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

I'm Back

My computer has been resurrected! Yeah! The technician came out and replaced various parts inside the tower and now I'm ready to go. And just in time too, because I have another wedding to shoot (with Alisha) on Sunday that I'm really looking forward to. Shooting at someplace I've never shot at before....St. Albans. So stay tuned for that.

I'll have images to share later today from last weekend.

~Von

OH NO....my computer is dead!!!

I've had the roughest day possible following one of the best weekends possible.

This past weekend I had the most AMAZING experience. My first destination wedding!!! Alisha invited me to New York to shoot a wedding with her on a private estate in the Adirondacks. I was so excited. It was quite an affair. The property was extensive...we needed a golf cart to transport us from one point to another. The chapel was on a private island in the middle of the lake...so we had to be shuttled out to the island in small groups. The bride and groom rode off after the wedding in a vintage looking speed boat...how cool is that???

There are pictures of all of this, I promise, I just can't show you any right now.....because (so here's the part about my rough day) my computer is dead. It won't power on at all. I spent HOURS with Technical Support to try and get the problem solved. They had me practically take the computer apart and rebuild it...I felt like I was doing surgery. Very frustrating when I'm dying to get my pictures off my memory cards and start editing all the images I took.

All I have access to right now is my old slow-poke of a laptop. I think I've restarted my computer 3 times every hour that I've used my laptop today. I know, it's time for an upgrade...but that's what the desktop was...an upgrade for something newer and faster. And now it's dead, after only a few months of service. I'll be OK in a few days, Tech Support is going to send out someone to fix it for me but a few days is an awfully loooooong time to wait. What am I going to do with myself? Hmmmm, I guess I'll go shoot some more. I'm sure I can find something to take pictures of.

Stay tuned for pictures of my first destination wedding (whenever my computer gets resurrected that is). I can't wait to tell everyone all about it.

~Von

Landis Family

I was contracted recently by Lillie Studios to shoot a family session for them here in St. Louis at Lafayette Park for the Landis-Nace Family. It was such an honor to be entrusted with a client of theirs. Thanks Alisha!

I had a great time with Jessica, Greg, Harrison, Ashley, Darick, Dylan and Mr. and Mrs. Nace. Alisha posted on her blog what her favorites were, but I had to share my favorites too...we had some of the same favorites. Do you blog readers have any favorites here?

All the brothers and sisters. They really get along well.

Grandma and Grandpa

I know this picture below wouldn't be considered the most flattering but I just love the baby's face....it's just so real. It makes me smile for some reason and think of my own babies (who are now 7 and 8 years old). Know what I mean? And here Grandma and Grandpa are so happy to be with the little guy.

See below for slideshow of all my favorites.

~Von

Michelle & Jimmy Family Session

Last weekend I had the wonderful pleasure of spending time with my good friend Michelle and her family. Michelle has known me since my kids were in diapers because she used to have a daycare and watched my children. Her home was always warm and loving...the children always had fun at her house. She has such a big heart for all the families in her life. We were so blessed to have her in ours. So I really felt it important to capture her love and warmth in these photos of her family. Here are my favorites.

The girls had a great time running around in an open field collecting little yellow wild flowers.

Slideshow of all the favorites:

~Von