My cousin Branden and his bride Sol were married about a month ago in a very private setting. They decided they still wanted to have a party so they basically had a whole wedding day, minus the ceremony, for all of their friends and family to come and celebrate. Most of Sol’s family is from Mexico, and about 40 of them made the trip up for the wedding.

The Morgan family has music pumping through their genes… so there were definitely some times for that to be demonstrated. My uncle is a percussionist for the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Ryan and Branden are both involved in the band Misery Signals. Not for the soft of hearing. Branden’s dad and brother surprised them with two songs during the receptions. Branden was certainly touched.

Sol on the other hand is a trained dancer and got Branden into shape for their first dance. They had quite a number. I never imagined a heavy metal drummer shaking his hips like he did haha

Other exciting parts in the evening included a drum circle, a bongo solo by Elec Simon of Stomp, and some capoeira. If you don’t know what capoeira is… look it up!

First person to guess Sol’s favorite color gets $100

See ALL the photos HERE

Password is the groom’s last name, all lowercase

Sanjida and Ken make a wonderful couple. When I arrived to Goodale I found them sitting on the bench under the big flowering tree. I don’t know what kind of tree it is, but if I had to guess I would say it was a Magnolia, simply because thats the only flowering tree I know. We spent the evening walking around the park and meandering over to the Short North. Later on we headed down to the river to get some photos with the city. We lucked out with super warm weather and made the best of it. Congrats to you two! Good luck in New York!

A&F has a 5k every year and does a good job bringing in the entertainment for the night. This year they had Matt and Kim perform and it was quite a show! Definitely a lot of energy to their set. I look forward to seeing them again!

www.mattandkimmusic.com

This was the first wedding I have shot on New Year’s Eve. If everyone is used to going out and partying for the holiday, you might as well have them do it at your wedding! We lucked out and had some decent weather temperature-wise, so we were able to take advantage of the outdoors for our wedding party and couple’s photos.

The ceremony was in Lancaster and the reception was in Columbus at The River Club. The club is right at the junction of two major rivers in Ohio and provides a beautiful view of the city. It was a great reception, with a live band for entertainment. Despite the power going out on the band at 9:30… and everyone wondering whether or not the power would come on before midnight… everyone enjoyed themselves and rang the new year in the best way they could have this year.

Congratulations Phil and Lindsay, and Happy New Year to all!

See ALL the photos HERE

Password is the bride’s last name, all lowercase

I actually had classes with both Vic and Natalie back in my OSU days. Lots of Biology and Chemistry lectures have been shared by the three of us. Thankfully I don’t have to worry about either of those subjects in my day to day work.

October is my favorite time of the year to shoot. The light has a unique look to it, and Ohio has a lot of color to offer in the fall. The light streaming in to the church during the ceremony was awesome and made for a great backdrop. We were blessed with a beautiful day for Vic and Natalie’s wedding and I am very glad that they had a good time slot just for photography.

They had beaming smiles the whole day, and while editing these photos I laughed out loud a few times when I saw the facial expressions Natalie had. She is hilarious…

Best of luck to the two of you! Thanks for letting me be a part of your day!

See ALL the photos HERE

Password is the bride’s last name, all lowercase

This was an amazing wedding.

There are many ‘types’ of weddings, and if you were to tell me I could only shoot one type of wedding for the rest of my photography life, I would definitely say Sara and Brendan’s type. From an amazing church on Pitt’s campus (Heinz Memorial Chapel), to the the low-key reception at a local bed and breakfast (Morning Glory Inn), this day was filled with lots of fun and a very relaxed group of people. When the bride and groom were pronounced, the bridal party started waving Steeler’s terrible towels.

The locations I had to work with were all great. The Mellon Institute was just a block from the church and provided us with some great pillars, and Pitt’s campus itself, which surrounded the church, had many beautiful settings. Once we got to the bed and breakfast I realized it was one of those places it is hard to take a bad photo. Even though there was a good chance of storms, we saw no rain and were afforded some great weather after all.

On a side note, I was quite freaked out on my way to the church from the hotel. The directions google maps drew up for me failed to take into consideration the construction and I ended up on the other side of the river heading into a tunnel that would certainly have taken me to New Orleans. Add on top the stress of being in a town you don’t know, I was under the impression that the ceremony started at noon, and it was 11:50 as I crossed the river. Needless to say I pulled a U-turn before the tunnel and somehow found my way back on track. After running about 5 lights consecutively on Pitt’s campus, side swiping a few bikers, and killing 3 or 4 squirrels I was able to park and run up to the church half expecting the bride to be at the altar staring me down. However, I soon found out the ceremony was at 12:30…. crisis averted. Sweat and squirrel casualties not.

See ALL the photos HERE

Password is the bride’s last name, all lowercase

Having worked at A&F’s home office since 2004, I have really come to appreciate the beauty of the campus. The architecture and layout is simply amazing and I have always wanted the opportunity to show it off. I contacted some friends in HR in the spring and let them know if they planned on redoing the ‘campus’ video that they currently had up online, to let me know because I would like to help out if I could. Long story short, they did want help and I was able to shoot a bunch of footage over several weeks whenever my normal job allowed. They specifically needed the video for recruitment purposes… something to get people excited about home office and make them want to come work at Abercrombie.

This is the final product, and I am happy to say that all but 3 seconds of the footage that ended up in this video was shot by me. The international shots in the beginning all come from previous trips I took for them to film flagship store openings abroad. I was also responsible for the editing of the video and graphics, which made me a little nervous because I have never edited a film for A&F. I have always just handed off the footage to their full time editor in the past. However, he was swamped and couldn’t do it, so if it was going to get done, I had to do it. In the end, everyone was pleased with the video and I hope it serves them well in bringing the best talent to work for A&F!

The song is ‘Good Life’ by One Republic. Abercrombie purchased the rights to use the song for the video.

PS. The very first shot, the scenic one of the landscape… that is actually the view I have each and every day right out the window of my studio! I am really lucky to have it

Link to the same video on A&F’s Facebook page…. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=135530243212341

Keeping the trend going for my weddings this year… it was SUPER HOT for Anthony and Kelsey’s wedding. You would think September would bring low 80′s… maybe high 70′s. Try 97. Yes, I sweat through my shirt. I need to buy a black shirt.

Thankfully we live in an age when people live indoors and can control the temp.

The wedding went off without a hitch and I was glad to be a part of the day. Besides being friends with the bride and groom, I was able to catch up with some other friends of mine that were there, which is always nice.

See ALL the photos HERE

Password is the bride’s last name, all lowercase

Matt and Beth know how to have a good time. I travelled to Coldwater, Ohio for their wedding at the end of July and had a great time with them. Matt is quite a character, and has a face or expression for every moment of the day.

Both of them were all smiles and were able to enjoy some quality time with their closest friends. A break between the ceremony and reception allowed for them to take a bus of their friends to a bar on the lake and have some drinks and relax. An old timer on a Harley tried to give Beth a ride to the bar from the bus. She would have to go side saddle, and this one had drudge report written all over it. Thankfully she declined because none of us had faith in his equilibrium.

Another scorcher in Ohio, but I feel I am starting to get used to my shirts sticking to me all day…

See ALL the photos HERE

Password is the bride’s last name, all lowercase.

Marc and Katherine make quite the classy couple.

I knew from our engagement shoot back in the day that they were going to have a lot of fun on their wedding day and they didn’t disappoint. A lot of guests were there to witness them get married and have fun right along with them. Despite temperatures nearing those of the earth’s core, humidity at steam engine levels, a party bus with no A/C and a broken door… they pushed through and were able to make the most of it.

Before the ceremony during their first look, Marc gave Katherine a pendant that was his mothers. You could tell it meant a lot to both of them as their eyes teared up. On a lighter note, right after cutting the cake Marc surprised Katherine by singing Frankie Valli’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ to her. Not only did he sing to her in front of 250 people… he did a little dance around her during the bridge. Marc was made for moments like these… so he just soaked it right up and belted it. Katherine had a big smile on her face the whole time… soaking it all up as well. It was a very classy evening and I am glad I could be a part of it all.

Although I wish we could have had more time to get some shots of them I think the photos with the red door make me feel okay about not getting as many.

See ALL the photos HERE

Password is the groom’s last name, all lowercase.