My Little Rock'nRoll Skateboarders

Ethan and Olivia begged me to take them up to the park recently. They wanted to roll down the hill on the "new" skateboard Ethan got...it was passed down to him from another kid in the neighborhood. So of course, I had to take my camera along and practice doing some awesome action shots.



This is Livy with her interpretation of what a cool girl should look like.







Here's Mr. Ethan attempting to just stay on the board...he was pretty amazed that good ole Dad used to skate. Now that confirms to Ethan that Dad's a pretty cool guy.




So these are my two cool kids.

~Von

More Favorites: Caleb & Max

Blogging can be hard sometimes...at least for me. But with photo shoots of little guys like Caleb & Max, it's not hard to just look at some cuteness....no words necessary.

Caleb is an awesome big brother. He is at that age where his vocabulary is almost like having a conversation with an adult. He told me all about how cool it was to ride his bike. He also pointed out to me the boat he saw out in the canal...a very interesting yellow banana shaped boat, and the man in the boat even waved and said hello to us. How entertaining is that? His excitement was just darling! Very animated facial expressions!

Max is so cute you just want to kiss him all over his chubby cheeks. Babies just have that incredible softness you want to cuddle. Max is trying so hard to walk and sometimes his legs just go every which direction...you'll get there soon Max, keep on trying.

So, here's a slideshow of a few of my favorites:



I love doing photo shoots of kids and families.

My kids tend to zone me out since they are so used to me with a camera up to their faces...so let me take pictures of yours. The toddler stage can be so entertaining ...the key is to relate to them on their level. As they get older, more creativity is required to get them to relate to you...still pretty entertaining though.

So leave a comment, and let me know what you think...which one is YOUR favorite image. What do YOU do or say to get cooperation from the kids?

~Von

Caleb & Max

Last weekend, Caleb and Max let me follow them around while they played and had a generally good time at the park in New Town, St. Charles. I've been shooting their pictures all of their lives...a whole 3 years on Caleb and 1 year on Max. Good times!

The light that evening was just amazing. I just couldn't shoot enough pictures. Mom's going to have a hard time narrowing down all the ones she likes.

I love how mischievious Caleb looks here. Priceless!

Max is such a happy baby.

I'm working on their slideshow, so check back for a blog post on that.

Happy Friday!

~Von

A Destination Wedding

A few weeks ago, I had the most amazing experience...my very first destination wedding. Thanks to Alisha for inviting me and making it possible for me to shoot with her in beautiful upstate New York. I've never been to the Adirondaks and all I can say is "Holy Cow!" It's sooo gorgeous out there....in a peaceful and serene sort of way. The leaves were just starting to turn their fall colors and I can just imagine how beautiful it will be for autumn. I wish I could make it back out there to see that.



The wedding was pretty amazing too. Very elegant and classy, just like the bride and groom, Prudence and Bill. They were married on a family estate in the Adirondaks. All the guests had to be ferried out to the chapel which was on a private island out in the middle of the lake. How cool is that?!!


The bride and groom though got to cruise around the lake after the ceremony in a beautiful speed boat. Check it out below. (I guess this would be the lake version of a stretch limo ride?)

Here's the classy bride and groom. Amazing light, yes?

I don't know why, but there's something about the whole wedding and the bride herself that make me think of the Carolyn Bessette Kennedy wedding to John F. Kennedy Jr. Doesn't she remind anyone else of her? Maybe it's the hair and the small private chapel or something.

I had a hard time narrowing down my favorites so check out the slideshow below for a number of favs:

For all you future brides out there, I am definitely interested in doing more destination weddings. I don't charge any differently for my packages. The only added cost would be for travel expenses. Email me at von@vondevorephotography.com for more details if you're interested.

~Von

Still here...

I've been a really bad blogger...not posting anything new even though I have lots of wonderful news to share. I think my schedule was really thrown off wack after my major computer problems and it's been hard to get back into the swing of things. So I'm making myself a new schedule and I'm gonna stick to it and get things done. This post is more of a pep talk for myself than any information for anyone else. Okay. That's all folks.

~Von

Christa & Joe: Engagement / Bridal Session

Trying to catch up with the back log created by my computer issues earlier. I think I'm starting to catch up so bear with me as I get everything going again.

Here's something I wanted to share earlier...About a week or so ago I participated in a really awesome and fun photoshoot for a fellow photographer, Christa of Studio 7, who was recently engaged. Christa and Joe were great subjects...as a photographer she really knew how to work her stuff! What a cute couple too. We shot all over Downtown St. Louis starting at the Hyatt. They even opened up locked areas of the hotel just for us to shoot in. How awesome is that? We then wandered around to Lacledes Landing and nearby to find the coolest places to shoot. So much fun. I want to do it again...and soon.

Thanks to Michelle Ross of Under Grace, for putting it together! I think we had a Ladies Night theme going or something that night because it was only Michelle, Brandi Brown, Megan Thiele, Beth Berry and me out shooting Christa and Joe. Oh yeah, we had a great time!

Here are some of my favs:

We drove by this crazy colorful wall and just had to turn around and go back and take a picture...it was just too cool. I love how bright and colorful this wall is.

She's really working the look. Very Nice!

Oh yeah! Nice shoes. I'm such a sucker for great shoes.

Still lovin' the shoes.

~ Von

And the Winner Is.....

Today's the big announcement day. The drawing I was offering (listed on the sidebar of this blog) for free wedding photography in celebration of launching my blog has come to a close.

Today I had my family over for dinner and while they were here, we went ahead and drew the winner. The winner is......Jessica Schwartz. She is planning a destination wedding in Jamaica with a reception to follow here in St. Louis a few weeks later.

Congratulations Jessica! I'm looking forward to meeting you and photographing your reception.

~Von