Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Cute Baby Cheeks

Okay Sophie, it's your turn to be on the blog!  You are growing so fast, with cute cheeks and beautiful eyes!  I know you mean the world to your mom and dad!  


You were making some bubbles for this shot, and it's really cute.  You must have been thinking about your next meal : )  Stay tuned for more pictures of Sophie.  Now, I'm off to Puerto Rico to celebrate Rhea and Jonathan's wedding! 

Saturday, March 26, 2011

All You Need is Love....and a jacket, scarf, and handwarmers

Okay, I'm back with more pictures from Elizabeth and Jason's engagement session.  I still can't get over how cold it was that day.  It was my coldest shoot to date, so congratulations EQ and Jason you pulled it off looking fabulous.  If you look carefully at the shot I posted in my previous post with their Coca-Cola bottles, you can see chill bumps on Elizabeth's arms.  Sorry!  Elizabeth and Jason were very comfortable in front of the camera, and EQ was a natural!  I had a ton of fun shooting them, we enjoyed all of the beauty of Lake Eden and Black Mountain.  Their guests are sure to have fun on their wedding weekend in this little town.  If any of their guests are interested in exploring Asheville and it's wonderful restaurants, let me know, I can recommend some great eats!

I saw this tree, and told EQ and Jason, we are going to work it!  Trees don't need to have leaves to be beautiful.
 
Another beautiful windy shot


So cute!

I love how they are both so relaxed and EQ's expression is great!
 

The sun finally came out to stay when we were in downtown Black Mountain, and it was awesome!  Thank you EQ and Jason for letting me share in this special time in your lives!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

CHEERSPORT Nationals

Okay to hold my followers until my next picture post, I have some fun videos for you to watch from CHEERSPORT Nationals.  I am finishing up the engagement session pictures of EQ and Jason, and then I have 4 month old pictures of Sophie to share with you as well!  Sophie was the newborn I photographed in November and I can't wait to show how beautiful she is and how much she has grown!

Now onto cheerleading, my other passion in life : )  We had our largest Nationals ever with 920 teams!  It was quite amazing!  We added an additional arena 3 weeks prior to Nationals because of our unexpected last minute growth.  We had 5 competition arenas, a 5 acre warm-up arena, and a huge awards arena as well.  So keep in mind, when you watch the videos below that is one arena, and it is duplicated 4 other times to make up the 5 arenas.

Here is one of my favorite Level 5 Routines (there are 6 levels, but Level 6 is for College and Open teams (Open is 14 years and older).   Open teams are for those that want to be cheerleaders forever.  I could compete on an open team, but I have no reason to die at such a young age, my body would hate me for doing that!

Okay, so here is the Senior Large 5 National Champion (this division can have up to 36 females):


Now would be a good time to mention, Jennifer our graphic designer.  When we added our 5th arena 3 weeks before Nationals, she was tasked with creating a new backdrop for us.  I love this backdrop!  It looks so sharp!  She is awesome!

Okay here is another great Level 5 routine, Senior Large Limited Coed 5 (this division is allowed to have up to 36 members with 1 - 4 males).  This video was filmed by a spectator, so you can get that feeling of what it would be like to be in the audience watching:


And one last routine to represent Charlotte Allstars, where I cheered 5th - 12th grade.  Now this was at NCA Nationals in Dallas, TX.  Now, we were nowhere near this level of difficulty, cheerleading has come a long way since I last competed in 2002.  This is a great routine!


I hope you have enjoyed your little glimpse into my world of cheerleading : )  I'll be back soon with pictures!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Sneak Peek: EQ (aka, EQOQ or Elizabeth) & Jason

Okay y'all, I'm back!  I'm sorry for my lack of posts the past 2 months, but CHEERSPORT Nationals was amazing!  We surpassed 900 teams this year!  Which is amazing!  I know I say this a lot, but just in case someone out there doesn't know, CHEERSPORT Nationals is the World's Largest Cheerleading & Dance Competition!  I'll post more about this later, but for now, enjoy a sneak peek of an engagement session I just did.

First, I should probably explain the title of this post.  I went to Wofford with EQ (which is where she  met Jason - I love Wofford couples!).  EQ stands for her first and middle name initials, Elizabeth Quinlin.  Jason's last name is O'Quinn, so EQ's new nickname at work is EQOQ : )  It's already rare to have the letter "Q" as part of their initials, and in a few months she'll have 2 "Q's" in her name!  

EQ and Jason were brave souls this past Friday.  We were supposed to have a morning photoshoot, but we woke up to snow on the ground and some icy cold wind.  Thankfully, they weren't going for the "snowy, winter" look : )  We moved the session to that afternoon, and it was still very chilly!  It was the wind that made it super cold, but the wind also makes for some lovely pictures!


I am in love with this session.  We shot at Eden Lake in Black Mountain, NC, which is where they will be getting married.  It will be a beautiful fall wedding!




I have a lot more pictures to share with all of you, but for now I'll leave you with this cute shot of their Coca-Cola's.