Pennella Family Session

It is a busy spring for Noah Dalton Photographs! 
With Charleston's "goldilocks" spring weather, it really is the perfect time to schedule a beach vacation with your family... and maybe get some professional photos while you're at it? 

If it sounds like a great idea, drop me a line at noah@noahdaltonphotographs.com. With an international move looming large, we're up against a hard deadline for scheduling new shoots!

So, what do you get when you have two dentists, two adorable children, (friendly?) alligators, some very well-loved toy trucks, and a trip to beach? Answer: a fantastic family shoot with the Pennellas. They wanted a hybrid documentary/portrait vibe, and I was more than willing to oblige! Seabrook Island could not have been prettier and Max and baby Maggie cracked me up non-stop.

Testimonials Sneak Peek, Part 2

Soon I'll be launching a Testimonials page on Noah Dalton Photographs! Woohoo new content!
I wanted to encourage my clients to do some storytelling of their own, so I asked them to choose a favorite image that they returned to again and again, and to tell me about it. I wanted to know why that particular image spoke to them, and I loved reading the results. 

Each week I'll be releasing one photo and the client story that goes with it.
This week, Allison tells me about this image from her maternity shoot.

We really just wanted one.  Just one beautiful memory of my husband and me and our new adventure growing in my belly that we could frame and put in our house.  Noah has been a good friend of ours for years and we knew he was the photographer we wanted for our maternity shoot.  We knew he would know the best locations and make us feel comfortable as we pretended to be models for the afternoon.  And he did just that!  We had a blast hanging out, taking pictures, laughing.  What I didn’t expect is that I wouldn’t get just one.  Literally EVERY. SINGLE. PHOTO. we got back was worthy of framing.  We were squealing every time we clicked next when we got the link to our album.  The very next day we sent photos off to be printed and now they’re strewn throughout the house.  When I look at those photos I can literally feel the joy and anticipation we felt at that time in our lives.  Noah was amazing, and we already have him on the hook to do another session with our family of three.

Sassmans @ Home

You know those novels you read where the setting acts as an important character in the tale?
This is a lot like that.

Hannah and Wyatt moved to Charleston as boyfriend and girlfriend. They found a lovely little house downtown near Colonial Lake and the historic district. Their pets got comfortable. Soon, Wyatt proposed and they spent their engagement in the house. Soon after their marriage, they were already preparing for the next step: a move to Washington DC. This house was a special place for them as their relationship evolved and their love deepened. Less than a week before their move I had the pleasure of spending an evening with them, to document this special place. In Hannah's words, she wanted to "commemorate our home together, where we first made our joint home, grew as professionals, learned to love our combined strengths."

Best of luck to Hannah and Wyatt in DC!

Megan + Chad

After shooting Megan and Chad's engagement session back in February, I couldn't wait for their October wedding in Charleston. If you get to spend any time at all with Megan and Chad, you'll quickly see how comfortable they are with one another and how natural their relationship feels. They are so right for each other that it seems inevitable that the universe would have brought them together.

Their downtown wedding was small and filled with personal touches. I was surprised to learn that the tradition of the bride having "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," concludes with "and a sixpence in her shoe." Who knew? Megan, that's who. Depending on the culture, the coin can represent good luck in marriage, prosperity, or generosity. As Megan put the finishing touch on her outfit by placing the coin, the Clemson Tigers were about to go into overtime against North Carolina State. She knew Chad and his groomsmen were watching the football game and she worried that if the game went on too long, they would be delayed in arriving at the venue.

Little did she know that the football game was not Chad's primary concern of the moment. Chad (a personal trainer) had realized that he had been lifting a bit too vigorously since purchasing his wedding suit. His proportions had changed so much that he was afraid of "Hulking out" of his jacket. It was with much determination that he carefully limited his range of motion for the rest of the afternoon, until the jacket could come off after the ceremony. He was impressively restrained.

Later on, rather that coordinate a complex exit, the couple simply said their goodbyes to friends and family and walked off quietly into the night, the first Saturday night of the rest of their lives together. Congratulations to the happy couple!

First Dance Song: Carry You by Dispatch
Father/Daughter Dance Song: My Girl by the Temptations
Mother/Son Dance Song: Days Like This by Van Morrison

Megan's Occupation:  Research Specialist at MUSC
Chad's Occupation: Personal Trainer and Lifeguard
How They Met: Worked together in Wilmington, NC
Interesting Facts:  We were together for 6 years before getting married!
Honeymoon location(s): Curacao

Vendor Credits: 
Venue - Upstairs at Midtown
Officiant – Rev. Clarence Derrick, grandfather of the bride
Band/DJ – Mike Root
Florist – Charleston Florist
Cake/Dessert Bakery – Charleston Cakes, Etc.
Caterer – King Street Hospitality Group
Hair/Makeup – Krystal Hill at Vski Salon
Coordinator – Stuart with KSHG

Hannah + Wyatt

On Tuesday, October 4th, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley stated that a complete evacuation of the state's coast would take place beginning the following day. Hurricane Matthew would soon be bearing down on Charleston and The Gadsen House, the site of Hannah and Wyatt's wedding. Downtown Charleston is notorious for flooding during large storms and unusually high tides. The projected record-breaking storm surge made it seem unlikely that the Sunday evening wedding would take place as planned. 

After some consideration, Hannah and Wyatt made the difficult decision to move their ceremony and reception to Summerville, SC, twenty-five miles north of Charleston and presumably out of the flood zone. Wedding number two: planned.

As the hours turned into days, it became clear that the storm would not spare Summerville. So, for a third time, Hannah and Wyatt needed to plan a wedding. They settled on Magnolia Manor B&B in the small town of Westminster, SC, five hours upstate and out of the path of Hurricane Matthew. With a lot of help from their families, they moved their flowers and their food (pre-made by the caterer), and began figuring out logistics for this third (and final) location.  

And... they totally pulled it off. Despite it being a near-nightmare scenario for a typical bride and groom, it is absolutely a testament to Hannah and Wyatt's down to earth attitude that they were completely relaxed throughout their wedding day. Not only that, they had a blast! Their wedding was filled with personal and unique details, like Wyatt's cufflinks depicting Christopher Gadsen's (remember the Gadsen House?) 1775 design for the "Don't Tread on Me" motto flag. After planning not one, not two, but THREE weddings, no couple deserved a honeymoon more than these two.

Congratulations and best wishes to Hannah and Wyatt!

First Dance Song: "Dream a Little Dream of Me," 
Hannah’s Occupation: Master's student in Marine Biology
Wyatt’s Occupation: Teaching Fellow at Georgetown Law School
How You Met: at a skating rink in high school!  They went to each other's senior proms and remained friends through college.  It wasn't until after college, while Hannah was dating someone else, that Wyatt told her he liked her.  It took Hannah a year and a half to move back to Nashville to be with him.
Interesting Facts About Hannah and Wyatt: their wedding was cancelled due to a hurricane... 
Honeymoon location(s): road trip on Southern Coast of Iceland, then to Bergen, Norway, Oslo, Norway, Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark.
 

Vendor Credits: 
Officiant – Pastor W. Bryan Bellotte
Band – The Great Society Band
Florist – Carolina Floral Creations
Cake/Dessert Bakery – Publix
Caterer – Salthouse Catering
Hair/Makeup – Wendy.... I'll have to track down this information
Coordinator – Jessica Cruz (for Gadsden and Summerville weddings), Hannah's mother and sister for the Westminster wedding!

Newborn Julian

Ok, I'll admit it. 
I used to be one of those people who put babies into two categories. Either your baby looks like a generic human baby or your baby totally looks like an alien. If you managed to have a non-alien baby, it pretty much looked to me like all the other babies in this category. 

But man, was I wrong. Not about the alien thing. That's a real thing. Just about the all other babies looking the same thing.

Marsha and Rob are wonderful parents and just loved participating in the creative process. Julian, for his part, was about as fantastic as a baby could be. He was passed around, licked and nuzzled by the dog, and even put on a giant leaf... and he just kept on chilling. He even smile/laughed for the first time and we caught THAT moment on camera for all time.

I met baby Julian on his 9th day on Earth. At this point I'd like to say for the record that he doesn't look at all like an alien or a raisin or a dried apple. He looks like a perfect, tiny human. Not at all like other babies.
Well done, Marsha and Rob! And Congratulations!