joanna!

Joanna is such a lovely lady. I met her several years ago, and she's a wonderful, classy lady with a sharp wit. I had a great time taking her headshots, and I got to meet another talented makeup artist, Michelle Stokkeland.

Two awesome things about this session were that Joanna was an absolute pro in front of the camera, and the whole time I had the 80s song "Rosanna" by Toto in my head, but with the name "Joanna" instead. "Jo-aa-aa-nna....oh yeah". This is how my brain works.

I adore this next expression of hers! "Oh...hello!"

Thanks Joanna. You were a dream to work with!

sheila's bridal session

The other day, I met Sheila for a morning portrait session on her parents' property. The area was absolutely gorgeous, and perfect for the type of images that Sheila wanted. As inspiration, she sent me a cool photo of Stevie Nicks (from back in the day). In 1983-ish, when the video for "Gypsy" came out, I wanted to BE Stevie Nicks. There's a part in the video where she's wearing a black dress with a black hat that has a veil. She's also sporting red lipstick. Well, I tried to re-create this look that Halloween, thinking I was pretty grown-up and awesome. The mothers handing out candy at their houses kept asking if I was a "lady of the evening". Not knowing what that meant, I replied "yes", since it sounded sophisticated. When I got home and relayed this to my mom, who told me the actual meaning, I cried for about an hour.

Since that Stevie Nicks dream fell more than flat, I'm glad that Sheila allowed me to play with a much more fantastic version than my original attempt all those years ago. She looked great in her wedding gown, and was very ethereal in the woodsy setting.

What I love about this next one is that Sheila looks like a little bird perched on a cliff. I have a thing for birds...and now I have a thing for birds on cliffs!

She had her adorable flower girls, Sarah and Lauren, join us for the shoot.

At one point, the wind really picked up, which worked well with Sheila's flowy dress and flowy hair.

Here she is, adding to the beauty of the forest...

Thanks so much, Sheila! I'm glad I got to see you and your lovely family again!

patron of saint george

Thought I'd post a few more pics taken during our recent jaunt to the island. It was beautiful, as usual. For some reason, I had a hard time "letting" myself relax. The internet connection was out for a couple days, and it was like going through detox. The only way I could really chill out was by picking up the camera and taking some photos. Well, I also laughed at just about everything that came out of Mary's mouth. There was even snorting and spit takes. For the life of me, I can't remember what was so funny. What I do recall is that the whole weekend, we couldn't get the song "Baby Come Back" out of our heads.

I had this all to myself...

According to Paul Simon, an island never cries. However, a girl on an island cries a lot when covered with welts from radioactive mosquitoes.

My friends are funny.

out of the office

We're on a quick trip, chillin' on the Gulf of Mexico. Lots of sun, sand, eating, sleeping, and watching some of the worst movies ever created. I'm not kidding. We watched one last night about Big Foot that's so bad, it has two titles to distract folks from how truly horrible it is. It's called "The Unknown" AND "Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch". To create the monster, it looked like they took one of the leftover masks from "Leprechaun" and stuck it on a tall dude. Lame!

Oh, right. So, we're at the beach. Yay! I'll post some quick photos, and then I'm heading down to the water for a swim.

This first pic was taken in Susie's garden, where lots of cool treasures reside. There's also a large, ceramic rooster locked in an embrace with a Jean Luc Picard doll. Yes, I do have the coolest mother-in-law.

Here's Mary, Matt, and The Momy hangin in the breezeway.

This is one of the many gorgeous wind chimes that Susie has made.

The owls are not what they seem...

This was taken at a gas station, where it's impossible to "think thin" among the acres of Snickers bars and bags of Cheetos.

I'm really glad that Mary "let" me take this picture of her.

All these next photos were taken in complete darkness without flash. Any light is just from the moon and a fire that some people had built nearby. This shot was taken by Dan. Matt is about to break into a loud rendition of a Rush song. I love Rush about as much as I love the mosquitoes that have been biting me in places that are inappropriate to scratch in public.

Here's Mary's "crazy pregnant lady on fire" pose.

Here's a grainy, non-traditional pic of Mary that I really dig.

See y'all back in Atlanta real soon!

the ramey family!

When Carribeth (or Scarybeth, as I like to call her) joined our team at the biomedical company years ago, she was like a breath of fresh air...I mean a daggum ray-of-light-typhoon! We had the kind of stupid fun that could only be had in the late 90s. Help! Wearing platform shoes and short skirts, while listening to Destiny's Child and NSYNC. Kids, do NOT attempt this level of cool at home.

Our lives have changed a TAD since then. She's been doing great as a brilliant engineer, as is her equally smarty-pants hubby, Brian. They've been together since they were teenagers, and now they have a marvelous son Nate and another little boy on the way. Woo hoo!

As if their family wasn't already filled with enough cuteness to put a Care Bear to shame, they just got a new miniature schnauzer puppy. Seriously guys...this amount of adorable is painful.

The following images should appropriately illustrate my point...

Baxter! I could have (and should have) stolen him in my purse. Actually, he would have easily fit in my pocket.

Carribeth and I only get to see each other once in a blue moon these days, so I was elated to have a chance to spend this time with her and the fellas.

In October, I'll be shooting the wedding of Carribeth's little sister, Cassi, at Fernbank. Man, I can't wait!

To see a slideshow of more images of the fantastic Rameys, click HERE

andrea!

When taking Andrea's headshots, I probably could have handed my camera to a monkey, and his shots would have been just as good. This is not self-deprecation, but rather a comment on how easy she is to photograph. She was fun, relaxed, and knows how to pose her stunning face. A gorgeous face only gets you so far in a photo unless you know what to do with it...and she does. She's planning a move to LA soon, and I'm sure she'll book tons of work.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Andrea's lovely mom, June, and got to work with a new makeup artist, Angelina Pennington. Between Angelina's artistry and June's genetic gifts to Andrea, I barely had to do any of the usual facial touch-ups on these images. I mean practically none.

Thanks to the three of you for a fantastic session, and best of luck to Andrea with her big move to the West coast!

Now, y'all know how I love to figure out which movie stars and/or singers people look like. I'd have to go with a cross between Alicia Keys and Rosario Dawson...both major beauties like Andrea.