When Matthew asked me how I felt about Star Wars in our emails leading up to our first meeting. I knew we would get along fantastically 😂
As I suspected, we hit it off and I quickly fell in love with both Kate & Matt. The things that drew them to my work are the same things I put the most work in developing. And so I had a ton of fun developing this set of images below. I hope you love them as much as I do ☺️
Read MoreWhile I primarily service North Carolina, occasionally I’ll have somebody ask about flying me out to a place like Toronto, Colombia, or in this case Ohio! I had to say yes especially cause Cory is a fellow creative and a friend. I love being in a new place and responding to the environment and seeing how that affects me creatively. Enjoy!
Read MoreStephen and Joanna are very much in love and it shows. When I asked them about how they met, Stephen made it clear… He was mesmerized from day 1. He found out later that she was pretty interested too ☺️
We made some pretty 🔥 photos, so be sure to comment and let me know which one’s your favorite!
Read MoreIn light of the hurricane we just went through, we’ve been left without power. So here I am at my parents house that we “evacuated” 5 minutes to, sitting at my little workstation editing and blogging away. We have been so incredibly fortunate not to have not been affected by the storm as so many others have. I’ve seen photos of Wrightsville beach and Downtown with sections completely flooded. I was on instagram looking through stories and mu friend gabby posted this one for reference:
Read MoreAn awesome Destination Wedding in Asheville NC at the Omni Grove Park Inn
Read MoreSome glorious highlights from Sarah & Shawns Wedding in Surf City at Topsail Beach NC
Read MoreIt's not every wedding, where I get to shoot two ceremonies in one day! Nisha and Thomas' wedding was awesome because they did both an American and Indian ceremony, except both had feminist core values interwoven through them, so that both Nisha and Thomas were seen as equal giver's, receiver's and participants in their matrimony.
Lindsay & Stephen went from clients to family almost instantaneously, we had so much fun running around wilmington making art and cool photos and talking about pad thai and movies. Also by happenstance Linsay is a writer, so I pitched her the idea of writing for their own blog and she graciously agreed!!!
So here is a beautiful written and humbling take on our session from the other side of the camera:
My fiancé and I are running late. We hate being late, so we’re very stressed out. When we finally do arrive at Crystal Pier in Wrightsville Beach (visiting from Charlotte), the two of us are frazzled to say the least - not a great state of mind to be in when we’re about to take our engagement photos.
Thankfully, Michael turns the corner to greet us both with smiles and warm hugs. He is unfazed by our tardiness and immediately makes us feel comfortable and excited for our shoot. He quickly takes in the scene, looking for where to place us. He’s ready.
Read MoreWhat can I begin to say about Rima and Darren? It's so hard to play favorites with clients, because its as if they're all my favorite, but the story with these two is unique because we actually met on a mission trip in Brazil. When they found out I was a photographer and saw my work it was arranged and they flew me up to Toronto for one hell of a wedding! I didn't feel I could do the images justice without sharing a ton, so please, grab a coffee and enjoy Rima & Darren's story with some music.
Read MoreWe went next level with Elizabeth’s senior portraits!
Read MoreWe had a TOOOOON of run running around wilmington shooting! We got an early start and then shot till after dark, so we got to experiment, with Robyn & Daniel's portraits a bit and employ some new fun tricks.
As always, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy :)
Read MoreWe had an awesome time photographing Tamsyn and Austin’s wedding in Charleston SC
Read MoreSo this wedding is really special because I was kind of in it. So while there are probably photographers who can both be in a wedding and photograph it, I am not one of them :)
So my family and best friend flew to Colombia to spend some time on the front and back end of the big day for the total of a little over a week. The headlining image for this blog was from the last day of our trip when I did a session with Nico & Diana all dressed up in the wedding attire a few days after the wedding.
Because that session was at the end of our trip I've posted to the rest of the images from it at the end of this blog, but I want to show you chronologically just a few of our excursions from our South American Adventure :)
So much to love about this session. I don't really know where to begin. But since this is a photographer's blog I'm going to let the images do the talking :)
Read MoreThere's just something about these two that's incredibly cinematic. I was like a kid in a candy store running around with beautiful light and making awesome images! I am beyond stoked to shoot Rick and Morgan's wedding in October!!!
Read MoreThis wedding was particularly close to my heart, because Nico is one of my very best friends who's wedding I'm actually going to be in THIS WEEKEND!!! We fly out to Bogota, Colombia in just two days where him and Diana will be covenant-ing themselves together. These photos are the documentation contractual marriage as recognized by the state. And it's an absolute honor to be a part of.
Read MoreIt was BRUTALLY difficult to narrow these down. I went through 28 weddings and 97 sessions of things like families and engagements, and I think I finally, hopefully, maybe have my absolute favorites of those. I feel like I had to throw so many away though for the sake of not making this post monotonous.
But here I give you, Michael's favorite images from 2017
Read MoreI'm probably the worst when it comes updating my blog... I feel like I've been starting every post with that recently 😂
But this wedding was uniquely beautiful, because it took place at sunrise around 7 am on Topsail beach. I was stoked to do the session with these two, because we had a lot of time after the short ceremony to really focus on portraits and really just hang out 😊
For a few of these images I was able to utilize that nice washed-out lens flare from the morning sun.
Read MoreOccasionally there are those couples who inquire with you and you absolutely know from the get-go that you have to photograph them. Namrata and Darshil, were one of those couples. In the first sentence of their email I knew they had done their research and gone through my body of work to decide that they wanted me to do their portraits. I actually encourage people to stalk their photographers 😂. Really though, it helps us as photographers know what you like about our work and how we approach our sessions. We put a lot of work into every image and how those images are presented. ☺️
Read MoreI haven't been keeping up with my blog for a while and I'm working towards fixing that and pulling out the backlog of shoots that I've done over the course of 2017. But here's a great way to start 2018 :)
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