Archive for the ‘miscellaneous shoots’ Category

I was asked to shoot Sydney and Spencer’s reception at Wyandotte County Lake, specifically the James P. Davis Hall – I’d never even heard of it but seriously, brides – what a gorgeous “sleeper” reception site this is – gorgeous surroundings and the building itself is amazingly cool. Check it out!

This reception was super laid-back and focused a lot of attention on the children – complete with a balloon artist. It made for a lot of great, fun photos and the kids of course went CRAZY over it! Below are some shots from the evening – congratulations to Spencer and Sydney!

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photos James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photography James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception images James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photography James P Davis Hall

Sydney with her son Noah (who is pretty happy with his score from the balloon artist)
Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photos James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception images James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photography James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photos James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception images James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photography James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photos James P Davis Hall

Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception images James P Davis Hall

Even the adults got in on the balloon fun – it’s kind of humorous that a funny photo like this has such yummy light! :)
Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photography James P Davis Hall

dancing in front of the sunset – what more could a photographer ask for?
Wyandotte County Lake wedding reception photography James P Davis Hall

Reception: James P Davis Hall, Wyandotte County Lake

Catering: Rosedale Barbeque

Kid’s entertainment: Up Up and Away Balloons

Kendra has worked with me before, last spring before the Miss Missouri Teen pageant. Well….she won! Now she is off this month to Philadelphia for the National competition as Miss Missouri (which is awesome!) We did another shoot in prep for the national competition, and here are a few sneak previews for you all.

PS – this is obviously very similar to a senior shoot, which reminds me, 2011 seniors, get on the calendar now! I’m already booking quite a few shoots in August, and since I’m a crazy busy (emphasis on the CRAZY) wedding photographer, I can only take so many portrait sessions and handle the workload.

and PS again – Canon “L” lenses are rock solid. I dropped my 135L during this shoot three and a half feet directly onto asphalt and not only did it take a licking and keep on ticking, it didn’t even have much of a “beauty” mark on it! Good thing, because the 135L is my favorite lens, by far. LOVE it.

I digress. Here’s Kendra.

Kansas City River Market portrait session

Kansas City River Market photo ideas

Kansas City River Market photo portrait session

Kansas City River Market images

Kansas City River Market photo session

Kansas City River Market photography

Kansas City River Market portrait session

Kansas City River Market photographers

Kansas City River Market portrait session

Kansas City River Market portrait session

Kansas City River Market photo shoot

Amber and Patrick were married in an intimate ceremony the week before I met them to do an after-wedding session at Loose Park. They told me they were morning people, and I had to believe them, because we met at SIX THIRTY! Hey, I’ll do about anything to get good light. I’m a junkie. Luckily, they were willing to go along. I will say Patrick was probably happy we didn’t go any later – he was sweltering in his suit and it was still early! I went on to do a farm shoot for Clanton Performance Horses (blog on that coming soon!) all afternoon – and it was BEASTLY hot. So I’m glad we got this done early! Congratulations guys!!

(oh and I’ll just get it out of the way now – is Amber’s wedding dress/ensemble not ADORABLE? Of course I’m partial to the hairpiece as I was a birdcage veil gal too for my wedding :) )

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photographers

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photos

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photography

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photographers

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photos

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photography

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photographers

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photography

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photos

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photography

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photographers

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photography

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photos

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding images

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photographers

Loose Park, Kansas City wedding photography

Hi everyone! Taking a break from feverish editing and blog preparation (coming later today: Cara and Ryan’s wedding and aviation-themed reception!) to give some updates from the portrait session side of my business. SDP has grown this year beyond my wildest expectations  - and with that has come VERY tight scheduling. Right now, I’m getting several portrait session inquiries per day, and obviously I have to find places to schedule everyone in. However, it is also wedding season – not only wedding season but the BUSIEST PART of wedding season – and with 34 weddings this year, I am one insanely busy photographer right now!

As of now, I am scheduling about 3 weeks out on portrait sessions. My June schedule is completely full now – with one exception which I’ll explain shortly. I’m now already scheduling sessions in mid-July. So, if you are interested in booking an engagement session, a senior shoot, or a family session, it might be a good idea to go ahead and get on my schedule. I anticipate as we head towards late summer that scheduling will get even tougher – as senior shoots will start picking up at that time.

A “policy” change on scheduling, effective immediately – I am available for portrait session shooting Monday through Friday during wedding season (April through November), and seven days a week during off-season (provided I don’t have a rare winter wedding scheduled on a particular Saturday). I have quite a few Sunday weddings coming up on my schedule, as well as Saturday weddings that involve overnight travel. Sunday portrait sessions are going to be too difficult to schedule in until the season slows down.

And with the above comes a tip for those of you who REALLY want to get scheduled in – it goes without saying that evening shoots go first. I shoot nearly every evening right now. If you need an evening session, that is where the delay in scheduling is going to exist. If you want to get in QUICKLY, psssst, got a secret for you. Morning light is JUST as gorgeous as evening light and my mornings are largely free. I do realize with work schedules, it can be difficult to schedule at this time, but arranging for it can pay off big time as often I can get clients in nearly immediately if they are willing to schedule outside of an evening shoot.

So….to sum up – scheduling is running about 3 weeks (sometimes 4) for evening shoots, but if you can swing a morning shoot, you will find yourself on my schedule MUCH sooner! And note the availability for portrait sessions during wedding season in Monday-Friday (Fridays except where Friday weddings are scheduled).

I appreciate everyone’s patience! I promise you the wait to get your session is worth it. :) Of course, no blog post is complete without a photo, so here’s a quick preview of Stephanie and Cole’s engagement session that I did last night in Hays, KS (yes, I got home after midnight, but I LOVED shooting out there!)

Thanks to EVERYONE for your business. – Sarah

Hays, Kansas engagement session - wheat field

Neyam called a couple of weeks ago and scheduled a Valentine’s day couples session with her husband, Shakti. The forecast started looking not-so-hot a few days before the session – but they were game to continue so we didn’t reschedule. Perhaps we were just HARD HEADED but we were out shooting in winds up to 30mph, creating wind chills in the single digits. The wind would cut right through your jeans – I don’t think I felt the fronts of my thighs again until bedtime that night! And…they got caught in traffic – bad traffic – as snow squalls caused temporary whiteout conditions in part of the city leading to huge pileup accidents that made national news – two in Kansas City alone had 40 cars plus involved. So, most importantly, everyone stayed safe. And, we got some gorgeous snow right at the end of the shoot, which of course made my trip home a bit dicey, but the results were worth it. THANKS AGAIN to Lori Fetterling for assisting with lighting – especially in the conditions we faced! And thanks to Neyam and Shakti for sticking it out. I’m getting sick of saying that to ALL of my couples this winter, but it has been one. horrible. winter.

Enjoy!

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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.

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Super-talented hubby Jimmy! :)
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