Do you like to have fun? We do, especially with our photos. We wanted something a little different than the average blog out there, so along with our super talented Blog designer we came up with a Favorites section - or "Wiebner Faves" as we like to call it. What is it you ask? more »
Well, under each photo, you will see a "Vote for Favorite" box. If you really like that image, if it tickles your fancy, or makes you laugh, or just plain old makes you smile - go ahead - check it. We know you want to. Each time that box is clicked on a photo, it adds to the running tally for that image. The top 14 favorite images on the entire blog will be shown as thumbnails in this section. Just so you can see the most popular images of all time on the blog. A little something out of the ordinary - it never hurts to be different!
Also, blog posts can be favorites. Now that we have comments available, you will see a little bar meter at the bottom left of each post. Once the meter hits a certain number of comments, its automatically promoted to a "Wiebner Fave Post". :) Something else just for fun!
Are you ready to advance your business? Education in our industry is important to us. The more photographers that are aware in the industry the better it is for everyone. Won't you join us in making our goals a reality? We participate in various workshops, seminars and speaking engagements. Listed below are various engagements - some are our own workshops, others we will be hosting or speaking at. If you wish to participate, please drop us a line or click the link to find out more info!
I find it incredibly difficult to write about us when put on "The Spot". "I need a 500 word bio about you and Joel, now!" Who can do that? How do you make your own personality shine in a few words, let alone that of two people? Well, I am going to give it my best shot. If you really want to know about US - who we really are - read the blog below. We really try to keep it updated as often as possible, and hope that our fun, casual personalities shine through in the words you read and the images we capture for our clients. The blog below is our way of communicating our lives - both personal and professional - with clients, friends, family and colleagues. We believe strongly in using words and images together to communicate our passion.
I am going to keep this short and sweet - Joel and I were meant to be together - to live, love and be happy making photographs. We were both photographers before we met over 9 years ago - we met behind a camera, and continue to feed off of that energy. We are a rock solid husband and wife team and we wouldn't want it any other way - we work together 24/7 and never tire of each other. We have had our business since November 2000, and have thrived on photographing weddings as our main photography genre since 2002. We love what we do. We like to think we look at the world in our own way - not photojournalistically, not traditionally, not artistically. Just as a Wiebner. If you like what we see, then you will like us too. Oh and don't forget to comment in the blog on our two little darlings - Haydn and Zane - they are pretty darn cute little Wiebners. Enjoy! - Rita
We walked in the door, and knew it was a gem - right from the start. The house was old, full of character and had life all around it. We found Meredith upstairs, sitting in a chair- I could see that she was nervous and we quickly tried to put her at ease. The room where everyone was getting ready was a complete hubbub of activity. The kids were jumping about, the adults were getting dressed, and Meredith was getting her hair and makeup done. I sent Joel off to get some details around the house and we got down to it. Another wedding day had begun.
We were really excited to be photographing this wedding - Meredith and Mike were having their wedding - the entire day except for the ceremony - at the family "house" where everyone congregated. It was an old farm house - dating back to the 1800s, and was apparently haunted! Meredith told us several stories of strange happenings that have been reported across the years. A haunted farm house? Why not? One of Meredith's family members had restored the house, and they now held all of the get togethers, holidays, etc. there - it even had a huge kitchen for catering purposes, and a dining room that seated over a hundred people. It was just breathtaking. Joel and I really appreciate the architecture and history behind old houses such as this, and we were so tickled to be photographing there.
Before I get ahead of myself, I need to mention a few things. Meredith and Mike's wedding was August 16th in the beautiful area of Altoona, PA. We actually spent the entire weekend there, staying with one of our photographer buddies, Mark Lutz. More about him, his wonderful family, and the shenanigans we got into in the next post.
As for this wedding day - the ceremony was held at a local church, First Presbyterian in Hollidaysburg, PA. The ceremony was beautiful, with hand-written vows that Mike and Meredith shared with each other. They also had a fun balloon release at the end of the ceremony, and then whisked away in their limo, with Joel in attendance - to visit the gravesite of Meredith's father. Joel captured some somber and intimate moments of this couple paying their respects. I think it was lovely for Meredith to include this on their special day.
Before they arrived at the reception, they made a pit stop for ice cream - boy I missed out on that one! Once the reception got going, it was all partay! Meredith and Mike had also added their own touches - Meredith wanted it to be super fun for all of their nieces and nephews - they had lawn games, including bocce, checkers, huge pic-up sticks, AND the ultimate - a moon bounce! The reception room was decorated beautifully, with arrangements by the amazingly talented Narber's Floral Company.
We couldn't have asked for a better day or better couple - thank you two wonderful people for making our job so delightful!
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Two of the many flower girls, trying to get their shoes on in the hallways. There were a TON of kids in this one!
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The beautiful and elegant Meredith, simply illuminated by the window.
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Having some fun with one of the boys, Meredith was teasing him while she was having some shots taken.
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Loved this house - did I mention that?
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Poor little guy, he totally didn't want his photo taken, but I got it anway - tears and all. :)
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Mike was all smiles thinking of Meredith!
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Oh boy, time to walk down that aisle!
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Really beautiful church.
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Love this shot - lots of balloons!
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Ok, so of course there is a story behind this. Do you know that Volkswagon commercial where there is a guy that wants to buy a car, and he sees someone else looking at it, so he runs over and licks the car so they won't buy it? Yeah, this is Meredith's take on that, and this time it's a husband, not a car. :)
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Paying respects, in the cemetary. What a gorgeous shot.
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Oh yeah, ice cream fun!
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The rockin reception room - you can also see a painting above the doorway of the house.
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A few portraits of these two.
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We had some fun in the barn...
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We fought over our ring shots, so you are seeing them both! :)
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Love this shot, of Meredith and her mom laughing over this conversation starter card. It says (just in case you can't read it), "how would you change the relationship you have with your mother?"
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Meredith and a friend, off to party!
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Mike is having some fun here!
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Oh yeah, in the moon bounce, oh yeah.
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Gettin some air too.
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Hanging in the gazebo, everyone looks quite comfy.
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Love this shot of the farmhouse and the tent with the lights.
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Oh it got crazy, let me tell you. Singing into roses - guess you need to use something for a microphone. :)
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Meredith was really into it.
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Some last, night time smoochies.
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Lily and Family at the Beach - Again! Thursday, August 28, 2008
We just can't get enough of Lily! I was so excited when Alison, Mike and family decided to do another beach shoot with the whole family. We loved working with these guys last summer, and were excited to get back down to Avalon, NJ to photograph them again! As a bonus, we were also doing an 18 month session for firecracker Lily! The really strange thing, is that the shoot was scheduled for August 7th - the exact same date that we photographed them last year.
So we started out with the whole family at the beach house - and Mike's parents wanted some shots inside the house, which was no problem, as it is a great house to shoot in. We did some different family combinations and then headed bay-side for a few outside shots.
After the family shots were finished up, Mike and Allison changed Lily into a different outfit. We were excited to see her in the fishy dress! We gave this dress to Lily as a gift for her first birthday - we had purchased it at this awesome baby store downtown here in Lancaster, Bella Boo. I LOVE the stuff in there! Allison says Lily loves it, and calls it her "shishy" dress. :)
If you can't tell by the photos below of Lily, she is definitely a spitfire! It's so amazing to see how much they change in just a few short months. Lily went from being fairly stationary for most of her 1st year of shoots - to being a complete race-car on two feet! She was all over the place, and Joel and I had our work cut out for us. :) We definitely got our exercise that day, but certainly managed to get a bunch of cute shots!
Thanks again guys for 2 great sessions!
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Lily was giving me some dirty looks. She thought I was going to take that bottle from her. :)
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I love this shot of Mike's parents!
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I found that Lindsey is Grammy's girl.
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All of the kids! Like 2 seconds after Joel grabbed this, Lily took off running!
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We had Lily stuck in one spot for a few seconds at least. :)
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Lily was showing me her "shishies".
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Now that is a look - right there, yep, I know that look. I have seen it from our kids too. The, "You better take that real quick cause I am ready to bolt" look.
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Ah the water, finally!
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Runnin' free! Yippee!
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The Very Alt F RV Tour - Lancaster Stop Tuesday, August 26, 2008
So a few weeks back, our very good friends John and Dalisa Cooper, from Alt F Photography were here to do a workshop for photographers. We were the hosting studio, so for about 64 hours - our lives were infused with Alt-F goodness. It wasn't nearly enough time, not even close. John sold out 2 separate days of workshops - so all day Monday and all day Tuesday he showed 30+ photographers how he does what he does. I never grow tired of listening to John - he has been such an inspiration to us since we first heard him speak back in the winter of 2006. We are very fortunate to have grown close to him and Dalisa. During the workshop we joked that him and Joel were separated at birth. They eerily have tons of similarities.
We miss these 2 terribly and wish they were back in Lancaster! Many thanks to you both for putting up with Wiebner craziness for 2.5 days!
If you want to follow all of the shenanigans these two have been up to on their road trip tour - check out John's blog
Monday morning started out with a shoot out in the parking lot of our building.
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Some of my all time favorite men. :) Our good friend, Matthew Tennison, Joel and of course Kingston.
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Tracey and Jack were the models for the mini "engagement session" that John did on Monday morning to start off the workshop. They had come up all of the way from New Jersey just to volunteer for the shoot! Tracey was so excited when I had posted on the blog about models! They were a super cool couple and we hope to work with them in the future! Thanks guys!
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Joel says I am giving the stink eye here - uh, yeah...ok...
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Ms. Dalisa doing her wife duty of videotaping John - some of their videos are absolutely hilarious!
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John showing off some "stuff". :)
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In the art gallery next to ours, John was demonstrating how to use multiple videolights to get some cool affects. Big thanks to one of our brides from last year - Kim for modeling!
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In the afternoon on Monday, John showed how he does some of his conceptual pieces - he used our good friends Josh and Michele - our permanent Wiebner models for this shoot.
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John showing Michele exactly what expression she should be making. :)
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With the first day wrapped up - Joel went with John out the RV park where their RV was grounded at to watch John shoot one of his family portraits. In addition to their month long road trip around the country for these workshops (which they traveled in a 40 foot RV) - John was also stopping along the way to photograph photographers and their families. Joel enjoyed this shot of John with his trusty light. :)
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One of John and Dalisa's dogs, Visa, jumped in our car and thought he was going along back to the studio. Silly pup! :)
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Day TWO! Different day, same content, different participants - John worked it all over again, with a new group. Tuesday morning, we had some more friends volunteer to shoot - some of our other favorite subjects - Brock from Infinet Design and his wife Becca. We had some fun with them. :)
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I snagged a few quick portraits of these two, I just can't help it, it's an addiction. :)
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Joel and Kingston goofing off as always. I think Kingston is missing something from his camera.
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Brock and Becca again - in front of the corn and corn fence. This is a few buildings down from ours, and we just love it.
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Back inside, John was demonstrating more videolight techniques and had Brock and Becca squeeze uncomfortably close on our couch with 4 other people. It made for a SUPER funny shot - you need to check out his blog to see it!
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Getting some serious work done - Kingston and Dalisa were mapping routes for the next leg of John and Dalisa's trip.
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John talking about one of the images that made him famous. ;)
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The afternoon again was invaded by Michele and Josh - after John completing the 2nd image in his concept series, we all went outside for a little bit more fun and shooting.
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Josh' nickname for the workshop was "Sparkles" because Michele had bought him a bling set of sunglasses with rhinestones on the sides. Josh wasn't too fond of the name, but we just couldn't let it die. Here John wanted to try on the "sparkly" shades.
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Wow, Josh looks, wow, with those glasses on. :) hehe And of course, John looks badass. ;)
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We were TRYING to do a group shot of the four of us, but Joel somehow forgot Josh was supposed to be in the shot.
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Yep, this is us, all of the time.
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That's a little better.
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Even better, we had to do some shots of the four of us - thanks to our buddy Jason Domingues for taking these next few shots for us. Joel and I put on our Very Alt F road trip shirts, and we couldn't have John and Dalisa come to Lancaster and not give them a bit of dutchiness. I took Dalisa down to Central Market and bought here and John, "I love Intercourse" t-shirts. :)
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Ok, super gross, last time John was here he showed Joel this thing of sticking his goatee in his mouth - he said Dalisa hates it - well yeah, Joel started doing it all of the time (thanks John) and they both had to show off. Yeah, me and Dalisa, not liking it so much - its so gross!
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Awww....
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A bunch of us went for dinner on Tuesday night after the workshop. Josh and John were playing with the kids wireless headphones in the backseat.
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Kingston, Siobhann from Dollface Studio and John. We just liked this image. ;)
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John, up close and personal, being lit with 2 iPhones. :)
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Aw, there's Jason. He came up from Kansas City to hang out and then was driving with John and Dalisa in the RV up to Boston, the next stop on the tour and then flying home.
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Yeah, Kingston and Josh have this thing...its complicated. ;) Just kidding - Josh and Michele are very much in love, but Josh and Kingston are close - too close maybe. :)
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My very big Joel, eating very tiny grapes.
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And one last shot of Josh, just cause we love him SOOOOO much! Thanks Sparkles!
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And yes, we had the oppotunity to actually get photographed as a family, by another photographer. Something we have NEVER had done together. We had some fun with John out in Amish country. ;) Thanks John for taking such a perfect representation of the Wiebner family!
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Jen and Eric's Downtown Philadelphia Extravaganza! Tuesday, August 19, 2008
My oh my, what can I say!? First a message to Jen and Eric - we love you! What an amazingly wonderful day, and we couldn't be happier with the results. This wedding was phenomenal every second we were there.
We have been looking forward to this day for soooo long. These two have been so nice and easy going ever since we first met them. You may remember back in the spring we had a blast photographing their engagement session in downtown Philly, what a day!
Before I get into all of the wedding day goodiness, I want to mention all of the supremely talented vendors we worked with for this wedding - they did a phenomenal job:
So the day started out overlooking the gorgeous Philadelphia skyline above - Jen and her partners in crime, aka "the bridesmaids", were high atop the Hyatt with a gorgeous view of the city. Tears were shed all around as Jen donned a beautiful gown and saw her dad for the first time that day - it was such a sincere moment. We walked along the water and had quite a few laughs - Jen had asked if we could get a photo on board a submarine that was docked nearby for tours/visitors - her dad and grandfather had both served in the Navy. As we walked onto the sub, Jen lodged the heel of her shoe quite well in the slats of the walkway. Her dad had to get down and help her with it - a great shot of that is below!
The guys had it easy as Joel and Kingston hung out with them over at the church. After a traditional Catholic ceremony - more tears were shed! - we headed for some very fun, and very non-traditional shots around Philadelphia. Jen had a nearly 3 hour gap from the end of her ceremony until the start of cocktail hour at the Hyatt, so we had plenty of time for playing in the streets. We found a great alley to start, which is one of our favorite locations - and used it for a bunch of different things - including some great family "formals". :) One of the groomsmen even stepped in some wet cement. :)
After we hoofed it around the historic district for awhile, we all hopped the shuttle and had it drop us off on South Street. Boy we got some good looks there! Again, we found a great side alley - great for playing with lips, sitting in the street, and borrowing some front steps. All for a great photo! You can see some of these below.
We didn't think the day could possibly get any better, and then the reception started. Guests were literally dancing as they walked into the room - always a good sign! The dancefloor was packed the entire evening, and we were there to the very end at 11:00. No less than 50+ people on the dancefloor at all times, and mostly more like 100-150 at the peaks of the evening. It was just phenomenal!
I just can't say anything more about this wedding, you just have to look at it for yourself - it was sooooo totally hard to narrow down our favorites, so this is an outrageously huge blog post with over 50 photos. And that my friends, is just the tip of the iceberg!
First shot is of Jen's gorgeous gown.
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Just a few finishing touches.
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Eric looking totally dashing. :)
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Jen and the homegirls. :)
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This was when Jen had gotten her shoe stuck, and her dad had to take it off for her. I have so many great shots from this - but this one is my favorite!
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Jen' bouquet was one of the best I have seen in like forever - the entire thing was white orchids and it was so beautiful!
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Joel liked this shot of Jen's brother waiting for the girls to arrive.
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The fan shaped programs for the ceremony - both pretty and practical.
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This is Jen's G-PA...I had to get him in here somewhere, and this was right before Jen walked down the aisle - he was starting to cry, it was so sweet!
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The happy couple - Jen was crying for most of the ceremony, and I caught Eric a couple of times making goofy faces at her to get her to laugh. :)
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More tears between Jen and her dad - she is the only daughter, and I think they have quite the special bond.
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Eric's nephew caught trying to take a snooze!
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Jen had this gorgeous brooch attached to her sash in the back.
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Family fun in the alley! Rock on! Jen said she wanted some totally casual family shots for their immediate family groups - so they hiked with us around town, and this was one of my favorites! I love it when our couples are open to doing something that is out of the norm. :)
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Jen and the guys - I had this all set up and then I saw the guy and the dog coming, and had them hold it until he walked by - they thought I was waiting to take the photo, but I was snapping away the whole time! :)
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Love this one, Joel took it darn it. :)
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We had quite the crowd gathered at some of our spots we were shooting. Guess people don't see a couple in wedding gear in an alley every day.
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Cruisin down South Street.
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The first dance - oh yeah, it rocked!
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This was Jen's face during her dad's speech. More tears flowed. :)
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G-PA cuttin' a rug! Oh yeah!
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I think Eric is being coerced into doing something he doesn't want to.
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The band was all over the place - the whole group came down on the dance floor and sang to Jen and Eric.
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Should I or shouldn't i?
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Bottle dancing? We have seen this at our last 2 weddings now - different versions - but here they danced around a bottle, it was interesting let's say.
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Very Interesting...
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Rock on - sweet last portrait of these two - which we went out and did a bit early because we didn't want to get caught up in the end of the night festivities.
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Last song - and the band even got encored. What a night!
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Roses are red, Wiebners are blue... Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Rita and I have been invited to be part of this Justice League among wedding photographers, this epic group of Superfriends, this amazing collection of photographers with an unnatural ability to capture life. We're pretty psyched to say the least.
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