Gate City Photography

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Frank

Talk about a fun wedding!  Meredith and Joel married at Living Waters Christian Community in Durham.  The church was buzzing with high energy.  Lots of people were working to complete the wedding preparations and to visit with one another.  The ceremony took place in the sanctuary, while the reception was held in the massive and elaborately decorated fellowship hall.

Meredith’s dress was very classy with clean lines.  It had rouching across the front decorated with a soft rose on the side of her waist.

The bride and groom love Mexican food, so they had Salsaritas cater their reception.  Guests were able to go through the food bar and put together their own meal with a variety of food items.  The tasty meal was followed up by another surprise - cheesecake.  Yes, the wedding cakes (there were two) were cheesecakes.  One was a fluffy chocolate cheesecake that melted in the mouth.  The other was original with strawberries on the top.  The crowd, some of whom traveled great distances, was festive and full of conversation.

This is a great couple and they were truly a pleasure to photograph.  We wish them a lifetime of blessings.

Kristin and I witnessed a rare sight indeed. On June 29, 2008 as we left the grocery store, we looked in the sky and saw a DOUBLE rainbow. I can count on two hands the number of times I have ever seen a rainbow and can only think of one other time that it was a double rainbow. By double rainbow, I mean that there are two rainbows (one over the other). We didn’t happen to have a camera with us, so we rushed home, grabbed one of our bodies with a ultra-wide lens and popped off a few shots. By the time we got the camera set up, the most vivid part of the display was already passing. Approximately 15-20 minutes later, it was all over.

The pictures don’t do the rainbows justice. In person, it was an awe inspiring moment when I first saw them. If you look closely above the first rainbow (the prominent one), you can faintly see the second one.

Hope you enjoy,

Frank

Jessica and Steven were united in marriage in Martinsville, Virginia.  The entire church sanctuary was decorated with an absolutely gorgeous array of white and cream flowers, surrounded by much greenery.  It made the perfect backdrop for this special couple’s ceremony.

 
Jessica and Steven took their time getting ready and spent time with friends and family before the ceremony.  There were beautiful curls, delicate makeup powders, and masculine tuxedo vests, and no shortage of hugs and laughter between loved ones.  They even decided to see each other before the ceremony on a private outdoor balcony at the church.  That was a powerful, meaningful moment between them that certainly will never be forgotten.

The sanctuary filled quickly and was standing room only before the last of their guests arrived.  The large crowd really added to the excitement and in itself is a testament to how much this couple is loved.  After the ceremony, the couple, their wedding party and guests drove to Martinsville Country Club for the reception.  The decor was beautiful; the room was full of blooming flowers, great music, and tasty heavy hors d’oeuvres. Though the food was great, the festive couple and their guests are what made the reception an affair to remember.

Jessica has stunning eyes

Steven’s first view of Jessica

Their private meeting just before the ceremony

A proud dad for sure

Steven’s grandfather (far left) performed part of the ceremony

Woohoo, we did it!

This little puppy got a lot of attention at the reception

This little guy got lots of cake at the reception

Our new blog is up and running now. So that we could make your experience reading our blog a better one, we re-designed and moved the blog to our own servers.

Frank

… so we will be catching up any moment now. In the meantime, I wanted to start a regular post showing some of our favorite non-wedding images. I have always enjoyed photography of many types and thought it would be nice to share some of our personal favorites from time to time. We will present an image and a story or short write-up of the image.

So without further ado, here is the first entry.

This image is of our pet and dear friend, Sullivan. He is an indoor cat, as it has been proven that indoor pets live much longer and richer lives. Sullivan came to us by sheer accident, and it was an accident that to this day was a true blessing. One evening, Kristin and I were taking my son back to his mother’s home in Cary. As we neared Grayson’s home, we came upon a cat sitting in the middle of a side street in front of a car.  That car was occupied and heading in the opposite direction from us, so the occupants were surely a bit confused by this cat sitting there in front of the car as if to say "hey, what are you doing here. What’s your name? …" I got out of the car, walked over to this cute cat, scooped him up and placed him on the sidewalk with a stern "now you stay out of the road…". As this exchange was coming to an end and as I began to walk back to the car, he walked ran along side of me and intertwined his body about my feet. I knew then that we were in trouble. Kristin recalls Grayson (at that time, seven years old) saying "oh boy, this is sure going to take a long time…" So, I then ran to the car and got in. We took Grayson home, came back through the area about ten minutes later and there he was again, running in the street. I told Kristin that there was no way we could leave him as he would not survive the highly trafficked street. So, with intentions of bringing him home on that fateful Sunday evening only to take him to the local pet shop to be adopted out, off we went.

The ride home was, well, bewildering. Let me elaborate… Sullivan jumped in the car (SUV) with us and immediately began to relax, explore and just behave as a very cool cat (more like a dog). We were intrigued. Long story short; we kept him as he is the most adorable cat ever! He is chock full of personality, very loving, friendly, playful, totally cool and so many other adjectives that it would take hours to write about him. We have tons of nicknames for him that were coined because of his awesome ways.

Coming full circle, Sullivan is an indoor cat, yet he came from the outdoors which he loves. He will sit by the front door (full length glass door) and watch the squirrels, chipmunks and other fauna for hours on end. He has enriched our lives in so many ways. So, here is Sullivan…

This shot is of him playing in our backyard. I love the colors in this image.

We would love to hear your comments.

We are sometimes asked if we provide video services. We specialize only in still photography. As a result, we have chosen not to dilute diversify our services.

Contrary to popular belief, wedding photography is not an easy thing to be good at, much less to master. Nor is it something that just anyone with a camera should do unless they are well versed in the intricacies of photographing weddings. It takes experience, lots and lots of experience, more experience and then add tons of expensive equipment, nerves of steel and acute perception to become good at photographing weddings. Additionally, it takes business acumen to be successful, the post processing skills of a team of designers and the ability to make people comfortable enough to be able to capture their true personalities that are often hidden when a camera is pointed their way. Then there’s the artistic vision, as yesterday’s ‘grip and grin’ posed wedding photography is, well a thing of yesterday. Today’s brides want awesome engagement photo sessions, candid, photojournalistic coverage of their weddings, and hip, couture wedding albums with lots of artistic images placed within.  Yes, it takes more much more than is often thought, to be a successful and exceptional wedding photographer.

We will continue to focus our skills on making us the best wedding photographers that we can be without adding the unnecessary distraction of learning the skills to become good videographers too. We prefer to master our trade, not become a Jack of all trades.

So, if you would like to hire a videographer, then by all means do so. We can recommend someone if you would like. In the meantime, contact us to see why our clients love us, rave about our services and become purveyors of praise for us.

Anna and Carlton were married on May 4, 2008 at the Magnolia Manor. Talk about a cool couple. I don’t think they know the meaning of uptight. The weather and location were perfect for an outdoor wedding. Anna wore a beautiful dress that was cut low in the back.

There were people from all walks of life. Carlton likes to spend his spare time riding his Harley Davidson and invited some of his closest friends. Tattoos were in no short supply; in fact there were some very interesting ones on display. 

Anna comes from a fairly conservative family. To describe them as nice would be an understatement. Her mother Helen was especially kind to us and insisted that we take a flower bouquet home at the end of the evening (thank you Helen).

Burge Flower Shop did an awesome job. There was no shortage of beautiful flowers and we especially enjoyed the orchids. I have never seen so many orchids in one place. What a visual feast!

As night fell, everyone enjoyed a festive evening celebrating Anna and Carlton’s beginning as husband and wife. As a surprise, Anna popped into a local studio and recorded herself singing Etta James’ “At Last” which was played during their first dance. How cool, and she did a bangin’ job. So much so, that if she found a way to market the song, she could easily sell it. When people say they can sing, often times I wonder if they are tone deaf. Not so with Anna, and funny thing is, she never said she could sing. What an awesome surprise.

This was one fun and relaxed wedding.

Click here to view the slideshow.

Frank

Here is an image that received our Master Retouching. I love the softness of it. What do you think? Leave us a comment by clicking just below the title of this post (”anna & carlton’s wedding”).

I recently spent a few hours with Anna and Carlton shooting their engagement session. We had a ton of fun and got some great shots. Below are nine of my favorites.

Frank

Liz and Bill were married at Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC on February 16, 2008. There was a close knit group of friends and family in attendance. Among them were several sweet children who were both well behaved and quite fun to watch.

Liz wore a beautiful gray spaghetti strap dress in lieu of a traditional wedding gown. More and more, we are seeing brides not conforming to traditions of days gone by where the bride always wore white. After uniting in marriage, Liz and Bill spent a few minutes with us to capture some formal and informal photos, which is always a great way to capture the high emotions couples are wrought with just after their marriage. After, Liz and Bill went into the fellowship hall to be greeted by their families and guests. During the reception, we learned that Liz is quite diverse in her musical tastes which upped the cool factor quite a bit
We wish Liz and Bill much success to their marriage and to their lives ahead.