I can not believe how quickly days go by. Does anyone remember this picture?

Kaydence was just shy of 7 months old and her cousin Dawson (not by blood… we can’t have “REAL” kissing cousins!) was right at 11 months.
Tonight we had a mini BBQ and Dawson came over to play… imagine our surprise (yea..right!) when we got this:

I was in the process of shooting some six month photos for Dawson’s baby sister Haiden when we saw them in the car together. Here are a few of my favorites!

WOW.. I must say I am a little shocked to have received even one question! Don’t get me wrong.. I know I have loyal blog followers.. I’m able to track the number of visits everyday..but I wasn’t sure if it was just clients, friends and family or other photographers as well. So, thank you to those of you that asked questions!!

I know, I know.. get to answering them already!

1. What camera equipment do you use?
I’m excited to say that right before Christmas I received my Canon 5D Mark II!
Previously I was using the Canon 30D and had a 20D as a backup.
For lenses I use these two primarily:
Canon 24-70L 2.8
Canon 85mm 1.8
I have a couple Tamrons and a nifty thrifty but very rarely do I use them anymore.

2. Also do you prefer 2 or 3 shots of espresso in your lattes? Fortunately for those around me I do not drink too much caffeine (maybe a glass or two of sweet tea) but I do love Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate!!! Trust me.. I’m hyper and talk enough without it!

3. I’m new to photography. Can you suggest a simple photo editing program?
This question is not quite as easy for me to answer. I learned on Photoshop CS and now use CS3 and well as Lightroom. You could probably try Photoshop Elements. I know a few people have said it’s pretty easy to use!

4. What is your work flow after a wedding/portrait session?!! How much do you edit before client views?!!
Let’s see.. first of course download and back up multiple times! Then (I shoot raw) I load them into lightroom where I have a custom preset that I made automatically adjust every picture to my “style.” Once I’ve done that I go through each set of similar lighting and tweak and make sure I am happy. I then narrow down the images to those I want my client to have. Once I’ve done this I export the processed out of lightroomand then I batch sharpen all images in Photoshop. For portrait clients this is the point where I batch all images to black and white so that they have a color version and black and white online. Then I resize for the web! A GREAT lesson on this is David Jay’s Free to Succeed Tour DVD!!

5. What type/types of marketing do you use? If more then one which one has worked the best for you?
What a great question! As everyone always says the best form of advertising is word of mouth! I’ve built quite a big client base in the Virginia area as well as locally  from word of mouth!! However, and here is the but.. the next question is how to you get word of mouth if you are just starting or have only been second shooting with others?!  I have one online yellow pages ad for my local area. Aside from that the only other paid advertising I do is through Google, Yahoo and Facebook pay per click ads. I won’t lie.. it takes a good bit of knowledge/research for the best optimization for your money but done right this form of advertising is AMAZING!

So, there you have it! This ends the first Ask Leslie! ~ The Answers!! Thank you to those of you that asked questions! I’m extremely flattered that you are interested in the advise I have to offer! The next Ask Leslie! will be open again on February 11th. Can’t wait to see if anyone else has questions!

Here is another image of the fabulous sunrise I watched while at Melissa’s parents house for her wedding. I was in knee lenth yoga pants and a very thin sweater so I came inside to snap a few and warm up before going back out into the bitter cold! Needless to say her mom thought I was CRAZY when she saw me standing outside!

I often get phone calls and emails from aspiring photographers that would like to work with me to learn not only more about photography but “tricks of the trade.” I’ve decided to throw this out to see what kind of response I get. I have had a lot of wonderful photographers give me advice and tips along the way and I would like to give back to others!

Twice a month (the second and last Wednesday) I am going to post an “Ask Leslie!” blog in which you can leave a comment asking me anything you would like to know about photography! I will then post another blog at the end of the week answering the questions asked.

I realize that I do not know everything.. photography is always evolving and I too still learn new things everyday, but I will tell you how I do things so that maybe I can help you out as so many others have been willing to help me!

So.. ask away! I will go ahead and leave this open for questions until 12:00 p.m. central time tomorrow since I’m posting this so late in the afternoon.

Of course I can not post without including a picture! This sunrise picture was taken at Melissa’s parent’s house the Friday before her wedding. It’s my first ever sunRISE photo!

Do you like my NEW blog?! I personally love it! In case you missed the last post on my old blog.. make sure that you update your links to www.leslieroark.net. If you have it set as www.leslieroark.blogspot.com you won’t be able to see my new posts!

I know I’ve still been posting about goals and changes even though January is almost over.. seriously.. can you believe it!?  While I might still list a few goals every now and then.. I think for now I’m done with changes.. at least to the website and blog!

I can’t wait to see what this exciting year has for me! I’ve got 5 destination weddings to some fabulous locations! Not to mention all the wonderful places I will be photographing locally.

Thank you to all my loyal blog readers who have supported me through this fantastic journey I call life!  You make my day worth while!

Stay tuned.. February brings some exciting adventures and some fabulous weddings!!

So I know to many it seems as though it has taken me forever. In truth it has. Melissa and I were working frantically to find songs that were perfect for both, yes both, of the slideshows but I think we finally hit it out of the ballpark.

In any case, now unfolds the story of Nick and Melissa’s wedding.

Almost exactly a year ago, I answered the phone to one of the sweetest most excited voices I’ve ever talked to. As I listened intently to the woman on the other end of the phone I grew more and more excited. You see, I was about to book MY first out of state wedding. (I had traveled with a great photographer friend to shoot many weddings but this one was mine!) Melissa had seen my work from Eve and Brad’s wedding and didn’t want anyone else to do her pictures. Let me just say that after a few more days of working out package details and such, I was doing the happy dance!

Over the next couple months I grew even more excited! Luckily for me April was fast approaching and I would soon be flying to D.C. to shoot Melissa and Nick’s engagement portraits. What happened next was totally unexpected.
When I meet or speak with potential clients the one thing I always encourage them to do is pick the photographer that they are most comfortable with. One that makes them feel like a life long friend. When I finally met Melissa, my feelings of this were confirmed! It was as if we had grown up together. We just clicked! After the engagement shoot my friendship with Melissa continued to blossom and come January we were so close that I shed several tears throughout her wedding. I mean seriously.. we talk almost every other day!

So the Thursday before her wedding I flew up to Maryland and stayed that night at her families house helping her make sure she was packed and ready for the wedding festivities to start on Friday. We decorated church pews, filled welcome bags and took care of other last minute details on Friday. Then came the rehearsal dinner! I’m only posting a few of rehearsal dinner because this post is going to be never ending!

This first picture proved perfect practice for the ring bearer Ryan. He knew exactly what he was doing!

Then everyone headed to bed to get ready for the next day.

We started off in one of the VIP suites of the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa and Marina. While Melissa wrote her letter to Nick we got some of the details.

This picture is very fitting because Melissa is an aspiring photographer!

Then I got this sweet moment between Melissa and her mom. This is when I first shed tears…

See what I mean.. in his way he told us exactly what he would be doing at the wedding!!

The grand entrance to the reception

Now on to the day after.. some of these I posted in their day after sneak but they are still some of my favorites!

To see more of their amazing wedding day and day after shoot.. click on each picture below!

Melissa and Nick,
Your love for each other is amazing. It’s in the way you look at one another. It’s deep down in the core of each of you. You two were meant to be together forever. That radiates not only from the pictures of the two of you, but from each of you individually as well. Word’s will never describe what being your wedding photographer has meant to me. So, I will simply say THANK YOU and I love you both!

I also want to give a huge thank you to Kricia for coming with me to second shoot!