Before the wedding starts...

We've been working on Kim and Paul's wedding album, Finally, all the prints are off at our bindery, Art Leather. This is one of my favorite images from the wedding day. We were in a quiet hallway just outside the sanctuary as Kim and her dad waited to walk down the aisle. My heart was pounding (like it always does when the church is full and everyone is looking over their shoulder to get a glimpse of the bride.) Kim had the calmness of a saint. She just took a breath and bowed her head. I don't know if she was praying or just collecting her thoughts. Regardless of what she was thinking, I thought she was supremely beautiful and was glad to be there with a camera.

Image Copyright 2007 Elaine Odell Church Hill Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Senior Portrait

This handsome young fellow is Will Patterson, a senior at Richmond Christian School. His mom and dad asked me if our studio did Senior Portraits, and I said, "of course!" Call me old fashioned, but I wish kids would dress like this more often. It's his dad's tuxedo jacket. He certainly is dressed to impress.

Image Copyright 2007 Elaine Odell Church Hill Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Halloween At the Office

On a quite Sunday, we went to Richmond's financial district with our model, Beauregard Marie. I worked in NYC for years and wanted to find a location that reminded me of the marble office plazas in mid-town Manhattan. I also wanted to replicate how the early morning/afternoon sun hits at such a strong angle this time of year.

I had Beau walk back an forth, and up and down those steps a lot. We tried various camera angles and lots of different hand positions with the jack-o-lantern. Getting the swing of the pumpkin and the briefcase with just the right stride took us a while to figure out. Beau did a great job, and was very patient.

For lighting, we supplemented the natural open shade of the office plaza with a battery powered off camera flash, creating a "kicker light" from the right side (notice how the main light reflecting onto the subject at a right angle--not what you'd naturally see at noontime in open shade). We added a few orange gels to warm the light to give it that early am glow. In all those years on Madison Avenue, I never actually saw anyone walking to work with a candy-filled pumpkin. But if I had, I'd have smiled like a jack-o-lantern.

Image Copyright 2007 Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Dream Home

Architectural photography is something we love to do. This home was designed by Perry DesJardins, a creator of extrordinary residences throughout Central Virginia. Infact, if you go to Perry's website, you can see the front of this house on his home page. This image was created by layering a number of different exposures within the image file. We set up the camera before sundown, and left it in place till dark. We added some stobe lighting there and there to open up the shadows. My assistant that day, Karin Sabine, hand held the strobe and walked along the set popping the flash at different areas. Some of the later exposures were as long as 8 seconds. The goal was to let the structural lighting appear as it does to the human eye. Nice digs.
Image Copyright 2007 Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

A Country Wedding

The Powhatan County homestead known as West Wind (rolling hills and a turn of the century farmhouse restored by the bride and groom) was the site of a super-fun wedding on September 15, 2007. From the git-go, the couple (Colleen McGary and Al Kupeski) told us they wanted to focus on enjoying the company of their family and friends. The last thing they wanted to do was pose for a lot of pictures and be kept away from enjoying their wedding celebration with guests. So, with the couple's permission, we captured the day in a photojournalist style. Between me and photo assistant, Beth Furgeson, we captured over 300o images that day. It wasn't till the very end of the day, with the sun gloriously setting and giving us the hallowed "golden hour", that we were able to get the newlyweds to settle down and make their official "wedding portrait". Luckily for us, the groom has a spiffy John Deere that doubled as the perfect loveseat and bouquet-tossing platform for the bride. See the whole shoot at http://www.churchhillphoto.com/al.
Image Copyright 2007 Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Engagement Portrait

Recently we had the pleasure of meeting Leigh and Matt. They commissioned our studio for their engagement portrait. What really works about this image is the relaxed pose. We always try to have couples close together and touching...just like they do in real life. After the shoot, we posted the couple's proofs online. This is the image they chose for their announcement. We find that online proofing helps clients share the images with friends and family. In this case, it was especially helpful since she lives out of town, as do her parents. To see what our online proofing system looks like, you can view this couple's shoot at www.churchhillphoto.com/leighmathew.
Image Copyright 2007 Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Mother and Child

This story has a happy ending. Once upon a time, a Union Hill neighbor MaryBeth, brought her 5-month old daughter, Rigby to the portrait studio. Now Rigby, being an exceedingly intelligent child, was not to be fooled by the usual photographer's tricks. No funny face, nor silly sound could get her to smile or laugh. The harder the photographer worked at being crazy and wacky, the more she looked simply perplexed. Understandably, Rigby's mom and dad wanted happy baby images to choose from. But Rigby would have none of it. So the photographer got the good sense to ask MaryBeth to hold her daughter. Well, that did the trick. Nothing makes a baby smile like a mother's caress. Now everyone lives happily ever after.
Image Copyright 2007 Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Guys in Ties

One of the things we do alot (and I did this shoot with photographer/assistant Beth Furgeson) is go into workplaces and make environmental portraits. Last week, Brady Communications asked us to visit one of their long-term clients, Quad-C Equity Management. Two new analysts had just joined the firm and needed their images on the company website.

Our goal was, with as little disruption as possible, to make a nice portrait of each fella in their current workspace. Since these guys are financial/business analysts, there was paper everywhere, lots of binders, books, spreadsheets, you name it. They have loads of information to keep track of.

As the photographer, my job is often to decide what not to include in the image frame. Both guys asked "do we need to clean up our desks?" I said the same think I always do, "no". Some how we always find a flattering angle and create lighting that eliminates the distracting junk that is in everyone's office. It didn't hurt that both these guys are youthful and handsome. They look professional and approachable.

All images and text copyright 2007, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All rights reserved.

A "Northern Neck" Morning

Here's another shot from our day with Candidate for Virginia State Senate, Richard Stuart. We started out at the farm of Woody Hynson (who's also serves on the Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors.) Woody's farm is picturesque with shady fishin' banks along the Rappahannock River. He was planting soy beans that morning and needed a hand with the 50lb bags of seed. That's Richard in the blue shirt helping out. The body of water behind the men is a creek that runs into the river just a few hundred yards away. Wood's retriever puppy, George, is quite a jumper, and managed to get his muddy paws on all of us, including Richard. Fortunately, we had another shirt handy and got this shot of George the waiting for Richard to toss the stick into the river. Oh, if you're not familiar with the term "Northern Neck", it's the peninsula that is bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers as they flow in to the Chesapeake Bay.

All images and text copyright 2007, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All rights reserved.

Summer Reading

Earlier this summer, my assistant Beth and I followed candidate for Virginia State Sentate, Richard Stuart. We photographed him talking with voters and visiting all kinds of folks throughout the 28th district. At the end of day-one, we stopped by his home to meet the family. Our job was to capture relaxed, everyday images of dad just hanging out with the kids. This image, with his eldest daughter, Katie, is one of my favorites. We just asked them to sit on the porch and read one of her favorite books. After a few poems, a tickle-giggle fest ensued and well, that's when the really fun pictures happened. Special thanks to all the folks we met those two days in Westmoreland and Stafford Counties...and vote for Richard!

All images and text copyright 2007, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All rights reserved.

Beautiful Baby Boy

This little guy came ready to have fun (mom & dad get all the credit). We made this image between wardrobe changes (he had some cute grandma-given outfits that got drooled on.) He's about 6 months old, so sitting up is still new to him...but as you can see, he's proud of his new "stature". This stage of a child's development can yield particularly rewarding photographs. Most babies are reacting well to parents (just to my left, so the infant can focus on his/her two favorite people in the world.) Also, babies this age are strong enough to sit up, but not quite ready to crawl away from the set. Perfect timing for our subject. This was our first shoot with the new "Desert Sands" backdrop, it has flesh tones, pinks and blues. Nice for youngsters.

All images and text copyright 2007, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All rights reserved.

Virginia GrandDriver Location Photoshoot

Last week we got lucky with the weather and had a wonderful time with these three spokeswomen for the Virginia Department for the Aging program known as GrandDriver http://www.granddriver.net
This is an unretouched image from the shoot. What makes this shot work for me is the lighting...and of course the energy of our talented subjects. Sunset shoots are thrilling because of the quality of light known as "the golden hour". That day, I worked with two terrific assistants: Danny Spry and Beth Furgeson. They're both young photographers and together we made a nice team. Look for this image (or a similar shot) in media later this spring and summer.

All images and text copyright 2007, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All rights reserved.