the blog

Last Sunday, Patrick and I got to meet up with Lara + Brent… a cute cute couple who are Volleyball coaches at Stevenson University!

Lara and Patrick have known each other since 2004!! Lara reached out after seeing some of our recent work, and hired us for her and Brent’s engagement pictures!!

Since Volleyball is such a huge piece of their relationship, we did a volleyball inspired engagement session… and let me tell you, we had to get creative. There’s not much inspiration on pinterest for volleyball session… so it looks like we are creating it!!

Anyway, Brent + Lara were the cutest. We laughed a lot with them, had them try different poses given the parameters of lockers and volleyball nets. It was pretty fun! Here’s the summary of their engagement session. Patrick and I LOVED our time with them!

Erica and Jim are our couple of the week… they grew up in Annapolis, and of course met there, dated there, and will be married there. We felt it fitting to do their engagement session there.

This September we will be photographing their beautiful historic Annapolis wedding down at the Historic London Town Gardens. We are designing a custom vintage chic photobooth for them as well!

Besides booking weddings well into 2015 and 2016, a lot of my time has been taking professional and personal photographs and headshots for friends and referrals. I figured since there were so many that we’ve done recently that it would be neat to do a mixture of headshots for folks to get a feel of locations, positions, scenery, emotion and more. You’ll see that we mix it up and never venture to the same places.

I love big family. Probably because I come from a big family and I married into a bigger family.

Tammy invited us to come to their family reunion and take pictures of the entire clan. Here’s a glimpse into our time together!

I’ve known Tammy Rice since I graduated from college. My first job in the “professional” world was teaching at the McDonogh School as a Kindergarten assistant. I was Tammy’s assistant in 2009.

This coming September, I will be standing besides one of my friends, Brittany, when she says “I Do” to our friend, John. We are really excited for them!

This past weekend, we threw Brittany a surprise bridal shower which was awesome because even thought she was suspicious, she was still surprised.

A couple weeks ago, we photographed the details of a Caves Valley Golf Course wedding after helping set the stage and implement the flowers and decor. The groom is an avid golfer, and the bride loves gladiola flowers. We tied the two together to create a beautiful golf-themed ceremony with a stunning reception on the terrace overlooking the golf course.

My not so little brother Sam Hoffman graduated from Mount St Joe’s this spring, and Lyndsay Stark, basically a little sister to me, also graduated from high school this spring. Our families are really close and the mom’s decided to throw a joint grad party!

I met Aravind and his family at a Spring family session, thanks to a referral. Aravind was looking to have some headshots taken for his business portfolio, both for his current job, and anything that may arise in the future. Headshots are always great to have for social media, linked in, and business profiles. Here is a summary of our time together down at Federal Hill in Baltimore.

When we aren’t photographing weddings, events, and families, I’m with the people I love.

This 4th of July Patrick and I ventured out to our Aunt Terrie and Uncle John’s home in Catonsville, walking distance to the parade… and MAN… what a blast we had.

We named this festivity… the Annual McDade Sugarfest. You will see why!

I met Sarah probably 10 years ago, and thanks to Facebook, reunited. I saw Sarah for the first time in 5 years a couple weeks ago, met her husband Joe, and their newborn Ethan. This newborn session was so fun for us. Ethan did so well. He slept, he cried, he pooped and he smiled. This Dr. Suess and Duck Dynasty themed shoot was precious.