Laura and Edward are a really fun couple and I’m really looking forward to their wedding.

The ceremony and reception was at Pine Ridge Country Club. I love shooting there because the ballroom is beautifully designed and decorated and there isn’t a bad angle for me. It’s really one of my favorite halls to shoot at.

Nick Costa and Bill Pirie provided the entertainment. They do an amazing job together. Every bride to be should check them out. It’s a unique act that everyone will talk about for a long time.

Catherine and Jamie had a beautiful ceremony. Afterward, I rode with the bridal party on the Retro Rider to Acacia Country Club in Beachwood for photos and a chance to cool off. After that we went to Claddagh Irish Pub in Legacy Village to kill some time and have some fun.

It was a blast hanging out with such a laid-back group of people. Catherine and Jamie were all laughs and smiles all day. It was an awesome wedding and I’m thankful to have been a part of it.

MONEY SHOT!

This is the crazy kind of stuff the Retro Rider (or beer) makes you do.

Congratulations to Maressa and Alex!

This was a really fun wedding to photograph  because  everyone was so laid back and ready to have a good time. A motorcycle officer let us park in front of the Rock Hall (for 10 minutes), then he let Caroline and John take a photo on his bike. The bridal party was a lot of laughs, especially the ladies. I really enjoyed being a part of this wedding.

Congratulations Caroline and John!

As always, leave comments if you like.

Here’s a few shots.

I’m raising this point because I was searching through my archives to find some web-worthy images I may have overlooked, and came across a few folders of photos I had taken at family events. I had completely forgot about them. The air show, county fair, picnics, holidays, etc. I started wondering what would become of these images if I didn’t ever get around to printing them. Would the drives be put on a shelf or in a box and forgotten about for the next 25 years? Would they still work in 25 years?  Would my grandchildren ever have the opportunity to see their dad when he was just a little boy, or their grandparents before they were old and wrinkly? The prospect of this lost history is disturbing to me.

I’m in the process of restoring my grandparents’ wedding album for my mom. The 8×10 photos are perfect, but the album mats are shot. These simple pieces of old photo paper have outlasted every other investment my grandparents ever made…cars, houses, pets, even themselves. I know my grandfather, but only through this album. It is one of my mother’s most cherished possessions. I wonder what would have happened if my grandparents just purchased negatives (or a CD in today’s terms), and been done with it. Chances are, they wouldn’t have gotten around to printing an album, and the memory of their wedding day would be lost forever.

Photography permanently freezes moments in time. It answers the questions: Who are you? Where did you come from? Where did you go? What was it like? Who do you love? and so on. These answers aren’t dispensable or disposable. Photographs are treasures to be valued.

From this point forward, I’m going to make a commitment to myself and my family, present and future, to preserve all our memories in print. I believe it’s that important.

And if you don’t know who Egon is…

This is the front view of the beach house. We are so grateful that could use it. It was the perfect get-away. The back of the house faces the bay between the island and the mainland. We spent a lot of time on the dock watching amazing boats go by.

We went to the beach a few times, but the wind was strong and the temperature felt 10 degrees colder on the gulf side. Even though we didn’t go in the ocean, we had fun playing in the sand.

The slide was Jackson’s favorite thing to do on the island by a longshot. His next favorite activity was to ride on the golf cart, which he referred to as “the monster truck.”

Anyone who has been to my gallery knows that I dig reptiles. I couldn’t refuse the temptation to photograph every tortuous and lizard I saw.

This was Jackson’s first time fishing. Here he is with my dad fishing from the dock. We saw a lot of fish swimming up to the dock at night, but didn’t have much luck catching anything big enough to eat.

Anna and Jackson goofing around.

After leaving the beach house, we drove to Orlando to visit with family. We stayed with my Uncle Jim and Aunt Beatie. It was so nice to spend time with family we don’t get to see very often. This is Uncle Jim driving their pontoon boat across the lake in their back yard.

Owl in a tree

Dinosaur World

More scenery.

On the way home, we stayed with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Neal in Charlotte, NC. My cousin Kim arranged for us to take a tour of Charlotte Motor Speedway. That was a lot of fun. We rode in a van that took us around the track at about 75 mph. That doesn’t seem very fast, but in a big van that’s sitting on a 24 degree bank, it definitely gets your attention. This was Jackson’s favorite part of the trip. Stock cars were whipping around the track as drivers practiced in Richard Petty’s driving school. It was hard to get photos from the van while the cars were moving, but I managed to snap one that was sitting still.

I vote for this one.