3 Generations of Butlers

About a year ago Chrissy and I had the pleasure of taking Adam and Marianne's maternity photography before they welcomed Baby B. You might remember this photo:

Well, Baby B (now Max) has been giggling his way into all our hearts for months now and thought it would be a great idea to get his parents and his grandparents together for a 3 generation photo shoot. We all agreed, how can you not agree with a baby, and took a stroll around the Court of the Carolina's on NC State campus. 

Adam and Marianne have become great parents and I think Karla and Dick are naturals at the grandparents gig. 

Max is surrounded by a lot of love. 

And he gives it right back. 

Sometimes with a head to the face...as happened shortly after this photo.

"Wasn't me, I've been sitting here, minding my own business, playing with Grandma's necklace the whole time..."

Wow look at those eyes. 

He's such a cutie-pie. He has such a great disposition too. All giggles almost the entire time. Though he did take his camera time seriously. Maybe he'll be an actor...

"I'm ready for my close up" 

Makes my heart all warm and melty. 

We had a great time walking around the Court of the Carolina's with the Butlers. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to capture your family's warmth and love! 

Before I end this I'd like to share the "after" photo of the first photo in this entry. During this photo shoot I noticed that Adam and Marianne were wearing the same exact shoes that they had been wearing during their maternity session! Unfortunately, Max has long grown out of his itty bitty shoes. But anywho, it's still cute.

Thanks for reading! We're racking up the family portrait sessions so stay tuned for more smiles and giggles and general merriment. 

Have a great weekend! 

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

We took a stroll with Sara and Joe

Last week, at the wee hours of Sunday morning (you know, 9am), while there was still a nip in the air we met our newest clients, Sara and Joe.

Sara found us through one of our previous clients (thanks, Toya!) and asked us to follow her and her fiance around Raleigh for what we like to call an urban photoshoot. These guys were champs because while it was still cold in the morning and Chrissy and I were bundled up, they were in thin sweaters, no gloves and no hat, smiling away at our cameras. Bravo. They don't look cold to me...

Or maybe the cold was making them giddy?

Or I had just cracked a joke. We have tendency of making our clients laugh during photoshoots. 

In any case, they were so friggin good together. I almost melted on several occasions. 

For this photoshoot we started at the industrial area near The Pit in downtown Raleigh. You would be amazed what you find just around the corner. First, this awesomely decrepit brick wall which worked wonders for a gorgeous ring/rough surrounding juxtaposition. 

*High five*, Joe. Nicely done. 

Then around the corner from the brick wall were the perfect set of railroad tracks. Minus the black residue that ended up on our rumps. Whoops. Again, they were good sports. I really love the light and body language in this photo. It's almost as if they're walking along the tracks towards the sun when it randomly strikes them to lean in for a smooch. 

After a wardrobe change, we rounded the corner and headed towards the Performing Arts Center. They have a line of trees that are lovely autumn shades right now. We couldn't get great light in one direction but we did happen to notice that the building created the perfect reflection!

We have several more photos from this area and I love every single one of them. The building, the trees, the adorable couple...swoon.

This next photo was a bit tricky. We had perfect lighting. Not a cloud in the sky. That's usually wonderful. But to get water to stream through a photo, you need to lengthen the time your camera takes to gather enough light to expose the image. Such a beautiful day with perfect lighting makes for incredibly over exposed pictures when trying to do this. But I think we rose to the occasion... Also, gratuitous capital building photo. Haha I had to keep yelling at them (they couldn't hear us over the fountain) to "keep kissing". Eventually we had to tell them to stop...

Chrissy and I had such a great time getting to know Sara and Joe. They are such great people, with great laughs, great smiles, great eyes and beautiful relationship. They're going to be very happy.

One last photo before I go. Around the corner from The Pit are gorgeous red doors that I've been stalking for a while now. They were a must. This photo makes my heart go pitter patter. Love the emotion.

Thank you Sara and Joe for letting us capture your love for each other! You two make excellent photo subjects and we hope to work with you again!

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. 

-Liz DiNatale

www.oakcityphotographync.com

Li & Henry at Lake Johnson

What a beautiful weekend we've had. 

It has been the perfect weekend for a bike ride, the perfect weekend for a picnic, the perfect weekend for a bonfire and the perfect weekend for a fall wedding. 

My weekend was made very special when I was fortunate enough to photograph Li and Henry's nuptials at Lake Johnson in Raleigh. I only met Li and Henry shortly before their wedding but I knew immediately that they would have a lovely, heartfelt ceremony. Their love is built on so many years of experience with each other; I knew that there would be an exorbitant amount of emotion in the air. 

It was so lovely to see how everyone, friends and family, got together to make their day joyous and special. And special it was...from the fall colored garland, to the basket of apples to the mishap of the unbroken glass (gotta stomp extra hard on red wine glasses, apparently)...everything was uniquely them and perfect because of that. 

Enough of my yammering, on with the teaser photos. 

A special moment between father and daughter only moments before Li became a wife. 

After the ceremony, we took a romp through the woods. Li has such an amazing laugh and an amazing smile when she's laughing. But most of all, I love the look of complete adoration I captured on Henry's face. 

Together finally, as husband and wife. I have no doubt in my mind that they will live happily ever after. 

I'd wish them luck...but I don't think they'll need it. 

Congratulations Li and Henry. Thank you for letting me be a part of your day! I wish you a long and fun life with lots of laughs. 

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Photo Friday: Animal

Rawr...

That's my impression of this Photo Friday challenge word. 

Good Friday morning to everyone! It's going to be a gorgeous day and even if it isn't...it's still Friday...YAY! For this challenge I had to dig deep in my collections to find a photo of some animal that isn't a canine, feline or lizard. 

What seems like forever ago, Chrissy and I attended a sheep dog training weekend with our pups. It was a cold February (it even started snowing) but it was a lot of fun to see Border Collie's doing what they were bred to do. Chase bit fluffy things. These things...

I can't remember what kind of sheep they were called. But they were cute. I mean look at em. Big, fluffy, smelly things. The training day was hosted by the lady who owned these sheep and was held by a well known herding instructor, Mr. Knox.

I wish I had participated. It looked like so much fun. They started the new dogs off in a pen with the sheep. Mostly to get them used to the animals and used to still listening when faced with them. Then the more experienced dogs got to herd the sheep in the open field (which is where this picture was taken). All the spectators (Chrissy, myself, our 5 dogs and a couple other people) watched as several dogs drove the sheep back and forth and back and forth. It looked to me like they were supposed to be doing that but apparently they were just having fun and not listening to their handlers. haha. Doggy shenanigans. Eventually it was the owner of the sheep's turn and she brought out her herding pup. Within a couple minutes he had these sheep rounded up and in their pen. It was pretty amazing.

I wonder if Rhea, Gunnar and Masi could do that? Maybe someday I'll give them a shot at it. It's got to be Border Collie nirvana. 

In other news, almost a week until Li and Henry's wedding on Lake Johnson! It's going to be a gorgeous intimate ceremony. I'm very much looking forward to capturing their special day for them! 

The leaves are starting to change...that means it's time for family portraits! Take advantage of our inexpensive family sessions. 1 hour with full print rights to at least 50 images for only $75! Pick you favorite location and give us a call today! 

Everyone have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Photo Friday: Glowing

Good Friday morning to you all! I hope everyone has awesome plans for the weekend. I'll be heading over and up to Asheville, NC this weekend for our much anticipated 1 year anniversary trip. I can't believe it's been one year. This time last year...I was hanging 14,000 Christmas lights with friends and family. Good times, good times. 

The Photo Friday challenge word for this week was Glowing. I dug through my library of photos (which is dwindling, apparently I need to carry my camera with me more often) and found one of Steven cutting a stubborn bolt off the Rusty Bucket. I thought this was an appropriate "glowing" photo, no?

I see this and I wanna scream "FIRE!", in the evil crazy person kind of way. Yes, those glasses are safety glasses...I swear...

Upcoming news for SOR: Nikki and Travis are back from their amazing wedding and honeymoon in Aruba and St. Maarten. You know what that means? Bridal portraits! Yay! Nikki and I will be getting together sometime in the next few weeks for some dress up and posing. I'm super excited! Can you tell?!

I hope everyone has a great weekend filled with fun and love. Steven and I will be doing a zipline tour while in Asheville and we just bought a nifty video camera to capture the experience. Hopefully I'll figure out how to post a couple snippets on here!

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Photo Friday: Cars

I'll admit it, this Photo Friday challenge word is from a few weeks ago. I have been preoccupied with planning vacations, pickling cucumbers, riding 175 miles in two days and baking birthday cakes that I haven't gotten to my pictures! Finally last night (after prepping some sweet pickle relish) I was able to sit down and edit a photo for this Photo Friday. I didn't want to not post a photo for this challenge because I had such a perfect occasion to gather the perfect photo. Allow me to elaborate...

At the end of July, I surprised Steven with his "Annibirthary" gift: a trackdaze event at VIR (Virginia International Raceway). Ever since I met Steven, he's talked about racing. About his uncle who races. About how he went around the track and it was the most amaz-balls thing he's done. I always had the opinion that racing was kinda dumb (I mean, really, you go round and round and round and never get anywhere), so I would just smile and nod and be secretly thinking of the next cake to bake/veggie to can/photo shoot/house project. However, I always stored it away as a great gift idea if I could ever manage to make it work. Thanks to Ryan from TurboTime, I learned about Trackdaze.com. They are a great group of guys who organize track events at local tracks. It just so happened that they were having a track event at the end of August and that a single days participation pass was within my budget for Steven's gift! It was meant to be.

Fast forward a month from when I surprised Steven, we wake up at 4:15 am and drive our groggy selves to VIR. We promptly met a fellow non-racing-car driver who was driving a VW Scirocco and buddied up in the parking area. He used some of our painters tape (for car numbers) we borrowed his toque wrench; it was a good match.

Before I knew it, it was Steven's turn. He was shaking, I was giddy, his instructor might have been nervous. The first session (each session is 30 mins, you get 4 of them a day) was kind of slow. All the newbies were getting used to driving their cars on the track. But by session 3, Steven had it down to a science. He wasn't nervous anymore, he was calculated. His instructor gave him high marks and said he had "real talent". I  may have created a monster. Also by session 3 I had found the perfect vantage point where I captured my favorite photo of the day and what would have been my submission to this Photo Friday challenge. 

The Subaru was at home on the track. Its big fat, heavy bum and all. I now have a new opinion of racing. It's epic to watch (at least on a road course). The rumble of the engines, the whine of turbos, the talent, the nerves, the smooooooooth asphalt, the way the cars would hug the turns....my MINI would be so much fun.

It was a good day; Steven wouldn't stop talking about it for days. I think I would call that a successful "annibirthday" gift. 

In resent news, remember Travis and Nikki? They got married over the weekend! Congrats to Travis and Nikki! SOR has been busy signing contracts for this year's and next year's wedding season. Looking forward to a lot of awesome parties with a lot of fantastic people! 

That is it for now. Hopefully I will have a submittable photo for this coming Photo Friday challenge: Near. Near...near what? 

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com

Photo Friday: Spot

I can imagine that for most people this type of challenge word would be difficult. However, for me, there was only one choice. 

You see, we have this lizard. He's a leopard gecko. His name is Spot. Spot is an old, old lizard. Easily 16 years old (I think). And he's still going strong. So when I saw this Photo Friday challenge word, I had no choice but to photograph the lizard. I thought this would be a struggle. As lizards are usually not too keen about being out of their environment. Least of all when surrounded by dogs and a cat. Who would have thought that Spot was one of the best photo subjects I've ever had (as animals go). I swear, he moved less than most dogs. Trained dogs. AND he stared right into the lens! It was only with his patience that I was able to snag this little piece of awesome:

Behold, I give you, Spot! I think I can hear Kate Nothnagel Stone screeching from Trinidad (she's not a fan of lizards). How can you not love that face?! Look at him! He's poised! He's ready! He's going to kick some chess ASS! Aha...I die. Good, Spot.

While I was at it, taking photos of Spot, I figured I'd snap a few new ones of the fury type. And since I'm already here, writing this post, I might as well share them, right? Right. 

Last but not least, the queen of the house:

Now you know why the first thing we bought as a couple was a Dyson (after the house...of course). If only we could teach the dogs how to vacuum.

I hope you all enjoyed my little fur-kid (and lizard-kid?!) photo session. This next week's challenge word is Gold. I'm at a loss, any suggestions?

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.oakcityphotographync.com