Sara and Todd have become some of our favorite people to hang out with. We laugh ourselves silly and yet have always enjoyed meaty conversations about marriage, family and the Lord. We just love them and can’t say enough about the stellar character of this couple.

We knew she was up for a real challenge with our two gems. Bennett can be fairly cooperative with the camera but Chloe is flat out disinterested in anything having to do with photos. It is beyond frustrating to take photos of them. After 2 years of Bennett being around we still never managed to get one photo of the two of them together. I kid you not. You will see Sara’s brilliance literally emerge through these photographs as she worked her magic and broke through their stubborn disinterest and pulled out some amazing candids and some fabulous posed shots. Enjoy the two greatest things we have ever done.

Not the most enthused about photos being done.

The picture of cooperation.

slightly better

Success

One money shot of both looking and BOTH smiling. It is Portnoy history. I was hoping for one and we got it! Sarah and Cookie the dog on her head were a magical team.

We tried to recreate a picture that Ryan’s brother shot almost three years ago. It is blown up in our house and one of my favorites!

Unfortunately, Chloe managed to be a Class A Poophead and not cooperate. Okay, I’ll admit, it is kinda funny and really adorable.

Because we can and it is glorious.

Time to wrangle them into their next outfit change. As if it wasn’t hot enough.

I’m going to break you into the cuteness a little at a time.

Yes, she is 3.5 and her hair is that amazing. This kid is follicley blessed.

A moment of sharing, this is definitely worth documenting.

I’m obviously unaware of the next photo. This is the major inside joke between us and Sara. She used to have a Facebook profile picture that was sorta squatted down like this. When we were taking their pictures in the fall Ryan kept leaning down like this taking shots to make them laugh and poke fun at Sarah. His four foot long legs look like a praying mantis so somehow along the way of joking the move got coined as “The Pantis”. Now Sara and Todd refer to us as the Pantis’s. There, now you are in the loop, don’t you feel special?

Love this one of Bennett

I have to end with these last two because they make me smile and laugh and thank the Lord I got a girl! She is obsessed with wearing my heels and is amazingly coordinated at wearing them around even on brick!

Sara, I could never do what you do and these were my kids. Your patience, humor and encouragement during the hours we spent together were incredible. You are so insanely dear to us. We love you and Todd so much and look forward to the next double date with you guys. This time, don’t get all dramatic and break your foot again :-)

As you all know we like to photograph children as unobtrusively as possible. What better setting than a playground to get authentic laughter and joy. All the cousins and second cousins headed to the playground for some afternoon fodder.

Big sis, Ella.

Big brother, Sammy.

Little sis, Janie Kate.

Couldn’t resist her sandy little bottom.

I love Ella trying to make Bennett laugh.

Our baby boy, Bennett.

Steve and Janie playing peek-a-boo.

Our little brown eyed beauty, Chloe.

One of my favorite shots of the day, Ryan got this one.

His eyelashes bring the ladies to the yard.

Bennett, party of one, Bennett, party of one…your table is ready.

Ryan got a little too close, Janie was over the paparazzi.

Love Bennett’s sand goatee.

This has to be one of the coolest boy kid toys ever!!! It had a little fake GPS and a real working radio, gas and break pedal. AWESOME!!!

I finally uploaded some pictures of our kids after church a few weeks ago. Just had to keep exploiting their cuteness.

I don’t think you realize how stinking funny I am. It is a good thing Chloe does!

Her teeth are so adorable.

One word…STUD!!! I could eat his face off! It’s a good thing he is cute because he is going through the worst screeching phase we call “The Tea Kettle”….it’s like razor blades in your ears. It’s only a phase, it’s only a phase, it’s only a phase…..this is what I keep telling myself.

Okay that should give all the ladies an ovary fix for awhile.

Keep it spicy brides and grooms! Keep it spicy!

Happy B-day Can, thanks for the great night!

The b-day girl and hubby Tim looking schexy!

Not one to be too serious

Chick band…watch out!

If only you could have heard some of the notes John was attempting to hit. We vacillated between awestruck and laughing. He gave it 110%.

Can we say perfect teeth! Joseph was another one that sang his heart out.

Live the dream Ry, live the dream.

We did a stellar rendition of “Hotel California”. The family that sings together, stays together. Words to live by.

Ryan channeling his inner Steven Tyler but with an incredible cheese-ball grin.

Things got a little crazy by the end. The scarf came off Candace’s neck and onto her head, the music was turned up and then there was dancing. That’s what people in their late 20’s and early 30’s do….we’re wild I tell ya, wild!

We can’t talk about someone we love and are related to and make it brief.

This day finally arrived.

So I never grew up with a sister. Just one lucky brother (cough, cough)! I never knew what it would be like to argue over boys or sneak clothes out of each others closets and I guess I never will! Inheriting sisters in my adult years is like winning a relational lottery. I love my sister in laws and I am thrilled to now have Jo in my life. I feel like I have a small glimpse of what it would have been like to have a sister.

This weekend was definitely a sprint not a marathon. We had a tight schedule to keep and all of us were scattered between Maryland, DC and Northern VA. So there was lots of shuttling around town but it made for some fun moments in the car.

Friday night we arrived in time to help set up the wedding/reception site and then off to DC for a delicious rehearsal dinner, courtesy of Ryan’s parents. Moe’s Southwest Grill catered the event…..HEAVEN!!! I am fairly certain I could survive on Tex-Mex the rest of my life. I ate until I ran out of buttons to let out on my pants. When I die, embalm me with guacamole please.

The boys dressed up Joe for a night on the town. This is just a small version of payback for what Ryan had to do at his bachelor party. Let’s just say a wig, makeup, dress and large sign were involved as well as being pranced around town to busy retail stores.

The guys headed off to the DC Improv to watch Harland Williams perform and the girls had a girlie night at Joanna’s townhome.

Saturday was the big day!

I stuck with the boys due to having one vehicle. They got ready over at Joe’s apartment. Banana Republic outfitted the guys with some sweet gray pinstripe pants, argyle sweater vests and Joe’s gift to the guys were a pair of Chuck Taylors and red ties.

Joe and Joanna decided to do a private reveal before the wedding. I love this!! Ryan and I did it too and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

This is the first wedding in four years that we have just gotten to enjoy the festivities with no photography responsibilities. You will see in the next few pictures some awkward angles because I was trying to stay out of the way of my two friends and fellow AMAZING photographers, Amy Martin and Kate Headley.

The bridal party went to various locations around town strutting their stuff. I LOVE the girls dresses from Anthropologie. I could write a whole post about that store in general as it is my FAVORITE…but I digress. The teal and red theme was in full effect with the ladies ensembles!

Dan is enjoying himself a little too much.

LOOOOOOOOVE Joanna’s headpiece. Ladies…take note…HAWT HAWT HAWT!

The four Portnoy brothers from left to right: Sam, Dan, Joe and Ryan.

close up of the Chucks.

The four girls in the center at the Charron sisters: Jean, Joanna, Jill and Jen. (Ryan’s sister, Meridyth, is on the far left…she survived growing up with four brothers!)

A few of The Jo(e)s….I hardly got any of the two of them. Tried to stay out of the way on those shots.

Playing around with some new actions we bought….trying to see if I like them or not…undecided.

Ladies get ready to grab your ovaries. This is Iris, Joanna’s niece.

Seriously…isn’t she just the most adorable thing? That tutu and patent leather red Mary Janes….oh man….amazing!

The girls all carried clusters of various white flowers.

This is my brother in law, Pat, who we call the 5th Portnoy brother because he strongly resembles the youngest Portnoy, Sam. Of course, Ryan’s sister who married Pat hates us saying she married someone who looks like her brother…but isn’t that what family is for…to make fun of you?

Pat said he wanted to give me an honest expression of how he felt. He had been chasing their toddler around for hours and was a bit worn out.

Time for the main event.

An old music hall was converted into the ceremony and reception location. Strings of lights, paper lanterns, and paper flowers adorned every square inch of the hall. Joanna tirelessly baked enough cakes to be a centerpiece for each table in lots of yummy flavors.

Hands down, Joanna’s entrance during the wedding march was the most dramatic moment ever! The song, “How He Loves Me” by Eddie Kirkland was sung by the amazingly talented, velvet voiced, Steph Modder. The music came to a crescendo half way through the song and WHAM the doors flung open and Joanna came down the aisle. There was no way you could have been in that room and not have your heart skip a beat…it was beautiful and powerful!

They “I do’d” and then the celebration began. We chowed on some seriously amazing BBQ!!!

On to the dancing. It felt SOOOOO good to dance! We may be totally mismatched in height but we can bust a beat together. Don’t let our matching outfits and goofy grins fool you. We are two bad mamba-jambas on the dance floor.

Ryan’s brother Sam and our niece Ella

Portnoy family sandwich.

The music stopped after about 30 minutes and friends of the Jo(e)s took the stage, “Rockseratops” ripped some amazing classic rock songs. We all stood with power fists in the air belting every nostalgic word to Journey until we were hoarse.

Joe took the mic at one point and finished off a song dedicated to his beloved.

Next came one of the highlights of the night. Joe and Joanna, along with about 15 other friends have been learning and practicing the routine to Beyonce’s “Put a ring on it” and performed it for us all.

For your amusement….a little sampling of the routine. (you may have to refresh the page if you don’t see a play icon on the video)

It was a blast!!! We had so much fun celebrating another monumental family event. Joe and Joanna we love you guys so much. Thank you for allowing us to be such an important part of your engagement period. We have loved watching you grow together through the highs and lows. We count it a privilege to pray with and for you both over this last year and a half. God has truly blessed you with each other and we can’t wait to see all that He does for you as you honor him with your vows you took that day.

We love you!

We have three sessions next weekend so we can blow the dust off this blog and get her revved up for spring….yeah! We are ready to jump in with both feet and start dazzling you with some amazing couples we have been blessed with this year.

Enjoy some photos from our trip to the local airstrip where Ryan’s mom works. The kids loved looking at the planes and running around despite the fact it was FREEZING out!

My ADORABLE nephew, Caleb. He is two.

Let’s play I Spy…I Spy the scene of an upcoming photo shoot……

I could not love this kid anymore. That smile just slays me.

Inside an airplane engine.

These next three pictures are the best we could do to get Chloe and Caleb to take a picture together. They would not engage with each other nor the camera. You just had to sit them close together and hope for the best before they scrambled away.

My beautiful Chloe. I would kill for her hair, maybe not kill….but severely mame.

Ryan’s sister, Meridyth and husband Pat

Ryan was jumping around making Bennett laugh as well as his dad. Really sweet moment.

Sitting on a tractor watching an airplane land

Very excited about the airplane coming in. I swear I am not picking my nose, I thought I was out of the frame. Always assume you are in the frame when a camera is near by.

That wraps up family time. Catch you next week with some highlights from our Portnoy Wedding Weekend Extravaganza!!!

I have to show off their unique wedding invitations. Joe and Joanna already have their clever signature of The Jo(e)s working in their favor. They really cashed in by having some very talented friends come up with a super fun branding using Jo and Joes’ silhouettes and screen printed them onto their invitations. Love it! To cute not to save.

outside of the wedding invite

We are sooooo excited to be celebrating The Jo(e)s wedding in a few weeks for two reasons.

A- We LOVVVVVEEEEEE Joanna and are so happy to be welcoming her into the family.

B- This is the first wedding in 3.5 years that Ryan and I get to really enjoy as a couple. Ryan is a groomsmen but other than that, we get to be a real guest! We are leaving the kids at home so that we can enjoy all our family coming into town and boogie down till the break of dawn. I do believe I will get to see Ryan’s “bend and snap” move that won me over 5 years ago. SCORE!

If you missed our engagement session with The Jo(e)s, then click right here.

Onto the mish mash part of this post.

We enjoyed our second snow of the season randomly on Monday. Only in Virginia can it be 8 degrees and 10 inches on a Monday and then that Saturday be 74 degrees.

We decided to bundle the kids up to “play” in the snow. It ended up being more of a nightmare than actual fun. Poor Bennett, his snowsuit was a size too small for him so he had to sit motionless like a gingerbread man arms straight out, unbendable. He did enjoy going down in the ducky sled.

Chloe, on the other hand, loved being out in the snow but had no interest in traditional snow fodder. She is a girl the walks to the beat of her own drum. She much preferred to take a stick and poke snow, eat it, and generally just wander around talking to herself. She is hysterical and quirky all rolled into one firey brunette.

I also wanted to share with you my default career. If Kellan doesn’t pan out I think I am going to going to look into becoming a whiteboard artist! My specialty is Disney characters.

Exhibit A:

I mean a blind man could see that this is clearly Bambi, Flower and Friend Owl. Masterpiece no?

Exhibit B:

Dumbo and Timothy….dead ringer, I know!

Well at least I have my two year old fooled. There is this sense of sadness when she starts scribbling all over my art pieces….she just doesn’t appreciate my talent.

Last but not least…speaking of art. This has nothing to do with photography but I am all about supporting the arts and especially my talented girlfriends. They are knitting and crocheting fools. I tried my hardest to fall in love with knitting, but like tea….it just doesn’t do it for me.

My friend Candance just opened up her Etsy store today. Check out some of her adorable HATS for infants and toddlers.

Chloe received one of these great hats for her b-day a few months ago so you can see how great they look.

Adorable! Go check out her shop and pick one up.

Yes we did a lot of this.

Our cameras were always “at the ready” but we weren’t getting paid to take pictures so we did leave them in the room and just enjoy.

We did a pinch of this.

We gambled a whole $20.00 in the quarter slot machines. Yup, we live wildly people…money is no object, therefore we can easily part with it. Seriously, I could never be a gambler. Once we were down $6.50 we decided to cash in and walk away with our $13.50. I wanted dinner more than I wanted to see my money slip away quarter by quarter.

We easily walked close to 5 miles per day. I have NEVER been in a hotel as big as the MGM Grand. Let’s just say a hotel that has three Starbucks in it, a stadium, Cirque de Soliel performs there, a convention center, close to 30 restaurants, of course more casinos than I can count, OH and a live lion…..you try to remember EVERYTHING you need before leaving your hotel room. There is no running up to grab something you forgot.

We never stopped doing this.

Lots of laughs! We hung out with some of the most amazing people with fantastic senses of humor. We have already declared our love for Christy and Dustin Heigh, Emblem Photography….but just one more shout out. We have such a soft spot in our hearts for these two. They encourage us, listen to our highs and pray us through the low spots. This trip would not be the joy it was without them.

Ryan’s brother drove over from LA to hang out with us for a few days. Bonus!

We walked down the strip at night to take in the lights and see some of the other hotels. If you ever go to Vegas you MUST go to the Bellagio and watch the fountain/light show! So fantastic. The end scene in Oceans 11 takes place where we are standing. Here Dan is conducting the fountains.

The Bellagio is beautiful.

Dustin took this shot, I love it! They have bridges above the main streets so you can walk across and avoid traffic. This shot reminds me of how overwhelming it felt to be in Vegas the first night. It is a very unique place.

We were mainly there for two reasons, to attend the WPPI tradeshow and meet some amazing photographers in the business.

The tradeshow was great! We went with a game plan to research album and proofing companies that could meet our growing need. It’s time we outsource all our post production with the exception of editing and album layout. You should see some of the albums available! After touching, inspecting, smelling, rubbing and ALMOST licking these covers (I can not believe how soft and buttery some of the leather ones were!) We came home with some solid choices in hand. Things will be changing with Kellan this year and we couldn’t be happier.

I got to do a little accessory shopping which was super fun for me. I picked up a great GoBee hip clutch for all my odds and ends while shooting. I am NOTORIOUS for losing lens caps amongst other things. This bag is FABULOUSLY comfortable, the leather is so ridiculously soft. I will admit it is just like a fanny pack, but the cool version of the fanny pack (Is there such a thing?)

My other splurge was on a new lens bag, the ever popular ShootSac. Hey, what can I say, the tradeshow had some great discounts so I had to cash in. I have been putting up with my clunky camera bag for years now, it was time I splurged a little on some stylish and lightweight accessories….SCORE!

We met so many photographers while we were there, others we just saw in the crowd and gave the courteous head nod. We hung out with our good friend and fellow photog, Amy Martin a lot! She is currently in Charlotte, NC but moving back to the Burg soon….we are thrilled to have her back here and think the world of her work. She is photographing Ryan’s brother, Joe, wedding the end of this month.

We went out for coffee with our favorite husband/wife team better known as, Mary and Justin Marantz, from Connecticut. I double heart, triple stampy, no erasey love these two. They are the real deal, genuine, fun, and just the coolest to hang out with. I only wish we lived closer. Mary is my girl, humor wise, and they both have a huge heart for the less fortunate and have founded The Portrait House which supports Habitat for Humanity. They really took the time to understand Kellan Studios and where our hearts are in this crazy industry. Very blessed to call them friends.

Another photographer that we could not get enough of is the ultra adorable and sweet, Punam Bean out of NYC. I seriously wanted to fold her up and put her in my pocket.
Ryan has had a major photog crush on her forever and got me hooked several months ago. We ran into her at the tradeshow and talked and talked and talked and talked. We ran into her later that day with her husband, Andy, which sparked another slew of conversations about music. Ryan is a major music connoisseur and Andy is one of the fabulous duo of the Two Man Gentleman Band. They will be coming through Richmond in April and we are hoping to go hang out with them. Punam is so unbelievably passionate about her work and clients. She is infectious to be around. We are so glad that we met her and can call on her.

So as you can see, we had a great time! We met amazing people, saw some incredible products, came back inspired and ready to make 2009 the most successful and creative year yet!

They may be husband and wife but these two can hold their own apart.

Enter- Pose Off: Dustin and Christy came armed with some serious sass putting life into the desert vastness.

This was the scene.

See Dustin way off in the center of the frame. That was our final destination.

Some of the only green in eye shot.

I will alternate between Dustin and Christy so you can be the judge of who won the Pose Off or maybe it should be a Dimple Contest.

One of my favorite series of Dustin. He is a goober, and might I add, one of the most insanely clever “Would You Rather” people I have ever met. His brain is like a carnival of random ideas.

I love this one of Christy

Marc approached us about shooting new promotional material for his CD “Worship Hymn” and his website. This session included some individual shots as well as tackling the task of shooting family shots. Marc’s three kids range in age from 7 months to 5 years old. One of Ryan’s famous lines, “It’s like herding cats!” That about sums up shooting three energetic boys! They were lots of fun and provided some great comic relief.

We headed downtown to the beautiful and eclectic Craddock Terry Hotel to take over a suite for some fun shots. Seriously, if you ever come to Lynchburg you HAVE to stay at the Craddock Terry and dine at their two amazing restaurants, Shoemakers and Waterstone. You will thank me ten times over for the recommendations!

Miracles do happen, you can get five people to look at a camera at least once, well almost once!

most of the time it went a little like this….

Marc’s wife Alaina is a saint! She is so patient and laid back….not to mention has the best skin and smile. Tell me your secret Alaina!

Some solo shots in the suite

These shoes have absolutely zero to do with the photo shoot, but I loved them and therefore they deserved to be documented and shared with every woman that looks at this blog.

Time to head outside.

Every childs rite of passage….first lost tooth!

Showing their “studliness” by making muscles for me.

Mama should have told you:

A- Don’t break the law and graffiti on public property
B-Choose literacy and learn to spell choices

A hymnal shot to play off the CD name, “Worship Hymn”.

Marc’s new t-shirt he designed and will be selling on tour.

Marc we had so much fun and are grateful to be able to call you friend now. You guys are awesome and we pray God’s continued blessing on your ministry.