Cassie & Caleb Sneak Peak [wedding photographer, Herrickville, PA]

here is just a quick sneak preview into the fabulous wedding i shot on saturday - watch for a full post this coming week!!

my new bag!

i recently bought a 3rd lens for my collection that i got a fantastic deal on from ebay!

the bidding was literally down to the wire & i made my winning bid with 4 seconds left to the auction - oh yeah :)

but as soon as i won it, i realized - i now have 3 lenses.

and my camera bag will only allow me to hold 2.

so what's a girl to do? 

well get a new bag of course!

it threw me into a whirl of research and asking for people's opinions - but ultimately i chose a bag i have been drooling over ever since they came out back in 2007.

i remember being newer on the blogging scene - and really only following 3 photographers: kristen leigh, [b]ecker, and jessica claire - and i remember when jessica claire announced her newest idea & creation: the shootsac.

i remember thinking - that's brilliant! and i want one!

and ever since then these bags have really taken off and most of the professional photographers i follow carry shootsacs & love them.

and then after second-shooting with my hero kristen leigh last summer and seeing her use her shootsac constantly throughout the day - i knew i had to have one.

and so i got one :)

it's amazing and i cannot wait to use it at the wedding on saturday !

and hopefully someone snag a pic of me using it so i can prove that it really is amazing :)

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Camp Bethel 2011

Last weekend was our annual church youth camp.

Talk about fun times :D

As a youth leader, I had the privilege of taking a vacation day [yes!] and spending all 3 days and 2 nights at camp with the kiddos.

I was officially in charge of all the ladies - and they were awesome.

Camp Bethel is held at the youth pastor's house and surrounding property. Everyone literally camps out, and he's built showers & brings in big tents for eating and for the sessions oh & port-oh-johns of course :)

And yes, I "roughed" it right along with the kids and slept in a tent.

Not these tents though - this was the boys camp - down by the pond. The girls were on the other side of the house and up on the hill.

So, the way things work is - the first night everyone gets there - they have a session or two, some worship time, and then when it gets dark, they have a bonfire where everyone can roast hot dogs & mashmellows :)

.. and you have to literally drag everyone to bed because they just want to stay up all night :)

Going to bed was totally worth it though because we were able to wake up to this:

Wake up call is at 6am both mornings, but the girls were so excited they could barely sleep and actually got up around 4:45am? They gave me the excuse they wanted to be able to hit the showers before anyone else got up, but they just couldn't contain themselves they were so excited for the day ahead.

So, bright and early we were up.

We had a group devotional time and then I sent all the girls out to spread around the property to have personal devotions.

Breakfast wasn't until 8am - so by then everyone was super hungry :)

And also, very wound up.

As soon as breakfast was over - the day began in earnest. 

There were times of worship, teaching, games, laughing, hiking, running from bob-cats, getting eaten by mosquitoes, blood, and rain :)

And - after the very last session was over [around 10:30pm] we all headed [in the rain] down to the pond [in the pitch black darkness] to see a re-enactment of Jesus walking on water, out to the disciples [in this case 10 of them were already sleeping and only 2 were awake]

You have no idea how hard this picture was to take.

Think, pitch black - one spotlight and it's raining.

Ugh - hard - this was the only decent one I got :) If only it wasn't raining!

Oh well.

Everyone went to bed quite willingly Friday night :)

Which made the lady in charge very happy :)

Furthermore, the girls did not get up until the 6am wake-up call the next morning.

Which also made the lady in charge very happy :)

For being the middle of June we had super weird weather.

It would be hot and you'd be sweating one moment, and then the next you'd be freezing and putting a sweatshirt on [as these girlies are modeling].

We were very thankful that it didn't rain at all on Friday, except at night.

But it definitely let loose on Saturday.

Which, Saturday after breakfast is the big tug-of-war competition that everyone looks forward to.

Mostly because everyone wants to see if anyone can beat Amber - the amazing tug-of-war champion of all time - no one can beat her.

So, camp must go on - and we played tug-of-war, in the pouring down rain :) It was fun.

Overall - it was an amazing time.

It was so cool to see the kids grow, just in the short period of time we were all together - and to see the Bible really come alive to them. And to see them make decisions for Jesus. It was awesome.

And everyone definitely agrees - we already can't wait for next year!

I Heart Faces - A Touch of Whimsy

ok so i have to admit, i kind of struggled with this week's i[heart]faces theme.

i was cruising through photo albums, trying to think of a photo that would fit the theme and was just not coming up with anything.

so i started to think of what i thought the theme meant - and the first thing that came to mind when i thought of whimsy was fields of flowers :) and immediately, mitch & larissa's engagement photos came to mind, because we shot in a field of flowers :)

so, add a few photoshop actions and ta-da! whimsy :)

be sure to head over to i[heart]faces to see more "whimsy" photos!

Happy Birthday Abby!

today is our abby-girl's birthday !! :D

today she turns a whole 1-year-old.

and we've now had her for over half of her little life.

[doesn't she look like she's laughing? LOL]

we love her soo much!

even though she's been a really big stinker at times [like when she decided to eat our "new to us" couch, which still needs fixed, ugh] we still love her.

she's our baby.

our de-fluffer.

our super-hyper-crazy-nut.

and we wouldn't trade her for the world.

so happy birthday to our puppy!