Karen & Shawn are gonna get married!!!! {engagement photographer Milledgeville Savannah Georgia}

Ya know how it is when you meet a couple that just makes sense? Well, that's exactly how I felt from the very first time I met Karen and Shawn. First of all, I was super impressed that Shawn actually accompanied Karen to our first meeting at Starbucks. I've been really blessed with awesome bridal couples, but I do think that Shawn was the first one to come with his bride to meet me. I won't lie and say he was hoping for a long visit over coffee, but he was there. And he chimed in a little. So, one point for Shawn! :)
Karen and Shawn are getting married here in Milledgeville in a few weeks. Karen has shown me alot of her decor inspiration pictures and I absolutely can NOT wait to shoot this wedding! She has thought of so many thoughtful details. I have no doubt it is going to go down as one of my most favorite weddings ever. :)
Karen and Shawn have been together...oh....I think she said....like..maybe....10 years!?!!? Yes, you read that right! And, just because they don't like to rush things, they've been engaged for the last 3 years!!! Ok..yes, I was a little surprised when they told me the mathematical side of this relationship. But really, I think I get it. They are so comfortable together. They just fit perfectly. They get each other. What's the big hurry? Right? :) 
Wanna hear the real kicker?!? Shawn is the one that decided the wedding location and told Karen when the big event was gonna go down. Make that two points for Shawn. He got the basics taken care of and Karen is working hard to make this wedding her vision of perfection. Precious hand painted signs and all! I really am so excited about all of the little details. I've even already seen her beautiful dress and I'm pretty sure there will be a dog in a bowtie! Seriously!?! How could I not be excited about this!?
For their engagement session, we broke it into 2 days. Karen had two locations she wanted to shoot but we knew there wouldn't be enough light to do them on the same night. So we started at the Specht Farm and got some incredible images there. This past Monday we went up to a dairy farm in Eatonton. Let me say, this was a hysterical experience.  Karen had inspiration pictures she pulled off the internet of a couple in a haybarn. Super cute and I was thrilled to recreate these for her and Shawn. But the best part of this trip to the farm was the dairy cows! I've attracted an audience before while doing photo shoots. No big deal, just part of most people's natural curiosity. But this was the first time EVER I've attracted an audience of this type...those cows were WAYYY interested in our photo shoot. And these cows had some major personality! I couldn't help but snap a few pics of them, too! So, here are some of the images from Karen and Shawn's engagement sessions. :) I am so excited about your upcoming wedding!!!!! :)

That is what I call a beautiful happy bride!


He ♥'s her!!!


Sweet love...in a field full of bugs that couldn't help but bite sweet Karen. Both Shawn and myself came out relatively unscathed.



This is the pup that delivered the engagement ring! :) Yup....Shawn scores another point. 3?!


We shot a few at their home in the kitchen. I'm pretty sure Shawn was done with the whole photo session at that point, but we tried. There are a couple of cute ones from their kitchen. :)  BUT, I want to make sure you don't miss the picture in the middle of the 3rd column. :)


BAHAHAHA!! This is my most favorite cow EVER!! Karen and I were trippin' out on #312!! Paranoid much!?


How's that for an audience!? :)





Did you know cows were this funny!? I didn't!?!!

Mia's Senior Session...a little late, but still beautiful!! {Georgia Senior Photographer Milledgeville Savannah}

It's time for another Senior Session update!  I'm pretty sure most schools have hit their deadline for Senior Pictures. This is kind of bittersweet for me. I did a handful of seniors this year, but they were seriously some of my most favorite sessions EVER!  It's amazing to see these "kids" turn into young adults right before my eyes. I love taking the time to tailor each session to fit the client and their personality. It's exciting to see the creative process move forward and take shape as I shoot. Senior sessions have proven to be an excellent canvas for this for me. :)  I love doing these sessions...I think they should be done all year long!!
So, this blog update is about Mia. Another JM girl! :) I LOOOOVE JM... which is now the Distinguished Young Women of America program. Whichever way you want to call it, I have fallen in love with it. I don't remember there being a local program when I was in high school, which is odd since I grew up in Gwinnett county. Who knew...something we didn't have!!?  However, I am thankful to have been introduced to this program through my dear friend, April. I have certainly met some of the most incredible young women in my short time working with the local program here in Baldwin County.  These girls are beautiful, but most importantly very intelligent.
Mia was one of the contestants in this years program. She is such a beautiful girl inside and out. She has a smile that could light up the entire state of Georgia!!  I mean it...check it out! :) And that girl has some serious legs!! Legs that make this 5'2 girl extremely envious.  What I wouldn't give for legs like that! So, without further ado, here are some images from my shoot with Mia. I had forgotten how quickly the sun goes down now, so we ran out of light before I had anticipated. It was good though! It forced me to break out my flash and do some off camera flash techniques that I don't use often enough. I'm pretty happy with those images. :) I hope you enjoy them as well!




I also wish I could pull off wearing this dress! Don't think it'd look the same on me, though... :( boo hoo!

My most awesomely patient clients EVER!! Jamilyn & Corey {Savannah GA photographer}

Ok...so it's been WAYY too long. Completing this particular session has been quite a feat! ha ha  Jamilyn and Corey were the winners of my cutest couple contest...oh, back in....FEBRUARY!! Yeah...that was a long long time ago! We had intended to do this shoot much earlier. But, as it always does, schedules change, the rain falls, and sometimes the photographer stays up until 5 am working and doesn't have enough brain power left to actually do the session. Yes sir..that happened to me! :)
Jamilyn & Corey are the parents of one of Eva's best little friends. Eva and Courtney are quite a pair when they are together. Really hysterical and dramatic...that might even be an understatement! And Eva LOVES going to their house. I mean, she asks me if I'll just drop her off there after school. She tells me that Mrs. Jamilyn and Mr. Corey won't mind one bit! lol  So, Jamilyn...you might find curly headed little blonde headed girl on your door step one day. :)
So, back to the story. We've tried to do this session quite a few times. One day Jamilyn and I were chatting at school waiting to pick up the boys and she mentioned that she and Corey were going to have a little weekend getaway. Couldn't decide between Savannah or the mountains. The lightbulb went off...on my side! lol I was going to be in Savannah that weekend shooting Emily's senior session....sooo, if they came to Savannah I could do it there! YAY!! She said she'd run it by Corey and let me know. I was way excited when she told me he was good with it! I went to Savannah that Thursday afternoon so I could spend Friday scouting locations. When it was time to do their session on Saturday, I had ideas coming out of my head at mega speed!! We shot for a few hours in quite a few locations. I loved every second of it!! Corey and Jamilyn are absolutely one of the sweetest couples I've ever met. They share a connection that you don't see all the time. They really get each other. I think you can totally see that in these images.
We started at Bonaventure Cemetery. Yes...I know that sounds odd. But it is really beautiful out there!  Then we went to Jones Street and dealt with a little coastal GA rain shower.  A quick wardrobe and a few shots at Johnnie Ganem's...then back to Jones Street...then to Forsyth Park....then another wardrobe change and finished off at River Street. I love these images so much! I had such a hard time picking my faves...I wouldn't even say these are my absolute faves. Just the ones that called out to me initially. So enjoy these! :) Enjoy the total cuteness of this couple and the love that they share!! :)

Amber's Amazing Senior Session!! Seriously! {Georgia High School Senior Photography}

We are totally down to the wire for high school seniors. Baldwin High needs theirs turned in on Friday...so let's just say that SCP will be cuttin' it super close! Close is ok though when you have such incredibly beautiful clients like my seniors! I mean...seriously.....they have all been gorgeous.  But this blog is all about Amber!! Amber wanted her senior session to be different. Yay! That's my favorite thing to hear! That means I get to try something new and my client is ok with my "thinking outside of the box". Amber is another one of my JM girls. When I tell you this girl can light up a stage, I am dead serious. You can not help but watch her. She's a dancer, also. I guess I could also refer to most of my JM girls as my Studio One girls, too!! Eva dances there and she loves loves LOVES to watch these girls dance.
Amber had her hair appointment in Macon the day we shot, so her sweet mama, Regina, and I agreed to do the session in Macon. I was a little nervous because I don't really know Macon very well, but also super excited to explore and create some really awesome images. Regina is from Macon so she was an excellent tour guide. :)
We started out at Coleman Hill. I have shot there before so I thought it would be smart to start somewhere that I was confident we would get some great shots. And we did. We SO did! The picture of Amber on pointe with the sky behind her was the shot of the session for me. I knew as soon as I shot it that it would be incredible. It was in my brain the whole rest of the session and I absolutely couldn't wait to get home so I could process it! As I suspected, it turned out to be STUNNING!! I'm gonna have to print one for myself, too!
After Coleman Hill we went to Washington Memorial Park. Super cute!! Loved it! Definitely want to go back and shoot there, too. I'm pretty sure by the time we got to this location Amber had realized what a total nut I am and had loosened up. :)  I think I've said this before, but I forget that these girls don't know what I'm really like until they've gotten through about 5 minutes of a session with me. Then they realize that we're just there to have fun and make some incredible images. :) I want to become "Shana" and not "Mrs. Cawley" to them. It's that kind of interaction with my clients that gets everyone comfortable. And that's what makes me comfortable and then we can all be happy! (insert the choir of angelic voices here) After the park we hit up downtown in search of an alley. We found one...it was perfect for what we wanted despite the peanut gallery across the street that wanted to give advice.  Finished up the session at Central City Park with my last minute plan with the desk and the apples. :) I'm tellin y'all...my brain works in crazy ways! And most of the time I'm so thankful it does. I grabbed that bag of apples and that desk out of the garage on the way out the door. PERFECT!!
So, I will now zip it and let you see some of these incredible images! :)

Bethanne & Jake...haven't seen them in a while!! {GA Georgia Wedding photographer}

You might remember Elizabeth (aka Bethanne) and Jake from their wedding last November.  Wow, it's really almost been a year! So very hard to believe!  Elizabeth and I had been trying to find a good time to do her Trash the Dress session for months. We wanted spring, but then...we missed it. Then, it was wayyy hot and the summer was crazy busy. So, we decided on August. Still hot, but it would work. Our first day we booked looked like rain. We postponed (and of course it didn't rain!). Then we rescheduled and decided we were shooting no matter what! No rain that day! YAY! It was a wild one though!
We started at Andalusia. I reallly love shooting there! So many looks in one area. :) We waited til we got there to get her into her wedding dress. See, she really has the biggest wedding dress I've ever been around. Maybe not the heaviest, but most definitely the biggest!! So, once we got her in the dress she kept that bad boy on the rest of the day! Thank goodness I'm rockin' the mini van, because that dress would have never in a million years fit in a regular car.  We were able to get her, her dress, Jake and all my other stuff in the van. We might have looked a little clown car-ish, but we did it! :)
When we finished up at Andalusia, we shot a little at GC&SU. Love that green lawn and found some really neat angles in the trees. And of course, stopped traffic and caused a bit of a stir on campus. I guess brides don't exactly parade around a college campus very often. Who knew!?
For our next trick we had quite a bit of excitement. We rode down some country road to this little pond-y place that had been screaming "photograph me" for years! I'd tell you the name of the road, but then I'd have to kill ya! No, actually, I'd tell you the name of the road if I had a clue what it is.....remember, directions and I are not bff!  Where ever we were, all was good until a neighbor let their dogs out to see what the commotion was about. My worst fears flashed through my head when I heard the barks...but I was very relieved to see a chihuahua and mutt come 'round the corner. Ya just never know what's going to happen next!  But, what I do know is that we got some really fantastic images. :)  Enjoy these!!