If this doesn't melt you . . . here's a sneak peek from Sunday's baby session.

Born on December 23rd just in time for christmas.

He's Kari and Andrew's first baby, Auntie Laurel's first nephew, a first grandson, and a future outdoorsman,

meet Levi :)

 

 

 

I've been wanting to put a baby in a bomber hat for years ;-)

 

I can't wait to share the whole sesion!

 

 

And Levi is 2012 !!

 

more photos coming soon....

 

 

 

More engagement photos!  These couples all were married in 2011 :)

 

Jana and Tyler - they chose to do their engagement session near Rock Furnace Trail in Apollo.  It's one of their favorite places to go to walk their dogs.  Jana grew up not far from there, in fact we went to the same elementary school ! 

 

 

Noel and Ben chose to do their engagement session at The Waterfront shopping center.  They first met and spent a lot of time at the Starbucks there while they were dating.  I even got to meet their hairless cat, Grizzy !

 

 

Leslie and Brian's engagement session turned into a real adventure for all of us!  We had planned to meet at Hartwood Acres for some photos, but when we arrived the gates were locked and no one was allowed in.  After a few moments, a car came out and unlocked the gate - we took that opportunity to sneak in - and quite accidentally found ourselves in the midde of a movie set.  With daylight fading and since Leslie and Brian had taken time off work for their session, we decided to press on.  It turns out we had stumbled into the fiming of a wedding scene for a made for TV movie starring Jane Seymour called "Elixir".  (Apparently it will be on tv in the spring!)  Although we did not see Jane Seymour, I believe that she may have been in the car that was driven out and left the gate unlocked...

 

We had a great photo session and bonded over committing our "crime" together!

 

 

I had a great time getting to know each couple through their engagement sessions! 

I can't wait to share their wedding photos!

 

 

Time to look ahead to the shape of things to come with couples who will tie the knot in 2012!

 

Meet Madelyn and J.R. whose wedding is less than four short months away.  This past summer they drove in from New Jersey and we met up in Pittsburgh early one mornng to shoot their engagement session.  We started in Oakland with the Pitt campus and the museums, then the South Side to the hot metal bridge, and finally up to Mt. Washington.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can tell already that their wedding is going to be fun ;-)

 

 

Did I mention they have some killer dance moves and don't mind showing them off in the middle of a public street?  I love it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't wait for their wedding this May at the Penn Scenic View !

 

 

 

 

If you'd like to see another wedding from the Penn Scenic View, click here to view Aimee and Scot's Wedding from 2010 !

 

I'm pleased and proud to announce that one of my photos has been featured on Intimate Weddings Blog as part of a piece on lodge theme weddings!  The original image is from Donna and Mike's fall wedding in 2009 at rustic Lingrow Farm.

Check it out here: Intimate Weddings Blog - Lodge Weddings

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to see the original post from Donna and Mike's wedding !

 

 

 

Keeping with tradition, this year's calendar is hot off the press and ready for distribution !!  The 2012 edition is the best yet with scenery and wildlife photos from all across Pennsylvania as well as northwest Montana this year!  See seasonal photos from the Great Plains and Glacier National Park in addition to local Pennsylvania landmarks. 

 

The January calendar photo was shot one winter morning in 2010 as I headed out hoping to capture the morning frost as it clung to the trees.  There was a storm overnight, then the sky cleared before dawn, the wind died down and it got bitterly cold.  I knew the frost wouldn't last long with the blue sky and the sun shining brightly.  I was lucky this angle over the old Palmiscno farm caught my eye and I was able to get a few shots before things started to melt.  (Yes - this was another one of those times where I stopped the car in the middle of the road and jumped out with my camera ;-)

 

I'm really proud of this year's calendar.  Even though it was the busiest year of my life, Sean and I still managed to do some traveling and get the family together for a few camp outs.  There are shots from my home town (because as Dorothy of Oz told us "if your heart's desire isn't in your own backyard, then you never lost it in the first place), as well as two PA state parks, a county park, images I experienced while shooting other events, and some of the locations we found and photographed on our trip out west including the legendary Bob Marshal Wilderness.

 

 

This year's calendar is available by email request or can be picked up in a few local businesses at a cost $25.  There are twenty-four full color photos to enjoy and all of the images contained in the calendar are also available for sale mounted and/or framed as prints and on artists' canvas.

 

Send me an email at PhotosbyAW@aol.com if you'd like to order one or find out where you can pick one up!

 

Here's to another great year!

 

 

 

Welcome to  2 0 1 2  !

 

I hope everyone had a great holiday and a safe and happy new year celebration!  I have to say that I DID accomplish my Decemeber goal and cleared my work backlog for christmas.  It took all the way to the day before christmas eve but we got every order filled, every album sent out, DVD delivered, and email answered in time to shut down for the holiday.  For the first time in three years, spending hours in front of my laptop was optional rather than a desperate race.  And I have to say - it was pretty great :-)  Lots of cooking and baking, lots of eating, visiting family, and all relatively guilt free.  Liberating!!

  New year's here was dinner at home - I really do love to cook and discovered a website called foodgawker.com.  If you are one of those people who only cooks the recipes in cookbooks that come with pictures - they made this website for YOU.

 

Just a few updates for 2012

 

• We will be overhauling the website with all new content in the next month - new photos from the past year, new information, and a new pricing structure.  I can't wait to show off all the cool stuff from the past season!!

 

• Albums are back!  Since I was so crazy busy in 2011 getting married, buying a house, moving, traveling, etc - we didn't offer coffee table books during the 2011 calendar year.  Now that all the dust has settled, albums are back and better than ever with a fresh look, expanded cover options, and a WAY faster turn around time.

 

• Blogging is going to get better.  I did say in december that I was going to try and blog every day for the whole month - and then I promptly got sick and ended up at the hospital and was out of commission for a week in early december.  Best laid plans...  I plan to revive the blog and post on a regular basis not just about weddings but also do some vendor and venue reviews, portrait session highlights, I also VOW TO BANISH the comment spam on the blog (it's getting totally out of hand),and some personal stuff about what's going on my crazy world - which brings me to -

 

• my next new years goal which is - I plan to have a life this year!  Of course everyone has a life - but lately I've been missing out on mine since I've been so busy running here and there keeping up with work.  I've brought in an office assistant, Ashley, to help with emails (I get like 10-20 a day), filling orders, editing, etc.  She's been a huge help so far!  I can be out shooting a session, gone for hours, and things are still getting taken care of efficiently back at the office. 

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

And last but not least - I am offering my beginner and advanced photography classes through the local YMCA again this year!  We were supposed to start last week but did not have enough people pre-register.  So if you or someone you know got a new camera for christmas or maybe you've never quite figure out how to work your old camera - come check it out!

Beginners Photography class - geared more towards point and shoot users without interchangeable lenses on their camera.  We'll learn how to accurately focus, shoot in low light situations without blur, understand all of the different buttons and settings on your own particular camera, care-cleaning-and-protection of your camera, how and when to use flash, etc.  Beginner's class is Wednesday night at 5:30-7pm at the Kiski Valley Branch YMCA.  YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER in order to enter the class!

 

Advanced Photography class - geared towards digital SLR users with interchangeable lenses and manual settings. We will cover manual metering, focusing, using your manual and programmed camera settings.  How to choose and use the right lenses, outsmarting your automatic flash, image composition and lighting.  You must have taken beginners photography or have a solid working knowledge of your DSLR to really get the most out of this class.  Advanced class is wednesday nights 7-8:30pm at the Kiski Valley Branch YMCA - you MUST also PRE-REGISTER for this class !

 

To contact the YMCA and sign up - call 724-845-1968

 

And because everything is better with a picture - here's a little something out of my personal files -

 

 

Greetings friends!  Tonight sitting by the tree I'm thinking of all of you - my family and friends here in PA and all of the cool couples, families, and seniors that I've had the pleasure to work with this year.  I also want to say a special hello and happy holidays to those of you who are not close to home this year - HI BRENDA!! 

(she's stationed overseas for another christmas)

 

Happy Christmas to all the couples who tied the knot this year -

Erica and Alex                                Deanna and Wayne                             Bethany and Ben                      Alli and Dave

Emily and Brian                              Tricia and Mike                                    Nicole and Colby                       Katie and Oscar

Allison and AJ                                 Lara and Brian                                    Kristen and Mike                       

Gretchen and Patrick                      Amanda and Joe                                Stephanie and Ryan                 Cristi and David

Kaley and Derek                             Noel and Ben                                      Seal and Rich                           Jana and Tyler

Carina and Dale                             Leslie and Brian                                   Niki and Jay

I hope you have a wonderful first married Christmas!

 

And for my past couples who welcomed or are about to welcome their first baby this year -

Jaclyn and Dennis, Kari and Andrew, Minda and Brett, Donna and Mike, Stacey and Tim, Rebeccia and Ryan,

Natalie and Craig, and Bethany and Ben, congratulations and best wishes for your new miracle!

 

To the Myers, Duriancik, Briley, Meighan, Vigna, McDermott, Webster, Rosewicz, Emili, Lang, McCorkle, Dasta, Gonzalez, and Oxenreiter families - I wish you another year of smiles and happy milestones!

 

If I forgot or left anyone out, let me know !

 

Remember to give thanks for the people in your life and the moments you have with them.

 

 

 

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas :-)

 

 

I'm a real tree snob.

 

I'll be the first to admit it.  And by real, I mean a live christmas tree.  No trees from a box for me.  There's something about the smell and feel of a real live tree that means christmas to me.  Having a living tree to decorate and celebrate has always made christmas extra special.  Even when times were hard growing up, we always got a live tree and decorated it for christmas.  I remember one year in high school taking my Dad's pick up truck and going to the only tree lot open at 10pm on Christmas Eve (in the Lackey's Dairy Queen parking lot in Apollo) and buying one of the 3 trees that were left because I was determined that we would have our tree for christmas.  The christmas tree has always been the biggest and best part of christmas for us.  When we were very little, my parents used to take us to a tree farm out in the sticks where we would spend hours walking the field and choosing the perfect one for Dad to cut down.  That tree farm eventually closed and so for a few years we had to resort to tree lot trees.

 

Then we found the Flemings and their family tree farm near Shelocta, not far from where our childhood tree farm used to be.  We were thrilled to be able to hunt for and cut our own tree again for the past few years.  I even took Sean last year who was originally a non-believer of the live tree experience.  Till he tried it, and he was hooked :-)

 

For our first tree on our first married christmas, in our first house - we waited all year to go back to Flemings :-)

A wooden sign marks the turn off the dirt road even though we had passed cars on their way home with trees tied to their roofs for miles. 

 

 

 

They have tons of trees to choose from; douglas fir, scotch pine, blue spruce, frazier fir, but we always go to the same section of the farm where my favorite trees grow.  We took the farm truck because this year our tree would be BIGGER!

 

 

When we turned down the familiar track by the pond, there was my Dad's truck (the same one I took to get our tree on christmas eve so many years ago) already there.  He and my sister, Ashley were there to get a tree as well. 

 

 

Perfect.

 

 

 

It was like old times, wandering around freezing our butts off, laughing, comparing needle color, looking for the right height, the straightest tree trunk, the tree's best side.  It's good to know that in a year where so much has changed that some things remain sacredly the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally with the help of a tape measurer and lots of comparing, we found the perfect tree and Sean cut it off at the base.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we found one just a little shorter for the family and Dad cut it down as well.

 

 

For another year, the truck took home the tree.

 

 

One self timer photo off the hood of the truck of all of us.

 

 

 

 

At the Kool Kone (it used to be the Kool Kone years ago), Dad and Ashley turned off to go home and Sean and I turned right to go our seperate way to our house.  It was a little sad because it meant that things have changed.  But a lot of good things will always be the same.  Sean squeezed my hand and I reassured myself that growing up is OK.

A last shot through the windshield on the way home with our tree, a beautiful sunset at the beginning of the christmas season.