Clutch The Pearls

I'm so excited to be going to one of the upcoming Love Affair Workshops to learn from several rockstar photographers. This particular workshop is one that I've had my eye on for several years and finally made it in this year. The creators of this event are so thoughtful and include posts about the participants. Here's the post about me.

Tiny Dancer: Cha Cha for CHASA

I was honored to photograph this little one when she was just 4 days old, and again for her first Halloween, her first Christmas, her baptism, her first visit with Grandparents, her first Birthday, and her second Christmas.

On Mother's Day weekend, I got to be there to photograph her first charity function: The Pediatric Stroke Bowling Awareness Event, in her honor. It was so much fun. Here's a link to my slideshow of the event.

Baby E. had a stroke before she was born. As her mom explained in an email about the event:

"I had no idea that children had strokes, let alone unborn babies, but stroke occurs in one in every 4,000 live births, a number occurring in the womb.

E. was diagnosed in February of last year following an MRI that revealed damage to the left side of her brain, which has cased right-side paralysis. E., now 20 months old, has been receiving occupational and physical therapy every week since she was about 7 months old and has made great progress. She is using her right hand more and more and she has been walking for nearly a month now!"



Not only does E. walk, she loves to dance.

This event raised over $5,000 for CHASA- the Children's Hemiplagia and Stroke Association which provides research grants, family retreats, scholarships, online support groups and many other services to help pediatric stroke survivors and their families.

E. was diagnosed so early because her parents were proactive in noticing that she was primarily using one hand. They were also assertive in seeking out therapies and the progress E. has made as result has been miraculous.



If you are interested in donating to CHASA on E's behalf, you can do so here.

The Planning

Even though I enjoyed much of the wedding planning process as a bride, it was also a terribly stressful time that included a cross-country move, bar exam study, finding and starting a new job, and planning a wedding in a different city.

I try to remember that feeling when working with couples now to streamline the process and get back to what is most important to them, both as individuals and as a couple, in a time of so much change.

Today, I read this passage about weddings from the loveliest book, A Homemade Life by Molly Wisenberg. She writes about her engagement and how for even the most laid back weddings, or as she describes, "the kind of event where the bride could wear jeans and a ponytail, the kind of evening that goes well with a bottle of Hefeweizen and a game of Frisbee," it is still a bit of a ride.

"First, when you get engaged, a few things happen. You agree to marry someone, for starters. Also, your head sort of explodes. Third you are handed a ticket- rather sneakily, I should note, with no warnings at all - to an amusement park ride known as THE WEDDING. If you were to pass it at the fair, you'd know it by the pink flashing lights and the neon sign of two doves in silhouette, kissing. It's at times mildly disorienting, and it can even tend toward terrifying, with tears, beers, pimples and speaking tickets. But if you stay in your seat until the very end, it turns out to be pretty fun."

She goes on to write about her wedding day and I just love this:

"Our wedding was exactly what I hoped for, and still, when it happened, it felt like a surprise. In that way it felt just like us. I don't know when I've ever been more proud of the two of us, and of what we love."

Her advice for the day, "...take the dance floor with your new husband, preferably to Ella Fitzgerald singing Cole Porter's "Night and Day," (click here to listen ) and when he dips you at the very end, when the horns are blaring, close your eyes tight and thank the heavens that the planning is through, and that the beer is cold, and that you can dance, dance, dance."

PAPER BOAT PHOTOGRAPHY - Kentucky Wedding Photographer

Coming Attractions

Click here for this amazing couple's engagement session slideshow.
I am so blissed-out-happy to photograph their wedding this summer.