J. Love Photography had the opportunity to create an album for a couple who renewed their wedding vows after 20 years of marriage recently in  Hawaii. The photographer gave them a CD with loads of images on it and my prospective client had neither the time nor the interest in figuring out what to do with them. I stepped in and created a beautiful album for her of those images, images of mine, and even images she had taken on their trip. She gave it to her husband as a surprise for his birthday a few months later. I scanned images of their original wedding and faintly placed them within the album where they weren’t obvious, but almost gave the effect of a ‘memory’. Their comments about the album I created for them renews my belief that images of important events in our lives with an album to grab and share and relive the moments is worth every penny we pay for them.

You might have seen the album I did similarly for a couple for their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. And I’ve done such albums for things like large family get-togethers, a woman’s journey into feeling beautiful again after having children, a group session of siblings, a baby’s first year, engagement sessions, and on and on. Many people buy a duplicate album for someone close to them as well, especially for weddings and baby’s first year. All of the album examples here are double page spreads.

If you are considering making the investment in professional portraiture, consider making an album of your own or having your photographer create one for you. If you feel like it’s too much extra to invest, many photographers, such as myself, have layaway plans. We understand and want to do what we can so that you can enjoy and share the art we created for you for years to come and not store it in a box or worse yet, never have any record of  the priceless moments in your life at all.

I had just been thinking about how I really wanted to photograph someone with the beautiful weeping cherry tree before the blooms were all gone.  A little while later the phone rang.  Mmmm.  I need to ‘wish carefully’ more often!   As my garden blooms and everything continues to green up, I continue to be thankful for the beautiful setting J. Love Photography resides in.

I love engagement sessions for the same reason I love weddings.  People in love are ‘electric’ to be with!  They light up, and their light just spills all over and lights the rest of the world up too.  I didn’t have any trouble asking this couple to pretend I wasn’t there so I could capture their playful, happy time together.

Michael is in the military and is stationed far away.  So they will spend a fair amount of time apart until they marry.  I was happy to have Forget-Me-Nots blooming so that I could use those in an image as well as having them make a wish on a dandelion like we all used to do when we were children.  We also headed out onto the “Friendship Path” that runs in our woods from our house to our neighbors’.  I’ve never photographed there before!

While they’re apart, and for the rest of their lives, we created beautiful engagement portraits to commemorate these moments so they can look back and remember….

Congratulations, Michael and Cate! May your love know no limits and continue to shine as bright as the North Star!