Virginia Beach Family Portrait Session - OpLove

This is one of the many reasons why I love my job.

For more information on OpLove, visit http://www.oplove.org.

Virginia is for Lovers

I've been on the move the past couple months, traveling back and forth between my home base in Virginia Beach and the Shenandoah Valley. I've been up there three times in the past 6 weeks alone and I'm planning another trip up to Charlottesville next week to go see the VA Film Fest.

Something I took for granted while I lived up in Harrisonburg the past four years was how ridiculously beautiful the area was. It has so much to offer as far as recreation, camping, wine tasting, and even culture goes. If I had the opportunity, I would love to move up to Charlottesville. There are very few places I feel connected to, and in the few times I've been up to Cville, I've felt that connection.

Anyway, I'd like to share a few photos from my experience up in the Shenandoah Valley. If you live in Virginia and haven't ventured to that area, you are missing out.

Carter Mountain Orchard, Charlottesville. A great place to go apple picking in the fall.


Hess Corn Maze, Harrisonburg. I wouldn't go out of my way to visit this place, but if you're in the area, it's worth checking out.


The view from Skyline Drive.


Blenheim Vineyards, Charlottesville. A nice little winery with probably the most informative and friendly people I've met.


Barboursville Vineyards, 30 minutes away from Charlottesville. For $5 you can sample over 15 different wines.


Veritas Vineyards, Charlottesville. Not my favorite winery, but they did have table service and comfy chairs. Check out the next photo for an interior shot.


Veritas Vineyards, Charlottesville.

Also, for those of you looking for wedding venues, don't write off the possibility of going out of town for your wedding. Most wineries do offer wedding venue services. What could be better than getting married with the beautiful Appalachian Mountains as your backdrop and then cracking open a bottle of Virginia wine during your reception?

Finally, here are a few photos from our hike on a trail just outside of Charlottesville:






I'll continue updating the blog with more of my favorite places, both in Hampton Roads and around the rest of Virginia. Hopefully this will help spur ideas for any of you looking to go on a trip or trying out new activities. :)

Veronica and Nick's Wedding - Chesapeake, Virginia Wedding Photographer

Earlier this month, I had the honor of photographing my good friend from high school Veronica's wedding at the Deep Creek Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Virginia. She met Nick while she was in college at UVA. He's in the Navy and was visiting Charlottesville, where they first met.

Let me tell you, shooting a friend's wedding makes things so much more emotional than shooting just any normal client. I usually get a little emotional to begin with (it's not in a weepy, obnoxious distracting way as much as it's an 'oh my gosh, I am so happy for the bride and groom and they look so happy and life is so great, YAY!' kind of feeling) but let me tell you, I've never been happier for two people since I started shooting weddings over a year and a half ago. If anyone deserves to be happy, it's Veronica, and Nick is such a lucky guy to have her as his wife. Congratulations to the both of you, you're going to lead such an amazing life together.

Okay, enough of the sentimentality and on with the photos! Just a little side note-- this is just a basic recap of their wedding. You can have a more in-depth look at their wedding photography on the Fahrenheit Photography Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/fahrenheitphotography.

I'm kind of in love with life.

And I'm also completely obsessed with this band:


Another video:


On another note, I am having the most difficult time trying to fit in everything I want to accomplish in a week... I was looking at my calendar and realized that I don't have a free weekend until December! Wow!

Somebody made a great point saying that I don't HAVE to do everything now, since I have my whole life ahead of me and all, so I tried to narrow down what I wanted to accomplish before the end of this year, and this is my list:

1. Revamp the Blog
2. Revamp and order new business cards
3. Finish decorating my apartment. Though I can't decide if I want to put up photos of people, places, or concerts. I don't want to do all because then they wouldn't really flow well together.
4. Learn how to play the piano. Maybe take voice lessons. Get back into playing the violin.
5. Get new album samples!
6. Start an online storefront selling my own art images
7. Travel! Everywhere!

...And I've pretty much decided I'm skydiving this coming spring.

Keep your eye out for some wedding and portrait sessions being posted in the next few weeks ;)

My Life in Lists: Mae

57. Go to 25 concerts
90. Go to a concert by myself

So I almost want to say that this shouldn't count for the sole reason that I've seen these guys a crapload of times since high school, so it's not really a new experience, but seeing them live is always a great experience, so in that way, it should count. Nevertheless, as always, Mae put on a wonderful show at Neptune's Park in Virginia Beach. They just kicked off their US tour, (a)fternoon, last week, so you should check them out because they may be playing at a city near you.

Of course, let me leave you with a few of my favorite photos from the show:








[side note: this is Robert, who plays keyboards with Mae. He's a really talented musician, and you should check out his band, Tokyo, because I said so.]

ECSC - August 27-30th

So... I'm pretty much majorly behind on my blogging in all aspects (I'm talking about events, life, my 101 in 1001 list), so this week I'm making a valiant effort in catching up.

First, here's some shots from ECSC, the East Coast Surfing Championships, here on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. For you non-surfing fans, there's still a lot to check out including music, BMX/skateboarding, and much more stuff. If you missed it this year, be sure to check it out next year!

The ECSC 5K

Snack Bar Jones

The Deloreans (a pretty kick ass 80's cover band, if I do say so myself)

ECSC's special guest, Lil' Jon. You know, the guy from 5 years ago who was known for saying, "What, what, OK"? Yeah, this is where he is now....

The VANS Proskate Demo

I honestly thought I was going to get hit in the face over here. It was pretty awesome.

My Life in Lists: NYC Labor Day Weekend Edition

Thought I'd give a little September update on my progress on my 101 in 1001.

4. Visit 3 college friends who are located outside of VA (1/3) September 5-6, 2009: Went to NYC to visit Ari and Sean.


Ari (left), one of my closest friends from college, moved up to NYC over the summer. He's currently interning at one of the ad agencies in the city as a graphic designer. I implore everyone to check out his work here; he definitely has a lot of talent and is on his way to doing big things.

Sean (right), one of my other awesome friends from college, came up to visit as well. This was probably our last reunion for awhile since he's about to go overseas for a year to teach English in China. He'll be up in New York all week since he's staying for Fashion's Night Out. If you're into fashion at all, you should go to his blog, Comme Artiste. One of his posts was recently picked up by Fashionista.

Okay. So now that I've plugged Ari and Sean's work (come on. you know you wanna check them out), on with a super brief photo editorial of what went down over one GORGEOUS Labor Day weekend in Manhattan:I basically ate a ton of omelets and potatoes, courtesy of the Sugar Cafe in Lower East Side Manhattan and the Spring Street Natural Restaurant.

We hit up a pub on Saturday night, and I was ecstatic that I could actually touch the ceiling in their basement.

I love it when cities have a good public transportation system, and I love it even more when I don't have to figure it out. Thanks for being the tour guide, Ari.
We walked a few miles to Randall's Island from the apartment we stayed at near Upper East Side and Harlem. Because in NYC, everything is in walking distance.

57. Go to 25 concerts (1/25) 9/6: The Electric Zoo, Randalls Island, NYC

Sunday night's festivities consisted of dancing it out at The Electric Zoo. RAVE.


ATB. I didn't like his stuff as much as I liked David Guetta's. I'm so mainstream when it comes to any type of electronica, hah.

The only negative about NYC as a whole was the sheer amount of trash that was everywhere. Where were all the environmentally conscious hippies? :( On the bright side, the plastic cups at EZ were biodegradable.

All photos courtesy of Ariel Park.