Shades of Red Photography

3 Generations of Butlers

2011-11-19T05:37:00.001-08:00

About a year ago Chrissy and I had the pleasure of taking Adam and Marianne's maternity photography before they welcomed Baby B. You might remember this photo:

Well, Baby B (now Max) has been giggling his way into all our hearts for months now and thought it would be a great idea to get his parents and his grandparents together for a 3 generation photo shoot. We all agreed, how can you not agree with a baby, and took a stroll around the Court of the Carolina's on NC State campus.

Adam and Marianne have become great parents and I think Karla and Dick are naturals at the grandparents gig.

Max is surrounded by a lot of love.

And he gives it right back.

Sometimes with a head to the face...as happened shortly after this photo.

"Wasn't me, I've been sitting here, minding my own business, playing with Grandma's necklace the whole time..."

Wow look at those eyes.

He's such a cutie-pie. He has such a great disposition too. All giggles almost the entire time. Though he did take his camera time seriously. Maybe he'll be an actor...

"I'm ready for my close up"

Makes my heart all warm and melty.

We had a great time walking around the Court of the Carolina's with the Butlers. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to capture your family's warmth and love!

Before I end this I'd like to share the "after" photo of the first photo in this entry. During this photo shoot I noticed that Adam and Marianne were wearing the same exact shoes that they had been wearing during their maternity session! Unfortunately, Max has long grown out of his itty bitty shoes. But anywho, it's still cute.

Thanks for reading! We're racking up the family portrait sessions so stay tuned for more smiles and giggles and general merriment.

Have a great weekend!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

We took a stroll with Sara and Joe

2011-11-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, at the wee hours of Sunday morning (you know, 9am), while there was still a nip in the air we met our newest clients, Sara and Joe.

Sara found us through one of our previous clients (thanks, Toya!) and asked us to follow her and her fiance around Raleigh for what we like to call an urban photoshoot. These guys were champs because while it was still cold in the morning and Chrissy and I were bundled up, they were in thin sweaters, no gloves and no hat, smiling away at our cameras. Bravo. They don't look cold to me...

Or maybe the cold was making them giddy?

Or I had just cracked a joke. We have tendency of making our clients laugh during photoshoots.

In any case, they were so friggin good together. I almost melted on several occasions.

For this photoshoot we started at the industrial area near The Pit in downtown Raleigh. You would be amazed what you find just around the corner. First, this awesomely decrepit brick wall which worked wonders for a gorgeous ring/rough surrounding juxtaposition.

*High five*, Joe. Nicely done.

Then around the corner from the brick wall were the perfect set of railroad tracks. Minus the black residue that ended up on our rumps. Whoops. Again, they were good sports. I really love the light and body language in this photo. It's almost as if they're walking along the tracks towards the sun when it randomly strikes them to lean in for a smooch.

After a wardrobe change, we rounded the corner and headed towards the Performing Arts Center. They have a line of trees that are lovely autumn shades right now. We couldn't get great light in one direction but we did happen to notice that the building created the perfect reflection!

We have several more photos from this area and I love every single one of them. The building, the trees, the adorable couple...swoon.

This next photo was a bit tricky. We had perfect lighting. Not a cloud in the sky. That's usually wonderful. But to get water to stream through a photo, you need to lengthen the time your camera takes to gather enough light to expose the image. Such a beautiful day with perfect lighting makes for incredibly over exposed pictures when trying to do this. But I think we rose to the occasion... Also, gratuitous capital building photo. Haha I had to keep yelling at them (they couldn't hear us over the fountain) to "keep kissing". Eventually we had to tell them to stop...

Chrissy and I had such a great time getting to know Sara and Joe. They are such great people, with great laughs, great smiles, great eyes and beautiful relationship. They're going to be very happy.

One last photo before I go. Around the corner from The Pit are gorgeous red doors that I've been stalking for a while now. They were a must. This photo makes my heart go pitter patter. Love the emotion.

Thank you Sara and Joe for letting us capture your love for each other! You two make excellent photo subjects and we hope to work with you again!

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it.

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Li & Henry at Lake Johnson

2011-10-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful weekend we've had.

It has been the perfect weekend for a bike ride, the perfect weekend for a picnic, the perfect weekend for a bonfire and the perfect weekend for a fall wedding.

My weekend was made very special when I was fortunate enough to photograph Li and Henry's nuptials at Lake Johnson in Raleigh. I only met Li and Henry shortly before their wedding but I knew immediately that they would have a lovely, heartfelt ceremony. Their love is built on so many years of experience with each other; I knew that there would be an exorbitant amount of emotion in the air.

It was so lovely to see how everyone, friends and family, got together to make their day joyous and special. And special it was...from the fall colored garland, to the basket of apples to the mishap of the unbroken glass (gotta stomp extra hard on red wine glasses, apparently)...everything was uniquely them and perfect because of that.

Enough of my yammering, on with the teaser photos.

A special moment between father and daughter only moments before Li became a wife.

After the ceremony, we took a romp through the woods. Li has such an amazing laugh and an amazing smile when she's laughing. But most of all, I love the look of complete adoration I captured on Henry's face.

Together finally, as husband and wife. I have no doubt in my mind that they will live happily ever after.

I'd wish them luck...but I don't think they'll need it.

Congratulations Li and Henry. Thank you for letting me be a part of your day! I wish you a long and fun life with lots of laughs.

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Animal

2011-10-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

Rawr...

That's my impression of this Photo Friday challenge word.

Good Friday morning to everyone! It's going to be a gorgeous day and even if it isn't...it's still Friday...YAY! For this challenge I had to dig deep in my collections to find a photo of some animal that isn't a canine, feline or lizard.

What seems like forever ago, Chrissy and I attended a sheep dog training weekend with our pups. It was a cold February (it even started snowing) but it was a lot of fun to see Border Collie's doing what they were bred to do. Chase bit fluffy things. These things...

I can't remember what kind of sheep they were called. But they were cute. I mean look at em. Big, fluffy, smelly things. The training day was hosted by the lady who owned these sheep and was held by a well known herding instructor, Mr. Knox.

I wish I had participated. It looked like so much fun. They started the new dogs off in a pen with the sheep. Mostly to get them used to the animals and used to still listening when faced with them. Then the more experienced dogs got to herd the sheep in the open field (which is where this picture was taken). All the spectators (Chrissy, myself, our 5 dogs and a couple other people) watched as several dogs drove the sheep back and forth and back and forth. It looked to me like they were supposed to be doing that but apparently they were just having fun and not listening to their handlers. haha. Doggy shenanigans. Eventually it was the owner of the sheep's turn and she brought out her herding pup. Within a couple minutes he had these sheep rounded up and in their pen. It was pretty amazing.

I wonder if Rhea, Gunnar and Masi could do that? Maybe someday I'll give them a shot at it. It's got to be Border Collie nirvana.

In other news, almost a week until Li and Henry's wedding on Lake Johnson! It's going to be a gorgeous intimate ceremony. I'm very much looking forward to capturing their special day for them!

The leaves are starting to change...that means it's time for family portraits! Take advantage of our inexpensive family sessions. 1 hour with full print rights to at least 50 images for only $75! Pick you favorite location and give us a call today!

Everyone have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Glowing

2011-09-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

Good Friday morning to you all! I hope everyone has awesome plans for the weekend. I'll be heading over and up to Asheville, NC this weekend for our much anticipated 1 year anniversary trip. I can't believe it's been one year. This time last year...I was hanging 14,000 Christmas lights with friends and family. Good times, good times.

The Photo Friday challenge word for this week was Glowing. I dug through my library of photos (which is dwindling, apparently I need to carry my camera with me more often) and found one of Steven cutting a stubborn bolt off the Rusty Bucket. I thought this was an appropriate "glowing" photo, no?

I see this and I wanna scream "FIRE!", in the evil crazy person kind of way. Yes, those glasses are safety glasses...I swear...

Upcoming news for SOR: Nikki and Travis are back from their amazing wedding and honeymoon in Aruba and St. Maarten. You know what that means? Bridal portraits! Yay! Nikki and I will be getting together sometime in the next few weeks for some dress up and posing. I'm super excited! Can you tell?!

I hope everyone has a great weekend filled with fun and love. Steven and I will be doing a zipline tour while in Asheville and we just bought a nifty video camera to capture the experience. Hopefully I'll figure out how to post a couple snippets on here!

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Cars

2011-09-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it, this Photo Friday challenge word is from a few weeks ago. I have been preoccupied with planning vacations, pickling cucumbers, riding 175 miles in two days and baking birthday cakes that I haven't gotten to my pictures! Finally last night (after prepping some sweet pickle relish) I was able to sit down and edit a photo for this Photo Friday. I didn't want to not post a photo for this challenge because I had such a perfect occasion to gather the perfect photo. Allow me to elaborate...

At the end of July, I surprised Steven with his "Annibirthary" gift: a trackdaze event at VIR (Virginia International Raceway). Ever since I met Steven, he's talked about racing. About his uncle who races. About how he went around the track and it was the most amaz-balls thing he's done. I always had the opinion that racing was kinda dumb (I mean, really, you go round and round and round and never get anywhere), so I would just smile and nod and be secretly thinking of the next cake to bake/veggie to can/photo shoot/house project. However, I always stored it away as a great gift idea if I could ever manage to make it work. Thanks to Ryan from TurboTime, I learned about Trackdaze.com. They are a great group of guys who organize track events at local tracks. It just so happened that they were having a track event at the end of August and that a single days participation pass was within my budget for Steven's gift! It was meant to be.

Fast forward a month from when I surprised Steven, we wake up at 4:15 am and drive our groggy selves to VIR. We promptly met a fellow non-racing-car driver who was driving a VW Scirocco and buddied up in the parking area. He used some of our painters tape (for car numbers) we borrowed his toque wrench; it was a good match.

Before I knew it, it was Steven's turn. He was shaking, I was giddy, his instructor might have been nervous. The first session (each session is 30 mins, you get 4 of them a day) was kind of slow. All the newbies were getting used to driving their cars on the track. But by session 3, Steven had it down to a science. He wasn't nervous anymore, he was calculated. His instructor gave him high marks and said he had "real talent". I may have created a monster. Also by session 3 I had found the perfect vantage point where I captured my favorite photo of the day and what would have been my submission to this Photo Friday challenge.

The Subaru was at home on the track. Its big fat, heavy bum and all. I now have a new opinion of racing. It's epic to watch (at least on a road course). The rumble of the engines, the whine of turbos, the talent, the nerves, the smooooooooth asphalt, the way the cars would hug the turns....my MINI would be so much fun.

It was a good day; Steven wouldn't stop talking about it for days. I think I would call that a successful "annibirthday" gift.

In resent news, remember Travis and Nikki? They got married over the weekend! Congrats to Travis and Nikki! SOR has been busy signing contracts for this year's and next year's wedding season. Looking forward to a lot of awesome parties with a lot of fantastic people!

That is it for now. Hopefully I will have a submittable photo for this coming Photo Friday challenge: Near. Near...near what?

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Spot

2011-08-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

I can imagine that for most people this type of challenge word would be difficult. However, for me, there was only one choice.

You see, we have this lizard. He's a leopard gecko. His name is Spot. Spot is an old, old lizard. Easily 16 years old (I think). And he's still going strong. So when I saw this Photo Friday challenge word, I had no choice but to photograph the lizard. I thought this would be a struggle. As lizards are usually not too keen about being out of their environment. Least of all when surrounded by dogs and a cat. Who would have thought that Spot was one of the best photo subjects I've ever had (as animals go). I swear, he moved less than most dogs. Trained dogs. AND he stared right into the lens! It was only with his patience that I was able to snag this little piece of awesome:

Behold, I give you, Spot! I think I can hear Kate Nothnagel Stone screeching from Trinidad (she's not a fan of lizards). How can you not love that face?! Look at him! He's poised! He's ready! He's going to kick some chess ASS! Aha...I die. Good, Spot.

While I was at it, taking photos of Spot, I figured I'd snap a few new ones of the fury type. And since I'm already here, writing this post, I might as well share them, right? Right.

Last but not least, the queen of the house:

Now you know why the first thing we bought as a couple was a Dyson (after the house...of course). If only we could teach the dogs how to vacuum.

I hope you all enjoyed my little fur-kid (and lizard-kid?!) photo session. This next week's challenge word is Gold. I'm at a loss, any suggestions?

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Nate, Veronica and Baby P

2011-08-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Chrissy and I went to Marbles Kid's Museum with Nate and Veronica and had a blast! It was really yucky outside so we were glad to have chosen an indoor location. We got to play in a pirate ship, play a little soccer, shoot some balls in a big hoop to fill up the pig, bob and sway on the big bridge and play chess with HUGE chess pieces. Yes...I enjoyed myself. More importantly, Nate and Veronica (and even Baby P...he was kicking and moving all over the place) enjoyed themselves.

I love how sincere Nate and Veronica are grinning in this photo. They both look so happy and so excited to become parents.

It wasn't all fun and games though. If there's one thing Nate and Veronica share, it's their competitive spirit. Do you remember those fitness tests you did in middle school? In particular, the stretch test? Well, they had one at Marbles and although it was an unfair match, I think Nate won.

At least no one held a grudge.

There is so much to do in Marbles that we got a little distracted. I think we even lost Nate at one point. At about the end of our photo shoot the museum was becoming crowded. We were lucky enough to find an unoccupied reading room to snap a couple of the more serious photos.

We really enjoyed spending the morning with Nate and Veronica and having a blast in Marbles. We are looking forward to meeting Baby P and maybe if our track record holds true, that might happen sooner than later! I'll leave you with one last photo: the gratuitous itty bitty baby shoe photo.

**swoon** Little things are so cute.

Thanks for reading! This Photo Friday challenge word is "Spot" so I'm going to try and convince our Leopard Gecko, named Spot, to do a photo shoot for me. Stay tuned for the results!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Vertical

2011-07-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Good Friday morning to you all. It's going to be another hot one. *insert pathetic whimper* Can we skip the rest of summer and go straight into fall? I'd be ok with that.

My garden enjoyed the random rain we had a couple days ago. I mean, besides the one corn plant that got rained to death, literally, and slumped over in demise. Everything else is going NUTS! So I felt that the most appropriate photo for a Photo Friday challenge of "vertical" would be my plants that are literally trying to reach the sky.

"I think I can, I think I can"

Fully story...I hope...anywho...last year was my first year planting a garden. I thought I knew what I was doing. In fact, I was certain. The seed packets read "plant 5 feet apart" I thought "But I want more than 1 squash!!!" Yeah...I should have listened. I also should have done some research. You see, for some reason, I thought cucumbers and squash and cantaloupe were ground plants. That bushed more than climbed. So I planted a ton of cucumbers and a ton of squash and a ton of cantaloupe and before I knew it my garden was a big viney mess with everything trying desperately to climb the corn. I did eventually get it under control with a couple trellises, tears and curses. But this year I had a plan. I was going to plant my cucumbers on the perimeter of my garden and let them scurry up the fence. Perfect! I wouldn't need to buy any trellises. That worked great for a while...until that rain. That cucumber you see there in the photo above. Yeah it is well over 6 inches above the top of the fence now and it's still trying to grab onto something. I am not building a taller fence, cucumber, start vining DOWN.

On a cooler note: look I have a cucumber!!

WEEEEE!!!

Ok, back to the purpose of this blog post. The Photo Friday challenge was Vertical. I had thought of using the climbing cucumber picture but I felt this photo was much better.

"What kind of tree is that?", you ask. This is not tree, this is my towering tomato plant! By towering, I mean 3 feet tall. Don't laugh, they're still growing! I start from seeds people! They take a while. I believe this one is a Roma style tomato. AND they have their first blossom! I'm looking forward to some yummy garden fresh veggies.

Ok, that's all the photos I have for you today. However, I am very tempted to kidnap my husband and the dogs, throw the tent in the car and escape to higher altitudes and cooler temps this weekend. If I do, I'll take pictures of my antics.

Everyone have a great weekend. Stay cool. Don't die of heat exhaustion. Until next time, thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Gloomy

2011-07-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

I knew my jinx from last week would work! However, I think it worked too well. I could have done without the 100 degree days with 1,000% humidity. I might be exaggerating on the humidity.

Seeing as how I wasn't going to get my cloudy, weather inspired gloomy picture, I searched my photo library to find something suitable.

That's sorta gloomy, right? It was the best I could do! I apparently don't take depressing photography. I consider that a good thing.

This was in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Co. The rock formations there are just so cool. I loved how they just shot up out of no where and were so orange against the very blue sky.

This week's Photo Friday challenge word is seashore. I have no current plans to go to the beach so...yeah, I don't think this challenge is getting excepted. No worries, I'll still post a picture. I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone.

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend.

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Sharp Focus

2011-07-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

This Photo Friday blog posts is brought to you by the phrase, Sharp Focus. Lets just pretend I wrote and published this on Friday.

I love challenge words like this because you can use so many different photos. My photo of choice is one I took during Adrianne and Ricky's engagement photo session.

Hellllooooooo, beautiful. I love Adrianne's ring. It was very unique and super sparkly. And we all love the sparkly bits.

Next week's Photo Friday challenge is "Gloomy". With all this rain we've been having I think I should be able to manage a gloomy shot. I say that in order to jinx myself and bring the sun back out. Not that we don't need the rain...drought anyone? Ok, enough about the weather.

Coming up next weekend are Veronica's maternity photos! Chrissy and I are excited about this photo shoot. It's always a blast to take a first time mum's maternity photos. Keep an eye out for a teaser blog post!

In the meantime, everyone have a splendid weekend!

Thanks for reading.

Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Travis & Nikki - Making it official

2011-07-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Chrissy and I had the privilege of taking the official engagement photos for Travis and Nikki. Travis and Nikki have been engaged for about two years but are making it officially official this September in Aruba! I could think of worse places to spend a weekend with friends and family all while getting married.

We had so much fun being goofy with these guys while capturing some beautiful photos of them. They are such a great couple together that everything just came naturally to them. I loved it best when they were both laughing, you could tell how much fun they have together.

We visited three very unique places for their photo shoot. Carter Finley, as pictured above, Yates Mill (first picture) and the North Carolina Art Museum. Each location was so different from the other! It made things difficult when trying to pick or favorites for teasers. I know, it's such a crime.

For the North Carolina Art Museum, Nikki loved the big rings and very much wanted to feature them in her engagement photos. So we obliged.

And then obliged again.

I love this photo. I love everything about it. Nikki's laugh, Travis's air, the big rings. The humor, the colors...swoon.

For each couple we photograph, we ask that they bring along some props that have meaning to them. The ones Nikki and Travis brought were very unique and sweet. I think this prop wins for sentimental value. Thanks to a camera-happy friend they have a photograph of them on their first date. First ever. Who here has a photo of them and their fiance/e/husband/wife on their first date?! Not me. I don't even remember the date of our first date.

Travis had a funny idea of taking a photo of them holding the above photo in about 10 years. I'm not sure that's a great idea...the universe might implode.

Needless to say, we had a great time getting to know Travis and Nikki behind the camera lens. They are great photo subjects and great people. We're looking forward to doing Nikki's bridal portraits in the coming weeks.

I'll leave you with one last photo from Yates Mill. This location has so much to offer, I really enjoyed it. Thank you, Travis and Nikki for spending the morning with us. You were fantastic to work with!

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

My favorite Trini get's married & Photo Friday: Wilderness

2011-07-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

Last week to weekend, Steven and I visited Trinidad. This was quite the adventure. Please allow me to recant our trip.

Let me start off by saying, Steven and I are cursed travelers. Or at least we thought so on Wednesday of last week. (Background : the last time we traveled for a friends wedding was in January of this year. We were stuck in the Atlanta airport for 3 days because of the weather. Let me tell you: that was fun.We swore off Delta that trip.) We arrived at RDU on time, parked our cheerful selves at the gate with plenty of time to spare, only to be loaded on the plane and then stalled on the tarmac because apparently: Charlotte Airport was inundated and the pilot was told to give them a breather. Ok, we don't care, we have plenty of layover in Charlotte as well as Miami.

We get to the Charlotte airport, get some coffee and find our next gate. Then we start noticing the delays showing up on the "departure" screen. Finally we're told that the plane we were scheduled to be on is stuck where it last landed for a 3 hour repair. BUT, not to worry, they had a new plane and it was landing shortly. Awesome, no skin off our back, we had a nice long layover to burn. Our 2nd plane lands, disembarks and yet we sit there. It turns out (as the nice person over the intercom tells us) that plane also had a mechanical issue and it would take 3 hours to fix. Our nice long layover is dwindling at this point. Frantically, Steven and I attempt to find another way to Miami (we're having flashbacks of January). I'm on the phone waiting on a customer service person who I likely won't be able to understand and Steven is in line at the counter waiting to talk to the nice intercom person. Right as it was Steven turn and I get off hold, the nice intercom person announces that they have indeed found us a new plane (hurray!) that is now taxing to the gate right next to us.

Recap, this is plane 3 now and our layover is now cutting it very close. We get on that plane, sit, and wait only to discover it also needs a repair. They (the intercom people) thought that it was already finished by the time they loaded us but no...it would take another 45 mins. Layover, what layover? Immediately, I'm on the phone with Caribbean Airlines, our connecting flight in Miami. It was then that I find out they have a minimum checkin time of 3-36 hours before the flight. This was not mentioned on their website, nor on my itinerary and this was the first time Steven or I had ever flown international. Essentially, we were new...we didn't know what to do. We frantically tried to check in online through our phones or the wireless in the airport but both services sucked and we couldn't get passed the 1st page. Thankfully the nice intercom people were kind enough to book us on a backup flight with American Airlines that would put us in Trinidad at 11:30pm. A solid 5 hours later than we were supposed to arrive and a total travel day of 16 hours.

Finally exactly 2 hours before our Caribbean Airlines flight was to take off in Miami we left Charlotte (it's a 2 hour flight). Yes at this point, we still had hope. Somewhere in the air I said, "If we get there in time just to see our plane leave, I might lose it". When we land in Charlotte and taxi to our gate, I spy a Caribbean Airlines plan 3 gates down from us. We disembark faster than I have ever before and run to the gate. We get there just as they close the jetway; it is indeed our flight. We commence the begging. Pleading, "PLEASE put us on that flight!". To no avail. They had already submitted their manifest to the government and could not resubmit it now. So we watched our flight taxi off to the runway.

I might have cried a little.We promptly got a beer.

Fast forward 5 hours and we're sitting on the American Airlines flight to Trinidad. And we're sitting and we're waiting. We sat, loaded on the plane for an hour. You may notice at this point that every single one of the flights we were on was delayed. Luckily, that was as exciting as it got for that flight. We took off and made up the hour in the air. We landed in Trinidad with a nice big thump and got our first passport stamp! Ah, success.

Ok, I know you only read this blog to see pics so I'll skip to the good bits. We (the foreigners) were marooned on Kate's husband's family's island house for 2.5 days. It was torture. Nothing but the water, the fresh air, as much food as we could possible eat, tons of beer and liquor. I don't know how I made it out alive (or sober for that matter).

Now the good part...Saturday, June 25th. Kate, one of the nicest girls I have ever met married Rob, one of the nicest guys I have ever met. Kate made a beautiful bride.

Their ceremony was short and sweet. Filled with love and lots of talk about wine and stone vessels and it ended with Mr and Mrs. Stone!

The reception was everything I could ever picture a Trini reception to be. It was a huge party. It started off with heartfelt speeches (put my "best-person" speech to shame) and the special dances. I don't recall the name of Kate and Rob's first dance. I was too preoccupied with how great they looked together all dressed and everything. However, I clearly recall the name of the Father/Daughter dance.

"Wagon Wheel". Why do I know this song so well? My brother played it no less than 100 times during his bachelor party.

It was a heart wrenching goodbye. There's no next trip to look forward to. No idea when we'll see our favorite Trinis again (yeah, plural now. You guys are just cool).

Our flights back to Raleigh were thankfully less eventful. We made our Caribbean Airlines flight (checked in early online this time) and nothing was delayed, broken down or otherwise crappy. We arrived in Raleigh around 7pm on Sunday, collected our dogs from our friends, that Dardens (thanks agian!) and returned to an empty home (no more roommate). Thus concluded our trip to Trinidad.

The Photo Friday challenge for today is Wilderness. There was plenty of wilderness on the island where we stayed for 2.5 days. But I thought this picture was the most appropriate.

That is nature at its finest. That is a plant growing inside a drainage pipe of an abandoned retaining wall. I thought this was most appropriate for its message. When we're gone, the wilderness will take back what was originally its own. Kinda makes you feel tiny in the scheme of things. As if your footprints on this earth can be washed away like footprints on the sand. Thus concludes my deep thought for the morning.

I hope you all are planning an epic weekend for the 4th of July. I am sure to be hung over. Stay tuned for Nikki and Travis's photo teasers, their engagement photo shoot in this weekend!

Thanks for reading (especially this one since it was so long)!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Shadows

2011-06-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

I had a couple ideas in my head for this photo challenge. Neither were truly shadows but what I could consider a play on shadows. A silhouette, that's a shadow, sorta...right?

This past weekend we unearthed the thundering heart of the Rusty Bucket (still need a new name). The hood and fenders came off and are now resting perilously on the rear-end. Finally, charged with a 6 volt battery from one neighbor, jumper cables from another, a Patron shooter bottle full of gas in the carburetor "bowl" (I know a lot about this truck, don't I....) and the Subaru's laboring engine, I watched from a distance as cautiously, Steven connected the battery lead. Luckily: no boom. The ancient engine, left for dead 10 years ago, thundered. It was amazing to see the crank pulley spinning freely! Unfortunately, there was no spark to be had. We'll probably need to replace the distributor cap before we can truly bring her back to life.

This latest development has left us with an impressive and rather naked engine sitting in our garage. I thought a very interesting photo would be a silhouette of Steven working away on his big-boy-toy. I loved the idea of symbolizing the years and years that this truck sat forgotten in the shadows of that home's woods. It was left there to rust into the ground, but we're bringing it back out of the shadows, bringing it back to life.

Eventually, when the Rusty Bucket is running, and legal to drive, I'll use it as an epic photography prop. I seriously can't wait. Until then, it still proves useful; I've already used it in my photo friday submissions.

I did run into a problem with this submission though. I couldn't decide which photo I liked better. So here's both. Thanks to my husband for being my model!

I might still get around to taking the other photo I had in mind for this challenge. If I do, I might just have to post it here. We shall see.

Everyone have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Adrianne, Ricky and Dexter

2011-06-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

Back in my days of planning a wedding I joined a website called OffbeatBride.com. It is a wonderful community made up of unique, creative, accepting and outrageous women (and a few men). I still visit the website frequently and eventually came to know Adrianne. Adrianne is a native North Carolinian, born and raised in Carrboro and recent transplant to Durham. She and Ricky met in a great old fashioned romance involving cars, shoes and sarcasm.

Chrissy and I had the esteemed pleasure of getting to know the two of them, and their wiggly, furry, adorable pup, Dexter. On June 3rd, the 5 of us took a stroll through the Duke Gardens. Before our session, Adrianne had warned me that her and Ricky were not "picture people". Well, I beg to differ.

We had a great time goofing off and exploring the gardens while still capturing their love for each other.

Adrianne and Ricky are due to make an honest dog out of Dexter, I mean, they're due to marry in September of next year at an awesome venue in Durham. Considering how fantastic they looked for their engagement shots, we can only imagine how beautiful their wedding will be.

Adrianne, Ricky and Dexter, thank you for allowing us to photograph your fantastic family. You are all so great and we hope to serve your photography needs again!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: My World

2011-05-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hello blog and facebook note readers. I hope you're having a super-fantastical Friday. So far, so good for me. Besides skipping my workout this morning, (which could be argued as a positive) this Friday has been treating me right. I procrastinated taking a photo for this week's challenge until the very last minute. I couldn't think of a way to show my day to day world without it being so boring you'd all stop reading my posts.

Between exercising the pups morning, noon and night and loving on them in the times between exercising them...then feeding them and cleaning up after them, I'd say that my world is dominated by my dogs and our commitment to them.

I'm betting that about now most of you are rolling your eyes at the screen. "Dogs...they're only dogs". Yeah, they're canines but they're so much more. I swear, a Border Collie can put sentences together. I don't have to give my dogs a one line command, I just talk to them and they know what I want. I just have to look at them crossly and they know they've done wrong. They know patterns better than I do. But with all this smarty-pants-ness, they require a bit more than the typical pup. If they don't get some sort of exercise *daily* they will drive us nuts...and then they'll become destructive. But you know what? It's all worth it. There's nothing like a Border Collie. You can look them in the eyes and see the wheels turning.

Stepping off my soapbox now. Back to the task at hand. This is how I could best capture my world at 8am this morning.

I'm in my neighborhood (that's my street). I'm exercising my ball-obsessed dogs (I have a funny story about how ball obsessed they are that I'll share at the end of this blog) and I'm dressed for work...yep that about sums it up.

Hopefully the next challenge will be a little more interesting.

Ok, now for that funny story. A couple weekends ago a former coworker of mine had a bunch of us over to his house in Raleigh for "College Night". Which consisted of beer and foods you'd typically find in a college dorm or party. We even had a tasting contest where we had to identify each beer by their "unique" taste. I say "unique" because the same mild taste of beered down water. I came in second. I was pretty proud of myself considering I didn't drink crappy beer in college. My baby beer was Newcastle....anywho, I digress.

My ex-coworker also invited everyone's' dogs to play with wild abandon in his back yard, so we brought our 3. Sometime when our dogs first learned to fetch (6 months to a year old) they realized that interaction with other dogs is sssoooo lame (imagine a valley girl type voice when you read that) and prefer to ignore their presence and play fetch. They'll do this until you put up all toys that can be fetched. This inherently means they'll keep searching for toys that can be fetched before they give up. Gunnar found each and every ball that was ever lost, hidden, buried, discarded and mourned. I believe the grand total was 13 balls. I really wish I had a picture of it; we had all 13 lined up on the railing. They went from looking not so bad-ish to completely stripped of any fibers and looking about 20 yrs old. We are pretty sure he found every ball there was to find because eventually he tried to snatch the balls we had already placed out of his reach. Aaahhh obsession.....

I hope you all enjoyed this post. Don't bother going to the Photo Friday website to vote for my picture, I didn't post it in time to submit it. Everyone have a wonderful weekend, I'm heading to Carolina Beach to visit an old friend, the Fat Pelican.

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Minimalist

2011-04-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone!

I hope everyone has fared well through the storms and are looking forward to a nice weekend.

I was having a hard time picturing something that would work for this Photo Friday. I even went so far as to check what other people had submitted but unfortunately that only helped my showing me what I didn't think was an appropriate way to show minimalist.

Inevitably, I ended up flipping through my recent photos to see if there was anything that spoke to me. To my luck, there was. This was a photo I took back in January. We were on a walk in Umstead park with the dogs.

The more I look at this photo, the more I feel right about it. Interpret it as you like. The way I see it, is a man alone with his companions in nature. Without the busy, complicated infrastructure we create around us. This picture feels like a long deep exhale.

So, that's my interpretation. What do you picture when you think, minimalist?

I hope everyone has a nice weekend planned; this might be the last weekend without the threat of mosquitoes! I killed my first one yesterday. It's always down hill from the first mosquito killing.

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale

Celebrating James & Emily

2011-04-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I participated in my brother and his fiancee's wedding shower in Greenville, NC. They held the event at a nice sports bar-type venue called CPW's.

It was a fun event with the usual quirky games and present opening. And of course, the awesome prizes.

Seriously awesome:

We played a game with clothespins on a string around our neck. You were given one clothespin when you arrived and lost your clothes pin if you were caught saying "James" or "Wedding". I lost my clothespin after about 30 seconds. I managed to steal a few other clothespins but would always end up losing them. Yep, I failed.

On a better note, I met my brother's future mother-in-law. And now I know where Emily gets her sweetness.

After the gifts were opened and the party was drawing to a close, we gathered for a few serious group shots....completely serious.

I love that I could simply say "Ok, now everyone try to lick Emily" and no one questioned me or even paused. Excellent job, ladies. Now for the serious photo. These are Emily's ladies, or at least most of them. They are all wonderful girls; I really enjoyed getting to know them.

I also took the time at the shower to get to know a couple of James's guys. I'll be standing up there with them after all and I had no idea who most of them were. I think we'll all get along famously. The real test will be in Asheville in about two weeks. If we survive that we'll be golden.

Gratuitous group shot:

I giggle every time I see this photo. I love everyone's expression, including those that aren't actually trying to be funny.

Good times. If the wedding shower was this much fun, I'm very much looking forward to the wedding. I'm looking forward to stealing Emily away for some bridal portraits soon. Hopefully I'll be able to share a teaser from that session in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

Happy Easter Everyone!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Riding

2011-04-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

I appreciate those who bother to check on these updates. I'm SO sorry I've been lazy about posting weekly.

Thank you for sticking with me.

The challenge for this week's Photo Friday was "Riding". I had so many awesome ideas in mind for this photo. I wanted to incorporate cycling but not in the typical way. I decided to show riding without actually showing any riding. What are the essentials for a good bike ride, besides the actual bike? The things that are essential to me are my bike shoes, my bike gloves, my helmet and water. One could argue that you could do without one or two of these things but to have a good, safe ride, you should have all of them.

Then the question was, which style of riding do I show? Mountain or road? I decided to go with mountain. All the necessities are the same, the shoes are just knobbier. I chose mountain biking because it is my preferred type of cycling.

Yeah, yeah, I got into cycling via road biking (and the MS150 to be exact) but my loverly then b/f (now husband) pushed and prodded and nagged and gingerly suggested I try mountain biking. Eventually I made a deal with him. He had to ease me into it by taking me on the Umstead bridle trails at least 3 times before going with me on the Crabtree Lake trails *by our selves* for my first time on "single track". I think I got two rides in Umstead in before he dragged me to a group ride at Beaver Dam near Oxford. Let me tell you, Beaver Dam ≠ Crabtree Lake. At that time, Beaver Dam was around 10-12 miles long, Crabtree was maybe 5. Beaver Dam has this section called "The Drop Zone", Crabtree....has an optional tricks section. I was doomed.

Luckily that not-so-ideal first try at single track didn't make me swear off mountain biking. After several repeat outings and eventually a new bike (holy crap my Santacruz Blur is my hero) I was good and hooked.

Road biking is fun and all and you can go way faster on a road bike (and typically way farther). But there's just something to playing in the woods that I've always enjoyed.

I think I've yammered on enough. Below is my submission to Photo Friday (though I actually missed the submission deadline).

Now I want to go ride my bike.

This weekend I'll be attending my brothers wedding shower. I hope to sneak a few photos of the ridiculously happy couple and then maybe I'll share them with you all.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Mother Nature

2011-04-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my absence, the last few challenges haven't really been intriguing. I'll read them on Friday, and forget about them until the following Friday in which case it is too late to submit anything.

However, I was excited about this Photo Friday challenge. I love nature photography. It's definitely my favorite next to portrait photography. This week has been pretty dreary though, with no good days for photo opportunities. Plus with the crappy weather I just felt like *bleh* all week long. I'm so glad the sun has finally decided to show its face again!

The photo I'm using for this Friday's photo challenge is one I took while my husband and I were away on our honeymoon in Breckenridge, Colorado. I know I've talked about it before on here so I'll not go into much detail. This photo was taken on our way back from from the summit of Quandary Peak.

Those cool puffs of white are mountain goats! We came across a herd of them trying to cross from the lake side of the mountain to the...non lake side. I thought this was an appropriate photo for the challenge Mother Nature since it is actually a picture of a mother goat and her kid! Besides birds, random rodents and peoples dogs these were the only animals on the mountain. Shortly after taking this photo, they started walking towards us. We felt it was time to go then.

Coming up for SOR, the weather is turning warm! I'm looking forward to some early summer photo shoots.

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Marianne and Adam plus a B(ee)

2011-03-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

I am happy to announce that our circle of friends has been expanded by 1. Our friends Adam and Marianne have welcomed their, much awaited, son. But before we get to the baby photos, allow me to share a teaser set from their maternity photo shoot.

Chrissy and I were working double duty for Marianne and Adam's photo shoot. On one side, we were photographers and on the other we were agents on a super secret mission to get them out of the house so it could be decorated for their baby shower. Well, maybe it wasn't super secret, but it's fun to pretend.

We all piled into the expecting parents' very pretty Ford F150 and drove to Lake Crabtree park on the border of Cary and Morrisville. This park has a lot to offer. Not only do they have walking, hiking and mountain bike trails but they also have a boat rental location, a small sandy beach, beach volleyball nets and a really cool tower lookout. It was a very windy but beautiful day that Saturday. Marianne and Adam were great subjects and the little B(ee) did great too!

Enough of my yammering, onto to the photos! You will have to bear with me, I couldn't pick just one.

(This is a complete side note, but I love Marianne's nails. Serious manicure envy here.)

Apparently Dad and B(ee) were having an intriguing conversation on the stairs of the lookout.

Crabtree Lake park has a really pretty pergola that's completely grown over. If I had a pergola, that is how I would want it to look. It made the best natural shade, ever.

Marianne and Adam started to get a little nervous about the B(ee) showing up, so we decided to stop for some light reading.

(Another side note, Adam's book's title is The Dudes' Guide to Pregnancy)

Gratuitous semi-silhouette. In all seriousness, I love silhouette maternity photos. I feel like the drama of the photo technique is a fitting way to capture the emotion of carrying your baby. Of course this is all speculation on my part, since I have not actually been pregnant. Mothers reading my blog, would you agree?

Marianne and Adam are well on their way to being great parents.

Believe it or not, there are still more photos from this photo shoot online that I didn't share here. I've got to leave something a mystery so you'll visit our site. Chrissy and I had a great time working with Adam and Marianne. They were great sports when dealing with all the wind and the glaring sun. The entire time Marianne had a wonderful smile, even when we weren't photographing her. I can only imagine it was because she was so happy to be so close to meeting her son.

And on that note, I'll leave you with one final photo. The "After" photo as I like to put it. Readers, allow me to introduce, Max (aka Bee).

He is apparently not a fan of the camera. We'll have to work on this.

Thank you for reading. Stay tuned, I'm hoping to do a post for Photo Friday this weekend as well! Have a great weekend, enjoy the wonderful weather.

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Open

2011-03-05T06:11:00.000-08:00

The Photo Friday challenge this week was "Open". Wow, that is seriously up for interpretation. Lots of thing physically open. Lots of things feel open. Things can look open (wide open spaces). It came as no surprise that I had no idea what to photograph. And thus, I didn't submit my photo on time. Oh well.

I woke up this morning at my usual 7:30 am to the dogs wanting to take their morning potty and decided to give it a whack. Not the morning potty, but photographing something "open".

Just opening a random door is pretty boring. So I knew the subject of the openness needed to at least be interesting. That doesn't leave many opens in our house. But, just outside our garage, sitting on some custom made rollers, is the oldest member of our little family. Behold, the Rusty Bucket.

Her/His story is a long one. We unearthed her/him right before Thanksgiving from her/him slumber in the woods. It took about 5 hours, 4 vehicles and 4 people pushing to wedge her/him in the corner of our driveway. She/him/it needs a new name by the way. Rusty Bucket is just a place holder (suggestions are welcome).

Rusty Bucket is arguably the most interesting object that has doors that is in our possession at this time. I also kind of like how the vents on the hood look like flared nostrils. This is the first of many old vehicles we will be restoring. We thought it would be best to start off with something relatively easy. And easy really is a relative term. Because there's nothing easy about the process. Or cheap for that matter. Once we have this vehicle completed perhaps we'll move onto Steven and my favorites, a mustang '69 Boss 302 for Steven and a '69-70 Chevelle SS for me. Someday...

SOR is actively editing the photos from Adam and Marianne's maternity photo shoot. Hopefully we'll have teaser photos to post soon!

Everyone enjoy your weekends. I'm going to go ride my bike.

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Breathtaking

2011-02-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

Everyone has their own flavor of breathtaking photography. Whether it be portraits, architecture, landscape or wildlife; beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Ever since I was a little girl growing up in rural upstate NY, I've enjoyed nature. I still have the memory of a clear winter night after a new layer of snow had just fallen and you could no longer see our sledding tracks on my grandparents' hill. I was sitting in my "house", at the base of the hill, that I had carved out of the 4 feet of snow and looking up at the pine trees that grow on my grandparents' hill. At that moment a very big, very bright full moon crept up the sky behind the pine trees. To me it looked like someone had a spotlight behind the trees, I couldn't fathom that it was actually the moon. When the moon finally peeked over the tree tops it scattered its beautifully bright, blue light over the fresh snow. It was so peaceful and so surreal. Just the fact that I can remember that so well and so vividly 16ish years later (holy crap now I feel old) goes to show that my personal flavor of breathtaking would fall in the landscape photography category.

So when Steven suggested going to Colorado for our honeymoon the first thing that popped into my head was a breathtaking mountain view. I've enjoyed my fair share of the Appalachian mountains and the awesome views they bestow but I'd never been fortunate enough to make it to the Rockies. I wanted to see that postcard photo, the quintessential snowy mountain peek reflected in outrageously blue waters. On our 3rd day in Breckenridge we hiked to see the Mohawk Lakes. This was only our 3rd day at 10,000 + ft and our bodies had not quite acclimated yet so reaching these lakes literally took my breath away.

Finally, after 2 hours of hiking on wobbly legs we made it to the lower Mohawk Lake and there it was, the view I'd been waiting for.

Ok, so there wasn't any snow on the peaks in the distance but I'll take what I can get!

I'm going to have to go back there soon.

Thanks for reading! SOR has a photo shoot with a couple friends this weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to share some of those photos soon!

Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotograhy.com

A wee little addition

2011-01-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

A little while ago, I had the special pleasure of photographing my sister and her growing family. They had just welcomed their youngest, Kaiya, and I was honored to take their first full family portrait.

Michele and her boys, Quincy and Kaden, were some of the first people Chrissy and I took photos of while we were building our portfolio. In fact, one of our packages is named after Quincy in honor of them. One thing is for sure, those boys love the camera!

Such a sweet, good looking family.

Kaiya is blessed with two adoring older brothers.

With this much cuteness, they sure have their work cut out for them!

Thank you Michele and family for inviting me into your home to photograph your lovely family and especially your newest addition. I look forward to many more awesome photo shoots!

On a somewhat unrelated note...little girl clothes are SO FRIGGIN CUTE!

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Trees

2011-01-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

I have a certain fondness for trees. I think I started climbing trees before even turned 5. I have the dislocated shoulder story to prove it. My appreciation of trees took root (haha, no pun intended...or was it?) in upstate NY at my grandparent's house. They live on 40 acres in NY and the majority of those 40 acres is untamed woods. They have these ancient maples trees on their property that scale hundreds of feet. They are easily 4 ft in diameter (or more). The ones closest to their house (which has been cut down since I left) was my favorite...mostly because it had a low enough branch for me to climb on.

Notice how the trees tower over my grandparent's house and barn.

With my fondness for trees and their ethereal splendor, I was excited about this challenge. The very first photo that popped into my head was one I had taken a couple weeks ago at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Co. It was such a gnarly tree. It stood there mostly by itself, no other trees managed to grow around it. I thought that was rather poetic.

With a little spiffing up with photoshop (I'm beginning to like that too much, I think), here for your viewing enjoyment is my submission to this Photo Friday challenge.

As always, please don't forget to go VOTE!!!!! Does anyone ever vote? I usually forget to myself.

Tune back soon for photo teasers from the Nansteel's photoshoot!

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Human Form

2011-01-21T05:57:00.000-08:00

I had visions of nakedness and silhouettes when I first thought of what picture would be best for this challenge. After a while, I thought it better to not post a naked body to the general internet. Especially one of myself or someone I know. It just so happens that I had the perfect, non-naked, picture for this challenge.

What better way to represent the human form that the silhouette of a woman and her very pregnant belly? What is a more basic and natural "human form" that child bearing? Well at least that's what I thought. So I took one of Chrissy's maternity photos that I already loved and made it edgier and more emotional with some fancy shamncy editing. Here is the result:

So if you find that you like this photo, please go vote!

This coming weeks challenge is "Trees" I have a great photo I took at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado that will be perfect! I might not be able to wait until Friday to post it.

News for Shades of Red: I've revamped our website! I've changed our packages and we're currently running a special. I'll be heading to Clayton, NC this weekend to take my new niece's first professional photos. I'm sure she'll have many more as she grows up! Check back for those photos.

As always, thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday Challenge: Best of 2010

2011-01-06T19:05:00.000-08:00

It turns out that the Photo Friday challenge for this Friday is "Best of 2010". This puts me in a pickle as I've already done a recap post. I can't use one of those photos again, that would be lazy. I went about choosing my "best" of the batch by going through each of our portfolio albums and picking my favorite and then picking my favorite of those. To be fair to all of my favorites, I'll show you my picks from each one. Plus it will make this post longer. As a disclaimer, I only used photos I know I took unless otherwise stated.

Best Friends (aka Pet Photography):

Arguable the photography we practice the most because well, we have 5 dogs between the two of us. It was hard to pick from this batch.

I chose this photos first of all because I can remember taking it. Secondly, I loved this dogs eyes. They're so dynamic.

Life-style & Family Portraits: This album acts as the catch all for photography that doesn't involve animals, maternity/infants, weddings or engagements.

This was a tough pick, I really like a lot of photos in this section. I eventually went with this photo because it is pretty recent and I just love the relationships between husband, wife and baby in this photo.

Maternity & Infant:

Eep! We don't have any recent maternity or infant photos in our album! I'll work on that I swear! My family just welcomed the newest itty-bitty addition and I'm looking forward to taking some of her first professional shots!

Couples & Engagements:

Ok I'm cheating a little on this one. This is not a photo that I produced. Chrissy was the mastermind behind this gem.

I'm trying not to be biased when I pick this photo. This is just some great work. The depth of field is grabbing, the colors are pure...the subjects are a bit odd, though. ;-)

Weddings:

Last but not least, we come to our wedding photography. This is some of the most enjoyable work we do (in my humble opinion). It is so great to get the behind the scenes look at the makings of a wedding and then capture the precious moments for a new couple. ::Sigh:: Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

On that note, this is also the photo I chose for my Photo Friday submission. I feel like this photo tells a story. It's a moment captured in time, to last an eternity.

I'm not exactly sure if this is the very best photo we or I took in 2010 but it moved me the most tonight. I hope you all enjoyed my second trip down memory lane. I'm looking forward to a big 2011, I hope you all are as well!

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

2010: A recap

2011-01-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

2010 was a busy year for me on a personal level. The whole getting married thing kind of had a bit to do with that. Before I fully embrace 2011, I'd like to revisit the photography of 2010. In chronologicalish order.

In February of 2010, with the weather just beginning to warm and my mental to-do list hinging on Save the Dates going out, I badgered Chrissy into braving a chilly day for mine and Steven's engagement photos. This was the first time that I had been on the other side of the camera. It was a unique experience and I had a lot of fun! We had several favorites from the lot but this particular picture still reins supreme (at least to me).

This was also the day that Chrissy and I took our "About SOR" page photo, courtesy of Steven.

A hop skip and a jump forward we get to May 2010 and my cousin, Jesse's wedding. As their wedding gift, I shot their photography.

This was the first time I had seen my cousin (and his family) in years and the first time I was meeting his wife to be. It was a joyous family reunion. I have always been close to Jesse, partners in crime more or less, and it was great to see him marry such a nice (and beautiful!) girl. Their wedding was simple and sweet and I was so happy to be a part of it.

In June of 2010, we were hired to photograph three lovable pups. This photo shoot was bittersweet, the matriarch pup had recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness and would likely pass soon. We were honored to capture her likeness for her owners - something for them to cherish.

They had also just gotten a puppy. He was beyond cute and so well behaved for a pup.

With my wedding fast approaching, the photography hobby-job wasn't foremost on my mind. In August, Chrissy put me in front of the camera again and took my bridal portraits at Second Empire in Raleigh. I kid you not, these came out better than my wedding photography pics did. I think the indoor light is key to really capturing the detail of my dress.

But of course sometimes it's better to lose detail for drama. In this case, I love the drama.

In the early part of September, as a belated gift to my parents, I spent a half an hour chasing them around the beach, telling my Dad to stop making faces. Oh and I took a couple photos.

So far you've probably already seen at least half of these photos before. That is assuming you've been reading my previous posts. But as someone wisely told me once, no one should ever assume anything. In which case, please feel free to read back through my previous posts.

I do have some new material to share with you today. In the end of November, when it was bitter cold out, I held two mini photo shoots at the art museum in Raleigh. I don't have any photos available at this time from the first photo shoot, I'll have to post those next, but I can show you a few from my second couple. Remember Laurissa and Doug Cubbage from 2009? Here they are for round two of the holiday photo session!

Laurissa and Doug had just welcomed their son, Jackson, in August of 2010. He was a good sport, but it was so cold that day and the wind was unforgiving; we only stuck around for about 15 minutes. These guys are such great subjects, that's all we needed to get a few really awesome shots!

I love this shot. Everyone say, "Hi Jackson!"

2011 brings all sorts of new opportunities and we're excited to get started. Keep checking back often; one of my new years resolutions is to start participating in the Photo Friday challenges again!

As always, thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Beach Bums

2010-11-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

Back in the later part of the summer I got a request from Debi (my step-mom) to take some new photos of her and my father. This was supposed to be their Mothers and Fathers day gift. We managed to schedule a weekend for the photos but I'm only just NOW finishing the editing. Remember...life was hectic...

In any case, I'm very happy that I can now share them with everyone. So here's the scoop.

My darling parents' dream has and ever will be to retire as beach bums. Today, they're closer than they've ever been before (they own a beach house...they're still working on the bum part). It was then only logical that we take these photos at the beach. I'm still finding sand in my camera bags.

Debi is a fantastic model, she knows which way to look and when to smile and how much to smile...my Dad on the other hand...he kept on making alligator-neck faces. When I told Debi to put her leg in the air, my Dad did instead. Now I know why I'm such a smart-ass.

I did manage to get a few good photos of him though...just had to make sure he didn't realize I was taking them...

And then when Dad would goof off, Debi would start giggling. It honestly reminded me a little of Steven and I. After some coaxing (I think I offered beer) I get them both in order (at the same time) to get some good ones.

Say it with me....AAAAAAaaaaawwwwwwww

You crazy, gray haired beach bums, I lurv you.

That's all for now, I'm caught up on photoshoots. I have a feeling I'll be sharing some various family photos soon though!

Thanks for reading, have a fantastic weekend!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Back into the swing of things!

2010-11-18T06:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, long time no see! Sorry, my fault.

My life got a little hectic between my last post and September 25th. What happened you ask? Oh nothing, just got hitched...became a wifey...strapped on the ol' ball and chain (or is it an apron for us girls?)

I've gotten the question, "So, hows married life?" a lot lately. The honest truth, in our case, it's exactly like unmarried life was. But unmarried life was good, so, married life is good! The wedding was phenomenal, everything I could have wanted and more. I would do a whole recap on the weekend here but this is not the time or the place. However if you'd like to read about our adventurous honeymoon, we blogged about it!

My intent of this post is very simple. Now that the wedding is over, and Steven has seen the dress...I can finally do a blog post about my bridal portraits!! *does a happy dance*

My last post was just the tip of the iceberg, there was so much more to share. To recap, these were taken in August at Second Empire in downtown Raleigh. Chrissy did such a fantastic job. I'm really trying to not be biased but these photos are just beautiful.

The major challenge to photographing a wedding dress with details is that the details often get drowned out. For instance, my dress is ivory with gold stitching and beading. If you introduce too much light, to perhaps, get the correct color on skin, then you run the chance of overexposing the white dress and losing the delicate detailing.

Did Chrissy do that? Nope!

I will always treasure these photos. I'll never get to wear that dress quite like that again.Granted, it was heavy, and incredibly difficult to swing dance in but...oh that train.

Good memories, good times. Thank you again Chrissy doing such an excellent job. If we are this good single-handedly, imagine the photos with two photographers!

I'll leave you with one last photo and a promise that I'll be back much more often than I have been in the last few months. Now that life has returned to normal and I'm not planning the biggest party of my life to date, I can focus on my challenges and start posting my Photo Fridays again! One last thing, the holidays are around the corner, do you have your family portrait yet?! Check out our Lifestyle & Family Portraits packages for your holiday needs.

Seriously love this photo.

As always, thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Photoshop Skills

2010-08-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

This challenge went against my general approach to photography. I don't take a photo and think, "Man, this photo will be awesome once I edit the crap out of it in Photoshop!" No...I try and take a picture as close to perfect as possible so that I have to do as little work as possible, later. In other words, I didn't participate in this weeks challenge. I bet the submissions were pretty neat looking though, I'd take a gander.

No worries though, I won't leave you (who is "you" anyways?) hanging. Last weekend, Chrissy and I had a fantastic photo shoot! The subject of the photo shoot? Little ol' me! We met at Second Empire in downtown Raleigh, NC, where I got all dolled up and smiled pretty for the camera. Second Empire is gorgeous, if you've never been there, you need to go. The food is expensive but the ambiance is beyond compare. We were very lucky that they let us use their dining rooms for free! There were SO many photography opportunities in that house but we ran out of time to capture them all.

I wish I could post all of my favorites here for the world to see but unfortunately, Steven, my darling fiance, would be able to see them. I know we're very non traditional when it comes to this wedding but that's one aspect I'm following. He doesn't get to see me in the dress before the day of. But like I said, I won't leave you hanging. Chrissy captured the perfect teaser photo.

If by chance you'd like to see more photos of my bridal portraits, you'll either have to wait a month, or email me, shadesofredphotography@gmail.com.

I had so much fun getting all dolled up and doing photos. I'm looking forward to doing it again for the main performance! Time is flying by!

That's all I have for this Friday. I hope everyone has a spectacular weekend! Thanks for reading!
-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Best Friend

2010-08-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

Is it blatantly apparent that I'm a dog person when the first thing I think of when reading this weeks challenge is dogs? Best friend = dogs? Right? No? I think they fit the description pretty well. Someone you can yammer on to incessantly, someone who will never judge you, someone who will always love you, someone you can play fetch with....

The photo for this weeks submission so sorta fell into my lap. There I was, busily making my veil with my step-mum when she hijacked my camera and started taking photos. And then I hear "Aww, Liz come see this" and I get up from my toil to see Steven wrapped around Gunnar and Rhea on the living room floor. Awww, now that's a photo that screams "Best Friend". So I stole my camera back and started snapping. Of course Rhea woke up....

I think pups make the best spooners and heaters. That is until they want to get up and completely tussle you about.

This next weeks challenge is "Photoshop Skills" GREAT! I have none.....

On SOR news, tomorrow I'm getting all dolled up and Chrissy will be joining me at Second Empire in downtown Raleigh for my bridal portraits! Yay! I'm afraid I won't be able to post teaser photos of the shoot though...considering Steven can see this blog. Well, I'll see what I can do. ;-)

As always thanks for reading, don't forget to VOTE, I'm number 240. Thanks!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Sky High

2010-07-30T06:12:00.000-07:00

I didn't actually participate in this weeks competition. The only photo I could think of using was one I already had of Masi and I'm trying to not always submit photos of my dogs now, but I thought maybe you all would enjoy seeing it anyways!

If I had thought of it I should have brought my camera to the concert I went to on Wednesday. It was the Slightly Stoopid show with Cypress Hill and Collie Buddz, and the tour was called Legalize it 2010. What do you think they meant? In any case, the crowd, the majority at least, was...sky high. If you breathed deep enough you'd probably have been as well. The most memorable parts about the crowd, besides the plums of smoke surrounding us, was this incredibly intoxicated, glistening, overweight man who nearly took out our entire row and this stoner in front of me who I nearly backhanded for trying to untie a girls dress as she walked by him. I'm thinking box seats next time.

Allow me to get back to the point of this post - the photo challenge. The photo I wanted to submit is one I've had around for a couple years. I call it, Stoner Masi...you'll see why in a minute....

I get a giggle whenever I see this photo.

We're only a couple weeks away from my bridal portraits with Chrissy. I'm really looking forward to the experience, it will be a lot of fun. Other than that, I'll keep posting my weekly Photo Fridays!

As always, thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Summer Fun

2010-07-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

I had the perfect opportunity to capture some real summertime fun for this challenge. And yes, I actually did it! My friend Kate and I visiting my S-Mom at my parent's beach house on the weekend of July 10th and it proved to be the perfect setting for some summertime fun!

It was a spectacular weekend of gabbing, food, drinking and more gabbing. We did some very important research for the upcoming bachelorete weekend. I also managed to make pretty good headway on my terrible bike tanlines, Yay!

But I digress. For this Photo Friday submission, I thought a picture of something pertaining to the beach would be perfect! What is the first thing you think of when you think of the summer? The Beach! Thus, I came up with my submission...

Carolina Beach was never my favorite beach (that would be Oak Island) but it is certainly growing on me. There is so much more to do there than one originally realizes. So much history! Besides the Fort that's just down the road, you have old time staples like Britt's Donut's that's been there since the 30's! We discovered a very tasty Mexican restaurant on the boardwalk too! I still think that the shining beacon of fun would have to be the Fat Pelican. I love that place. I'd stay there forever if they only served food. ::sigh:: The one thing Carolina Beach is lacking as far as I can tell is an excellent hole in the wall seafood place. So for that, we took the ferry over to Southport and ate at Fishy Fishy. Terrible name...awesome food! Mmmm....ok now I want to go back.

Ah the summer sure is fun...but I'll be honest. I really miss Spring and Fall.

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Photo Friday: Bloom

2010-07-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

Yay! I can take a picture of any bloomin' thing! Blooming Cantaloupe, Squash, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Daisies um...pretty tree thing that's blooming (I still have no idea what it's called) - so many options! And I wasn't lazy this time! I faced the heat and snapped a few bloomin' photos! *pats self on back*

I really should have been taking photos all spring and summer long. I've had all sorts of random things blooming.

What's your favorite bloom? Mine would definitely have to be Bleeding Hearts. There is something so beautifully sad and dramatic about them. The plant is so picky, but the blossoms are so worth it. After Bleeding Hearts, I'd say Magnolia tree blossoms because they smell so incredible. That was one of my favorite times at NC State - when the Magnolia trees would blossom. They are all over campus, and they are HUGE. But lucky for me and my shortness, they have low hanging branches, so I could pick a blossom and carry is with me for the day. I remember one day I came home with a blossom and shoved it in Steven's face and said "Here, smell! Yummy!" at which point he began sneezing...allergies...forgot about those...whoops.

Back to the point at hand. So I'm walking around my sweltering back yard yesterday, taking photos of the bloomin' things. Those consist of the Cantaloupe, Squash, Cucumbers, Daisies and the blooming tree thing. This year we replaced the random lava rock stone thing behind the house with a Daisy garden. For about 2 months it looks like huge weeds but then it exploded with blossoms and now it's completely taking over that area. Good thing they're annuals. The photo I chose was from the Daisy garden. I was able to sneak a couple photos of a bee in action! I've always wanted one of those shots!

He kinda looks like he's dancing doesn't he. Don't forget to VOTE! Votes are only taken until Sunday!

Shades of Red news...Unfortunately I won't be doing a photo shoot of my parents this weekend. Communication got lost somewhere and the Army decided to steal my Dad for the weekend. Lame. So unless we book a new client before my bridal portraits (August), you'll have to be satisfied with my ramblings about bees and blossoms and other Photo Friday topics. I hope that's alright, if not, feel free to book a photo shoot. ;-)

Everyone stay cool in the hot hot hot weather! I'm off to the beach!

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

July 2nd Photo Friday: Motionless

2010-07-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

I skipped last week's post. The Photo Challenge was "Standing out" and I had no clue or motivation. I didn't want to let anyone down two weeks in a row though, so, I made it happen for this Photo Friday challenge. I was still lazy/not motivated so I used a photo I had taken previously. I think it fits the challenge pretty well though!

Here is my Motionless:

As you can see from the photo, Masi is intend on staring at...nothing. There's not anything out there but leaves. But OH, she's gonna get it! When I see this photo, I think of Elmer Fudd "ssshhh, be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits!" I can guarantee you Masi wasn't moving a muscle when I took this photo, she was very motionless, obsession will do that to you.

I need to stop using old photos of my dogs for this challenge. That's just lazy of me. The next challenge word is Blooming! Which is perfect considering I have several blooming things.

Recent news for Shades of Red, we shipped off our photos of the pups! The "Endo-Bendo" package may only say 100 photos, but they definitely got more around 160. Oh well, those pups were just too photogenic I guess. You can check them all out here: Shades of Red Photography - Best Friends. Next up, I'm finishing up the edits on Leslie and Jesse's wedding and have started posting the photos to the website, but they are the only ones with a password for now. Once I am finished, I will e-mail the location and password to everyone who signed up at the wedding. Next weekend I am doing a photo shoot for my S-Mom and Dad at Carolina Beach. This is a belated Mother and Fathers day gift. I'm very excited! I'm planning on getting some fantastic photos of them on their new toys...er..motorcycles. Lastly (for now) in August, Chrissy will be doing my Bridal Portraits! YAY!

I think that's it for now. Don't forget to vote HERE, my number is 303.

Thanks for reading!

Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

June 11th Photo Friday: Heavy

2010-06-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

When I first began visualizing this challenge, I pictured something in nature, like a water droplet about to fall off a leaf because its weight had exceeded waters' surface tension properties. Or a big fat ripe tomato pulling the tomato plant down by its weight. Something to that effect.

However, as the week went on, I noticed that my cat's new favorite place to lay was smooshed in between the free-weights (that are sitting idle) in our living room. I couldn't pass this up. It was too cute. I had an image in my head of her saying, "These weights are too Heavy for me, so I'll just lay next to them". She's a lazy kitty, so this makes sense that she would say that. If she could talk. Also, I think if she could talk she'd probably yell at me for constantly bringing new dogs home that think she's an interesting, interactive, toy. Sorry, Sweety. Actually...now that I'm looking at the photo and the expression in her face...I think that's exactly what she's saying.What do you think?

I feel like her gaze is scolding me.*shudder* So this is my Photo Friday: Heavy submission. Please don't forget to VOTE. I know I always do! Yep, I forget to vote for myself even. Winning is kind of unlikely I think.

Chrissy and I have been hard at working processing and editing our recent photo shoot's photos. I think we'll end up with about 160 photos for them. It has been tough narrowing it down to only a few photos. Those pups were so photogenic.

We've decided to keep with tradition and showcase a few of our favorites in a "teaser-photo" blog post. With out further ado, I give you Austin:

Ok, join with me...AAAAaaaaAaAAWWWWWW. I nearly stole this puppy. No I don't need a puppy, but...but...oh he was so cute.

He had a case of the "I wants" he wanted to eat my lens, my ring, my hair...and both of these balls.

The other pups were impressively patient with him.

Well...generally speaking I suppose.

That brings us to the next cute little fuzzball, Andre. I asked the owners if he was named after Andre the Giant, since his personality fit that perfectly. We are told he spends his days perched on the bench at the front of the house keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

We asked Jason and Tina their favorites parts of each dog so we could be sure to focus or at least capture those features. Austin, they didn't have a clear answer, he's just a big ball of cute. Ava, her cute brown nose! Andre, his smile, as they put it. Andre smiles with all his teeth...

I don't mean to play favorites but if I had to pick one, I'd have to say Ava. She was so beautiful. I'm a softy for Dobermans, and especially the lighter ones. Believe it or not, Jason and Tina actually adopted Ava from the shelter. I like this photo that Chrissy took. It really captures her regal personality.

She is a gorgeous example of a dog.

I've always felt that the soul of a dog can be seen through their eyes. Her eyes made me melt.

These 3 were quite the pack. We loved working with them and with Jason and Tina. We hope to be able to photograph them again.

Thank you, Jason and Tina for the opportunity to get to know your pups, it was a real pleasure!

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

June 4th Photo Friday!

2010-06-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

ACK! I haven't posted in 2 weeks...Sorry. Though, honestly, I have NO idea who I'm apologizing to. Does anyone actually read this? Haha.

Just in case I do have a few followers, I appologize for not posting for the last couple weeks. One week was the Burn Race weekend and the next we escaped to the beach! I had no time to post! Enough excuses though.

June 4ths Photo Friday challenge word was Aqua. Perfect! I went to the beach that weekend. What? I actually had to take a photo of the blue, blue water? Oh, well, never mind. Lucky for me a week or so ago, we took the dogs to the park and I took my camera. I love getting photos of the dogs when they're swimming. They are so happy then. I really think they were meant to be ducks.

Here is my challenge photo for this weeks Photo Friday.

Dog shaking-off-to-dry photos are the best! What's particularly awesome about this photo in my opinion is that Masi is this wet, because she actually swam! Yeah, I know she's been swimming since last year. But it took me 3 years and some very wet shorts to teach her how to swim! and now she does it on her own! without further encouragement! If you knew Masi when we first got her, you'd be as excited about this as I am. Good girl, Masi.

While I didn't submit this for my challenge photo, this is my new favorite photo of Rhea.

It just makes me wanna smoosh her wet face in my arms and kiss her.

On another note. Shades of Red Photography had a photo session this week! We had the pleasure of meeting Ava (Doberman), Andre (Schipperke and Chihuahua mix) and Austin (puppy Weimaraner). I have a fondness for Dobermans, I think they are so regal and beautiful. Ava was such a gentle, patient girl. And Austin...lets just say he was exactly what I needed for my puppy fix. He LOVED the cameras and when I say that, I mean he loved to chew on them. Their people, Jason and Tina were great to work with and they have some of the nicest pups. We should have a few photos ready for a teaser post in the next week, so tune back to see those!

One last note. To all those waiting on Jesse and Leslie's photos. I have about 250 more photos to edit/process until they will be available online. I'm hoping to have them done by the end of the month!

Thanks for reading, don't forget to VOTE for my photo and have a great weekend!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadeofredphotography.com

Jesse & Leslie say "I Do" and Photo Friday: Symbols

2010-05-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

I, Liz, come from a small town in Upstate NY called, Volney. Volney is rural county with rolling hills and farmland; it is pretty secluded. Without many neighbors of my own age, I mainly played with my older brother, James since I was also home schooled. Poor kid, he put up with a lot. Then one year my Aunt and Uncle moved to Volney and stayed on my grandparents farm, which was next door, while they found themselves a new home. Their children were about the same age as my siblings and I. Their youngest boy, Jesse, was only a couple months older than me. During the time that they lived there I spent almost every waking "play" hour with my cousins, especially Jesse.

I lived in Volney from when I was around 5 till I was 12. My back yard was about 240 combined acres between my grandparents and great grandparents land. I remember so many trips in the woods with my cousins. Jesse, do you remember the "Iron Wood" walking sticks? Or swimming in the beaver pond? Or finding that strangely serene meadow before continuing into the "deep woods".

Fast forward 12 years, Jesse took the plunge on May 6th and brought a new, lovely woman into our family. I had the pleasure of providing the photography of their nuptials as my gift to them. Their wedding came with a bit of a struggle. First their reserved wedding site was flooded with 5 ft of water from the rains in Kentucky. Then the chair rentals fell through. Then we lost the wedding music! But true to form, they pulled through admirably. In the end, Jesse and Leslie accomplished what they intended - they were married.

Leslie was such a beautiful bride.

And not an ounce of bridezilla in her! The first time she met me was the day before the wedding and she welcomed me with a smile and light, sarcastic, banter - my kinda girl. Even with everything that went on, she held her composure and even joked about it. Bravo, Leslie.

The ceremony was short and sweet; Jesse and Leslie stood in front of a lovely waterfall with their close friends and family. Leslie's dress was a gorgeous champagne color with a chapel train that had a lovely french bustle for the reception. After the ceremony, it was picture time! I had to have some fun with the groom and the groomsmen ( I've known most of them since I was 5). I love non-traditional poses. They always make people laugh and genuinely smile. One of my favorites for the groom and his groomsmen is the "Captain" pose.

I stole in on an intimate moment between Leslie and Jesse and captured this. I feel like their eyes are saying "finally!" They are so good together.

I think this photos says, "Finally!" for very different reasons. ;-)

Someone once told me that it appears that I find it hard to post a photo shoot without including a picture of a dog. Maybe they're right. Meet Gage, their Husky. What a cuddle bug! He was such a well behaved dog, and so sweet. Jesse and Leslie requested he be in a few of the wedding photos - this is my favorite.

I know this is a lot of "teasers" but I couldn't help myself. I was so happy to be a part of their special day and to be able to capture their love and commitment to each other. I'll leave you with one last photo. This is also the photo I used for May14th Photo Friday challenge: Symbols. I think the image speaks for itself.

Congratulations Leslie & Jesse! Welcome to the family Leslie, I think you'll fit right in. Thank you two for letting me a part of your day and I can't wait to give you the remainder of your photos!

For those who would like an e-mail notification of when Jesse and Leslie's photos will be available online, please e-mail me at shadesofredphotography@gmail.com.

As always, thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

May 7th Photo Friday Challenge: The Coast

2010-05-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

This Photo Friday challenge doesn't leave much up to interpretation. The Coast...I wonder what will be involved in these photos? Perhaps a sea? Some sand? Waves and the such? I was thinking of photographing a coasting bike but decided to go with the no-brainer. Is that lazy of me?

Last year sometime in the summer, I can't remember the exact month anymore. We (myself, Steven and our friends) visited the North Carolina coast at Carolina Beach. Lucky for us, there was a hurricane off the coast (note sarcasm). The rip tide was so strong, the lifeguards would not let you out past your knees. That is, unless you had a surfboard or the like. One of the couples we traveled with did indeed have a surfboard! See...

In the midst of the watery oppression, the surfboard meant freedom. I think after I took this photo we proceeded to build the biggest sand castle ever (I might be exaggerating). Complete with a 5 ft pit that Matt (surfboard guy) dug with a random shovel left on the beach (a real shovel). Then we had fun jump kicking the sand castle into the 5 ft pit so that no one would accidentally kill themselves.

On another note! Sorry for my absence last week! I was in Lexington, Kentucky photographing my cousin's beautiful wedding! Tune back in the next couple of days for a sneak peek at some of my favorite shots!

Thanks for reading!
-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

April 23rd Photo Friday Challenge: Sunshine

2010-04-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Sunshine....on my SHOULDERS....makes me HAPPYYYYY....

Who doesn't love the sun warming your back on a cool spring day? That has to be one of my favorite feelings. Or the way the sun beams pierce a storm cloud after a good rain. The sun does some great things, and damaging things, but lets not focus on those.

For this Photo Friday challenge I thought I'd take a photo of the sun in action. Doing what it does best, feeding things that feed us. I have a small garden in my back yard, it consists of tomatoes, peppers, squash, carrots, cantaloupe, cucumbers and CORN. Yep, corn, in a residential neighborhood. I know it may be odd, but I love some corn and the first plant I thought of when I thought of wanting a garden was corn. I was giddy when the first corn seedlings broke through the tough North Carolina clay. Now they're about 6-10 inches tall. I digress. Here's my photo.

Just look at that sun in action! Grow corn GROW!!!

Please vote for me, go to the Photo Friday website and find entry 354! Thanks.
This weeks challenge word is Sexy. There's no getting around this one.
As always, thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com

April 16th Photo Friday: Wheels

2010-04-23T06:36:00.000-07:00

I just counted, I have around 34 wheels at my disposal to take photos of at my house. That's a lot of wheels. So with such ample opportunity to take photos of wheels, the real challenge for this Photo Friday was to make the photo interesting. So I decided to play with lighting. Unfortunately I have no lighting equipment but I do have a couple very powerful bike lights.

So again, on the 11th hour, I pull out my dusty camera (yes dusty, I haven't had any photo shoots in a while! I'm going to be rusty for my cousins wedding) the dirty single speed and the pristine Seca 700 bike light. It was really neat to play with the lighting. To see the different emotions I could get out of an inanimate object just with shadows and light. I'm totally an amateur at shadows and light but it was fun to experiment. Might have to play with this some more!

After a bunch of photos I had several options and finally decided on this.

It kinda feels like it's coming at you doesn't it. This is the rear wheel on my fiance's Selma Single Speed. She was a good model, I may have to work with her again.

This week's challenge work is Sunshine...and it's supposed to rain this weekend. Come on! Maybe the sun will peak through the clouds and give me an awesome sunbeam photo. One can only hope. Check back next week to see what I can come up with!

Thanks for reading!

-Liz
www.shadesofredphotography.com
shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

April 9th Photo Friday: Overcast

2010-04-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah...I've got nothing. In the week for this submission, it wasn't rainy or an appropriate cloudiness. Go figure. We've had a very wet and icky fall, winter and early spring and now the skies dry up? Thanks. I think nature has a vendetta against our grass seed and my garden. This is what I think of your vendetta nature!!

Oh yes, I did it, I made Gunnar stick his tongue out at you! He's so supportive of my rants.

So...since I don't have a photo to submit I skipped this submission (yes on purpose, no I didn't forget...really). I figured I'd bore everyone with photos of the "kids". Nope, not even recent photos! I'm so cruel.

Cleo says she's bored of this and is going to go back to sleeping...

Wake me if there's a bug I need to chase, k thanx.

On a side note, completely unrelated, this spring we've been surrounded by carpenter bees. Those big fat scary sounding bees that are about as harmless as flies? These guys. They love our house and fence, it's apparently very tasty. Lucky we don't have wood siding, only wood fascia boards and a wood fence. But I digress. Masi...

What?

loves to chase bugs (we think she used to be a cat...she cleans herself too). There was one summer a couple years back when Bond Park was swarming with June Bugs and oh boy did she go nuts! It was hilarious. She'd run around chomping at all of them. Occasionally, catching one and then freaking out b/c they wouldn't stop buzzing in her mouth. I think that day we played "smack the June Bug" with the chuck-it. Which got old, so we left early. Wow, that was a tangent.

Back to the point, the carpenter bees. Well, they're about the same size as a June Bug and make about the same amount of noise. To Masi, they're ripe for the killing. Whenever we're outside she'll start running and leaping at, from what we can tell, nothing at all. Until we hear bbbzzzZZZZZzzzz as the bee flies by us. I'm so very curious to see what will happen if she ever catches one, and I really hope I have my camera. Rhea would like to see this too. She's already laughing so hard, her tongue won't stay in her mouth! And her ears have gone cockeyed!

I'm just hot...and you're weird.

On a more tragic note. A friend of our family's has recently left us. You'll be missed Alex. You were one of the many adopted children of our family, and there is a tangible void now that you're gone. I'll remember how you saved me from certain boredom at Carolina Beach and the flowers for my graduation. I don't have any fitting photo of you to share to end this post so I'll share a photo of Carolina Beach. R.I.P. Alex.

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

March 2nd Photo Friday: Blurred

2010-04-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

For this Photo Friday challenge I wanted to take an action shot of the pups or at least something in motion for a motion blur. Unfortunately, I did my usual and procrastinated until the 11th hour (literally) and had to use a photo I had taken previously. I had 3 photos I narrowed it down to. Each had a lovely DOF but in the end I really just liked this photo of my brother.

What I like about this photo is for one thing the great bokeh effect (blurred background with in focus foreground) and how sweet and charming it is. I think it goes pretty far to capture his personality. He has no idea I'm using a photo of him for this weeks challenge, hope he doesn't mind. This was taken on Easter Sunday outside our step-sister-in-law's house. I'm pretty sure he asked me to stop taking photos after this...

Surpwise James! Thanks for being a(n) (un)willing subject in my photo challenge.

This week's challange is Overcast...geee...I wonder what I'll take a photo of.....

Thanks for reading!
Oh! don't forget to VOTE!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com
shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

March 26th Photo Friday Challenge: Pleasure

2010-04-02T05:54:00.000-07:00

Pop quiz, what is the first thing you think of when you think of photography + pleasure....yeah...me too. I couldn't photograph that...I don't think blogger would let me post it. I am at a loss for this challenge word. I had the image of what I felt the perfect portrait of pleasure to be...and it was stuck in my minds eye, not letting any other creative vision take seed.

So in an effort to not fail and to actually post something, I dug into my photography stash. Something in there must portray pleasure. I found the perfect photo!

It's carnal, it's seductive, it has a feeling of impending pleasure, its....crap that's not my photography. This would be a photo that Chrissy took for Steven and I for our engagement photos. I'm pretty sure submitting this photo as my own work goes against my moral code. Well crap, but hey, there's got to be something else.

And there was. In 2009 Chrissy and I had the pleasure (hey, key word!) of meeting Toya and Jerry, soon to be Owino. We were recommended to them through a friend of a friend and were able to take their engagement photos as well as their wedding photography. These two were so intimate, it was obvious they were deeply in love. Typically when we photograph couples, we have to ask them to kiss, we had to ask these guys to stop!

I took this photo on their engagement photo shoot. This was in the courtyard of the Raleigh courthouse. I love how it appears as if I'm sneaking in on them to capture this intimate moment. It amazes me that this was nearly a year ago. In May they'll be celebrating their one year anniversary! Toya and Jerry Owino...good people.

Enough of my rambling, here's the photo I submitted.

If you liked this photo (or even if you didn't) please vote for me! Go to Photo Friday: Pleasure my submission is titled SOR_Pleasure, it is number 271.

As always, thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com
shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

March 19th Photo Friday: Children

2010-03-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

Everyone say it with me....F.A.I.L....yep...I did it again...I completely forgot about my submission until I got the e-mail for this weeks Photo Friday challenge (which by the way is Pleasure...that should be an interesting shoot...) ::sigh:: I'm losing my memory in my old age.

But, lucky for me (and maybe for you?) there's no deadline to my own blog post! Yay! Procrastination wins again! Ok, back to business...

I had so many options for this challenge (that's really why it irritates me so much that I forgot.) So many fantastic photos of so many wonderful children. Plus there's my furry children. There is one girl who I photographed that always stands out in my mind though. And it's because of these...

Big blue eyes full of joy and wonderment. She's going to break some hearts with those big blue eyes. I had the pleasure of photographing this lovely young lady and her family for their holiday photos in 2009 (hopefully again for 2010?) That was my first photo shoot without my partner (in crime) and was a great learning experience for me (I really like the parenthesis today don't I?) Plus I got to meet some of the most photogenic kids ever. Anywho...I digress. This isn't actually the photo I would have submitted for Photo Friday...

This is:

The reason I would have used this photo over the previous one is I feel this photo really captures what we all remember about being a child. The simple joy of a backyard swing set, a cool crisp autumn day, and being able to wear a butterfly on our shirts! come on, it doesn't get better than that.

Makes me want to go make a leaf maze at my Grandpa and Grandma's house in NY again. Those were the days...

Well thanks for looking, don't bother going to the Photo Friday website to vote for my photo, because you won't find it. I swear, I'll post the next challenge photo on time...really...should be an interesting shoot...

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com
shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

March 12th's Photo Friday Challenge: Nightlife

2010-03-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

I went into this challenge thinking, "Sweet, nightlife, I can photograph nightlife," yeah...maybe if I had one. My nightlife (especially on the weekdays) consists of walking or running the dogs, eating in front of the TV, working on the house or wedding stuff and generally lounging. All of this isn't so bad really, but doesn't make for incredibly exciting photos. Then I thought on it some more, let's face it...I live in Suburbia. Cary, North Carolina is a great, quiet, safe place to live and I love it, but it doesn't lend well to a nightlife (I guess we have our local watering holes but still...this isn't a big city type of atmosphere). But who says that a nightlife can't be tranquil and picturesque. Well I say it can be! and with that, here is my submission...

This is a photo from my front door. This is the nightlife of Cary. Calm streets with street lights, beautifully manicured lawns (my neighbors, not mine) and an abundance of landscaping lights (yeah I don't know what's up with them either). Not much going on, but that's perfectly fine with me. I can still cause mayhem if I want to...just means it's easier to get caught.

This Friday's challenge word is children. I think I have a few (a LOT) of options for that one! I'm trying to talk Chrissy into submitting one too...maybe some encouragement from our audience will do it?

Thanks for reading! Tune back next week for another Photo Friday!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com
shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

March 5th Photo Friday

2010-03-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

I'm on a roll! But only barely. I think I made the submission deadline by 30 mins last night. Good thing my pups are good sports and will let me take their photo for random reasons, in random locations, at random times. The challenge word for March 5th's Photo Friday was "Cleanliness." How exactly do you take a photo of cleanliness? I thought a photo of the cat cleaning herself would work great, but that didn't pan out (apparently she likes to mainly clean her butt...........) and then I had this awesome photo in my mind of a very soaked Rhea, like when we give her a bath. However we didn't bathe the pups in the week of the submission...so what is a girl to do?! I can tell you! Coax your loyal subject upstairs (sometimes cookies help) and force them to enter the Shower of Doom and sit there patiently. You will automatically be greeted by a very sad and forlorn face, which was perfect for the picture I was going for.

The end result was a slightly damp Rhea (from the rain) with a sad, and confused (maybe bored) look on her face, laying in the Shower of Doom. I call it "I loath the Cleanliness." She's such a good sport. If you like my submission go to Photo Friday and vote for me! My submission is titled SOR_Clean. Ok enough yammering, I give you my submission!

Thanks for reading!

-Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com
shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

The Beginning of Stiz

2010-03-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

As promised I am finally posting our engagement photos. Yes, a little late, but better late than never, right? I'm just going to keep telling myself that... For our engagement photo shoot, Chrissy was all on her own and she did a fantastic job. I'll admit it was rather odd being on the other side of the lens but I tried to just go with the flow and let Chrissy do her thing. It was a great experience and I'm so glad we were able to do it. Now I'm really excited about my bridal portraits.

For the venue for our engagement shots, what better place than NC State campus. While we didn't meet there, we both attended NC State and probably passed each other without even knowing it. The campus symbolized a special time in both our lives and we were very happy to be able to do our photos there.

I had so many favorites (SO many). These are the first good photos taken of us and I just gobbled them up! I'm afraid I can't post all of them but I will show you a few of my favorites. If you would like to view the reaminder, please visit our Couples and Engagements portfolio on our website.

To me one of the most unique things about NC State campus is the Free Expression Tunnel. I mean really, how many other universities out there encourage graffiti? I think it's fantastic and always enjoy seeing what is new in there. Unfortunately while we were there it appeared UNC was blueing out the tunnel (one of the drawbacks to allowing graffiti) but we were able to find a small area where there wasn't quite as much blue...

Our photo shoot wouldn't be complete if we didn't have our dogs! It was fantastic to be able to get some great shots of the 5 of us by the bell tower.

I love the sequence we did with the brick wall.

This is my favorite on the brick wall though. I love the energy of the photo.

I could keep going but I think I'll leave you with just one more. I believe I loaded about 20 photos on the website so feel free to check out more!

It is fantastic to finally have engagement photos of Steven and I. We've been engaged for about a year and 3 months at this point and still have about 6 more to go. It's been great and I'm looking forward to finally being Mr. and Ms. Stiz.* Thanks again Chrissy for braving the cold and the wind to do our engagement photos!

*Ok, let me explain the Stiz. A lot of the friends we visit often are married and have the same last name so most often we just refer to them as the Smiths, for example. But with Steven and I, who will never have the same last name, they were faced with having to say our first names when referring to us (I know, terrible isn't it). So our friends came up with Stiz (combination of Steven and Liz) as our designated name. In other words, we are the Stiz's not Steven and Liz. I think it's hilarious and I love it and so I have adopted it as my own.

-Liz DiNatale

www.shadesofredphotography.com

shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

Feb 26th Photo Friday

2010-03-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

Yes! I did it! I remembered again! After my failure last week, I was determined to remember this week's submission. The challenge was Self Portrait...I've never done a self portrait...I always kinda felt vain taking photos of myself. But, duty calls (duty Chrissy, not dooty).

When I asked myself, what a good self portrait would be, I pondered the things that brought me to be who I am today and the things that influence me on a daily basis. I didn't think it would be an appropriate self portrait if I didn't show example of those things as well. So here is what I came up with...

This is me surrounded by the things that influence me daily. My 3 terrific pups, my awesome cat, my fiance, Steven and my hobbies, photography and cycling (those are my cycling glasses I'm wearing). Yes, there are tons more things that influence me but these were the easiest things to represent. Yes, my family has had a huge part in making me who I am today but I didn't have any printed pictures of my family (this is something I need to remedy). Thanks to everyone who's helped me grow as a person or who has dealt with me on my continuing journey (it couldn't have always been easy). I can only hope as I age and mature (like a fine wine? No? Maybe?) that who I become will do justice to those that influenced me.

And on that note, thanks for reading!

Yep, I still haven't uploaded the engagement photos, I'M SORRY! I've been painting a master bathroom! I'll try to this weekend..promise...

-Liz DiNatale

www.ShadesofRedPhotography.com

shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

Feb19th Friday Photo Challenge

2010-02-26T05:11:00.000-08:00

Well that didn't last long. I failed, and rather early on. I forgot to submit my Photo Friday challenge photo. **kicks self** BUT since you all may enjoy it, I'll post it on here ANYWAYS. Ha! Bet you're happy....maybe....

In any case, this would have been my post for the Photo Friday Challenge of Nature. When I think of nature I try to remove the human element and imagine what was there before us and what will survive without us. There is nothing more carnal nature than the ocean. It's unforgiving and brutal, yet plentiful and nurturing. Combine that with the sun, the reason life goes on (though I guess that's not entirely true since they found itty bitty organisms in dark caves that never get sunlight...but work with me here) and you've got a picture perfect image of Nature.

So if you haven't guessed what my picture is yet...reread that paragraph...or just look at the pretty picture.

This is the sunrise at Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Sometime nearing fall I believe (because it was 6am when I got this and not 5am). It is moments like this, when you are gazing on something this simple, pure and magnificent, that you just feel...tiny.

I'd be concerned my watermark is working on this photo but it's already all over my facebook for the world to steal and enjoy so why bother copy writing it now?

This Friday's challenge is Self Portrait. Yikes, this should be interesting. I swear I'll remember to post on time. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Liz DiNatale
www.shadesofredphotography.com
shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

Feb 12th Photo Friday Contest

2010-02-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

As promised I've (Liz) continued this Photo Contest thing. Let's see how long I can keep it going! Feb 12th's photo challenge word was Lightness. I had planned on using a picture of Masi where she was jumping for a ball and edit it to look like she was floating in the air. But when I went home to visit the dogs at lunch yesterday Cleo was warming herself in the sun that was shining through the patio doors and I thought "She's absorbing the lightness!". I thought it would be a neat picture to play with exposure, highlights and contrast. She is always a willing subject if she doesn't actually have to get up or do anything.

Here's the photo that resulted.

This is one of my favorites of her now. This may be hanging in the house somewhere soon.

I know I promised our engagement photos soon but I've been forgetting to post them. Soon, I promise. Maybe this weekend. I'm afraid after my engagement photos are posted we won't have any more photo shoots to share! Well until my bridal portraits. In other words, if you know of anyone (including yourself of course) who wants some family photos, is getting engaged and needs a wedding photographer, wants to capture some precious moments with their pet or with their spouse, tell them to look us up!

Thanks for reading! We hope you have a great rest of the week and enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Bring on the baby photos!

2010-02-15T06:51:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone - it's Chrissy. Yes, I do exist; I'm not some figment of Liz's imagination. I thought I'd try my hand at this blog posting thing and give you all a taste of what I've been up to.

As you saw, Liz was able to capture some of the larger (yet tender and beautiful) moments of my pregnancy. Photographing a big belly and hormonal mommy-to-be must have been a challenge for Liz, but she did a great job and it was interesting for me to be on the other side of the lens. I felt rather clueless and in need of direction - thank goodness I was able to rely on Liz to put together the perfect shots. Not only was she able to manage me, a flopping around baby inside, and a scruffy hubby... she tamed the wild beasts and snagged some great family photos. You don't have to wait until the holiday season to capture those tender moments with your family. You and your loved ones are changing daily... growing up, growing as a family, experiencing the world in new ways each day. Contact us today to seal those moments in photographs.

A few weekends ago, we turned the tables and put Liz on the other side of the camera for her engagement photo session. What a fun time! We look forward to sharing some of our favorite shots and hearing your feedback. It helps to have such willing and good-looking subjects (Liz's pups always cooperate!) Oh, and Steven and Liz were great, too. :-D Be on the lookout for a post soon!

Being a Mommy is a whole new and exciting experience for me. Since I've been holed up indoors (due to doctor's recovery instructions AND the lovely weather), I've found myself behind the camera almost daily documenting my daughter's every blink and yawn and poo-face. (Slight exaggeration...) But I've found beauty in the simplest moments... and those moments make you wonder...

What do babies dream about?

Would they have chosen that outfit if they had a choice?

What are they thinking when they stare at you with those big baby eyes?

And is there anything more beautiful than the innocence of a baby's loving gaze?

Photographing an infant can be a challenge but the results are well worth it! It keeps me on my toes, juggling my lenses, inventing new poses, and capturing beauty in the tiniest of features.

~ Chrissy

Photo Friday Contest

2010-02-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

I (Liz) have decided it would be entertaining and challenging to participate in a weekly photo contest. Just something to challenge my eye and to help me think outside the norm. So after a grueling 30 seconds of googling, I decided on Photo Friday since it seemed the most straight forward and easy to upload. Every Friday they post a new challenge and you have a week to post your submission. This week the challenge was Surfaces.

Surfaces...that's a pretty generic thing. But hey, a varying depth of field can make anything interesting. What? I don't have a prime? Crap. (on a side note, yes I know you don't need a prime to get that effect it's just a lot nicer with a prime). So with my trusty 28-135mm lens I went through the house in search of an interesting surface. After taking photos of several different things at varying angles I happened upon our shiny mantle (that I had just dusted)! This is where I took my contest submission and here is how it turned out.

I love how the shiny white paint reflects the angel figurine. I'm looking forward to this weeks challenge. Hopefully it won't take me nearly a week to post it!

In other news: Chrissy (my esteemed colleague) braved the cold weather last weekend and took Steven and my engagement photos. They are beautiful! I'm in the process of editing a few of my many favorites to post on the website, on here and to FINALLY send out our save the dates.

Everyone stay warm!

-Liz DiNatale

shadesofredphotography@gmail.com

www.shadesofredphotography.com

Updated the Website!

2010-02-01T12:07:00.000-08:00

Updated the website with a few new photos and a whole new look. Take a peek, enjoy!

-Liz DiNatale
shadesofredphotograph@gmail.com
www.shadesofredphotography.com

A New Genre

2010-01-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

We embarked on a new genre of photography in late 2009. Since we began Shades of Red, we were focused on Lifestyle and Wedding Photography. But with new situations comes new experiences and we're always eager to learn! In late 2009, Chrissy and Zack were blessed with an adorable baby girl. I guess you can call her a Chistmas present! Near the end of November, Chrissy allowed me to do their holiday and pregnancy photos. We had the whole clan together, pups included, and strolled around a neighborhood park. Here are a couple of my favorites...

I love the colors of autumn behind them. Fall is one of the most photogenic seasons. See more examples of Family portraits at our website!

After our stroll, we met back at their lovely home for a few more intimate photos. I loved so many of these; it was very hard to decide on which ones to share. After consulting with Chrissy we decided on a select few. Here are a couple examples, for the remainding, please visit our website.

I just love that little hat!

I am eager to post a few photos of Baby D, the camera just loves her! Thanks for checking in!

-Liz DiNatale Shades of Red Photography
www.shadesofredphotography.com

Holiday Photos with the Cubbages and Giffords

2009-12-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

The Holidays are coming to a close this year with only one more rather large party ahead of us all. It's becoming rather customary for families to send out a photo card of themselves for a holiday card, at least I've been doing so for a few years now. Only recently have I included Steven and I...our families were starting to wonder who were the owners of the dogs they were getting a photo of each year. This year, shortly before Thanksgiving we had the pleasure of photographing two families for their holiday photos.

The Cubbages consist of Laurissa and Doug Cubbage and their poofy son Razzle. They adopted Razzle just over a year ago and have been working with him to build up his socialization and obedience. He did wonderfully! Steven tagged along with our three Border Collies (you can see their photos in the website under Best Friends) and when we would let them run loose, Razzle would run along with them, always returning when called. Oh and did I mention that he looked right into the camera! I love this dog. Ok enough yammering on, I'll show you some of my favorites.

We took a stroll into part of Umstead Forest for the Cubbage Family photos. This was our first stop. I knew it was going to be a good day after snapping this photo.

What is cute about this next location is that it is where Steven proposed to me about a year ago, it was nice to visit it again.

Remember what I said about looking straight in the camera?
Cutest little thing.

Thanks Doug and Laurissa (and Razzle) for spending time with Shades of Red Photography this year. I can only hope to have the same pleasure again in the future! You three were awesome!

We can't be forgetting the Giffords though! I know the Giffords through my day job where I'm an engineer at Greenhorne & O'mara, the patriarc, Keith Gifford also works with G&O. They have some of the cutest kids I have ever had the pleasure of photographing. After taking the overly scenic route to their home in Clayton (ie. I got lost) we had a good time playing in the leaves! Even their family pup got involved. She was a real lover let me tell you.

My camera just loved these big blue eyes.

And I have never met a boy this age who could work the camera so well.

Check out the website for more examples.

Thank you to the Gifford family for such a great experience. Your family is so warm and fun, I hope I can get the opportunity to work with you again!

That's it for now but check back soon as I'll have a special post from/for Chrissy! Also, check out the website! If you like these photos, you'll really enjoy the website, there's a ton more! Thanks for reading!

-Liz

WE HAVE A WEBSITE!

2009-11-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

That's right! We have a website. You can currently visit this website at http://sor.smugmug.com. The url will be changing later to www.shadesofredphotography.com but for now, there ya go. I slaved over HTML for weeks getting the website user friendly and awesome. I hope you all enjoy. You can see many, many more photos on the website than we were able to post on the blog so feel free to poke around. Also we have our services listed on the website as well as a way to contact us. Tell your friends, tell you're friend's friend's and then their cousins. Thanks!!

Toya & Jerry Owino

2009-09-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

I appologize for such a lapse in posting. We haven't had any photo shoots since May and life has sort of taken over. In May we had the pleasure of photographing Toya and Jerry's Wedding. The wedding party and guests were so much fun;they made Chrissy and I feel like part of the group. It was a blast.

Now, things weren't all roses and gum drops, there were a few snafoos. Since the wedding was on Memorial Day Weekend, and it was supposed to be bright and sunny and the venue was in Clayton, which is on the way to the beach, well you can imagine the traffic. Toya held her composure like a champ even though Jerry ended up about an hour late (thankfully he was supposed to be early so he wasn't too, too late).

The beauty of having a photography team work at your wedding is you can split up and capture more things than a single person could. So while Chrissy was upstairs with the girls getting ready and taking amazing shots like these...

I was downstairs with the father of the bride and early guests to witness the arrival of the greatly anticipated groom and his entourage.

The group quickly got caught up to speed and things were moving. The ceremony was short and sweet with a couple readings from family and friends, a few tears and two very happy "I Do's."

There was no time for a separate photo shoot for just the bride and groom but we managed to sneak a couple tender moments between Toya and Jerry. Here's couple of our favorites.

Our "formal" photo shoot with the wedding party was a party in itself. Everyone was so animated, it was only natural to steal a couple of these...

Oh and that little boy. So cute. Chrissy got one of my favorites of him.

The reception was fantastic with excellent food and fun. We can only post just so many photos though so I'll have to skip them and leave you with this.

I love the contrast between something so rough and something so delicate.

Thank you Toya and Jerry for letting us be a part of your wedding. You were always so kind and so relaxed that you made it a joy. We can only hope our future clients are as wonderful. Congratulations. - Chrissy & Liz

Matt, Erin & Raleigh

2009-06-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

For what may be our last free photo shoot, we took Matt and Erin for a stroll around downtown Raleigh. These two were great, willing to pose and smile (or not) anywhere we asked!

They met through friends, in a rather awkward manner--we won't get into that, and have been enjoying life in downtown Raleigh ever since. They're both Subaru enthusiast and quite active in club sports.

Lets get on to the pictures. It was a hot and sunny day in downtown Raleigh. We had to start off with some sunglasses on. This was an active road, unlike the one we found for Toya & Jerry. By the time we were done. Matt told us we had gone through 4 cycles! Glad it wasn't busy that day.

After finding various spots at the new civic center to poses we went back to the parking deck for a shoe change and a breather. While in there we found that the open areas of the deck made for perfect silhouette shots.

A shirt and shoe change later and we were ready to move again. On the way to a local park we found an awesome old car shop. Again, gratuitous decrepit building photo.

Erin has such an astounding smile. Any photo where she's smiling just glows.

While there may not be a plethora of trees in downtown Raleigh, the ones that remain, count.

The last few photos are a sequence we took at one of the old stone churches in downtown Raleigh. This church was so beautiful with its stone construction and huge wooden doors. Enjoy.

Thank you Matt & Erin for being such spectacular models. You two were so much fun to work with and we hope to be able to work with you again in the future!

A Stroll with Toya and Jerry

2009-04-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we took a stroll through downtown Raleigh with Toya and Jerry.

Toya and Jerry are two incredible people who found each other amidst a busy night in downtown Raleigh. Their romance started that night, in Aeries Lounge, and continues to show through every movement, glance and kiss today.

Toya and Jerry were our first referrals and they were a fantastic couple to work with. We hope to shoot their wedding in a charming southern home in Clayton, North Carolina; but for now here are a few of our favorites from their engagement shoot.

We hope you enjoy some of our stroll through downtown Raleigh with Toya and Jerry. It was a great day for a walk and we were lucky enough to find a secluded street where we could snap some great shots... without being run over.

These two had the sexy-serious face down to a science.

This photoshoot was our first shoot with Chrissy's new Fish Eye Lens. We definitely approve of the results.

Gotta have the gratuitous "decrepit building" photo. These guys weren't worried about getting dirty.

Jerry did a great job picking out Toya's ring. It's so elegant, and looks great on her hand...

At the end of the shoot we ended up at Pullen Park near NC State campus. Our main goal for our venture out there was to get a photo, just like this one. Thank you Toya and Jerry for allowing us the pleasure to take your engagement shots. You were a dream to work with and we eagerly look forward to working with you again.

A Trip to Clayton

2009-03-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

For our second photo shoot, we were pleased to work with Liz's sister, Michele Nansteel, and her two sons, Quincy and Kaden. We met at the community park in Clayton on one of the first beautiful days of the year. It was rather crowded but we managed to find some seclusion. We had fun skipping rocks and climbing fences, well, the boys did. When it came down to business Quincy and Kaden gave us a smile.

Quincy is the oldest of the two and looks most like his mother. He was especially willing to cater to the camera.

You can't pass a huge pile of leaves without playing in it. That's against some sort of rule.

Kaden is the youngster of the group and a little more shy at 4 years old. But we stole some good ones. Here he's imitating a monkey.

He had a blast goofing off. And we had a blast, capturing his excitement.

Michele shared a few precious moments with her boys (most we left for her to cherish). Words can't describe the bond between a mother and her children, only pictures...

We had a great time with Michele, Quincy and Kaden. A beautiful day was made more special by them.

Thank you to the Nansteel family for allowing us this great pleasure. We hope to work with you again in the future.

A Trip to NC State Campus

2009-02-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

We had a great time photographing Kate and Nate for our first official shoot. They were a wonderful couple to work with and we feel our photos really capture their relationship and warmth.

Please enjoy some of our favorite shots below; constructive criticism is always welcome.

Kate and Nate met while attending Civil Engineering classes at North Carolina State University. There they also met part of Shades of Red, Liz. When I (Liz) first thought of friends I'd like to practice my "eye" on, Kate and Nate were the first ones to come to mind. Their laughter and kindness is infectious!

At first, things were bit new and both parties were a bit nervous. But we think our first shots came out great! Here are a few...

We decided to play of game of love turmoil on the stairs of Caldwell Lounge. At first, he begs her forgiveness with flowers (does that ever work?) and then she takes him out of the kindness of her heart (or was it the flowers?).

Their carefree attitude was so easy to capture...

Then we took a walk to the Free Expression Tunnel to capture one of our favorites.

Since Kate and Nate are not engaged (yet?) Liz's ring made a cameo appearance outside the Free Expression Tunnel.

These next pictures are so beautiful! Thank you Kate for being such a spectacular model!

We have so many more pictures but those were saved for Kate and Nate exclusively (plus we can't fit them all on here)! If you would be interested in having photos taken of you and your significant other, or your family, your pets, or even just yourself, feel free to contact us, we'd love to practice with you. You can comment on this blog to set up an appointment or e-mail Liz at edinatale@gmail.com or Chrissy at cmdarden@gmail.com.

Thanks again to Kate and Nate for being our first guinea pigs! It was a pleasure to work with you and we hope we can work with you again in the future!

Thanks for reading!

The Beginning

2009-01-31T19:05:00.000-08:00

In the beginning there were two: two cameras (a Canon Rebel XT and a Canon Rebel XTi) and two girls (Chrissy Darden and Liz DiNatale). They joined to become Shades of Red Photography.

Join us in our journey through photography. Watch as we subject our family and friends to hours of photo shoots as we hone our "eye."

We chose our name after much deliberation. To us, red signifies passion and love, two things that are very dear to both of us. As there can be different levels of love and passion, for instance, the love shared between families and the love shared between a newly engaged couple, there are shades. Therefore, Shades of Red.

Our first photo shoot as Shades of Red Photography took place on the North Carolina State University Campus at the Court of the Carolinas, in front of Mann Hall, in the Free Expression Tunnel, and at the Listening Ears.

Our subjects were Kate Nothnagel and Nate McKittrick, two civil engineering graduates from NC State. They met while attending classes in Mann Hall.

Samples of their photo shoot will be posted soon. We encourage all feedback and hope you enjoy the photos.