Engagement: Stephanie and Chris, Kansas City Plaza and Union Station March 3, 2009

This past weekend was freezing. The day before this shoot, we had several inches of snowfall… the kind that’s good for sledding, snowball fights, and viewing from the warmth of your couch with a cup of hot cocoa. Yet, I didn’t do any of those things… no, instead, I opted for two engagement sessions! :)

We had planned to do Stephanie and Chris’ shoot on the Plaza, and after our fingers and toes started to get very numb, we added on a quick stop at Union Station for some indoor photos. 

Despite the cold, we had a great time. I love meeting people who are joyful, loving and IN love — people like Stephanie and Chris. I’m even more disappointed after meeting them in person that I can’t photograph their wedding this summer, but I am so glad that I got a chance to get to know them. Stephanie found me on Google… but as it turns out, we have tons of mutual friends! Just more proof that the world is a very, very small place.

This shot is the very first one of the day. I knew right away that this would be one fun session! :)

Don’t they have the best smiles?! I love how natural they were in front of the camera, and how comfortable they were together!

The dancing was totally unscripted… I love it when my clients just “run with it” and really make their session their own! Too cute!

I loooove this one:

Okay, and this one, too! Maybe I love this one more… what do you think?

A little wide-angle action outside of Union Station:

I really like their photos in black and white. There’s a timeless love story quality about them. :)

And finally, my favorite image from the day! I love these cuddly-cute engagement photos! :)

Stephanie and Chris, thanks so much for asking me to photograph this special time in your relationship! I hope everything goes so well with the wedding plans and a very happy marriage (and med school, Chris!).

Friends and family can click here to sign the guestbook for the online album and be automatically notified when all of the photos are available online!

My Birthday Weekend February 9, 2009

My family came to Kansas City for my birthday this past weekend. It was such a special and fun weekend, since my older brother was home for a 2-week leave from his deployment in Iraq — just in time for my b-day! :) We ate at Jeff and I’s favorite local restaurants, took my sister-in-law on a quick tour of the best spots in KC, playing the rowdiest and loudest game of Catchphrase (ever), and had plenty of time to just hang out!

On Saturday, we did a quick drive through some of the more notable neighborhoods and districts of Kansas City. When we arrived at Union Station in downtown KC, we went in to show Justin and Leslie the awesome architecture and classic beauty of the old train station. 

There’s something so timeless about hand-holding in an old beautiful train station…

And I just love this old-school diner inside the station. Who wants to do a retro-style engagement session here??

I can’t get over how ornate and beautiful the restoration on the grand hall area was — check out the ceiling, and this amazing chandelier! 

Leslie has penny souvenirs from all over — so when she saw a machine in Kansas City’s Union Station, we couldn’t miss that opportunity. :)

For the longest time, I have wanted to convert all of our old home videos to DVD — it’s even on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. Well, my family beat me to it! They even surfaced these long-lost tapes of my little brother as a baby and my older brother and I as elementary and middle school-aged kids (and even a few from my high school cheerleading days — yikes!). We watched some of them this weekend. I love home videos, but this was just a real treat — video that I have NEVER seen and didn’t even know existed. Maybe it’s because I’m in the business of preserving memories… but that just makes my heart happy. :)

That’s my younger brother on the screen in the crib. So cute! Thanks for crossing off #4 for me!!

 

Petey was reunited with his brother, Bruce, who is Justin and Leslie’s miniature schnauzer. They were SO good together all weekend (a first for them) and it was so awesome! They were just the best little pals, and so cute! They liked keeping watch all weekend (Petey is the little guy!). Jeff took these cool shots:

I have no idea what prompted this next photo (or the 5 or 6 that followed…), but my little (okay, younger) brother and I are quite a pair. I think he looks a little like Edward from the Twilight movie in this shot, minus the hair. Just don’t tell him that, because he is against Twilight with every ounce of his being. :) As for me, I just look mad. I don’t have a very cool serious face… and my sweatshirt isn’t as cool as Jacob’s popped collar. ;)

Oh, siblings. I love family time! Thanks for coming to KC everyone… and making my birthday so special! :)

Engagement: Marisa and John at Kansas City’s Union Station February 4, 2009

I met Marisa and John for the first time this past weekend after several weeks of chatting about their wedding on the phone. I was already excited about their wedding before I met them, but after spending time with them (and the ADORABLE boys!), I’m even more excited to make the trip to Garden City, Kansas, for their wedding in May. Yes, that’s right. Garden City.

They made the 7+ hour drive to Kansas City for their engagement session. John wanted a modern, urban feel. Marisa wanted the great outdoors. So, like anyone entering a marriage relationship knows how to do, we compromised. :)

We started out in Union Station, the gorgeous and historic train station in downtown KC. The light was beautiful streaming through the tall windows.

Then we headed right outside — these are taken outside the modern building where Science City is housed, connected to the old traditional station.

Any time there are young kids — especially boys — in a photo shoot, I always look for locations that can engage their interest, so the photography portion isn’t so boring. The old trains outside of the station were perfect, and helped capture some candid shots of their adventurous spirit… as well as some great family photos!

Marisa and John are so cute! :) I love these next two images.

Our next stop was the front of Union Station, for some architecture-focused shots with a little wide-angle lens action…

It’s hard to resist the fountains at Crown Center, especially with two little boys!

Here, they were trying to convince each other to run through the fountain… guess who had the courage to actually do it? The little guy… :)

Our next stop was for more outdoorsy photos, since they’re from a farming community and didn’t want all of the images to be really Kansas City-focused. So, we were off to the park!

Huge piles of leaves offered some entertainment for the boys, and some great photos of boys being boys.

And, one more of the happy couple!

Marisa and John, I am so excited to see you again in May. You were so awesome to work with!

Friends and family, click here to sign the online guestbook and receive an e-mail when all of their photos are ready to be viewed!

An Unexpected Surprise. January 20, 2009

I received the best thoughtful gift in the mail today… all the way from Connecticut! :)

Several weeks ago (maybe a few months now!), I had the privilege of “meeting” Betsy through my blog. Betsy stumbled across my blog through another photographer’s blog and left me a few comments (including solving the mystery of what type of plant is featured in the photograph that hangs above our fireplace!). I sent her an e-mail thanking her for “stopping by” and providing me with the answer to a question that had plagued my thoughts for so long! :)

So we got to e-mailing back and forth, and I found out that Betsy is an aspiring photographer in Connecticut who also has a very full plate besides her pursuit into the world of photography. Through our e-mails, we started up a conversation about what it’s like to start a photography business, the steps she can take to kick-start her career, tips about photography in general, and basically just have a conversation about something we both love — photography, of course! :)

I am so incredibly impressed with the way she has embraced learning, trying and pursuing her dream. It’s an awesome reminder for me of what it was like to get started (and boy, would I have loved another photographer’s opinion back then!). 

So Betsy sent us these two gorgeous, original mugs (made by her dad, a potter — how awesome is that??), a lovely note, and a Starbucks gift card (I can already taste the chai tea latte waiting for me!). I was so touched, and so in awe of the gorgeous craftsmanship of these two mugs that I had to share with the rest of you!

Anyway, “mentor an aspiring photographer” is #31 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. When Betsy said that I could cross that one off, I agreed to do it as long as she started her own blog and promised to keep shooting and learning. So, Betsy, I’m crossing that item off the list even though it’s a continuing process. Even though I’m always here to help and encourage and share what I’ve learned so far in my own photography journey. And for the rest of you wondering if you can venture into the world of photography — please don’t hesitate to contact me (or keep contacting me!). A line through item #31 certainly doesn’t squelch my love for helping you learn and succeed. I’m available via e-mail… me @ ericamay.com (just remove the spaces!).

I’d encourage you all view Betsy’s blog, and keep an eye on her — she’s just getting started, and she’s already doing great things!! Congratulations, Betsy, and thanks for the super sweet gift. 

OpLove Session: Tucker’s One Month Portraits January 18, 2009

I am so glad to be a part of an organization of photographers who participate in a program called Operation: Love Reunited. In short, the program offers portrait sessions at no charge to military families who are experiencing a deployment. It’s an awesome program, and I love meeting families where one or both of the parents is a member of the Armed Forces.

Little Tucker turned one month old just last week, and I was so excited when his mom got in touch to do an OpLove session. Tucker’s dad had to deploy back to Kosovo just a few days after Tucker was born. I am so excited to send his dad an album in the mail — with some beautiful photos of his adorable little boy! I met Tucker and his mom at their home, and Tucker was such a good sport — especially after some food and cuddles from his mom!

Look how tiny Tucker’s feet are next to his dad’s dog tags!

I love the images we captured of the bond between Tucker and his mom. There’s something so moving and beautiful about a relationship between a mother and her baby. You can just tell that Brandi is an awesome mom! The photos are just so filled with love!

I love these next few photos… seriously. Tucker is the main focus, but you can just see how Brandi interacts with her little boy!

This boy has the best, brightest blue eyes!

I love how well this American flag patterned blanket photographed! 

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of baby yawns! :)

Yellow ribbons signify supporting our troops. Military families display yellow ribbons when they have a deployed soldier, and Brandi had a great idea to tie a big ribbon around Tucker! :) In these photos, Tucker is laying on his dad’s Army banner.

Brandi, thanks for asking me to photograph Tucker’s one-month-old photos! He’s just beautiful! I’ll be thinking of you all, and praying for a quick and safe return of your husband!

If you know a member of the military who is going to be deployed or who will be arriving home soon, send them my way! I’d love to work with military families going through deployment — to either do a “surprise” session of the family to send to the deployed soldier, or family portraits right after they return — or to capture the actual homecoming! Just visit the contact page on www.ericamay.com!

This session also helps me get one step closer to completing #81 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days! :)

Another random Monday! December 29, 2008

Okay, a quick update for all of you out there who are wondering if I’ve entered into a post-Christmas-food-overload coma. :) I’m alive and well and back from our holiday travels! What a whirlwind weekend, too!

Don’t be surprised if there’s a small blogging hiatus for the next few days… but here are the awesome things in store:

1. WEDDINGS!! — yep, that’s plural! We have not one, but two, awesome weddings coming up this week. We’ll first be capturing Stephanie and Daniel‘s big day… and then we’re headed to Manhattan for Nick and Sarah‘s nuptials! :)

2. Still more favorites from 2008 — we haven’t even made it to the dresses yet!! :) I promise we’ll still finish up our look at some of the best details of the 2008 wedding season, so you can vote for your favorites!

3. My home decor! We have more furniture and other items coming our way this week, so I’m hoping to get even more settled in our new house and actually show you all some photos of the inside!

4. 2009! Can you believe it’s almost here? I am so, so excited about all of the shoots already scheduled for 2009 (my 2009 wedding dates are almost all booked!).

5. More weddings! We have four weddings in January, so check back for these awesome winter-themed celebrations! Weddings in the midwest are usually so seasonal, so this will be a fun January!

The almost-newlyweds:

Kansas City Plaza Christmas Lights December 22, 2008

It is SO cold here. I am seriously contemplating a wintertime home in a tropical locale… next year, I’ll only be booking weddings in sunny, warm destinations during the months of December through March, okay? :) Just kidding! Seriously, though, I’d probably ride in your suitcase if you’re up for a beach-themed portrait session right now. :) Who’s with me??

Anyway, in the midst of packing, moving and unpacking, we somehow found time to take care of Christmas shopping and do a little bit of holiday-themed fun this past weekend. Luckily, I start early with the shopping stuff, so we just had a few last-minute details to wrap up. We didn’t get to decorate our house for Christmas or do very many traditional things like cuddle and sip hot cocoa while watching Christmas classics… so this weekend, we were determined to take in a little bit of the holiday scenery. After a long day of painting, cleaning and shopping, we set out towards the Kansas City Country Club Plaza with our car loaded down with random items from our old apartment, Wal-Mart sacks full of must-haves for our new house, Mexican food leftovers and two Starbucks treats.

Every year on Thanksgiving Day, the Plaza in Kansas City has a big lighting party where they turn on all of the lights that line each of the buildings. It’s quite a site to see, and a very festive atmosphere for Christmas shopping, dining and meeting up with friends. It was officially 5 degrees when we ventured to the Plaza, so I couldn’t bear to be out of the car for too long to snag some really amazing photos for you. :) But, here’s what we captured!

Oh, Barnes and Noble, don’t you look so warm and inviting! :)

I love all of the towers and spires that add to the very European feel of the Plaza. 

Doesn’t this photo feel cold to you? I think I got the chills just looking at it… :)

After our stint on the Plaza, we headed to the Crown Center area to check out the Mayor’s Christmas Tree! I was surprised to see the fountains in front of the tree still on, but loved the effect! Jeff and I did part of our engagement photos IN the fountain (during the summertime), and I’d love to try that again sometime… anyone interested? :)

I hope the few days leading up to Christmas don’t stress you out… that’s not what it’s all about! :) So even if your car is loaded down with 500 million things that you should be attending to… take a minute, grab some Starbucks and your sweetheart, and enjoy the season!

Cans for Comments – Shopping Trip! December 15, 2008

This afternoon, I met up with the wonderfully talented Rebecca from Rebecca Peters Photography for a fun-filled can shopping extravaganza. :) Rebecca also participated in the Cans for Comments drive on her blog, and between the two of us, we purchased a total of 188 cans!

We were able to snap a few photos in the store before we were asked to put our cameras away. We probably would’ve had more time to grab photos in the store, if I would’ve taken a smaller lens with me… after getting a strange “what are they doing taking photos of canned goods?” look from an employee walking by, he came back a few minutes later to ask us to put away our cameras. Oops! :)

Here are a few that I grabbed. For my fruit-loving blog readers, who requested that I not leave out the fruit — 12 cans of tropical fruit salad were donated in your honor:

So after we bought all of the cans (with a few comments from fellow shoppers — things like, “wow, you girls sure are hungry for canned goods!”), we had the brilliant idea of doing an outdoor photo shoot in the freezing cold weather. My car temperature gauge read “11″ — yeah, not fun. Yet we set out, determined to capture some unique images of canned goods, and possibly create a stop-motion film. We found our perfect location behind Price Chopper (where there’s a drop-off for Harvesters). If Rebecca makes our attempt at stop-motion filming actually work out, I’ll show you the finished product here. :)

Setting up the shot:

What the line of cans looked like when we were (finally) done setting them up one by one and taking a frame after each can was in place:

And a few testing out the new video capabilities on the MarkII5D!

Needless to say, after all of this, we couldn’t feel our hands or our feet, which required a Starbucks chai tea remedy. :)

Thanks again for your participation in the Cans for Comments drive! You are awesome, and I’m excited to see your name in the Comments section of my posts more often. :) Rebecca, thanks for a super fun — although freezing cold — afternoon!

Family Portraits: The Hathaways December 13, 2008

The Hathaways were one of the families who were nominated for our Christmas Capture Contest. In the nomination submitted by Carolyn, she explained that they deserved a free family portrait session because of all the changes that have happened recently in their family: they just moved to Ft. Leavenworth from California back in 2006, shortly after Eric was deployed with the Army, returning just a few weeks ago. Now, in a few months, they’ll be stationed again somewhere else. Whew! I was so excited to read their story and to see that they were voted as one of our winning families! Hathaways, you were even better in person! :)

The whole family was so easy to photograph, so fun and really willing to take great photos together! These are some of the most well-behaved (yet entertaining!) kids I’ve met. And they’re also so, so adorable.

And their equally awesome parents, who are doing an awesome job raising polite and fun-loving kids:

It was incredibly windy and pretty chilly, but they did a great job looking warm and not too windblown!

My favorite group shot of the session:

I think these next three would look awesome in a series on a wall in their home. It’s not often that a 13, 10, and 7 (or 8?)-year-old are all this photogenic. :)

I love when family sessions capture unscripted moments — when I meet your family for a session, I try to keep it as relaxed as possible so kids can be kids and parents can interact in a natural way. I just love capturing images that really portray your family how you are on a daily basis. Some of my favorite unscripted moments from the Hathaway’s session:

(Right after this sweet shot, Katie had the best shocked face a 13-year-old can make! Ha ha.)

I love this image — everyone laughing and looking at Dad! :)

Moms and Dads just don’t get enough photos taken together. It’s so important to keep taking photos together to really capture the love that grows over the years — and to provide your kids with some awesome images of that love! Hathaways, you are such a great example to your kids (and so cute together!).

Another one of my favorites (seriously, you guys are all model-worthy!):

And, of course, a shot of mom/daughter and dad/sons:

Loose Park is such a cool place for photos, even in the middle of December. I love the bridge, the vines and the bare trees in this photo!

A few more favorite unplanned moments (I think we’re setting a record here for the longest family portrait post ever!):

Hathaways, thanks so much for taking time to meet me and capture some fun images of your family this holiday season. Carolyn, thank YOU so much for nominating them. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful start to 2009!

Also, Sunday is your last chance to participate in the Cans for Comments drive. Just leave me a comment (click on the link below) and for each and every comment left anywhere on my blog, I’ll donate a canned good to the local food bank!

Maternity Portraits: Breanna (and Olivia!) November 22, 2008

I have been looking forward to this shoot for months, since I first heard the news that Kipp and Breanna were expecting! :) I realized today that these two were the very first people I ever photographed for an engagement session. How appropriate that they were also the first couple to invite me to take their maternity photos!

I can’t wait to meet the newest member of their family, when little Olivia arrives in February (hopefully on my birthday! ha ha). But for now, it was so awesome to see her parents again and how adorable Breanna is as an expecting mother.

Kipp is joining the ranks of other bearded warriors for “No Shave November”… so although he wasn’t too excited to be in the photos sporting a beard that he never wears, I’m so glad he agreed for at least a few!

They are going to be such fun-loving parents. I love when a baby comes into a laughter-filled family!

A cute breakfast place — the window behind Breanna says “wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!” :)

Okay, if Breanna is not the most gorgeous mother-to-be, I don’t know who is. Seriously, this baby is going to have some good genes! :)

Sometimes I get crazy ideas for photo shoots. Most of the time, people let me run with them. :) Here, it involved six pink balloons, one beautiful lady, and a sweet alley!

Breanna, thank you for letting me “experiment” with your maternity photos. I can’t wait for you to see the whole album! And to you and that awesome husband of yours — congratulations. I am looking forward to the debut of little Olivia!