I’m in Charleston photographing the wedding weekend of this gorgeous gal & her soon-to-be hubby Michael. After spending the evening listening to the (17!!) heartfelt toasts their friends & family gave at the Rehearsal Dinner last night, I can hardly wait to see what today has in store for us…

Ashley is such an incredibly humble person that I had to find out from one of the toasts last night ( and her proud dad bragging on her :) that she was Miss SC in 2007. She even has her own wikipedia page! I should have known…I mean, LOOK at her :) Can’t wait to share the story of how she & Michael met & fell in love while working together on the John McCain presidential campaign. Yes, he was at the rehearsal Dinner last night, along with his lovely wife Cindy, and yes, he gave one of the 17 toasts. Keep an eye out for a post on the whole wedding weekend in a few weeks. Lots more bloggage coming up soon…

I’m off to shoot, but I’ll leave you with the stunning Ashley. Happy Saturday guys :)

I adore these boys. I’ve been documenting little snippets of their life for the past 3 years & somewhere along the line, they just stole my heart. Benjamin is the oldest & definitely the lover of the group. You might even recognize him from one of the blog banners above. The kid that looks like he’s eating his baby brother’s face…yep, that’s Benjamin planting a smooch on Harrison :) Harrison is the redhead.. and contrary to the fiery color of his hair, is the sweetest & most soft-spoken little guy. It’s taken him some time to warm up to the camera, but during this shoot he held my hand & the image of him in the hammock below just melts me…

Now there’s a new bambino in the Botzis bunch & he rounds out this little trio perfectly. Baby Alexander is so loved by his big brothers…I hope they’ll look back at this first pic in 20 years & laugh. Brothers are the best :)

I loved seeing prints from our past sessions framed all over their home. There was at least one in every room…made my heart smile :)

Photographing other photographers is similar to what I would imagine doctors feel when they have a fellow doc as a patient ( okay, maybe not quite that intense…) but you know what I’m saying…the pressure’s ON. You want them to walk away from their experience feeling good about the fact that they chose YOU to capture them ( or heal them, as the case may be ) Bottom line: you’d better bring your A-game :)

Lucky for me, when NC based photographer Cari Chee emailed about setting up this session, she knew she wanted images that captured her personality & love of photography. The morning of her shoot, I went downtown to my favorite vintage shop & found the suitcase and little 35mm Yashica you see featured in these pics. They turned out to be fun additions to the shoot…and I discovered right before Cari arrived that the Yashica actually works! ( time to buy some more film :) Everything about this session was so relaxed as we walked through downtown talking endlessly about how lucky we are to have jobs we love and clients that inspire us. So the next day, I made the decision to offer more sessions geared towards photographers. Everyone needs great promo shots for their website ( including me! ) and I have a folder full of emails from up & coming photographers asking about mentoring sessions…SO…why not combine the two? Sounds good to me :)

So, for those of you that have asked, I’m thrilled to announce I will be offering a limited number of one-on-one intensive mentoring sessions where the focus is solely on you. You pick the topic. From workflow to processing, marketing to getting published….I’ll answer every question you throw at me ( and be completely honest in the fact that I don’t have ALL the answers..who does?! ) And at the end of our chit-chat on all things photography related…I’ll put YOU in front of the camera & together we’ll create some killer images for your website & blog. If you’re interested in snatching up one of the 3 one-on-one spots I’m offering next month, email the studio for more details. We look forward to meeting you!

Now check out the lovely Cari…who I have to thank for the inspiration! Happy Monday, my friends :)

***UPDATE: April & May mentoring sessions filled up in 2 days! I’m so excited to meet all of you! Due to the response, it looks like I’ll be offering these throughout the fall. Email the studio to get the scoop if you’re interested.