I'm Outta Here...

I'm going on vacation, leaving at 2:45pm today (Haven't packed yet!! ugggggh) I'll be back in the office on August 7th. In the meantime, you can leave me an email or send one to my assistant Diana (diana@katiemathewsphotography.com). One of us will get back to you within 24-48 hours. If you need to schedule an appointment, Diana can do that.

Just a quick couple of pics for my dear friend Lesley. I'll post a couple of more when I get back, but I met her and her family the other day for baby Andrew's 6 month pictures. I can't believe it's already been 6 months since he was born!! Check out his newborn session here and here.

The Henderson Family

A few weeks ago, I headed down to Fort Fisher to photograph the Henderson Family.  This one might get a little complicated, so let me break it down for you:

1. Carie Beth (the mom) and Diana (my sister) used to work together
2. They go to the same church - Port City Community Church
3. A few months ago, PC3 asked for volunteers to host children from Belarus
4. Carie Beth felt called to do this (her hubby too)
5. Nine-year-old Vladik arrived from Belarus on June 11th to stay for 6 weeks
6. Why do these children come to the US?  Belarus is still affected by the Chernobyl disaster.  Just getting them out of their country for six weeks greatly affects the rest of their lives!

I had already been planning to do pictures for their family this summer and it worked out perfectly that Vladik was here too.  Our session was a little crazy, what with a tired two-year old, a soaking wet dog, and a nine-year old that couldn't get enough of the ocean.  But it was so much fun!!  Diana came along and had a blast chasing Jackson down the beach while I got pictures of Mom & Dad alone (Mitchell proposed to Carie Beth here).  At the time of the session, there were only two more weeks until Vladik had to go home, and Carie Beth was already sad about having to say goodbye.  But she sent him home with plenty of pictures to share with his family in Belarus.  Thank you for allowing me to photograph such a special time in your lives!

Meet Katie

Not me, Katie. My friend, Katie. She is preggers and I'm going to follow her for the next 6 months or so in her journey to motherhood. Get used to seeing her gorgeous face and her growing belly here on the blog, because we're planning to get together at least once a month to do a few pictures. Hopefully, I'll be going to her ultrasound as well and finding out the sex of the baby and if my schedule permits, I'll be at the delivery too!! (I'm excited, can you tell?)  So the other night, our 2 families got together for dinner and then I took a few pics of Katie afterwards. We did these in less than 10 minutes and at a shopping center - I love trying to make everyday stuff/locations, look good :)

Without further ado...here's Katie.

The Wilson Family

I belong to an online message board for photographers and there are people on there from all over the world. A few weeks ago, one of the ladies on there told me she was going to be coming to Wrightsville Beach (from Ohio) and wanted to know if I would take pictures of her family. Last week I headed down to their beach house and I'm so glad I did. This family was such a riot!! I was a little nervous at first to be taking pics for another photographer, but Jodi and her family made me feel right at ease and they were willing to do anything I asked. So here are a few of my favorites.

Jodi - thank you for asking me to take pics of your (hillarious) family! I hope you love them and I hope to do it again next year!

While I was taking pictures of each of the kids individually, the rest of the family was giving them grief and teasing them. While I was taking pics of one of the boys, I turned around quick and got this! (the guilty parties)

The Hesmer Family

Wow...2 posts in one day...crazy huh?

I don't think the whole family has this last name, but the person who hired me does (Keely) :) Her parents, 2 sisters and their families were in town and we went to the park for some pictures. Typically, I do my sessions about an hour before sunset, but one of the sisters was flying out of ILM later in the afternoon, so we had to get together at 10am. It was HOT! And it was Sunny! So we had to find as many shady spots as possible. I think they came out pretty good and I hope the family agrees with me!

Be sure to leave a comment since I have a comment contest going on right now (see the post at the top of the blog for more details).

The Darnell Family

Jen (mom) and I used to work together and we have been planning to do this session forever! We finally got together about a week ago while her inlaws were in town and we headed to the beach. I always try to do things a little different, so not everyone's session is the same. We did a sandy feet shot..but we did it up on the lifeguard stand and at a different angle. I love the picture of Grandma & Grandpa looking into each other's eyes. They've been married for a looong time and you can tell they are still very much in love.

Thanks Darnell family for a fun evening - I hope you like your sneak peek!