I love taking pictures, but blogging has never been my best strength. I’ve had several different photo shoots that never make it on the blog. So thought I would do a best of series from 2011. What better place to start than with engagement pictures. I went though each session and narrowed it down to my favorite picture. I had several different reasons for the picking each photo. Some were because of the moments and personality coming out in the pictures. Others were the due to the location, composition and the technique of how I photographed it. In the end, it was harder than I expected to narrow down each shoot to just one photo.

Recently I met with Amy to make some maternity pictures, and a few family portraits, before her new little one arrives. Here are a few of my favorites for you to enjoy.

For the first time in several years, I didn’t spend my whole Martin Luther King weekend taking pictures of girl’s floor competition at the Flip Fest Invitational in the Knoxville Convention Center with Action Pitstop Photography. However, I did get to try something new and photograph boys rings. It was amazing to watch these young kids swing around and hold themselves in different contorted positions. Hope you enjoy this random sampling of photos that I shot during the event.

With the snow falling this morning, it reminded me of one of my favorite wedding pictures and moments. As snow was falling, Erin and Andrew were exiting the church after their wedding ceremony. When they opened the door to get inside of the limo, stripped down groomsmen started popping out. It was fun times, and I have yet to see another exit like it.

I am so pumped to show you Leann’s senior pictures that we did a few weeks ago. What a beautiful girl and she was so sweet.

hope you all enjoy.

What a great way to start out the New Year. I just found out that one of my photos took third place in the Wedding Photojournalist Association 2011 3rd quarter contest. This means a lot, because it is an international contest that is open to many great photographers across the globe.

One thing that my wife and I are big on is traditions. More importantly, making unique traditions for our family. So six years ago we attended our first Fantasy of Trees show here in Knoxville. We loved looking at all of the different themed trees. As newlyweds, our Christmas tree was a hodgepodge of ornaments. While some were meaningful, most were not. So at that moment, we decided that every year we would totally make a new tree theme from scratch. Our first tree was of course a Tennessee theme, using felt to make jerseys followed by a family picture tree the next year. After having our son, our themes began to change. We did an alphabet three to help encourage education. Then a Spiderman tree because that was his favorite at the time. Last year was penguins. Finally this year was snowmen, which happened to match the winter theme at his school. We’re keeping a few ornaments from each tree to someday make one big tree representing all of our Christmases.

I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and enjoy your own traditions!

Earlier this summer, I received an interesting assignment from the Tractor Supply Store for their magazine “Out Here.” It was a two page feature about Sandy Sgrillo and her company Smoky Mountain Llama Treks located in Sevierville, TN. This was one of those stories that was an absolute blast! I got to spend the day hiking through the Smoky Mountains while taking pictures of Sandy and her llama trekkers. We went through fields and forrest, over mountains, crossed creeks and even got to be the first people to cross a new suspension bridge. We had a fun group and learned several things from Sandy about nature and llamas along the way. Here are just a few of the pictures from our journey.

I thought I would take a minute and share a few of Laura and Jess’ engagement photos. As you know I love shooting pictures in unique locations, and finding different scenes within them. So when we walked over to Laura’s neighbor’s backyard, I was amazed. There were so many options, and here were just a few of them.

As I catchup on some of my blogging, I am decided to try a new format for my wedding post. I thought it might be more interesting if you could hear from the bride’s point of view. So at the end of this blog post are a few questions that Tyler was kind enough to answer. Leave comments and let me know if you like this new Q&A style.

ceremony & reception venue • Crescent Bend Armstrong-Lockett House
hair & makeup • Natural Alternatives Aveda Salon and Spa
florist • Always In Bloom
ceremony musicians • A string quartet from Special Notes
dj • Enda Veres with Special Notes
caterer • All Occasion Catering
wedding cake • All Occasion Catering
rings • Kimballs Jewelers
dress • White Lace and Promises
tuxes • Savvi Formalwear

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Q&A with Tyler

How did you and Brandon meet?
I was a hostess at Bravo Cucina Italiana and Brandon called in an order to-go. When I went to take the food out to him I was a blubbering idiot because he was so cute. He came back to the restaurant 2 days later to get my phone number. The rest is history!

How did he propose?
We had planned an entire detailed trip to the Biltmore for our 2 year anniversary of dating. He wanted to leave early in the morning so I basically slept the entire drive. I woke up a few hours later to discover we were in South Carolina and weren’t going to the Biltmore at all. He had planned a surprise trip to Charleston, my favorite city. He took me to dinner that night and afterwards he took me to a really old famous house there that has a 360 degree view of the city from the roof. The whole time I thought we were still just celebrating our 2 year…until he took me on the roof. My heart completely sank when I realized what was really going on. He proposed on the roof and we spent the next 3 days celebrating in Charleston!