A much anticipated photo session… Crosby, aka Mr. Junior Photographer, and I have been trying to plan a session in our studio for quite some time and we finally got around to it. Crosby has been a great student at learning how the equipment works and learning how to be more than just a person holding a fancy camera. I did the editing but he took most of the photos in this session, and it was actually a pleasure working with him and teaching him during the process.

As far as the OriginalChris goes…well he’s the man behind the man that runs the show over here at Lucky Pro Photography (www.luckyprophotography.com). Our studio is located in our home – we have backdrops, lights, some props, etc. But the one thing that is very important for studio sessions is personality. Allows these photos to give you a glimpse into all of mine. Leave your comments below so Mr. Junior Photographer knows he did an awesome job.

April 24th, 2010 we celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary. With knowing that most couple’s first year is usually really tough, we feel extremely blessed to have had a wonderful year filled with love, trust, fun, laughter, growth and spiritual development and guidance. We are so thankful for all our family and friends that have been there for us to offer words of wisdom and encouragement.

With our busy schedule, we had to celebrate our anniversary the best way we know how… with simplicity. The day began with some much needed R&R as we got to sleep in late for the first time in ages, it seems.

Below, Angela is reading a very thoughtful card I picked out for her… I wrote her a special not inside as well.

A dozen roses to represent and celebrate each month of growing together deeper in our relationship.

Crosby got in on the celebration by making us one of his world famous homemade cards. It was really sweet!

More beautiful flowers for my beautiful wife!

We decided to order lunch from Pei Wei and head over the the Fort Worth Water Gardens, the place where we really began falling for each other. We ate, cuddled, kissed, talked, laughed – we were that couple you sometimes see in the park loving on each other and just makes you say, “Awwwwwww!” And yes we know how corny and cheesy we are together! The hardest part of the day was trying to photograph ourselves, but things turned out just fine for us.

This photograph really reminds me of when we first began falling deeply in love. Believe it or not, Angela is just as much a big kid as I am. It was such an amazing time being able to toss our cares to the wind and just focus on each other.

Love by definition: a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. The bible says Love is Patient, Love is Kind and it also commands that we love our neighbor as we do ourselves. We live in a world where love is more of a battlefield than a peace of mind. Today’s love comes with mountains of stipulations and unnecessary conditions, ultimatums and other attachments. Love is not respected, it’s not properly nourished, and for the most part it’s not sough after with the right intentions.

I’m not a counselor, or speaker, or even a relationship expert. But one thing I know is love is a necessity. I hear from my friends and family on a weekly basis regarding relationship issues and love questions. There’s a world of people who have been abused emotionally from chasing an ideal of love, and I’m very empathetic toward those who no longer believe in love and have simply given up. This is a horrible state-of-mind to be bound under and if you’re not careful it can and most likely will kill your spirit.

How can you love with a dead spirit? You Can’t!
How can you loose the stronghold of disbelief of love ? It takes time!
How do I do it? It starts with learning how to love yourself.

The Return to Love Begins with the Self - look in the mirror and point at the person you see…that’s who it begins with. I find that most people I speak with, regarding love and relationships, carry a mountain of regret, insecurities, failures and unnecessary pressures everywhere they go. It’s kind of hard to feel good about yourself with all these negatives guiding your subconscious. You need a renewed spirit, heart and mind – you also need a willing attitude toward openness to love. Do you truly love yourself? When no one is around, there’s no one to try to please, the environment is just you and your thoughts…do you truly love the person you are? The main key to finding love with another person is first discovering true love within yourself.

I’m very passionate about the love that I have for my wife and with my wife. She was my return to love… she gave me the hope that love was indeed possible, the hope to believe again and to experience again. She helped me to discover the love within myself because there was no way I could have ever loved her if I had not first loved me. My inner person was in a world of trouble and agony from just dealing with the cares of life. I was lost and thought I was craving love, but what I really needed was direction in finding myself. I had to take a look at my personal situation and take a stand for inner person. I had to really examine the kind of person I was at that moment in time and make some changes for me in order to really be open to love again…for that I love who I am and I especially love who I am with the love of my life by my side.

Your thoughts on the subject….

Hello friends, family and frequent visitors to our blog. We’d like to introduce a new series of post to be titled “Before & after Friday”. Each Friday (or as often as time will permit) we will post a photograph, the original along with ones which we edit. We get a lot of questions about our digital processing techniques. Although we are not giving away our Top Secrets, these post will give you some insight on how we decide what processes to use in editing.

Post processing is a very crucial element of photography – we spend a great deal of time developing techniques to compliment our artistic vision for our clients photos. We’d like to share some of these techniques with you through these series so you can see how much thought and time we put into our work. So let’s get started!

Visit Lucky Pro Photography for the rest of this article.

I’ve never known a kid who can hold full conversations about basketball, hockey, baseball, trade rumors, game stats and anything else regarding sports. Marty is Angela’s seven-year-old cousin who is just full of sports knowledge. He is such an awesome kid and probably the biggest sports fanatic I’ll ever know. Good luck to ya Marty through your young sports career.

See more photos at Lucky Pro Photography: Marty Voster.

Hello family, friends, clients and general readers of our blog. We are so happy to announce our first printed volume of our photography portfolio. It arrived via courier today and we are super excited about it – Angela unwrapped it without me, then called me to announce how much she loved the book…I couldn’t wait to rush home.

The book is an awesome custom designed, hardcover, square book which measures approximately 12 x 12 inches and has 160 pages of our work. We began working on this book a month ago and are just so amazed at how it turned out. I’m sure some of you will see it real soon as we will be carrying it religiously everywhere we go. We will create 1 volume each year as we build onto our portfolio.

A big shout out and many thank yous go out to all our clients, friends and family. We really appreciate you who have invited us into your lives to share in and capture some very special and very important moments. Clients featured in this volume include:

• Shanna & Ben Treffinger (wedding)
• Chelsea & Jeremy Kraemer (wedding)
• Stacey & Mike Rodts (wedding)
• Rosie & Henry Herrera (wedding)
• Kikki & Leon Barnes (wedding)
• Ginnean & Doug Sinclair (wedding)
• Crystal & Anthony Walker (wedding)
• LeAnn & George Slay (wedding)
• Patricia & Patrick Clawson (wedding)
• Nicole Gardner (maternity)
• Zaidy Danielle (newborn)
• Miah & Payton (kids)
• Laine & Lawson (kids)
• Bella & Lillianna (newborn)
• Simone (kids)
• Marty (kids/sports)

See more photos at Lucky Pro Photography: Volume One.

We absolutely love, loved, lovedddded this couple! Chelsea and Jeremy were married on September 26th in Medford, Wisconsin on a gorgeous fall day. Their story is such a classic – high school sweethearts, college lovers and now they are married…but if you met them, you’d think they just fell in love yesterday. The love seems to renew continually. Their wedding was so much fun and we captured some awesome moments with them – it was a huge plus that they scheduled 2 hours in their day just for us to do our thing!

Chelsea and Jeremy, you guys are such a wonderful couple and simply made for each other. The way you look into each others eyes, the way you embrace, everything you do together…it’s just so natural and pure. We are so glad to have met you guys. Your wedding day was very special for so many reason and it was definitely our pleasure being there to capture these memories for you.

See more photos from this wedding at Lucky Pro Photography: Chelsea & Jeremy Kraemer Wedding.

I think the song “Ordinary People” by John Legend says it all. We’re just ordinary people, we don’t know which way to go. Cause we’re ordinary people, maybe we should take it slow. Let’s face it, the fairy-tale love story that most people spend their whole lives searching for doesn’t exist. The most perfect person you can possibly imagine in your head does not exist. Why – because the story of love is written between two people. No one steps into the role that you have written for them. This ain’t a movie no, no fairy-tale conclusion y’all. It gets more confusing everyday!

So how do some people find their perfect person? The first thing you have to remember in any relationship is that your significant other is a person, an individual with feelings, thoughts, dreams, goals, emotions, fears and a personality of their own. It’s not just the things in common, but also the differences that makes a person attractive and special. When you learn to appreciate the differences in a person and attain a high level of respect for individuality – only then can you truly start to write YOUR fairy-tale love story with the person you never knew would be perfect for you.

Is there such thing as the perfect person for you? I say yes, definitely yes. But you have to dismiss all the superficial things you’ve read in magazines, seen in movies, and conjured up in your mind. Your love life is not determined by the lines recited in Romeo & Juliet, nor is it played out in the scenes of Sleepless in Seattle. We’re all ordinary people. That’s not to say that you will never be swept off your feet, but rather that true love is realistic, it’s work, it’s compromise and it’s pain. And most of all, it’s what you (two) make it to be.

We met Stacy and Jeff at her sisters wedding which we were hired to capture. This couple has such an amazing spirit about them – constantly smiling and laughing. They both have this underlying passion about life and living life with purpose, which has inspired us as photographers. Our engagement session with them was such a refreshing experience, fun-filled with great conversation and awesome moments shared between the two of them.

Stacy and Jeff, separately you guys are very special individuals and both great people – together you will do amazing things in your lives as you soar to new heights in your relationship. We are so looking forward to your wedding in November!

See more photos at Lucky Pro Photography: Stacy & Jeff Engagement Session.

I was talking with a co-worker today and it got me to thinking about people and how we take so much for granted. In love and relationships, in careers and just about all aspects of life.

And we’ve all heard this over and over, how we never know when our time is up or you never know would could happen or you never know when it could end. Heed the sayings because it’s so true people. I often think about all the things I could have said to my grandpa while he was here, but I didn’t. All the times I ignored phone calls from friends and family because I was just “too busy”. Or the work I put off until the next day, which turned into weeks, etc.

Never put off til tomorrow what you can do today. And to add to that, never miss an opportunity to tell your family, friends, husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, kids and others how you feel. It doesn’t have to be all mushy and emotional, but just letting someone know that you care could mean the world to them.

On that note, to all my family, friends – I love you guys, I care about you and I’m here for you. Love is contagious…Take care!