Well, today I was asked to judge the doggie costume contest at the RVSPCA Howl-O-Ween festival in Elmwood Park and of course there was more irresistible furry goodness than a person can possibly stand in one place. Here’s just a few. I would have had a few more, including some of the winners, but I had important judging duties that were of course a priority. I left the park quickly after the winners were announced as some of the contestants were very feisty. I just didn’t want any trouble :D

I love photographing seniors and I have a little more time this fall to schedule a session or two a week in October. I shoot outdoor sessions in the evenings because that’s when we have the best light, but I offer in studio sessions as well. Here’s the beautiful and charming Burgin, a PH senior I shot back in August.

“You don’t marry someone you can live with, you marry the person who you cannot live without.” ~ Anonymous

I love that quote. I mean, let’s face it people, it’s hard living with someone else. Other people, all other people, do things we don’t like. They do things the wrong way. They don’t operate entirely like us. They’re not LIKE us and in fact, sometimes we are just plain opposites.

But, isn’t it great when we simply cannot live WITHOUT them. We can’t wait for them to be around us. We look at their things and think about them being around us, even if their things are not really what we like, or where we want them to be… or….even if we really HATE their things. Oh, and worst of all, if we really can’t live without them, we start to actually LIKE their things even though if we were in our right mind we would really not like their things at all. So, our great fortune in Life is to find someone that we cannot live without. That, for the most part, takes care of all the rest.

I’m pretty certain that Cricket and Jeff have this great fortune. Perhaps if they weren’t in love they could actually live with each other. I really don’t know. But, what I do know, and what was quite obvious throughout their day, was that these two married the person they could not live without.

Here’s a few shots of their fantastic wedding where we all had such a good time.

I totally love this shot…..I see lots of long walks just like this. I think mom liked the slide show.

Today was the Festival Virgin del Mar, and they celebrated in Playa Sámara with a procession of ox carts on the beach.

Who, being loved, is poor?  ~Oscar Wilde

It happens. But, most of the time it’s pretty cool.

A few shots from Sarah and Zach’s wedding at Smith Mountain Lake. The perfect luck…… rain on their wedding day but not enough to dampen the party, only the party planners! I couldn’t have picked a nicer family to work with. Grandpa and Grandma were wedding photographers in the day so I enjoyed chatting them up for a bit. The bride and groom totally enjoyed their day and are off to a very happy Life together with their awesome friends and family. Thanks Sarah and Zach for making this such an easy day for us, I enjoyed every part of working with you both.  And a great big thanks to all the behind the scenes folks who worked so hard to make their perfect day. Awesome job from a crew of Roanoke’s top tier wedding professionals!

Flowers – Corsair Floral and Events

Catering – Schaal’s Catering and Events

DJ – RSP Entertainment

Planning and Coordination – That Wedding

Reception Venue – Bernard’s Landing

I just had to post this one of Cricket. I shot her wedding on June 5th and she looked beautiful.

As the Hokies get ready for the Spring Game I thought I would post a little  eSession I did at VT two weeks ago.

James, Jack and I ventured out on a three day backpacking trip in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area last week. It was kind of the Four Seasons trip, starting out on Wednesday with temps in near 80 and ending up on Friday morning a bit below freezing. It was an awesome trip. I’ve mountain biked a lot on the northeastern side but I had never been to Mount Rogers on the southwestern exposure. I was truly amazed at the beauty, especially this time of the year before much had leafed out. It really doesn’t seem like Virginia at all. An added bonus were the ponies which seemed to be several places as we progressed through the trip.

It was Jack’s first time backpacking and he got a new pack just for the occasion. They say a large dog and carry 30% of their weight in a pack. We didn’t load him up that heavy, but it was pretty clear he had no problem with a mostly full pack. He plotted along a few feet ahead of us for most of the trip, turning around every twenty yards or so to make sure we were still coming. It’s pretty nice having a dog that you don’t have to worry about running off or getting lost. There is no way Jack would ever let us out of his sight long enough for that to happen. He is a joy, especially outdoors.

Here’s just a few pics from the trip. I don’t take any of my professional equipment on backpacking trips because of the weight, so these were shot with my little pocket Olympus that I hate so much. I guess I will get around to replacing it this summer. I kind of would like to get another Canon G series. I had a G1 about 10 years ago that I really liked. Now they are up to the G11. It’s a little big, but still portable, and much more adapted to manual shooting which is what I prefer. I think this trip convinced my I need a better knock around camera.