Cruella dogsits...and likes it!

Meet my fiancee Eric...and Crackers. Last week some friends were out of town, so we took care of their dog Crackers. Origanally a lap dog, Crackers spends the majority of her days now in the backyard playing with the two most adorable kids in the world. However, for a week she pretended to be our dog....and we walked her every morning and night (although we found out she's been on a leash previously maybe once in her life) and played ball with her (well...Eric kicked the ball with her...sometimes at her, but she always caught it and brought it back) and let her sleep with me in my bed (hence the red blanket over the brand new cream colored bedspread). And it was a blast! Even Eric the "I-Hate-Animals" spokesperson could be caught scratching her ears. Tee hee.

Aren't they cute playing World of Warcraft together?

Kayla! (...and Darby) part II

Kayla and Darby part II: formal portraits

This was another learning adventure. We had two main differences between this shoot and the first shoot. The first one was that my assistant switched--where Brittany, Kayla's roommate and Darby's other girlfriend, helped me out the first time, my fiancee (husband in ONE WEEK!), Eric, helped on this shoot. And while he was great technically, he wasn't nearly as good as Brittany at getting them to smile and act goofy. They weren't as comfortable with Eric as the were with Brittany either. The other difference was the clothing. We wanted some of their engagement pictures to have a more formal feel, so we dressed them in more rigid clothing than we had for the first shoot. It hadn't yet occured to me that clothing could transfer to personality. I think there are some good shots, but they don't have the comfortable energy the first set did. Let me know what you think.

The Jello Jordan River and chocolate candy monuments

So, my friend Jen and I are teaching a bible class at church this semester, and while we started out on a great foot with the kids, I think we may have blown it with the parents. We're studying Joshua and we got to chapters 3 and 4 where they haul the Ark of the Covenant out into the Jordan and cross on dry ground. Then they get to the other side and build a 12-stone monument out of river rocks. We built ours out of candy...and then we ate them. Oooops. We also had a 9x13 pyrex pan of "Jordan River," flavored in blue berry burst. We definately ate that...all five of us...out of the same river...at least we had seperate spoons. So our kids came running down the stairs with their chocolate monuments, really excited about it, only to show their moms, who were thrilled with the prospect of chocolate filled children (not that it has any effect whatsover!) and thier little brothers and sisters were upset that they didn't get to build one. Next week we plan to take down the Jericho wall with Kazoos...do you think we'll be fired or not?

Kayla! (...and Darby)

Sunday I took one of my most enjoyable engagement sessions--but it helps when you're good friends with your subjects! Meet Kayla and Darby, engaged to be married July 07, 2007. They were absolutely adorable and this is session one of two...a few more formal pictures to come!

Photographer's note: since I didn't know what size Kayla and Darby would need or how they would be using the pictures, I didn't do any additional photoshop cropping.

So the title: when I started this blog, I was living with our friend Kalyn (don't get confused by all these K's!), who ended up being the subject for most of my posts there in the beginning. So now that we had an excuse to take pictures of Kayla, she's very excited to have an entire post dedicated to KAYLA! (....and Darby.) Now for the pics!

Quick funny story:
I needed an assistant for distraction on this shoot, so I enlisted Kayla's roommate Brittany. So to get this shot, I positioned Brittany to my right and said,
"Kayla kiss Darby, Darby look at Brittany."
To which Kayla quipped,
"That's the story of our relationship right there!"
and I laughed.

Some of these shots are my first attempts at taking shots similar to Mike and Holly, who I am interning with, and Lauren Clark. I think I still need some practice...anyone else getting married????

Bridal Portrait Problems

Since so many people have been having trouble viewing the flash presentation of my bridal portraits, Mike and Holly set up a different way of viewing them.

Go to :

http://www.pictology.com/ecom/events/events.aspx?5801635673

If it asks for additional information, here are the answers:

photographer's account#:  5801635673
Event code:  emerald06
password:  bridals

My own wedding for once!

I decided to make a quick post about my own wedding for once. As most of you know, Eric and I will be getting married October 16 of this year (which is, like, 3 weeks away). I learned at Chris and Melissa's wedding that a lot of the people who recieved invitations to our wedding have been clandestinely visitng my blog without my knowledge and without leaving a comment...which is good--now that I know--because I can easily give you some links.

My parents, Karla and Andy McGowan (1979) my grandparents, Kay and Lad Smith (1937), and my great-aunt and uncle, Billie and Eloise Boyd (1941) were all married on October 16th--we'd like it to remain a tradition. Since this date falls on a Monday, however, it is not very convinient for the people who are special to us to be there. Because of that, I wanted to give you these links so that even if you can't come to the wedding, you can feel like you've seen it a little bit.

The wedding will be held at 6:00pm in the courtyard at the Grace Museum. This is approximately what it will look like at the reception:



Our engagement, bridal and wedding photos were/will be taken by Mike and Holly Ward at Belle's Bridal and Wedding Photography. You can view our engagement photos and my bridal portraits at this website by either clicking the hotlinks in this sentence or by visiting the Belle's site and clicking on proofing. You can view a few tasteful pictures from my lingerie shower at my friend Kayla's blog.

And here are a few pictures from the bridal shower our church in Louisiana threw for Eric and me. The photos were taken by our friend Sheila Murry.

me and my mom, Karla

the card my parents made for the set of pots they gave us
(this is also my favorite picture of me ever!)

the cake

to the left is my friend Anna, one of the bridesmaids, and her niece Chloe.
Chloe is helping record the gifts.

me and my mom again

from left to right:
my friend Meagan, me, my friend Anna
(the only bridesmaid not pictured is my friend Helena, though I've
been tempted to photoshop her in)

me and the hostesses--all women I've grown up knowing and loving

One last thing: please RSVP if you have not already done so. Thanks and we hope to see you in a few weeks!

Emerald and Eric

Felicitaciones, le puede tener marraige feliz!

(or, if like me you don't speak Spanish: Congratulations, may you have a happy marraige!)

Disaster though it may have been, I learned a few more things through my Spanish wedding adventure:

1. Meet with the bride before the wedding (even if you are leaving for a week at home two days after you speak with her on the phone).
2. When you meet with the bride, make sure she speaks the same language as you do...and that her family does as well.
3. Sign a contract up front--no matter how nice you think they sound--because people who know will let you know you're an idiot if you don't, regardless of how bad you feel doing it.
4. Don't expect everyone at weddings to LOOK happy--even the groom's parents...even the groom.
5. Be personable and chatter at whoever you think might understand you...otherwise you'll be completely lost in a ceremony you can't even begin to understand!

So I'm sure more people than the bride spoke English...I just didn't meet them. She was, however, very nice, just the sweetest thing ever and I am truly grateful to have been a part of her wedding. But it was not easy. There were several points where the unexplained (to us English speakers) traditions threw me off gaurd and sent me scurrying for the back of the church only to discover there would be another 30 minutes of ceremony before I would miss the kiss shot (you can look, you won't find it here). Also, because of the layout of the church and my total cluelessness as to what was going on, spurring my reluctance to move from my spot, I'm afraid I'm looking nervous in the background of their entire wedding video. Ooops. Now on to the pictures.

Elia in the florescent hall light

So who has ever seen a Catholic wedding where the bride and groom get to sit as well????

The first of the strange traditions I didn' t understand:
The groom, Gabino, was handed a vase of fresh flowers from the alter by one of the priests, which he and Elia set on a table in front of cement Mary. They then knelt down, like so, which made for a great shot but does anyone know the significance here?

Elia and Gabino have two daughters. This is daughter number one, also known as the flower girl. Daughter number two walked down the aisle with her mother. I think that's cute.

The second of the strange traditions. Any ideas?

And happilly ever after into the limo to the reception.

This really was a lot of fun, but I'm glad I'm done with the editing and can get the proofs back to her as soon as possible!...as soon as they come in. Good luck to me!