And yes – they wore their wedding attire! A big round of applause to being up for this, and for being able to fit into these snazzy garments, too.

Big thanks goes to Charissa Daman of Cranberry Photography who came along to assist me with lighting. And she captured some beautiful images too like this one:

Stephen requested a photo next to a big tree. Not hard to find at Mellon Park in Shadyside.

I’m quite fond of a few images from the end of our session at location number two, but I would still have to pick this next one as my favorite. So. It was hot. Really hot. Like, so hot, you might want to jump into this here fountain. Certainly you would joke about doing it and think about how refreshing it would feel.

What is she doing up there?!

Yep, she did it! Once Susan got the idea in her head, there was no stopping her. In she went. How did it feel? Refreshing at first. And then the sun disappeared and she was quite ready to get out. The dip in the fountain was an unexpected turn, but we weren’t done yet. An outfit change and we headed downtown. Stephen works downtown, and had scouted out a few places. I have to commend Stephen for this! He chose some terrific locations and has a great eye for texture and color.

Another very lucky break was that there was a perfectly timed heavy rain while we drove from Mellon Park to downtown. Thank you rain for providing that sleek look on the ground. I do love my 16-35mm lens.

Steamy!

Sneaking a kiss on Sixth Avenue. Susan and Stephen, I can truly say that you two were up for anything, and were so fun to photograph. I love downtown and I love shooting at night, so this was a dream shoot for me. Thank you!

Caitlyn is beautiful, and this amazing backlight was so flattering to her gorgeous hair.

It was a great night for a trip to the giant tire lot. And, of course, some off camera lighting.

My assistant, Alyssa, and I both spotted this door at the same time and immediately stopped in our tracks.

We were surprised by a very small train coming along the tracks. It was LOUD!

Caitlyn, thanks for a fun evening!

Well, there you go. Brooks, if you agree too, how about a big smile?

I showed Brooks the above photo on the LCD screen on the back of my camera. He wanted to see the others I’d already taken, so I scrolled through, and we soon came to a photo I’d taken that morning of one of my boys. Brooks was not impressed, and wanted to me to shoot some more to make that other boy go away.

If you looked at the link above, you may recall that John, these boys’ dad, is a source of endless energy. That hasn’t changed. I think he could have done this all day.

Logan also enjoyed his quiet time with his mom, Deb. This lovely redhead is an old friend and former co-worker. We worked together back in the 20th century, in the B.C.P era. (Before Cell Phones)

Brooks wasn’t going to miss out on some hugs from his mom…

(Technical note: it was pretty sunny in the front yard, but we didn’t want to miss out on the colorful azaleas. I filled in some of the shadows of the overhead sun with some fill flash – a 580ex on camera, pointed directly at them, with the flash exposure compensation dialed down around -2.)

We did get your standard everyone-looking-at-the-camera family portrait. But I’m going to share this one instead, because it makes me laugh.

And last but not least, how often do the grownups get a photo to themselves without the little ones? Pretty much never. So here are John and Deb, looking just as gorgeous and happy as when I first met them so long ago.

So, I love when I find the bride and groom, late in the evening, carving out a moment to themselves. And the darkness adds a little more drama and romance.