Chelsea's Bridal Session at Duke Mansion

Chelsea decided to have her bridal session at Duke Mansion. I had been wanting to do a bridal session at Duke Mansion, so of course I was so excited. We spent about 3 hours there! I could spend all day shooting there!

Chelsea looked so gorgeous, I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures! She has so many! Here are a few of my favorites!

Kendall and Kevin's Wedding at Saratoga Springs

We photographed Kendall and Kevin's wedding on the 23rd of August.
They were married at Saratoga Springs, and the reception was held at the Concord Hotel.This family is so fun to be around. We photographed her sister's wedding last year, and Kendall made us laugh so many times! The day was beautiful and the Venue was awesome! Chelish Moore did the flowers and they were beautiful! Of course, they used my favorite flowers for the bouquets, so how could I not love them?

Kendall's mom saved her garter for her daughter's to wear on their wedding day. How sweet is that?

Kendall and Kevin also did the first look, and saw each other before the ceremony. Here are their pictures, seeing each other for the first time. You can tell how much they love each other! (And yes, he did raise her dress to look at her shoes!) You can see how much he adores her!




I can't believe I didn't post the bride's face in the original post! I think it was because I loved the way Kevin looked at Kendall! He had the most adoring look in his eyes! Here is a picture of Kendall with her mother, Cindy!

Jennifer & Lee's Wedding

We photographed Jennifer and Lee's Wedding on August 16th! Their reception was held at The Train Depot in Salisbury, NC. Yes, I know I haven't been blogging enough! We have just been busy processing pictures! Jennifer and Lee decided to see each other for the first time before the wedding. We call these pictures "first look" because the couple gets a chance to see and talk to each other before the ceremony! We use a long lens so they can have a few private moments together. I am always amazed at how interested the guys are in the dress and shoes. Yes, they are! The last two weddings we have done the guy has actually lifted the bottom of the dress to look at the shoes! How cute is that?

The guys were totally crazy! They had some ideas for pictures, but Lee kept them straight! (He told them no, Jennifer wouldn't like that.)

This picture was actually used for the trolley's business cards!

Updating the Website

I have been working on updating my website. Yes, I know it is about time! I think my brides would rather have their albums though! I am going to start having a featured gallery of a relatively current :) bride! Well, I am going to try. I just posted some new images of Katie and Thomas' Wedding. I added some that haven't been posted on my blog, so head over and check them out! http://www.elainemcdonaldphotography.com

And here is a bridal bouquet from a recent wedding I will try to blog tomorrow! The bouquet was made by the incomparable Chelish Moore! And no I don't get anything for saying that! I haven't met her, but I can tell as soon as I arrive at a wedding if the flowers have been done by her. Judge for yourself! Beautiful aren't they?

Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

I normally shoot everything in raw with a very neutral color, because I prefer to edit important pictures in photoshop. I can decide after shooting what type of enhancements I want. Here is a sample of the Rialto Bridge in Venice with a before image and a after image. I have posted several pictures today so scroll down to see the rest.

I am working on some images I took of Heather during the trip. I will also be posting those images. I love the scenery in Italy, but I do love people pictures even more! The only time I was ready to strangle her was when I hiked to the top of a trail to take pictures in Vernazza. I was seriously sick to my stomach! I don't like heights to begin with! They didn't even have a railing or anything to stop you from falling and a narrow little path. I wanted to get my picture and get down immediately! (I had just read about a girl on her honeymoon that had fallen to her death there.) Anyway, Heather wanted me to take her picture with that background and was seriously blocking my view! I told her no way, let me get my picture I had hiked up there for and get down!

Here is the before and after of the Rialto Bridge.

AND this is the picture I was hiking for!

Burano and Murano

It seems that most people that visit Venice have a tendency to visit Murano. Murano is where they make the Murano Glass. But if you do have a chance, be sure to add Burano to your list of must see places. It is where they make lace. They are both amazing!

Back to Work

We are home from Italy! I have 2000 pictures to go through. Heather began the trip with a terrible cough, but brought enough medicine for 2 people! By the end of the trip, I was glad she had, because she was nice enough to share her medicine when I got the same cough. The only bad thing about Italy was the dollar versus the Euro! Everytime I got $250.00 out of my account I was charged $403.00! While we were walking one day I was about to pay $2.50 for a small bottle of water, Heather said that's too expensive just drink some of mine. Dumb! It wasn't long before I had her cold! We drink a lot of water, and had quit drinking so many soft drinks. There is just something about craving them though when they are 6 Euros! That makes them $9.48 per can with our dollar! How crazy is that?! Knowing I didn't want to spend that only made me wish I had one!

I am spending this week with my granddaughter before she has to return to school, but I will be posting again next week. Next week I have a bridal session, an engagement session and a wedding next Saturday! So time to go back to work!

Here is a picture of Vernazza. I think I took about 10 of everything in Italy! It was so beautiful there!

This is one of my favorites from Venice!

Amalfi

Another picture.

Amalfi Coast

We took a bus from Sorrento to Amalfi today. The view was absolutely
breathtaking! It was a winding curvy road at the top of a mountain. I
think the bus driver was practicing for Nascar! He was flying through
the curves! I think Heather was actually praying! She was by the
window looking down, she said some places he was so close to the edge
she couldn't see the road. I think I held my breath most of the way. A
roller coaster is not as terrifying! We decided to take the ferry back
even though we had a bus ticket that we could use all day for as many
rides as we wanted to take. I did get some amazing shots with my
camera! The poor iphone wasn't fast enough for that.

Hotel Minerva

Hotel Minerva

Our hotel in Sorrento.

Sorrento

This is the view from our balcony where we are staying in Sorrento. We
arrived here yesterday at 2:00. We spent the rest of the day at the
pool. We had dinner at our hotel so we haven't seen the rest of the
town yet!

Siena

The view from the top of a museum we visited in Siena.

Heather's Anchovies

The owner suggested anchovies for Heather.

Spaghetti on the Rocks

Our first dinner in Vernazza. Spaghetti with clams, muscles and prawns.

Trattoria 13 Gobbi

We ate here last night. It was a cute little restaurant across town
from where we were staying. We walked back by the Ponte Veccchio,
where we got some beautiful night pictures on our regular camera. I
will have to post some when we return to the states.

Statue of David

This is Michelangelo's original statue of David there are two other
copies in Florence. This is in the Accademia. No photos are allowed,
but I saw several other people sneaking photos. So, I had to try with
the iPhone.

Duomo

Florence the front of the duomo. We have scheduled three walking tours
today. We have finished two and have the third in one hour. We just
finished the Uffizzi. We are waiting for Michael Angello/ David tour.
I am sure I spelled everything wrong.
My glasses are in the hotel.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

We took a train from Vernazza to view Campo dei Miracoli. (The Field
of Miracles) Here is The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It doesn't seem to be
leaning as much at this angle as it does in other pictures we took.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

We are staying in Vernazza and have some of the most awesome pictures! We hiked to the top of the trail to Monterossa and took pictures. Unfortunately, we are unable to post from our iphone in this area. We have internet but no way to load our pictures. We will be going to Florence tomorrow so we should be able to post from our iphone then. Well, we could post but the data transfer with pictures on the iphone can get expensive so I decided to wait for Florence. Heather hasn't been able to stay off of hers!

Today, we took a train to Pisa and a bus to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I was really surprised how pretty it actually was! Heather and I both had a blast taking pictures there! All of the tourist were taking pictures that looked like they were pushing the tower when in reality they weren't even close to it! Of course we had to join the crowd and do it to. Heather decided to buy a souvenir of the Leaning Tower.

After we returned to Vernazza, we decided to hike another trail. We went to the top of the trail to Corniglia and took some more pictures! We have some on our iphone to post tomorrow. We are having a blast! I always post a picture when I blog but this time I will add the pictures tomorrow.