Forever Young Photography will be closed this afternoon for the holiday season. Our studio will be back open on Monday. I hope you cherish the moments of the holiday season with you family and friends. Warm wishes from Forever Young Photography.

Keego says Happy Holidays too!

Happy Holidays from Forever Young Photography LLC. I hope you are enjoying the season and making some time for yourself to relax and reflect on the year. Instead of sending holiday cards this year, I have decided to spread the cheer a few different greener ways – literally. Forever Young Photography has planted trees through the Arbor Day Foundation in the honor of past and current clients this year. Native Pine, Fir, & Cedar Trees will be planted in the Plumas National Forest. Also, instead of sending paper cards this year, our holiday greetings are via electronic greetings.

I wish you and your family a happy, healthy holiday season!!

The Jingle Ball last night at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, NC had a huge turnout. TONS of toys were collected!!! Here are a few pics from the event. You can see all the images from the event Here.

How cool is this? Snowman greeted you at the door by Snow My Yard:

It was freezing out, but tons of people waited in line to get in:

Toys were coming in left and right:

It was a full house:

Thanks to everyone that came out and for all the donations! Happy Holidays!!

To see all the images from this event, click here.

This week is the 2009 Jingle Ball on December 10, 2009. This is the 3rd year as a Corporate Sponsor for Forever Young Photography. Hope to see you there!

The goal is to collect 2,000 toys for Wake County children. Gifts are considered your ticket for this event and are donated gift to the Salvation Army. Bring your new unwrapped toy valued at $20 or more or donating $30 cash or check with all proceeds going directly to the Salvation Army of Wake County. Come out for a fun night and help support a great cause.

Learn more at jingleball.org. Want to see pictures from last year – check them out.

Here is a little sneak peek of Susan and Bryan’s wedding.

 
Are you friends or family of Susan and Bryan? Anxious to see more photographs, check out their gallery and request to be notified when the gallery is live.

Watch for a future posting to see more from Susan and Bryan’s wedding…

My job is not just a job. I make it my priority to make each and every client feel special. I try to provide the couple with tips and tricks to help their wedding day go smoothly. I am constantly thinking of new ways to go above and beyond their expectations for their wedding photographer. For each wedding I am full heartedly doing all that I can to make the couples wedding day experience perfect.

I always appreciate receiving thank you notes from clients. It helps me to know what stood out most in their mind about the experience. Here is one I received from Heather and Andrew.  They have always been so sweet.  I remember Heather bringing a little thank you treat for me after her Bridal Portraits – a yummy cupcake.  So thoughtful!   I really enjoyed working with them and I hope I get to be their photographer again in the future.

“Dear Maranda, Andrew and I can’t thank you enough for doing such a great job with our wedding photography. We appreciate the added personal touches such as the cool gift bags and keep sake boxes, the framed photo of us, the book layouts, personal deliveries and most importantly, your patience. We really enjoyed working with you and won’t forget how you made the whole wedding photography process seem so smooth and easy and turned it into such a positive experience for us. Thank you for a job well done! ~ Sincerely, Heather and Andrew”
To read more about Heather and Andrew and see their photographs check out:
Heather’s Bridal Portraits
Heather & Andrew’s Wedding

Molly and Brian made it past the college rivalries to find their perfect match.  Congratulations to Molly and Brian!  They were recently married at Franklin Community Church in Franklin, MI.  They held the reception at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, MI.  I was lucky to meet Molly and Brian through a referral from a previous client – Katie and Brian {click on the link to see Katie and Brian’s wedding}  Referrals are a big part of my business and I always appreciate them.  Thanks again!  We had a lot of fun.  Molly and Brian were so laid back and easy to work with.  Molly’s laugh was contagious and could light up a room.  The speeches at the reception were great and the day was beautiful.

Some Baseball Love

Showing their school spirit on their wedding cake

Yummy Cupcakes

Had to get one photo with the pool in the background for Molly.

The sun setting on a beautiful day

Are you friends or family of Molly & Brian? If so, here is a link to their website. Enjoy!

Jenn and Tom put in a lot of personal touches to make their wedding day memorable and special. They selected the Jabberwok Inn in Monterey, CA as the setting for the wedding day. It was a great setting for the family to spend some time together and celebrate. Here are some of my favorite images from the day.

Jenn has fond childhood memories of Snapdragons and chose to have her bouquet made of them. The bouquet looked beautiful and smelled great.

Tom’s brother officiated the ceremony. The outline of the ceremony was sitting on a table and I loved using it as a backdrop to their rings. Especially with “Beginning” labeled at the top of the page.

Jenn’s mom made her dress {awesome job Mom!}.

The Bocce Ball Court was a great feature of Jabberwork Inn, especially since this is a family with love for Bocce. {me too!}

Congratulations to Jenn and Tom!

Are you friends or family of Jenn & Tom? Anxious to see more photographs? If so, here is a link to their website. Enjoy!

Congratulations Rob and Kelly!  Rob and Kelly were married at Heritage Christian Reformed Church Byron Center, Michigan.  The reception was held in the ballroom of one of their favorite restaurants, The Walldorff Brewpub and Bistro in Hastings, Michigan.  The weather called for rain, but it mostly held out and we had a nice overcast day – great for photography!!!  We had to stop at a few places along the way on the drive to the reception.  You can see some of those spots below.  One of them was to get a shot in front of the hair salon where Kelly works.  The pic turned out cute.  :-)  Here are are a few of my favs.  Enjoy!

Loved the girl’s earrings. They look so cute with the strapless dresses.

Are you friends or family of Kelly & Rob? If so, here is a link to their website.

Congratulations to Angie and Eric. They were married at The Homestead in Timberlake, NC.  The ceremony was held outside under a gazebo.  The reception was indoors at The Homestead.  It was a nice all in one location for a ceremony and wedding.  Angie surprised Eric by reserving a horse-drawn carriage to bring the girls up to the ceremony location.  They arrived to the ceremony in style in the carriage.  Anige and Eric then used the carriage to ride off after the ceremony.  It was a great carriage and really fit with the look and feel of their wedding.  We had perfect weather to enjoy being outside.  Thank goodness the humidity was lower and the rain stayed at bay.  Congratulations again!

All is well in cyberspace and available to you.

My site was down temporarily yesterday until later in the evening. Sorry if you came to check something out yesterday and couldn’t find what you were looking for.

You can get your fix of Forever Young Photography today. I’m heading to another wedding in Michigan. I hope you have a great weekend!

I hope Rob & Kelly had a great honeymoon! I can’t wait to see pics. Here is a sneak peek for Kelly & Rob. Their gallery will be live shortly.

Are you friends or family of Kelly & Rob? If so, here is a link to their website. Anxious to see more photographs?  Email me to be notified as soon as their gallery is live. Enjoy!

Mexico needs some love today. In honor of Cinco de Mayo I wanted to post some pics of one of Justin and my finds from a trip. We both realized we have a soft spot for Mexican Art and fell in love with a butterfly covered skull. I know it sounds weird, but once you look at it, it just makes you happy and relaxed. You get memorized by all the fine details painted into such a small space. It was love at first site. If your a fan, you can check out more work by Alfonso Castillo. Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

Happy Monday!  Here is a sneak peek from Angie and Eric’s Wedding.  I’ll post more details and photographs soon about their wedding in Timberlake, NC.  Are you friends or family of Angie and Eric?  Sign up to get notified when their website is live so you can check out all their photographs.

Here is a link to their gallery.

When I was visiting Alcatraz I saw this sign that stated a great message:

“It takes one, just one
And then one follows the other one
And then another follows another one
Next thing you know you got a billion
People doing some wonderful things
People doing some powerful things
Let’s change and do some powerful things
Unity could be a wonderful thing.”

Doing a little research, I found out that this is a portion of a Black Eyed Peas song – Union.  I thought this was an impressionable quote and wanted to share it with you.  If you don’t already know, I am a sucker for good quotes that make you think or act.  

“It just takes one.”  With this thought in mind, I wanted to do more and think of ways to further make my business a more Green Business.  I started by listing out what I am currently doing:

Office Space:

• Since Forever Young Photography is mostly a mobile photography service shooting on location, I choose to not have a separate retail space. By doing so, I avoid the excess energy use of a separate space and daily commuting to an office. {Let’s also not forget the saved time and sanity for not having to sit in traffic!}
• CFL lighting or better yet natural sunlight from the great windows in my workspace!
• I always recycle Ink Cartridges.
• Using a power strip and turning off electronics when not in use.
• Using natural cleaning products in the space.
• A Whiteboard is your friend:  My whiteboard comes in handy for jotting down all my notes and helps me use less paper.
• Keeping my cool is no problem with the mild weather in San Fran.  My windows provide a great beeze and natural “air conditioning.”  No need to keep my air conditioning unit at 78 degrees – which would be hard since I don’t have one.  ;-)
• Final Photography Contracts are emailed as PDFs.  No more wasted paper.
• Your personal online Gallery takes place of paper proofs.  Again a huge paper saver!  It also makes sharing your photographs with others easy.  No need to drive proofs all around town to show the fam. 
• Reuse any paper that I can, printing double-sided and recycling everything after.
• I reuse and/or recycle all packaging & boxes, bubble-wrap, etc. for shipping out orders.  It is always better to reuse these items if you can instead of just recycling.  
• I look for used furniture pieces when it is time to get more file cabinets or storage.  Craigslist rocks.
• Share the knowledge: any photography magazines that I have finished reading I donate or share with others so they can learn as well.

Equipment:

• Though you already know this, I want to make my list complete and include shooting digitally.  Digital Photography is a huge saver in materials {no film reels, packaging, harsh chemicals for developing or wasteful printing.} 
• Equipment – purchasing high quality equipment so it will last a long time.
• My refurbished Mac laptop was a great investment.  If you are in the market for a laptop, check out the refurbished options.  You would never even know that it was not new.
• I always use rechargeable batteries for my cameras and flash.  

It’s always good to make a list {I am a HUGE list maker}.  From looking at my list I can already see some areas that I can improve.  I am going to list them here to make myself accountable for these new items I want to incorporate into my business practices.  

• I offer a few products that are made out of partially recycled materials, but I want to research and find more to offer my clients.  This might take some time as I want to be 100% sure that any product I offer you is archival & durable.  I’ll have to try any new items out first to make sure they meet my standards.  
• Holiday cards anyone?  I am going to research different cardstock options for you and include some in my offerings that are made out of recycled paper. 
• The next stack of printing paper for office use will be recycled paper.  I also will look into recycled paper envelopes & file folders to get my office up to par.
• I am also going to pay closer attention to the environmental action plans of the suppliers that I use so I can offer you products produced by companies with an environmental conscious.   

Well there you have it.  My first round of goals for “Greening” my business even further.  Have any ideas to add to my list?  If so, I would love to hear them!  Email me your ideas.

Good news! I added a Corporate Headshot Sample Gallery to my portfolio. You can check it out here. As a note, I love doing a loose style of corporate headshots with more content in the background.  It makes the headshots much more dynamic.

However, your goals and planned uses of the headshots should really dictate the look to appeal to your target market.  Everyone has their own goal for the look and feel of the headshots, and I always talk with my clients first so we can both have a clear result in mind.  For example, the clean and neutral backgrounds are great for websites.  Then if the company’s website changes in color scheme, etc., your photographs will still work for you.  Want more tips?   Email me and we can chat about your corporate headshot session.

The Dilweg Companies, headquartered in Durham, NC was in need of new corprorate headshots.  Here are some samples as well as a few detail shots they now have in their arsenal for their new website.

Interested in having Corporate Headshots done at your office? Email Forever Young Photography LLC and we can talk more.

Here are some photographs from the reception at the Coconut Palace finishing up with some portraiture. Enjoy.

A Friendly Game of Musical Chairs to Win the Bouquet

Down to 2 ladies…who will it be??

Fireworks to End the Evening

So my Mom came to visit me as a surprise for my Birthday. What a great surprise it was especially since Justin was in Manila so it was nice to have family to hang out with. So what did we do the evening of my Birthday – spent it in Jail – at Alcatraz.

We took the night tour of Alcatraz which was great as you got to see Alcatraz in the light of day and night. It was pretty cool to see. When I was younger, I remember watching a story about an Alcatraz escape on Unsolved Mysteries. Did you ever see that episode?  A clever bunch carving holes in their cells to escape and making dummies to fool the guards as they worked. Here is a good summary  ” The dummies were made from soap, concrete powder, and stolen paint. One of the guys worked in the barbershop and swiped some hair to paste on the dummies’ heads for an extra touch of realism. For eight months, Morris and the Anglin brothers left their cells at night to drill out the ventilation shaft and collect the items they needed for their escape.”

If you are ever free, taking the night tour also has some perks – extra discussions, special sessions and off the beaten path tours that are not available during the day sessions. We were lucky enough to get included in a tour of the Dungeon and the Chapel – two areas normally not open for the general public to explore on their own. For both locations, we were locked into the chambers so no one else could follow us in. With hardhats and a single flashlight held by the tour guide, we headed into these secluded locations.

The cells were much smaller than you would think

View of Recreation Yard through a small peep window in a door

Darkness falls – view from Alcatraz

Psych Ward – super eerie section of the jail

Down at the end of this hall are the isolation chambers

Down in the Dungeon

Stairs coming up from the Dungeon

Before we headed on the road to CA, we had to go to to Umstead Park one more time with Keego.  I am going to miss this park.  So here is our family portrait at Umstead.

I really enjoyed viewing a Filipino wedding ceremony. It varies quite a bit from traditional wedding in the States. If you are looking for special rituals to add to your wedding, check out some of the wonderful symbolism in a Filipino wedding. Looking online, I found a site that explained things pretty well – click here. Check it out if you get a chance.   The website is to the point and explains everything pretty simply.  If you have another website please share it as I love learning more about different ceremonial traditions.

Beautiful setting at the Coconut Palace, Manila, Philippines

Minutes before the Ceremony

Getting a Closer Look

Veil Sponsors placing the veil

I love that towards the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom both said something special to their parents and gave them gifts. It was nice to have that moment to give thanks and appreciation to their parents. The wedding day flies by so fast so having this special time I thought was very touching.

Dove Release

The reception is up next…

While I was in Manila I was blessed to meet a lot of great new friends.  John Mateos Ong welcomed me with open arms into his group of photographers.  I was grateful to have the opportunity to photograph a wedding with his team while I was in Manila.  I was a Guest Photographer with the crew and really enjoyed working with the team.  Special thanks to Carlo, Erron, and Dominic for being so welcoming and awesome to work with! It was a great experience to see first hand through my camera lens the wedding day and all the Filipino wedding traditions unfold.  

Here are a few of my favorite getting ready & detail shots from the day. More to come…
Here are the cute invitations Marchelle and Michael had.

Some of the wedding details: Bible, cord, coins, matches. I’ll explain the significance later.

My office is starting to come together now thanks to Craigslist and Amazon. I couldn’t bring everything with me from Raleigh as we only had a small Uhaul trailer to fit everything. Now it feels more like a productive space.

Confession:  I have horrible posture when I sit at my desk.  So in the spirit of trying to be healthier in 2009, I bought an Isokinetic chair for my desk from Amaon.  It has not arrive yet, but should arrive later this week or early next.  I am excited to try it out as I have heard good things about “ball chairs” and can’t wait to give it a spin myself.  I have been trying to patiently wait for my new chair as currently sit at my desk on an ottoman that is WAY to short.  I feel like a little kid sitting at the kitchen table trying to reach things – lol.  So I broke down today and bought a folding chair from target.  At least now I can sit at my desk and be more comfortable for the time being.  I will let you know how the new ball chair works out when I get it.  Here is what is looks like.  Do you use a chair like this?  What do you think?

Yesterday morning we were greeted with a nice dusting of snow. The roads were a sheet of ice and it was freezing.

We didn’t have much time in the Grand Canyon so we stopped at as many lookouts as we could to get different views. The dense clouds made the bluish/purple tones of the Canyon more visible. This was my first time to the Grand Canyon. It was definitely neat to see the Grand Canyon with snow covering the rim. I was surprised to not see much snow down in the Canyon. It seems like it would be even colder down in the Canyon but researching online it is quite the opposite. (The things you can learn with the internet. ) Next time I would love to spend more time to explore the Canyon up close – camping, rafting, hiking. Can’t wait for that trip!

Back on the Road

We ended our day early in Las Vegas to meet up with Fred and Erin. (Click here to see the post about their wedding.) It was nice to just hang out and catch up. One more day of driving left!

Here are a few more glances at Arizona’s many landscapes. I would have some pics of the Meteor Crater, but it cost $15 per person to see a hole in the ground, so we passed.

Faces of Arizona

More remnants of Route 66

Old line of telephone poles where Route 66 use to run

Petroglyphs in the Petrified National Forest