I had the pleasure of taking senior photos of Nathan yesterday.  I met him a year ago when taking senior photos of his sister, Sarah, and was glad to see the family again.

Nathan enjoys photography.  His favorite subjects are landscapes.  I haven’t yet seen any of his landscapes but I am looking forward to seeing his work.

We met in downtown, Orlando, at Church Street, for the start of our session.  There is a great locomotive there, and that was our initial target.  After our time at Church Street, we headed over to my favorite park in Orlando for the rest of our session.  Here are some of my favorites from the day.  To see more pictures you can visit the gallery at Nathan’s Gallery. 

Nathan, I had a great time with you on Saturday.  Thanks for laughing at my corny jokes and for being so pleasant.  Have a great senior year!

(Be sure to go to the bottom for the video of our session)

Nathan with his parents and brother. 

I was thrilled to be asked to take photographs of Lauren.  She is a friend of Linnea, who you might remember from last November.

Lauren is also from Ohio, and is a senior in High School.  She is also the first person to ever take me up on my suggestion that the light is beautiful at sunrise, and while on vacation, she and her entire family got up before the crack of dawn to meet me a half hour before sunrise.  Wow!  The sky was quite cooperative and there were very few people there at Jetty Park, Cocoa Beach, FL.  Amazing!

I really enjoyed getting to know Lauren.  She has a very gentle and kind spirit and loves to dance.  Though she isn’t positive about what she wants to do when she graduates, she is thinking about going into teaching.

Without any further ado, here are some favorite pictures from our day together.

This huge lifeguard chair was so much fun!  I think maybe they put it there just for us.  Thanks for being a good sport and climbing up on it, Lauren!

And for being a good sport to get into the water at such an early hour!

I think this is my favorite picture from the morning.  Isn’t she lovely?

Lauren with her sister, Kalie.  Kalie not only got up early for her sister’s photo shoot, but I didn’t hear a single complaint.  What a great sister!

What a fun way to spend a Saturday morning!  Lauren, I really enjoyed our time together.  I wish you the best senior year and hope to see you again.

To see the rest of the pictures from our fun morning together click here.

James and Laura are such a fun couple!  They met each other while doing mission work for The JESUS Film Project, recording the JESUS film into other languages.  Laura has been all over.  Russia, Africa, Asia, and various South Pacific islands.  James has also traveled all over.  South America, Africa, Thailand just to name a few places.  They each have some great stories to tell of their adventures. 

I was so glad that they asked me to take their engagement pictures!  They have enjoyed kayaking on a particular lake and so we ended up there for our session.  Here are some of my favorites from the day. . .

This was one of my favorites from our time together. . .

James picked Laura up and was swinging her around.  Sure made for some fun pictures!

Eskimo Kisses:

This picture was just screaming for texture and playing with color.  I love the way this turned out!

James and Laura, thank you for a fun evening! I’m so happy for you and pray God’s blessings on you as you prepare to enter into marriage.

Brent and Christina got married yesterday.  I didn’t tell Christina, but I was a little concerned when I looked at the weather report.  The wedding was at 7 (outdoors), and all day they were expecting mostly cloudy EXCEPT at 7 pm when they were expecting thundershowers!  I prayed and posted on Facebook about it so others could pray as well, and pray everyone did.  And the weather turned out to be just beautiful.

Before I continue, I just have to tell how special Brent and Christina are to me.  Over the past four years I’ve had the privilege of working with both of them.  And I’ll confess that before they were dating, I hoped for the two of them to get together.

Christina is a great hostess.  When we were first getting to know each other, I had mentioned to her that I was going to be spending a Sunday afternoon with a couple of intern girls and she asked if she could have us over for lunch before we went on our way.  We had such a nice time with her that it was hard to pull away so we could go to our planned outing.

Brent is a nerd.  And I mean that in the nicest possible way.    He is also very entrepreneurial.  While he was in high school and all his friends were working at McDonald’s, Brent was making big money helping people with their computer needs.  He is the type of guy who will spend days and weeks researching the very best of the best before he invests in things so he won’t be wasting his money.  And he is very generous with his knowledge and is always willing to share the results of his research.  About a year after I moved to Florida, I received the nicest card from Brent just thanking me for what I do and telling me how I’m appreciated.  I had mentioned the card to someone and found out that this is simply something Brent does.  Many of the folks in the office have received cards from him to encourage and to bless.

I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Brent and Christina have a very sweet story, as well.  Christina has confessed that when she very first met Brent she didn’t like him much.  He seemed very bossy to her.  She then found out that it was because he WAS the boss in that situation!  Brent knew that Christina was “the one” for him quite a bit before she did.  He very patiently waited for her until she was ready and never turned his eyes to any other women.  They are so great for each other and compliment each other so very well.  I’m excited to see them married and look forward to seeing how God uses them in their lives together.

Now for the pictures you’ve been waiting for.  This is just a sneak peak of a few of my favorites.

Virginia Wear is a great wedding coordinator.  This is the second wedding we’ve done together.  And she is a great cook as well.  Here she is cooking the breakfast that Christina had for her roommates and some of her close friends.  I told you she is a great hostess!  (Though no one would let her work!)

A few shots of Brent and Christina before the ceremony:

The beautiful rings.  The diamonds in her ring were taken from a ring that Brent was given when he turned 21.  The gold was used to make his ring.

Father and Daughter

Christina being welcomed into the family by Brent’s father

Those serving the cupcakes had specific instructions, and I quote from the schedule “anyone named Brent gets two”

Brent has always wondered why they never serve milk with cake at weddings and made sure that there was plenty of milk to be served with the cupcakes at his.

Maybe I shouldn’t show anyone this one, but I really do love the way it turned out despite the extra slow shutter speed!

That’s all for now.  I’ll have the rest of the pictures posted on my website no later than May 25.  If you want notification when they are ready, please either send me an e-mail or drop a comment here.  And feel free to comment about the pictures.

I had the privilege of spending more time with my friend Stephen taking pictures of his family.  The day was Valentine’s Day and the occasion was the birth of his son.  ‘Lil Z was born just a few days before this in Orlando and is doted on by his entire family.

As a side note, Stephen has quite a sense of humor.  He loves playing practical jokes, and in fact, it is even better if the jokes are impractical!  His job is to watch movies all day, and he also moonlights as a chocolate tester.  Thanks to his diligence, no one at the office has gotten sick from tainted chocolate.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our time together.  Enjoy these photos of this sweet baby boy!

More pictures of Lil Z are available at www.apictureoflife.com/photocart

Brent and Christina are such a great couple.  They are both missionaries with Campus Crusade for Christ and have traveled overseas extensively.  Brent is the Director of IT (and my bosses boss) for The JESUS Film Project and Christina is just now moving into a new role with HR, also with The JESUS Film Project.  I had such a fun time taking their engagement pictures and look forward to photographing their wedding in May. 

Here are some of my favorite shots from our time together.

I saw this gate and wanted to get some shots of them in front of it.  Within just minutes of them standing in front of it, an entire herd of cows came over to see what we were up to.  I love this one of the cow looking at them.

Notice the cows in the background

Brent has several handguns and he and Christina have gone out shooting together.  So they decided it would be fun to get some pictures with the guns.  Brent is very careful, and while he was checking the guns to make sure they were empty he was telling Christina that she needed to both visually and physically ensure that the gun was empty and had Christina recite the rules of handgun safety.  Here are some shots of the two of them with the guns.

Wouldn’t this have made a fun “Save the date” card?

One picture that Christina wanted very badly was one of Brent sneaking up on her.  I love the look of anticipation on her face in this one.

Brent and Christina, thank you for letting me hang out with you for a fun afternoon.  I am looking forward to your wedding very much!

I’ve had the privilege of taking the family pictures for David and Karen for three years now which means I’ve been able to watch the boys grow up. In fact, when we started together, the youngest wasn’t even born yet. This fun family is full of energy and playfulness.

David is an expert in sound, mixing and editing and such. Karen is a realtor with Keller Williams.

I love hanging out with this family!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

Their oldest boy is also a bit of a ham around the camera and really enjoys coming up with poses. “Does this look good?”

He now has his younger brother doing it too.

What photo session would be complete without a campfire scene?

The youngest still isn’t quite sure about the camera, though he is so photogenic.

And their daughter is a joy to know. She loves to work with children and also volunteers quite regularly for The JESUS Film Project

Click here to see more photos from the session.

Wanda is one of my best friends, and I had the privilege of taking some pictures of her for her to use for a magnet for those who support her ministry. She is on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ, specifically working with The JESUS Film Project as the lady in charge of tours. Wanda is a lot of fun and has a knack for making folks feel like friends from the moment she meets them.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

This one is my favorite, and is the one she ended up picking for her magnet. It somehow caputres her personality in a way the others don’t.

Linnea lives in Ohio, and has been dreaming of having her senior pictures taken at the beach. In fact, she is really an Ohio beach girl at heart, if there is such a thing. Thanks to a family vacation, she was able to have her dream come true.

One thing that made this especially fun to do Linnea’s pictures is the fact that her father’s name is Leif (pronounced “life”). So A Picture of Life got to take Picture’s of Leif’s Daughter. Okay, maybe it’s not that funny.

Linnea’s parents told me that Linnea means “full of life” and I must say that she was very aptly named.

We had the perfect weather at Cocoa Beach the day after Thanksgiving and spent most of our time at Jetty Park. The temperatures were ideal and there were very few people out.

You might be able to guess this from her photos, Linnea loves to act. We had a lot of fun, and she was a natural as a model. She is also quite a people person.

Here are a few highlights from our time at Jetty Park

This was my favorite from Jetty Park. While we were actually on the jetty, there were quite a few people around. One of the guys who was fishing there was teasing Linnea, but she was very good natured about it and didn’t get flustered at all.

After we left the park, we went over to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. Linnea has actually spent quite a bit of time at the beach and she does surf. I was glad the employees let us take a few pictures there.

Linnea, you were so much fun to work with! Next time we should go to Hawaii for your photos!

To see more photos from our session, you can visit the website at www.apictureoflife.com

Kary and Maria are missionaries with Campus Crusade for Christ and serve with The JESUS Film Project. Kary is the Director of the Postproduction department. I am so thankful to be able to know Kary and think very highly of him.

Their family was fun to photograph. I especially enjoyed watching them as they worked together in posing. I would simply say something like “do you want to do some fun photos now?” and they would immediately come up with a new pose without me having to suggest a thing.

Here are some of my favorites from the day.

For more information about their ministry visit them here