It was my first time participating in a bridal show, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. With the doors slated to open at 1pm, I couldn’t believe how many excited brides and grooms were lined up as early as 11am. I’m waiting to hear how many brides came to the show, but I would guess over 700!

Our booth got a lot of attention, with many couples looking for 2013 and even 2014 availability. It was so nice talking to all of the brides and grooms about their upcoming weddings. Everyone seemed to have a great time at the show, with the cake tastings and chocolate fountains, being as always, a big hit.

It was also nice to see some vendors who I’ve worked with before. In addition, it was nice to meet some new vendors. Our booth was between Sprinkles Custom Cakes of Winter Park and DJ Live Productions. I have to say, it was hard sticking to New Year’s resolutions with cupcakes staring at me the entire day!

Thanks again to everyone that came out, and please contact us if you have any follow-up questions!

It’s my first bridal show and I’m so excited to participate in such a great event!

The Orlando Museum of Art generally picks a theme to go with other exhibits that they are hosting. This year’s theme was Hip Holiday! which was gave it a early 1960′s feel.

Even though there were hundreds of decorated trees to choose from, I focused more on the amazing tiny ornaments hung from the trees. I hope that you enjoy these collages and check out the Festival of Trees next year at the Orlando Museum of Art!

I’ve been all around town to do these photos. I did a family photo session this past weekend at Cypress Grove Park. Before that, I had a couples portrait session in Winter Garden along the West Orange Trail.

I also did several portrait sessions this year at Walt Disney World. I had two different family portrait sessions at Disney’s Boardwalk resort. I also did a portrait session at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The Osborne Spectacle of Lights made for an amazing backdrop for some great images!

I also had a home portrait session with my two dogs. Every year, our Christmas cards feature them, and it’s an annual challenge to top the previous year’s card. (I’ll be posting those pictures later).

I’ve attached a collage of some of my recent photos. I hope you enjoy them!

John and Lisa had a fun picnic themed engagement photo complete with homemade cupcakes, sandwiches, and wine. They’ll be getting married next fall in Jacksonville, Florida.

Please enjoy the images from the photo session!

The bride and her bridesmaids got dressed and ready at the DoubleTree Resort in downtown Orlando. As I was taking pictures around the room, I noticed a note with Tierney’s name on it. Ian had given it to her the night before letting her know how happy and excited he was to be getting married that next day.

Ian, as an active member of the United States Marine Corps, wore his dress blues to the ceremony. Tierney wore a beautiful gown from Kleinfeld with blue shoes to coordinate with his uniform.

I love when couples decide to have a destination wedding in Orlando – it’s fun to see all of the guests excited by the many sights and sounds of a city that I often take for granted. And I often learn something new.

The wedding was held downtown at Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaurant, a place I had never been. What a cool and fun place to have a wedding! It is located in a building on Church Street that is over 100 years old. The ambiance of the location was fantastic, complete with great food and live Latin music. The candlelight room was a gorgeous host to both the ceremony and the reception.

We also were also just a few feet from Church Street Station, which is always a fantastic location to photograph. I had a great time with the whole wedding party as we found some great spots for pictures near the restaurant.

Tierney and Ian were an awesome couple and I am so glad I was able to be part of their wedding! Here are some of my favorite images from the day.

VENDORS

Hotel – DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando Downtown (www.hilton.com)
Dress – Kleinfeld (www.kleinfeldbridal.com)
Shoes – Caparros (www.caparrosshoes.com)
Florist – Amy Ruscica
Hair – Steph Caudle
Ceremony / Reception – Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaraunt (www.ceviche.com)
Officiant – Reverend Steve Swan from Sensational Ceremonies (www.sensational-ceremonies.com)
Cake – Cut the Cake, Inc. (www.cutthecakeinc.com)

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to spend two days with legendary wedding photographer, David Ziser. David has been shooting weddings in the Cincinnati, Ohio area for over 40 years. His lectures at the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International pull in over 800 attendees.

This Saturday, I had the honor being his assistant at a wedding in Tampa, Florida. It was a smaller size wedding of about 70 guests held at the Heritage United Methodist Church in Clearwater, Florida with a reception immediately following at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

Working with David was a fantastic learning experience for me. It was also the first time I’ve been an assistant at a wedding, so the responsibilities were a little different than I was used to.

The bride (Becky) and groom (Paul) wanted to have a “first look” before the ceremony. So, we photographed the couple when they first saw each other on their wedding day. We then visited different locations around the sanctuary at Heritage United Methodist Church. It’s a beautiful modern church with many angles and leading lines that make for great photographs.

From there, David found a great area on the grounds of the church where we took all of the family and bridal party portraits. We also had some fun taking photos with the bridal party at the pumpkin patch that the church had going on. A wedding day is generally on a tight schedule, so it was nice to have all of these portraits complete before the ceremony.

After the ceremony, we headed across town to the Florida Aquarium at Channelside in Tampa, Florida. David does some amazing environmental portraits and being able to take photographs in this gorgeous room (complete with sharks and sea turtles swimming by) offered some fantastic photo opportunities. I assisted David with the lighting as not only did we have to light up the bride and groom; we also had to light up the room which was very dark and we had to light the fish in the aquarium! It was a very tricky photo, but David pulled it off. You can see a photo from before the reception on David’s blog (here).

It was a fun reception complete with a visit by two ADORABLE penguins. The guests all seemed to have had a great time in a very cool venue.

Being able to work for David was an amazing learning experience, something I’ll never forget. I learned many new technical techniques from him during the day. I also witnessed how he worked the event with the utmost in class and professionalism. David is famous for his amazing images. But, David Ziser’s 30 years of success in the wedding photography industry is because of the level of service he provides his clients.

—-

Two days later, I headed back to Tampa to attend a workshop that David was teaching. The class is part of the Dave Cross Workshops held at Studio 3 in Oldsmar, Florida. It was an intimate class that allowed us to ask a lot of questions and to be involved in the class. It was nice to see Tony, a fellow photographer, who was a participant in my photo walk, in attendance at David Ziser’s class.

We spent the morning reviewing different lighting techniques and how to make lighting exciting. We also had some informal portfolio reviews by LaDawn Ziser, which were great.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Phillipe Park in Oldsmar, Florida. Our beautiful model, Liz, was a great sport as we hiked around the park.

I took some pictures throughout the day, but my focus was more on the directions given to the model. It was very interesting how a simple gesture change could turn a good pose in to a great pose.

We headed back to the studio to review the pictures taken at the park and we had some additional time to touch on various topics.

Between the wedding on Saturday and the class on Monday, I feel great right now about all that I have learned. I also can’t wait until my next event to use some of these new found techniques. David and LaDawn Ziser are two amazing individuals and it humbles me to have had the opportunity to work with both of them.

Also, this is my second time heading to the Dave Cross Workshops. Dave has brought hosted workshops with some of the biggest names in the photography industry. It’s a rare opportunity that someone can have access like that. If you are looking to excel your photography or design skills, I strongly recommend you check out his workshops.

In closure, I wanted to include some of the photos I took at the workshop. It shows what a great job David does at finding an ideal backdrop and posing the model in a way that is very beautiful. I also included a quick photo of David in action with some of the students photographing as well.

I hope you enjoy.

I chose to lead a walk at EPCOT because of all of the photo diversity. There’s no where else where you can see so much in just a mile long walk.

We started with a group photo in front of Spaceship Earth, and then headed slowly back through Future World. It was first weekend of the Food and Wine festival, and Ocean Spray had a cranberry bog which was a big hit with the photographers.

We then walked around the countries of World Showcase ending at Nine Dragons at the China pavilion for a great lunch. Lunch also gave everyone a chance to share the photos they took and to talk photography.

After getting home, I was very impressed with all of the participant’s photos. I created a flickr group for everyone to post their photos from the day. I encourage you to check it out here. I was a little disappointed with my own photos. But, it was to be expected as I spent more time talking to the participants and getting to know one another than I did on my personal photos.

One thing you’ll notice is that many the photos aren’t the typical theme park photos. One of the honors of leading a walk is that I had the responsibility of picking the best photo of the day. I gave the group an assignment of staying away from the “post card” photographs.

Curiously though, the winning picture was of Spaceship Earth, the quintessential post card subject. The image by William Beem is the most beautiful photo I have ever seen of Spaceship Earth. Mostly, because he took something that is so large (18 stories) and overwhelming and made it feel small and delicate to me. The photo looked more like a Christmas ornament than park icon.

You can see William’s photo and all of the other submissions for the contest at my official photo walk page at www.worldwidephotowalk.com.

Overall, it was a great day, and I was so proud to have led my own Photo Walk! There’s already talk about doing another one in the not so distant future. I can’t wait!

Below is the image we took to start the day of the great group of photographers that joined us!

I am pleased to announce a very special fall promotion. If you book a wedding package before December 21st, I will include a makeup artist for your engagement photo session. Makeup will be provided by Makeup by Rae of Orlando. I had the chance to work with Rae on some recent work, and she does a fabulous job.

This promotion is limited to engagement sessions in the Orlando area. For more details, please contact us.

Four years later, this photo walk has grown immensely. This year, there were over 1100 walks worldwide, with over 28,000 participants! It’s fun to think that while we’re walking, there are other groups doing the same thing in such far reaches of the globe as Iran, Mongolia, and Nigeria.

This year, I participated in two walks. In addition to leading my own walk (more details on that in a subsequent post), I had the pleasure to join Scott Kelby through the streets of downtown Tampa, where he led his own walk.

We met at Curtis Hixon park and strolled passed the Glazer Children’s Museum and the Tampa Museum of Art. We then headed through some of the side streets of downtown Tampa, ending at Five Guys Burgers and Fries for a fantastic lunch.

Here are some of my pictures of the day. The first picture is the group shot that Scott grabbed of our group before we headed out. The University of Tampa serves as a backdrop.