That’s right folks…just Be GREEEEEEEEEEAT! (Sorry I am from Battle Creek, MI….Kellogg’s Company….Tony the Tiger…anyone, anyone…Bueller?)

These are the legs of an amazing dancer! Her calves are made of titanium! Looking good Katherine…looking good!

*****SIDE NOTE***** came across this gem on our walk. Any takers?

DANCE BREAK!!!!!!!

Let’s get some more romance on shall we…….

Major transition to the water.

Seeing as Lynchburg is a little void of the seashore we had to make due by driving up to Sweet Briar College and set up our picnic on their lake. It was such a gorgeous night but we were losing daylight fast and the chill of the night came quickly. Katherine brought some terrific details for us to set up on the dock. Pops of color everywhere!!! How could you not love this little set up?

My good friend, Beth Baxter of Taste Selects Confectionery, threw in some adorable teal cupcakes with Jacob and Katherine’s initials.

Jacob and Katherine…you guys were a total and utter blast to spend a Friday evening with. You are so easy to be around and have a great sense of humor. Katherine thanks for going the extra mile on all the great details you added to the shoot! It took every ounce of self-control not to steal your necklaces and quilt, EVERY OUNCE! We wish you a life time of happiness and remember…..BE GREAT!

***Yellow cupcake donated by my friend and baker extraordinaire, Beth from Taste Selects Confectionery***

Check out those gams!!! She was training for a marathon at the time. Literally running her butt off.

location change…little more rustic

such a Candace face

Now on to a Candace Marie event. This was a 1st birthday party for our dear friends Sarah and Nathans daughter, Ella Jade!

Check out the beautiful table…..

and the adorable birthday girl!

Ella actually had a violent reaction to the taste of frosting. She yelled and shook…then she realized she was CRAZY and enjoyed it.

So keep your bookmarks set for Candace Marie Design to see more of what Candace has cooking in the kitchen…literally!

I have been trying so hard to keep the paci tucked away for as much of the day as possible, but there are some days I can’t bear the whining and the begging. Today was one of those days. Unlike a nice, compassionate mother who would heed to his cry for relief and soothing, I pulled the camera out. Join me on the journey will you?

This is Bennett “Shakespeare” Portnoy, what a looker.

This is Bennett happy, putting out the vibe while organizing his cars. So happy, carefree, what could be wrong?

But wait…Bennett just remembered he hasn’t cried in the last five minutes.

But “Curious George” is on and he would have to break away to do his full on tantrum for his paci. Bennett is rocking his “grouper mouth” as Ryan calls it. I am sure you think we are horrible parents for all our nicknames. We do it behind their backs so it is okay. (wink!)

Yup it is worth missing George, my teeth hurt. “PAHHHHHHCI over dere” ( I would like it to be known he was sitting on my legs and I was laying on my back holding the camera up in the air hoping I was in focus….jackpot!)

“PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!”

“PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”

“Over DERE!!!!!”

“MAMA (whimpering begins)”

Wait for it

Wait for it

Wait for it

There it is

and here come the real tears

Before you send hate mail, I did put the camera down and give him his paci…but these gems are priceless to look back on! I mean if you knew how many times a day this little routine played out you would actually feel sorry for me.

On a lighter note I do think I should get an award for creating the most ghetto craft ever! Chloe asked if she could be a unicorn like her favorite stuffed animal. Unicorn…right….okay…..construction paper, tape, scissors, how hard can it be?

Kids will wear ANYTHING!!! I could not stop laughing at them and they loved it! I would also like you to know that the elastic on their heads was cut from the fetal monitor straps I kept after labor thinking “This is good elastic, I should keep this.” I consider it tipping my hat to the earth today and living green. HAHA…man I am the farthest thing from green but I did laugh at my “recycling” today.

At least one kid was in a good mood today.

What a goob…love her!

There you go…that is the art of crying by Bennett! Hope you enjoyed spending the morning with us. If you see Bennett sitting on the curb with a bow on his head, now you know what you are getting in to!

Jeremy is a master of off camera lighting, Photoshop, and truly a photojournalist (I hate how that term is tossed around in the photography industry). His bodies of work are along two distinctively different veins, the “haves” and the “have nots”. Carrie Underwood one day and Africa the next. He has had two books published documenting his travels overseas including my personal favorite, Hope in the Dark.

I will say it, I came on board with Jeremy only because of Ryan. Ryan has been following Jeremy since his graphic and web design days….long before he was the official tour photographer for Brittany Spears. Ryan is a true blue loyal fan of Jeremy’s work.

I am a fan of Jeremy’s heart (and so is Ry). He loves him some Jesus and he has an extreme soft spot for those in the world that are “the least of these”. He is passionate to tell the stories of those who can not do it for themselves, to bring humanitarian relief, medical care, and love. THIS, my friends, is worth taking a moments pause. THIS is what makes my heart race and my pulse quicken. THIS is using gifts to bless others in eternal ways.

So that is Jeremy. He’s pretty radicalmungo!

Back to the workshop. This was Ryan and my first time attending a photography workshop. We were pretty pumped that it was generic in the sense that it wasn’t wedding-focused. Don’t get me wrong, we can talk shop about weddings all day but we know we won’t be doing that forever, let us just learn more about the scope of photography. We sat in a room with 18 other photographers, some just starting, some seasoned in their field. Jeremy’s theme was simple and yet profound, “What is your passion?”

The first night Jeremy walked us through his journey growing up exploring the creative arts. He also took us through his entire website critiquing his own work and telling stories about certain celebrities or breaking down the way he lights things. Apparently, Jeremy and I were surfing the same wavelength because in a room full of 20 people you could hear my nasally chuckle on and off for two hours. Me and ONLY me was laughing at his commentary. What can I say, I am a sucker for dry, self-deprecating humor!

The next day was full of lighting knowledge as we watched Jeremy work with four models lighting things off-camera and with natural lighting. We watched how his direction, posing, and composition come together. Each of us gleaning little nuggets of wisdom from a master. Then it was our turn to work with the models and for his assistant to come around and let us lock into some off-camera lighting. We had an hour and then we had to pick three photos to be projected on a MASSIVE wall and critiqued.

Cue nervous sweat and poo cramps. OH MAN…I don’t care how many comments we receive, how many fans on FB or Twitter followers….you are your own worst critic. We always chuckle when people sing our praises (although very much appreciated!!) If you think we are big fish then you clearly don’t know how big the pond is! To have a little piece of your soul projected 20 feet by 12 feet on a wall is humbling.

******HONESTY ALERT******

I, Kelly Portnoy, have never shot in manual until the Jeremy Cowart workshop. For those of you non-photographers reading you could care less about that statement. For those of you photographers reading you may have gasped a little.

I mean REALLY…and you call yourself a professional? Yup, darn skippy I do.

I remember clearly listening to a photography GIANT, Cliff Mauntner speak on the showroom floor at WPPI last year bagging on photography snobs that say you HAVE to shoot on manual. He confessed he doesn’t shoot manual all the time and he is known as one of the top ten wedding photographers in THE WORLD! It’s the end product we are going for and there are a gazillion ways to achieve that. So what if I shoot aperture value or shudder priority. I achieve what I am going for.

BUT, I confess…I am a parasitical photographer of Ryan’s skills. We joke that Ryan has technology autism. Me, not so much. He can read a manual folks (gag) and digest and retain all that he reads. I am visual ALLLLL the way. Show me, let me see what you are talking about, practice it, (cue lightbulb) AHA! That is how I learn and that is how I have been learning all along the way. Organically! Truthfully, I have felt insecure though not being able to shoot in manual. I wanted to understand the camera more and be able to troubleshoot lighting situations without my little nerd husband (said lovingly) being there to bail me out if I got stuck. It was important to me. I decided for 2010 I was going manual, not that I won’t have a fling or two on the side with AV and TV….but I was going to show my camera who was boss. Own it baby!

So here we go….I am in a group with four other ladies and given a professional model to work with. Lacey was incredible! Sweet as the day is long. I don’t know who I felt more sorry for, her or me. It was 5:1 ratio and her name was being yelled every two seconds to look here or there, act this way or that. It is very hard to grab a shot or frame up a shot when you are literally on top of another photographer doing the same thing. Five vultures on a fresh piece of meat.

Example: I do not lie…this was the reality

I took my time, talking myself through my settings and just went for it on manual. This is what I came up with during my time with Lacey and the vultures (I LOVED the ladies I was with).

This is where I will say my epiphany happened. I really really love photographing women. Figuring out feminine angles and body language. I love pulling the vulnerability and inner beauty out. I love processing with soft, vintage tones, this is ME in photo form. This is where I want to continue to go.

Transitioning outside.

The windows she was just leaning against acted as the most amazing reflector when we brought her further into the courtyard. None of these next photos were shot with a flash.

So then we moved into this very cool restaurant with awesome blue glass walls aptly called Sapphire. This is what the room looked like without any lighting whatsoever.

CONFESSION #2!!! Here is the moment folks, the first time I locked into off-camera lighting. Besides running a sharpening action, these are right out of camera.
Ryan is the only one who uses off-camera when we shoot receptions or portraits. I stick with my external flash. Ignorance is bliss or is it?

Loved using it! It was great practicing with it. I also enjoyed going back to Jeremy’s studio and watching him use these insane octobanks showing us how to balance off camera lighting. He immediately showed us frame by frame what each shot looked like as more lighting was added and moved around. Visual Kelly grabbed on immediately…AHA!

So then came the critique time. Both Ryan and I were fairly unscathed with just minor criticisms of our post processing and composition. Jeremy was gentle.

There is so much more but this post is enormous and I haven’t even addressed what is ahead for Kellan. We learned a lot while we were there, mostly subtle things about our business future. We had 9 hours in the car to discuss what was on our heart about Kellan and our passions. Where were we going and shy and how does this affect our marriage, our children, Ryan’s full-time job.

Most people do not realize that this is not a full-time gig for us and there are no plans for it going full time. Although we have been blown away by what the Lord has done with Kellan in 3.5 years we also learned the hard way in 2008 that pursuing wedding photography full time is not a fit for us. We have such a young family and plan on adding one more freakishly large child to the crew in the near future. We have only been married for 4.5 years and rather enjoy being together at home. Ryan was blessed with an AMAZING day job as a commercial photographer and web designer for a SAHWEET leather design company, Moore and Giles Inc. He gets to use his camera skills almost daily and loves it!

We drastically backed off on bookings in 2009 to just two weddings/month and for 2010 we backed off even more to one wedding/ month (with the exception of Oct and July). Our priority is our marriage and family and because of that we have had to make the choice to conscientiously step back from the wedding industry, get really darn picky about our clients and travel at a rate that fits our family. If you are one of our 2010 clients then pat yourself on the back, you made the cut! HA! I think we are going to get even more stingy about 2011.

We will never regret putting our marriage and children first and walking away from a lot of success that was handed to us so quickly. This is what is right for US, this is our conviction and what we feel clearly the Lord is showing us to do.

We learned we are passionate about making “pretty” photos. That may sound elementary but you have to understand how fickle this industry is. You can literally sell your first born to keep up with equipment. Editing trends come and go like the tide. Lighting options are endless. Finding your voice in an industry that is SATURATED is very difficult to do. The bottom line is we are paid very well by our clients and they should get our best. What will always be timeless and something we are proud of, especially when working with mostly brides is pretty photos. Photos that make you say “OOOOOHHHHHHH”. We want women, brides and couples to see our photos and say, THAT is how I have always dreamed of being photographed. This is what we want to be known for, that is where we feel we are approaching but want to push ourselves even farther.

I hope you have enjoyed a little voyage into my brain and back again. We hope to continue to encourage and inspire those who are fair-weathered voyeurs of our work and to those budding photographers looking for advice or seasoned vets that sharpen us in the industry. Thanks for 3.5 years of love, support and patience as we continually learn to grow in our craft.

As if that was not enough to seal the deal that she is a Kellan bride through and through….we get her Save the Date in the mail a few weeks ago. A DECODER SAVE THE DATE!!!!!!

How fun is that?

I’m also second shooting a wedding in May with the fabulous Heather España from Portland, Oregon. The wedding is in NYC for one of my new friends in the industry, headpiece guru, One Little Dove. We “met” Melanie while in NYC in November doing a headpiece/make up shoot for Ruffled blog. I am so excited about not only officially meeting Melanie and shooting with Heather…but when she emails me an inspiration board like this…

…I know I am going to fall head over heels in love with her wedding.

So that is just a little glimpse into what we have to look forward to in 2010. It’s going to be a good year!

To see Janie and The Brides Cafe posting on this shoot click here. To see Courtney and Little White Book posting on this shoot click here.

We had to give in and let them wear their coats. I mean we are humane :-)

Flowers by Janie Medley of JM Flora and The Brides Café

Styling by Courtney Spencer of Merriment Events and little white book

Dresses by Whirling Turban

Makeup by Erika Nixon of Makeup on Demand makupondemand@comcast.net

Cupcakes by Two Sweet

Pink feather fascinator by One Little Dove

Click on over to see which images Jenny chose to feature.

Katherine and Mark-Romance (ooh lala)
Chrissy and Jay- Hot Potatoes (representin New JER-SAAAAAAAAAAY)
Jill and Jed- Cutie Petuties (awwwww)
Adam and Lauren- Passion (sizzlin!)
Jamie and Paula- Color Pop (pink and green unite)
Joe and Joanna- Best ups (white men can and will jump)
Sara -Just Plain Purdy (and I think Toddio will agree)
Hillary- Shoes Glorious Shoes (how can hot pink not win?)
Catherine and Nick- Ring shots (they started something new alright)
Susan and Thad-Happy Happy Joy Joy (when doesn’t a dapper older gentlemen laughing not make you smile?)
Molly hugging her mom- Intense (this photo still makes her mom cry)
Josh’s father holding the Bible-Details (The MOST perfect detail)
Heather and TIm with flowergirls- MISC (It’s not their party, but they will cry if they want to)
Jill and Jed-Out of a Movie (This is a shot everyone wishes they had of themselves…beautiful!)

Soooooo…we put everyone’s name in Ryan’s hat and drew three winners. They are:
THIRD PRIZE- winning a 12 X 18 enlargement: Catherine and Nick
SECOND PRIZE- winning a 12 X 12 canvas wrap: Jill and Jed
FIRST PRIZE- winning a 16 X 24 canvas wrap: Chrissy and Jay

You three email us with your most recent mailing address and the photo from your session you wish to have printed. Congratulations everyone!

Not to be forgotten, we did pull up an online number randomizer that calculated our 87 commenters. Commenter 12- Katie Curry was chosen for our $15.00 Starbucks card. Congrats Katie…have some coffee on us! Email us your address as well.

You guys rock. Thanks for closing out our 2009 season with thunderous applause. We can’t wait to show you what is up our sleeve with 2010.