silverleaf photography

Blog Moved

2011-12-07T14:28:00.001-08:00

My blog has moved! Go to www.silverleafphotos.com/blog to find the new one.

Clinton & Elizabeth Wedding

2011-10-27T19:17:00.001-07:00

Clinton & Elizabeth were married in Mooresville, NC. I was really excited for their wedding because I felt like I knew them pretty well after their engagement session in the mountains and Liz's bridal portraits. (Speaking of which, now that the wedding has been over, I need to post those!) They are such a fun and sweet couple! I had a great time working with them and it too bad they ended up moving to South Carolina.

Clinton's dad is the pastor at this church and he officiated the wedding.

The wedding party

I'm glad you are settling into South Carolina and I hope to see you soon!

Andrew and Amanda's Wedding

2011-10-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

Andrew and Amanda were married in a gorgeous church a few weeks ago in Charlotte. Enjoy their blog post and stop back by, there are a lot more coming soon!

I love little touches at weddings like this bible and the locket. Several women in Amanda's family have carried these items at their weddings. So sweet!

I love this blue stain glass window at the front door of the church!

My favorite.

On to the reception!

Amanda sang an impromptu first verse of "You are my Sunshine" to Andrew. It was definitely one of my favorite reception moments since I've started doing wedding.

"How low can you go, can you go down low, all the way to the floor..."

Lauren's Senior Photos

2011-09-05T07:32:00.001-07:00

Growing up, Lauren was very shy and quiet, she wouldn't even talk to my dad (her uncle). Her mom had to order food for her at restaurants because she wouldn't talk to the waiters. She went on many adventures out west 'Uncle Phil' took us on where we hiked and climbed and explored and had her 8th? birthday in a cramped screened in porch in the rain. I remember she got a Brittany Spears cd that year and a cake my mom had packed in tight with all of the camping supplies. There was another summer...or maybe the same summer she became a junior ranger, but wouldn't talk to the ranger to get her badge. I think he gave it to her anyway :) Just recently we spent an entire week together at the beach with our family and I'm amazed at what a beautiful woman she has become. She's smart, witty, still so sweet and she'll talk to people! She just went off to college a couple weeks ago. While at the beach I (not easily) snapped some pictures of her and later in Indiana took a few more. Enjoy!

Day 1 of the shoot, it was very windy so we didn't get too many without her hair blowing all over the place.

Her prep team: My mom left, Lauren's mom right.

I love this one because it shows Lauren's fun personality!

Day two of the shoot we were out for about 10 minutes (waiting on my camera lens to unfog) and then it started raining. Click here

Day 3, we are in Indiana in Broad Ripple park. The weather was (finally) perfect. Lauren, you are so beautiful! My favorite.

Meet Darby! We couldn't take pictures in Indiana without including her. :)

I think Lauren read like 5 or 6 books while we were at the beach.

Mike and Kim Maternity

2011-08-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to share with you my latest maternity session. Mike and Kim were one of my very first wedding clients! They were married in June 2008. Now they are the first wedding clients that I've also done maternity pictures of.

Their dog Mylie love getting her picture taken.

What a cute belly!

Kim is expecting a baby boy in about two weeks.

This is in their backyard :)

Mike and Kim's beautiful house!

Congratulations again! It was so great to see you guys and catch up. Maybe I can take pictures of your family another time I'm in town. :)

Jason & Hannah Wedding

2011-07-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

This post wraps up my Spring/Summer weddings. I can't wait for my fall weddings to start! Jason and Hannah were married early July at Hannah's parents beautiful lake house. I've been very excited to show you these photos. I'll have to say they are some of my best pictures yet! I'm going to warn you now that I went a little overboard with the bridal shots. I couldn't help it, Hannah was such a cute and gorgeous bride!

I love the "getting makeup put on" photos!

Told you she is cute!

These girls were absolutely awesome. They have been friends for a very long time and it shows! You are so lucky to have each other :)

Hannah's mom was equally adorable to Hannah. Seriously, if I didn't have such a great mom myself, I would adopt her!

Bridal shots...

More bridal shots...

and more bridal shots!

Ha, I think I have a picture like this from every wedding. There is always a need for whatever reason for a couple of people to go up in the dress to straighten things up.

Cheers!

Watching the guests come.

I love this, Hannah peaking around to get the first glimpse of her groom.

What a cute idea for a grooms cake!

I loved the fish bowl center pieces! What a cute idea.

There was no shortage of beautiful flowers at this wedding!

My favorite on the left.

Mother and brother of the bride.

Had to snap a few quick sunset pictures!

These girls have a tradition at each of their weddings to do a big show for the groom. They did not disappoint! There was signing and dancing and it was awesome!

Congrats Hannah and Jason!

Andrew and Shannon's Wedding

2011-07-25T15:59:00.001-07:00

Wow, this summer has just been absolutely crazy! I feel like I have been out of town more than I've been here and when I am here I've been editing like crazy.

I'm super excited to share this wedding with the blog world. I absolutely adore Andrew and Shannon. Andrew is the nicest guy and Shannon is so down to earth and funny. They are such great people and you guys are definitely invited to our next cookout!

Cute little Walter had to stay outside during the "getting ready" stage of the wedding. He didn't miss out on getting his photo taken though!

I love painted walls. Some of my favorite images has come out of people standing in front of them.

If these guys ever make an album, here's their cover shot.

Another painted wall!

I love this picture. What a sweet little flower girl! I especially love the little curl hanging over her face.

Happy bride!

It just so happened that there was a classic car show going on the same day as their wedding so we made sure to take advantage and get pictures with the cars. I love this little retro beetle.

I took lots of pictures of this little cutie.

It was a hot ceremony but gorgeous!

I was very excited when one of the car show guys let us have full access to his blue truck. My favorite!

My second favorite. What a great looking couple!

Jon & Kristin's Wedding

2011-07-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Jon and Kristin had a fabulous outdoor wedding (my favorite type of wedding)! It was at Kristin's grandparents lake house in South Carolina. It was a PERFECT spot for a wedding. If I had that house, I would consider buying a permanent tent and making it a venue.

Loved her dress!

Kristin is so lucky to have such great bridesmaids/friends!

Their party favors were cute. I wish I would have grabbed one on my way out.

I loved taking photos with this antique car they rented!

A cute and unique way to display table place setting cards.

This was the first wedding I was at with a photo booth. It was really fun!

First dance.

I love silhouette pictures.

Another vintage car that was parked at the neighbors house.

A sorority tradition.

A perfect ending to a perfect day. Matt and I had such a great time with you guys!

Clinton & Elizabeth Engagements

2011-06-28T16:51:00.001-07:00

Have I mentioned before that I'm really kinda starting to fall for North Carolina? There's just so much to do and its so pretty. I came here two years ago this August, pretty much kicking and screaming. Let's just say, I was not too happy to be moving away from my home. Now that I'm here, I adore it. The beach is close and so are the mountains which bring me to my latest outdoorsy themed engagement session at Blowing Rock in the Blue Ridge mountains (just an hour and a half away from my house). Its a cute little town and I would like to take Matt there sometime. For those of you reading this from back home, it reminds me a little bit of Nashville, Indiana.

I LOVE when my couples bring props to the shoot!

I got excited when I saw they had a pink bike and a blue bike. How cute is that?

I love this one!

We stopped along the road and jumped out to get these awesome fence/field/mountains shots.

This one is my favorite! I squealed when I saw this on the back of the camera.

No couples (or photographers) were injured in the making of this photo. :)

I love my red barns.

Clinton is holding up this tree branch.

Hello gorgeous blue eyes!

As it got dark we finished up in this ice cream/fudge shop. Um wow, yum! Their ice cream and fudge is awesome. I kinda want to go back just for that. :) You could smell the goodness from outside and every time we walked by we'd get a huge whiff.

Jakob's Newborn Photos

2011-06-16T14:39:00.001-07:00

This post is in perfecting timing for Fathers Day. Prepared to be overloaded with cuteness.

Meet Jakob, he was about 2 weeks old when we took these pictures. You can see the maternity session here.

I love this cute little wooden wheel barrow. If and when I get a studio, I'm getting one of these just for newborns!

Before I was born, my grandpa made my two older sisters these tiny little wooden cradles and put a porcelain baby in each. Jakob is in the exact position those porcelain babies were in and this picture reminds me of those.

I think this is the closest I got to a smile from Jakob :)

I just love Alex and you can tell by this photo that she is great big sister. As soon as I got to their house that day Jakob was still asleep and Alex took me up to her room to show me all her cute little things. Then she took me into her playroom that was set up like a classroom. She is going to teach Jakob so many things!

Here is the glove from the maternity session. We are going to photograph it and Jakob throughout this coming year to show how much he's grown.

The whole family.

I want to use this next picture to say Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there!

My favorite.

Another great one for Father's Day.

Baby toes!

So glad Lydia had Aaron take off his shirt. These photos turned out great!

I had so much fun with you guys. I can't wait to come back and take more photos in 3 months!

Jessica and Donald's Wedding

2011-06-15T16:38:00.001-07:00

School is out for the summer and I can finally play like I'm a full-time photographer. I've been editing like crazy and I have a lot of great sessions that will be coming on this blog in the next couple weeks.

Donald and Jessica's wedding was so much fun and I'm excited to be able to show off these images. There is nothing better then getting to watch a couple on their wedding day. I love weddings and I would do mine over and over if I could. Oh and as a warning, there are a ton of pictures on this post. It was too hard to narrow it down!

Matt and I met the bride and groom getting ready in their separate hotel rooms that morning. I love getting ready places with lots of light! These hotel rooms were perfect for that.

This is probably my favorite ring shot to date! When we were in the hotel room, I found a plastic cup full of blow pops by the bed. I thought it was a bit strange so I had to ask. Donald had spent the night before in that room and I guess he's crazy about blow pops.

I love this image Matt took of the sweet little flower girl in the guys room. You'll see a lot of her on this post!

I love the combination of their gray tuxes and the huge window behind them.

Jessica, you looked absolutely stunning!

Another shot Matt took. This is probably one of his favorites.

I'm glad Matt took these photos of the flower girl and ring bearer practicing because neither one would walk down the aisle for the ceremony.

This one is my favorite shot of the day.

Their wedding was at the new mint museum in Charlotte. It was such a pretty location!

This one cracks me up because the ring bearer spotted Matt up on the balcony during the ceremony and that's what he's pointing at.

Mmmm, just looking at this picture makes me crave cake.

This was outside during their first dance.

Family :)

2011-05-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

I was just eating these Wheatable nut crisp crackers and it took me back to one of my favorite memories in the last couple months. My sister, Jennifer and I drove home for Easter and on that Saturday we went to Oliver Winery in Bloomington, IN. After doing a wine tasting and feeling a bit tipsy my parents bought a bottle of wine and we sat on the back patio at the winery eating these crackers and cheese, drinking wine and chatting away. This memory makes me smile every time. I love my family and I wish I could spend more time with them. At times I really do hate living 9 hours away from home.

Here is the only picture we took that day. I had the wine tasting lady take it with my phone and she cropped it way too close, but I love it. My family minus one (miss you Christie!)

Justin and Allison's Engagements

2011-05-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

Justin and Allison brought the coolest prop ever! They showed up to the shoot in a fire truck. You know, that's how they roll. The day was absolutely perfect. We had great weather and a they picked a really great location. Justin and Allison were so fun and photogenic! I have such cool clients. I'm the luckiest photographer!

I climbed on top of the fire truck to get this one. Now you know what the top of your heads look like :)

Love the crazy sun flare!

I'm so happy all of the leaves are back. I love all the green in these next two shots!

My favorite <3.

I couldn't resist going back to the fire truck and getting a few more.

I wanted to get a picture of him doing a fireman's carry...maybe at the wedding :)

I can't wait until your wedding and the chance to shoot with the fire truck again!

Jason and Hannah's Engagements

2011-05-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

Jason and Hannah's Engagement session was a challenging session to say the least. We had 35 mph wind gusts and a very bright sun with little shade. It was the same day that there were 25 tornados that touched down in North Carolina. Despite all of that, I'm very happy with how the photos turned out! Jason and Hannah were definitely troopers. Thanks for putting up with all the elements thrown our way!

We started the shoot at Statesville high school's football stadium. You know, Jason was a football player and Hannah was a cheerleader :)

This one is my favorite!

They are getting married July 2nd this year. I can't wait!

After the football stadium we headed over to Hannah's parents house for more pictures. This is also where they are getting married. Have I mentioned before that I LOVE outside weddings?

Her parents had beautiful flowers all around their house. I wish I could make my landscaping look this good!

Hello big beautiful brown eyes! Oh and by the way, I love her dress and earrings :)

Jason was a bit nervous about me putting this beautiful (expensive) ring into a hole of this bird house, but aren't ya glad I did? I am :)

And we couldn't do a photo session and leave out the cat!

David and Kristen's Wedding

2011-05-04T18:28:00.001-07:00

David and Kristen were married at a very beautiful place called The Arbors. It got a bit rainy at times and a bit cold during the reception but nothing stopped this close-knit family from having a great time. What a great group of people to spend the day with!

David and Kristen chose to do a "first look". If you look closely you can see Kristen and her bridesmaids in the background making their way down the hill.

I love how happy they are in this picture when they see each other for the first time.

One of my favorites.

Another favorite.

Once again, they just look so happy!

The awesome wedding party.

Watching the guests arrive.

Another favorite. Check out the guest in the background taking a picture. I have several of these photos with him doing this. I'd love to see the photos he got that day!

The next few photos show one of the best bouquet tosses ever!

This photo is epic! We have two girls fighting over a bouquet, a top falling off and a girl flinching in the background. Its awesome.

The bride came to the rescue!

And finally this day would not have been complete without the umbrella/rain shot. (I've been secretly wanting to photograph one of my couples in the rain and finally got to!)

Shannon's Bridal Portraits

2011-04-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have to say that this session was my absolute favorite and best session to date. Now there are a lot of factors that contribute to this statement. First, my new Canon 5d Mark II made all the difference in the world. Second, location, location, location, and what an amazing location it was! Seriously, a photographers dream place to take pictures. Also, the bride. She was willing to do anything, and she totally rocked the shoot. It wouldn't have been nearly as amazing without her and her awesome maid of honor who came along to help. We also can't forget the groom Andrew, who drove us there and had to wait (a long time) while we played in the fields, treated us to Bojangles and drove us home. Also, he took all the equipment (and ottoman) to where we needed it. Oh and hacked down a vicious plant that would have been blocking the way of pictures.

Prepare yourself for some awesomeness and my best work ever :)

We took these photos on Andrew's parents 120 (or so) acre farm. This is an old tobacco barn.

I love the blue shoes! Note to future brides, consider colored shoes, they rock!

And the ottoman I was talking about :)

A lot of people don't realize how hard it is being a model. Some poses you have to hold a while and its definitely not comfortable or easy! Shannon was awesome!

I love the light in her hair, the expression on her face, her pose, its perfection!

We scored big time with this truck, even though the owners brother was a bit wary of us shooting around it...

I know what you are thinking... white dress, rusty truck...I assure you no dresses were harmed in the making of these photos!

Jon and Kristin's Engagements

2011-04-10T11:55:00.001-07:00

I got to explore the Queens University of Charlotte campus a bit with Jon and Kristin last Wednesday. I love living in North Carolina, it gets warmer so much earlier here and it was a beautiful day :) Also the green is really starting to come back big time! Jon and Kristin are such a sweet couple and I could tell by just spending the day with them, that they are so meant for each other. I can't wait until their wedding in May. It sounds like its going to be an awesome event!

This one is my favorite.

Rex and Krystal Engagements

2011-04-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

My internet is finally working! I have been wanting to post these pictures ALL week. We did Rex and Krystals engagement pictures last weekend at the Memorial Gardens in Concord. It was a great place to take pictures, especially because of all the tulips :) It was a beautiful day and I had a gorgeous couple!

This was one of the very first shots of the day. No warm-up photos necessary :)

Rex's mom met us at the gardens so she could let us in the little house (you can see it in this photo) with restrooms and a place to change outfits. She knows (I think) the owner. We also were allowed to stay longer to get photos after everyone left the place. (There were lots of other people there getting their pictures taken) I love it when my clients have connections!

I always love a little (sun) flare :)

This one is reminiscent of a photo I did a LONG time ago: You can see it here. Its the 6th picture down. Wow, that was even before I had my Silverleaf watermark.

Krystal, you are going to be a drop-dead gorgeous bride! I can't wait :)

I'm definitely digging this one.

This is one of my favorites. I LOVE this shot!

This is my other favorite. It doesn't look like it, but we were all up in a tree decently high off the ground.

Then we went to downtown Concord for a few more.

If I'm allowed to have 3 favorites, this is my 3rd.

Oh and this is definitely a favorite too!

I've been wanting to do pictures in this laundromat for a while and I finally got my wish!

I came home just beaming with pride after this shoot. It was definitely the best shoot I had in a long while. I feel like I'm really starting to take another (big) step forward with my work and it feels great!

2010 Business Goals

2011-04-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

I moved to North Carolina about a year and a half ago and this is the first time I've really felt my business starting to take off since I've been here. I have to say, it feels incredibly awesome! I have 8 weddings booked for this year. Twice as many as I had in 2009. My April is completely packed with tons of awesome shoots. I'm such a lucky photographer!

All of this greatness has inspired me to write a goals list for this year. My business always has room to grow and improve.

1. Buy a 5D Mark II and a lens. (I have coveted this camera for a very long time and its finally almost time to upgrade.)
2. Upgrade to the latest photoshop software
3. Advertise locally (in Statesville): Make and put fliers in neighborhood mailboxes and advertise to seniors at the high school.
4. Print new client consultation albums. (The ones I use are pretty outdated!)
5. Make client consultation packets
6. Order custom Silverleaf Dvd packaging
7. Revamp my website...and possibly even my logo
8. Update my wedding package prices
9. Create a better system for backing up photos.
10. Open a Silverleaf business banking account.
11. Turn in photos to magazines and other publications
12. Buy small items to make business run smoother: 2nd camera bag, extra battery for new camera, a card reader, another 16GB card, etc...

*I wrote this post a week ago and then my internet stopped working so I never got it posted. I have bought the Canon 5D Mark II and a lens and used it for the first time at a wedding yesterday. It is awesome and I can't wait to share the pictures from the wedding! I love that camera!

Richmond Maternity

2011-03-23T17:23:00.001-07:00

This was my first shoot of the year and it felt great to get back out and take pictures (of something other then my dogs). The weather is warming up and the world is finally becoming colorful again!

Meet the Richmond family and their adorable home.

This is Alex. She is in Kindergarten, my favorite age! She was so sweet and very photogenic!

These two cuties had to join the shoot as well. Lemolade a.k.a. Lemonade and Doug.

I love the attitude in this one!

This one is my favorite. The camera just loves Alex!

I have a bunch of shoots coming up in April so stay tuned. Also, I can't wait until little Jakob comes in May! My blog readers will get to see him as a newborn and as he grows over the next year.

Workouts

2011-03-19T09:20:00.001-07:00

Now that my honeymoon is booked I have a lot of motivation to start working out. Also the weather getting warmer and warmer is a good motivator too. Last summer I worked out a ton because I was trying to get in shape for my wedding. There were two workouts I found worked really well for me and I want to share these with the blog world (and any of my brides trying to get in shape)

30 Day shred by Jillian Michaels. Buy it here.

This is a great (quick) workout. I get really bored with long workouts (and I don't have a lot of time). This video goes by so fast the workout is over before you know it. Its 20 minutes and very affective. It works so many muscles and gets you sweaty and tired. Not to mention sore the next couple days. I also feel its very motivating. The things Jillian says aren't annoying (like a lot of videos) and makes you want to work harder.

I started this video a little while back (I've done 6 out of 30 days). My goal is to finish it as close to 30 days as possible (I may miss a day or two extending the deadline) but I'm okay with that.

After I'm done with the 30 day shred. I want to start up the Couch to 5K again. I got about half way through last summer before school started and it stopped.

You can find the workout plan here for free!

I'm the first to say that I AM NOT A RUNNER! Every time I would look at the next week and say, there's no way I'm going to be able to do that. Then, I got out there and did it. It builds you up very slowly and it works. Its also about 20-30 minutes minutes (3x a week) so it doesn't take up much time either. I may even try to find an actual 5K to run in after its over. There's a facebook group you can also join.

One other motivator that I found that helped me keep all this up last year was a friend. My friend Lizzie and I kept a google calendar of our workouts. (we live in different parts of the county so we couldn't work out together) It gave us accountability. We made a goal (to work out 5 days a week) and recorded what we did on the calendar. There were several days where I didn't feel like working out, I'd go on the calendar and see that she worked out and it would make me do it too. Currently I'm not sharing a calendar with anyone so if you are reading this post and would like to do it let me know. It really helps! We would record everything. Even if all we did that day was go for a walk or do 50 crunches. I think I even recorded digging up the garden and other yard work.

By the way, this is my 100th blog post!

Honeymoon

2011-03-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

So we FINALLY booked our honeymoon. This is a big deal because there have been MANY times where I wasn't sure it would actually happen. We got married in September and talked about having our honeymoon at Christmas. Then we realized it would be twice as expensive to go during the holidays and we wouldn't be able to take as nice of a honeymoon. So then we had this crazy idea that we may just be able to go that week after the wedding. Well that got shot down right away by my brand-new principal that I hadn't even started working for yet. So then we decided on this summer. After many discussions about money and that it wasn't financially responsible to take a honeymoon right now, we did it anyway. My feeling is if we keep putting if off for whatever reason, it will never happen.

We found a great place that I am really excited about! Its definitely a dream honeymoon. It is an all-inclusive resort in Rivera Maya Mexico near Cancun. What's even better is that our resort is part of a complex of three resorts and the all-inclusiveness goes for all three. That gives us 20 restaurants, 3 big swimming pools (the beach), several bars and all kinds of things to choose from.

*This picture was taken from Orbitz

Matt and I have never been on a real vacation before together. We have only visited friends and met our families for short trips. This trip is long overdue and I've already started mentally packing. (its 5 months away) I've also started mentally getting in shape...meaning I'm thinking about working out but not actually doing it yet. I'm thinking this trip may be the last time I can wear a bikini so I definitely want to make sure my body is bikini appropriate ;) Today it was cold and rainy on the way home and I conveniently was thinking that I should start running after work (of course not today though because it was raining). Oh and I've been able to speak Spanish for years but have never been to Mexico...its somewhere I've always been meaning to go. Oh July, please hurry up and get here!

*I wrote this post a couple days ago and am just now publishing it. I have now worked out twice, so hopefully I'll keep going with that!

My wedding album

2011-03-10T17:09:00.000-08:00

Wow, I never realized how hard it would be to make my own wedding album. First of all Pictage (the company I use to make albums) is tough anyway, because every single thing can be manipulated. Its your choice how big, how many and where you put each and every picture. My first idea was since I got my pictures back in October was that I would have my album finished by Christmas to show everyone. Well, I finally have finished my album (March) and I still haven't ordered it yet. (Waiting on some cash first...) Anyway, for now here's what I've done:

My Wedding album (Click here)

Of course all the pictures were done by the awesome Chad Franz Photography. If you are in Indiana and need a photographer, he's the one to hire! I can't wait until I get it printed and can show it off.

Also, I'm thinking I need to make a fresh new album (like this) to show clients. The one I have is waaaay outdated :)

wedding show

2011-03-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

I participated in my second bridal show the other week. The first one I did was a smaller place in Indy and it was a total bust. Only about 5 brides showed up the whole time. This one in Statesville was much better. Not only did it help me to meet some local brides, but I've already booked two weddings for this year!

Here is me in my little booth before the show started:

This is the first time I've been able to showcase my canvas prints. I love them and the hang in my home office, but Jake, Oliver, Matt and I are the only ones who see them. I also brought my computer so I could show people my images through a quality screen.

This is the brochure I made a printed out to give to the people who stopped by my booth. They are the fan looking things in the above picture.

Tons of people showed up and the show was a big success. I had around 40 brides (plus grooms, family members and friends) stop by my booth throughout the day. This is something I'll definitely do again next year!

The Fiat

2011-03-02T05:07:00.000-08:00

A year and a half ago, I was packing up my house in Indy to come here to North Carolina. Matt flew to Wisconsin to pick a few things up, rent a truck and haul a car down he kept talking about. Matt pulled up in the huge moving truck in front of our Indiana home. I looked out the window and said what the hell is that!? Behind the truck was this car that looked like it had been pulled out of a fire. It was the ugliest car I have ever seen. Then and there, I was like "oh boy".

Here are some "before" pictures:

Fast forward a year and a half and I walk out into our garage and seriously this is one of the coolest cars I've ever seen. And its even cooler because my husband put it all together by hand. He had it painted and the windshield put in by someone else and a few friends would come and help him work on it. I even did a few small things every once and a while on it.

Here are the "after" pictures:

I'll have to say I was pretty skeptical about this whole thing and a big part of me didn't think it was going to get finished. You hear those stories about project cars being in garages for years and years.

Unfortunately the near completion of this car means that the gears are already turning in Matt's head to start on another car. He has in mind what he wants to do and I'll have to say once again, I'm a bit skeptical :P

Best of 2010 Weddings

2011-02-27T04:29:00.001-08:00

Once again this list is short but I did get some great photos out of the weddings I had last year!

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Best of Engagements 2010

2011-02-26T05:31:00.001-08:00

Seeing as its the end of February, its about time I do my "best of 2010" posts. Starting with my best engagements! Since 2010 was my first full year living and shooting in North Carolina, my lists will be a bit shorter than previous years.

25

24

23

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Wedding Gifts

2011-01-30T05:50:00.001-08:00

For those of you who read this blog, well, you probably don't any more, I've been terrible about blogging. This is a post I have been wanting to do since the wedding (In September) so here it goes! I promise I will try to get better so if there is anyone out there who still reads, please continue!

Matt got me the perfect wedding gift. He had the idea in his head for several months and really stumped me when he said it was too big to give to me on the wedding day. I had no idea what it would be. The day after the wedding we went to my parents house for a brunch and to open gifts. When someone asked him what he got me, he went ahead and told them and me his idea. He hadn't gotten it yet, but planned on getting me a porch swing. He had a place picked out about an hour away from our house and as soon as we had the time he was going to drive me there.

I have wanted a porch for as long as I can remember and as long as I wanted a porch, I wanted a swing to go on it. When we bought the house last spring, it had the porch and I'm sure I mentioned at one point or another that I wanted to put a swing on it one day. I hadn't even thought of the idea as a present. Matt listened! Anyway, the weekend after the wedding we took the dogs for a miniature honeymoon and drove to a cabin tucked away in the mountains. It was the perfect chilly cabin weather and we had a fire constantly going in the fire place and took several dips in the hot tub. On that Saturday we went into town and walked in and out of a bunch of shops. One of the shops was an Amish furniture store and they sold porch swings. The price was right, so we bought it and stuffed it into my Outback.

Before the wedding I was trying to think of a good gift and my first thought was a watch. Well Matt doesn't wear watches so my next idea was what he uses for a watch instead, a phone. His phone was starting to act up a bit and I knew he was eyeing the touch screen droid. I wanted to get it as a surprise but I realized it wasn't going to work after I talked to a verizon guy. So I told Matt my plan and a couple weeks before the wedding we were at BJ's (store like Costco). They had a verizon booth so we bought it there and they mailed it to us right before we left for the wedding.

My contract is up in March so I'm hoping to get one of these as well. I can't wait to finally have a phone with the internet on it!
There are some more posts I've wanted to do for a while, so my first goal in 2011 is to catch up on them a bit.

Brendan and Rachel's engagement session

2010-11-28T07:48:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we went on a trip with my new inlaws to Arizona. While we were there I took engagement pictures of my sister-in-law and her fiance. We took all of these in the backyard of the house we stayed in. I'm so happy how they turned out. It was refreshing to take pictures in a completely new landscape from what I'm used to.

Brendan did a really great job and I love the way he looks at Rachel.

It definitely hurt a little bit trying to put the ring on the cactus to get this shot! It was worth it though.

I love the scenery in this one!

This one is my favorite.

I love the way the sun is hitting Rachel's hair in these next two. I really hope my kids get her (and Matt's) red hair!

My wedding and my story

2010-11-07T13:08:00.001-08:00

My wedding was amazing. Everything went so smoothly and it was really the perfect day. I couldn't be happier with how it went. Chad Franz was my photographer. That was the biggest question I got when I told people I was getting married. Everyone wanted to know who was going to photograph the photographer's wedding. I was totally confident in his abilities and knew he would be great. He exceeded any and all of my expectations, and they are pretty high, being a photographer. If you are living in Indy and need a photographer, he's just great.

Here is a link to his blog post.
Chad Franz

I want to write about the wedding because it seems like every day I forget a little more. I don't even really remember waking up and taking a shower the day of, or how I felt at those moments. I feel like its so cliche to say, but it really went by in a blur. I remember telling myself several times, this is it, here we are, what we've been planning for all this time. I don't remember what I ate for breakfast. The first thing I can really remember is piling into my parents suburban (Jennifer, Christie, Lizzie and I) to go to our hair appointments. We waited for a little while in the waiting room. Then they had me sit in a chair and wanted to take everyone else into different rooms. I'm not sure what I said, but something along the lines of wanting them in the same room with me, and thankfully the hair dressers moved their stations so we could see each other.

After that we went back to my parents house to get ready. Chad and his assistant took my dress and shoes outside to photograph. I remember telling him that I wanted outside dress pictures and I said something about how brides never let me do it (this was before Thad and Sarah's wedding) He said that he usually just does it and doesn't ask. I don't know if I'm bold enough to do that. Of course the getting ready part took much longer then expected (as it usually does) but being a wedding photographer I planned in extra time so I wasn't worried.

My mom drove me to Oak Hill Mansion. Matt had been waiting there for me for a while (poor guy, he was probably really fidgety) I really enjoyed that time in the car with just me and my mom. I couldn't get over how bridal and perfect I looked. (I kept looking in the mirror, I know I know, a bit vain...) I seriously have never looked that beautiful in my life though. My friend and bridesmaid Melissa did a great job with my makeup, Rose Dore Salon did a great job with my hair and my mom and I did a great job picking out the dress and bridal accessories!

Once we got to Oak Hill. Matt was waiting on the other side of the Mansion so my mom and I walked around the front and waited until he was in place. I walked down a little hill towards him (facing away from me) and once I got close, had him turn around. I love these "first look" pictures and it was so worth it. I'm so happy I saw him before the ceremony! What a special moment.

After that we just took some pictures around Oak Hill and waited for my brother-in-law Derick to bring the boys. Our black lab Jake and our lovable mutt Oliver. I'm so glad we got these pictures of these guys with us. They really are everything to us! People definitely look at us like we are crazy dog people when we talk about them. They were so excited and hyper. They totally knew something huge was going on.

My second favorite formal shot from the day.

Once the dogs left we had a little bit more time before the wedding party was supposed to arrive so we went to this little nature reserve I found (on the way from the rehearsal to the rehearsal dinner). I'm so glad we found this spot because a couple of my favorite shots from the day came from there. There was this beautiful yellow grassy field. Being a photographer, I cared way more about my pictures then if I got my dress a little dirty. I think Chad was a little surprised when I told him I wanted to go into the long grass...and sit on the fence... Good thing my mom didn't come along for those pictures. :)

My favorite formal shot, I'm getting this one is as big of a canvas print as I can afford!

We went back to Oak Hill after the field, took pictures with the wedding party and the family before it was time for me to go to the bridal room and hide. Once the girls went down to get ready to go down the aisle, my dad and I went to the room (upstairs) where we could see everything going on outside the window. We watched as the mothers lit the unity candle...after someone from the audience had to give them matches. I saw my mother-in-law turn around and I saw her say "matches?" with her arms out. Then we watched as the guys walked up to the front and at that point my heart starting beating a little faster. I told my dad that, and he said he remembered feeling like that at Jennifer's wedding at that same moment. Once all the girls were at the alter, my dad and I came out the door and starting walking down the steps, and my eyes started tearing up. I tried to breath in deep and keep the tears from coming.

After the ceremony Matt and I went through the bubbles, across the boardwalk and up to the parking lot. When I turned around, I realized the only people who followed us were the photographers. I kinda forgot to tell my wedding party the plan of where we were going right after the ceremony. My photographers and Matt bustled my dress and they got a few awesome shots at the front of the mansion before heading to find the rest of my party so we could be introduced. (most of them were at the bar :) )

When I walked in I was first very excited to show Matt his grooms cake. I had been planning this in secret for so long that I couldn't wait to show him. The cake is supposed to represent our dogs and how crazy we are about them. The initial thought was to do an indy racecar, but that turned out to be way more expensive then the dog cake and his team switched him to Nascar so after that it kinda became a mute point.

Then I went over and saw my cake. It was so beautiful! All I had was an image in my head of what the cake ladies drew on a piece of paper for me. I really had no idea what it would look like and it was even better then I could have imagined. Anyway, I was SO happy with the cake.

Next came the toasts (after dinner) Wow oh wow, they were awesome. I expected my sister's speeches to be awesome but I had no idea my brother-in-law would have such a great speech. I was told that he practiced it a ton, which is super sweet. I'm so glad we got them on video! Best wedding speeches I've heard! My sister's gave us advice according to the poem everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten (because I'm a kindergarten teacher). It was so cute.

Our first dance was to Say Hey I Love You, but Michael Franti and Spearhead. I was really excited when I decided on that song because its so up beat and not a traditional first dance song. I basically choreographed the dance the day before and we practiced it about 3 times. It went so well! We totally rocked it. Everybody was impressed and thought we had taken lessons.

From the first dances to the rest of the night, everything was just amazing. I do remember that my ribcage hurt so bad! Dang lace up back, made me look great, but man, ouch. I was glad to get that off. But anyway, we basically danced the night away. It was one big party and so many people danced (including myself) up into the last song. It was just awesome, and perfect (have I said that yet?)

After the last song we headed to the parking lot and our car was decorated. Not overly so like I've seen some cars at weddings. It was tasteful. Matt and I that day had talked about how we were going to get to the hotel but it was never officially decided. A little while before we went out to the car, Matt told me he was okay to drive. So we walked to the cars, I stood by the passenger side and said goodbye to some people, talked for a little while and then opened the door to get in the car. I looked in a said "your not my husband". Sitting in the drivers seat was Matt's dad. I guess they decided when I was not paying attention that he would drive us the 5 minutes to the hotel. So I then closed the door and got into the back with my husband :) It was really funny listening to the cans trailing along behind the car.

So that pretty much sums up the day. Since the wedding, things haven't really changed much. It was really fun getting to spend all the gift cards and finding places for and using all of our gifts. It was also really weird calling Matt my husband. I don't remember the transition from boyfriend to fiance being as weird as the transition from fiance to husband. It was also a nice reminder every time I looked at his left hand. I really like his ring, we did a good job picking it out.

My favorite parts of the day:
Taking pictures in the field
Our first dance
The speeches by my sisters and brother-in-law
Getting to see some of the pictures Chad took during the day at the reception. What a nice treat.
How so many people stayed so long and danced!

Jessica and Donald's engagements

2010-11-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

We went to a park in Charlotte close to Jessica's and Donald's house. It reminded me so much of a park back home in Indiana near my parents house.

Love this little guy. His fur and expressions make him very photogenic!

This one would make a cute canvas. My favorite.

Jessica, you are so gorgeous! I can't wait to see you in a wedding gown :)

I love this one, they looked so relaxed and comfortable.

When I met Jessica, she was wearing the cutest shoes. I was instantly excited for the engagement shoot! Boots/high heals make photos more interesting.

Ahh, sunset over the water.

Shannon and Andrew's Engagements

2010-10-31T18:25:00.000-07:00

I hit a deer on the thursday with my car, so I had to drive my husbands car to the session. Of course half way there I heard a scrapping sound coming from under the car. It turns out there was this huge metal piece hanging off the car. Nothing will stop me from taking pictures! At least it was a beautiful day and I got to take pictures of a beautiful couple. We had a lot of fun at a park near their house in Mooresville (NC). I can't wait until their wedding next June!

These dogs are awesome! They were definitely on the move though and it was tough getting pictures of them :) We managed to get a few good ones though.

I'm surprised I got this many with the basset hounds nose off the ground. He seriously wouldn't pick it up for anything! :)

I had (what I thought was a secret weapon,) a squeaker toy in my bag. They perked up the first time I squeaked it, and then completely ignored it the rest of the time. I had to resort to making silly noises.

I love when couples bring props to their shoot! It makes things more fun and unique to the couple.

I love this one! They are both so relaxed and happy. Its my favorite.

The sun was getting pretty low so we got nice long skinny shadows :)

I love Shannon's face in this one, so cute!

Phil and Ashley's Wedding

2010-10-31T18:21:00.001-07:00

Phil and Ashley were married a couple weeks ago at a beautiful stone church here in North Carolina. There reception was at a fire department.

Ashley getting her makeup done drinking her coffee. She has such a cute mug.

Ashley looking stunning.

My favorite dress shot ever!!

This adorable little flower girl is the bride's baby sister.

The groom being silly while getting ready. This is one reason why its great to have more then one photographer at your wedding. I may not have been there to get this shot if it was just me.

Handsome groom and groomsmen.

Loved the orange wedding accent colors!

The ladies.

What a sweet little princess!

And the beautiful bride.

Way to go Matt, this one is awesome!!

Love the boots with the wedding dress! She wore these for her engagement pictures

For the center pieces Phil made all these O's out of wood. Aren't they awesome?!

Phil and Ashley, I have had a blast working with you two. You are such great people and I hope to work with you again (and hang out) soon!

Thad and Sarah's Wedding

2010-10-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

Wow has October been a crazy month! Its a mad rush of all things photography...weddings (done and done), bridal meetings (this weekend), engagement shoots (next two weekends) and I'm setting up a booth at a fall festival to take pictures of families (also this weekend). I have to say I'm loving every minute of it. Its hard for me not to dream of going photography full time when I have months likes these. All that spare time during the day would be awesome to use editing and getting ready for shoots (and building my business). Here is the first blog post of many to come with the contents of my October shoots.

I had been looking forward to this wedding all year. It was at the same vineyard, we took their engagement pictures at so I knew it would be beautiful!

Before we start let me just say that at the wedding, Sarah's family and friends kept taking pictures of her and saying that she doesn't take a bad picture. SERIOUSLY, the girl doesn't take a bad picture! I don't have one single bad image of her.

Yahoo! My first bride to let me take her dress outside!! I was so excited for that and got this awesome picture. I told my photographer at my wedding that I wanted outside dress shots and I told him how hard it was to get the bride to okay it. He told me that he just does it and doesn't ask :P I'm not brave enough to do that.

Love, love, love mirror shots!

Mom, dad a bride just before walking down the aisle. Sarah, you are glowing in this picture!

My favorite shot of the day. There's starting to be a pattern, my favorite shots a lot of times seem to be the 'artsy' shots.

Yes, the sky was that blue...no enhancement necessary. Thanks Matt for this cool shot! He's getting really good being my second shooter! :)

We are at a vineyard, of course I have to get a grape shot. I also stole some grapes and stashed them in my bag for later. You'll see that shot in a bit :)

I love the sun poking through the trees and the look on Thad's face, ::melt!::

I love getting tons of photos of the bride and groom. If you are planning your wedding, plan extra time for these! You will thank yourself later.

The stolen grapes came in handy on my ring shot!

I love this one of the cupcakes :)

I'm loving these next to night shots :)

This is a close second favorite :)

update

2010-10-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

This Saturday will break my quite long photography hiatus. Things have been slow this summer (photography wise). Instead I was VERY busy, starting a new teaching job (wow, stressful, fun and crazy) and getting married! I'll post about that amazingly perfect day soon (as soon as I get my pictures back from my photographer).

So the next 4 Saturdays in a row I have 2 weddings and 2 engagement sessions to photograph. I'm so excited to get those going. Stay tuned, there are many posts to come!

2010-09-24T04:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just realized my last post was almost a month ago. It has been crazy around here. I started a new teaching job on August 25th (my birthday). I'm teaching kindergarten and I love it. Its overwhelming and bit stressful at times, rewarding and just plain fun. I'm loving making lesson plans for 5 year olds and being around their cute little faces all day. I'll post pictures of my classroom soon!

On to even bigger news, I'm getting married tomorrow!! I finally get to see what it is like to be on the other side of the camera on my wedding day. I am at home surrounded by my family and friends. Our engagement was a year and a half and we are finally here. I'm so excited that it is Friday morning, the start of this big weekend. We have been so busy the last couple days getting products finished. Yesterday we were running around getting our marriage license and tuxes. I also went and bought some make-up and my mom and sisters bought more candy and other odds and ends. Last night we were up working on programs (we ran out of glue so we aren't quite finished yet). This wedding is definitely all coming together and has lots of great little touches that will make it unique. I can't wait to share wedding photos!

Mike and Nicole (Maternity)

2010-08-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

I met these two several years ago through Matt. He was friends with them through college. The four of us have so much fun together and I am so excited that they are going to have a baby girl! She is due the day after our wedding so sadly neither of them could be in the wedding or for that matter even come. But we couldn't be happier for them. They live just outside of Denver, I love having friends in cool places so I stayed with them a couple nights after vacationing with my family in Rocky Mountain National Park (more on that later). It worked out perfectly so I could get maternity pictures. Hopefully we will be able to visit soon after the baby is born!

Oh and Nicole loves black and white, so I made sure to include several.

We started off taking pictures in the nursery. Its all ready and waiting for baby to come home.

I love the theme they chose.

Marina Werner :)

This is there crazy, quirky, cute dog Tucker. He is black lab/border collie.

We went off to a nearby park later that day. I really like this one:

Nicole saw these next two on the back of the camera and said, "my belly looks so big!"

Last shot of the shoot and my favorite.

I can't wait until I get to hold their sweet little baby girl. They are my first friends to have a baby. :)

Jake's 4th Birthday

2010-07-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

My dog Jake turned 4 today! This is actually the first birthday since I've known him (when he was about 1) that I've kept tracked. I felt like this milestone deserved a photo shoot. I've never really "officially" taken my dogs out to do a shoot with them. I've only ever really taken pictures of them when we are somewhere cool or they are doing something cute.

Sadly I do not have any puppy pictures to share. Matt got him (before we met) when he was a small puppy and the pictures were just adorable. Unfortunately they burned in a house fire over a year ago.

Outside for a quick photo shoot.

Jake's only 4 and his muzzle is already turning white :( sad.

This was one of Jake's birthday presents.

Oliver wanted it too.

Look how high Jake got! Super dog.

Here are some old favorites taken over the years.

Jake loves to go camping

and Matt likes putting shirts on him.

Oliver was such a fuzzy little puppy here. They were best friends even from the beginning.

Jake was a bit jealous because Oliver had a bone.

Website updates

2010-07-21T08:34:00.001-07:00

After two years of business, I've finally updated some of the pictures on my website..
My awesome web designer Stephanie Zuroff, showed me how to change the pictures myself. I updated the weddings, engagements and portraits sections. Those were the original three galleries I had when I first published the website. I've added the other galleries since then and didn't need to update those. Wow was it hard to pick out just a few of my best shots. Looking through my archives and trying to select only a few was really hard! It definitely made me proud of all that I have accomplished these past two years.

Check out some screen shots :) Leave me a comment below if you found yourself in any of the pictures on the site!

Wedding Portfolio:

Engagement Portfolio:

Portrait Portfolio:

www.silverleafphotos.com

Happy 2nd Birthday Silverleaf Photography!

2010-07-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my business is two years old!

I am so proud of what I have accomplished these past two years and all the hard work and dedication I have put into it. Don't get me wrong, owning my photography business has made me extremely humble at times (when looking at other photographers' work), but I have very high hopes and aspirations.

Keeping the trend from last year, I am going to fill this post with pictures of me taking pictures. I also have a few of my newest business partner/second shooter, my fiance Matt. Hopefully he can put up with weddings long enough to keep shooting with me for a while.

Still haven't been able to change my weird face I make when taking pictures...

I'm taking a picture of a ring on the rocks :)

I look happy about what I see.

Apparently whatever I am saying is very interesting.

That dumb dress kept bunching up in the back :( Its too bad because I really like the dress.

Haha, here I am trying to tell them how to put their hands. I don't think they quite understood what I meant.

My newest business partner :) Isn't he adorable with that camera?!

This is going in our wedding slideshow :)

Ducking out of the way for guest pictures.

I'm not trying to take a picture of the sky here, I promise. I was trying to see how the photo looked. It was a really bright day!

I hope you enjoyed these. I'm looking forward to many more great years of my business! Thank you to all of my amazing clients I've had so far! I couldn't do it without you.

Baby Tigers!

2010-07-18T06:22:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago Matt came home telling me he had this awesome surprise for me. We were going to go that Saturday, but after talking with someone he said we had to wait a week. I didn't want to wait a whole week to find out what the surprise was so Matt told me that we could go pet baby tigers. Um, yes please! So long story short, we went yesterday to this place about 15 minutes away called Zootastic. They had two baby tigers there, a 7 week old and a 17 week old.

Here is my favorite picture, me and Matt holding the 7 week old baby tiger. Yes, this is totally going in the wedding slideshow.

Look at those huge paws!

Money shot! I'm thinking I may make a grassy background and make a canvas print of it for my house.

He loved chewing on Matt's hand.

Belly rub!

Again with the chewing.

This is the 17 week old tiger. We got to pet her out of the cage but there were too many people around to take pictures. We snuck back in later to play with her again.

She loved Matt! I wasn't brave enough to let her put her paws on me and lick me.

I'm totally going back to this place. It was so much fun. And who knows, maybe I'll see if they need some extra help next summer :) There were a ton of animals there besides the tigers, farm animals and several other exotic animals.

Google Listing

2010-07-14T05:09:00.001-07:00

I know I haven't posted much recently. This summer, photography-wise is pretty slow for me. Moving to NC last year cut way down on my clients and I have a feeling most weddings here happen in Spring and Fall because of the summer heat.

Because of the slowness, I have been working on trying to advertise more. Matt has decided to be my marketing manager, so that should help some! One thing he got me to do was have people write reviews on my google listing. You can view that HERE.

I've had such amazing clients! All of these clients are going to get a little something special in the mail. If you are a past client or present client of mine and you are reading this, if you write a review for me, I'll send you something in the mail with your two favorite photos.

The reviews will help my listing move further up on the list so more people will see it.

The Steve's family portraits part I

2010-06-29T11:15:00.001-07:00

Since my grandma has so many sons, instead of using our last name, Ward, she uses her son's first names when talking about a family group. The Phil's, the Stan's, the Mark's and the Steve's. (which is the reason for the title of this post)

I am in a huge way family oriented. I LOVE my family and I don't see them enough, especially now that I moved across the country. I was delighted when my cousin Katie asked me to do photos of 'the Steve's' family. This includes my aunt and uncle, my two cousins and their children.

I had a blast taking photos of them! It made me want to do a whole lot more family shoots. There was sooo much laughter and smiling involved in the shoot. Those two boys are so much fun to be around and baby Addison is absolutely adorable! (She'll show up in part II)

I'm splitting up these pictures in the next two posts because it was way to big for one post.

First up, Connie, Steve, Katie, Mike, Will and Brady. Enjoy!

My cousins kids are so cute!

Doesn't this picture make you want to give Brady a huge smooch!

Still in love :) Aren't I a lucky girl to have such great examples of married couples in my life!?

Um, big canvas print! My favorite from part I.

Love those baby blues.

His smiles are so contagious!

The boys loved playing my 'red light, green light' game.

If you look closely you can see the seeds Will blew off his dandelion.

This would also make a great canvas print.

The Steve's Family portraits part II

2010-06-29T09:44:00.001-07:00

Brock, Natalie and their 6 month old baby joined us for the last half of the shoot. Poor baby Addison had a bit of a traumatic morning. While at the doctors office, she scratched her cornea and her poor little eye was red and teary. We still got her to smile a little though :)

A little history: I'm about 6 years younger then Brock and I remember when I was little, he would pick me up and throw me around. I loved it. I also remember one time at his house when I watched him beat the first Mario Brothers Game. I thought he was so cool! Their wedding a few years ago was on a Cruise ship in the Caribbean, what an awesome time that was! Natalie was such a beautiful bride.

The headband stayed on her head for about 5 seconds, so I'm glad I grabbed this one before it got pulled off.

The whole gang.

Addison loves her cousins.

How sweet is this?! My favorite from this set of pictures.

Daddy and Addy :)

What a perfect little family.

Brock is a pilot, so we had to get some pictures of mommy playing airplane.

Look at that gorgeous red hair!

Facebook Fan Page

2010-06-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

At one point I started some sort of facebook page for my photography business but I don't think it was a fan page and I never kept up with it. I just made an official "fan" page and I would love for anyone who reads this blog to become a fan. My goal is to get 500 fans. It may be a crazy goal (and who knows when I'll be able to reach it). Afterall, I do only have 303 friends on my regular page. Here's to setting my goals high! Please friend me if you haven't already!

Click on this link to get to my page so you can "like" me.
http://facebook.com/silverleafphotography

I really like the profile picture of me taking a picture. I was a bridesmaid in a friends wedding and I'm bad at putting my camera down to be in pictures. The photographer (Hope Photography of Knoxville) took the picture of me at the exact same time I was taking a picture.

Inspiration

2010-06-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

I just watched a 'rock'umentary on Joni Mitchell "Woman of Heart and Mind: A life Story". Her life makes mine seem small and insignificant. I feel like I should be doing more, creating more. I'm not a writer, singer, musician, painter, but for some reason I can take photographs. That is one thing I'm good at and have the passion for. In college I was surrounded by artists and the only thing that made me feel like I could match up was what I could do with my camera.

Tonight I feel inspired. Thanks Joni Mitchell. Maybe someday I can travel somewhere crazy and create something grand.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

I first want to start off by saying that I wouldn't be a photographer, there would be no such thing as Silverleaf Photography and there would not be this blog if it weren't for my dad. He's the one who got me interested in photography. I take after him in a big way when it comes to being a bit obsessed with photos.
When I lived in Indianapolis, my dad was my second shooter for weddings. It was so fun getting to spend the day with him shooting pictures!

This first picture was taken when I was in high school (before digital cameras) I was out west with my family. My dad and I were taking pictures of a waterfall. He was teaching me how keep the shutter open longer so the water looked smooth and also how to make the shutter faster to freeze the water droplets in time.

Here we are a couple weeks ago in Asheville, NC taking pictures of the Biltmore Estate. Can you say, like father like daughter? Monkey see monkey do.

Well, I'm off to go out to dinner with my mom's side of the family. Hope everyone is having a great Father's Day!

Richard and Sarah's Wedding

2010-06-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Richard and Sarah had a bumpy start to their wedding weekend. Friday night during the rehearsal dinner there was a thunderstorm and a lighting bolt hit the house, caught on fire and knocked out the power. Firemen came, (I heard a guest say that they drank all the tea) and put out the fire. Fortunately it was in a small part of the house and the wedding could still be held there the following night.

Most of my brides have been very mellow and calm while getting ready for the wedding. This is a good state to be in but Sarah was the most excited bride I've seen. She was grinning from ear to ear and kept exclaiming, "I'm getting married today!" It made the day so much fun for everyone.

I could go on and on about the venue. It was AHmazing! We were on top of a mountain (Blue Ridge Mountains, NC) on a vineyard with this gorgeous house. It was an outside wedding, I LOVE outside weddings. Even though my mom tried to talk me out of one because of the weather, I am getting married outside. The reception was in a tent behind the house. Just wait until you see pictures of the view we had!

You can see it on her face how excited she was, (and it's not because she has a wine bottle in her hand)

Haha, love it!

This photo really stuck out to me. There's something so cute about the two men helping the ring bearer get his tux on.

Beautiful

Beautiful (this is my favorite bridal portrait)

and more beautiful

Getting the garter situated

Matt grabbed this one of the bride getting ready to come out of the house just before walking down the aisle.

One of the cutest flower girls ever!

I'm so impressed, Matt got this one. Its a very typical "Rachael" photo. He's been paying attention to my work.

Did I tell you how happy they were? Love it!

My favorite

These two were flying to the North Pole :)

Did I tell you how beautiful this venue was?!?

LOVE the expression on that baby's face!

My favorite one Matt took

I love this picture. How perfect is the flower girl dancing on the right?

The FURminator

2010-06-03T05:18:00.000-07:00

I've really been cranking these blog posts out lately. I'm proud of myself! I hope people read them! Last Saturday I shot an amazing outdoor wedding (at a winery). Stay tuned, I'll get those pictures up asap!

On to the post...

My black lab Jake has been scratching himself like crazy lately. At first we thought it was because of all his hair he was shedding. Then, after talking to some dog lovers, we thought it may be because of allergies. Jakes never had allergies before but we did just move to one of the states with the most allergy problems. After several days of feeling bad because Jake was so itchy, we finally took him to the vet. I feel a little dumb because it turns out he just has fleas. Something we could have treated without going to the vet. We just figured since Oliver wasn't itchy, it couldn't be fleas. But never fear, it was worth it! Matt asked the vet about brushes for the dogs and she recommended the best brush we have ever used. The FURminator. This brush gets their undercoats and is amazing. You wouldn't believe how much hair we've brushed out of them in the past two days. They look so much better (and after using Frontline on Jake, he feels much better)! You can buy it off Amazon.

My wedding planning

2010-06-02T08:46:00.001-07:00

There is less then four months until my wedding (September 25th). I am getting so excited for it! I've been engaged since last May so its been a long engagement but now its getting so close. I love everything about weddings. I love going to weddings, I absolutely love photographing weddings, I love editing wedding photos and I love planning my wedding. I wanted to share some of the wedding plans I have made so far.

I'm getting married at the Oak Hill Mansion in Carmel Indiana.

The ceremony spot:

The reception spot:

My bridesmaids are wearing super cute blue dresses (from David's bridal).

And it has pockets. Who wouldn't love pockets in their dress!?!

I'm thinking about having the guys wear gray tuxedos like this one.

Since its an outdoor wedding I feel like it will be lighter for the guys. I want to see what Matt looks like in it first before I make a decision on it.

My flowers are going to be yellow gerber daisies. I love daisies!

My cake is going to be from Classic Cakes in Carmel Indiana.

I'm going to be working my photographer Chad Franz to death taking tons and tons of pictures.

I am writing the entire ceremony (with help from my officiant) The plan is to make is short, simple and sweet.

A girl I recently met here in North Carolina Jessica Kessler is going to be hand making my invitations. They are going to be awesome!

We are having the reception at Buca di Beppo by the Castleton Mall. Its a quirky and fun Italian restaurant.

Matt and I (and guests) will be staying at the Spring Hill Suites in Fishers Indiana. I like this hotel because its all 2 room suites!

If Matt can get it done in time, we are going to use his 1980-something Fiat as our get away car. He's been spending a lot of his free time working on. Right now it looks like this....

Scary right?
Hopefully he can get it running and painted in time for the wedding. His plan is to paint it yellow. It eventually will look like this (minus the red interior):

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little peak into my wedding planning. I can't wait until I have wedding photos from the day to share! I'm going home in a week to get a lot more planning done. Also my shower and bachelorette party are both coming up in less then a month (while I'm at home). I can't wait to get things started.

Shooting for fun

2010-05-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

One of my goals is to start shooting more for fun. Since I have become a professional photographer I have noticed that I hardly shoot for myself anymore. Lately I have had opportunities to take lots of pictures of flowers. It is Spring afterall.

These first few flower pictures were taken at the Duke Gardens when I was visiting my sister in Durham, NC.

This picture my sister Jennifer took with my camera. She took 3 pictures of these flowers and they were my favorite three that were taken with my camera all day. She definitely has an eye for photographing flowers!

These next several pictures are from the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. I recently went there with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and fiance.

This one hurt my eyes a little when I was looking at it on my big computer screen.

I couldn't resist getting a flower/ring shot so I used my engagement ring.

I really liked these purple poofy flowers, they were my favorite.

And here is "America's Castle", the Biltmore.

I feel like these next two should go on the cover of a Fairy Tale book.

Here's (two of) my boys at a park close to our house.

This lily is in my front yard :)

Canvas Prints!

2010-05-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

I ordered these canvas prints a while back and I'm just now getting around to putting them on the blog. I am so happy with how they look, I can't wait to order more. I already know some more of the pictures I want to put on canvas. They are hanging up in my home office. Someday they will go into a studio office. :)

Sewing Projects

2010-05-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

One of my goals on my 101 things to do in 1001 days was to do more personal posts. My favorite blogs are the ones that have photographer work mixed in with things from their personal lives. Also, on my list was to complete 3 sewing projects. This first project I did before the list so it doesn't count but the second one does.

Project number 1: For Christmas, I got my first sewing machine. I had never really been all that interested in sewing until recently. I guess moving far away from my mom (whom I always took my dresses to be hemmed and altered) made me all of a sudden want to become more domestic. Over Christmas my mom showed me how to use it by making the red dog bed. To make it extra fancy (and for me to learn more tricks) we put a zipper in and a side panel. We used old comforters and pillows for the stuffing. My sister made the dog applicays out of felt (custom made to look like my dogs)

They are already well loved, my dogs sleep on them every night/day. I meant to take pictures of them when I first made them but never got around to it. We think that it is super cute when the right dog lays on the right bed made for him...which they do seem to know which one is which.

Project number 2:

My friend Nicole is the first of my friends to have a baby. Her baby girl is due the day after my wedding. Her and her husband were both going to be in the wedding but they are having a baby instead. I couldn't be more excited for them! Her shower was in Denver and since I wasn't able to go, I wanted to do something really special. The idea started out that I was just going to make a baby blanket. I ended up making several more things and I'm happy with how it all turned out.

This blanket is the perfect swaddling size!

I made two burp clothes, perfect for slinging over your shoulder.

The first bib I made was super small. Matt looked at it and said, is that big enough to fit around a baby's neck? After I looked at it a while, I decided to make a bigger one. Hopefully these will fit! I showed my mom the first one when she was here and she said that it would maybe fit a premie, so I'm glad that I made bigger ones.

I also made a little baby toy. It has crinkle paper inside it to make noise and it also has little rattle. The dogs wanted it so bad! Hopefully Nicole's dog Tucker will leave the baby toys alone.

Here's a pile of all the things I made her.

Phil and Ashley's Engagements

2010-05-21T04:29:00.001-07:00

Phil, Ashley and I were supposed to go to the mountains for their pictures, but with pending rain, we decided to stay in town. On my way to meet them, it started pouring. Once we started taking pictures, the weather was perfect and then after I got home it started raining again. We had just enough time to get some really great shots! I also got to get to know a few new towns int he area. I guess Phil was nervous about the shoot and wasn't looking forward to it (like a lot of guys) I'm glad to say that he had fun and said, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be :) I can't wait for your wedding this fall! Its going to be great.

We started out taking some pictures on a playground. I love doing playground shots, they are so much fun.

I tried the blurry out of focus shot again, and again had success. I'm loving this shot!

This is my third favorite.

Ashley had a lot of great ideas for shots. It makes my job easier!

Ashley knew of some buildings that had been painted a long time ago so we made sure to use them for backdrops. I guess Cheerwine is pretty popular in the South. I had never had it before so Ashley gave me a sip of hers when we stopped for a refreshments break. She was right, its very hard to describe, you just have to try it. I'll definitely have to get it again. I think it tasted like a slush puppy...can't remember which flavor though.

This is my second favorite.

You can see behind them that when this was painted a can of Coke was 5 cents.

I've tried this shot before and its never really worked out quite right for me. Ashley requested it so I gave it a try without giving her any promises. I love this shot! This is my favorite of the blog post and quite possibly one of my favorite shots I've taken to date.

The magnolia trees are starting to bloom! What a pretty flower.

Thought we try something a little different for a ring shot.

Thad and Sarah's engagements

2010-05-18T18:41:00.001-07:00

I met Sarah and Thad at the Rocky River Winery. This beautiful location is where they are having their wedding this fall. I absolutely love winerys! Both times I've shot at winerys have been awesome shoots. I really feel like this could be one of my favorite sessions to date!

Sarah, you are beautiful! Thad thinks so too.

Loved the dress Sarah!

Right now the grapes are just starting out. The vines aren't very big yet and the little grapes are tiny! For their wedding the grapes are going to be ready to harvest. I can't wait to see the vineyard in full bloom!

If you are a blog follower or a friend you know my love for barns. They have a great green one. A favorite.

This is one of my favorite ring shots to date...if not my favorite. Thanks Thad for helping me set that one up!

I've seen other photographers do this neat little effect, my sister also did it at a wedding she helped me shoot. I finally tried it and I'm very happy with how it turned out. This is one of my favorites.

That bridge was a bit rickety and old. Sarah in her platform shoes didn't mind. Thats the kind of bride I like, willing to do a few crazy things to get a great shot.

We took a shot in front of the 10 because they are getting married this year (2010). I like it because I think it looks like Thad is pointing to Sarah because she is a 10. :) Okay, yes I know, that was cheesy.

This one is another favorite.

More blog posts to come soon, stayed tuned and please leave comments and let me know what you think!

Lee and Michelle's Wedding

2010-05-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Its been so long since I've made a blog post that I got the username and passwords mixed up for my hosting site. I'm making a resolution to blog more often!

Anyway, here is my first wedding of the year and my first wedding in North Carolina. What a great way to start off my year and my wedding photography career in this state! Michelle and Lee's engagement pictures were taken by Matt and I a couple months ago. Matt also came along to help shoot the wedding.

Getting ready:

Matt took the guys outside to get some photos while I was inside with the girls.

Matt was totally drooling over these guns!

Michelle's uncle (a wedding photographer) grabbed this shot of Matt and I. We traded cameras so I could be holding one in the picture while he shot with mine.

101 goals to accomplish in 1001 days

2010-03-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

All of my favorite blogs I read have personal posts mixed in with their professional posts. I want to make a point of blogging more in general, but also more personal things. Today, I have my 101 in 1001 list. I got this idea from a blog I just discovered. It is a list of goals/things I want to accomplish in 1001 days. Many of these things center around my photography business and our new house we are anxiously waiting to move in to (that has seven wooded acres!)

I left a little wiggle room at the bottom to add things later.

Start date: April 1, 2010
End date: December 27, 2012

Here is how I calculated the date.

1. Move into new house
2. Get married
3. Plant a vegetable garden
4. Take a trip outside of the country
5. Put props all around our land (7 acres) for photographing clients
6. Plant a wild flower field on our land
7. Paint inside our new house
8. Get a full time teaching job
9. Shoot a destination wedding
10. Visit my sister in Boston 2x
11. Go backpacking 3x
12. Rent a cabin in the woods with my family
13. Go camping at the beach with dogs
14. Rent a beach house for a weekend with friends
15. Visit 3 different vineyards
16. Grow grape vines on my land
17. Plant apple trees on my land (along the driveway)
18. Watch a niece or nephew being born
19. Go to Asheville and see the Biltmore Estate
20. Take a photography class to strengthen skills
21. Spend a day getting a facial, massage and/or manicure
22. Go on a picnic
23. Send out first (3) sets of Christmas cards to friends and family
24. Read 3 books to help my business and take notes
25. Bake a cake for Matt’s birthday
26. Participate in 3 wedding shows to build clients
27. Make several canvas prints of my work
28. Begin creating slideshows for my clients
29. Work out (almost) every day for the 3 months before the wedding with Matt
30. Complete 3 sewing projects
31. Network- make connections/friendships with 3 photographers
32. Join a group of local photographers and go to meetings
33. Take a trip to California
34. Take professional pictures of all my close friends
35. Purchase a very expensive lens
36. Purchase Photoshop for my desktop computer
37. Decorate our house with photos of our engagements, wedding and dogs
38. Update my website with newer photographs
39. Start making more personal blog posts
40. Buy another digital camera
41. Buy another flash
42. Open a banking account just for the business
43. Start using Matt as my assistant photographer at weddings
44. Volunteer
45. Go on an overnight canoe trip
46. Get a head board and frame for bed
47. Buy a guest bed
48. Ride in a helicopter
49. Go snorkeling
50. Go white water rafting
51. Set up office at new home and keep organized!
52. See Nina again (German friend) in Europe?
53. Put together a book of all my favorite recipes for reference
54. Get our wedding bands engraved with names and wedding date
55. Get a video camera
56. Shoot video (and pictures) at a session and put together in a slideshow
57. Comment on other photographers blogs more
58. Get several more followers on my blog
59. Get professional pictures of me taken again for website and blog
60. Learn new Photoshop tricks
61. Get pictures of Matt, me and the dogs taken
62. Sign up for photography trade industries (WPPI, PPA etc)
63. Get a photography ad out in a magazine such as the Perfect Wedding Guide
64. Re-stain the playhouse that came with the house and store it until needed
65. Go on a cruise with Matt
66. Take really good care of my car – regular oil changes, check-ups, washes etc.
67. No speeding/parking tickets
68. Do a children’s portraits session using Ralph (the rabbit)
69. Donate money to an animal rescue shelter
70. Give all my old kitchen items to good will after the wedding
71. Put up a swing on one of the trees in the yard (for portraits)
72. Get a swing or rocking chairs for the front porch
73. Go to the beach (for a weekend) at least 2x a year
74. Cook with and eat vegetables out of my garden
75. Go to the tanning bed (for the first time) a couple times before my wedding
76. Look into being a puppy foster parent
77. Buy something for myself off esty.com (headband or scarf)
78. Make a canvas of a wedding photo
79. Make (it’s a secret) for a present for my mom and dad
80. Shoot 5 more weddings in 2011 then 2010
81. Hold another boudoir pictures marathon
82. (Help) make walking paths in the woods at our house
83. Buy things at an antique store to use as props for photographs
84. Do more sweet (little) things for my fiancé (future hubby) leave notes etc.
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Now I can't say that I am bored in the next 1001 days!

Richard and Sarah Engagements

2010-03-20T08:41:00.001-07:00

Richard is out of town a lot driving a truck for a Nascar team. We squeezed their shoot in while he was home in between races. We hoped to go to his families farm for pictures, but with all of the rain it was too muddy. We ended up going around town taking pictures and I feel like we got some awesome shots. I can't wait until your wedding!

My favorite.

We found a cute little retro ice cream shop

Another favorite:

...and found a nice little alley. I do love red walls :)

Another favorite.

One of the reasons I love doing engagements and weddings so much is getting to see the way couples look at each other and getting to capture it. You can just tell by this photo how much they adore each other.

Richard should take this one with him to the races :)

and....another favorite:

Michelle and Lee Engagements

2010-03-19T12:39:00.001-07:00

Michelle and Lee's engagement session was my first photo session of the year. It feel great to get out a shoot. The weather was perfect, warm with a nice fluffy cloud cover. Matt (my fiance) tagged along on this shoot to get some practice. He was a great assistant and my favorite shoot from the session came from him. Enjoy!

My favorite from the pictures I took, my view:

Matt's view:

I love this next series of photos:

My favorite of Matt's pictures:

A rock on a rock, get it??

2010-03-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say really quick that I have two engagement shoots this weekend! I'm am so excited to start shooting again (it feels like its been forever since my last one) I've been really itching to go and try out my new lens and a some new filters and well, just take pictures. I'll be blogging pictures soon I promise!

David and Chrissy's engagement slideshow

2010-02-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

Since I've started my business, I'm constantly looking for new things to offer my clients. I have seen many photographers make slideshows of their sessions so I decided to take one of the last sessions I did and make a slideshow. :)

Click here for the slideshow

Enjoy! I would like to start making these for all of my clients.

Best of Weddings 2009

2010-01-25T06:19:00.004-08:00

2009 was a crazy year for me both personally and professionally. This was the year that my being a teacher/photographer dream really came to life. For the first part of the year I was very busy shooting weddings, and portraits, teaching full time, coaching softball at the high school. I got engaged in May and so far have loved every moment of the wedding planning. In August I moved to North Carolina to be with my fiance and traveled back to Indiana for a few more weddings and portraits. Now I'm trying to make a name for myself in NC as a photographer and a teacher. I've kinda started all over but I still feel the momentum of the success I had in my first full year of my business. Here is the last installment of 2009. My top 75 wedding photos I took! Enjoy. Please tell me what you think. I love comments!

Thank you all for being a part of my first full year and making it such a success. I loved every minute of taking/editing your photos! I couldn't have done it without you :)

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My sister actually took my number 2 pic when she was helping me out at a wedding. I liked it so much I had to add it to my top 75 list!

Best of Engagements 2009

2010-01-25T06:19:00.003-08:00

In 2009, I had 5 engagement sessions. After last year, I believe my specialty is photographing couples :) I love it! Here are my top 30. Which is your favorite???

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Best of Portraits 2009

2010-01-25T06:19:00.001-08:00

This post is a mixture of several different types of sessions. There are maternity, newborn, day after, medical spa and married couple/dog sessions. I had an exceptionally hard time putting these in order. I couldn't decide out of the top 3 which was my favorite so I had Matt (my fiance) do it for me :P Here are my top 35. What is your favorite??

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Best of Seniors 2009

2010-01-25T06:18:00.000-08:00

Last year I photographed a bunch of seniors. It was the first time I did that type of shoot since I was a senior in high school. Here are my top 30! Which is your favorite??

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Best of Ring Shots 2009

2010-01-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

I'm kicking off my best of 2010 entries with my Best of Ring shots for the year. Stay tuned for best of weddings, engagements seniors and portraits!

I love taking pictures of rings. This year, I really tried to think out of the box and be really creative with this. These pictures are from engagement sessions and weddings.

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I had a really hard time picking out which one was going to be number one. Which is your number one??

Christmas family Portraits

2009-12-29T06:55:00.000-08:00

I walked into their house on a morning just a couple days before Christmas. There was definitely a sense of chaos in the air as the kids ran around and the parents chased after them. It was great and really fun. It made me excited for the day my sisters and I all go home for the holidays when we all have kids and husbands.

Enjoy the pictures of this beautiful family!

David and Chrissy Engagements

2009-11-23T09:10:00.000-08:00

David and Chrissy just got engaged at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. I've heard many great things about that place so I definitely need to check it out. We wanted to hurry up and squeeze their engagement shoot in before we lost all of the fall leaves. They are getting married in June on the beach! I've always wanted to photograph a beach wedding. I can't wait!

Check out that rock!

We caught some great light as the sun was setting. I love these next few.

My favorite sun-flare pic to date!

Here is the pretty fall colors in the background.

I love all the pine trees in North Carolina. Hence the ring on the pine cones in the pine needles.

I love her hair here lit up by the sun.

So glad we stopped by the playground even though there were a hundred kids there. Sorry we made you wait for the slide!

I love this one.

Thomas and Brigette Wedding

2009-11-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

I went to high school with Brigette and was very excited when she hired me to be her photographer. I always love reconnecting with people from my past. Brigette is such a fun girl to be around and her wedding was perfect. They got married on IUPUI's campus.

A toast before the ceremony.

Some great ring shots from my dad.

The handsome men.

The cutest little flower girl and ring bearer.

The cold didn't stop these two from getting some great outdoor shots.

An aerial view of the cake.

Later in the night, they started a fun limbo game!

Jim and Jodie

2009-10-22T06:11:00.003-07:00

I met these two at Jim's sister's wedding back in the spring. I've already done pictures of Jodie at her medical spa. They are such a cute couple and their dogs are ADORABLE!

Meet Willie (left) and Marley (right)

About here in the shoot the dogs started ignoring my squeaker, rattle and turkey noises. The people in the park were much more interesting then me :)

v

Doug and Kate

2009-10-22T06:11:00.001-07:00

These two are good friends of mine and I'm so glad they let me take their pictures while I was home for the weekend. The fall leaves are just beautiful in Indiana right now!

We started out at Doug and Kate's home. Its such a grown up well decorated house! Once I finally settle down in one house, Kate you are going to be my decorator.

Scully is on the left and Lilu is on the right.

In case you are wondering, Lilu is a 160 pound Mastiff and the sweetest dog!

I heart Lilu and Scully.

I love this one, you two look so happy!

Yay for fall leaves!

How did I get such beautiful friends?

Kate, you are gorgeous! This one needs to go on Doug's desk at work.

And of course, if you are a blog reader, you know I have an obsession with red barns:

I think they are all my favorites. I can't pick just one or even two.

James and Angel's Wedding

2009-10-22T06:10:00.001-07:00

The cute little twins. Nikki on the left and Alex on the right? I'm totally guessing.

A little Angel. She was so cute, she kept giving me kisses on the cheek throughout the day. Oh and love the shoes :)

And the beautiful bride:

A favorite:

Angel getting a glimpse of her groom as he was entering the building:

I couldn't resist when I saw those puppies getting a picture of the bride with them:

Another favorite:

Kevin and Angie's day after/trash the dress

2009-09-15T21:21:00.001-07:00

Okay, first off, this had to have been one of my all time favorite shoots I have ever done, if not my favorite. We had sooo much fun and as you can see the lighting was PERFECT. Angie is amazingly photogenic and I just keep thinking of ways to photograph her: engagements, wedding, trash the dress... She has a beautiful smile and tons of energy and best of all is up for anything. This was my first trash the dress/day after session. What a big success. Now I wish all my brides were willing to get their dresses dirty :)

One of my favorites (I have several) This one looks like it should go in a bridal magazine:

Another favorite:

A favorite:

One reason why the trash the dress session was so fun is because there are so many pictures I want to take on the wedding day but can't because we don't want to get the dress dirty. We can get so many cool shots this way!

Leave a comment to let me know what you think!!

Kevin and Angie's Wedding

2009-09-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

Kevin and Angie's wedding was at a venue between a corn field and railroad tracks and next to cylos. Can we say a photographers dream place?!? Angie also did a fabulous job getting the inside of the venue decorated. I loved all the detail lighting around the room. My dad and I had a blast shooting this wedding!

See what I mean about cool lighting!

Dad's shot of one of the center pieces:

My best sun flare picture I've taken:

Gotta love tractors, dad's shot:

Kevin's such a good sport holding his bride's bouquet :) Dad's shot:

My favorite of the day:

Angie's request :)

Dad's shot by the corn field:

Dad's shot of the men in the soy bean field:

Angie is so beautiful!

I love the lighting under the cake! What a cool idea:

I couldn't decide which of the next two I liked better, so I put both:

Angie has such an expressive face. Makes for great pictures!

We snuck out of the reception for some sunset pictures:

Dad's shot:

This is the school that Angie went to for kindergarten and first grade before it closed down. It burned in July of this year. Dad's shot:

If you are a blog reader, you know I love my ring shots. This one my dad took:

If you like what you see, please leave a comment!

Geena's realtor pictures

2009-09-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

This is my first job I've done since I've been in North Carolina and its my first time taking pictures for a realtor. Check out her new website. We went to a pretty little park on Lake Norman to get these pictures.

Here are a couple pictures I snapped of Lake Norman while we were there:

Jackson's newborn pictures

2009-09-02T08:08:00.001-07:00

Jackson was the first maternity shoot I did and now the first newborn. To see the maternity session, go here. Oh my gosh, babies are so cute! You'll see his adorable little face on my blog a lot during his first year. His next session will be around Halloween, stay tuned!

My favorite:

Baby yawns :)

Another favorite:

I love how the football is as big as him:

Madison's Senior pictures

2009-09-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Madison's was the third and last senior shoot I did in one day. It was such a fun photography filled day, well weekend, because I had a wedding the day before. I went to her house where she grew up to get these pictures. It was a lot of fun taking pictures of her and I had her sister (my friend) Heather's help.

My favorite:

I love the red walls:

Brittany's Senior shoot

2009-09-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Brittany and I went to the art museum for her senior pictures. I've done several shoots there now and its a great place to take pictures. Brittany made my job easy, she definitely knows how to work the camera!

My favorite:

My second favorite, Brittany and her beautiful blue eyes:

Amanda's senior shoot

2009-09-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

Amanda and I went to the Cox Hall Gardens in Carmel, IN for her senior pictures. Amanda is such a beautiful girl inside and out!

My favorite:

I really like this one:

Tim and Donia's Wedding

2009-09-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Tim and Donia were married in Florida and had their reception back home in Bloomington, IN. Donia put so many details into the wedding from the lighting to the candy bar to the favors on the tables. I had a lot of fun working with you guys!

Mother and Daughter's wedding slippers:

The window was a perfect background for the dress pictures:

Mother and Daughter:

I love all of Donia's pink accessories:

Mmmm, my favorite wedding favor!

Donia's request:

Donia's adorable little nephew:

Mark and Katie's Wedding

2009-09-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

My dad came along to help me shoot Mark and Katie's wedding. Its really nice having a second shooter and at some point, I want to only offer two photographers for all of my weddings. Mark and Katie were so much fun to work with! I can definitely see them being close friends of mine. Take a look back at their engagement shoot here.

Katie happy with how her hair turned out:

I don't know why but I love pictures of girls putting in earrings.

A ring/flower shot from my dad:

Katie and her dad waiting to walk down the aisle:

This is one of the many shots from my dad's rapid fire sequence as they were coming out of the church. I love how they used bird seed instead of bubbles...though it a bit messy.

This is my favorite shot my dad took. Katie looks so adorable!

Kissing in the car:

Here's me taking the picture of them kissing in the car:

Two more great shots from my dad:

Another favorite:

This is my favorite one that I took from the night:

Clarity MD

2009-09-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Clarity MD is a medical spa located in Carmel, IN. They had just set up their new office and wanted to get some professional pictures for their website. The staff was so upbeat and fun to work with. Check out their website here for more information about the services they offer.

Here is the staff with some of their equipment:

John and Tara's Wedding

2009-09-01T08:07:00.001-07:00

John and Tara were married in Columbus, IN. They were childhood sweethearts and there was a lot of talk about how they were always meant to be together. John absolutely adores Tara and their wedding was sweet and full of love and support from their families and friends. Its obvious that they will spend a long happy life together!

Tara and her sister. Two gorgeous girls!

The cutest little flower girl.

One of my favorite parts of a wedding is taking the bridal party outdoors for some fun pictures:

I think these next three pictures are hilarious:

1 year anniversary!

2009-07-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

This month (July) marks Silverleaf Photography's 1 year anniversary. When I went into college 7 years ago I thought I could either be a teacher or a photographer. When I couldn't decide which one I wanted to do more, I did both. I majored in education and was the photography coordinator of my dorm for two years. (Ran the darkroom and sat on the arts council) The second two years I continued studying to become a teacher and worked at a photography lab and studio off campus. In fall of 2007 I started my real teaching career and in summer of 2008 I started my photography business. Its hard to believe that both of my dreams came true. I have wanted to be a teacher since as early in elementary school that I can remember and I've wanted to be a photographer since my freshman year of high school.

In the last year I have shot 10 weddings (with 4 more booked for 2009), 9 engagement sessions, and a dozen other portraits. I never expected to do so well. The business just took off! I have had so much fun starting my business and I can't wait for it to continue growing! Thanks to all of you who have trusted me to photograph these important events in your lives. I couldn't do it without you! I also want to thank Stephanie Zuroff who helped by making my awesome website and blogsite and also answered any and every question I had! You've been a great asset to Silverleaf Photography :)

Enjoy some (goofy) pictures of me shooting in a recent wedding. These photos were taken by my dad.

You know you like those white legs...

Since then I've spent more time in the sun and my legs are more tan.

After seeing this I'm starting to be a lot more conscious of what my face looks like when I have a camera in front of it.