Engagement: Stephanie & Matt

I met Stephanie and Matt today at the Rock Quarry Park for their engagement photos. They drove up from Athens, GA to have their photos taken here in Greenville, although their wedding will be in GA. It was a beautiful day and surprisingly the park wasn't too crowded, so it was the perfect setting for their photos.
Stephanie and Matt, it was great working with you today! Thanks for having me photograph your engagement pictures. I hope you guys enjoy them!

**CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SLIDESHOW.**

I leave you with one more photo...our little friend, the mole, who we happened upon as we walked through the park today. :-)

No-Show

Well, I guess this is as close as I'll get to shaking hands with Mitt Romney today. I was hired as the photographer for the presidential candidate's fundraising event that was to be held in Greenville this morning, however, Mr. Romney's plane had mechanical problems, so he never made it to the event. Their prompt payment for services was waiting for me at my door when I arrived home though, so I didn't walk away totally "empty handed". Get it...empty handed? (see photo above) Ha, Ha! ;-)

It would've been nice to have added this to some of my other political experiences like photographing President Bush a few years ago, but maybe another opportunity will arise...we shall see.

Florida Trip

We're back from Florida after spending a few days visiting Ryan's sister and her family. It had been over a year since we had seen them and so much has changed in both of our families since that time. They got to meet Zachary for the first time and we were able to meet our new niece, Ava, who will be turning 3 months old soon. Elaina enjoyed playing with her 2 year old cousin, Emma, who was barely walking the last time we saw her. Of course, we also had to take advantage of the surrounding tourist spots while we were there too! :-)

THE TRIP DOWN:
We headed for Orlando around noon and arrived that evening. It was a pretty uneventful trip, except for the "biting gnats incident", which I don't think I'll get into in this post. The kids travel great, so it was a peaceful trip, but I think we were all ready to get out of the car by the time we finally got there.

THE BEACH:
The next day, we took a drive to New Smyrna Beach. It was Zachary's first time seeing the ocean, but I think he could've cared less. He did enjoy licking some of the sand off of his feet though! ;-) Elaina had fun running around on the beach, but wasn't too happy with us when we wouldn't let her swim in the ocean. Mean parents, I know. It was a great day though...not too hot and not too crowded...the perfect time to go to the beach! Maybe next time we'll actually stay a night at the beach, so the kids can get dirty!

DISNEY WORLD:
We spent the day at Magic Kingdom. It was Elaina's 2nd time going, but she was only 3 when we went the first time, so she didn't remember a lot from that trip. Zachary enjoyed his first trip there, riding around in his stroller and getting some good naps in.

**Click here to see our slideshow of photos from the day.**

(If you can't see the slideshow, please let me know. I plan to share my portrait sessions using this format in the future, so I want to make sure everyone can view them.)

FAMILY TIME:
By Saturday, it was time to relax and spend some time with the family. Let's just say it was an interesting day that didn't go exactly according to plan, but when you've got 4 kids together, when does anything go according to plan? ;-) The day ended with me pulling out Elaina's loose tooth which had barely been hanging in all day.

The New Kids on the Block - Ava & Zachary:

Cousins - Elaina, Zachary & Emma: Elaina holding her new cousin, Ava:

We're back home now and it's "back to the grindstone". Thank you, Renee and John, for opening your home to us. We had a great time!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my Dad's birthday, so I thought I'd share a photomontage video that I made for him a few years ago for his 70th birthday. Didn't he look just like James Dean back in his younger years?

Big Boy!

Zachary went to the doctor today for his 9 month check-up. What a difference 9 months can make! I love the comparison of these two shots. And no...he was NOT happy in the first one!

Zachary's first doctor visit at 4 days old:
And today at 9 months old:

Snapshot of the Day

"Does this story ever end?!"

9 months

Zachary turned 9 months old today. The past 9 months have gone by so fast! It's so hard to believe he will be 1 year old soon! I had a little portrait session with him today. He's constantly on the move, so it's been hard to take his picture lately since he won't sit still for very long. So I figured out a way to finally keep him in one place...CHEERIOS! :-)

And, of course, my "assistant" had to have some too!

Snapshot of the Day

"This Daylight Savings thing is for the birds!"

Zachary's been having a hard time sleeping through the night ever since the time changed and last night was especially rough, as you can tell from the "alfalfa sprout" he had going on this morning.

And another...

It's always an exciting time when we start editing a new wedding video. The one we've begun now is another outdoor wedding from last year that had not one, but two torrential downpours, including a hail storm! Ryan got some great footage and it's making for a fun edit for us! I can't wait to share some of it with you in the next few weeks!

Here's another video that I edited for the Kilgore-Lewis House wedding (see Feb. 26 post) that we recently completed featuring the bride and groom preparing for the ceremony.
www.goodmanphotography.com/video/kilgoreprep.wmv

Anybody got the time?

OK, so I'm more and more convinced each day that it's true what they say about losing brain cells with each kid that you have. I hate to admit it, but we're one of those families who didn't set our clocks forward last night. Let me explain...I knew this weekend was Daylight Savings Time, but I was convinced for some reason that we were supposed to do it on Sunday night this year, instead of Saturday. I'm not sure where I got the idea from, but I'm still convinced that I heard it somewhere and didn't just make it up. So anyway, at around 9:45 or actually 10:45 this morning as we were getting ready for church, Ryan discovered that the computer and some of our other "smarter than we are" technology in the house had already set their clocks forward. At least we didn't show up at church while everyone else was walking out!

Lunch with the Pfaffls

We had lunch with our friends, Jennifer & Andy, today. A little over 3 years ago we photographed and videotaped their wedding and we've now become good friends, although we don't get the chance to hang out nearly enough. It seems like yesterday that I photographed their son's first portrait and he's such a big boy now! It's always nice when clients become friends and we've enjoyed getting to know this fun family!

Buddies...Zachary and Landon

Send in the clowns!

Elaina has been learning about the circus at school this past week and yesterday was "Clown Day" where all the 1st graders got to dress up like clowns. I went and took pictures of her class during the activities and I just have to say that I would never be able to be a 1st grade teacher! I was exhausted after just trying to line them all up for a group picture! Once I had them all lined up, I'd get in place to take the picture and they would all be scattered again...it was like trying to keep a bunch of ants contained in one place! It was fun though...and I always enjoy getting to see Elaina interact with her classmates.