A.E.LANDES PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG.

Melissa and Joe have it down – between running marathons and Joe’s healthy mountain bike obsession, they have two beautiful kids that made my job as a photographer very easy. We set out on the National Mall and just had some fun in the bright, fall leaves surrounding the WWII Memorial and checking out the bridged island nearby. The sun and leaves played so well with the family, it was a chore picking out the very best photos from our session. Enjoy the gallery of images!

Here is Melissa and Joe’s Fall Family Portrait Gallery.

I flipped out when I found out these two were just dating, but to find out that Matt dropped the knee and put a ring on Roxanne made my week. I met Matt and Roxanne separately at two very different times of my life, and I never would have thought that they would meet and eventually get married. Matt shares my love of Rwanda and cycling, and Roxanne is one of those fun people who brightens your day. Needless to say, their engagement pictures share a lot about their personalities and love for each other.

Here is a link to Roxanne and Matt’s Engagement Gallery.

Bright sun and an ‘unsprung’ field turned into a great setting for shooting some portraits of a long-time friend, Kate. Don’t be fooled – we did have to break out the reflector to lighten up some shadows, but really sometimes you just have to go with what you have for weather and settings. We just needed a few nice professional shots, and then we moved onto a bit more spontaneous poses.

Check out Kate’s Portrait Session here!

Paul contacted me with a fairly unusual (and hugely creative!) way of proposing to his now fiance, Audrey. After photographing them, some surprise pictures around Eastern Market and formal shots of them around the snowed-in monuments were then assembled into a small book and finalized by Paul. The hand-picked collection ended with a picture of Paul knelt down with a beautiful ring… Let me tell you, Paul set the standard high for proposal ideas.

Check out some of their images here: Audrey and Paul’s Proposal Photobook.

I had a great portrait session all set up and waiting when I arrived in DC. It was really a great time working with Nisma Karedis, a hair and makeup artist coming all the way in from CA for a visit. These women were all friends living in DC area, and we moved some things around in the kitchen to get access to the amazing exposed brick wall and huge bank of windows (hence the great side-lighting!). And then we braved the cold for some outdoor shots around the waterfront and tunnel in Alexandria during the magic hour.

Check out the choice gallery of images here: DC Ladies’ Portrait Session.

My friend Roxanne contacted me as soon as I got back into the country, wanting some pictures with her graduating roommates before they separated ways. We had some warm afternoon sunlight hinting through the trees, which lit up the shrine perfectly for portraits around it. Shooting silhouettes is becoming a favorite thing to do, and we had brilliant yellows as a background for portrait rim lighting. The ladies posed wonderfully, and I hope these pictures carry wonderful memories from PSU.

Here are a few images from the Penn State Graduate Portraits Gallery.

Aaron has been a long-time friend, and was my other set of eyes and fashion consultant for Irene and Ashlynn’s portrait shoot. He needed some shots for his use to put his face along with his crazy web/social-networking software development (CoTweet), so we shot away while the ladies were getting ready. Funny, yes. Serious, yes. Sarcastic, always. I think a good dose of his personality really comes through on these images.

Click here to view Aaron’s Promotional Portraits.

I count myself lucky to have friends this beautiful AND love to have their pictures taken! We had a chilly but successful session on the roof of their house in DC, and we then moved to the back patio for a few and had a candlelit experience inside. I find that I am really hard on myself with posed images – I mean, I want them to be as technically perfect as I can manage. I ended up only keeping the top 10%, of which I think the one of them sitting on the floor of the roof is the money-maker. Wow. Thanks Irene and Ashlynn – you two are truly wonderful ladies!

Click here to see a selection from Irene and Ashlynn’s Portrait Session.

What fun! The shoot started a bit earlier than planned, as I watched the sun rays slide down the wall at my house. The “magic hour” of slanting sunlight was hard to determine as the fall season sets in, so the three of us met up in a local park and started shooting right away. We really couldn’t have asked for better light, we just needed more time with it! We got a bunch of really great images, and Christy and Anthony were so easy to work with. Haha – I think they might have forgotten that I was even there taking pictures! They are very much in love with each other, and that really comes through in the images.

Check out their gallery: Christy and Anthony’s Engagement Gallery

David Palmer has been a longtime friend of mine, and he has opened a for-hire event bartending business here in State College, PA. We had to get a variety of shots of Dave working and posing behind the bar, and it took a while to get the right lighting with the low ceiling and varied light sources. In the end, we got what we were looking for. We shot this on location at Zeno’s, State College.

See the gallery here: Palmer Bartending Promotional Picture Gallery.