Tampa Florida : Engagement Photographer - Jamee and Alex's Engagement Reveal

I am so behind on posting these. Jamee and Alex came over this past Saturday to see all of their photos (engagements and wedding) for the first time. I didn't post any of them on my blog before then because I wanted it to be a bigger reveal when they came out here to see them.

They sat on the couch and I showed them the DVD music slideshow that they had purchased first. I love showing photos with music on the big screen television. It has such a deeper impact than pressing the next arrow button or clicking the mouse on the computer through 300+ photos.

Anyway, they both were so happy with all of their photos and Alex just kept saying "wow" often times when certain images would pop up on the screen. Every time he did that, it made me smile real big. Being a photographer is so rewarding and I love being in the room with my clients when they see their photos for the first time!

Here are my favs from their engagement session. Alex is a fireman so I drove out to their city to take these photos so we could incorporate the fire truck into their session.

Their wedding photos are coming up soon!

Hope you enjoy!
















































Until next time.......

Erica and Brandon - Reveal !!

A while back, I posted a sneak peek of Erica and Brandon with the following text:

"Erica and Brandon were actually married almost two years ago. Unfortunately they didn't have a good photographer and were left unhappy with their wedding photographs. Erica first contacted me back in January and we just did their shoot tonight. They got dressed back up in their wedding attire and we went all over and got some amazing photos of them."

The photos have been edited for some time now but I have been slacking on updating my blog because I am super busy editing photos and doing shoots and barely have time to breathe. Better to be busy and have a lot of work than to be wishing I had more work though, right? :-)

Erica and Brandon came over and chose their photos to print last week and they just loved them! She sent me an amazing review and I just wanted to share it with my blog readers. Here it is:

"I did not get any photos that I was proud to show off from my wedding. My husband agreed to re-shoot our wedding photos with another photographer. This was a big decision as I obviously did not pick right the first time. I searched through a lot of potential photographers, but nothing jumped out at me until I came across Pure Emotions Photography's webpage. The pictures spoke for themselves. Once we booked Alicia, she was in constant communication and everything went effortless. The shoot was professional and Alicia and her assistant were amazing to work with. We had fun on our shoot! When I got my pictures back they were BEYOND expectation. I LOVED THEM! Every single one! I highly recommend Alicia at Pure Emotions. She over-delivers with what she offers. Honestly, you won't be disapointed. "

Isn't that sweet? We loved working with you two lovebirds as well!

Okay, you want to see the photos, right? Okay, okay, I won't make you wait any longer. Here they are! Hope you enjoy!



















































Until next time.....

Oh and I am so excited.....

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet!! The couple that I did the cool engagement session with this past weekend at the private airport hired me months ago to shoot their wedding in Florida. Their wedding is in October and I can't wait to shoot it because they are so in love and so much fun to be around! But they decided that they're going to get married first in St. Thomas in August. They were going to use this one guy who was a local photographer in St. Thomas but the more they thought about it, the more they couldn't imagine getting photos from anyone but me so they hired me to shoot their St. Thomas wedding too!

They're flying me in for 3 days and we're going to go all over the island and get some amazing pictures of them. This will be a small wedding, just them and their parents for the caribbean wedding so we'll have tons of time to go off and find unique locations on the island and really get some amazing shots. The bride is going to get another dress that we can trash there too so that will be so much fun! I love travel and I love different destinations and this is the great start to me being able to travel even more to more exotic locations for weddings! Some days, I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I am one of the luckiest people on the planet to have a gift, artistically and to be able to make a full time living doing what I love.

Until next time.....

Slacking on posting!

I am so sorry I haven't posted any pictures in a couple of weeks. I've been doing so many shoots and trying to get them all edited! But photos are coming soon!

I really need to update my website too with new work. I've done some really amazing things recently. I am in the midst of upgrading my website to full screen images so I am designing a new site and choosing new images for it. Hopefully within a month, that will go live and will replace my current site and it will have tons of fun, new photos on it!

I just have to say I am loving boudoir sessions! I have been having a blast doing them. I have an upcoming marathon with several girls and can't wait for that. There's a couple spots still open if you or someone you know wants to bring their inner sexy out for their hubby!

I just did an amazing engagement shoot on Sunday at a private airport! That was total fun. Color, planes, a couple that is SO IN LOVE. Details and photos coming soon!

Until next time.....

Shoot with Beckstead

I just spent 3 amazing days with the infamous David Beckstead who has been named one of the top ten wedding photographers. David is known for his strong compositional elements and style. 13 of us listened to him talk about how he got started and learned more about him and where he came from. I just have to say that he is one of the most humble people I've ever met. He's so down to earth, a true country boy at heart and he is himself no matter what.

On the 2nd day together, we went out with a real bride and groom and David showed everyone how he uses lines and light in his compositions. It was interesting and informative. Everyone took turns taking pictures of things the way David saw them and when I had my turn, I'd wander off to the sidelines and start looking for other things, keeping his basic concepts in mind. I looked for my own lines, shapes and compositional elements within the same scene. I wanted to make sure I was shooting for myself, for my style and my brand which involves angles and color and telling a story with my imagery. So, I tried really hard to combine his amazing knowledge of composition with my style.

EDIT: A couple of people have emailed me and asked if I would recommend this workshop for beginners. Out of 13 of us that took the workshop, only 4 or 5 people shoot weddings full time. Some of the newbies got some good stuff, some better than others in my opinion. I'd suggest that you be comfortable with your camera settings, that you know how to select an Auto Focus point in your camera and that you understand ISO and how it relates to your shutter speed and your aperture.

I didn't need to ask about the technical stuff because I already understood the technical stuff. I really strayed from the group a lot because I didn't want to fight for the same image that everyone else was getting. My favorite shots from the day are the ones where I separated myself from the pack but again, I kept the basic concepts of using lines and light to add to the overall compositional effect of the photographs. Interesting compositions and angles has always been something I've loved doing anyway. I'd say this simply helped me to enhance my imagery which was the reason I took the workshop.

I hope that helps those of you who have emailed me.

Here are some of my favorites that I've been able to edit thus far. I hope you enjoy!



































Until next time...

More editing fun & Sneak Peek Combo

Danielle and Patrick were a pleasure to shoot. I love alternative couples and people in general. Yes, that is a wedding dress. It's just a black one. :-)

This is Danielle and Patrick's Sneak Peek and also a before and after. I did a lot of work to this photo and was so proud of it that I just had to post the before photo to show the difference and to show what can be done and how a photo can once again be transformed into art.

I hope you enjoy..

BEFORE PHOTO....



AFTER PHOTO:



Until next time...

A before and after

A big part of what my clients get when they book me is a finished product. I love to take a photo and turn it into art. Some things simply cannot be done in camera even with a full studio set up on location which is not the easiest thing in the world to do and carrying all that stuff around and setting it up takes too much precious time.

This photo is a before and after from Jamee and Alex's Engagement session.

Hope you enjoy!

BEFORE PHOTO:



AFTER PHOTO:



Until next time...

Sneak Peek - Jamee and Alex Engagements!

Jamee and Alex hired me a few months ago to shoot their wedding on 3-29-09 which is only 2 days away! I did their engagement session about two weeks ago and just wanted to show a couple of photos from it.

Alex selflessly risks his life as a fireman and when he told me this on the phone, I immediately asked if we could use the fire department and fire truck for their engagement shoot. I agreed to drive the two hours to where they live to use the fire truck.

When we showed up, they pulled the fire truck out and it was massive! It's a million dollar truck so we had to be careful not to hurt it. :-). It was one of the biggest fire trucks I've ever seen. He told us it's the one they use for really big fires.

Jamee looked so adorable and had such a beautiful smile. She looked fabulous and was such a good sport with everything we asked her to do. I can't wait to shoot their wedding in 2 days!

Here's my photo sneak peek for Jamee and Alex! I hope you enjoy!





Until next time....