Craig and Karen’s family

You know what is cool?

Shooting a wedding. Yep, I seem to like the insanity weddings inspire and I love the ability to create images for couples.

What is even cooler? A few years later shooting the wedding of their son and his bride.

And then, to top it all off, coming out to their home for family photos right before Christmas.

The original gal and guy were Craig and Karen, friends of mine since the days when I worked at Sears and Craig (as my boss) tried to keep me in line and actually getting things accomplished.

This was not Craig’s first wedding — but he and Karen had been together for many years and I was so damn flattered and thrilled to capture the images of their wedding day. Their wedding officially combined two families. I still have one of the images of him kissing her shoulder in one of our signature albums.

Last year I got a call from Craig — his son Jason (vaguely recalled a strapping young man) was getting married and needed a photographer. The date was open on our calendar and so we booked a wedding.

There is a special thrill in shooting weddings with families you have already worked with. They trust you to do what needs to be done and I think it makes me work even harder to be sure I fulfill that trust. The wedding was a blast — and we were able to capture some amazing photos. I’ll be sharing some of them in a blog post later this year, so watch for Kim and Jason!

After the Premier Showing with the couple, Krystal and I sat down and discovered that Karen and Craig really wanted a whole new set of family photos — and not from the wedding — but at their home in Springfield. Something that would fit them and show off their combined families.

Even cooler. So off I went right before Christmas. It was like I knew everyone! Okay, well, I did pretty much. Somehow, they put up with me again. There is nothing so ego-inspiring and — at the same time — completely humbling when you walk into a home that has photos you created for them covering the walls. Love it!

They were in no special rush to get the images — which thrilled me to no end as during this time of the year time becomes a hard to get commodity.

I thought I would share one of the images of the shoot — with the whole family (including the dogs.) What makes this photo special is the people in it.

Family. At their home, not stuffed into a strange studio with a fake backdrop. I had tossed up a couple of strobes to make sure they looked good and we worked somewhat quickly — I think I probably made a somewhat comical sight trying to get the photos while squeezing a squeekie doggie toy to get the attention of the dogs. At least it kept their mind off of shivering as the weather was not exactly warm. But, hey, I’ll do whatever it takes.

I like it.

Family. Friends. Cool stuff.