Chad and Mariah's Wedding!

My good friends Chad and Mariah *finally* got married! I was so privileged to photograph this celebration. Chad and Mariah are so sweet together and absolutely in love. It was also great to have my good friend, Brittany, help me as a second shooter. All together, we got almost 3,000 pictures. I guess that's what happens when I discover that my camera can go "click, click, click" extremely fast. :-D

If you wish to see their engagement shoot, click here. Otherwise, continue scrolling to see the (way too) many pictures from the day.

Congrats, Chad and Mariah!

Me and my best friend - and second shooter - Brittany :-D

Jake and Mia

This brother-sister pair was so cute and sweet to photograph! They were willing to do whatever I asked. Mia absolutely adores her older brother and he can easily make her giggle. Anyway, this shoot was a lot of fun! :-D

This was the result of Jake telling Mia, "No Trespassing"

gymnastics queen

The L Family

Trying to advertise my photography business and raise money for my missions trip to the Philippines, I posted a quick blurb about my photography on a homeschool loop. This family responded and I had a lot of fun taking their photos out at Crowder Park.

Enjoy!

The princess :-D

Abuse - A Childbirth Rant

So today I was watching an ultra strong, beautiful mom labor to birth her child. Everything was going beautifully. She was so strong and beautiful as she got ready to push.

Then the nurse came in.

Things kept going fine as the mom was cleared to push. She "got permission" from the nurse to labor on her hands and knees.

Then the nurse noticed that the mom was crowning. "Quick! I need you to get on your back!" she demanded.

So the mom was forced onto her back, although she really wanted to push on her hands and knees.

Why? Because it's so much more convenient to catch a baby when the mom's on her back than when the mom's on her hands and knees. That's abuse. Abuse of power. And it made me so mad since there was nothing I could do.

Then the baby was born and the doctor instantly cut the cord and the baby was whisked to the far corner for nurses to clean her up and give her the eye goop and who-knows-what else before the parents could see her. And no matter how much the parents begged, they didn't bring her back over - or allow the mom out of bed - until they were finished with whatever they were doing. The baby was at least 30 minutes old before her mom finally got to hold her And it was not an emergency!

So now I'm mad. Mad at the abuse of power. Mad at how the hospital prefers to be "convenient" for the doctor instead of doing what's best for mom and baby.

I've never been mad during a birth before, but today I was fuming.

The S Family

So I got to check out WRAL's azalea gardens the other morning with the S family. It was a beautiful garden and a beautiful family.

Enjoy the pictures!