Tuesday, April 14, 2009

New blog!

Today, we launched our new blog and website! Update your bookmark, if you please, to:

http://www.grantisaacstudio.com/blog

We moved the last few months of posts over to our new blog (from January-present), so there's a bit of overlap, but if you're here from our new blog, you'll be able to see more posts from 2008 by browsing through the archives on the right of the screen.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Kathy + Charlie: Engagement

Last week Grant and I headed to Ox Bow Park in Elkhart to shoot Kathy and Charlie's engagement session. We had our first real date at Ox Bow. It's also where we held hands for the first time, on a lazy summer day, in the shade of a great beautiful tree. Going back there brings back a lot of sweet memories, and looking through these pictures of Kathy and Charlie's love for one another just makes me smile.


Charlie played for us a part of the song from when he proposed to Kathy.

Kathy told me beforehand that she was nervous about having pictures taken. Well, I'm pretty sure she didn't need to worry about being photogenic. Kathy, you're beautiful!


I love everything about this picture. The color, the light... definitely a favorite!







And finally... we couldn't resist coming back to the field as the sun began setting.
Grant's favorite:


Kathy and Charlie, thanks for the fun, relaxing session! We enjoyed exploring the other side of the park with you two!

On an unrelated note, you may have noticed our new watermark on these images. We've been doing some spring cleaning of the business in the past month or so, and we'll be unveiling a brand new site and blog in the next few days! We are so excited about all of the new things in the months to come... Only since January have we been able to call ourselves full-time wedding photographers, and the extra time has freed us up to really think about how we want our business to look like and be. Thanks in advance for everyone's patience as we move into a month or two of transition!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The First Day

Just thought we'd share this poem that we came across today in the wrapper of a Chocolove chocolate bar:

The First Day
by Christina Rossetti

I wish I could remember the first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me;
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or winter for aught I can say.
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only I could recollect it! Such
A day of days! I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow.
It seemed to mean so little, meant so much!
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand! - Did one but know!


Leandra was keen enough to have kept a calendar and journal of the first weeks and months of our relationship: the day we first held hands, kissed, when and where we went on certain dates. I never thought having those times documented would mean what it does to me today, when even now, just 4 years later, some of the details start to melt together. The details of our life together as a couple--from journal entries to emails to pictures--aren't just a comfort (which they are), they move us to live out the dreams we dreamed and vows we vowed.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Kathy + Charlie: Engagement Sneak Peek

We had a great, relaxing engagement session with Kathy and Charlie on Saturday. Enjoy these two while we work through the rest!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Jena + Michael: Engagement

Jena and Michael are high-school sweethearts (like us!). They're getting married this summer in South Bend, and we're delighted to reconnect with them and share that day with them. We had wonderful light on the day we scheduled--one of the first days that felt like spring this year. We thoroughly enjoyed photographing and getting to know the two of them, from their whispers to their kisses to their laughs, as they get closer and closer to the day they'll be wed.




This is a new favorite spot in South Bend. Beautiful.


And this is a new favorite picture--they both look so beautiful. I can tell you you'll be seeing this one on our new website (!). We feel like this one really represents our style as photographers.




They were so good and laughing with (and at) each other.



It seemed fitting to end their session in downtown South Bend near the Morris Peforming Arts Center and Palais Royale, where they'll be having their wedding reception. Although it might be difficult to see in the picture, the tattoo on Michael's wrist includes the date that he and Jena met.
As we looked through these, Jena mentioned how blessed she feels to have pictures of the two of them at this specific time in life because her mother never did, and regrets it. We too feel so blessed and honored to photograph and know all of our couples during this time in their lives, when love is full of hope and has a fierceness and defiance in the face of everything that love isn't. And, it might just be us, but we think love should always be fiercely hopeful like that.