Stacey Bode Photography

Man, I do love a Day After shoot!  When it’s with a couple as fantastic as Steve and Christina, and in a town as awesome as Charleston, well that’s just a win-win situation.  The evening before taking these photos, they had a gorgeous beach wedding that couldn’t have been more lovely.  The following morning, we met up, strolled around, and took lots of pics.  Yay!

Now, you will notice that there are a lot of kissing pictures.  I just want to clarify that I do not glue my clients’ lips together to get good photos.  If I’d had a team of 2 gorillas, 7 ninjas, and a nun, I would not have been able to stop these two from smooching.  It’s kind of adorable.  How can you go wrong with a couple that’s so crazy about each other?  Seriously, I’m lucky to have had two such fabulous people in front of my camera.

This first shot was understandably requested by Christina and Steve.  That gorgeous chandelier is in the lobby of The Charleston Place Hotel, where we all stayed.  So pretty!

Y’all know I can’t resist a good sign!

Thanks so much Christina and Steve.  Your whole wedding weekend was just a phenomenal experience, and I couldn’t be happier for you.

Matt and Liz were gracious enough to let us capture video during their day after shoot.  I’ve been wanting to put together something that gives a little insight into how I work.  An unfortunate side effect is also showing what a total weirdo I am in front of the camera.  However, Matt and Liz make up for any of my dorkiness by being completely natural and fabulous.  In the future, I might do more of a tutorial video, but this one was just for fun.  I have to give a HUGE thanks to my hubby Matt for being our videographer, chauffeur, equipment carrier, and all around swell guy.

It’s a bouncing baby blog!  I’ve been needing to add a fresh style to my blog for ages, and I finally have something that is more “Stacey” and less “Template #86″.  Old blog, I thank you and I hope we can still be friends.  It’s not you, it’s me.

Posts from my previous blog  (which I’ve always affectionately referred to as “Kenny Bloggins”) have already been added to this new one.  Yay!  I’m going to have to get a little post-happy to keep this new blog moving forward.  I’ve had so many fantastic shoots lately, and I can’t wait to have them up here on the interweb!

I can’t think of a better way to launch this here blog, than with a few shots from Matt and Liz’s day after shoot.  I’ve known Matt for years, and can’t express how thrilled I am that he found such a wonderful lady to share his life with.  They are a stunning couple, and truly good-hearted people as well.  These are just a few of the images we took, but soon I will be posting a fun behind-the-scenes video of their shoot that my hubby and I put together.  Another thing I’ve been wanting to do for ages.  My to-do list and I are in the middle of an epic arm wrestling match, and I’m totally gonna win.  Anyway, I had so much fun with the video, and it will show more of the pics from their awesome shoot.  It was really nice of them to let us invade their photo session that way.  So, here’s a little sneak preview…

We were walking through the parking lot, and couldn’t resist taking this pic.  They were married on the 15th of August.

I love happy surprises during shoots.  We wandered into Piedmont Park, and had no idea that there was a Pride event going on.  There were so many people there, which made for some cool images….and we made some new friends that you’ll see in the video later.

Thanks so much, Matt and Liz!

Woo hoo! I’m so glad my friends Evita and Michael were in town this weekend for D-Con! Not only did I get to hang with them, but we also finally got to do their wedding “day after” shoot. I guess a more appropriate phrase would be “four months and four days after ” shoot. We got to take lots of photos of just the two of them in their wedding “gear”. Both of their outfits were made by hand, and Evita made her dress! She’s incredible.

We needed a fabulous location with a special mood and style. I’ve known Evita long enough to be comfortable suggesting a cemetery. Well, not just any cemetery. Oakland is both historical and beautiful, and I was confident that we could get photos that didn’t appear to have been taken at grave sites. They were nice enough to trust me, and we had a blast. Then again, I could have fun with Evita locked in a gas station bathroom with rabid badgers.

Evita + Michael, you are awesome. Please find more reasons to visit Atlanta, and I’ll find ones to visit Charleston!

How much do I love a day-after session? SO much! Each shoot is as unique and wonderful as the people in the pics, and the possibilities are nearly endless!. Of course, I hit the jackpot photo-wise with Sarah and John because they are so relaxed and at ease in front of the camera. When I said “pretend I’m not here”, they took me very seriously. Or maybe they just wished I hadn’t been there…for real! Seriously, these two are fantastic. They also had one of the best location suggestions EVER (scroll on down to have a look-see).

I try to avoid drama as much as possible. I will put on a disguise, move silently like a ninja, and speak with an accent….yet drama still manages to find me.

It was a beautiful Monday afternoon, and Christa and I were on our way to Kim and Mitchell’s day after shoot. Christa is a lovely lady that I’ve been mentoring, and she wanted to come along for one of my portrait sessions to check out how that all works. Well, we found the hotel where we were to meet Kim and Mitchell, and we were in the process of finding parking (easier said than done with the 50 one-way streets downtown that all go the same direction). Without warning, smoke begins to billow aggressively from the hood of my car. Fortunately, we were able to park somewhat illegally right away. A nice gentleman on the street urged us to exit the car ASAP. His facial expression can be traslated as “lady, I think your car’s about to explode like an un-poked potato”. So, we got out of the car and got our bearings. A car overheating is not that big of a deal. However, my crappy car was our only car since Matt’s crappy car had been stolen a week earlier.

That was a good lesson in shaking off my “baggage” to not affect what I need to do photo-wise. I didn’t want to throw a fit in front of Christa, and I certainly didn’t want to be a downer while working with Kim and Mitchell. We ended up having a great time, and the car lives! Take that, drama!

I’ve posted a LOT of images for this entry. I can’t help it. You can blame Kim and Mitchell for being so daggum photogenic. They are one fantastic couple.

We started their day-after shoot at The Ellis Hotel. Wow, what a beautiful place. I love how it’s decorated. Very clean-modern-chic. Here’s the newly-married couple adding to the ambiance with their own gorgeousness…

I’m so excited about this post! John, one of my former work pals recently got married to the super-sweet Rhi. When I was at the biomed company, Rhi also worked there, but sadly we never crossed paths (big company). I saw John a lot since he worked in Quality Assurance and I managed a laboratory. You do the math. Let’s just say that I knew all the folks in Quality really well. I think my wrists are still sore from all their slapping. Good job, fellas! I’m just glad that nobody ever wrote me up for performing show tunes while performing heart dissections.

John is about to start medical school in a couple of weeks, so send him some good vibes and calming thoughts. A while back, I took a quick headshot for him to use on his application. Now I like to take full credit for all of his success.

It was such a happy surprise when John called to say that he and Rhi got hitched in Vegas! They wanted some “bride and groom” portraits here in Atlanta with them all gussied up, and I was beyond pleased to oblige.

In between some sketchy weather and even sketchier downtown construction and detours, we met up at the park to capture them in all their married glory.

It was cool to see John all tuxed-out, and Rhi is one truly stunning woman. Photographing this handsome couple was like, well, a walk in the park! They have such a beautiful affection for one another that the shoot felt more like watching a romantic movie than posing people for photos.

I got to see fabulous newlyweds Josh and Stephanie for their “day after” session (though it was technically a “two week after” session). They had some fun hangin’ in Bermuda for a bit, and now it was time to take some photos again. Hooray!

I tell couples that they can use the portrait session in their package for just about anything. I will take a still-life of your dog playing x-box if you so choose. Stephanie and Josh had something much better to shoot. When we met, they said there would be “fake” rings at the wedding because they would later be having the “real” ones tattooed on. Looking back, I may have actually begged them to use their portrait session for the tattoos. Thankfully, we all agreed.

Debi at Illustrator Tattoo was really cool, and does beautiful work. We even got to listen to some Bob Dylan while the magic was happening.

So here are some of the shots of the rings being “put” on. Note: I think Stephanie deserves an extra nod for being a superhero. She has very tiny, thin fingers, so that tattoo had to have hurt a tad. I’ll be one of those people who goes in to get a battleship across my chest and walks out with a dot and a kleenex.