Outdoor Family Portraits

Enjoy One Fantastic Day together, and come away with breathtaking portraits that capture the magic between you.

Crouse Photography is an unforgettable outdoor family portrait experience, as you come together for a personal pro location portrait shoot by one of the area’s most imaginative contemporary photographers. Crouse Photography specializes in dynamic and exciting location portraiture for real families. Not a hurried session in a studio. A fun, involving day out, planned around your life, and captured forever in a set of beautiful images. For more information please contact me at photogooroo@yahoo.com.

Crouse Photography is your family’s chance to experience the excitement of a professional outdoor photo shoot, with the attention of a professional lifestyle portrait photographer focused solely on you.

• How it works When you schedule me using the following link: http://crousephotography.bookmonline.com/schedules/roxanne I’ll call you to talk about your shoot. You’ll tell me who’s going to be in the photographs, who else you’re bringing to the shoot, and where you might like the pictures to be taken. We’ll discuss clothing and ideas you have to make your images more personal. I will also take a credit card number or send you a pay pal invoice to lock in your date and time. The session fee is $125 plus tax. • The shoot itself Your photography shoot is a family event in itself. It’s a fun hour to share together, like going bowling, or going out for lunch together. It’s exciting, and well…really rather glamorous. We’ll meet at the location chosen at the appointed time and get started right away. Feel free to bring props and family pets. Who’s going to be in your pictures? You’ll have your own ideas about who the stars of your photography shoot are going to be. For lots of our clients, it’s simply their children. But almost all combinations of family members, and even some people outside your family group, can make for fantastic portraits. Crouse Photography specializes in energetic, lifestyle portraiture. • After the shoot I like to take a week or so after your shoot to look carefully at all the pictures we’ve shot, and make a selection of images. If these need any digital wizardry to bring out particular aspects, this will be done during this time. The Images will be hosted online for viewing and ordering for 60 days. A link to your photo site will be emailed to you. Feel free to pass the link to other family members and friends. After the 60 days you will need to schedule an appointment for a portrait viewing. Choosing your location The place you choose could be at your home or at a park. It could be in your home or garden. The important thing is that we’re not only looking for a backdrop: we’re looking for a setting in which your family can live, breath, laugh and play naturally while I captures your interactions. A piece of moorland where you go walking with the kids and your dog? A tree under which you like to picnic? A favorite beach? A rundown old lock-up where your husband and son tinker with the car? We’ll discuss ideas with you when we speak. (It’s worth keeping in mind that busy public places can be a little difficult to work in and may require special permission to shoot and sometimes a permit.)**** Leaving the location to me I’ve found that some people prefer to put themselves entirely in our hands, and wish simply to turn up and be photographed in a beautiful place. I will give you suggestions and directions to places you’ve never been.

  

Little Baby Chloe

I recently got to shoot images of baby Chloe. She is the daughter of one of my past brides from 2008. Chloe was such a calm baby, she was a pleasure to photograph. It took a while to get her to smile, she was so calm, but with grandma’s help we got a great view of her new baby teeth. I hope you enjoy the pictures of Chloe. What a great mother’s day or Father’s day present they would make!

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Images from Bliss-Bridal Gala

I took some images during the show on sunday. I really liked Hager Hall in Hagerstown. It will make a great reception location which you’ll be able to see from the images.

 

I did free portraits during the show. I may do this again at the Martinsburg show.

Three girls modeling some gorgeous dresses

Here are some more images from the show I hope you enjoy them!

Tips for being on time for your wedding day

You have invested a lot of money on your wedding pictures. Don’t waste the Time that you have paid for by not showing up on Time. If your photographer has to rush, pictures that you wanted will be forgotten and the photographer will have to rush increasing the risk that something technical will go wrong. Plus your pictures may come out boring because the photographer didn’t have Time to be creative.

 Hair appointments are the number one thing that cause brides and bridesmaids to be late for their photo shoot time. What ever time you think you need for your appointment, add an hour to it. The hairstylist may make a mistake and have to start over, or you may not like the way she does it the first time and have to redo it. It is also a very bad idea to only have one hairstylist doing everyone’s hair unless the bride is the only one who needs her hair done.  

For the men the number one thing that makes them late is underestmating how long it will take to put on their tux and forgetting they need to pin on thier flowers. Groomsmen always think it will only take them 15 min to put on their tux. As they put it on they realize they don’t know how to do a part of the tux or they can’t get it alone and need help. Tell them to start an hour before they need to. The men never remember to pin on flowers.  In many cases they don’t even know they have flowers that they are suppose to be pinning on. Make sure to tell them about the flowers before the wedding and again at the rehearsal. Have their flowers delivered to where they are getting ready to help remind them as well. 

 Corset dresses are beautiful in the back, but they also take up to a half an hour to lace up. If it is a half hour from your photo start time and you haven’t already started lacing up your corset, you are already going to be late. It is also a good idea to practice lacing your dress with the person who will actually do it on the wedding day. Employees at dress shops lace dresses every day and make it seem fast and easy. Your mom or bridesmaid are not going to be as skilled as they are.

 Everyone will be asking you questions, wanting to hug you, asking you where things go, all of these things will slow you down big time. So make sure you have more time than you need. Also assign someone who is not getting photographed that you trust to handle these questions for you so you can relax and concentrate on getting ready.

 Even the late arrival by one or more people can really cause a disruption. Please emphasize that you’re Time and the photographers are carefully planned to ensure that we get all photographs of the requested shots in the least possible Time and so that you do not feel rushed.

  It is very important to finish before the guests begin to arrive. You can help by making sure everyone is ready for photographs (completely dressed, with flowers pined, etc) before the assigned Times. The best thing to do is tell everyone evolved with photos to be ready at least 30 min before the intended start Time and hand out the schedule to bridal party and family that the photographer makes for you well in advance of the wedding day. Make sure the groom and groomsmen are dressed and pinning on flowers a 1/2 hour before their shoot. Most Times they forget until its Time to start and this can take up to 15 to 30 minutes of you’re photography Time.

 Another way to help move things along is to give your photographer a list of family and friends names along with the poses that you want. It is easier for the photographer to get someone’s attention if he/she knows his or her name.

 Make sure you give this schedule to everyone you want photographed ahead of Time so they know when and where to be. Also inform them ahead of Time that it is important for everyone who is being photographed to stay in the area of the photographer. A lot of Time can be lost if we have to stop and search for people when it’s their turn.

 If you want to allow family photography during the pose sessions, it is very important to inform them ahead of Time to let the photographer get their shots first.  Studios sometimes use slave strobes that are triggered by light. If someone shoots just before the photographer, the professional photo will be ruined. Wait for the photographer to say it’s OK. Letting family and friends take photos will slow the sessions down so more Time will need to be scheduled.   

 And don’t forget to have fun!

Nine Years of Happy Marriage

My husband, Zack, and I had a great time for our nine year anniversary. Thursday night we went to the Drive inn in Stevens City to see Star Trek and 17 again so we would still be awake at midnight when it turned into June 19. At midnight I gave him his father’s day present because I couldn’t wait to give it to him anymore, a one hour massage at serenity day spa! He always wants me to give him massages so now he can get a nice long one. I think it will be his first. He got me a massage, manicure and Pedicure last year for my birthday so I thought I’d return the favor this year.  

After my rehearsal, for the second part of our love day,  we went to the Charles Town Race Track. We don’t have a lot of money to waste so we only get to go there on special occasions. We ate at the epic buffet and bet on the horses. We normally take $20 each and make minimum bets and see how long we last. Although tonight wasn’t our lucky night, we still had a great time.  We played a few slots after the last horse race and decided it just wasn’t our night to win and decided to go home. Last time we went we started to play with two dollars and went home with over a hundred. That night was a pretty good night!

Zack and I have had a great nine years together and I’m sure it’s going to continue for a whole bunch more. Now we are excited because we get to start planning our ten year anniversary which we plan to do something big on. Our first choice is to take two cruises back to back in China and Japan. Both of us have always wanted to go to Asia, especially Japan. Second choice is a cruise around Australia, and third is a cruise around Hawaii. Neither of us have been to any of these places so were really excited!

Just finished a father’s Day Album Layout

Last year I made a mother’s day album for my son’s karate teacher. It turned out really nice. Well, Lucinda saw it and asked if I could make a father’s day album for her. I finished it today I hope she likes it. You can check out what it’s going to look like below. An album like this makes a wonderful keepsake. Just keep in mind it takes a lot of time to make one so you have to start planning early. It’s a good idea to schedule the session in March or early April so the photographer has plenty of time to design the album. It’s definitely not something you can do last minute.

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Two dogs and a one year old, having fun at the park

A few days ago I did a session with Lucinda and her son. We went to Clear Brook Park and we brought along the  family hunting dogs to join in on the fun. Lucinda wants to make an album as a father’s day gift for her husband. I thought it was a great idea. Last year I made a similar album as a mother’s day gift and that’s how Lucinda found out about me. Lucinda’s husband loves his hunting dogs, and loves his son I’m sure the book will be something he treasures forever.