laziest cat known to man :: southern maryland wedding photography

So we have a lot of cats. A lot... of cats. Between Maggie and Betty there are more than you can count on both hands. Now, we're less crazy than most cat ladies because we don't collect these lovely little creatures one by one. No, we adopt entire litters. That's right, we like to get the economy pack. To further our "we're not crazy" point... we'd like to focus on the fact that these cats find us. About 7 years ago a very pregnant mama cat waddled her tail into one of Betty's flower beds. She proceeded to give birth to 7 kittens. The kicker? This happened in the middle of a hurricane. So naturally, the kittens and mama were brought into the house for safety. Because you don't knowingly leave newborn kittens outside in a hurricane. You just don't. 7 years later, they're still there. They are terrible, spoiled rotten, overweight, well loved fur babies.

Maggie is a little more crazy than Betty. Maggie may or may not have gone into the woods to follow the sounds of crying infant kittens. (Ok she did, but their cries were so sad). So technically they didn't just show up at her doorstep, but they were within a few yards of the house, so we'll let it slide. Luckily, there were only 4 adorable little soaking wet bundles of kitten for her to adopt and nurse back to health. And that she did. Those kittens were less than a week old, eyes closed, without a mama. They were fed kitty formula with little kitty baby bottles (which are available at Walmart at 11:30pm if you are ever in need) for weeks. They are still currently getting whatever they want at Maggie's home. They're worse than Maggie's actual human child.

Of all our feline family members, there is one in particular who stands out as the laziest of them all. Piper is at Maggie's house, where our main home office is located. Most of our work gets done here and so we have the ability to keep track of what these 4 cats "do" on a daily basis. "Do" being used lightly because they don't really "do" anything. Piper though, she wins. She literally does nothing. All day. Yesterday for example we noticed Piper settled in for a morning nap around 9am. At noon, she looked up, shifted a little bit, and went right back to sleep. Around 1:15 the baby decided to give her a "hug" which really means he lays across her body, squishing her until she can't stand it. This forced her to relocate. She took a new sleeping post in one of our office chairs. There she remained until about 3:45... sleeping all the while. We lost track of her when we ran out to run some errands, but when we returned she was back on the sofa... out. She did wake up around dinner time to snuggle in someone's lap and get some good chin scratching in. That lasted maybe an hour (she's a love bug too). Then she ate a big kitty meal, and went into food coma mode.

Maybe she plays a lot at night? Who knows. All we know is she is quite possibly the laziest cat known to man. We even had her checked out by a Vet, who assured us she is healthy and just seems to enjoy naptime. She has totally changed the meaning of "cat naps".


Here she is, the little dear. As you can see, she was less than thrilled we were interrupting her nap.

It's so hard, Piper. So hard.

Oh look! An action shot! A rare thing in photos of Piper. Of course, playtime does not include actually getting up. She'll play with that string so long as she can do so on her back in a fluffly bed. Jeez.

Maybe we'll take a page out of Piper's book this weekend and learn how to relax a little bit. Who knows, maybe we'll even snuggle up with one of our cats and take a nap ourselves.

Have a relaxing weekend everyone!

the scariest session of my life :: southern maryland wedding photography

Hi folks... Maggie here. Hope you're having a great Monday. This afternoon I've decided to creep you out with the story of the snake who chased me around a photo session. Yep. A snake literally followed me everywhere I went one evening while Mom and I prepped for a session. I'm not kidding. Here's the story:

So we like to arrive about an hour early to each session we do, especially if it's a new location we're not terribly familiar with. We take a look around, become acquainted with the space, light, architecture, landscape, limitations, and exciting photo opportunity finds. On this delightful evening a few months back, we were also enjoying taking some photographs of the setting. It was a beautiful one! There was a sweet little lillypad pond and fountain in the center of a beautiful little garden. I decided I wanted a photo of the lillypads. So I took this...

Great, moving right along. I make my way over to get a little closer to the base of a beautiful old tree with great limbs. I walked through the garden, on the brick pathways, to my destination. No problems, just strolling through a garden. Ah... that's a shot I'd like to try. Click...

Ok, that's kinda nice but I wanted to get closer to the base of the tree and shoot up into the branches. So I re-direct my stroll into the grass. I take about 6 steps towards the tree's trunk, flipping and flopping in my Reefs. I glance down for a moment and I see that I'm one step away from stepping on someone's toy, rubber snake. "Who on earth would leave a fake black snake in the grass out here? Ha! Silly kids". Then the rubber snake lifted it's head up to my waist line and hissed. Um...

This is a photo of me standing on a bench, clinging to the safety of a few feet off the ground. I made it here in 3.7 seconds. I screamed like I was auditioning for a horror film the length of my sprint. I'm sure I scared the hell out of anyone within a 5 mile radius of where we were shooting.

I ALMOST STEPPED ON A SNAKE!

Now, allow me to explain how my brain worked in those moments before the rubber snake moved. The human mind is a wonderful machine. Mine actually decided to not let me realize the snake was real. My brain processed this visual of a 4 foot long black snake in the grass, as a toy that someone accidently left behind. It knew I could handle that scenario. It knew I couldn't handle the reality. Now... this state of denial lasted just a couple of seconds before that darn rubber snake stood up and hissed at me, but for those two seconds I was still ok. I'm not sure if I appreciate my brain tricking me like that or not. The fact is, I was going to realize the snake was real sooner or later. So I would have appreciated a quicker reaction time to make my getaway BEFORE I pissed the snake off. Thanks brain, but let's work together from now on.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention I'm not a big fan of snakes. Now I'm trying to be cool here, because if I were being honest I'd be telling you I despise them. They're awful. Snakes are terrible, terrible things, and I have no idea why they need to live anywhere near me.

After standing on that bench for a good 20 minutes (I'm so serious), Mom finally talked me down, assuring me the snake had gone off under a bush and was settling in for a long nap. He wouldn't "get me". Plus we still had a photo shoot to get ready for. Time to put on my big girl pants and pull it together.

So with Mom's help on lookout, I quickly made my way to one of the bigger buildings surrounding us... flailing my arms saying "ew ew ew" the whole way. (Nice visual huh? Well it's accurate)

Time for more light tests. I managed to get one shot in before my own personal horror story continued.

Then I looked up...

That snake was following me.

No he was... he really was.

How this was possible I'm not sure. But I am positive he knew what he was doing.

Here are some more photos of my new friend...

Oh great... he's getting closer.

Now I started to throw a real hissy fit. I had to get out of there. I remember saying "Mom, Mom... MOM! This is not ok... NOT ok!".

Here is a view from my perch of safety. I ran up the steps to this building (arms flailing, squealing), and waited for Mom to tell me where he went. "It's ok" she said, "he's almost down now and it looks like he's going back under the bush".

Ok, then I'll just wait for that to happen.

Nope. Not the bush. Didn't happen. That sucker followed me still.

Think I'm kidding?

Look at him! What on earth is going on here?!

This was the last photo I took. At this point I was void of all common sense. I was in survival mode, and snapping photos was no longer essential. I began to panic and yell. Mom did her best not to laugh at me. He went right by her, paying her no attention, because he was so determined to get to me.

I do wish I had taken more photos of him, because you would have been able to see what he did next. He was CLIMBING THE STAIRS. My heart almost came out of my chest as I watched him slowly slither over the hump of the bottom step. He made his way up to the first step, hid under the lip of the step above him, and slowly moved into the garden to the left. Eventually I could spot him far enough away from me, and I felt safe enough to come down from my hiding place.

Sure, black snakes in Southern Maryland are everywhere. They're harmless, and won't really hurt you. "They're more afraid of you than you are of them" is something I've been told a lot. Well this genius snake has proved you all wrong. He knew exactly who I was, and he wanted to scare the living ____ out of me. Well snake friend, bravo. It worked.

How'd the rest of the session go? Well it went just fine actually. Never saw him or another snake the rest of the shoot. That's probably because I chose not to look for any. I had a job to do, I had Mom as my snake look out, and as soon as we started shooting I forced myself to pull it together.

I will however be writing a screen play. "Snakes on a Photo Shoot". Look for it next summer. ;)

Have a great Monday guys, and watch where you're walking. You never know where someone will leave a rubber snake.

hometown series :: town hall summer concerts

Well... it's officially summer. And let's hope so, because it's almost 100 degrees out there! The last time it was this hot, we were shooting an outdoor, 14 hour wedding... and one of us was 8 months pregnant. Yikes! Today though, we are enjoying the humming sound of our overworked AC unit and the cool air it's spoiling us with. Ahhhh, very nice.

With summer, in our small town, comes many fun activities, events, and gatherings. One of our favorites is the La Plata Summer Concert Series on the lawn at Town Hall. It's like something out of feel good movie, or an episode of The Wonder Years. Seriously, this summertime staple in our neck of the woods makes us love where we live more and more. Families lay out quilts on the lawn, marking their spot, then set up dinners of fried chicken, subs, or even a pizza. You are sure to run into someone you know, but on most evenings you're bound to see several familiar faces. "How've ya'll been?" is heard quite a lot on these evenings. In fact, most folks have started to show up an hour or so early just to have the time to chat, before the music starts. Every Friday evening from June to September the Town of La Plata puts on a free concert for anyone to come enjoy. Bands range from southern rock, to traditional Irish tunes and even the US Air Force Band.

A 45 minute drive from the District, we find ourselves in a little bubble on these Friday evenings, where life slows down, we enjoy good music, a warm breeze and time with people we love.

We will be out there on the lawn tomorrow evening. If you're in the area or close enough to drive down our way, come on out and say hi. We'd love to share some blanket with you.

Here are some quick photos of our last visit to the summer concert series...

yes please...

Did you think we'd post something without throwing in a few of Sweet Cheeks?

yummm, dinner on the lawn.

Kisses for Mama (even though they're more like bites)

There's nothing quite like a small town on a summer evening...

Stay cool everyone!



product packaging :: southern maryland wedding photographers

It's all in the details... anyone who has ever planned a wedding knows this. Colors, flowers, place cards, lighting, socks, linens, centerpieces, and literally every other aspect to a wedding day is planned to a "T". The perfect shade of robin's egg blue can make or break a table setting, and don't even get us started on how long it can take to decide on a bouquet arrangement. We know all about this type of wedding. We've planned one, and we photograph many. Essentially, weddings these days reflect visually, the personalities of the couple they celebrate. We won't go so far as to say a wedding should reflect a couple's "brand". That's a bit ridiculous, but for us... we do in fact need to pay close attention to the consistency of our products as we attempt to create some sort of brand for our business. So when it was time to stop sending DVDs in jewel cases (yuck... we know) we did a lot of research into what type of product packaging we wanted to send to our clients. If you think about it, usually a business card is the first piece of branding a potential client gets their hands on. Usually though it's our website that attracts clients first and foremost. But we wanted that same brand to carry through all the way to the final product clients will receive. Our style of photography, business model, price structure, customer service, and personal connections are the bread and butter of what we do. These things make or break us, and we understand a fancy business card or expensive packaging won't make us better photographers or business people, but we do want to give our clients a full and luxurious experience from the first email to the final package of images. So we worked with a fantastic packaging company to create exactly what we wanted to provide our clients with when we sent them their final DVD of images.

Kraft and Jute did a wonderful job listening to our questions, working with our requests, and providing us with a beautiful product. We love the simplicity of their products, and we're so excited to be using eco friendly papers and goods. Our favorite part of our new packaging line has to be the hand stitched detailing on the note card and DVD case. Beautiful!

Yesterday, before we started bundling these items together to be mailed out we took a few photos to share with you. So take a look, and tell us what you think. We mailed 5 of these babies out today and we hope those clients enjoy our new packaging. We hope it reflects our business and our brand well.

We were all finished and then we noticed our neighbor had a very pretty purple flower bush in their garden. So we of course picked a couple and needed to add them to our display. Naturally, we took more photos...

And then we found a baby strawberry... so it was added as well. More photos were taken.

Have a beautiful day, and make sure you notice the details.