We're baaaaaack!

We survived DC! And had a great time doing it. The seminar was great (thanks again Justine and Diana!); we've got a ton of new ideas to help our clients and make their life easier. And we got to see a few sights and play tourist.

Saturday while I was in the seminar, the girls (Danielle, Maddie, and D's mom Kathy) tried to visit the National Zoo. A drive that was supposed to only take about 30 minutes ended up taking them over three hours (not because of traffic, but the crazy streets). They found out the hard way that driving in DC is a challenge. I gave them a little light-hearted ribbing about it until Sunday night when I drove them into the city and we ended up driving about 20 minutes out of our way when I accidentally got on the wrong street. Same thing happened Monday when we took on the Mall. What a frustrating cluster[youknowwhat]. I'm definitely investing in a GPS before we hit up another big city.

Here are some more vacation images from the traveling Hopes:

Maddie was shocked to see snow at the zoo (she'll get more tomorrow... we're going to drive up to the Smokies and play a little in the morning. If the snow won't come to us, we'll go to it!).


Maddie being a nut, just like her daddy.


Panties on her head. Okay, maybe she didn't get all of her silliness from me.


The Marine Corps War Memorial.


The World War II Memorial.


The Washington Monument.


Lincoln.




The Girls and I. Twas a chilly night at the Lincoln Memorial.


D shooting at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.


Maddie "If I'm cute enough, maybe we'll leave this boring museum".


I would be a giant in 9000 to 5000 BC (average height 5'7")!


The Washington Monument reflecting in the "Wall".


The Korean War Memorial.


Make sure you check back tomorrow. We had an awesome session today with one of our babies from last year. I can't wait to share some of the images with you all!

And if you want to lay out of work and join us in the snow tomorrow, give us a call. I've got the sleds all ready to go!

-Wes

Kate and Chris eSession

I told you we had shoots coming up!

We got to meet one of our out-of-town brides today. Kate Strong and fiance Chris Mielke came down from the Chicago area on a wedding recon mission and to have their engagement session done. We met them at the Knoxville Convention Center and although it was a bit chilly, we had some nice even light to shoot in. We're looking forward to their May 24th wedding in Robbinsville, NC. It's not every wedding I get to push the minivan to the limit on a road like The Dragon. :) (Just kidding Danielle!)

Kate and Chris it was great finally getting to meet you all face-to-face! Thanks for letting us shoot you. We can't wait to see the bouquet of fringed phacelia! ;)

Here's a few faves from a quick edit before we head for D.C. tomorrow morning:







Chris likes to play with expensive toys too and brought along his new Nikon D3. We had to incorporate it in a shot or two.




You can't come to the Convention Center without having your picture made with the Sunsphere.




Danielle tagged along and shot some too while I shot. This was one of my favorite quiet moments she found.


After we came home we had a huge delivery waiting for us at the door. Some prints our friends Linda and Tony ordered of their cool Nissan 350Z had arrived. My favorite was a monster 24x36 mounted composite I did of a few of their favorite shots. I was so proud, Danielle took my picture with it. For a reference for those of you that haven't met me yet, I'm 6'5"... this sucker is almost half as tall as me! That's going to look sweet on their wall.



We head for the Nations capital tomorrow for the Modern Portrait workshop. I'm going to learn and Danielle and Maddie are going to sightsee. We're sticking around Monday so I can make it to the Mall and see some of the museums and monuments again. It's been over 15 years since I've been to D.C. and I can't wait to see it again. I'll try to post at least once while we're gone... I know you're going to miss me. Ha!

-Wes

ps: I just opened a Facebook account last week so if you're on there, give me poke or be my friend. I'm still trying to feel my away around, but so far, so good.

Wow-Wii!

Saturday night the girls and I went to see our friends, the Bridges', new house and to have dinner with them and our other buddy Jason Davis. It was a meeting of the great photo minds in Knoxville, for sure. After dinner (thanks again Erika!) Steven fired up their Wii. It was a my first Wii experience and I have to say, even though I got beat down in just about everything I played, it was a blast. And I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't sore the next morning.

For starters though, I wanted to give you a view of my new favorite t-shirt. Danielle surprised me with one of the latest from the What the Duck site. WTD is an online comic about photography. Easily one of the best comics ever.


Here are a few shots from the night. I brought my camera and Steven snapped a few too. His are the black and whites.

Maddie and Silas contemplating tacos.


Jason trying to pick up a spare while bowling. Playing the Wii was a bit of a challenge with the rugrats running around.


I never claimed to be a pitcher, but here's my best fastball.


I never claimed to be a batter either, here's me swinging for the fences.


Jason excited that one of us (him) finally sunk a putt after quadruple-bogeying a hole in golf (notice Danielle yawning on the left side of the frame).


Must... get... air... boxing was a good workout.


Steven shooting Silas.


Maddie wasn't happy I told here it was time to go home.


10 seconds later she decided to get me back.


And Steven's angle of the attempted homicide.


This is obviously our slow time of year (obvious because of all the personal posts lately). So if you come here for fresh and exciting baby photos or weddings or engagements, hang in there... it's about to get busy in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I'm going to get back to the ice bag on my shoulder. I'm telling you, the Wii kicked my butt.

-Wes

Bridal shop promos

We survived all the V-Day chocolate (Whitman's Samplers... always a surprise until you take a bite) and got back to work today. Danielle's been working on our tax stuff (ewww) and I've worked on some promos we're going to hang in a local bridal shop. We shot three models last year wearing dresses from the bridal shop in a field that one of Danielle's aunts owns and we're just now getting around to getting them done. These are going to be big 16x20s. And since they're promotional material, I funked them up a bit. Let me know what you think.







-Wes

BREAKING NEWS!

Guess what?

I WON!! The Modern Portrait workshop I told you about a few days ago... I won the contest! How cool is that? I never win anything. A tuition free workshop. I can handle that.

So we're road-tripping it to D.C. next week so I can fill my little brain with all sorts of goodies and knowledge. I think we're going to try to stay over a day or so and hit up some sites in D.C. I love me some museums

I hate posting without pictures so here's a couple from our Valentine's day. We started out with a nice romantic breakfast at Waffle House. Huh? Yep. When preggie starts craving, I warm up the car.


Mmm. Looks good, huh Erin? ;) (The little iPhone takes some decent snaps. I might try it out on our next wedding!)


Maddie come back home from her sleepover and immediately tore into her Valentine's Day gifts.


But wanted no part in a quickie family portrait.


That's all for now. Thanks for all the recent comments. Keep it up!

-Wes

Be Mine!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We hope you are enjoying it with someone you love. And if not then go find someone you love... life is short dang it!!

In honor of the day of love, and because Valentine's Day is the most popular day for the boys to muster the courage to pop the question, we've decided to do a little V-Day promotion.

If you get engaged on Valentine's Day and you tell us that you read our blog, we'll give you a gift of 10% off any wedding package! Pretty cool, huh? We'll call it the Be Mine Promotion. So ladies, here's hoping he bought a ring and did it right.

Here is me with my Valentine. We would have snuck Maddie into the picture somewhere, but she's spending the night at grandma's house.


Love to you all,

Wes

Let it SNOW!!

I told you we had some freaky weather coming through. As soon as I saw that it was "snowing" this afternoon I ran outside to play. It didn't amount to much and I'm actually not so sure you could call it snow.

But I made a snowman, by George! I may have to call Guiness to see if this is some sort of record for the smallest ever made.


That little guy is only about 3/4" tall. That really puts the "snow" into perspective.

Here's to wishing we could get at least one real snow this winter.

-Wes

ps: I decided not to post the hair cutting pictures because probably not everyone wants to see, but if you still want a chuckle and do want to see the before and after (there were a couple of you that asked) you can see them here (you may have to click the image to see it full size... depends on your browser I guess).

Go fly a kite

The haircut pictures are going to have to wait. After we got in from running errands and having lunch with my Mom (thanks for the yummy Metro Pizza!) we decided to take advantage of the high winds barreling through the area today. Danielle and I bought a $.50 Finding Nemo kite last year and never had a chance to break it out. The winds were so hard though I just knew the little plastic bag on a string wouldn't last, but it surprised me. As fate would have it though, Maddie got to hold on for about 5 minutes before the winds died down. And that's all it took for a 2-year-old's attention to be snapped. So off to the playground.



This is what the Madgirl thinks of the wind dying down.


Climbing the fort.


The slide looks HUGE thanks to the wide angle. The kiddo is still too scared to slide down by herself. Geez, you drop a kid once and they never get over it.


This in my favorite image of the year (so far). Danielle's little baby bump is getting bigger and bigger! And Maddie thinks she can hear the baby in there.


It was almost 70 today. And tomorrow the high is in the 30s with a chance of flurries. Man, Tennessee weather rocks!

-Wes

Walking home

Just a couple of photos from our walk home from next door at Mamaw Reba's house yesterday evening.

I felt experimental so I funked them up a wee bit by tweaking a few actions I bought in Tampa.




I did the silly thing where I cut my hair myself again... I'm debating whether or not I should share those snaps or not. Shoot me an email with your vote and I'll decide if they go online.

-Wes