Stacey Bode Photography

Today’s “oldie but goodie” is from Meghan and Nathaniel’s engagement shoot. You just can’t go wrong with a polka-dotted truck, and couple as awesome as these two.

Today’s oldie but goodie is from Sabrina and Rocky’s 2009 engagement shoot. It has three of my favorite things….balloons, romance, and an awesome couple. Triple-threat-win!

Oh man, you guys. Two of my pals are gettin’ hitched tomorrow. I’m lucky to have called Amber and Kev my friends for a long ol’ time now. They are two of the funniest, nicest, and most talented-est people you’ll meet. Kev is also the Artistic Director at Dad’s Garage Theater, and Amber is the voice of Pam Poovey on the TV show “Archer“. Almost too much cool for one couple, right? Well, I’m super excited about shooting their fantastical wedding day tomorrow. If these engagement pics at The Goat Farm are any indication of what I’m in for tomorrow, I might pass out from too much awesome. Also, tonight they’re doing what’s sure to be a hum-dinger of a performance called “Will Kiss for Laughs” (also at The Goat Farm), and you should check it out if you need some last-minute Sunday eve fun plans. There’s even a Scoutmob for it HERE. Yay, Amber and Kev!!!

Whoa, there were so many cool things about this shoot. Books, balloons, The Goat Farm, swings, awesome signs about macaroni & cheese, and most importantly…..Melissa and Dan. These two obviously know how to have fun with each other. I had such a fantastic time taking their engagement photos. They are a lovely couple who surely has an equally lovely marriage ahead of them. Btw, Melissa, I was totally rooting for you during the arm wrestling!

Ashley and Vor are what engagement shoot dreams are made of. They are charming, stylish, fun-loving, gorgeous, romantic, and have a really cute doggie. Win, win, win, win, win, win! On top of all that, we shot at The Goat Farm, which is an absolute gem of a place right here in Atlanta. We had the coolest day of photo play time, and I’m so lucky to have met two such swell people. Vor and Ashley, thank you for being so dang wonderful!

Man, I am a sucker for a couple that’s in love. Not only do Mike and Shannon obviously adore each other, they laugh together……..a lot. The comfort and playfulness they share is certainly part of why they are practically experts on how to “pose” for photos. Once we picked the “where”, all they had to do was be themselves, and it simply translated into photo magic. Tah-dah! I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful afternoon with these two sweet and lovely people. I’m so happy I got to take their engagement portraits, and I have a feeling they have a pretty wonderful married life ahead of them.

Years ago, when I used to be employed by a biomedical company, I worked with a wonderful lady named Carol.  As I began to grow my photography business, she was one of my most supportive cheerleaders.  Once I left to pursue my photo biz full-time, I knew she’d be one of the people I’d miss most.  She used to say, “When my daughter gets married, I want you to shoot her wedding”.  Well, I couldn’t be happier that not only has that time come, but they STILL want me to be their photographer.  Yay!  I’m so thrilled to be on board, and to have spent some time with Rachel and Greg, who are simply the loveliest couple.  Greg coaches high school basketball, so we got to start their photo time in the gym shooting some hoops.  Then we hit some of the cute spots around Suwanee.  Rachel and Greg are really sweet, adorable, and it’s so cool how they crack each other up.  I seriously, can not WAIT to shoot their wedding next year!!!

Yay, Tom and Julia!  Good grief, I adore these two.  I’ve known them for a while now, and they are the swellest of the swell.  Tom is one of the nicest AND funniest guys you’ll ever meet.  He did a show called “Teddy Bears, Rainbows, and Milkshakes” for cryin’ out loud!  A roomful of people is always way better with Tom in it.  Julia is one of those gals you think only exists in movies.  She’s smart, kind, witty, and happens to be drop-dead gorgeous.

I felt like a happy little kid when I went to shoot their engagement pics last week.  We strolled around the park and the High Museum, and it was a total blast.  I love how easily they can shift from silly to romantic, and then back to silly again.  It’s also nice that they forgave me for shouting things like “Is that a bale of hay, or is it my birthday?”.  Man, I just couldn’t have asked for two more awesome people to have photo playtime with.  Now this is me shutting up so you can see some photos.

Stay tuned….this is only Part I of their engagement pics.  We’ve got some more photo plans.  Tee hee!

Kip and Katie are two fabulous, patient, and photogenic models-slash-volunteers!  They are a super-cool engaged couple who are friends of Christa’s.  I’ve been mentoring Christa for (wow, how long has it been Christa?….) I think about two years now.  She wanted to do a bit of a lighting workshop, and Kip and Katie were kind enough to lend us their time and their gorgeous faces.  Thanks so much you two!  I asked Christa if she wanted to work with indoor or outdoor lighting, and we ended up doing a little of both.  Woo hoo!  Since I don’t do a lot of indoor engagement shoots, we had to pick a place that would be cool yet challenging.  What better place than Paris on Ponce?  It’s eclectic, quirky, fun, and full of spaces with all sorts of lighting variety.  Everything from bright lights, to really low light, to disco balls!  Great place to practice some techniques.  The folks who run Paris on Ponce were nice enough to allow us to briefly invade their magical space.  Thanks George and Judi!

Here are some of the shots I snapped while working with Christa on her flash and camera settings.  I hope she got some useful info out of our workshop.  I feel like on the day of our shoot, my head was in a million places.  At least I remembered to take my lens cap off.  So, at minimum I taught Christa to always remove the lens cap.  Very important and useful info I’m passing on.  Ground-breaking, really.

Here’s Christa doing her thing!  Sorry I didn’t get a better pic of her in action.

We got a little time in The Moulin Rouge Room.  My favorite part of shooting in there is bouncing my flash off the disco ball to get that spotted light effect.  Yay!

Then we took it outside where there was more cool stuff and some very dreamy natural light.

MANY, many thanks to our wonderful models Katie and Kip, and congratulations on your engagement!

Dear Mother Nature,

Please feel free to extend the autumn season as much as possible.  Thank you for your consideration.

Yours truly,

Stacey

We have seriously had the most incredible fall season this year, and I’ll be sad to see it go.  However, I’m pleased as punch that I got to snap some engagement photos for Hastings and Lee while the loveliness was still all around.  We headed to Grant Park, which seems to get bigger every time I visit.  It’s full of unexpected pockets of awesome.  These two fabulous people were super to hang out with, and I love how willing they were to participate in my goofy ideas.  Note:  See every previous post on this blog about how I have the BEST clients in the world.  So, here are some pics from our leaf-filled extravaganza!

Pets are always welcomed at my shoots.  We just had to get a few shots of Tate.  He is a little love muffin.

Most couples would rather wait until the end of their shoot to lay in the leaves.  They were into it at the very beginning.  See how cool they are??

Leaves simply must be thrown.

I can’t wait to shoot the wedding of this uber-gorgeous couple in January.  Great way to start a new year!