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With our boys out of town on the Chicago/Indianapolis leg of the ShootQ tour, Rachel and I decided to put our party dresses on and stop by Atlanta Magazine's launch party for their new Atlanta Weddings edition.

We were fortunate to run into some of our good friends at the party, held Wednesday night at new Atlanta hotspot Opera.


From left: Lauren Hutchinson; Mora Hanlon of Classic Weddings of Buckhead; Rachel and Erin

Susan Jabaley, Lichen Frank and Emmi Braselton - the girls of Lichen Frank Design, which did Erin and Mark's wedding invitations and those of many LaCour clients.


Rachel with photographer Nancy Jo McDaniel


Erin and photographer Drew Newman

I'm headed back from a great couple of days in Norway with our good friends, Garrett and Joy Nudd where they kicked off their world tour of international weddings this past weekend. Look for Nudd world tour stops in Scotland, France and Italy later this year.

I'm always up for travel and spending time with Garrett and Joy, so I hopped on a plane to Oslo last week to second (actually third) shoot the wedding of Silje and Crispin.

I shot almost the whole wedding with my digital Leica M8, which is quickly gaining stature as my favorite camera to shoot weddings. It is quiet and very responsive, the lenses are almost too sharp, and I can shoot images handheld down to 1/4 second. I can shoot in some pretty dark situations when I've got my 50/1.0 lens mounted on the camera. What's best, the camera looks like a toy, so people ignore me as I'm walking around shooting. They think I'm some crazy cousin with a pawn shop camera.

I also borrowed a video camera to try my hand at shooting moving images, which was unfamiliar and interesting. I shot video of Garrett working in Norway for his promotional videos. Adding the elements of time and audio presented brand new challenges for me. It was a lot of fun but I'm not quitting my day job!

Check back here soon for an amateur video and professional stills :) Thanks, Garrett and Joy for a fun trip!

The third installment of LaCour's Business of Storytelling workshop concluded Thursday. I am always struck by the new relationships formed at our workshops, and the intensity with which people connect and relate to one another. As we said goodbye, new friends made plans to visit one another, women who had just met four days prior were hugging and saying they loved each other. This will always remain one of our greatest satisfactions in hosting workshops: the ability to bring strangers together for the benefit of their futures, both personal and business.

Before saying goodbye, though, we did it up right at Atlanta restaurant ecco, where we also honored the 80th birthday of Rachel's grandfather, Billy Barnes. In addition to Rachel's grandparents, who came down from Virginia, Rachel's parents and brother Jonathan (and his wife Lacey) and Mark's parents also joined us for a fantastic, celebratory dinner. Thanks to Michael Hooks for documenting the evening.





Lastly, one crazy coincidence from the dinner: Eric Laurits, one of our workshop participants from Boston, kept eyeing our waitress, Mindy, all night. She was stealing glances at him too, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar. Turns out, Eric shot her engagement photos in Rhode Island. So we have a workshop student from Boston, reconnecting with a bride who lives in Atlanta, whom he photographed in Rhode Island. Crazy. Here are Eric's photos of Mindy with her fiancé Rob, who also works at ecco.

At long last, LaCour's infamous lighting demo at the Biltmore Ballrooms ended with an impromptu dance-off. And, we must confess, it was one of the most fabulous things we have ever seen.

As we were packing up equipment around 11 p.m., we turned on some dance music, and Ann and Mike Buoy wasted no time showing off some major moves on the dance floor. John Heisel followed with an unexpected break-dancing session. After that, Erin and Jay Premack brought out their best '80s moves to "Eye of the Tiger." We'll post some images as soon as our fantastic workshop participants send us some photos.

Before the danceoff, however, Andrew explained LaCour's signature ballroom lighting techniques, and everyone practiced while Mark and Erin relived their first dance, and then some. Below are some photos from the evening.



Patrick Williams is really shy.

LaCour's Business of Storytelling workshop, now in its third edition, started Sunday with a fantastic group of photographers from all over the country. We're having so much fun with everyone, it's more like hanging out with friends than teaching a workshop.

At our welcome party Sunday night, Patrick Williams of Atlanta walked into the studio and spotted Mike Buoy of Orlando. The two of them immediately started pointing at each other and yelling across the room. It turns out, they went to high school together! And neither had any idea the other was a wedding photographer! We were so excited that our little workshop was able to unite two old friends.


We also found out Sunday night that it was Jay Premack's birthday. We couldn't let him go through the week without a mini-celebration. We surprised him Monday with a birthday cake and of course a round of the "happy birthday" song.

And now we can't wait for Tuesday's Biltmore Ballrooms lighting/shooting demo. It's always a blast, and with this group of rather seasoned photographers, we can't wait to see what will come out of their cameras!

Photos by Corey McNabb