As promised, today we are announcing the winners of our 2nd Annual $29 Wedding Photography Contest! Just like last year, this has been so fun to read the entries and interact with those who participated.  Even though we extended the deadline past my actual birthday, I have to say that this contest has added a whole extra level of joy and excitement to my birthday and I can’t wait to see what next year brings.   Thank you so much to all who participated and to all those who spread the word to family members and friends!

But you’re not reading this to get all warm and fuzzy about my joyful times, you want to know who won!!!  But before I announce the winners, I have to say that this year is turning out to be so much better than last year because I have found several other photographers who are willing to photograph the weddings of the runners up!  That’s right, we might have four couples benefit from this contest, not just one!  I’m busy working out the details on that, so if you entered and didn’t win, keep your eyes on your inbox because I might be in touch over the next day or two letting you know if you might be eligible to receive $29 wedding photography from another photographer!

So without further ado, I introduce to you Paul and Kyle!  It was tough to pick the winner as I knew it would be, but in the end our expert judges (read Sarah and me), felt that these two were a perfect fit!

For the first time ever in the illustrious history of this contest, we received entries from sisters who are both getting married in the same year!  Yikes!  Kyle and her sister Haley are both getting married in 2011 and they both entered fantastic videos!  They also both submitted letters of “reference” from family members and friends which I thought was a clever idea.  It was tough choosing between these two, but in the end Kyle and Paul’s entry won our hearts!

In particular, there were three or four things that steered me towards them.  (1) Paul is a very good friend of John whose wedding we photographed last New Year’s Eve.  John is one of the nicest guys I have ever met, so if he’s good friends with Paul – Paul must be a good guy too.  When I saw this video I knew I recognized Paul because I have a strange way of remembering the faces of people I’ve photographed.  It turns out that Paul was a groomsman in John and Jill’s wedding and I dug this picture out to prove it!  Here is a photograph of Paul and Kyle enjoying our photo booth at that wedding!

(2) Kyle was the first person to contact me about the contest last week.  (3)  Their letters from family and friends paint a picture of a fantastic relationship that began in high school and survived a long distance separation during college.  They have gained the respect, admiration, and support of their family and friends which is so very helpful in beginning a new life together as husband and wife!  (4) The video they created is amazingly funny and creative!  They used stop motion photography to create a unique look, which I thought was a nice touch.  Last but not least, they used a Rusted Root song which used to be one of my favorite bands that I haven’t heard in years!  Take a few minutes and check this out – I believe it when they told me that they put in 50+ hours on this video!

For some reason, I had some issues embedding the video in this post, but if you click on the image below, you can witness their creativity for yourself!

My guess is that if they put this kind of creative work into a video to win a photography package for their wedding that the rest of their wedding will be top notch and filled with fun and laughter!  For now I’m off to celebrate with some left-over cake.  Congratulations Kyle and Paul!  We can’t wait to get this ball rolling – it’s going to be fun!  We’ll be in touch soon.

PS – It would appear as though the reality of entering my early thirties has arrived.  We will be owners of our first mini van in three days.  Yikes!

…going to be announced later today.  I’m working with a few other local photographers to possibly have them photograph the 2nd, 3rd, and possibly 4th place entries!  We might actually have four winners this year!!!!  Hang out for a few more hours, I’ll post it up as soon as we have it worked out!  Thanks for your patience, it will be worth the wait!

In case you didn’t hear, you still have two days left to enter the 2nd Annual $29 Wedding Photography Contest!  If you have no idea what that is, click here, but basically it goes like this: for my birthday, I want to shoot your wedding for $29 – no strings attached!  The original deadline was tonight at midnight, but we decided to extend it 48 hours partially because Claire over at the Charlottesville Area Weddings Blog generously offered to feature our contest for their readers as well!

So all of you procrastinators out there have gotten a little break!  Get out there, put your story together in a creative way and let us hear from you!  I can’t wait to see how this one turns out!  You have until Thursday at midnight to enter, but don’t wait until then!  Do it now!

Until then, I’m signing out to celebrate for the next few days.  I foresee a lot of family, friends, cake, and rest in my near future!

I met up with Shelby at the Boar’s Head Inn earlier this evening for a senior portrait session.  Her family is neighbors of some friends that I photographed in the fall of last year.  I was so excited when Shelby’s mother contacted me earlier this summer because we love referrals!  It was great to finally meet them in person tonight – they are such a sweet family and we had a really good time exploring the beautiful grounds around the Inn.

Shelby is headed into her senior year in a few weeks and I get the impression that she’s in for a great year!  When I got home, Sarah hijacked the computer and selected her favorite images.  I think I agree that these are some of my favorites as well.  Shelby, please let me know where you got your shirt in the last few images – Sarah REALLY likes it and wants on just like it!  Good luck this year Shelby!

On Saturday evening, I had the pleasure of photographing another wonderful family we met nearly a year ago.  Jayne was Sarah’s first doula client when we moved to Charlottesville and I was thrilled to finally have a chance to meet their whole family!  We met up on Jayne and John’s 8th anniversary at the Inn at Court Square in downtown Charlottesville.  We spent a while with their energetic son, Max and their beautiful daughter Francesca.  Max kept us hopping until he finally crashed and the babysitters whisked the kids away, leaving us to get some anniversary portraits of Jayne and John!  Here are a few of my favorites from our time together.

In order to achieve the photo above, we let Max leap off the bed and bounce onto the ottoman into his dad’s arms for a split second moment.  It took several attempts, but Max thoroughly enjoyed the process!  Here he is warming up!

Many thanks to Wendy for getting these shots of me at Jenny and Travis‘ wedding a few weeks ago!  I paired them up with the pictures I was taking at the time just for fun!

**PLEASE NOTE THE EXTENDED DEADLINE BELOW!!**

In 2009, I turned 30 years old.  I have to say I handled the change fairly well and year 30 has been exciting and rewarding.  Now, in a week, I turn 31.  That’s not quite as exciting because now I will officially be in my thirties.  We are also getting a mini van in a few weeks.  Honestly, that has been the hardest pill to swallow!  I never thought I’d ever be driving around town in a van.  But I guess that goes with life with 3 wonderful kids!

In order to continue feeling my youthful self, I have decided to conduct the Keep-Peter-Feeling-29-Years-Old-Forever $29 Wedding Photography Contest.  Or we can just call it the 2nd Annual $29 Wedding Photography Contest.

That’s right, for the second year in a row, we are offering one lucky couple a $29 wedding package.  It’s really our little way of giving back.  When we got married 9+ years ago, we didn’t have any money for a photographer.  We obviously valued good photography, but we didn’t have the means to pay anyone.  Thankfully, we had a talented friend who offered to shoot our wedding for us and without his generosity, I doubt we would have been able to have a photographer at all!  This contest is also my way of ensuring that I have a great birthday.  Last year, I had a blast announcing the winner in the morning and reading the emails of the winners their family members throughout the day!  It was the best.  With the deadline extension this year, I won’t be announcing on my birthday, but I imagine I’ll get a bunch of entries on the 11th which will make my birthday just as fun – we’re just extending the celebration!

So in that same spirit, here are the contest rules:

The Basics:

-Send me an email at peter@psdavis.com and tell us why you think you should win this contest by midnight on August 12 (a 48-hour extension).  Video entries just might receive bonus points!  Last year’s winning video was dynamite!  But don’t worry, if you don’t have video skills, just get creative.  Some entrants last year created websites or had family members write in.   We love a good story, so tell us yours!  You can nominate yourself, a friend, or a family member.

-Our panel of expert judges will review the entries, and I’ll post the winner on the blog on the day after my birthday, August 13 (not the 11th as previously posted).

Who we’re looking for:

-The winner must be a super-in-love couple who can’t afford a big, fancy wedding – sorry no rich people looking for a freebie!  Please be honest!

-Your wedding must be within a 1.5 hour drive of Charlottesville, VA on a date that we haven’t already booked.  You must have your date already confirmed and please be sure to include your date in your entry.

-The winner must be willing to have their pictures and story posted here on the blog.

What the winner will receive:

-Up to 8 hours of coverage on your wedding day for only $29!

-Online proofing of images for you, family, friends, and wedding guests

-No obligation to buy anything else

This should be fun and we can’t wait to read (or see and hear via video) your stories!  Be sure to pass this on to family and friends and feel free to nominate someone who you think is deserving today!  Have fun!  And by the way, bribery with birthday gifts will not help you win, but in case you were wondering I do enjoy coffee, chocolate, imported beer, and any kind of Nikon camera gear.  :)

I met up this morning with Shaena, Travis, and their beautiful almost-six-month-old daughter Elena for the beginning of a busy portrait season.  I had met Travis and Shaena several months ago when they were taking the childbirth class that Sarah teaches and they also became her doula clients.   I always love photographing Sarah’s clients because I get to hear them brag about how great my wife is!  Sarah really is the best at what she does.  Travis and Shaena are Sarah’s second clients who have asked me to photograph their young family just before leaving Charlottesville!  Travis just finished law school at UVA and they are on their way to begin a new phase of their lives in Arizona.  While we’re sad to see them go, I was so thankful to have a chance to create some images that will help them remember their time here in Charlottesville while Elena is so little.  Well, maybe I should say while Elena is young.  You will fall in love with the rolls on this girl!

Here are a few of my favorite images from our morning together.  You can find more on our facebook page.  Enjoy!

Back in May, I had the privilege to introduce Jenny and Travis to you when I featured their engagement portraits.  Now, I REALLY get to introduce them to you!  I knew from the time that I finished their engagement session that their wedding was going to be a blast, but I had no idea just how fun it really would be.  The whole day was anchored on Jenny’s relaxed nature and her extreme ability to have things organized before yesterday’s wedding.  She is a planner at heart, but she also knew that if everything didn’t work out 100% correctly, it would be just fine!  Because she was so relaxed, everyone else felt at ease and nothing seemed to stress anyone out.  Jenny, if the whole government employment thing doesn’t work out for you, you’d have a bright career as a bridal consultant!

Their wedding was held at the UVA chapel and their reception was at Siips Wine and Champagne Bar on the Downtown Mall.  And because we were able to finish the family portraits before the ceremony, I had plenty of time to get some fun portraits of Jenny and Travis around the Mall.  There are so many great options down there!

The rest of this post will mainly be photographs from their wedding day yesterday, but I feel the need to do a brief explanation on something because it needed to be explained to me!  I can honestly say that I’ve never before met a couple that has a name for their relationship!  Sparkle Motion.  That’s what they use to refer to their relationship!  According to Urban Dictionary, Sparkle Motion means a “Phrase that can be used to describe something ‘awesome.’ Originally from the movie ‘Donnie Darko,’ where Sparkle Motion was the name of a dance group composed of little girls.”

Sparkle Motion started an inside joke that took on a life of their own and they found numerous ways to tie it into their wedding to help make all the details personalized. That was the true beauty of this wedding.  Jenny and Travis knew how they wanted it to go, they worked hard and planned it out, and then they were able to relax and truly enjoy their day.  You can’t get much better than that!

Many thanks to Wendy Ward who came along with me to did a stellar job helping photograph this wedding.  Our son Zach turned five weeks old yesterday so Sarah is taking some time to stay home with him!  Here are a few of our favorite images from their day.  As always, you will find MANY more wedding photographs on our facebook page (and you don’t need a facebook account to see them)!  Enjoy!

Many of our couples opt for a first look before the ceremony as a way to calm the nerves as well as get 99% of the portraits completed before the ceremony.  Jenny and Travis took it a step further and decided to have Travis come and finish getting ready with the whole family.  This might be enough to shock some mothers of the bride out there, but it totally fit their personalities and made for a great start to the day.  They rented a gorgeous condo downtown and we all had such a great time before heading out into the heat!  Here they are with a last-minute rehearsal of the first dance!  I think it is so cool that they took dance lessons in preparation for their reception!

Wendy got a great series of three great shots of Jenny just before the ceremony.

Sparkle Motion even made its way onto the marquee at the Paramount Theater across from Siips.  Nice touch!

My daughters were slightly jealous when they saw the pictures of Jenny and Travis eating ice cream and riding on the carousel.  I love the guy’s expression on the left!

Another side note: Travis has a background in law enforcement and trains people in weapon safety!  I just had to throw that out there before you see this next image of their rings on their cake-topper!

Given the nature of this job, I’ve seen quite a few toasts.  I can name the most touching and the most sincere, but until last night, I couldn’t really name the best ever.  Well, this was it.  Jenny’s brother and maid of honor ended their toasts by singing (with guitar accompaniment) a personalized version of Elton John’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.”  You can tell by the reaction of everyone in the room just how hilarious these two were!

Congratulations, you two!  I hope you enjoy your time off!

It’s been way too long since I posted a foto Friday.  Hats off to those photographers who can keep up with a photo of the day series for longer than a week!  At any rate, I took the girls over to UVA this morning (a tough thing to admit for a Hokie).  I wouldn’t make that a normal outing, but we’re shooting our first UVA Chapel wedding tomorrow and it’s been around 8 years since I’ve been over there!  I wanted to scope it out and find some great locations for portraits.  Having only been in Charlottesville for a year now, I’ve noticed that a lot of photography happens around the chapel and the Lawn at UVA and I wanted to see if I could take a bit of a different approach to it.  We’ll see if that happens!

At any rate, the light was beautiful, I had my camera, and I had two gorgeous models.  Sometimes it all just falls into place!