Becca & Austin • Engaged! • Davidson, NC

I photographed Becca and Austin's engagement session last weekend in Davidson, NC. We galavanted around downtown Davidson and then drove out to Fisher Farms. 

Becca and Austin have an incredibly cute story that can only be told best in Becca's words. "Back in 2004 my sister and her (now) husband, Adam, had just started dating. Adam's family and Austin's family grew up close friends and Adam worked at the lumber company with Austin. Austin was bugging Adam one day about Jackie, asking if she had a sister that he could date. Adam said that as a matter of fact, she did! So, Adam and Austin got together and wrote me a poem called "Rebecca, Rebecca." Instant classic. :) It was hilarious and he passed it through Adam to me with a picture of them working under a car (typical, knowing Austin) and a Hoke Lumber ticket that entitled me to one "Dream Date with my Secret Admirer." I still have all three things, and I think Jackie and Adam have plans for them for our reception. :) Anyway, we chatted on AIM some but nothing ever really came of it except a few meetings here and there at Jackie and Adam's house. We both dated other people in college (though we were both at NC State!) and in 2011 we started talking online and eventually on the phone. He asked me out in April 2011 and we had our first date zip-lining at the Whitewater Center (WWC) and I got to cash in on my dream date. When I got to his house that day, I had no idea where we were going (he's quite sneaky) but when we got in the car he handed me a waiver that I had to sign for the WWC that describe the activity as an "extreme sport". I had a feeling I was in for quite a date and I definitely was. :) Our first date lasted from 2pm until about 1am and involved the ziplining tour, dinner and learning to drive a manual jeep. I think I pretty much knew then that something special was going on when we'd been together for almost 12 hours and I still didn't want to leave. The rest is history! A month later I went to my first NASCAR race and my life hasn't been the same since :)"


Enjoy the photographs from their engagement session. Looking forward to their wedding in September!

 Austin built this Datsun himself and has had a lifetime love of cars, so we thought it only suiting to take some of the photographs with his car! Here is the website where he discusses building his car.  www.vq240z.com

Instagram • Seattle, WA

Much of the work I've been doing lately has been for companies like Google and Starbucks, and I am unable to share those photos with you. Since I am more and more impressed with how advanced our phone cameras are becoming, this post will focus on photos from Instagram, an iPhone app that I love. Instagram allows you to share your photos with a community of "followers" and can link to your social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. The app lets you selectively focus your photos as well as add fun filters. So many companies have caught on to the Instagram trend and you can now turn your Instagram images into postcards (Postagram), prints (Prinstagram), canvas prints (Canvaspop), albums (Blurb) and even magnets (Stickygram)!

Here are a set of magnets I ordered from Stickygram. Excellent quality, matte finish.

Samples of some photos I took lately with Instagram are pictured below.

 You may remember Milla from the portrait session I did last December. Check it out here!

 Delicious Soldier Eggs at Arabica Lounge

Luther Burbank Park

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival • Mount Vernon, WA

This past weekend we took a little road trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, WA. Although there are many things to see and do, we only had time to see the Roozengarrde Garden which was absolutely beautiful. So many rows of tulips and such a variety of species. As we got closer to the garden, we chose the "Best Rd." to get there.

 Field of daffodils on the way to the tulip garden.

 Even the port-a-potties had tulips painted on them!

Many many people came to see the tulips!

I loved the lone yellow tulip with a little red spot like the red tulips in the background.

 Long shadows on a warm sunny day. It's as if I was in the south again.