Nicole & Jason @ Lansdowne Resort

Traveling to VA for this one, I started out the day pretty early to account for traffic of course. Having never been to Lansdowne before, I was very excited to shoot at a new location. Sometimes brides I meet with seem to think that if a photographer has not been to a location before, that they are at a disadvantage to photographers who have been to these locations (this specifically happens with destination weddings) - however, this couldn't be further from the truth! Give any photographer just a minute or two to walk around the grounds of any new location and he or she should be able to come up with shot ideas -- in fact, I prefer shooting at a new location that I've never shot before! There is something about seeing a place with a "fresh" eye that just doesn't happen when you are working the same scenes week in and week out! -- This is of course a great advantage news photographers have over traditional "wedding photographers" - Everyday I shoot in new, challenging scenes in the news world, where as much of my competition in the wedding world only shoots weddings at the same worn out locations week after week. - Throw them into a new location where they are not sure how the light is going to bounce around and often they are out of their zone and cant operate as well! -

but I digress -- Lansdowne was gorgeous and so were Nicole and Jason! - Beautiful day + beautiful couple + a beautiful location = One very happy photographer! :)

The day went off without a hitch - and I did have a couple "firsts" at this wedding I've never run into before -- besides the new location!

-- One of my firsts involved a long conversation with the father of the groom, who told me a story about his wedding photographer whom he "wouldn't hesitate to run my car into him" if he saw him to this day! -- And then he politely told me that my photos better come out well! :) -- in a nice "I'm joking, but I'm serious" way! :) haha! No worries I told him, and alas, I was very happy with the results. -- I am very happy however that this first conversation like this happened after I have been shooting weddings for 5 years, and not at one of my first weddings -- he may have put some pressure on me and might have scared me in my earlier years!

Another one of my firsts -- bird poop on the bride's dress! --- Seriously...?

I guess at some point during the ceremony or while we were doing the posed family shots we noticed it and had to take a little break to try to clean it off.... it made for a unique event I've never seen up until this point in all the weddings I've shot!!

As for Lansdowne, - the staff was great, and I really couldn't say one bad thing about the place ..... other than the crazy cat that tried to attack me as I left the building!

Congrats Nicole & Jason!