Lera + Nate: Married
I am so excited to share this wedding with you! Lera and Nate are the kind of people you meet and you instantly fall in love with, madly, head over heels style. Not to be sappy, it's just true. They are the kind of people who just make you feel cooler by simply being around them (kinda like the fonz). They are also two of the most genuine people I've ever met. And if that wasn't enough they have one of the most romantic love stories ever (you can read all about it HERE if you're curious). So we were totally stoked to get to be the photographers for their wedding in Oak Island, North Carolina.
After my little car accident the night before we flew out to photograph their wedding, one of my best photography friends TimCo flew in from Florida to help me photograph their day, just in case I keeled over at some point lol... Luckily after doping myself up on pain meds just in case I was on cloud nine the whole day lol.
Ok... let's get to the photos, I'll talk while you browse through them...
When I arrived at Lera's parents house the morning of the wedding I was a little early so it gave me lots of time to play around and get some awesome detail shots... so I went a little crazy trying to decide which ones to post...
As usual while I was hanging out with the girls Joey was over chillin with the guys, I love these little detail shots he got!
Lera + Nate decided to do a first look, and take all their photos before the ceremony (which I LOVE) maybe next week I'll do a blog post about all the many reasons I love this idea. This is one of my favorite pictures from the sequence we captured...
After the first look we took off to take photos, Nate was seriously rockin' the shades. I think both him and Lera actually did some modeling when they lived in Japan... and apparently they haven't lost their touch lol...
Let me just say... this is the BACKYARD of their parents house... ummm... yeah... I'm jealous...
I could seriously comment on all of these, so lets just assume above every photo is a comment from me saying "AYKM!?"... How cool is the light in these two portraits of Nate though!? I was just a tad excited when I took them...
Lera was the perfect model...
Every time I see that photo on the left I feel like a little Gucci or Prada sunglasses logo would look so at home on it...
After we had some fun taking photos and took a short break to freshen up, it was off to the ceremony!
I loved everything about Lera's color palette for her wedding...
I love this photo of the ceremony Timco captured for me!
I don't usually post a ton of bridal party pictures, but these came out so cool I just had to post them!
Lera was the master planner and after the ceremony arranged for a trolly service to transport all her guests to the reception location down the street. I love these photos of the bridal party we got of them all on the trolley...
At this point, the light was PERFECT for heading down to the beach to take just a few more pictures before the reception. I love the little reception dress Lera changed into...
I love that photo on the right, somehow it just seems like the quintessential picture of pure happiness to me.
After our little beach session it was off to the reception, which was so gorgeous!
I love all the little unique details they included that were specific to them and their love story.
AYKM!?!?!? Seriously one of the most gorgeous receptions ever, with the perfect sunset too...
And I'll end with these two, you might not already know but Joey and I love ballroom dancing. I'm a little more obsessed than he is and more than anything I think he just goes along with me to see the big stupid grin I get on my face when we take lessons. So I LOVE LOVE LOVE when my couples do little choreographed numbers for their first dance and Lera and Nate's was flawless... it was gorgeous!
And if you still haven't had enough here is a MASSIVE slideshow you can watch with even more photos! It takes a little while to load but it's worth the wait I promise!
LERA + NATE: THE SLIDESHOW
I have to just say too before I end this post what an amazing family both of these two have. The moment I walked into her parents home I felt like one of the family. There was such an outpouring and love and support for these two the entire day that it was beautiful to witness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Behind the scenes
Since I had Tim come along we got a few more photos than usual of us doing our thing so I thought I'd post up a couple...
Lera's Dad snapped this one of Joey, Me and Tim at the start of the day (just a reference point to what I looked like in the morning, with all the running around we do I start to look like a catastrophe victim at the end of the day, so it's nice to know I started out looking decent at least lol)
Yes... you are seeing correctly, this is me sitting on Joe's shoulders taking pictures. Over the years it's sorta become our "signature move" lol. In reality it's just WAY easier than carting a ladder around with us everywhere we go!
At the end of the night Joey and I and Nate and Lera and Lera's sister and her boyfriend all shared a slow dance together :) (I love our clients!)
WHEW! That was a long blog post! Thank you Lera + Nate for letting us into your families and into your lives!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
An Effort In Honesty
Having a business blog is sometimes hard, because there's always this line in the sand. You know the line that if you cross it suddenly you are in the TMI zone. A zone most business bloggers avoid like the plague. Apparently it's not very professional to openly proclaim to the world "I got a zit on the tip of my nose the other day that just won't go away and it's driving me freaking crazy" (which is true by the way).
This alone is where a problem arises for me.
Because I live in the TMI zone. Honestly you can ask any of my friends and probably 99% of them will tell you this. Part of me likes to be prideful about it, like I'm just a really honest person... shouldn't everybody be comfortable sharing their deepest darkest secrets with total strangers? And then the other part of me sees that maybe this isn't the most admirable quality at times. Don't get me wrong, I'm not George Washington or anything.... although I really do suck at lying. Seriously, I am horrible at it if truth be told. I can't even play the card game BS without having to smile and giggle the ENTIRE game so nobody can tell when I actually have something. I'm just not very good at it.
So trying to keep a business blog is a bit of a conundrum for me. I can't even tell you how many posts I've written, almost posted and then had my brain kick in right before I pushed the publish button telling me that this isn't the place for that kind of thing.
So this leaves me with a question.... What exactly is this place for!?
Throughout the years I'm been the type of person who does things because she thinks she SHOULD do them, because that's what's EXPECTED of her and to be quite frank, because that's what everybody else said was the right thing to do.
But lately I've come to the profound conclusion that I am not like everybody else. This should have been clear to me way back when I was learning to count and would always count the beans spastically: one (bean on the top right), two (bean on the bottom middle), three (bean on the top left).... you get the picture. This frustrated my mother to no end (since she is a big supporter of counting things methodically in a sensible order). She kept wanting me to get the wrong number in the end to prove to me how flawed my bean counting method was. But in the end I would always get the right number, every time. This should have been my first big clue that my brain just isn't wired the same as everybody else's. And should have also taught me that even though my method was different I got the right outcome in the end. So I'm not sure why it's taken me so many years of my life to realize this about myself. And more than realize it, but actually embrace it, love it, and tell it... "you know... you seem a bit crazy but I think we might actually get along pretty well."
So.... from now on I'm going to pursue honesty and authenticity. Because in the end isn't that what makes us all unique individuals instead of duplicate drones of each other?
So in an effort for honesty I am starting here with my blog. And I honestly don't care if it's unprofessional, because that's not the reason I do what I do. I love photography because I love getting to photograph who people really are, their stories, their joys, their personalties. I love being able to look inside of another human being and put into an image what I find there so that everybody else can see it too. In the end what I do is about relationships, real ones. It's not about putting on a false front for people so they'll think I'm cool (because I am the dorkiest person out there much of the time).
So the buck stops here. If that means some people won't hire me because I mentioned having a zit on my nose, so be it.
I have no idea how to end this rambling post so I'll leave you with a quote from my good friend Dr. Suess who I think sums this all up rather well.
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
-Dr. Suess
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
I know it's only September but after getting several e-mails from a bunch of different people, I figured maybe I should post something up on the blog lol :) I love that my clients are better planners for this than I am myself lol. Usually I end up a week before Christmas freaking out because I still haven't sent out a single card, let alone taken our yearly family photo to include yet. So this post is for those of you out there a bit more like me who need a gentle bump to remind them that Christmas is coming up and will be here before you know it!
Also this year we are offering custom designed greeting cards that you can purchase with your session, however to be able to get these done in time for you to send out (since we have to shoot the session, edit the images, design and order the card and then get it back from the printers) you'll need to book your session soon. Also I have an amazing client that offered to let me shoot in a gorgeous vineyard close to Tucson, however I hear that to shoot there we'd have to do it before the end of September, so that is another time sensitive option you might be interested in.
All of this to say: book you session as soon as you can so you won't be scrambling like me a week before Christmas!
Here's all the info for the different types of Holiday sessions we'll be offering this year:
Shoot us a note to book your session or find out more info and a la carte options: inquiries@pangburnphotography.com
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Good Bye Summer (And Good Riddance!)
Let me just start by saying this summer has been hard. Like 5 year old jaw breakers hard. It all started back at the tail end of May when the night before Joey and I were flying out to photograph the coolest weeding in North Carolina. (insert harp sound and blurry fade dream sequence here) I was driving alone (Joey was meeting me the next morning) to my Grandparents to spend the night before our flight out the next morning when I pulled off the freeway and stopped at a red light at the bottom of the off ramp. I'm waiting and waiting for the light to turn green when all off a sudden this loud beeping noise starts going off in my car. Finally after looking everywhere I see that there's a message on my dashboard telling me to change the oil. "Whew" I think to myself, for a second I thought the car was going to explode, I leaned forward to push the button to turn off the beeping when BAM, all hell breaks loose. I remember the first thought that went through my head was "Oh no, I didn't change the oil soon enough and now my car is exploding!". I wasn't really sure why the explosion would have come from my trunk, but heh, I'm not one of those car girls. I can change a tire but that's about all I've got. Slowly the daze wore off and I looked around a realized I'd been rear ended at about 60mph and my car was almost 40 feet from were I had been stopped. 
The next thought I had was "Oh no, all of my photo gear to shoot the wedding with was in the trunk of the car!" at that point I went into panic mode. I managed to pry open the back seat of car crawl into the trunk and extract all of our gear which in some miraculous way was all fine. Sadly, the car was not. I watched it get towed off into the distance that night to be totaled, surrounded on the side of the road with all my belongings I had to pull out before they took it away. I managed to get a hold of my brother-in-law to pick me up and finally get me to my grandparents that night, where I discovered a treasury of pain pills they had stored up. You see I knew I had been hurt in the accident, but I was afraid to get taken to the hospital because I didn't want to miss my flight early the next morning and miss the wedding I had to photograph. So I had just sucked it up. The discovery of the pain pills made everything better, we managed to make out flight the next day, shoot the wedding and come back before the real pain ever set in. But the moment we got back it was doctors visits night and day, I was going three times a week to two or three different people trying to get everything fixed.
Slowly I was getting better and by our 5 year anniversary on July 9th I was feeling way better. Joey had planned such an amazing day for the two of us to spend filled with adventure.... all of which came to a screaming halt after I got a very bad case of food poisoning at lunch. I couldn't move more that a 1ft away from a trash can or toilet so my awesome hubby improvised and set up our camping tent in our living room and rented tons of movies and we spent a very memorable anniversary curled up on the air mattress inside the tent with me puking every couple minutes... this lasted about a week and a half before I was fully recovered.
Toward the middle of July I was finally feeling better, my stomach wasn't so queasy anymore and my body was on the mend from the accident when I got a call from my mom in Hawaii to tell me my dog Shelby was very sick. Now, you have to understand about me and my dogs. They aren't dogs. They are my children, my best friends, my playmates, my counselors, my therapists, my everything. The day we got Shelby I remember I was about 11 years old and had just got done playing a soccer game when friends of ours invited us to come see some puppies their weimaraner had just had. I guess some rouge dog had gotten into their back yard and gotten her pregnant so they weren't super sure what breed the puppies dad was. I remember on the car ride over there my dad saying 
"Now remember guys, we're just going to go look! We're not bringing one home today!" We go there and all the puppies were in a little playpen in the front driveway and they were the most beautiful jet black and jumping around crawling all over each other. I remember looking down and seeing one puppy sound asleep in the midst of all the chaos curled up in the bottom of the pen, I reached down picked her up... and that was it. My heart melted. My dad even melted the moment he saw her and she came home with us that day. When we got home we named her Shelby (to remind my dad that he was supposed to build me a Shelby Cobra for my 16th birthday... that plan didn't really work out but the thought was there at least lol). I had never really had a lot of friends growing up, and Shelby quickly filled a hole in my heart that needed it very badly. She became my best friend. I know a lot of people say that about their dogs, but she really was in so many ways.
The first night we had her, she was supposed to be getting kennel trained so I put her inside and went to bed, when she started to cry my heart broke and I remember crawling inside the dog kennel and sleeping in there with her all night long. Not wanting to sleep in the kennel anymore Shelby started sleeping in the bed with me, under the covers, with her head on a pillow curled up with me like a teddy bear. I've always had trouble sleeping, but never when I slept with her. I would listen to her rhythmic breathing deep long breaths and it would put me at peace in a way nothing else ever has. As she grew up she never really realized she was a dog, or that she was to big to be a lap dog.
on the lake and my sister and mother were walking along the shore with Shelby. She looked up and saw us out on the water and jumped in to swim out to us, half way there she realized that Mom and Kasie were still back on shore and just kept going back and forth wanting to be with all of us.
I would grab one of the quads out of the garage and sit her up on my lap, drive the two of us out the the woods, let her down and then blaze through woods a full speed. Me being a dare devil, doing jumps and her gracefully gliding through the forest keeping up with me like it was second nature to her. We spent a lot of summer days that way together. I even got in a fight over her once, one of my friends didn't really care for her and told me so and I proceeded to scream at them at the top of my lungs... her father didn't really like that. I got it trouble, but I loved my dog. Like I said she really was my best friend.
I was sad that I couldn't see her as often anymore but loved her just as much as the day I had screamed out my friend for saying bad things about her. Then I got that call. She was sick and there was nothing I could do. I couldn't even be there for her, to hold her and tell her it was going to be ok. I couldn't do anything, I don't think I've ever felt more helpless as I did then. After two days I got another call from my mom telling me that she had passed away. My heart broke in my chest and couldn't do anything buy cry for hours. It's amazing how much someone can touch and change your life with no words. How much an animal can mean to you. And all I can say as I am trying to write this, tears streaming down my face onto the keyboard is that I miss her. I miss her so much. But when I do I am thankful for Audrey, and we cuddle up together like I did with Shelby and I pretend she's still here, still breathing those deep rhythmic breaths and putting my soul at peace.So that was my summer, not the best one I've ever had by a long shot. So I'm excited to get away. Friday morning I fly out to visit my parents in Hawaii for two weeks and hopefully detox from the event of this summer. Although I know it won't be all palm trees and blue Hawaiians because Shelby won't be there when I arrive. I know that's going to be hard. But hopefully it will also give me some time to morn, and to let go.
Wow. That was a WAY long post just to let you know I'm off to Hawaii for a few weeks. Sorry if I went sort of over board with my story. It's just been such a long summer and I finally feel like I am in a place where I can start talking about it. I've tried to write before but the words just wouldn't come. So if you've made it through this novel of a post God bless you, and thank you for listening. And if you have a pet, make sure to give it a long hard hug from me before you go to bed.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Lions and Tigers and Workshops, Oh My...
A few months ago I had the awesome pleasure of teaching a photography workshop at our studio, it was so much fun we've decided to do it one more time this year! And not only that we're adding even more workshops too! We also are going to have a 1 day advanced workshop and private workshops available as well! If you've been thinking about taking a class but have just never had the time then one of these might be fore you!
We'll be teaching the two day beginners workshop Oct 23rd + Oct 24th and the advanced Oct 17th, space is limited since we want to keep these small so if you are thinking about coming sign up sooner than later.
To find out more information and to sign up for the classes check out our worshop website:
Here's a few images Joey snapped from the last one we did:
Melanie + Dave: Married
I'm so excited to finally get to blog this wedding! Melanie and Dave are two of the sweetest people I've met in a long time, and I just fell in love with them and their family's. There is so much love and support that surrounds these two it's amazing, it was a blessing to just be there.
I knew the moment I saw this dress it was going to be a good day :)
These shoes were so cute!
I love these two images of Melanie getting into her dress, they have such a beautiful classic feeling to them...
Seriously... Melanie was stunning... like super model stunning...
Her and Dave decided to do a first look and we were able to walk all around La Paloma and get some gorgeous images.
FAVORITES!!!! Seriously straight out of old hollywood, these two are gorgeous...
This is probably one of my favorite bride coming down the isle photos ever...
Did I mention the whole day was beautiful... the light was amazing!
I love this one of Melanie's sister...
Melanie and Dave had one of my favorite wedding colors combos ever: Lime Green and Navy! Yumm!
First dance!!! Anne Bryan did an amazing job on this room...
Wedding Planning and Event Design: Creative Events By Anne Bryan
Location: La Paloma Country Club
Videographer: WAM Weddings