My husband Jim and his band-mates from Archive played a fundraiser at St. Pius X Saturday night. They are four guys with full-time jobs and family and hobbies who get together and practice every Tuesday night and play out a handful of times a year. They play classic rock covers and they are actually quite good. If I do say so myself.

I took it as another opportunity to further break-in new gear for 2010 (yay!) and play around with technique. These are on Facebook as well (what? You aren’t a fan of the Sarah Dickerson Photography page? Go now!) but here are some of my favorites for all of you blog followers.

Super-talented hubby Jimmy!

Callie and Adam are a seriously awesome couple. Callie is new to Kansas City, having moved here from Alabama. She contacted me to do their engagement session a few weeks ago, since it was going to be a bit difficult to have shots done back at home. All I can say is that I’m seriously jealous of their wedding photographer – because they will have it EASY with these two! They have a serious connection as well as an uncanny ability to work it out for the camera! They were so at ease and had so much fun, all I had to do was some minor directing and shoot away! Guys, I hope you enjoy these as much as I’ve enjoyed prepping them for the blog.

A Mizzou fan and an Alabama fan. Uh. Oh.

Isn’t tiny, 4 month old Bella adorable?

seriously. ridiculously. HOT.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to photograph something a little different than the usual engagement, wedding and senior images you see on this blog. The Airline History Museum at the Kansas City Downtown airport recently acquired a Lockheed L1011 for static display and touring at the museum. This aircraft was scheduled to arrive Saturday afternoon after a bunch of planning and coordination to even get the plane in the air. The arrival and landing would signify the last time this plane would ever fly. Being a pilot and obviously being airplane-obsessed, I was there to watch the fanfare, along with my husband Jim. Well, I got to do something he didn’t – which was tag along in SkyTracker 41, the local NBC affiliate’s news helicopter while they shot video of the arrival. I got a unique perspective that no other photographer on the field got of the airplane’s arrival – which was an air-to-air perspective. Following are some of my shots!

We just literally finished unpacking all of the booth materials from 94.5 Country’s Bridal Fair at the Topeka Ramada – after caravanning back to Kansas City looking like the Beverly Hillbillies with booth walls, tables and chairs piled (way too) high in the bed of the pickup – yeah, I’m paranoid and used 5 miles of rope to secure it.

But you don’t care about that. Unless you were behind me on the Kansas Turnpike, in which case you might have been a leeetle bit scared that one of my now-famous zebra chairs was going to launch itself into your windshield. (no they were secure, remember? )

The show went well, despite having a booth that was in a bit of a difficult spot in relation to the traffic flow, but that’s partially my fault – live and learn, right? I’ll be announcing the winner of the engagement session drawing on here hopefully tomorrow – have to draw the name and notify the lucky bride-to-be first!

Here’s a few shots of our setup from the weekend. Our short bridal fair season is OVER, ’til next January! Now time for engagements and WEDDINGS! The year is VERY full. If you are still thinking of booking, do not delay. Absolutely, do not delay. I can only take a handful more bookings for 2010 before I will be closing the books on the year!

Again thanks to Shana Vaughn of Shana Vaughn Designs for the GREAT table centerpiece!

Topeka area brides! Stop by our booth this Saturday and Sunday, January 23rd and 24th, at the Topeka Ramada (downtown) and introduce yourselves! It is the annual 94.5FM Country’s bridal fair, Topeka’s biggest and best bridal show. We’ll be situated in a big (end cap) booth in the ballroom. Yes, the zebra chairs will be there, so look for them! Be sure and enter to win a COMPLETE engagement package, same as we offered two weeks ago at the KC Weddings Bridal Spectacular show – this is a giveaway of not only an engagement session, but ALSO a DVD of your edited images AND…wait for it…a custom guestbook for your wedding day, designed around your e-session images! So stop by, fill out an entry form, drop it and take a look at our great e-session work as well as a sample guestbook album. And while you’re at it, snag some info on our wedding photography!

Congrats to 2011 bride Candace Ellsworth, whose name was drawn as winner of the complete SDP engagement session! Candace and her fiance win an engagement session complete with DVD of their session images and a custom guestbook album built around their session, with room for guests to sign right into the book. Stay tuned in a few months to see a blog with their images!

Topeka Bridal Fair attendees – listen up – because I’m doing this contest AGAIN for you! Stop by my booth and enter a drawing for a chance to win another COMPLETE engagement session! (shoot, DVD of images and guestbook album!) We will see you at the Topeka Ramada this weekend – more to come about that!

Sarah

Bridal shows are odd. It’s quite possibly the only time I’m in a dress one moment, and jeans and boots the next in the bed of a pickup tying down a bunch of furniture. It’s exhausting, but it’s a blast – everyone is so happy and excited to be there. It’s a nice pick-me-up in the middle of an otherwise dreary, COLD winter. I enjoyed speaking with all of the potential clients that stopped by to find out more about my services, I enjoyed meeting with vendors and meeting new vendors, I enjoyed the compliments I received on my booth and especially my zebra chairs, I enjoyed seeing my 2010 brides that were in attendance, and I enjoyed the compliments on my WORK!

Here’s the fruits of our labor. Thank you to Lori and Audrey for your help staffing the booth and answering questions, to my uncle Robert who is a super talented carpenter and built the entire booth structure, and to Shana Vaughn of Shana Vaughn Designs for the great centerpiece. Next, it’s on to Topeka for the Topeka Bridal Fair sponsored by 94.5 FM Country in Topeka, held at the Topeka Downtown Ramada. Come see us! 

What a great winter it has been. The first half of 2010 is nearly completely booked full, and the second half of 2010 is filling FAST. The 2011 inquiries are ALREADY starting! I’m so excited for what’s to come…

I felt bad for Lauren and Nick. REALLY bad. They booked their July 2010 wedding with me a few weeks back, and were admittedly behind on getting save-the-dates out; they wanted to get their engagement shoot in ASAP so they could select a photo to put on the save-the-dates. Mother Nature had other ideas. It snowed. Then it snowed some more. In about two weeks’ time, Kansas City got nearly the city’s average snowfall for the SEASON. Christmas was a mess; blizzard warnings. Nick was stuck in Omaha. We had to reschedule, and reschedule again. Finally, we set our sights on New Year’s Day or New Year’s Eve. Take your pick; it was forecast to be equally frigid both days. Lauren selected New Year’s Eve, and I’m glad she did as it’s kind of cloudy and looks even COLDER out today. 

We made the best of it. Sure, it was freezing cold. We tried to mix up indoor shooting with outdoor to keep feeling in our fingers – well, it’s hard for ME to keep feeling in my fingers when I constantly have to take gloves off to move around lighting. I think it was a grand total of 17 degrees during our shoot. Nevertheless, this is destined to become one of my favorite sessions, I think. I am looking VERY MUCH forward to their wedding at the Sawyer Room, a venue I have always wanted to shoot and never have!

Here’s to a GREAT 2010!!

To each and every one of you – no matter what you celebrate – have a GREAT and safe holiday season and a fantastic 2010! Thanks to all of my clients for a 2009 that exceeded every expectation of mine – and for building a 2010 that already at this point in time will be even better – and there’s more to come!

Here’s the Christmas card that my husband, Jim, and I sent out to friends and family. We set up this shoot on a COLD evening a few weeks back with our airplane, a 1947 Cessna 120. 

This will be SDP’s first bridal show! Come see us in booth 928. Offers and goodies galore. We’re in a pretty prominent spot – when you come into the exhibit hall through the main doors, our booth is immediately to your right against the front wall! Easy peasy. Stop by and say hi!

Also, coming up (more soon!) we’ll be exhibiting at the Topeka Bridal Fair January 23-24 at the Topeka Ramada. More to come!