Church of the Holy City Wedding Photography - Congratulations Karen and Jay!

I had the honor of capturing memories for Karen and Jay who were married on Saturday. What a day of drastic weather changes! They were brave and we didn't change all our outdoor picture plans and still got some great shots in between being blown away and dodging the sudden downpours.
Karen looked absolutely gorgeous!
This great staircase is in Church of the Holy City where the ceremony was held.
At the "reveal" (we took most of the pictures before the ceremony) they gave each other gifts. They are both huge sports fans, so Jay was quite pleased to receive cuff links made from seats at RFK stadium.


The reception was at Top of the Town - truly the best view of DC to be found. Watch the slideshow for more images of the wonderful day. Karen and Jay - I hope you're having a fabulous time in Italy!

Top of the Town Wedding Photography - Jay and Karen's Wedding Day

Michelle and Chris - Engagement Portrait

I had a great time with Michelle and Chris, finding little-known corners of Old Town for their engagement portrait. I think they had a good time too!

Most people are surprised to find that a portrait session is a fun - not painful - process. :) I always recommend an engagement session to my wedding clients (it's included with most of my packages). It gives us a chance to work together without the pressure of the wedding day and contributes to better pictures on the wedding day.

Uruguay wrap up

Somehow two weeks flew by and I did eventually arrive back in VA on Saturday. It was sad to leave the Hamilton's and summer! I didn't have time to post everything while I was there, so here's a few more pictures of people and places in Montevideo.

Mr. Lily is a resident of the Winston Churchill Home at the British Hospital. I love this picture of him at tea with all the ladies. Christ Church supports the nursing home and Gail (another member of the team) comes to visit for tea.
In the evenings people come out to enjoy the sunset and drink their mate. The hot water is in the thermos and the leaves in the gourd. It's drunk with a metal straw with a sieve at the bottom.

This is the Teatro Solis, recently refurbished and beautiful! We went to a jazz concert the second night I was there and also went back for a tour. It is now one of the most modern buildings in terms of accessibility and safety (all things we consider standard for a public building).
Youth For Christ has an effective program in a disadvantaged neighborhood.
On Sunday we went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant for Priscilla's birthday (Natalie and Vanessa's friend) with her family who moved to Montevideo from Miami last year.
This is the team: Toni and Matt, Diana, Gail (bottom row), John and Lisa.
The Hamilton's back yard:
A turtle shares the back yard with the Guinea pigs.
Alexa is starting to show her age and also shares the back yard when she can't find a way to sneak into the house.
The front of the Hamilton House. This house is in the Punta Gorda neighborhood where all the houses share walls.
Mila the noble guard dog:
Dinnertime at the Hamiltons:
One of the best things about Montevideo is that no two houses are alike! Nearly all the houses have fences for security (this is new in the last 10 years as anything left out will be stolen) and shutters on the windows (usually they roll up) for security and it also helps keep the house dark as everyone stays up late and sleeps in. It rained the last several days straight so I didn't get as many house pictures as I wanted to, but here's a sample (taken from the car in the rain):

Hamilton Family Portrait

More great locations for the Hamilton Family portrait, beginning in their backyard and ending at the water. We had so much fun! They made my job easy!

For the individual portraits we went over to an empty house that was for sale, later in the week. The front of this house was the perfect studio! Here's Vanessa:

Josh (who you'll see singing the Star Spangled Banner at the end of the slideshow):

And, Natalie:

Hamilton Family

Christ Church

Christ Church is a growing, English speaking church with a wonderfully warm congregation. My friend, John, is the pastor and Matt was speaking. The slideshow is of their service on Sunday morning. If you're ever in Montevideo, be sure to visit! :)

Daniels Family Portrait

I'm loving shooting portraits in Uruguay, there are so many fabulous places to go.
I had a great time getting to know the Daniels, another missionary family here, and capturing the fun they have as a family. Make sure to watch their slideshow for all the action!

Daniels Family Slideshow

ConNecT

Every other Friday night the Hamilton's open their house to the teenagers for game night. Fun times! (The Hamilton's guinea pigs have free reign of the backyard, they are so cute!)

Downtown

I spent the day downtown with Diana (pictured below) enjoying the wonderful details of all the old buildings. Some have been restored while others are just a shadow of their former glory (in the slideshow below).

The old city gates:

In the evening I photographed Betty's 80th Birthday party. It was packed with people who love her and a wonderful event. She's part of the British community here so most everyone spoke English at the party. :) Here she is with some of the flowers she was given:

Fresh Food

My two favorite things to photograph in Uruguay are the farmers market and the old buildings.

This truck at the farmers market has the meat shop on the back - it must still run!

I love the fading color on this building.

We had to stay up really late to see the elicpse, but it was worth it.

This slideshow starts with the wonderful color at the farmers market. It also shows some of the older and poorer aspects of the city in contrast to the modern mall.

Carrasco

I love the tree-lined streets in the neighborhoods. Usually only one kind of tree is used per street, with the sycamore being quite common. Eucalyptus trees are also used. Many of these pictures in the slideshow are in the neighborhood of Carrasco. No one is far from the beach! Meat and cheese are the diet staples in Uruguay, as you'll see as well. No soy milk here! :)

I'm finally here!

After a two day flight delay, I finally arrived in Montevideo last Sunday. It's been a very busy week so I'm sorry I haven't had time to post before now for those of you waiting for pictures :) - and we're three hours ahead so it's almost 2am now. I've been working all day on the images from this week, so I should be posting more soon. I'm attempting to capture what life is like in this beautiful old city. (I'm visiting friends who are missionaries here and taking the pictures for their use as well.) I was here a little over four years ago, so many sights are familiar.

The first couple of nights I stayed in an apartment with this gorgeous early morning view. This is actually a river with Argentina on the other side.

On Monday, we toured the Legislative Palace which houses the Senate, House of Representatives and Library of Congress. Isn't this a neat old fan in this office area of an elaborate meeting room?

My favorite room was the library with the stained glass doors.

This is their Senate:

The slideshow below has additional pictures including the national cemetery and the British cemetery. They were both so elaborate and their burial system is different as is their practice of holding funerals the day after a death.
All the marble in the Legislative Palace is native to Uruguay and comes in a wide variety of colors. Here's a little more info on the building if you're interested.

Montevideo, Uruguay - cemeteries and Legislative Palace

Guest Book

I just finished designing a Guest Book for Allison and Adam and wanted to share it. This book is available with my wedding packages and is another great reason to have an engagement portrait session!

The book showcases many of the couple’s favorite pictures capturing their dating relationship. By giving the guests plenty of room to write, right on the pages, their well wishes will be kept for years to come – in a book that will actually be looked through again! It’s not just a list of names but a true keepsake from the wedding day.

The Official 1 Year Portrait

Trying to choose just a couple of Lenox pictures to post from his official 1 Year Portrait gives me a little taste of how difficult it is for parent's to choose pictures of their kids. Every shot is cuter than the one before no matter how funny the face! Somehow I managed to pick 6 rather than 60. :) And, yes, he's walking now which makes keeping him in one spot much more difficult.
I maintain that my favorite age to photograph is around 6 months - they are smiley and cute and stay where you sit them!

Quite the talker

Lenox really likes phones (almost as much as brooms), particularly the real kind. I try not to let him play with my cell phone, but then he was so cute I had to take this picture of him "talking on the phone". If he hands it to you, he wants you to put it up to your ear, but when he holds it, he puts it up to his mouth. With all the technology in this world it's no wonder he sometimes gets confused and thinks TV remote controls can also be phones. Too cute!

How could anyone resist

this sweet face? It's hard, let me tell you! :) Being the only nephew/grandchild, must be a rough job, but he does his best to keep us all busy.
One of Lenox's favorite things is the aquarium screen saver on my laptop, he MUST go see it every time he passes my room. He yells something enthusiastically that sounds like "dish". He gave me this sweet smile after I set him in my chair to watch. Once he pushes a key the fish go away and we can move on.
On a side note, he loves anything with buttons to push and even knows how to hold a mouse and scroll with the rolling button, thanks to Uncle Lee who shares his computer. Oh the perks of being an oldest child!