For me, Thanksgiving is a time of seeing friends who have moved away, and spending time with family. In my experience, most people have some kind of a tradition that revolves around Thanksgiving. For us, it’s more of a cross family tradition that started a few years ago.

After a day of eating to much, and spending time with family, my dad and I like to get a group of friends together and shoot birds. For us, its a time of multi-generational bonding. My Dad and myself release the pheasants early in the morning, and a few hours later our friends the Gooders arrive with Mr. Gooder, his son, and two grandsons. Its a chance to enjoy the outdoors, watch a beautiful dog work the field, and enjoy a dram of scotch, or a glass of wine after.

I hope you enjoy a walk through the field with us.

Between the wonderful yet hot weather, and a beautiful ceremony, and fun reception, the day was great.

Enjoy the story of their day.

Jamie and the girls before the ceremony

The ceremony was full of Joy

I love this image of the kids coming down the isle. The looks on their faces, and those of the guests just makes me smile.

After the ceremony we headed to a small park for some portraits of the groups. It was SO HOT outside, so later as the night cooled down, I took Jamie and Ryan out for a few more portraits.

Jamie looks beautiful here!

One of the groomsmen was a chiropractor, so before the wedding party walked into the reception he offered a quick adjustment to who ever would like one.

Jamie and Ryan had a great first dance, but the best one had to be at the end of the night when they danced to some hip hop together.

By this time the weather was so much cooler (85 vs 95) or so we imagined

After our quick (less than 5 minutes) portrait session, i was grabbing my gear and saw Jamie and Ryan both wiping tears from their eyes, its that love and emotion that makes me love shooting weddings.

I hope you enjoyed the photos, Keep an eye out for more upcoming weddings.

Jamie, Ryan, thanks for having me as a part of your day.

I wish you both the best together.

Here is the video from my sisters engagement that my other sister Ellie, and their friend Stance shot of the moments leading up to the surprise engagement.

We are going to shoot more photos when the weather cooperates and they are dressed more for the occasion, but this was just an impromptu mini session. They were totally uncomfortable with the camera, but their laughter, and mannerisms really came through in the photos.

Enjoy their life, love, and adventure.

I am so excited for them, and can’t wait to help them plan their wedding. I am also excited to be shooting their portraits. This will help me understand even better, what planning a wedding really takes!

I’ll be posting the wedding from last weekend over the next few days, as well as a mini project that I have been working on.

Blessings.

Family photos like this can be captured anywhere you would like. If there is a place that is important to you and your family, or those special in your life (i.e. friends, girlfriends, boyfriends), give me call.

Call me between now and January 22 to schedule your family portraits and receive a 50% Discount off session prices (normally $150-$300)

Phone: 724-875-5941
Email: danspeicherphoto@gmail.com

So we started with a family photo, and then I got some of my mom and sisters together, and my mom and dad.

The three girls that never come in and out of my life and aren’t afraid to torture me when a new one enters.

I love these pictures of my parents! It shows their personalities so well, and it captures nearly two decades of winters on the farm.

Ellie and Krista live in D.C. now, so it was nice to grab a few portraits of them together on the farm.

Krista and dad used to spend mornings rowing on Donegal Lake, but since it was most likely frozen, this was a nice fun tribute.

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The idea came to me when my parents put the farm that I grew up on near 7 Springs Ski Resort, and we really dont have photos of this time in our life. So this fall, when we have the whole family together, I am going to work on creating a book to commemorate that segment of our life, before the next step begins.

So that is what I am proposing to families coming into the area from Baltimore, MD., Washington, D.C., Virginia, or as close as Pittsburgh, etc, for a weekend of fun in the snow at ski resorts locally, (7 Springs, or Hidden Valley) or any place that is meaningful to your family, i.e. a camp, other resort, cabin, or local Western Pennsylvania Park, etc.

After the day of shooting is finished, I will be producing a custom coffee table book for you, to remind you of that time in your life, before it passes by.

Anyways, here are some photos that I have been playing with from downhill mountain biking yesterday at North Parks free ride hill Dr. J.

This first one is me taken by my buddy Ray, even though I am cut off, I love the photo. Typically I dont like any heavy processing, but with these photos it gives it more of a gritty look.

The rest of these were taken by me, using an off camera flash, camera left, with a Nikon D70, Pocket Wizard, and a slow small aperture lens.