Testimonials Sneak Peek, Part 2

Soon I'll be launching a Testimonials page on Noah Dalton Photographs! Woohoo new content!
I wanted to encourage my clients to do some storytelling of their own, so I asked them to choose a favorite image that they returned to again and again, and to tell me about it. I wanted to know why that particular image spoke to them, and I loved reading the results. 

Each week I'll be releasing one photo and the client story that goes with it.
This week, Allison tells me about this image from her maternity shoot.

We really just wanted one.  Just one beautiful memory of my husband and me and our new adventure growing in my belly that we could frame and put in our house.  Noah has been a good friend of ours for years and we knew he was the photographer we wanted for our maternity shoot.  We knew he would know the best locations and make us feel comfortable as we pretended to be models for the afternoon.  And he did just that!  We had a blast hanging out, taking pictures, laughing.  What I didn’t expect is that I wouldn’t get just one.  Literally EVERY. SINGLE. PHOTO. we got back was worthy of framing.  We were squealing every time we clicked next when we got the link to our album.  The very next day we sent photos off to be printed and now they’re strewn throughout the house.  When I look at those photos I can literally feel the joy and anticipation we felt at that time in our lives.  Noah was amazing, and we already have him on the hook to do another session with our family of three.

Sassmans @ Home

You know those novels you read where the setting acts as an important character in the tale?
This is a lot like that.

Hannah and Wyatt moved to Charleston as boyfriend and girlfriend. They found a lovely little house downtown near Colonial Lake and the historic district. Their pets got comfortable. Soon, Wyatt proposed and they spent their engagement in the house. Soon after their marriage, they were already preparing for the next step: a move to Washington DC. This house was a special place for them as their relationship evolved and their love deepened. Less than a week before their move I had the pleasure of spending an evening with them, to document this special place. In Hannah's words, she wanted to "commemorate our home together, where we first made our joint home, grew as professionals, learned to love our combined strengths."

Best of luck to Hannah and Wyatt in DC!

Beach Session with the Kinkhabwalas

You know those friends you have who are cool and gorgeous and brilliant? 

Christy and Yunus are those friends for us. They met while in Peace Corps in South Africa and bonded over, among other more glamorous things, unmentionably serious stomach troubles. Kind of in the same way that Rebecca and I met and bonded over similar tummy troubles in Dakar, Senegal. Oh yeah, and we met them in Senegal too! They are both excellent teachers and people and friends, and they now live in upstate New York. They're both doing amazing things, of course, as well as raising two of the most adorable boys in the galaxy. Seriously, just look at these two!

We headed down to Folly Beach for some beach time and documentary-style shooting.
Was the weather less-than-ideal? Yes (misty and gray).
Did the youngest hate the feeling of sand on his feet? Yes (surprise!).
But we did have a lot of fun. And, after all, is there really a bad time to go to the beach with good friends? 

Nope.

Photographer Spotlight: Horace and Mae

Several weeks ago we had the privilege of working with Horace and Mae Photography, on a project that has been in the works for a while: a long overdue wedding portrait session with Rebecca and me. 

Haven't we been married for over two years?
Allow me to explain.

In the months leading up to our wedding in 2013 we took steps so that Rebecca would be able to wear her grandmother's wedding dress. It was a thing of beauty, last worn in 1950, and it was in dire need of some restoration. Being so old, the dress needed to be handled, tried on, and worn with a lot of care. We immediately started planning ways to replicate Rebecca's grandmother's solo wedding portrait, which is now a treasured family heirloom.

On our wedding day, our photographer had a health emergency and was unable to reproduce the wedding portrait. Everything turned out to be fine, but we had this bit of unfinished business in the back of our minds. We moved to Charleston, SC and the dress was moved to Virginia to stay with Rebecca's aunt.

And about two years passed.

Finally, we found the time to drive north, exhume the dress and schedule a shoot. Horace and Jennifer (Mae) brought us to Belvoir, the manor house of Ann Ross Key (Francis Scott Key's grandmother) in Annapolis, MD. The home remains much the same as it was in the 1700's and was the most perfect backdrop imaginable for portraits in the vintage gown. Horace worked primarily with gorgeous old film cameras, while Jennifer shot digital. 

It was a joy to watch these two artists work, and fun to be on the other side of the camera for a while.