Family Pictures

For Christmas, my sisters, Ryan and I got my parents professional family photos. We wanted them to be really casual, laid back and include all 4 dogs (my parents dog Mia, my sister Alli's dog Henry, and Ryan and I's dogs Ninja and Oscar). We definitely got the fun, relaxed pictures we were aiming for!

My awesome parents with Mia:

Everyone:

Sisters make the best friends. Isn't it nuts how much SHORTER I am than they are?:

Our first official family picture!:

The puppies were handed over to their grandma:

Ryan and Mary were involved, so the following was inevitable:

Alli's friend Karen took the pictures (she was home visiting family for Thanksgiving and was kind enough to take these the Saturday after Thanksgiving). She actually specializes in pet photography-how beautiful are these pictures of my dogs! I mean, I'm biased and all.

Needless to say, she did a phenomenal job. We linked my dad's laptop up to their big screen TV, so Christmas Eve morning we were able to show them the pictures for the first time. Mom and Dad really liked them, thereby cementing Alli's status as best gift giver of all time. Well done!

Check out more of Karen's work here.

Album

A part of Ryan and I's wedding photography package were 3 professional albums-40 pgs a piece, with 2 of them being smaller than 1. We're giving the smaller ones to our parents and keeping the big one for ourselves. We're greedy like that.

Our photog sent us the 1st draft of our albums 2 weeks ago. I guess I didn't really understand the whole process...I thought maybe we'd send her a list of our favorite pics or something? Anyway, she put the album together and then sent it to us for edits.

And do we have edits.

There are some pictures neither one of us care for, and some that we love that didn't make it in. Overall though, the way its organized and everything looks great. I think they're going to turn out really well, I just feel so nitpicky when I say "on page 33, take out this and this and this and replace with this and this and this." These are the only professional albums we'll have though, and I know we both want them to be perfect.

Did you get a professional album from you photog?

????

So, Ryan and I are in the market for a camera. We want something in between a point and shoot and an SLR, and we are not interested in spending more than $400 for absolutely everything (bag+memory card). A guy at work recommended the Pentax X90 Super Zoom Digital Camera. It has 12.1 MP, a 26 wide-angle optical zoom lens and a 2.7 inch LCD screen.

Here's the thing: I understand the difference between digital and optical zooms, and I understand megapixels and whatever, but I don't understand these things in relation to the kinds of pictures I want to take. I want to take really good action shots at cross country and track meets, and I want to take pretty pictures when I'm out and about with friends and family. I want to have enough control over my pictures so that I can work up to using the aperture and shutter speed and stuff, but I don't want it to be so high tech that it doesn't make sense to my liberal-arts-non-tech brain.

Do any of you lovelies have any ideas for us? Thank you for your help!

The Weird Face Phenomenon

I've talked before about the bizarre faces Ryan insists on making in 99.9% of the pictures we take. It's not just me you guys, check this out (go to mid-way through the post), this (scroll down to "from Abigail), and this.

Who knew so many guys do this?!

Engaging Pics Round II

Ok, here's a couple more pictures I am thrilled about....

(Once again, click on the picture to see the true quality, blogger makes them look fuzzy and they really aren't!)

We really didn't take a ton of kissing ones.




I love, love love this picture!


This one was Ryan's idea, I think it's fun:


For this one, we climbed into a tree and I did my best not to flash our photog friend. Climbing onto a branch in a dress is hard!



We also took some on the Southeast Missouri State University Track (both Ryan and I went to school here).



It was weird to actually be sitting next to him in the bleachers at the track...he's usually running around doing coaching stuff.


We took some incredible pictures and I couldn't be happier with the results. I am really pleased with the locations we picked...they were on the random side! The rock garden with the fountain behind us is actually right across the street from the water treatment plant...um random, but unique and pretty. The track was Ryan's idea, and those were really fun and had meaning to us. The Victorian mansion in my hometown is open to the public for tours, and we went in the morning so we'd have the grounds to ourselves. We also went to 2 parks overlooking the Mississippi River, and the cool doorway is another historic building downtown.

I am also glad that we got to take the pictures in my hometown, since the wedding festivities are in St. Louis. We got incredibly lucky with the weather...the leaves were at their peak and the sky was so blue.

My friend Austin was so generous and donated his Saturday morning to take these for us--thanks second cousin!

Anyway, these semi-DIY or, more accurately, DIT (do-it-together) pictures are the nicest ones I have of Ryan and I am, and I couldn't be happier with them. We'll be using them in the photo guest book for the wedding and possibly for e-mail save the dates. I am so amazed that we came out with pictures that are so representative of us as a couple! Who says you have to pay a pro, right?

Did you do engagement pictures?

Engaging Pics Round I

Ryan and I took our engagement a few weekends ago, and I so excited to show you guys!

A few things first: I believe that if you click on the picture, you can see a much higher quality version. Also, we lucked out weather-wise big time! These pictures were all taken in my home town by my second cousin and co-worker Austin using my dad's dSLR. I don't know why Blogger makes them look so fuzzy, because they aren't! Also, Austin did some light color-correcting, etc. in Photoshop.

Anyway, here we go!

We took a couple jumping ones (they were Ryan's idea) and they turned out to be some of our favorites.

You can see the Mississippi River behind us through the trees.




We are goofballs!

No really, we are!



Here's our attempt at serious:



So there's just a few of my favorites... If you aren't sick and tired of looking at my face (hey, I wouldn't blame you), check back tomorrow for Round II!

Yay!

So at this wedding Ryan was the best man for recently, he really liked their photo guest book...filled with engagement pictures. Here is our approximate (my memory kinda sucks, so this is the general idea, not our exact words) conversation:

Ryan: I really like that photo guest book, we should do it for our wedding.

Me: It's filled with engagement pictures, if we do that we need to get engagement pictures taken.

Ryan: Oh. *long pause* Well, we can do them but I'm not paying for them.

Me: Yay! My friend Austin will take them and it will be free!

So, we're getting engagement pictures taken!!!!

This is kind of what I want.


I mean, a park bench...Forest Park...how cute!

Love this.


Trees! Pretty leaves...hopefully Ryan and I can do this while the leaves are changing, but his schedule is so tight it might not happen. Plus, we're doing these in my hometown because that's where Austin lives and its tough for Ryan to get down here.


I love the candid shots. All of these images are courtesy of our wedding photographer, Gail Fleming.

Are you having engagement pictures taken? Please share!

The Backdrop

Picture locations in St Louis are far superior to those in my hometown. There are so many options!

I need to talk to Ryan about what is on our way and what isn't...he's from St Louis, so he's much, much (much) better about directions than me.

I know that Tower Grove Park is on the way, and it is lovely. Henry Shaw commissioned the park, and it was given to St Louis in 1868. Here's a picture of the ruins (they're not actually ruins, it was just fashionable in the Victorian age).

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The entrances to Tower Grove Park are gorgeous, here's Maury gate.

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There are also these crazy pavilions that would be good in case of rain, this is the Old Playground Pavilion but there are lots of different ones.

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So Tower Grove would be a great place for pictures, I think. The beautiful Forest Park is on the way too, but all of Ryan's friends have had their pictures done there and I want something a little different. Plus, that park gets crowded with brides on Saturdays in wedding season!

I was a theatre geek in high school, and I would love to have a couple of pictures taken outside of the Fox...I'd love to have them taken inside too, but they're picky and expensive so I'm thinking that's not a possibility.

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The Kirkwood Train station is right down the street from our church, that might be a possibility.

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I think that Union Station is close to our reception venue, and that would be amazing, because it is stunning.

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Here's the inside of Union Station....

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So I'm thinking that Tower Grove Park is a top contender, and I need to find out more about the Fox and Union Station for inside pictures.

Where are you all having your pictures taken? Are you making sure you have some inside locations available in case of rain?

Boudoir

So this trend of boudoir pictures has piqued my interest.

I've been doing Jillian Michael's "No More Trouble Zones" and level 2 of "30 Day Shred" every week, and I run 3-5 days a week as well. I watch what I eat, too, to some extent. My body has never looked like this before--I have never in my life been this happy with my stomach! I actually have confidence in my body, and its great.

Which is why I kinda want to do boudoir pictures. Here's a quick explanation of what they are, courtesy of Mrs. Hibiscus.

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The pragmatist in me wants to know...what in the world would Ryan do with these? Look at them? Umm....ok. If he was in the military, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but I can't see him ever looking at the pictures. I dunno, I would hate to spend the money on them just to give him something he can't really show anyone and doesn't have much use for. I think the cost would add up, too....I'd have to pay the photog, buy outfits, hair and makeup, then put the pictures into a book....it isn't a cheap undertaking.

The jury's still out. If anyone can clue me in on what your fiance thought, if you did them, or what you think he would do with them....if you're worried about keeping it clean (I'm not, but I understand either way), shoot me an e-mail. I've heard some women mention what a confidence booster it was for them, so that's an added bonus. And does anyone have any ideas on how to make it cheaper? I've heard of some ladies who have their friends taken them, or have a budding photog do it also.

So, what's your take on the boudoir picture trend? Lots of questions, sorry to pester you all to death!

P.S., that's Jackie Kennedy's dressing room in the White House. How fun would it be to get dressed in that gorgeous room every morning!

Photog Love

My photographer has a new blog! It makes me that much more excited to have her shooting our wedding....her pictures are incredible. They are way too big for me to post here, but if you have a sec go and check them out.

Why I Want Engagement Pictures

So I was G-mail chatting with Kim from Gator Bride (her blog is so good!) and I mentioned how good her engagement pictures are. Because they are amazing...I mean, the water ones are so ethereal and gorgeous. You should go check them out! I joked that her and her fiance are ridiculously photogenic, and she asked me if Ryan and I are getting engagement pictures done. So I told her all about the faces Ryan makes in pictures and decided I should show you guys why I need some nice pictures of my man and I. Thanks for the post inspiration Kim!

I mean, look at these faces....


Oh that's just the tip of the iceberg...


Who's that in the background, in the red shirt? Oh yeah, it's my fiance...MAKING A FACE.

Is smiling hard for men or something?


It can't be that hard, because here's a picture of Ryan with Ryan Hall, a super famous and crazy good runner we met in Boston and who was kind enough to take a picture with Ryan...


See that smile? I know he can do it...

Here's us in Boston again, right after we got engaged on the starting line to the Boston Marathon.

How happy does he look! Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is Ryan doesn't like to pose for pictures, and I really want some nice pictures of us without faces made by one party...you know who you are.....

So, I really really really want engagement pictures. I even have tons of fabulous ideas for engagement pictures that are begging to see the light of day. We opted to upgrade our albums with our photog instead of spending the money on an engagement shoot, but I might have figured out a way to get free engagement pictures...I'll keep you posted, and hopefully I can talk Ryan into it.

Did you get engagement pictures taken? Where did you use them? Ryan doesn't want to do them unless we'll actually make use of them in some way.