondly – LOOK AT THEM! They’re adorable. Not so difficult to photograph. So congratulations to this fab British guy and this fantastic southern girl. We love you both and had such a great time with you!

Part 1: We talked with Sierra a few days before this shoot and she told us about the location that she had chosen and we were really excited. We met in Madison, GA at Perk Avenue for a quick breakfast and coffee. Madison is such a cute little town – Alysa said she “wanted to put it in her pocket and take it home!” Our main destination was The Nolan House but we took advantage of some fun locations in Madison before we left.

Part 2: The Nolan House is an old abandoned plantation style house about 20 minutes north of Madison. It’s in amazing, yet dilapidated, condition and we just fell in love with all of the textures and character of the building. This is definitely one of our favorite locations ever – well done Sierra! Thank you for giving us such a wonderful place to work.

Ok, so the last thing one should ever expect to see is pictures of us. Even on vacation, we may turn the cameras on each other 3-5 times. We just forget. But this Christmas we knew that it was about time for an ADP Christmas card – and that would REQUIRE us to do it. So we got out a tripod, set ourselves up with a composition we liked, set the intervalometer and danced around like monkeys until we were happy. I think it turned out ok! We’ll post a picture of this year’s Christmas card, done by our lab. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Katelyn and Jimmy were a blast to hang out with – they’ve had a whirlwind romance and we sat for an hour listening to their story. Jimmy brought his classic Cadillac and we insisted on taking a big chunk of our pictures with it – I think it is already a member of their family, after all! We can’t wait to be with you two on your wedding day this May!

Ok, we’re taking a vote! We know that one of the next two photos will be in our portfolio soon – but we can’t decide which is better. So we’ll let our readers decide. Please leave your vote in our comments section and the winner will be on our website in the near future.

It would be falsehood for us to post all pictures of Jimmy smiling and being serious. He is a total character and any group of photos of him would not be real without some of that sneaking through. Thanks for keeping us laughing all day, Jimmy! (And no, we don’t apologize for putting these on the blog.)

Lela Joy’s cousin Finn (and his parents David and Holly) was in Chattanooga for Thanksgiving and Finn’s grandparents were wonderful enough to give them an early Christmas session – a family session with ADP! (Wink, wink – *ahem* – nudge…we’re just saying it’s a great idea)

I (Alysa) have known Dave since college and we were both thrilled to meet Holly and Finn finally. The poor little guy was a little under the weather, but he’s still one handsome dude and he let out a handful of grins throughout the day. He was mostly content to sit in dad’s arms and make these little half singing, half sighing noises, just to let us know he was still there. Thank you, Gary and Malia for sharing us with the rest of your family and we hope to see ALL of you again soon!

And you know we can’t do a whole session with Lela there and not swipe a few of her! We hope these two baby cousins had a blast together this Thanksgiving!

In March I’ll be in Hawaii to photograph the wedding Adriana and Cyrus and I can’t wait! I was disappointed not be in San Diego to shoot their engagement photos, but they were able to book Jaclyn Pruehs. Jaclyn is my sister and I think it’s cool that we both get to be their photographers and keep it in the family. Jaclyn did a great job and I want to share one of my favorites of the day. Check out the rest on her website: http://jpruehsphotography.blogspot.com

This session was just flat out fun! Leslie contacted us a few weeks ago about doing a session with her whole family at TPC at Sugarloaf. We got to meet all 13 of her family members including 5 kids under the age of 5 and we couldn’t have hoped for a family that is better looking or laughed as easily! The three boys were a bundle of energy and we were completely consumed with following them around with our cameras. We really enjoyed you guys and we can’t wait for our next opportunity to photograph the whole clan or your separate families. We hope you smile and laugh at these photos as much as we did! And here’s a special message for Jack, Sam and Tripp: MONKEYDROPS!! (Don’t worry, you had to be there.)

Priscilla Berry is an independent Gospel artist with a new recording project in the works. An album’s photography is always such a big part of the project and we’re thrilled that she trusted us with her images. I’m honored to be a part of Priscilla’s music ministry and I’m looking forward to hearing the finished product as well. Here are some shots that we think would be great cd art!

We said it all in part one’s post, but we would like to state again, for the record, that we really could have done much better work had the bride and groom been better looking. Too bad. (Ha!)

We are so honored (or should we say honoured?) to have been invited to capture the beautiful wedding of Melita and Brandon. We are also thrilled to announce this as ADP’s first (of many, we hope) international destination wedding! Woo hoo! The wedding was at Wasing Park, just outside London and we were overwhelmed with the beauty and class of the venue – and of these gorgeous clients. Melita’s family showered us with attention, home cooked meals and even our own chauffeur! (Thanks, Matt!) We had a fantastic time and we hope your exotic honeymoon is fantastic as well!

Melita is Serbian and Brandon is Canadian. The reception was FULL of references to their proud heritage. At every other place setting, guests got either a Serbian salad dressing or Canadian maple syrup as their favors. Ours made it all the way back to the states and I can’t wait for waffles!

We learned more about the Serbian culture than we could learn in a lifetime – but mostly, we learned that Serbs know how to PARTY! The men break out in song randomly, the women in dance and the wedding reception just keeps going and going with magic, dance lessons, games and laughter.

Halle is so fun! We spent a couple of hours with her and her two dogs (Lexie and Rocky) and and keeping up with them was not easy! Lexie was the only one who would stay still long enough to get a closeup photo. Rocky (see below) was all over the place chasing Halle and attacking her skirt.

Thanks for spending some time with us. We hope to do it again sometime soon!

…and done!

Each portrait session has its own personality – that’s what makes this job so much fun! This session had lots and lots of personality. Isabella is just plain fun and entertaining to follow around with a camera. She is nonstop motion and jibber-jabber. I kind of wish that photographs also captured sound as well because that would be endless entertainment! Scott and Erika are so great with her too! They have lots of love to give and even more with another baby on the way! Congratulations!!

It was really hard to narrow the photos down to merely a handful of favorites! Here they are!

I was blessed to be able to go out to Loma Linda, CA to photograph the Diehl family. I have known Shani for several years but hadn’t met her husband yet, or their son. The entire weekend was a great time but the photo session was the highlight of my trip. We started in the backyard, then went to the tennis court and then the golf course. We even managed to get Shani’s parents in the photos too – what a wonderful bonus! The Diehl family spends a lot of quality family time on the golf course, just a few minutes from their home, so it was the perfect way to end the session. Matthew is going to be a great golfer in a few years and give his dad a run for his money!

Thank you to the Diehl family for inviting me into your home and allowing me to capture memories for your family! I hope you enjoy several of my favorites from the session.

He has such a great swing! He makes great contact with the ball too and he was gunning for me out in the fairway! :)

This guy is AWESOME out of the sand! He was flopping them within kick-in distance!

We’ve been anxiously waiting for this wedding for months- mostly because we’d seen Holli’s wedding scrapbook- and we knew what a beautiful, laid-back event it would be! Holli is a wedding planner extraordinaire and had every detail down, she did all the decorating herself, made her own cake toppers, centerpieces, and programs. She even thought to bring a matching green hanger for the detail shots we would do of her dress! Holli and Todd, we love you guys. You are so much fun, so complimentary and you’ve got to be the two nicest people on the face of the earth! We hope you enjoy this preview of your beautiful wedding.

Holli, like Alysa, is a huge fan of the Little Mr. and Little Miss book series. Each bridesmaid found a book that corresponds with her personality waiting by her shoes. And you guessed it- Mr. Tall is for Todd!

The boys were so anxious to see the girls that they snuck a peak from their dressing room during the girls’ session. Would you believe that Todd resisted the urge because he wanted to wait to see his bride when he was supposed to?

We mentioned Holli’s expertise at matching everything perfectly, right? Well, they found this orange and green bug while doing the girls’ pictures. Instead of freaking out, Holli took it as a good omen that a bug that matched her colors would make an appearance the morning of her wedding. It is possibly the coolest bug I’ve ever seen!

What a gorgeous bride! Well, done, Todd!

Todd bought matching Converse sneakers for each groomsmen with their names stitched into the side. Alan was quite jealous. You’ll see Todd’s coming up…

Another reason we love this couple- they wrote their vows and then read them off of their iPhones! And, you guessed it, Holli’s was green!

We love these little handmade cake toppers. Holli even painted them to match their clothes! Oh, and notice Todd’s Rice Krispie treat groom’s cake! It was a big hit.

Congratulations again, you two. Happy one week anniversary!

The day after our session, we all ran back up to Ooltewah, TN for Lela’s big birthday party! Most of her baby buddies were there, we had cupcake cake, Matt debuted the first of 18 songs he’s going to write for his little girl, Lela discovered bubbles, and we were all very, very proud.

Lela was completely surrounded by her female family members – grandmas, great-grandma, aunties and cousins – all cooing, giggling and talking that wonderful baby talk.

You’ll never guess who this is! Baby Asher is growing up on us! For a reminder, check out his newborn session here!

We love you, Lela Joy! We are so honored to have been here since the beginning and to be a part of your life and putting that beautiful life on camera!

We are so honored to have been able to document Lela Joy’s first year of life. These photos were taken the day before her first birthday! She has grown so much and become a little person who is so much fun to be around. She’s nearly walking, can say “Dadda” very well, and giggles at almost anything. Alysa and I are so proud of her and love her dearly – we can’t imagine how much more her parents love her. Here are few of our favorites of the gorgeous Lela Joy. Her 1st Birthday Party pictures will be posted on Sunday morning, too, so come back!

We wrapped up the session with a meal at Steverino’s in historic Duluth, GA. Lela took FOREVER to order!

This is part two of James and Karla’s wedding- the reception. They held it at a gorgeous warehouse venue downtown called the Hickory Street Annex. There was lovely food, a mariachi band, dancing and lots and lots of laughter. What more could photographers ask for?

James STILL couldn’t stop looking at her. He truly adores Karla.

James is just irresistible and touchable!

Karla’s bouquet was simply beautiful.  She was so proud of her flowers and all of the girls couldn’t stop commenting on them. I managed to borrow them from her for a minute to take a few photos.  Tami from A Magic Moment Event Design & Floral Couture Studio did an amazing job creating all of the flower arrangements for the wedding.

The show stopper of the night was a song that James sang to his new bride, as a total surprise to her. He let loose with all the groomsmen as his backup singer/dancers. The crowd was laughing and smiling so much their faces hurt afterward.

We had so much fun at James and Karla’s wedding! These two have the most lovable, dynamic personalities (as seen in pictures) and the most incredible singing voices (unfortunately not seen in pictures). And we felt so good about the photos of this wedding we couldn’t stop picking blog images. So, you two, as a special present from us for being such great ADP evangelists and doing a registry with us, we decided to make this an extra long, two part blog! You’ll get the portraits and reception in the morning. For now, enjoy the beautiful ceremony at Arlington SDA Church in Arlington, Texas.

People kept accidentally congratulating Karla’s sister Adriana on her wedding instead of Karla. I don’t know why. They look nothing alike.

The brooch on Karla’s dress was the first gift James ever gave her. And they weren’t dating at the time. I don’t know of any man that gives jewelry to the woman he’s NOT dating! I think James had other ideas secretly, Karla!

After James got his future wife on the stage, he couldn’t stop looking at her. And can you blame him?! We’re so glad we caught him. You can’t pose moments like these.

Karla and James are shoe fanatics. So much so, that they did a shoe change before walking down the aisle to start their lives as husband and wife. New shoes for a new life!

Come back tomorrow morning for the rest, kids! You won’t regret it!

It’s been 18 months since Shaun joined the family and this is the first time we met him. That’s just wrong. Patrick is Alysa’s cousin who we never get to see because they live in Texas. We just so happened to be coming to the Dallas-Forth Worth area for a wedding and fit in a portrait session with the family, featuring Shaun. This little guy is a lot of fun. He doesn’t look like a toddler, but more like a little man with very grown up features. We had a great time with all of them in the sticky heat of Texas. Here are some of our favorites from the evening.