I'm going to keep it short and sweet today. Hubby is finally home, so we took Riley to play at one of my favorite places in Pooler, Tom Triplett Park. Of course I had to get some pictures. Aren't they cute together?!
Throwback Thursday: Riley 9 Months Ago | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Portrait Photographer
I love recreating photos as Riley grows. It's so much fun to see how much he's changed in what feels like such a short period of time. Case in point: these two shots. These were both taken at the same swing at Tom Triplett park in Pooler, GA. In the first one, he is 9 months old. The second was taken very recently (he's almost a year and a half, now).
I can't get over how grown up he looks now!
Renata Glamour | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Portrait Photographer
Look who's in front of my camera again, it's Renata! This girl should be a model because she photographs like a dream. Seriously, she's gorgeous.
This shoot was an absolute blast. She let me dress her up, and was totally open to all my crazy ideas ("Oh, you want me to spin in circles in a makeshift dress while you point a blow dryer at me? Sure!")
These studio sessions have been such a departure from my normal work, and I'm really excited about them! There is just something so special about the experience of it- you dress up and I do everything I can to make you feel like a superstar, and in the end we are left with gorgeous pictures to commemorate an amazing day. You really can't beat that!
Check out the great shots we got from this session! (Like I said, she's gorgeous!)
Breastfeeding Photos | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Family Photographer
When I first found out I was pregnant I had big plans to do everything very naturally. I've held on to some of these idealistic dreams of what parenting would be like, while others went right out the window. But one thing that I've really stuck to is breastfeeding, and I'm so glad I have.
I think that breastfeeding is one of the most beautiful things that a mother can do for her child. It amazes me that every day for the past year of my life, for almost every meal, I have provided nourishment for my son using my own body. It's amazing what us women are capable of!
Monday Photo Dump: Week 14 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer
This week my hubby was out in the field (still) so I had a lot of down time. This meant that I actually got out and did some stuff this weekend, and I think as a result got some fun pictures.
3-29-14: I spent my Saturday evening wandering Savannah and taking pictures of One Love's Paws for a Cause event. They had dancers performing and, seeing that I minored in dance and have a strong interest in the subject, I really enjoyed photographing it.
3-30-14: Sunday I went with some friends and some dogs out to the beach at Hilton head. This dog (sassy) had the time of her life chasing water droplets. I'm pretty sure she can fly!
3-31-14: I got my exercise this week with some tennis. I attempted to use my phone's camera as an experiment to how well it works. Not very well, it turns out. If this had a proper exposure it wouldn't have been half bad though. Does any know any manual camera apps for android?
4-1-14: I've been really enjoying how differently I'm able to grocery shop with my hubby not around. If I want salami and brie for dinner I can do it, and nobody is here to complain!
4-2-14: I got a remote shutter release for my camera and spent some time messing around with it. I was going for a model-like photo, but I guess I'm better off behind the camera, because I do NOT know how to pose myself. I accidentally got this shot of myself and Jerry playing though.
4-3-14: Another cell phone pic! This is one of the Petsmart cats being all belly's up and cuddly, which, after my day at work, I really needed.
4-4-14: I bought a new 35mm lens and took it downtown to do some street photography. This was one of the first shots I took with it. I love this lens!
And that's it for this weeks photos. Next week will kick off with Jerry at the beach and some sharkless shark fishing. Stay tuned!
Monday Photo Dump: Week 12 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer
This week has been a bit different than usual for me. It's been all about me time. My hubby has been in the field since Wednesday which means that my week can be summed up in just a few words- dogs, cats, bubble baths, books, and wine. And work, but I try to ignore that part.
3-22-14- I met these two cuties at the adoption event with One Love at Tailspin on Saturday. I was soo close to taking them home. If I was a single woman, I would have a house full.
3-23-14 Just some pretty flowers because spring has sprung.
3-24-14: Over the weekend I broke my phone (it was my first time ever breaking a phone). But I was able to use it as an excuse to upgrade back to an android. It was kind of disappointing because I really like the idea of the windows 8 operating system, but it just didn't run well enough.
3-25-14: Saturday was my husband and my anniversary. We've been keeping this charm bracelet since we were dating and the idea was to add a charm every year. We were a bit behind so he ordered some to catch up. Each charm represents a year in our marriage except the first two which are for when we were dating, and our wedding.
3-26-14: This was the first day of the field for my hubby. I took this as an opportunity for my kindle, a glass of wine, and a nice long bubble bath.
3-27-14: I'm excited because the plant that I thought I had killed just sprouted some new leaves.
3-28-14: Jerry and I have been getting a lot of quality time together with the hubster away. I think he even listens when I have conversations with him (uh oh am I crazy?). This is his interested face.
So that's it for this week's photos. Next week will be jumping off with Sassy, the amazing flying dog. Curious? Check back to find out what I'm talking about.
It's a good day to be a Doberman | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer
It's starting to feel like Summer here in Pooler, and I am SO ready. I love the winter, but this one's been all the cold with none of the benefits (i.e. snow). I'm a northern girl and I would kill to hit the ski hill, but since that's not an option I will take a wake board out on the water instead, no doubt about it.
But since it's not quite Summer yet, I'll have to settle for soaking up the sunshine and running around the backyard with my favorite dog.
It's a good day to be a doberman!
Monday Photo Dump: Week 7 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer
I know I was a bit absent this weekend, but I wasn't able to do my shelter work this week (and may not for a while) so there was no weekly adoptable post to share. I also spent Saturday celebrating my hubby's birthday which is Tuesday, so I decided to take the weekend off.
That said, I'm a little behind on this whole blog thing. Instead of my usual planning ahead, I have been rushing through in the past half hour or so to edit these weekly photos.
Anyway, let's get right to it, huh?
2-8-14: This was a Saturday workday, cranking out blog posts and working on business cards, among other things. A photo of my keyboard seemed fitting, since I spent so much time with it.
2-9-14: I followed that up with a Sunday of rest, and a lot of playing with my goofy doberman. He's got crazy eyes!
2-10-14: Let me just warn you right now that this week was all about the food photography. Judging by the pictures I must have spent this week just eating. Sounds like the perfect week!
2-11-14: As I pulled into the driveway from work, I did this. Now I get to replace this $300 tire, because I was too lazy to move a jack that was in my way. I'm a smart cookie! Needless to say, I was a bit angry for the rest of the evening.
2-12-14: Thank goodness I was able to turn that flat-tire attitude around with a day with Sam. She took me to the Asian market where I tried this Basil Seed Drink. It looks creepy as hell, but it is seriously delicious.
2-13-14: Speaking of weird foods, what better choice is there than celery root? This stuff looks evil, but it's tasty, I promise.
2-14-14: Ah Valentines day, the day of every year where my lovely hubby buys a little potted rose, and every year I kill it. Plants and I don't get along. But this year he got it right with some already dead roses (and very pretty ones at that!) along with chocolates just in time to satiate an extreme chocolate craving, shopping, and some lunch at Bonefish Grill. Yup, he definitely got it right!
So there you have it, another week of photos. I must say, this has been going much better than I originally thought when I planned this 365 project. I thought I'd really struggle, and while I do have some rough days where I have a hard time caring, I've for the most part been really enjoying this project (and all this oh-so-photographable food!)
Monday Photo Dump: Week #6 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer
Today we are launching the Monday photo dump since Fridays are now my afternoon at the animal shelter and I will no longer have time to edit and post my photos that day. You can find out all about that here.
I know I've made a lot of changes all of a sudden, but the format for this post is still the same and the pictures are still from the same part of the week, we are just switching up the days. With that said, here's last week's photos, the first set for the month of February.
2-1-14: Can I just say that I love food photography. We see a lot of people posting pictures of their lunch on Instagram and it's kind of a running joke that gives food photography a bad name, but food that is prepared by hand can be gorgeous and really great to take pictures of, like this colorful pork stir fry that I made for a lazy night dinner.
2-2-14: More food! My husband had the random idea to make handmade pretzels for our Superbowl party. It was actually pretty easy and very successful (I couldn't stop eating them). A recipe is coming soon.
2-3-14: Just some Jerry toes. I sure do love Jerry toes.
2-4-14: It's a pretty self explanatory shot of the penny jar. I just like the colors of the pennies,
2-5-14: What used to be a nice view of a wooded area out of my computer room window is now construction. They cleared the trees quite a while ago (which I was pretty upset about) and then just recently they started construction. My work is now accompanied by the sounds of hammers and construction equipment. This is my new view. I can't wait until they are done building.
2-6-14: X marks the spot, I guess.
2-7-14: This is one of my shots from my day at the animal shelter. I didn't use this as something to post to get this dog adopted (for obvious reasons), but I do like the moment that was captured. This dog is anything but vicious, I swear, but caught mid bark he does look kind of mean, doesn't he?
So there you have it, last week's photos. I didn't do a theme, which left me with kind of a hodgepodge of photos, but I think they captured my week pretty well. As always, if you have any theme suggestions leave them in the comments below. Otherwise, I'll see you next time!
Friday Photo Dump: Week #5 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer
Ok, so I know I'm a day late. I had to work today (I normally have weekends off) and it completely threw my week off. I crawled into bed last night and my last thought was, 'oh crap, it's Friday isn't it? I didn't post my photos!'
And then I went to sleep, because I had to be up at 330 this morning, and therefore it didn't seem that important. So here I am posting last week's photos a day late.
Enough excuses.
This week's theme was cold, and despite the fact that my fingers were numb for the majority of the time I spent at work, I didn't really have a lot of cold to take pictures of. See in Georgia, even though it may be freezing outside, it'll still probably look like swimsuit weather (and then the next day it probably will be swimsuit weather, as a matter of fact). So let's just say that I struggled with this week a bit.
But even if they weren't what I was envisioning, I still think I came up with some pretty interesting photos. Let's see what you think!
1-25-14: After meeting with some potential clients about a Wedding, I spent my morning wandering around Savannah (there's a post to come with photos of that whole adventure). Every time I am downtown I try to take a photo of the fountain, and I never actually like the photos I take. But this time there were icicles on the statues and the light was hitting them just right and-- well you can see it for yourself.
1-25-14: What better way to warm up on a cold day than... ice cream? What can I say, I just love the stuff.
1-27-14: The nice thing about this winter being a little cold is that I got to bust out all my old winter clothes. It's even been scarf weather lately!
1-28-14: I'll confess, I was a bit uninspired this day with the whole cold thing.
1-29-14: Ok so Wednesday was kind of a big deal. This was the day of the big southern storm that everybody was all freaked out about. It even had a name- Winter Storm Leon. Sounds pretty intense, right? The forecast predicted in snow in Savannah which hasn't happened in basically forever and I was very excited. Well what I woke up to that morning was rain. We got some sleet and some serious ice build up, and half of my coworkers called in to work due to ice and closed bridges, but I didn't get any snow. It was very disappointing. I did get these wicked icicles hanging off the back of my trashcan though. Maybe that counts for something?
1-30-14: After that storm craziness, I just needed a cold beer. Or cider. Close enough.
1-40-14: Which leads me to Friday: more rain. This started as a picture of water droplets on my car but I started messing around with it and it became something abstract, yet pretty cool in my opinion.
So there you have it: my week of cold photos.
I still don't have a theme for this week, so if you have any last minute suggestions please leave a comment below. Otherwise, I may just make it a freebie week. We'll see.
Promises and Pistols | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer
On Sept 29th, my brother in law and his fiance got married and they chose me as their photographer. When they first asked, I said no. I didn't think I was ready for an event as big as a wedding, and looking back at the pictures I took on the day they asked, I was right. I still wouldn't agree to anyone else's wedding just yet, but they are family and they insisted, so of course I said I'd do it.
Just because I said I'd do it doesn't mean I was confident though. For the days leading up to the ceremony I was pretty stressed- probably more so than my own wedding! I spent way too much time worrying about what I was going to do and how I was going to do it, but when it came down to it, everything seemed to fall into place and I think I pulled it off.
The ceremony was small and beautiful. I helped the bride, Mallory get ready and took a few pictures and then rode in with her dad to the park where the ceremony took place. The boys set up the arch and decorated the dock with bows, and (thank god for my husband) did a wonderful job putting everything in the best possible location in terms of lighting. The ceremony was conducted by Robert, the groom's brother who is also my husband. A group of close family and friends gathered on the dock to watch Matt and Mallory looking so happy together (Look at Matt's face when first seeing his bride!)
After the ceremony we made our way around the park for portraits. We had a slight setback when Mallory (who is pregnant) got sick after I suggested Matt pick her up and spin her around (my bad), but it turned out all she needed was a cheeseburger. After that we were good to go. At this point the stress had melted away and we were all relaxed enough to just really have fun with the pictures. We even got some photos of Matt and Mallory with some kick-ass guns on the railroad tracks. We were told to leave halfway through, but it doesn't matter. I got the shot.
Afterwards we went to the reception at a friend's house for a delicious low-country boil followed by champagne and cake. I think the highlight of the whole thing was during the cake cutting when Mallory forgot to put the knife down before smearing cake in Matt's face, and accidentally stabbed him. What a great start to a marriage! This wedding was unique, quirky, and so much fun, just like the bride and groom.
It really meant a lot to me that Matt and Mallory trusted me to capture this life-changing event of theirs, even when I didn't fully trust myself to do so. It'll be so great to see this photos in big print on their walls and I hope that it will help them to savor this wonderful moment in their lives.
As for me, the experience has made me realize how much I would love to do weddings as a job in the future. I know I'm not ready yet, but it's something to work towards and that is a very exciting prospect.
Anyway, congratulations to Matt and Mallory! I'm excited to be a part of this new life that you two are starting together and I wish you only the best. You two deserve it.
