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Senior Session with Rachel

Senior Sessions are sooo much fun for me! I always tell everyone that if you find an excellent Wedding Photographer then you've found an outstanding portrait photographer. With Weddings we have to be on point just about every minute of the day, looking for fun spots to shoot with good lighting all within 10-20 minutes. With Portrait Sessions and Seniors we can take our time and craft lighting, backgrounds and outfit changes to create amazing images without worrying about people waiting on us or timeframes.

So, with that said ~ this Senior session was definitely one of a kind. Rachel is in The Anderson Young Ballet Company and is very talented at many forms of dance. I have had the priviledge of photographing this Ballet Company for a number of years and every year it's so sad to see the Seniors leave... but it's great to see new talent come up through the classes.

Rachel is the Snow Queen in this years Nutcracker. So, she brought her outfit along with her point shoes to capture a few images in the Studio. For this shoot I found a Victorian Era couch which was the perfect match to her outfit!!! I was sooo excited when I found this couch online...

We started in the Studio and then went outside to capture some natural images as well!

Thanks Rachel for being you and loving life! You were soooo much fun to work with~

Enjoy~

Monika & Scott E Session

So this was the krazy fun couple we shot the E Session video with below! Check out yesterday's post if you haven't seen it~

Monika & Scott are from Dayton Ohio and will be getting married at a gorgeous resort/golf course there next year. I'm so excited to work with them again - they were so easy and fun to photograph. A few nerves in the beginning from all the cameras around them, but we got them into their groove and they were naturals in front of the camera. Thanks again you 2 for coming over to beautiful Indianapolis!

I luv my job!

Enjoy~

This was krazy fun!

This was sooo much fun for all of us! Scott and Monika came over from Dayton Ohio to shoot their E Session in downtown Indy. I had referred them to FocusRight Productions for videography and they went ahead and booked them for their E session as well! So, we had 2 HD video camera's following us around to help capture some beautiful moments for us.

I've known these guys for quite a while now... The quality and creativity they continue to produce is at the top of their industry. Brandon Wiseman (co-owner) put this trailer together for me to show couples how a typical E Session works.

A lot of time, people can be intimidated by the camera and going on a "photo shoot" especially if they haven't done it before. I wanted to make this trailer to show my clients and future clients that we have an incredible time hanging out and capturing amazing images together. It's about developing a relationship (which is my favorite part) to help everyone be comfortable together and capture real moments as a couple. Personality is everything in my business - and I hope this trailer shows how much fun I try to make every shoot.

And, thanks again to Brandon Wiseman over at FocusRight Productions for creating this video series for me!

Joel Cookston Photography & Design from Focus Right Productions, Inc. on Vimeo.

Shelley & Greg

Looking back on my Blog I don't think I ever got around to posting this wonderful couple's E Session - which is oh so sad - so, had to post a few to start with... Shelley & Greg are such beautiful people. They are such caring individuals and obviously have a very strong connection. They were married a few weeks back on a GORGEOUS August Saturday at East 91st street Church.

Shelley and her girls met me at Flirt Salon in Fishers. It was a perfect place to shoot. Many of the salon's I've shot in b4 are quite tight and they hardly ever sit everyone together. So, if you're planning to use multiple stylist's definitely suggest everyone sitting together. This makes for great images of everyone getting beautified! :)

The Bridal Party got ready at E 91 and we started with the Greg and his guys - then finished up with Shelley and her girls b4 the ceremony. The bubble line out of the church was so fun! Bubbles are super clean and create krazy fun images. The Oak Hill Mansion was the site of their reception, so we were able to shoot around the property for a few minutes before they were introduced.

One of my favorites from the day is the stairway shot. We captured this just a few seconds b4 they walked in... Such a cool moment in time.

Whew... Hope you all enjoy the images!

Thank you both again for choosing me to capture your Wedding Day~

Let's start with a few from their E Session...















And on to the Wedding Day~


The infamous cloud of hair spray!















Luv, luv this 2 image series... so much personality. Workin' It~




The vibrance of the cloud reflection in the windows was a pleasant surprise...







This wooden Church was built by this gentlemen (Shelley's Grandfather). I think they told me it had been used in 14+ Weddings so far. It's a beautifully detailed gift/card holder.



Thanks Brian! Brian has worked with me on many Weddings. It's always great having someone I can trust to shoot along side me and one I don't have worry about... Having 2 photogs is great on many occasions where we MUST shoot fast and we need lots of images in a short amount of time. And the creative angles are a must have. :)



Now this is what I call yummy lighting...



I absolutely luv how everyone laughs