Some of my favorite shots, well in fact most of them, are of people being themselves. My favorite portraits of couples or individuals are with them looking off camera. I came across what I believe is a wonderful quote and explanation. I subscribe to it wholeheartedly:

"There are not many smiling people in my pictures. I've never asked anyone to smile. Almost never. Maybe a few times I felt I had to, when people looked really depressed, but I apologized for asking. You can almost hear the sigh of relief when you tell someone they don't have to smile.

Where did "smile for the camera" come from? It's a tic. A way of directing attention to the camera. "Look at the birdie." The smile is a component of family pictures. Mother's don't want to see their children looking unhappy. My mother would hire a local photographer to make a family portrait and he would inevitably ask us all to smile. They were canned smiles. Forced. In the fifties, everything was supposed to be OK, although half the time it wasn't OK. It took me years to understand that I equated asking someone to smile with asking them to do something false.

There are people who smile naturally. It's their temperament. And you can catch a smile that is spontaneous, of the moment."

-Annie Leibovitz-

These guys have been fantastic to get to know. Delvin and Brandi had a great idea for this shoot and their save the date cards. Delvin is a corporate businessman and Brandi is a hairdresser extraordinaire. We wanted to gleam some inspiration from the movie poster of Brad Pitt and Angelina. You know I could not stop at one shot though. I had to take a few more. Here are the results. Thanks for taking me out of my comfort zone guys. I look forward to your wedding in October '10.

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I recently competed in my first Virginia Professional Photographer's Association (VPPA) convention print competition. I am very pleased with the results, and I wanted to post images that earned me the awards of Best Bridal Portrait, 2nd Place Best Pet Portrait. I also won best Wedding Album and received a National Kodak Excellence Award for the album. The album was from my Duchemin wedding. It was a wedding filled with beautiful hand made details and fantastic moments and people. You can view this wedding on my website under "Christen and Chris".

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