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!)

As the husband of a graduate of the very fine Chapin High School, I of course tagged along to the 20 year reunion. I was ordered volunteered to take a group photo of the attending members of the class of 1989. It was quite a party. While I was there, I took the time to walk around and shoot a few impromptu portraits of the class members. I even set up a backdrop in a side room to shoot a few more formal portraits complete with the blue of the Chapin Eagles. (Well as close as I could get it with a flash and gels.)

A few from a very fun night!

I do have to say that these folks were EXTREMELY good sports to cram together like this and STAY PUT for almost 5 minutes while I made a couple of adjustments to the lights. It’s a little hard to tell at this size, but they all also kept up happy faces too!

Sam and JoAnn, are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary.  It is a 50th that some feared would not be celebrated due to illness.  JoAnn, as it turns out, is a fighter.  Her granddaughter, Allison, asked me to do a family portrait, which is something this family doesn’t not have. They do now.  The effort that went into this lovely celebration was clear in every detail.  Just like Allison’s love and care for her grandmother.

Here are a few from the day.

At end of my time, I took Allison and Rick aside for a quick couples session while the celebration of friends and family continued inside.

If you saw the Flight of the F-16 photos in the last entry, you’ll recognize the gentleman here. Sheriff Lott had his re-election kickoff in October and since he liked the F-16 shoot he asked me to shoot the campaign kickoff. It was clearly quite successful. The young lady striking a pose in the final image is his daughter, Mckenzie.

His election website is http://www.votelott.com

When you get the opportunity to take in introduction flight in an F-16, you don’t turn it down. In fact, you hire someone to photograph the event for posterity. Which is exactly what the gentleman here, Sheriff Leon Lott, did. I attempted to weasel my way into another F-16 by trying to convince everyone that an airborne, plane to plane shot, would be essential to the series. Sadly, everyone at the airbase seemed intent on cheating me out of a flight. So I had to do the best I could from the ground.

For 30 years, Audrey served as the executive assistant to two Sheriffs of Richland County. Finally, in August of 2007, she retired. It was quite a retirement party too. The Legislature of South Carolina drafted a congratulatory resolution, and she was presented with the Key to the City of Columbia among other honors. In the final photo here, she just opened a diamond cross, given to her by the members of the Sheriff’s Department.