Jennifer is back and it is only a matter of hours before she will be a Newlywed!

Here’s a quick peek at her (very recent) bridal session:

I love black magic roses:

Pretty girl:

Love this:

This is how I “see” her in my mind - always laughing:

Jen’s favorite:

In just a few hours, we’ll be seeing you for your wedding!! More on that soon…

We just met up with this cute couple the other day in downtown Pensacola for an awesome shoot. I think they are so perfect here because I always get questions about what to wear or how to do the hair and whatnot and I always give the same answer: no writing on the clothing (drives me crazy!) and nothing that makes you feel self-conscious. I always encourage y’all to be relaxed and to express yourselves - and that’s exactly what these two did! Michelle confessed that her family gave her a bit of hard time about the jeans and pigtails - but I think it’s perfect!!

We recently had the awesome honor of being commissioned to photograph Ballet Pensacola’s 2006/2007 season - and we couldn’t be more excited! Meg has always been involved in the Pensacola arts scene, dating back to her days as a preteen performer at the Saenger Theatre, where the following performance recently took place. It was so great to see her light up again - back in her element. It’s funny - most of our clients don’t know much about this - but Meg’s first love was and still is the theatre. She is an actress, singer, director - you name it - she’s probably done it. In fact, her degree and college studies focused on the performing arts, with an emphasis in acting and directing. I actually think that really plays a huge role in her photography, but I digress…

Walking into the theater last week, holding her hand, I could feel her excitement. Her eyes darted around the dimly lit audience and up to the stage where plain-clothed dancers were already in rehearsal for that evening’s full dress rehearsal. “That one is the director” she says knowingly. “How do you know?” “I can just tell” she smiled. And I could tell she was finally back where she belonged.

Ever since we moved to Pensacola, Meg has talked about wanting to find the time in her schedule to get involved in the local arts scene again; This time, she wanted to be a photographer instead of a performer. We were so excited when Emily Cowan, the executive director for Ballet Pensacola, shot Meg an email asking her to document their 2006/2007 season. I was a little worried that it might be a big time commitment, possibly larger than she had time to give, but Meg insisted this was something she wanted to try. We said yes.

Now, neither Meg nor I have photographed “action” photography before (unless you can count a crazy reception!) - so we didn’t quite know exactly what we were in for… and I can tell you, it was quite possibly the hardest thing we have ever done. Freezing the dancers at the peak of the action was only one very small concern. We never knew what was coming next, where to stand, what lens to use, what the light might be like moment to moment, if we should focus on an individual dancer or a whole group … the list goes on and on. But Meg didn’t let that faze her. She rose to the challenge, did an awesome job (even though she won’t admit it!), and is so excited to go back for their next performance in December when they will be presenting The Nutcracker.

For now, though, here is a quick look at Ballet Pensacola’s Sleeping Beauty… -Charles