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When you have such an amazing couple as Sara and Ross whose love and happiness at getting married is so evident, you can't possibly have a bad day. Add in Duke Chapel and Hope Valley Country Club as venues, an amazing team of vendors, bright sunshine and a monsoon-like storm in the space of a couple of hours, and you know it's going to be a very special day indeed. If you stop by my blog regularly, you might be familiar with Sara from her Duke Chapel bridal photography session, which I posted a few weeks back. She is such a lovely, warm, happy soul and it was so great to see her unleash that beautiful smile all throughout her wedding day. ... READ MORE

Three distinct cultures came together last month at Pascale and Tim's Umstead wedding: with Lebanese and Japanese elements intertwined with a traditional American wedding there were so many beautiful moments and pretty details to take in. From the getting ready with the always-amazing Stephanie at The MakeUp Culture, to the first look on the boardwalk, the ceremony overlooking the lake, through to the reception with its origami details, traditional Lebanese drum band, confetti-enhanced cake-cutting and plenty of dancing courtesy of the talented DJ Rang, it was a great day to be a wedding photographer. Everything was put together brilliantl ... READ MORE

Sara & Ross tied the knot in a truly beautiful wedding at Duke Chapel this past Saturday and I'm looking forward to sharing some images from their gorgeous day really soon. In the meantime, I'm pleased to be able to share some photos from Sara's recent bridal photography session. This was a fun but challenging shoot as it started raining pretty heavily just a few minutes into the session and then rained off and on for the duration. This meant that we were restricted to shooting under cover a lot of the time, which forced me to think differently and get creative to obtain the widest variety of images possible whilst keeping Sara and her be ... READ MORE

A gorgeous day in a beautiful location with great people. That pretty much sums up the vibe of Jordan and Zeke's wedding at Duke Gardens earlier this month. Readers of the blog will recognise Jordan from her bridal photographs that I shot a few days before the wedding. She made such an elegant bride, and I think you'll agree that her groom, Zeke, cut a pretty dapper figure too. Congrats to them both and best wishes for the future! Big thanks to all the great people that collaborated to make the day such a success: Ceremony & Reception: Sarah P Duke Gardens, Durham, NC | Event Coordination: Grace Beason, Grace Leisure Events, Durham, ... READ MORE

Well, wedding season is in full swing and there's a lot going on over here in the studio, so it's just a quick post and run today. But I really wanted to take a moment to share Natalie and Elliot's wedding as it was such a fun day to shoot from start to finish. Mad props to Jessica at Chad Biggs Events for putting together such a great team of people to work with (see below for details) and working with me to draw up such a great timeline in order to explore the mill and surrounding area to get some pretty unique shots for Natalie and Elliot to look back on in the years to come. Congrats to them both! Here is the amazing team of people tha ... READ MORE

Britne and Calebe's wedding was a real coming together of cultures. With Caleb and his family hailing from Brazil, and Britne being from right here in the gold ol' USA, there was definitely a really fun vibe to this wedding. Britne wrote out and learnt her own personal vows in Portuguese, which was a surprise to Caleb and a very touching moment of the ceremony. We were blessed with a perfect sunny spring day for the ceremony outside at the Borden Building in Fred Fletcher Park in downtown Raleigh.  Here are just a few of my faves from their day... READ MORE

Shooting at golden hour is photographer nirvana. Most of the time, that means shooting at sunset, especially in the summer months when sunrise is so early in the morning. Shooting at sunrise in June, though, you get the benefit of cooler temperatures than in the afternoon and the fact most people are still in bed, so places that would otherwise be teeming with people are pretty much empty. So it was great to be able to meet up with Annie & Yuriy early in the morning a week or so back to shoot around Duke Chapel and Sarah P. Duke Gardens, where they will be getting married in a few short months. As you can see below, we pretty much had bot ... READ MORE

Duke Chapel weddings are always a pleasure to shoot and Lara and Juice's big day was certainly no exception! It started with Lara getting ready in a beautiful suite at the Washington Duke Inn and ended with her riding the mechanical bull at Shooters! Along the way, we also stopped by Duke Chapel for the ceremony and The Cotton Room for the reception. Suffice to say, it was a pretty amazing day! Lara and Juice planned their wedding from NYC and were ably assisted on the day by Casey at Events by La Fête. Huge thanks to Casey and her team for all her help making the day run smoothly. Here's a list of the other fab people that made this day s ... READ MORE

My first love, when originally starting out in the wedding photography business, was wedding photojournalism. I was a bit of a purist back then, so documenting moments using available light was really what made me tick and I paid little attention to portraiture and even less to posing, using artificial lighting, etc. But I am driven to always work on and improve my skillset to be able to produce images in a wider range of conditions and styles, especially in the area of portraiture. The bridal photography session, for example, was quite a foreign concept for me when I first moved to North Carolina back in the autumn of 2010. As a Southern tra ... READ MORE

When Kim originally contacted me in May last year, she hadn't even booked her venue yet, so it was clear photography was a pretty big priority for her. As soon as we spoke, I knew we were on the same wavelength and I was so pleased when she booked me pretty much straight away. Happily, she did select a beautiful venue pretty quickly thereafter! And so it was that a fortnight ago, I took the arduous 6-minute drive from my house to The Oaks at Salem to shoot Kim & Jeff's wedding a couple of weeks ago. We were forecast storms, and it did rain a little in the morning, but I always say to wait and see what happens on the day and we couldn't ... READ MORE

Last week, I headed over to UNC in Chapel Hill to shoot some UNC Chapel Hill graduation photographer portraits for Lauren, who has just graduated with a degree in Business and Dramatic Art. We started off at the Old Well where we took some traditional graduation portraits, before heading for a walk around campus looking for interesting light and areas to shoot some more experimental/dramatic stuff. Here are just a few of my faves from the shoot. READ MORE

A couple of weekends back, I got to spend a few hours in the company of these two lovely people as we took a stroll around the Sarah P. Duke Gardens and West Campus at Duke. It was a pretty warm day and the gardens were slammed with multiple weddings and prom-goers having their photos taken. We did our best to slip the crowds and find our own little areas for some privacy and room to shoot and experiment in. Margo & Patrick were great fun and I'm really looking forward to their Duke Chapel wedding in a couple of months. We took a lot of great pics and it was hard to narrow if down, but here are just a few of my faves from the shoot... ... READ MORE

There are a good number of reasons I love my job as a wedding photographer, and one of those is getting to spend quality time with people like Alexandra & Marcus, their friends and family, on one of the most important days of their lives. When I first met with them a year or so ago, I was immediately struck by their warmth, sense of humour, and how evidently in love they were. Those feelings were all reinforced when I shot Alex's bridal session last autumn and got to meet her mum and Matron of Honour, Lace, who were really great fun, and I was really looking forward to shooting their big day. And so it was that a couple of Saturdays ag ... READ MORE

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you all had a good holiday season and got some quality R&R with your loved ones. Cristel, the kids, and I spent Christmas and New Year with our family down in Panama. We had a great time catching up with everyone and enjoyed our time in the sun by taking a trip to the amazing San Blas islands and lounging by the hotel pool drinking large quantities of Panamanian rum. Fun times! So, it was a bit of a proverbial ice cube down the back when I flew back into RDU for Laura & Cadman's Duke Chapel wedding, only to learn we were expecting up to 8" of snow that day. Yowzers! Luckily, everything on the big d ... READ MORE

Just a quick post before I head out to celebrate my birthday with the family - yay BEER & CAKE! Beth & Matt's downtown Raleigh wedding at Market Hall was my last of the 2016 season and it was a great way to close out the year. Such a lovely couple whose love for each other was evident throughout the day. Combine that with a loving group of family and friends, the fun of shooting in a busy downtown Raleigh while a demonstration was going on, a great venue and awesome vendors, and photo opportunities are bound to be there for taking. Here are just a few of my picks of the pics: &n ... READ MORE

Backyard weddings are always great fun to photograph. None more so than Kate & John's nuptials at their new home in north Raleigh. With the sun shining and the autumn foliage on full display, the house and grounds provided a beautiful backdrop for the day. And so it was that, surrounded by their closest friends and family, Kate & John got ready, got married and partied together under their own roof, though we did also manage to get up on top of it for some cool pictures of the couple and their spectacularly lit garden. It was a fabulous day! Here are a few of my picks of the pics from their day. Happy Holidays, everyone!! ... READ MORE

There are wedding ceremonies and there are wedding receptions. On Eleanna & Michael's day we had a wedding ceremony that brought together Greek and American traditions: a fun reception complete with great speeches, a rendition to the bride of "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" à-la-Top Gun and a London taxi cab for one of the coolest getaways I've seen for a while (I may be biased though); and a pretty epic after-party featuring some, let's say, interesting clothing choices by the Bride & Groom. Yep, this was truly a fun day to shoot from start to finish. It was a pretty cold and blustery day out at the Cloth Mill at Eno River, whic ... READ MORE

Lauren & Adam's wedding at the City Club in downtown Raleigh was a great way to start off my November. Planned beautifully by the fabulous Emily of Whiskey & White Events, blessed with autumnal sunlight and topped off with a fabulous party courtesy of the amazing band, Fantasy, it was a great day to photograph from start to finish. Not to mention Lauren & Adam, their friends and family are such fun, happy people - you can tell theirs is going to be a long and happy marriage. All the best, guys! Here's a quick recap of the story of Lauren & Adam's special day with just a few of my favourite shots... ... READ MORE

A couple of weekends ago, I met up with Kim and Jeff for their Raleigh engagement photography shoot at Jeff's parents farm in Fuquay-Varina. We had a couple of beers and then headed out to take some shots as the sun set and the "Super Moon" made its appearance. It was a really lovely evening and we had a lot of fun exploring the light and trying to make each other laugh. Here are just a few of my faves from the shoot...   READ MORE

On this Thanksgiving Day, I want to say how thankful I am to be lucky enough to be able to do what I love for a living. It truly is a great privilege to be able to spend my time documenting people on the happiest days of their lives. To see two families, and often two or more cultures, coming together to form one new union and to be able to photograph that event, is something very special indeed. Case in point: Yasmin and Michael's wedding at Prestonwood Country Club. A wedding that brings together a bride with Pakistani and Philippine roots and a groom with Irish blood is always going to be a recipe for fun! Here are my picks of the pics. ... READ MORE

Danielle & Josh were married on a gorgeous sunny autumn evening surrounded by their closest friends and family at Shady Wagon Farm in New Hill, NC. There were a lot of great moments throughout the day, from the ceremony, which was officiated by the ever-prepared and personable, Rev. Kayelily Middleton, through to the family formals, the couple's photographs at golden hour and the reception, which featured the fantastic sounds of Six Stylez - definitely one of the best bands I have seen in a while at a wedding. It was a lot of fun watching everyone from the kids to grandparents cutting a rug! As a photographer, I don't think I could ... READ MORE

In England, we say that rain on your wedding day is good luck, so, that being the case, this couple is truly blessed! Kristen & Matthew's gorgeous wedding took place at The Carolina Inn on October 8th, 2016. This turned out to be a pretty significant date as it is also the day that another Matthew visited us for a pretty intense few hours. Yes, Hurricane Matthew pretty much pulled asunder all the plans we had for the day. Everything from the first look, to the family photos to the couple's photos to the ceremony itself had originally been planned to take place outside, so quite a bit of thinking on feet had to be done by everyone invol ... READ MORE

Toni & Kevin's ceremony and reception have to be amongst the most beautiful weddings I have ever had the pleasure to photograph. The venues, the décor, the lighting, the details, and, of course, the people were all amazing. Everywhere your gaze wandered, there was something beautiful to look at and enjoy. It really was a gorgeous day to be a photographer! I have to give a shout out to Elana and her team at Elana Walker Events for putting together such a great line-up of vendors to deliver such a spectacular event and for looking after Traci and me so well. Everyone involved gets a virtual high-five and free hugs for the rest of this ye ... READ MORE

Last weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of photographing a very special person indeed: my lovely wife, Cristel! You'd think that with her being married to a photographer, she'd have been in front of my camera quite a few times before, but the truth is that this was the first time we'd ever set out to take "proper" photos of her in our studio. Up till now, it's been mostly about the kids and we've been endlessly procrastinating, waiting for such a day when we could set aside the necessary time to do it properly. So, with the excuse of Cristel needing a new headshot for her newborn photography website amongst other things, Cristel went and an ... READ MORE

Mary Pat & Jonathan's wedding was such great fun to shoot. Everything from shooting the girls getting ready at The Durham Hotel right through to the reception at The Rickhouse was so full of joy and laughter, I had a smile on my face all day! After the first-look and ceremony at the always-lovely Duke Chapel, Mary Pat & Jonathan joined me on a quick shoot around downtown Durham. From there, we headed over to the reception where DJ Steve Stowe got the party started in style. As you'll see, everyone listed above really came together to make it a really beautiful day; my sincerest thanks to them all! A special thank you, of course, to ... READ MORE