Coming off the holidays and with all the industry events in the last month I’ve been a little bit slow with updating weddings on the blogging lately.

Here’s a quick peak into Melissa and Rafael’s wedding. They got married at St. Benedict Catholic Church and held their reception at the Alpharetta Athletic Club, which was quite beautiful. Of course, Huy came out to capture some beautiful images for Melissa and Rafael.

Some of my favorites images are sometimes little vignettes, or peaks into a larger world. I particularly love it when they give you a sense of closeness or intimacy. Sometimes that closeness is feeling like you’re close to the subject in the image, like you’re part of their world for a few moments, like you’ve been given a glimpse into a sacred or private moment…

And other times the emotion you’re experiencing is the closeness and intimacy between the bride and groom…

Then sometimes the opposite vantage point of distance and the moment of intimacy that interrupts the grand landscape give you the same sense of awe about the moment you see before you…

I’m so excited to write this post!

Last summer Atlanta Occasions approached me about shooting the cover of their second issue. PWP Studio shot the beautiful cover image for the first issue so I had a lot to live up to. As Heather and I were scouting locations for the cover shoot I happened to learn about Ventanas, a beautiful rooftop venue to in the midst of downtown overlooking the Luckie Marietta District and Centennial Olympic Park. The best part was it was brand new event facility that hadn’t even opened yet.

In addition to the amazing patio view (the image on the cover) they also have a helipad on the rooftop for when you want to arrive in style. Once the team had our first meeting there, we were all hooked… here’s an image I took point-n-shoot style during our first walk-thru. I mean, WOW!

Inspiraton Station: Sherbet Chic

There was a dedicated team of professionals to make the shoot happen.

Location: Ventanas Atlanta
Coordination: ellyB Events
Florals & Decor: Amy Osaba
Linens: I Do Linens
Cake/cupcakes: Sugarplum Visions
Tableware: Owen Lawrence / Bloomingdales
Hair & Makeup: Scoobie West, H.S. West Hair & Makeup
Invitations: Sandi Spells Designs
Wedding Dress(es): Priscilla of Boston
Rentals: Event Rentals Unlimited
Venue lighting: Active Production & Design
Photo assistant: John Ellis

Rooftop Venues: Bird’s Eye View

In addition to the cover shoot I photographed the Ventanas Grand Opening for the feature story on Atlanta rooftop venues.

We went back to Ventanas a few times to get the right weather (mother nature wasn’t cooperating!) to shoot the cover image. Between the photo shoot, the Grand Opening, the cover shoot and all our meetings, I felt like I was living at Ventanas for half of November. Of course, I never complained about the view…

** CLICK HERE to view the entire issue online.

Last month Steve Bales and the Bold American staff hosted an intimate holiday evening for a few industry professionals at Steve’s home and he was kind enough to ask me to come shoot details for the event. The evening unfolded in stages as different rooms were prepared in secret… to be revealed when the time was right. It was fun to have the rooms to myself as the others arrived for the evening — I could hear them chattering as I snapped away, unbeknownst to them.

Here are a few of the details…

A little glimpse into the preparations before the guests arrived…

One of the advantages of being a photographer is that the imagery that you create tends to be the hub around which much of the media in this business revolves — every other vendor is in constant need of new and fresh imagery to show their portfolio of work in the absolute best light. Unless they are out there with a point and shoot, they naturally turn to us, the photographers, and our body of work for the imagery they need. Venues are no different.

My good friend and amazing commercial and wedding photographer David Christensen happened to be busy and was kind enough to refer Grace Manor to me. Grace Manor is a beautiful new property managed by Lease Luxury Properties and they were looking for some imagery to kick off their media campaign.

So this is what you get when you combine a beautiful setting, a dress from the incomparable Anne Barge, gorgeous light and a stunning model…

This is the image they are using for the ad in The Atlantan Brides magazine. You can view the ad on page 21 of the online digital edition.

I included this last one because she has such a bubbly personality and fantastic smile that I wanted you to see it.

I’ve mentioned both Valerie and Will on this blog before. Valerie is a founding partner in BLANQI, which I can’t tell you much about but she called me with some really exciting news this morning that I can’t wait to share, and Will is a world-class stylist with Van Michael Salon who I’ve worked with before and hope to work with again soon.

I first met Valerie when she was a bridesmaid in her sisters wedding a couple years ago and have looked forward to shooting her wedding ever since. They’ll be getting married soon at the Ritz Carlton, Downtown Atlanta so it provided a great opportunity to grab some interesting portraits of the two of them. I’m saving some of my favorite locations at the Ritz for their wedding images. I can’t wait to see what we come up with at the wedding!

So here we go…

And just fyi, there was no “posing” in the image below…