First time clients, Matti and Cody, met me up at Explore Park on a gorgeous Saturday evening. Sometimes I’m jealous of the images I deliver to a client because I wish I had the same type of images of my girls and husband. It’s a reminder to me to not put off having family pictures done of my own family.
On a gorgeous early fall afternoon, Amanda and John were married under open skies surrounded by family and dear friends. A parade of children were ferried to the ceremony in a horse drawn carriage while the bride rode in on a horse with one of her sisters. Guests listened on as Amanda and John not only expressed their heartfelt commitment to each other but to her sons as well. Following a handfasting, the bride and groom were declared man and wife by a dear friend that acted as the officiant.
I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph Callie and Adam’s engagement session a few weeks ago. Since Adam still lives in upstate New York, we needed this particular Saturday to work for their session, and we were so lucky that the storm waited until we finished up to start. I’m truly not exaggerating, I didn’t make it back to my car before the rain started to fall. We met up at Roanoke College and downtown Salem for their session. Don’t you love the matching jerseys with Adam’s last name on them? And how fabulous are Callie’s red heels? Adam and Callie were so amazing, and were so willing to wonder around downtown as I snapped away. Enjoy a little sneak peek into Callie and Adam’s engagement session!
Harmony and Jeremiah were married on a gorgeous spring day in May. (Full disclosure, it felt more like July then May with temperatures soaring close to 90 degrees.) Jeremiah’s family owns land in Paint Bank, and it was the perfect country setting for an outdoor wedding. Harmony looked absolutely amazing! I loved the colors Harmony and Jeremiah chose for their wedding. The gradients of blush of the bridesmaids dresses went perfectly with the grey and white of the groom and the groomsmen. There were so many special touches, from the bride’s brother playing the piano during the dad and daughter dance to the amazing desserts and hand-wrapped soaps that made Harmony and Jeremiah’s wedding a truly special day.
Enjoy some of my favorite images from their gorgeous day!
Kelly and I are members of the same Moms Club, so when she contacted me to update her family photographs, I was thrilled. Kelly really wanted an urban feel to her session, but I convinced her to add in a natural setting as well. The beauty of living in Roanoke is that you can be a mile or two from downtown and find yourself in a park with wildflowers, trees, and the Roanoke river as a backdrop. After rescheduling because her husband had an opportunity to go to the NCAA Final Four tournament, we arranged to meet up at Vic Thomas Park before heading downtown. I love that Kelly has two very distinct looks to her session yet we were able to achieve them in just a short amount of time. It really helped that Kelly is a natural in front of the camera and her husband is such a good sport.
How adorable is this little guy? I really love how the setting sun was hitting the tall grass behind him.
Here are some of my favorite images from this year’s holiday sessions at Explore Park and Hollins University.
The saturday before Christmas, I met up with The Saunder’s family to take some updated family pictures. Their oldest son is a graduate student at Rochester Institute of Technology in western New York. As a graduate of SUNY Geneseo, I am familiar with RIT, so it was nice to know someone else appreciates the beauty of that area.
The Saunder’s and I battled the wind and cold temperatures to capture some pictures they can share with family and friends at a holiday reunion they are hosting at their home.
Enjoy
Every Christmas one of the traditions that I look forward to the most is decorating our ‘Night Trees.’ Several years ago my dear friend, Betsy, gave my daughter the book The Night Tree by Eve Bunting. The Night Tree tells the story of a young boy and his family decorating their favorite tree in the forest with popcorn, apples, seed balls, and more as a gift for the animals of the woods. Our tradition of decorating trees came about out of a desire to show my children that the holiday season is a much about giving as receiving. Over the years, the people that join us might change, but what stays the same is that Betsy and my family along with our dogs trek up to our chosen trees and decorate them with our homemade edible ornaments. This year the girls invited two of their friends and their new puppy to join us. After wearing all the dogs out so that they wouldn’t eat the treats we’d made for the deer, bears, and birds, we decorated the trees with bows, pine cone ornaments, birdseed ornaments, and apple slices.
These pictures were taken with my cheapest lenses and on my personal camera and are by no means professional quality. They’re my momtographer images.
Directions on making bird seed ornaments can be found here https://www.kellyelko.com/love-birds-making-simple-birdseed-ornaments/
