Oh boy, I think that my maid needs to be fired after seeing all of the dust collecting around here! As you can probably guess, the wedding season and traveling combined have kind of kicked my butt. I’ve still been pretty good about getting images up on the Anna Lynch McClary Photography Facebook Page though. The ironic part is that I’m poking my head in here just to let everyone know that I’m jumping on another airplane tomorrow and will be out of reach for a few days. The next couple of weeks I get to travel to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Colorado, and even make a stop in Nebraska for weddings and senior sessions. I’m going to miss my bed and my kitties, but it should be a good time filled with lots of great photo opps.
Oh, and when I return, I vow to be a better blogger. To show my seriousness, here is one image from each of the sessions that I shared on Facebook today.
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I think that continuing to learn is incredibly important in a field like photography that is continually changing. Because of that, I am heading out to the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention in Las Vegas this week through Friday. I have big plans to be in classes and scouting out the tradeshow (and having some fun, of course), so I won’t be responding to emails as quickly this week. I’m hoping that after spending a week with 11,000 or so of some of the best photographers in the world, I’ll be back next week refreshed and inspired.
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Last time I was here I was writing to welcome in 2010 and January. Now I’m saying goodbye to January. Eesh! I don’t plan to make that a habit, but with a handful of trips and a sickness this week that has completely had me down and out, the blog got bumped from my to do list.
This weekend I’m participating in the Classic City Bridal Show in Auburn. I’ve never done a bridal show before, so we’ll see if I come back next week having loved it. I’ve been doing a lot of preparation for the show and ordered a boatload of new samples. My fabulously handy husband, Mitch has also been helping me with my booth construction. Today as I sat in my umpteenth day of a drug haze, I heard our door buzzer and remembered that my new sample album was due to arrive today. I am so glad that I’ll have this big book to show off to all of the brides this weekend. I pretty much instantly fell in love with it!
Second only to the fantastic print and construction quality, my favorite thing about these books are how creative they allow you to be. There are at least a trillion different combinations of cover materials, images mixed in with the covers, and specialty materials (think glass and metal) that you can combine to create a totally unique album.
I went a little non-traditional with this sample, for those of you out there thinking that material might be a little too wild for you.
The creased pages allow the spreads to flow so beautifully throughout the entire album.
Just a note to any 2010 brides, my schedule is filling up very quickly. Email me at anna@annalynchmcclary.com to get the ball rolling today!
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I’ve been looking forward to this week for the past two months. After being constantly on the go and in airports, I had pegged this one as my week to play catch up on the computer and possibly even on this very neglected blog. However, towards the end of last week the flu caught up to me. I thought I had completely rebounded, but have found that isn’t necessarily the case. However, if I keep waiting to feel better it seems like it could be Christmas before I get a new post up.
This ought to show you how far behind I am on blogging, I had no idea where I left off! Thanks to this sick day, I’m going to let Ryan and Leaha’s images speak for themselves!
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Wow! There really isn’t anything else I can say except that Ryan and Leaha’s wedding day was simply beautiful. I can’t stress how stunning Leaha was and Ryan looked just as handsome in his suit (that HE picked out). Just a couple teaser images…
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When Mitch and I made yet another move last year, it left me with the decison to do my photography full time or keep it part time and find a different job out here. The more I thought about it, I couldn’t justify having a day job that I didn’t love and a weekend job that I did. So, I made the leap and commited what seems to be every waking hour to this little photography business. I did decide though to throw on a little part time bartending job at Parkview Field. Why not? If Mitch was going to be down there most nights, I may as well have done the same thing and brought in a little spending cash, right? Thanks to the crazy business that August has brought me, I did end up leaving that part time job, but before I did I met this cute little blonde.
Back in April I bundled up and headed down to the field for orientation. I was lucky to have one familiar face in my friend Jamie there, but quickly found another in Leaha. I knew that we were going to have a fun summer working together and thought that was probably about it. However, a couple of days later she mentioned that she was going to get married in August. So, I have this adorable, bubbly little blonde that is super fun to be around, who is also getting married. If you think I hesitated for one second to give her my card and tell her that my “real” job is photography, you’d be crazy!
Tomorrow is Leaha and Ryan’s big day, so I wanted to get a full post of their engagement images up before I had wedding ones to put up (sneak peek was here). When we were getting ready to take these, I think Ryan was a little nervous that I was going to have him skipping through a meadow or something goofy like that. Then, there was Leaha who was so excited and ready for these pictures that you’d think she was a seasoned pro in front of the camera. Luckily, I didn’t make them skip and they even had a couple beers.
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Being able to shoot two people that are in love is pretty much a dream come true for me. You see, I am and have always been a total romantic sap. I will 99% of the time choose a chick flick over anything else. A good engagement story will quite easily make my day. Heck, back in my dating days I tended to give all the wrong guys an extra chance (or twelve) with the thought that love conquered everything. Now, there are few days that I don’t just stop and wonder how I got so lucky to find Mitch. For those of you that are my polar opposites on this one, I can only imagine how many times I just made you roll your eyes.
The end of July I made my very first trip to Lafayette, Indiana to shoot Jessi and Daniel’s engagement pictures. The fact that I made it there alive is a small miracle. Suffice it to say that I no longer blindly follow my trusty GPS. Once I made it there though, I finally met these two and they were exactly what I had pictured from Jessi’s emails and phone calls. The entire session they were looking out for each other, and just so totally in love. The first time I asked them to kiss you should’ve seen how excited Daniel was, as if he needed my permission!
Before we actually started shooting, they took me to the church that they’re going to be married in and a couple of locations they had in mind for wedding pictures. Jessi was just absolutely glowing as she shot off a few ideas she had in mind. I can’t tell you how excited I was after leaving that night. Besides the obvious reason of me being a sucker for a good couple, this is the main reason I include an engagement session with my wedding packages. I feel like I know these two so much better now and even got to see exactly what they have envisioned for their big day. Now, I don’t feel like I’ll just be some photographer showing up on their wedding day.
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I go into my children and family sessions with a very open mind and try to have a very open schedule. Kiddos have their days planned out the way they want them, and who am I to change those plans?! When Brenda and I started working out the details of getting some family pictures and shots of her little guy Ethan and her niece and nephew Keira and Jace, we attempted to plan around them sleeping in a little later. We thought that since they were in different timezones and would have been playing hard at Grandma and Grandpa’s house that they would have been a little extra sleepy.
Ethan apparently didn’t get his extra dose of sleepiness and instead decided to throw a late night/ early morning party at Grandma and Grandpa’s. He of course invited his mommy and daddy to the party. When I arrived that morning and everyone was just finishing getting ready, Ethan was happily talking up a storm. Brenda was pretty surprised as she told me about his little party plans. It was at that point that we should have knocked on wood. No big deal though, we may not have gotten tons of smiley pictures of Ethan, but his big blue eyes make for great somber shots.
For some reason, Ethan didn’t invite Jace and Keira to the party. You couldn’t hardly get Keira to stop smiling and all it took was a little car talk to earn Jace’s trust. I about fell over when he pointed out the chassis on my “ruby red Dodge”. Maybe I should have asked if he could do a quick oil change for me!
Of course the normal two sneak peek shots wouldn’t do when you have three cuties!
The Party Animal
Smiley
The Car Prodigy
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As soon as we started shooting on Paul and Angie’s wedding day, the clouds rolled in and it looked like the skies could open up at any moment. As we were out shooting Paul and the guys, it started to sprinkle and I was afraid that was the end of our outdoor shots. Then, it stopped. So, I hurried the girls outside hoping to get in a few images. Well, it started sprinkling about half way through, so we moved it inside.
That wasn’t the end of our rainy day hokey pokey though. After the ceremony was over, it stopped just long enough for the newly married couple to make their church exit and hop into the horse and carriage that was waiting for them. Of course, nearly the second the carriage pulled back up, it started doing the sprinkling/ threatening to pour thing again. So, we adjusted. Luckily, Fort Wayne’s downtown First Presbyterian church has plenty of beautiful indoor locations.
Here are just a couple shots to leave you wanting more!
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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed to get images up on here, but just haven’t had time to sit down and write everything that I want. So, instead the post gets put off. Well, not today! This is short and sweet on the words (there will be more for their full post), but I have to get out the door, so here are the images you came here for!
Oh, and Leaha and Ryan get a bonus sneak peek image because of my lack of writing!
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