Carly's Senior Pictures

I got the chance to work with Carly today doing some senior pictures. It was even more special because we got to work at her house and around her neighborhood. I love being able to do sessions in people's natural environment. It was great working with Carly, as well as Tracey, Bill and Morgan, the whole Rohrbaugh clan.

Here are just a few of the pictures I did for Carly today for her senior pictures. I can't wait to get all the pictures finished up so that they can see them all!

Carly's Senior Pictures

Steph

Congratulations Josh and Melissa!

Josh and Melissa were married yesterday at The Lodge at Geneva on the Lake. Not only was the location beautiful, the bride and groom were both glowing! You could tell that they really loved each other and that they had lots of family and friends that loved them too. I was honored that they chose me to be their photographer, but even more than that, they truly made me feel like a friend.

Josh and Melissa's Wedding Slideshow

Congrats guys!
Steph

Just another reason to love my job!!

I have been blessed to have the nicest brides, grooms and families to work with. These are just a few of the e-mails that I have received in the last couple of weeks. It is just another reason that I love what I do! Not only do I get to share in the most special times of my clients lives, but I love hearing how happy they are in the end.

Steph,

I want to thank you for doing such a wonderful job on Greg and Lindsey's wedding!

The video surprise is fantastic and I know they are thrilled with it!

Greg called me at 6:00 this morning to see it!

Again, Thanks for your professionalism and your ability to make everyone extra-comfortable...what a success!!

Sincerely,

Sharon & Mike Poprocki (Parents of the Groom from 07/07/07)

Steph,

Thank you so much for our surprise. We absolutely loved it! You did an awesome job! The pictures look great and we'll have a difficult time selecting our favorites.

Thanks again!

Ryan and Michelle Krieg (Groom and Bride from 7/20/07)


Wow!! You are amazing. Those are the best pictures from a wedding that I have every seen. Too bad that we didn't have you for our wedding thirteen years ago. I would like to order some of the prints when they are available. All three of my children were in Michelle & Ryan's wedding.

Super job!! I'll keep your information for future plans (family portrait) and recommend you to anyone that I know that is getting married. Nice meeting you.

Best regards,

Anthony & Chris DiGiacobbe (John-Jr. Usher, Annamarie-Flower Girl, Paul-Ring Bearer) (Parents of Usher/Ringbearer/Flowergirl from 7/20/07)


Hey Stephanie....

Loved the slide show! That was really great! Do you know when the pictures will be loaded up? Everyone keeps asking me, and I really didn't know.

You did an awesome job..and we couldn't be happier.

Thanks,
Jenna and Kevin (Bride and Groom from 7/14/07)

Thanks so much, everyone just LOVED this slide show.

You have done a great job and will be highly recommended.

Although I hope it isn't too soon, we will see you when Meg gets married. :)

Prudy (Mom of Bride from 7/20/07)

Just a note of thanks for the initial video from our son and daughter-in-law's recent wedding. It is excellent! We are looking forward to the rest of the photos as well. You did an outstanding job for Kevin and Jenna and if the final product is anything like the video, they will be extremely pleased.

Thank you again for doing such a great job at their wedding.

Sincerely,

John and Debbie Curtis (Parents of the Groom from 07/14/07)

I love my job....no wait...not my job....my passion!

Maternity Session

I had the privilege to shoot a maternity session yesterday for the first wedding clients that I ever had. Nathan and Jessica were married in the fall of 2002. It was a beautiful ceremony at Squire's Castle in Cleveland.

Well, Nathan and Jessica are expecting their first child in a little over a month. They will be welcoming a little girl to their family.

Nathan and Jessica's Maternity Session

Thanks guys for letting me capture such big events in your life!

Steph

A moment captured...

Just wanted to share a moment that I captured of my little one today. Christian was just playing quietly in the hallway here at our office with his Walking Pooh Bear. Enjoy!


Steph

Golf is fun....and frustrating.

So I have taken up the sport of golf. When I told my Dad (who has golfed since I was a kid), he replied, "What? You don't have enough frustration in your life?" And I didn't understand why he said that.

For those who don't golf, the premise of the game is very simple. Take a small white ball, hit it with the club and get it in the hole. In theory, this should be very simple. Intellectually, I know exactly what I need to do to accomplish this task. The frustrating part comes in when the little white ball doesn't do what I want it to do. LOL Ahhh...now I understand my Dad's words.

I really do enjoy it and according to my hubby, Shan, he has never seen anyone hit so straight. I do pretty good off the tee, but my short game is horrible. If I am within 75 yds of the green but not on it, I am screwed! LOL So today we went to the driving range and I practiced a lot with my pitching wedge. I need to do some putting practice too.

Here are a couple of shots that Shan took of me hitting with my long hybrid club. (This, according to my Father in Law is the perfect club for my swing right now. For all the other golfers out there, this club is equivalent to a 5 iron.)





If anyone is up for 9 holes sometime, give me a call. We'll set up a scramble.

Steph

What to do....what to do...

So what do you do when you have a Saturday off in the summer? I only have 1 Saturday off each month this summer and June and August's are taken up with the boys birthday parties. Well, Shan had a great excursion for us today...

Hiking to waterfalls!

We are doing a Trash the Dress session next week and Shan wanted to scout a few local waterfalls for potential areas to shoot the session. So off we went as a family for a hike.

Shan kept track of Ian, who was in heaven being outside and hiking. And I carried Christian in my Baby Bjorn carrier on my back. (I figured that I could use the extra activity of carrying an additional 19 lbs.)

Here are just a couple of pics from the day.



Steph

Congratulations Ryan and Michelle!

Ryan and Michelle Krieg were married yesterday at Holy Angels in Bainbridge. They were so excited all day long and everyone had a great time. The dance floor was packed and I loved the Thriller!

Ryan and Michelle's Wedding Slideshow

Congrats guys!
Steph

Congratulations Kevin and Jenna!

I am a bad blogger....I totally forgot to put this up last week.

Congratulations to Kevin and Jenna Curtis! They were married on July 14th. The wedding was beautiful and everyone had a great time!

Kevin and Jenna's Wedding Slideshow

Congrats Guys!
Steph

Boudoir Sessions

Have you been considering a Boudoir session as a present for your boyfriend, fiance or husband? Well, you are in luck!

I am scheduling session blocks for a marathon Boudoir day. I am still determining where I want to do them, but I am planning them for Sunday, August 19th. I am scheduling sessions for 2 hours long each. The cost will be $300 and will include a session album as well. We will also have a pre-session consultation so that we can talk about what you are looking for in your session.

As a bonus....the first 5 girls to mention my blog when booking a session will receive their sessions for HALF OFF! That's only $150 for a 2 hour session and a session album!!! Can't beat that! (And I will get to see who is REALLY reading my blog! LOL)

If you are interested, drop me an e-mail and I will see what time blocks I have left open. Stephanie@831Photography.com

Thanks!
Steph

It's Ready!!!!

So Ian went to bed at 9:15pm and Christian was in bed at 9:30pm! Yippee for me!! That left me with time to work on my new slideshow of my work.

So if you have been on the edge of your seat in suspense (or if you just happened to stumble here and have nothing else to do for 3 minutes), check out my newest work!

Steph's Wedding Gallery Slideshow


As always, comments are welcome! I would love to hear what people think, good or bad!

Steph

It's that time....

Being a perfectionist sucks! Plain and simple!

People look at my work and they tell me how beautiful it is. But as a perfectionist, no matter how much I may love an image, I can tell you 1000 ways I would change it to make it perfect.

Being a perfectionist AND an artist sucks even more! LOL I want my creations to be absolutely perfect. But the nature of my work is that sometimes I get the great emotion but the background isn't what I want or I get a great location and nothing amazing happens to allow me to maximize its use. Hmmmph!

Oh well....the part I really love is just catching people when they don't know I am there. Capturing their story, even if everything isn't perfect. Perfection is best left to God. I will shoot for simply amazing!

Why do I ramble about this? Because I was looking through my gallery online today and I came to realize that it is time to make some changes. The gallery has a lot of my 2006 work and it is time for an update. I have grown, my vision has changed and my images should reflect that.

So keep an eye out for my new gallery slideshow. I hope to have it up and running in the next day or so. (Maybe even tonight if I can get the boys to be early! LOL)

Steph

They grow up too fast!

Okay, so this isn't business related, but it is a big deal in my life.

My baby is growing up too fast! This is what I walked in to find yesterday morning when I went to get him up.



I can't believe that he is standing in his crib!!! (We lowered the crib to the lowest setting before he went to bed last night.) I know that some people will say that I am lucky that he is 10 months old and just starting to do this, but it is still too fast for me!

When I was a kid, it seemed like time moved so much more slowly. Now, time is just flying away. Before I know it, my baby will be a year old! I can't believe my other baby is 4 years old!!!

Anyhoo...just thought I would sigh for a moment at the rapid aging of my children!

Steph

Kyle and Nadine's Engagement Session

I got the chance to work with Kyle and Nadine today and do their engagement pictures. We went to Stan Hywet Hall and took the pictures throughout the grounds. They were a lot of fun to work with! We even learned that Kyle and I went to the same high school (a few years apart since he is a young guy and I am an old woman! LOL) and at one point, I had babysat him and his siblings! (Just one night and I was young! LOL) Anyway...I had a great time working with them!

Kyle and Nadine's Engagement Slideshow

Hope you guys had as much fun as I did!
Steph

Congratulations Greg and Lindsey!

Greg and Lindsey got married at the Sandusky Yacht Club yesterday. It was a beautiful day and they were surrounded by their very loving family and friends. I had a great time with them and am happy to share this with everyone!

Greg and Lindsey's Wedding Slideshow

Congrats guys! Have fun in Hawaii!!!

Steph

Pics from the Trip

This trip I took more pictures than I normally do. Mainly because we had a new point and shoot camera to play with. (It is a waterproof one that is high enough quality to do our trash the dress sessions, but we will also use it a lot as a family camera too. No worries about the kids getting it wet!) So here are some pics!

Here's a shot of my hubby, Shan, right after we bought the new camera. Not bad for a little point and shoot!


I took this shot of the Chrysler Building in NYC as we were leaving the Macy's July 4th Spectacular Fireworks. I handheld this shot because we were in a crowd of people and I didn't want to get in trouble for pulling out the tripod. I thought it was a kind of eerie beauty.


This is a picture of my oldest son, Ian. He just turned 4 years old on Tuesday. He is a ham!


This is a picture of my younger son, Christian. He turned 10 months old on Wednesday. He smiles a lot!


Ian was dying to take Christian on the slide at the park, so we figured the bumpy slide would be the best option (ie...not fast!) Christian didn't really enjoy it, but you can tell that Ian enjoyed taking his little brother on the slide.


Just thought that I would share a few with you!

Steph

Back from NYC!

Those of you who know my family will be shocked to hear the following:

We pulled in the driveway after driving back from my parents in NJ at 4pm this afternoon!!!

Those of you who may not know my family all that well, here is why it is shocking: We never get home during daylight! We always end up leaving too late or stopping so much that we get home late at night from every road trip we take. (When we come home from Shan's Mom's in KY, it is very common to get home in the middle of the night!)

I hardly knew what to do with myself. I still had most of my day in front of me!

I want to post some pictures of the trip, but I need to attend to the kids at the moment. I will try to get on later tonight so that I can post pictures from the trip.

Steph