Portrait Week in Raleigh, NC, August 25-30, 2009

To all my awesome Raleigh, NC clients-- I've just booked a week on the East Coast and look forward to seeing you! I will be available for children and family portrait sessions August 25th through August 30th. Please contact me if you'd like to get on the calendar. All sessions will be on location in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area. I'm instituting the "buddy" system for this season as well- So if you have a friend or relative who would like to get on the calendar too you can split the cost of the session! (same location, sessions one hour apart.) I am still honoring my 2005 Raleigh prices for this week, which means the session fee is only $125. Don't know where to go? Here are some suggestions of my favorite places to photograph children and family sessions- I will likely be visiting several of these spots:

Oakview County Park, Raleigh -just off of Poole Rd. and the beltline, behind the Wake County office complex
JC Raulston Arboretum at NCSU, Raleigh -on Beryl Rd. just off of Hillsborough Street near Meredith College
Bond Park, Cary on High House Road between Cary Parkway and Northwest Maynard Road.
Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham *please note Duke charges a fee for use of their grounds for photography*
UNC Chapel Hill Arboretum and campus

In home or backyard sessions are always encouraged as well. As always, I recommend solid, neutral colored clothing in coordinated tones for your family members.

Please give me a call at 919-272-4049. I look forward to seeing you all!

Wedding at Garre Winery, Martinelli Center

Kimberlee and Mark's wedding last month was absolutely fabulous. The new Martinelli Center at Garre Winery in Livermore is stunning. Theirs was the first wedding I photographed in the new building (Rilene and Lawrence's wedding in September was on the other side of the grounds- I still haven't blogged about that one!)


I photographed Kim and Mark's engagement session last summer and looked forward to this wedding all year. It's amazing how quickly that year went by!


You could tell the heart and soul Kim poured into all of the details. She was incredibly lucky to have her good friend Cheryl helping also. It came together beautifully.


One of the biggest hits with Kim and Mark's guests was the photo booth that they brought in. What a great idea! It was quite entertaining watching what was going on inside on the monitor mounted above the booth. In addition, Kim's favors were little frames the image strips could go into afterwards. The booth generated a duplicate strip to go into Kim and Mark's guest scrapbook.


Once again Mary and I had the pleasure of working with DJ Hector Duron. I always encourage my clients to book with Hector- He definitely keeps the energy up and keeps the party going. You gotta love a wedding where someone starts breakdancing.
Here's my favorite image from Kimberlee and Mark's engagement session last year. They are such a good looking couple!

Studio Maternity Session

Last week I had so much fun photographing Adrienne's maternity session in the studio. She's due with Alyssa in early August. She is an absolutely gorgeous pregnant person! We were also able to include a few with her adorable two year old Mason - who I have photographed over the past couple of years - and her husband Steve. Adrienne was positively glowing throughout the session. I can't wait to meet Alyssa in a couple of months!

Yippeeee!! The new site is live!!

I must admit I'm a little hesitant to say just how long I've been in need of some updates at juliecheshire.com! To photographers updating a website can be an especially daunting task. I'm happy to say though that after weeks of pouring through images from 2008 and 2009 I have finally gone live with a completely new look. I'm still ironing out some of the kinks but we're live! Keep checking back as I now have the ability to update the site more frequently.

Engagement Session in San Francisco

Sara and I had an absolute blast last Thursday with Chris and Phyllis in San Francisco. These two are getting married October 3rd at St. Dominics. Chris and Phyllis wanted a San Francisco theme for their engagement photos- so we pretty much toured the city on Thursday! We started off at Yerba Buena Gardens. There is SO much fun stuff to shoot there! We started at the carousel, a great way to get Chris and Phyllis loosened up for an afternoon photo session :) It didn't take much though- they are naturals with the camera and incredibly fun people.

We had originally tossed around the idea of hitting Alamo Square Park, but decided against it. Luckily there was an awesome sculpture at Yerba Buena depicting the Painted Ladies, so it all worked out!

We also walked around the perimeter of Yerba Buena for some city scenes. One of the best spots was behind St. Patrick's at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The fabulous architecture of the new building provided some cool scenes.

Next, it was off to the Palace of Fine Arts. Chris and Phyllis wanted to incorporate some of the columns there for sentimental reasons- they got engaged in Rome! :)


Our last stop was Baker Beach/Fort Point for sunset. The bunkers at Fort Point always make the top of my list for favorite places to shoot.

Luckily we avoided a handful of nude beachgoers (at the bridge end of Baker Beach it's legal) and captured some gorgeous images at the end of the day. I am really looking forward to working with Chris and Phyllis on October 3rd! They are so much fun and absolutely in love with each other!!

Portrait Session at Markham Arboretum, Concord, CA

This was a great weekend for portrait sessions! Sunday morning I met up with Christine and her family at the Markham Arboretum and Nature Park in Concord. This is an absolutely gorgeous location for portraits. It's typically a bit more quiet than other local parks on the weekends, and there's an added benefit of an abundance of trees. I always recommend portrait sessions in the late afternoon to take advantage of the best sunlight- however if you have enough tree cover you can sometimes get away with shooting closer to the middle of the day without too much trouble. (This is great if you are working around nap schedules that can't be changed easily!)
There is a gorgeous old tree stump at Markham which is awesome for photos. The covered arbor at the center of the park is great too- especially earlier in the spring when the wisteria is blooming. Christine's family was so much fun! I photographed the kids two years ago at Turtle Creek Park. The last photo here is from that session-- they have grown so much!!

Engagement Session at Mt. Diablo State Park