I have to admit, it didn’t look good on the evening of August 14th. Bands of thunderstorms were sweeping across the state, and they were moving toward the lake side wedding of Anna and Warren. Have a look at the weather radar from the day. The white arrow is pointing right where the wedding was supposed to be. Red, by the way is “heavy” rainfall.

With all of the guests filling every room in the house, waiting, the hour of the wedding came and passed. Rain still falling. But at half past 7:00, the clouds relented and the wedding of Anna and Warren began. They are my first couple to request all black and white wedding imagery. (I think they’ll like the color versions too…) Anyway, here are a few from their very special day.

Sorry, have to break in a second here. On their first date, before Warren knew that Anna does not like roses at all, he bought her a dozen of them. However he took out one rose before their date. Anna, being Anna, noticed that there were only eleven roses. Warren told her, “You only get the 12th rose if we get married.” This is the surprisingly romantic Warren holding the 12th rose that he presented to Anna later that night. (She LIKED that one!)

My August couple is the completely stunning Anna and very handsome Warren. You’re not going to believe this, but they don’t much like having their photos taken. However, they met with us to have their engagement session done. It turned out that Madison and Anna attended a couple of schools together, and were even in the same Brownie troop! (Anna actually doesn’t know that… Until now..)

Truly, I cannot think of a better way to spend an afternoon. It was a warm and windy day that was made just a little bit hotter by this gorgeous couple!

Here’s just a few from their day. Really looking forward to August!

On the first day of May, in the light of mid-morning, at the lovely Wintergreen Woods, Sarah and Brad were married. There was just the slightest worry about rain. Even if the rain had come, it wouldn’t have dampened the joy of this day. The intimate gathering of friends and family simply could not have been any better. It’s one of the great pleasures of this job to be part of celebrations like this. A glowingly happy and beautiful bride, a distinguished and equally happy groom, and the love of all the families gave everything that special sense of “meant to be.”

And now, just a few images from a wonderful day.

In “27 Dresses” the main character reveals her favorite part of the wedding ceremony. Just as the bride enters, she looks at the groom to see his face when he sees his bride for the first time. I’ll be honest, I do to. This is why.

Sorry, have to interrupt again. I’ve seen a lot of dances at weddings. None surprised me more than this one. (Mother and Father of the Bride.) I almost stopped photographing just to watch. They moved together with a flowing grace and obvious passion that many would say is usually reserved to the younger crowd. It isn’t!

Sarah is my May 1st bride. The thing I don’t like about doing bridal portraits is that I can’t blog them until the wedding day! Oh well… It’s May 1st now!

So this is Sarah. Gorgeous, isn’t she? During her bridal portrait session her mom and mom-in-law-to-be were wondering if Sarah should be a Scarlett or a Melanie. Sassy or Southern Belle? Having come to know Sarah a bit from our first meeting, way back last June, there was just very little doubt in my mind. Smart and sassy all the way.

However, she wisely decided to have it both ways. She chose “Melanie” for her bridal photo in the paper and “Scarlett” for her bridal portrait.

Their wedding is coming soon, but now… A few from the day with this beautiful bride!

The Scarlett Sarah!

The “Melanie” Sarah.

Hey! I said that I’m announcing the winner on MONDAY, Feb 1st. This is simply announcing the end to the competition. I truly wanted to thank each and every one of you who participated! (Even those who “participated” 5,6,7, or 8, times.) Comments received AFTER 2:00 pm EDT Sunday Jan 31st (by MY watch), will be very much appreciated, but they aren’t going to count.

The winners of the portrait sessions will be notified very soon. If you have not seen the details of the prizes – The Baker’s Dozen Contest details.

I’ve begun tallying the votes, (including deleting the many, uh, “enthusiastic” 2nd, 3rd, and 4th votes from the same persons..) and I’ll post the winner Monday morning.

As a quick side note, I asked a number of my photographic colleagues to vote on their favorite image. (Their votes did not count toward the contest results.) Their choice, due largely to the composition and warmth of the light, was this one:

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I love my clients. They’ve trusted me to capture some beautiful and very precious moments in their lives. They’ve shared those moments, through my photographs with many of you, their friends and family.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to give a few of YOU something for free, and all you have to do to be eligible to win one of four (4) – and maybe more… – portrait sessions – worth $200.00 – is to VOTE.

Below are 13 pairs (a Baker’s Dozen) of photographs of 13 portrait and wedding clients. Each photo is numbered, 1 to 26. Simply leave a comment in this post with the photo number you wish to vote for, and you’re entered. (Only one vote, and only votes with valid photo numbers are eligible.)

If you really want to vote twice, you can pop over to my Facebook page and you can legally vote a 2nd time there. (And that enters you twice!)

We’ll get to the details of your prize later, but now, it’s time to VOTE! And remember, only comments on the blog or on the Facebook photos, count.

P.S. Vote ONCE. Just one vote. Vote only one time. Do not Vote twice, for that would be too many. One shall be the number of times to vote, and the number of times to vote shall be one. Three votes is right out! And FIVE is utterly ridiculous. One Vote only. (You can vote ONE additional time on Facebook.)

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The Baker’s Dozen Contest details.

It should come a no surprise that when a bunch of wedding photographers get together for one of the largest educational conferences in the business, they go out shooting.

In this case, we found our selves in the care of one of the great talents in the business, Chuck Arlund. He got us set up with truly exceptional models, and a beautiful church in downtown Nashville.

And the results?

As promised, here are a couple of images from Joye’s Bridal Portrait session. As an excellent calligrapher, Joye is something of an artist at heart so we shot a few images that were a little different than the usual “Southern Bride” portraits. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with those, love doing them. But this bride wanted a little “extra.”

In the end, she chose the second image below for her 16×20 canvas print to display at the reception. It was a tough choice too. For a little while she was leaning a bit toward a more traditional image. The artist in her won!

Can you guess who the Groom’s favorite team is?

My October 4th bride, Faith, had a special bridal portrait in mind for her soon to be husband. She wanted it done on his Harley, in the backyard that they were preparing for the wedding ceremony.

At the wedding, this 16×20 canvas portrait was a HUGE hit. The groom loved it! Here are a few images from the day.

Daniel Lane Photography

The problem with doing bridal shoots is that you can’t put them on the blog until after the wedding. Sometimes you forget, that you had them when faced with a few hundred wedding photographs to process. So after a bit of waiting, here are a few from some prior bridal sessions.