Author Archives: Ben

Mandy & Nick the Details | Harrisburg, PA Wedding Photographer

When we posted the ceremony shots from Mandy and Nicks wedding, we promised to also post some shots from the reception as well as shots of all the cool details from their ceremony and reception – Mandy’s a graphic designer, and her influence was everywhere.

Mandy’s little cousin carried this basket around for hours before the ceremony and was handing out programs and bubbles to whoever would take them – she even asked if I wanted one!

wedding programs vignolireception_0090

Instead of a traditional card box – they went with a rustic looking mailbox.

wedding card mailbox vignolireception_0060

Wedding kiss menu vignolireception_0499

Their first dance. Mandy kept trying to hold back the absolute most ridiculously big smile the whole time:)

First dance vignolireception_0568

Nick got a little fancy on his feet. I did a little post processing on this image to give it an old fashioned look.

Mandy and Nicks guests sure knew how to get down, after all the formal dances were done, the floor was packed the rest of the night!

vignolireceptiondancing

Below is photographic proof that no guy really want to catch the garter;)All these guys *look* like they are trying realllly hard to catch that thing; while one of the guys shows off by balancing it on his head!

garter toss vignolireception_0465nr

Congrats Mandy & Nick!

Pin It

Posted in Pennsylvania, Weddings

Jess & Ethan | Blacksburg VA Engagement Photographer

Several weeks ago, we shot a much delayed engagement session with Ethan and Jess. This awesome couple was married back in the summer of 2006 and never had an engagement session done before the wedding! We had so much fun shooting this session. Great locations and a great couple to work with – they had a genuine love and happiness about them – if you didn’t know any better, you would swear that Ethan had just popped the question a couple days ago!

We started out at a local park in Blacksburg. Ethan’s a little kid at heart, so we figured he might have a lot of fun here. When we arrived we headed straight for the play equipment, where we quickly found this slide…built for two! Why have a slide built for two if you don’t take full advantage of it. PDA warning!:)

In the park there was this awesome full size train caboose. After we convinced Ethan to stop playing engineer, we got some really neat shots on the steps. This is one of my favorites.

Next we went over to Virginia Techs campus. Virginia Tech has some incredible architectural features in a lot of the buildings on campus.

Sam’s shot:

My shot: (I like Sam’s better)

We were walking from one location to another on campus and Sam spied this small grove of trees. It looks like they’re in their own little world in the middle of a bustling campus.

Great eyes.

This came from the last set of pictures we took as we were leaving the campus. Makes you want to lay in the grass all day and look at the clouds.

We had so much fun doing this session with the Filips. They were so much fun to work with and we were all really happy with the pictures that came out of it. You guys are great!:)

-Ben&Sam

Pin It

Posted in Engagements

Sneak Peek – Jess & Ethan engagement session (sort of…)

Stay tuned for a post of Jess and Ethan’s awesome engagement session!

Pin It

Posted in Engagements

Fall Fun!

These past two weekends have been filled with all kinds of fall related activities. The weather here in Virginia has started to cool down a little bit, and, as sorry as we are to see summer fade away, we all wanted to get outside and enjoy the beautiful fall weather – and get some pictures while we were at it! Last weekend, our friends Erica and Graham (of St. Michel wedding fame) came down to visit. Erica was on a mission to “experience fall” as she put it. We did our best…

On Sunday, we took them hiking to the Cascades National Park. It’s a nice hike that ends in a beautiful waterfall. The entire hike follows the small creek below the waterfall. There’s plenty of small ripples and waterfalls all along the creek. The fall colors were out everywhere – we had a carpet of colorful fall leaves to walk on for most of the hike

Check out some of the trees above us – doesn’t it look like fall fireworks?:)There was some really nice light falling on the fast moving water; and the colorful fall leaves dotting the stream made a really relaxing composition.

For most of the hike the sun kept peeking in through the trees above, giving all the leaves below a soft glow. This one is one of my favorites!

Next on the fall checklist was visiting an apple orchard to pick apples. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize apple picking season was over – until after we picked a bag full of apples! The orchard staff wasn’t very happy with us to say the least! There was this old fashioned apple picking basket sitting in the late day sun. I don’t know if it was actually used, or just decorative.

This weekend Sam and I went to the Sinkland Farms Pumpkin Festival. We had never been, but heard great things about it. Plus we were in the market for a pumpkin, maybe two…

It completely amazed me how large the pumpkin field was, and how many pumpkins there were to pick from. You could spend hours just selecting the perfect one. This picture only shows about a third of the whole field!

Luckily, we picked two pretty perfect pumpkins quickly (say that five times fast). Depending on our carving skills, we may post a few shots of the finished jack-o-lantern. Would love to post more, but I have some hot apple cider waiting for me;)

Pin It

Posted in Personal

© 2012 Essential Sunshine Photography | ProPhoto3 WordPress Theme by NetRivet, Inc

F a c e b o o k