chicken barbeque.

Got up at o’dark thirty (3:45am to be exact) on Saturday to help with a chicken barbeque fundraiser for Harrisonburg First Church of the Nazarene. I agreed to help as long as I was allowed to bring my camera. I’ve eaten Valley chicken barbeque on more than one occasion, (not this particular recipe, however) but being a northern Virginia native, had never seen it made. It’s pretty intense, but some of these people are there every weekend (like the lady with the secret seasoning) and have it down to a science. The group of guys started prepping 900 halves of chicken around 3:30am, and wrapped it and sold it in various places around the city. And the coolers were empty before noon.

We started with loading up all the racks with chicken, while the charcoal in the long pit (just for chicken barbeque) was lit. The full racks were placed over the pit and rotated and then “sauced” between each rotation. And we waited while each piece was cooked to perfection (at least in my opinion). After seeing a beautiful sunrise, I left smelling like chicken barbeque. But it was all worth it.

tommy.

I went home last weekend to see my four-year-old nephew and his mom (my stepsister) who were visiting from North Carolina. We don’t see them much, so in honor of the occasion, another sister and stepsister (each with boyfriends) arrived and we had ourselves a mini family reunion. Tommy and Grandaddy worked on model trains and then he helped grill. And Tommy loves the camera. When he sees it pointed towards him, he lunges at it yelling, “cheese!!!” I took advantage of this and kept clicking away all day. And when my camera wasn’t in my hands, it was on a tall shelf away from Tommy (who always loves taking pictures.) A few faves…

jennifer & noah – staunton, va

Former co-worker, Noah, and his new bride, Jennifer, were blessed with a beautiful day in April. (I must admit, I agree that it may have been a little crazy to have an all-outdoor wedding during one of the rainest months in the Shenandoah Valley, but I was proven wrong.) Although cold and rainy just days before, everyone enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of sunshine at Oak Grove Theater in Staunton, VA, where the couple has previously performed. The decor was simple, but it suited the location. Flowers in Mason jars adorned the tables and small packs of tissues were scattered around on the armrests for mid-ceremony tears. Wine glasses with a pack of wildflower seeds doubled as guest favors and reception drinkware for the Virginia wine and beer. The guest list was small, but consisted of the couple’s closest friends who celebrated for hours, telling stories, and singing and dancing to a meticulously chosen playlist. So congrats Noah and Jen. Break a leg!

cherry blossoms and such.

While in D.C. for Geneva and Philippe’s wedding, I had some time to wander around a take a few photos of the beautiful cherry blossoms. (Although I did more wandering, than clicking.) And at the end of the day, just enough energy to snap a few as the sun went down. Take a peek…

geneva & philippe – washington, d.c.

A few weeks ago I braved the mobs at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. to meet Geneva and Philippe on their wedding day. The weather was gorgeous (especially compared to the week of rain that preceded it) and the blossoms were at their peak. On top of that, it was a Saturday and the day of the parade and Japanese street festival. Imagine D.C. on July 4th, except instead of everyone on the mall to see fireworks, they gather around the Tidal Basin to see the famous cherry blossoms. And they were beautiful.

The happy (yet slightly frazzled from stresses of the day) couple met me near the Jefferson Memorial for a few photos with the blossoms. (I must admit this was my motivation to take this job.) They were adorable together and great to work with.

When the time came to head over to the ceremony, the bride’s brother (our ride, who wasn’t familiar with DC) couldn’t find his way back. So there we were – the bride and groom all dressed for the wedding and me with all my gear – standing alongside a busy road and none of us sure what to do. Uh oh. (A little side note…while standing there, we drew quite a bit of attention, and even were the stars of a drive-by home video.) When a short walk proved no help in finding a cab, the bride stuck out her thumb in hopes that a friendly stranger would help us out. (I freaked out on the inside. Just a little.)

A couple from Maryland, in town to see the blossoms, came to the rescue and agreed to give us a ride. And so the three of us piled into the backseat and we hitchhiked to the ceremony. It was great.

All in all, it was a beautiful day and well worth all the troubles. And most likely the most exciting wedding shoot for a long time.

stuck.

On Friday afternoon I headed to Shenandoah National Park with my friend Evan (check out his post about the same adventure, “Stuck in SNP“). It was a routine little excursion (or so we thought) as Evan is working on a photography book of Shenandoah wildlife and often ventures into the park in search of new book-worthy images.

Once in the park, we headed towards Limberlost trail (the central district of the park had just reopened) and we were hoping for some remaining evidence of the recent winter wonderland. And we found it. Three inches.

The hike itself was easy and didn’t take very long. We were the first to walk it since the snow…well, the first humans. The path was covered with tracks from deer, squirrels, chipmunks, even bear and some fresh bobcat tracks.

It felt good to be outside in the snow, and I even grabbed a few images along the way.

The adventure really began when we got back to the truck to head out around 5pm. We jumped in, eager to warm our frozen toes, and I was already thinking about the large mug of hot chocolate I was going to have as soon as I got home. Things didn’t go quite as planned. The truck couldn’t make it up the slope from the parking lot back to Skyline Drive. We were stuck.

I never thought such a short distance could be so daunting. It started to get dark and we were still struggling to get ourselves up the hill and out of the park. Efforts to set up lines of sticks and scraping the snow away in front of the tires to provide a little traction proved to be minimally effective, but not nearly enough to get us anywhere.

Seven o’clock rolled around we decided to hike towards Skyland in search of higher ground and cell phone reception. Oh…did I mention the large feline tracks across the drive to the parking lot where we were stuck? Fresh ones. Evan thinks they belonged to a mountain lion. Whatever they were, I wasn’t too pleased to be walking around in the dark.

So, we hiked. And I was convinced I wasn’t going to get out of this without losing a few toes to the cold. (I didn’t.) The trek was worth it since we had almost full reception at our destination and Evan got in touch with his girlfriend who agreed to relay our cry for help to the rangers. She did, and called us back with news of rescue. Awesome.

More than a little relieved, we headed back to the truck, anxious for rescue. And we waited. And waited. Two hours passed and we kept ourselves entertained with country music and peanut butter sandwiches. Finally, with an almost simultaneous “hallelujah” from my mouth, we saw headlights. Our rescuers (not a ranger, but Evan’s girlfriend’s sister and her husband) picked us up and drove us out of the park and to the safety (and warmth) of our own homes.

So concludes the adventures of Susan and Evan. And I must admit I’ll think twice about passing up a day of skiing to go to SNP next time.

day in DC.

I spent a day in Washington, D.C. a little over a week ago with my sister and boyfriend. We had no schedule and no specific places we wanted to hit. So we set out with all-day Metro passes and went crazy. The day started with a visit to the Air & Space Museum, followed by walking to the Washington Monument and a quick stop by the White House. Then we headed to Dupont Circle for some hot Krispy Kreme donuts and from there continued to Chinatown for dinner at New Big Wong. We even met a few very friendly (and fat) squirrels.

Most of the day’s photos were on a little point and shoot and only to document some of the day’s crazy moments. (We had a lot of ground to cover and my company wouldn’t have appreciated my constant stopping.) I did, however, end up with a few images I liked on my 5d. Enjoy.

maghan & matt – remington, va

I had the pleasure of shooting Maghan and Matt’s wedding in January at the beautiful Inn at Kelly’s Ford. Everything looked amazing from the pinecones and white branches adorning tables to the brown and blue of the wedding party. The little details stood out to me the most like the special-made pearl hairpins from China the bride wore and the photo of her mom she held with the bouquet. They were blessed with a beautiful winter weather (not too cold and lots of sunshine) for the first half of the day so we did all the shots before the ceremony outside, but I must admit I was a little disappointed when it started raining during the ceremony and I couldn’t take the happy couple to some of the locations I’d checked out earlier for some photos. All in all, it was a great day and I wish all the best to the newlyweds.

red balloon.

I find it funny that I can spend a day with my camera taking handfuls of photos and then when I get home, checking out my work and immediately gravitating to a few that catch my eye. Then months later, I can look at the same images and a different set will appeal to me.

I was scanning through some images I took this summer and stumbled across one I’d somehow overlooked – I’d probably skipped over it as it wasn’t visually appealing as a thumbnail. At the Rockingham County Fair’s demolition derby, a child in front of me let go of his balloon and I snapped a quick shot as it floated past the lights of the arena. And then I forgot about it. Here is that shot. Enjoy.

a cookie tradition.

Every year my sisters and I go to my grandma’s house for a weekend of cookie baking. We start Friday night and by Sunday morning we usually have about 125 dozen cookies baked, packed and ready to take home. This year’s total was a little over 130 dozen with 20 different cookies and candies – a record year. Most of the baking was on Saturday, with a tray in the oven almost nonstop from 10am until 1am Sunday. Pressed, rolled, dropped, balled, sliced – we do it all. I kept my camera nearby (but far enough away from the mounds of butter and sugar and such) and managed to snap a few photos during the day, so take some time to check out one of our family Christmas traditions.

And if you were wondering…all the cookies DO get eaten or passed along to friends and family and they are all wonderful. Merry Christmas!