To horse or not to horse…… That is the question. I had a great time shooting with Angie and Calvin as we prepared for upcoming nuptials with an engagement session. When Angie told me that she wanted to have a shoot with a horse at a friends house out in Upper Marlboro, I was both excited and nervous. I love horses. They are amazing animals but there is a far cry from loving horses and adeptly including a horse in an engagement session. The horse made it into the engagement session but I decided that the best pictures from the day left the old pony out. Either way it was a great session and I really look forward to photographing their wedding.

OK OK OK ….. for those of you who would consider nagging me about it. Here is a picture of the horse.

Hope you enjoy the photographs.

Peace and Love

Hennessey

Its wedding season once again and that means the start of the engagement sessions. I really enjoy engagement sessions. It gives me an opportunity to really bond with my wedding couples. We start off as strangers and, by the end of the session, we have reached that comfort level I feel that I will need on their wedding day.

Richard and Marianne have an international love story that I’m sure I will talk about when I blog their wedding photos. So both are fairly new to the nation’s capital. We wanted to try to sneak in come cherry blossom photos but the weather just would not cooperate on the chosen day. We selected another day a few days later and were blessed with beautiful weather to take images. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Peace and Love

Hennessey G

Had a great opportunity to photograph an early season game between perennial powerhouse Georgetown Prep and Paul VI a school here in Fairfax. It was a hard fought game with the deeper Georgetown Prep team pulling away a little in the 3rd Quarter. But kudos to Paul VI for keeping it interesting for most of the game. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Peace and Love

Hennessey G

If you’re curious about the last blurry shot of me… Don’t be too alarmed. It’s Hayden’s first photo with a professional camera. I though I would include it for posterity’s sake.

Peace and Love

Hennessey G

Hayden in the buggy!

This is my son. If you met him recently and he went into “shy mode”, I would like to introduce you to the real thing. Laughing a lot, playing even more. Everything is just one big game. This has to be the best part about having a kid. Being able to see the world through their eyes. Seeing the world as we wish it would be. One big playground with toys everywhere. Sometimes the toys are sticks, sometimes rocks, sometimes it’s the big fluffy couch in the living room or Mom and Dad’s king size bed that sits way off the floor and makes you feel ten feet tall. The little plastic men can do anything your imagination wants them to do and the guns only shoot bubbles. And if that wasn’t enough, there is something new to discover every day! Always something new, be it camels, amusement rides, or funnel cakes, every day was a new adventure! It would be nice to be able to see the world that way again. For now I will settle for seeing it through my son’s eyes. I hope that one day he will be able to look back upon these posts and remember these times and remember how much joy Karen and I derive from introducing him to this world.

Karen and I had a rare free weekend day and searching for something to do, decided to journey out to the Loudoun County Fair. I had never been much of a “fair person” They never held much interest for me. Probably because we never had much money for County Fairs when I was young, and I talked myself out of liking them. After spending an afternoon at the fair with Karen and Hayden, I have a new found interest in them. Here is a few images from that afternoon. Take a minute and see the world through his eyes. It will give you a smile. It does for me!

The best part of my world!

Seeing the rides for the first time

Tall enough to take his first amusement ride!

Starting to enjoy the rides!

And now it's fun!

Waving at daddy with the camera.

Noticing the more interesting adult rides

What is a fair without funnel cake

What, the funnel cake is all gone?!?

Graphistudio Wedding Book for Emmanuelle and Stephen

It’s a bittersweet moment when you deliver a wedding album. On one hand you are happy that you have successfully completed another wedding. And on the other hand you are sad that your consistent interaction with people who have become friends will slow down as other couples enter your life and a life together begins for the newlyweds. I know the couples are always excited to see their wedding album, but I’m not sure if they realize how good it feels for a photographer to have that book in their hands. I personally get a little jolt every time I see that delivery truck arrive at my house.

I wanted to take a moment to talk about the GraphiStudio album. I’ve seen a lot of albums and I offer several vendors for albums but I can’t say enough about the high level of quality and consistency you find with the GraphiStudio album.

When you pick up these books, they immediately transfer a feeling of class and quality. I think one should be on every newly wedded couple’s coffee table.

The wedding album design process can be many things. For me it is an enjoyable process where I, for the first time, try to look at the images as someone who was not at the wedding and see which images as a group will convey the story of the wedding. I personally feel it’s like story-boarding a movie. Trying to capture the emotions, the meaning, and the plot of the day in a prescribed number of pages. And that work transfers the emotion a ton more than delivering the DVDs.

I will end with some photos of the books that I delivered yesterday.

Last week I had a great engagement session with Maja and Jay in preparation for their upcoming wedding. We had a nice casual session walking around Old Town Alexandria which was impressive since both of them had worked the night shift the evening before. I’m sure they were tired of my questions, tired of me clicking away at them, and just plain tired but the reward for their perseverance is some great photos of the two of them. It bodes really well for their wedding images as I am guessing that they are going to get a little more rest the night before. When you first meet a couple, it’s hard to tell what they are going to be like in front of the camera. Both Maja and Jay were naturals who allowed their personalities to come through even at the beginning of the session. I love the picture at the top and it was totally worth the bugs and the itchy grass and the dirt clothing that it took to get it. I hope Maja and Jay think so also. August is right around the corner. I’m looking forward to this wedding. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

This will be just a quick drop in to show some of the photos I’m currently working on for Debbie and Travis’s wedding. This was certainly an event where two impressive families were coming together and I hope the photos do them justice. I know they are out on their honeymoon but I wanted to post a few of the images from the big day.  The weather was perfect and Mount Vernon provided an excellent backdrop for the wedding.   Thanks to Zhia my second shooter for once again doing a tremendous job. .  A lot of photos left to edit but will certainly be posting a blog post here in the next couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy the photographs.