The One Where We Almost Throw Down For Our Photographer

...otherwise known as Engagement Pics part two. I promise there's a story coming.

Since our second day of shooting succombed to what is sometimes known as fall in Kentucky (mid 50's and rainy), we rescheduled to finish up our engagement session with Reggie (you can revisit the first part here). The weather did not disappoint, except in the fact that we couldn't get some shots that I wanted because the sun was blaring into our eyes. Eh well, you win some, you lose some (I think it got made up for by being allowed to take pictures inside the venue).

First stop was Buster's Backroom and Billiards in the old Distillery District outside of downtown. I love the look of the outside of the building and a mural that lies at the back of the parking lot (several of our friends have had pictures of their cars taken with it). Since the mural was where the sun was glaring, we ended up taking most of the shots in front of the awesome burnt orange loading doors and inside at the bar area of Buster's concert area.

All photos by Reggie Beehner

After constantly wiping tears from my eyes that the Big Ass Fan (literally, in every capacity- a huge fan that's made by a company called Big Ass Fans) near the bar caused (I'm weird and most breezes/wind make my eyes water), we changed clothes, packed up and headed off to Jacobson park to get some sunset shots over the water. And that's where the story gets, um, interesting.

The long and the short of it goes like this: See the "dock" we're sitting on in this picture?

Photo by Reggie Beenher

It's made of these floating plastic pieces and actually made me a little uncomfortable being that close to the water after we walked out there (but that's neither here nor there). There was a man fishing off one of the sides that I believe Reggie asked if he could encroach on his space for a few minutes (I just remember hearing "It'll be like 2 minutes"). Of course 2 minutes turned into 20 and as Reggie was packing his equipment up on the dock, the man (who was British, so envision the accent while reading) began running his mouth about how Reggie was rude, basically pushed him away from his spot, etc.  Although Reggie kept his cool during the whole altercation, the man was pretty insistent on trying to start something, so there the four of us were standing on this floating dock, and all the while I kept thinking to myself "This is going to come to blows and we're all going to end up in the water."  Fortunately, after having a few words with the man myself (and Justin in position to take a swing if necessary), we made it back to land unscathed (and still dry).  It will definitely be a story to remember our pictures by.  Oh, and speaking of pictures, here are the fruits of Reggie's (apparently disrespectful) behavior):

All photos by Reggie Beehner

Stay tuned for the third installment of engagement pictures- showing off the cars and the more candid moments caught on camera :)

Country In the City: Engagement Pics, Part 1

Justin and I are both country born and raised. Although I must say I consider myself a little more country overall than he is (but don't tell him I said that). So it was only natural that when considering locations for our engagement session with Reggie, a country scene was at the top of the list. So we started thinking about places around the city that were, well, not the city. Lexington and the surrounding counties are known for large, beautiful horse farms, but we were steering in the direction of something a little more quaint. Enter our backyard.

Okay, it's not exactly our backyard, but it is at the end of the road we live off of. Earlier in the summer, the farm located there was split in two by that road in order for a new medical park to be built. Apparently some decisions were made after the fact to not build anything (at least at this time), so the road was just opened as a sort of shortcut. To the right, there was a field with the tall silo and round bales of hay. I had my eye on that spot for months. Friends of a friend said it belonged to the city, so go ahead and tromp around a bit for pictures (basically until someone may ask us to leave the premise). Well, two weeks before our scheduled pictures, the city came and put up a fence around the property. Peachy.

After licking my wounds, Justin and I started taking drives around the outskirts of the county looking for anything that remotely resembled what I had in my head. And then we rediscovered Kelley Farms. Famous for their 10 acre corn mazes in different designs every year (this is their 4th), Justin and I discovered them last fall but were unable to make it out. Once this fall started getting closer, we kept an eye out for opening day. I happened to drive by one day just to take a peek and knew that this was where we had to be. Plank fences with foddershocks on the posts, round bales of hay everywhere, corn fields (I mean, it is a corn maze after all) and a barn. And not just any barn, an old barn with lots of character. After a few emails and an actual visit to talk with the manager's mother, we met up with Reggie one Friday night and, well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (for the full effect, click on the images to make larger).



All photos by Reggie Beehner

Stay tuned for part 2!

The Man Behind the Lens

I left off with Justin and I having a very big decision to make concerning our photographer. After our meeting with Reggie, we went home and sat down for a little chat.

One of the great things about Justin is that he's never willing to settle when there are other options out there for us to find. He made sure to point out that both of these photographers, while completely qualified in both personality and skill would work, there was one little thing that they were both lacking- a second shooter. And as is was one of my "must have's", where did that leave them (and me) standing?

My main reason behind wanting two photographers was that it simply afforded more special (and candid) moments to be captured throughout the day. No one can be two places at once, let alone fourteen with as much as goes on before, during and after a wedding and I wanted to make sure that all the little bits and pieces got documented. With that said, I had to remind myself that we have so many friends who, while they're not professional photographers, love to drag the cameras out at events to catch the funny (and sentimental) happenings. Because of the number of those friends, in the end I was comfortable in having just one professional photographer, so long as they fit the rest of the criteria.

After some discussion, it was decided that Justin and I would go with Reggie. And as I told Pablo in my very hard to write rejection note, it was nothing against his talents and I would be sure to sing his praises to others whenever the opportunity presented itself ("Do re mi!"). Overall, with Reggie we felt a better connection in personalities, vision for the wedding day, number of images that we'd end up with, willingness to experiment in order to get "those" shots, and a free engagement session (can't pass up free if it's good!). His pricing fell at about the halfway range of what I had budgeted and for goodness sakes, the man ends up with images like these:

(all photos by Reggie Beehner http://www.beehnerphotography.com/)

I am beyond excited to see what Reggie does for us on our wedding day. We actually had the first part of our engagement shoot over the weekend (post to come soon) and I was nothing but reassured in our choice. Reggie made us laugh, he kept us moving and I could see all the wheels turning in his head when he would look around at our surroundings to see what we could do next. Can't wait til part 2!