A.E.LANDES PHOTOBLOG

With the rain and sunshine taking turns all day, Kelly and Justin had a wonderful setup at the Mendenhall Inn – saturated colors outside, old train tracks, big windows, and a very elegant dance hall all created plenty of photographic opportunities and backgrounds. Kelly handled all the pre-wedding stress amazingly well, and Justin and the guys were a lot of fun to be around photographing the group shots. One of my favorite images is of Kelly’s dad with his ‘Father of the Bride’ hat, with Kelly in background, looking like she is being sassy. The reception had it’s ‘funny’ moments as well, (just remember to keep the cake out of Kelly’s hair – yikes!), and the group dances with Kelly’s Brittney Spears solo was amazing.

Here is Kelly and Justin’s Wedding Gallery.

And for the friends and family, here is Kelly and Justin’s Complete Collection and Print Order Site.

Kendra and Mike – what a fun couple! We headed down to Georgetown’s Waterfront and hung out under the bridges. Lots of graffiti and bright clouds made the spring colors around the happy couple really *pop* with life… The post-processing was a real joy as well, as each photo had lots of colors and contrast to bring out in the final images. I will be photographing Kendra and Mike’s wedding later next month, and we had a great time goofing off and getting great images, so I am sure that their wedding is going to be amazing.

Check out Kendra and Mike’s Engagement Session Gallery here.

After 60 years of marriage, yes – you DO deserve a party and a huge cake! These two lovebirds have been together for long time, and photographing their surprise party was a real treat. Over at Toftrees in State College, PA, it seemed like a lot of the guests were from out of state, and to have it anywhere else would have made the Brenneman’s a bit suspicious. With the kids running around having fun (and hitting up the chocolate fountain!), there were plenty of great photo opportunities of the guests with their hugs and kisses.

Here is a snippet gallery of The Brenneman’s 60th Wedding Anniversary.

And for the friends and family afar, here is the Complete Gallery and Print Order Website.

Repeat visitors may have seen that my blog has been a bit sparse lately – I have been a little busy getting married, too. We had such a great time at the GoggleWorks in Reading, PA, which was an old goggle factory made into an art gallery. Married in a movie theater, we had to have a short film with popcorn. I wanted to post photos from my two AMAZING photographers, Jan Thiessen and Tania Lezak. Also, check out the photobooth photos of our guests!

Here is Jan Thiessen’s take on our wedding, with print ordering and downloading available: Nina and Abram’s Wedding Photos from Jan.

And here is the photobooth photos for downloading and printing!

Crushed! Mud and wind and cold and a stream-crossing-that-felt-like-a-river and mud and cold. Did I mention there was mud? After the course changed from rocky Michaux to a ‘much smoother’ YMCA Camp north of Carlisle, everyone thought they were getting off easy. However, the freezing temperatures mixed with Zach Adam’s insatiable appetite for drive-train destruction led to moments of glory, and all the riders demanded my humble respect during this four hour lap race. Of course, these circumstances led to many great photo opportunities, indeed.

Here is a link to the Michaux Mash 2011 Print and Download Collection.

NITERYDER. It’s another great event put on by the great folks over at Plum Grove Cyclery. This time, it’s racing by moonlight and headlights, and I am trying not to jump out of the dark like Sasquatch. It took much longer to get every shot set up and balanced, but this race was much more about experimenting with the strobes and trying to produce some visually spicy work. Without blinding the racers. Some things worked, and others did not. All that aside, it’s always great running into familiar faces out at the events – bros from the bike shop and a Trans-Sylvanianite made late night appearances.

Check out the highlights from Plum Grove Cyclery: NiteRyder 2011 here.

Or the Complete Collection for Prints and Downloads is found here.

Yeah, this photo about sums it up. Snow, snow, snow. Crusty snow, then powdery snow. It turned this mountain bike race into a free-form running stampede of mud-cleats and knobby-tires. And regardless of the weather and conditions, it was still a lot of fun. Not quite as epic as the snowstorm that came in mid-race last year, but I love the giant fields of snow with those lone cyclists treading through it. I had fun and judging by the smiles, the riders had some silly good times, too. Also, I think Number 11 might need to get some new friends.

Here is a link to the Gallery from Plum Grove Cyclery’s – Snotcycle 2011.

And the Complete Snotcycle 2011 Gallery for Prints and Orders. Again, if you don’t see yourself, email me (info@aelandesphotography.com) and I will see what I can find!

Yes. My Favorite 10 Photographs. I went through my collection of 80,000+ images, and came out with these. My parameters were that I gave every photo ONE chance to pull at my heart-strings or my mind-strings, and ended up with about 50 choices. From there, whittled it down to 15, and then to 10. Interesting facts: half of the final choices were shot with toy cameras on film, most choices were in BW or over-saturated color, half of the 50 choices were commissioned works, one self-portrait, and two were pictures of prints (cyanotype and a Polariod). Maybe I will post those top 50 sometime soon…

My Favorite Ten Photographs.

I was recruited a few months ago to photograph the Beautiful You Conference being held in Washington, DC. Among other things, it is predominantly about ending human trafficking both here and abroad – such a great mission! Simone volunteered to be the shining face for the conference’s promotional images, and with the help of a great makeup and support staff, the images came out better than any of us expected. Her looks are magical, and despite the Arctic temperatures, we got the sparklers lit and had some fun posing in the streets. Enjoy the gallery!

Check out Simone’s Portraits for the 2011 Beautiful You Conference!

I had the pleasure of recently photographing the great people at West Arete Computing in State College, PA. The parameters were simple – they were looking for straightforward photos of everyone with three different backgrounds, and with a slight duo-tone color treatment to match their new company website in development and correspondence. I kept everything fairly tight in composition, so they would look great viewed at a smaller size.

Here is a link to see the rest of West Arete’s Company Portraits.