Pamela & Ron – Wedding Memories – June 26, 2010

This past Saturday was spent laughing, directing and capturing the wedding of Pamela & Ron.  Their wedding was held  at the Mariott Convention Center in downtown Durham, NC.  If my memory serves me correctly they had enough seating for 420 guests and most of the chairs were filled.   Both Pamela & Ron are an inspiration to young people that desire to be self employed.  Both are extremely successful entrepreneurs and with them now joined under God they will be a couple that will leave their positive mark on the city of Durham.

Pamela and Ron I thank you for allowing me the privilege of capturing this special day in your lives.  May God continue to keep His favour on you as you continue to move forward as husband and wife.

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Pamela & Ron’s Wedding Rehearsal Dinner June 25, 2010

On Friday I spent my evening at the wedding rehearsal of Pamela & Ron.  After a few iterations of going through the ceremony and reception they finished their day by hosting a dinner at Kurama’s Japanese Restaurant.    After I ate my fill and captured the moments I headed home to get rested up for their wedding the following day.    As you can see in the images below they had a great turn out with many family and friends.

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Donna & Patrick – Their Wedding Day – June 19, 2010

This past weekend I spent time in Timberlake, NC capturing the wedding of Donna & Patrick.  Their wedding took place at a nice,  serene, rural location.  It was so peaceful on the church grounds that both my son and I said that this was the perfect place to take a nap

It has been a pleasure working with Donna & Patrick ever since we had our first meeting at Crab Tree Valley Mall.  A special thanks goes out to Celeste for introducing me to them.

May the grace of God and the love that you have for each other  sustain and keep you as you move forward in life as husband and wife.

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The shot below is one that I just could not resist.   When the guys walked into the basement of the church to get dressed I couldn’t help but grin because of the room that they walked into.  When I showed the picture to them  (in camera) they responded by saying in a playful tone “Now you know that is just wrong.”

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There were several funny moments but one in particular forced us to stop shooting for a few minutes.   While doing some of the husband & wife shots Donna’s son said in a monotone talking smack fun voice to Patrick  “Stop kissing my mama.”

Oh my God . . .  I thought I was going to die from laughing too hard.  As soon as he said that everyone just bursted out laughing and it took us a few moments to get our composure back.   After observing Patrick and  Jomarcus one can see that they have a very close relationship.

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Model Shoot – Emily

It is always fun to shoot with Emily.  She’s very creative and is not afraid to explore new photographic ideas.   She called me and said “Ivan, I’d like to come up with a mermaid shoot.”   Hmmmm, I thought…. a mermaid shoot.. this should be interesting?  She said yes and I already have all the accessories.    My response was cool….. let’s set a date and I’ll come to your place and make it happen.

During that conversation I also told her that I had an idea about her wearing red fabric that is blowing in the wind.  We decided that we’d try out both concepts.

The thing about photography is that it can be used for just about any type of expression.   A lot of time the fun is not only in taking the picture but trying to set the scene, the lighting and everything else that is required for you to capture the shot.

Emily actually cut out and painted the mermaid fin from a cardboard box.  She’s very artistic… you should see some of her painted portraits at her place.

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Below is a rare behind the scenes shot.  We managed to turn her living room into a photography studio. The hardest part was trying to control all the light precisely in such a small area.  Just about everything had light blockers (Gobos) to make it go only to a certain location.

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The red fabric was an idea that I’ve wanted to do for a while.  I just needed the right person that could pull it off.

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While we are on this shoot and Emily was doing her modeling “thang” she all of a sudden got attacked by the red fabric in the wind and you can see her below just trying to hold on for dear life.  There are always funny moments that occur during each shoot and this was one of them.

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The Halls Are Expecting

Time has flown by so fast.  Just last year I was running around “World Overcomers church” in Durham, NC capturing the wedding of Charleston & Takeila.   Now God has blessed them with a new child that will be here soon.

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Donna & Patrick’s Engagement

This weekend I’ll have the honor of capturing Donna & Patrick’s wedding.  We took some time out of our schedules to fit in an engagement picture session.  Unfortunately our outing was cut short by a torrential down pour but we still managed to get a few shots.

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Tiffanie’s Bridal Shoot

Not too long ago I shot the engagement session of Tiffanie & Jerrod.  They were just married in Jamaica.  Before Tiffanie left she had me to take her out on a bridal portrait session.  Below are a few of the images.

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“Some” of The Girls From Studio Plus Hair Salon

A lot of times the workers in hair salons don’t get a lot of time to be in the spot light.  They are usually busy making others look their best. Not long ago the owner of  Studio Plus Hair Salon in Durham, NC gave her workers a treat.   She scheduled a day where they could dress up, do their make up and have their own photo shoots.    These are only a handful of images because there were many.  It was a fun shoot and I’m looking forward to round #2 with the other workers.

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Anthony & Gladys – Wedding Memories – June 12, 2010

This past weekend I had the privilege of capturing  the wedding day of Anthony & Gladys.  They used a very modern venue called “The Cotton Room”  in downtown Durham.   Our day started early but went by in a blur.  Both Gladys and Anthony are hilarious and fun to be around.  They were surrounded with friends and family to make what became a magical day to remember.

Anthony & Gladys may God bless your union until the end of time.  I enjoyed being a part of  your special day and I wish the best to both of you as you move away to your new home.

I encourage you to browse this blog entry and then watch the slide show before viewing the full gallery.

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Easter Cookout 2010 – Changing A Generation Ministries

This past Monday, April 5th, 2010 ,  I was invited by Rev. Rodney Green to capture the “2010 Changing A Generation Ministries Annual Easter Community Cookout”.   This is an event where various ministries give back to the community. The event started off with two sermons so that those that don’t know Jesus Christ as their Savior may get the opportunity to accept Him into their hearts and lives. It was important to start the cookout correctly by sharing how Jesus Christ died for our sins and then was resurrected with all power in His hands.    Following the sermons there were a few announcements by Rev. Green, an Easter egg hunt, free hair cuts and food for everyone.

In the image below we see Rev. Rodney Green taking the time to speak to one of the many people that were present.

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One of the main attractions for the children were two inflated castles in which they could bounce around. After taking several moments to decide whether or not I’d risk my camera I decided to get inside so that I could capture some of the action from a close up point of view.   Of course I announced to the children that they needed to pay attention and not land on my camera.  Not a single child bumped into me but they did get more crazy once they knew they were being photographed.  Below are a few moments of fun than were captured.

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While the children were enjoying themselves another community effort was taking place. Anyone that needed a haircut was able to get one for free.

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Do you remember what it was like to be a child?  The anticipation of hunting for Easter eggs was visible by this little girl that held onto the fence as she waited for the gate to be opened.

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With some careful maneuvering I was able to get past the children and into position to capture this picture of Rev. Green. He was looking for the signal from his helpers to know when it was time to open the gates.  You can see the children looking through the chain link fence trying to figure out where the eggs were hidden.

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The pictures below show you what happened when the gate was opened.  The children literally stampeded to search for their treasure.

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As I followed the hunters I saw a situation taking place very quickly.  There was a little girl that ran so hard that she literally ran out of her shoes.   She reached down to try and get them back on but at that same moment she spotted more eggs.  She completely gave up on trying to get her shoes on and made a mad dash for the egg that she had in her sights.

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Once the children had located all the eggs everyone headed back to grab a bite to eat.  Below you will see a picture of  Rev. Green and his faithful cooks that worked hard and steady to feed the masses of hungry people.

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I absolutely love having the opportunity to capture the moments that go unseen by many people.  There were many more images captured and you can view them by clicking the link below.

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Seeing the joy on the faces of the children was worth being out in the hot sun looking for that special shot.