When I designed Liz and Austin’s wedding album, I originally left out a photo of Austin & his brother playing a board game. This is the scene I arrived to on their wedding day. I just wasn’t sure if it belonged in the album, though I had a feeling. Sure enough Liz came back and asked me to include it in, because it really showed who they are. I just thought it was so sweet.

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Last weekend at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, was a bit like this.  My hubby, my daughter and I decided on a quick camping escape. It was the first time putting up our new tent, and the first test of my sleeping bag.  The tent went well.  We put the rainfly on backwards at first, but that only took us a few minutes to correct.  The little one even helped with the whole process.  That night we had a blast going out with friends who live nearby.

We got back to our campsite just as it was getting dark.  We crawled into our tent and despite the neighbors being loud (it was still early so we understood) got our daughter to sleep pretty quickly.  All was well, until about 1am when it started to get really cold.  From 1am to 6am I tossed and turned.  It felt very odd, but I discovered I still got 2g service on my phone, so I laid in my sleeping bag freezing, checking Facebook and email.  Very odd to me to be connected while outdoors.  My phone told me it was 39 outside.  I was probably better off not knowing this.  I looked over and my family was sound asleep.

Before morning, I decided my sleeping bag was going back to REI, and my Chacos, that were bruising my feet.  At 6am, I stole hubby’s sleeping bag for 10 minutes and warmed up!  By 7am we found coffee and, despite my lack of sleep, I was excited for the day.  We drove over to Harper’s Ferry park, and left the car about a mile from where we were headed.  I tossed our 4 year old on my back in my Ergo, and enjoyed the walk.

A few minutes later I discovered my hiking boots were breaking.  After some thought, I realized they are 15 years old and have seen many miles.  About 1/4 mile later, the sole pretty much fell off.  Still we walked around (barefoot for a bit for me) and enjoyed a fun outdoor lunch.  Back at camp, I was thrilled to see the camp store sold flip flops.  We went swimming, roasted marshmallows, hotdogs, and played Go Fish.

We forgot half the stuff we meant to bring, and I had a complete gear failure, but we still had an awesome weekend!

I photographed this wedding, as a second shooter, for Artemas Photography.  It was at the Pier 5 Hotel at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.  Ashley and Kris did not want to see each other first but they wanted to have some sort of photo taken together.  We spotted these tall back chairs in the lobby.  Kris hid in a nearby room.  Once Ashley was seated, her bridesmaids walked him to the chair behind her, with his eyes closed.

Pier 5 is a fun wedding venue, with an incredible suite that overlooks the harbor!  More photos of Ashley & Kris’s wedding to come soon.

Camping.  Since having my daughter, over four years ago, we have only gone camping once.  I used to camp in primitive campsites, or on rare occasion, backpack overnight.  Having a baby just changes everything, but as she is getting older I really want to share some things that I have always loved with her.  Getting outdoors is definitely one of those.

I was a little scared moving the Washington DC area that there would not be much hiking or camping.  I have been so pleasantly surprised that there are tons of parks, and trails.  Plus being out in Virginia gives me a pretty quick escape to Shenandoah or West Virginia.

Over a year and a half ago, we took the little one camping for the first time, in Oregon.  We made sure the place had bathrooms, and big drive up sites.  We bought her a children’s sleeping bag from REI, and she helped put up the tent.  We roasted marshmallows.  We had an absolute blast.

Somehow time has passed, as it tends to do too quickly.  This winter, I insisted we buy a new family tent big enough for all of us to be comfie in, and I finally replaced my 10+ year old Cats Meow sleeping bag.  (It served me well for many trips, including a few snowy nights and a particularly wet cold one in the Olympic Mountains that hubby may never forgive me for.)  Yesterday we went through our basement, and had fun sorting through all our camping stuff.  I dedicated a corner of my office so it’s easy to toss it all in the car, and am very excited for our first spring trip!

Here’s a photo from a hike in Washington at Mount Saint Helens.

Thanks Jen & Jason for showing me all the neat little spots near Eastern Market.  I look forward to photographing your wedding!

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I photographed Liz & Austin’s wedding in Maryland last fall.  A few weeks later, Liz told me they were interested in having me design a wedding album.  We went over all the different types, and Liz choose my fine art book.  It’s a hard cover book with a full photo wrap.  The pages are thick but still paper, not mounted board, and the printing is top of the line inkjet, creating beautiful rich colors.  These books are great when you want lots of photos.  Liz & Austin’s book (I use album & book interchangeably) was almost 50 pages and truly tells the story of their wedding day.

Some photos of the book are below.  I will followup with a post of several of the photo spreads inside.

The cover is custom designed for each of these albums, using your wedding photos. Below, you can see how flat the pages lay, giving you a very large spread. This book is 9×12, so one spread can be filled with an 18×12 photo (or several smaller ones).

In the next photo is an example of seam in the middle binding.  If you look at the middle of the photo, you see a tiny line where the book folds.

You can see how substantial this book is. There is something special to me about a heavy wedding album. I just want it to have that certain feel.

I was hesitant about hiring a designer.  I have heard so many people that are either unhappy with the final product, or with the process.  I love my new logo and watermark.  I think she did an amazing job interpreting my pinterest inspiration board, and sifting through all the information I gave her.  It feels very much me, and I think represents my brand perfectly.

I think it’s really interesting to see how the ideas above yielded to the logo below. This is the first time I have looked at them side by side.

Now onto the experience. Leslie has been easy to talk to, and very responsive with communication. Before hiring her, she answered my many questions. She gave me a date to expect my first proofs, about 3 weeks out, as she was currently working on other projects. I thought this was a very reasonable time frame, and on the Monday of the week she said to expect the proofs, they arrived.

Leslie helped me through the process of narrowing down the choices and making revisions. Within a week of the first draft, Leslie had my final logo to me. Working with Leslie Vega has been a complete pleasure. I recommend her strongly to all my photographer friends, and everyone else reading my blog.

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