It is fitting that since Emily and Jon are my first wedding of the season, that they also be my first engagement session as well.  We met up in Kerrytown downtown Ann Arbor and hung out and grabbed some great shots in that area.  I hadn’t seen Emily or Jon since Jessica + Chris’ wedding last year, so it was great to see them and hang out a bit and get to know them better.  We had lovely weather and after a few ‘warm up’ minutes, Emily and Jon got comfortable and we had a fun time shooting.  We made our way into the famous Zingerman’s and tried quite a few yummy cheeses and I think we were all tempted to take some home with us.  After shooting, we vetured downtown to one of my fav places to eat, The Blue Tractor and Emily and I got their ever-so-good Mac and Cheese…mmm.  What a great way to start out the season and I’m really looking forward to seeing Emily and Jon on their wedding day along with many other familiar faces.  Enjoy your pics you two!

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Super sweet!

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Zingerman’s…SO good.  Love…even better 🙂

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“Yes please.”

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I love a good piece of cheese…

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Emily is definitely my kind of bride with those heels.

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I wish spring lasted longer, I say the same about fall though…silly transitional seasons.

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Love the green dress too.

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Follow the red brick road.

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C’est l’amour!

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I heart moments like these 🙂

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These too!

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Cuties!

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They will make a fine husband and wife…

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Stairs can be fun.

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“No Dustin’s were harmed in the making of this image.”

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I love this color…

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Is this their secret hidding place?

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  • Aletha | Pearls Events - Beautiful e-session, Dustin!

  • Wendy - They are so lucky to have you shoot their wedding especially after seeing these smokin’ hot images!! I just adore how you take a simple wall or stairs and make it a masterpiece! Can’t wait for your blogging season to be in full force! Love it!

  • Kelly Braman - Yup~I Love em! You rocked this E~session! Honestly~these are sweet:)

  • Melissa - These are awesome! How can I possibly pick just one??? If I had to pick my favorite…it would be the one where they are looking up at you and they are snuggled close together. Can’t wait to see the wedding pic’s! I love the locations you shot these at too!

  • Emily - Oh Dustin….I love them! I can’t decide which one is my favorite…I definitely love the one of us on the stairs looking up at you! Thankyou so much..we really had a good time.

  • Kathy (Jon's Mom) - My heart is full. The pictures are beautiful!

  • Mike, (Jon's Step dad). - Wonderfully beautiful, Emily, just plain gorgeous and Jon! not to shabby. Columbus, Ohio a much better option though!!!!

  • Jolene - Pictures are awesome – this makes me super excited for the wedding!

  • Jenna - These pictures are amaaaazing! I love the one’s of you both in the “window”..beautiful! Love you both!

  • dave - you guys look great.. cant wait to see you in a few weeks..

  • Mary Marantz - I love each and every one!! Awesome job!!

  • Bri - These are so sweet and the lighting is amazing!

  • ben + laura - great session dustin 🙂

  • Laura - Beautiful work, Dustin. What a lovely couple. I’m certain they are going to be thrilled with their wedding shots. Can’t wait to see them!

  • Lydia - Such a cute couple! Awesome set, Dustin!

  • Mandie - :: Drool ::

I called my photographer buddy Rachael the Saturday before Easter, because I needed to get another headshot by Monday.  Thankfully, she could meet up in the morning and since we were getting together, we traded shots.  I have to say, Rachael took a great  headshot for me, I think it’s really “me.”  Rachael wanted to do a few ‘classic’ style images and had a few articles of clothing to help pull it together.  We didn’t shoot long, but managed to get some nice images.  Here’s a few!

Here’s a fun one of Rachael

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Love this one…doesn’t she look like a classic beauty?

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A little old school action…

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Love her eyes and expression here…

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This is one Rachael wanted and I have to say, two thumbs up!

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Waiting for the train…

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One last one.

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And here’s the shot of me I mentioned…

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Thanks Rachael and I hope your like your pics!

NOTE:  All of these images were shot on the D3 with either the 50 f/1.4G or the 85 f/1.8D and images: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8 were shot wide open.

  • Mom - Such wonderful period images…. beautiful lady with beautiful brown eyes…

    Rachael-you did a wonderful shot of Dusty!

  • Navy Sou - Great shoot! I love them all!!!

  • KalleZ - Wow, may I just say what a beautiful woman Rach is. She is my cousin and my third sister! We love you Rach.

  • kmack67 - Great shots…How are you enjoying the new 50? Can you discern any differences from the prior model? Love to get a hands-on review from someone that shoots with primes! 🙂

  • Wendy - Wow! Those are amazing!!! I love what you guys did! I need me some of those at some point this summer!
    Love it!

  • Dominoe Imus - Oh wow, that image of her in her hat, the close up. GORGEOUS!! Absolutely amazing!

  • Dustin - The new 50 f/1.4G blows away the older 50 f/1.4D…so much! It is much sharper with more contrast, WAY less CA, focuses faster, and has better bokeh. I actually never really liked the 50 f/1.4D, which is why I owned the Sigma as soon as it was available. The Sigma kills the 50 f/1.4D as well, but for full frame shooting, the corners are a little soft. I am in no way exaggerating, the new 50 is amazing…I wish it were of the same caliber as the 50 f/1.2 L from Canon though…that would be NICE!

  • brittney hale - these are freaken amazing!!! i just saw that you are going to J*s work shop, me too. i can not wait to meet the guy behind these fabulous images. are you sure you are gonna be a student and not the teacher? see ya in june.

  • Lydia - Dustin, I’ve seen you around OSP and use your sharpening actions all the time! Can’t wait to actually meet you at Jasmine’s workshop! Love that second picture!

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity of photographing a wedding with one of my friends Rachael for her friend Rachael.  I had a great time with both Rachael’s and was happy I could be there to help Rachael out and help document Rachael and Tony’s big day.  Check out Rachael’s blog for more images and she will be posting more images and details about the big day soon…on with the pics!  Um, did I say Rachael emough?

You know I love the getting ready shots…

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I’m not sure it’s possible to look at this one and not smile 🙂

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Love Rachael’s expression here…

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Makeup!

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I guess Rachael is just full of awesome expressions… 🙂

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HDR helped me rock this “basic” shoe shot…

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The first sight/tie fix moment…

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The wedding was held downtown Plymouth on a crazy sunny and coldish day, so we ventured out to grab a few more shots…

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I love all the real moments we were able to grab throughout the day….LOVE EM ALL!!!

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I told you it was sunny!

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Rachael found this nice little alleyway with some great light…

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Yup, they’re a rockin’ couple!

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Havin’ fun as a family 🙂

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The lovely Rachael…

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I like about 20% of the cakes at weddings and I liked this one 🙂

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Here she comes…

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Happiness…

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I’m in love with these last two!

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All in all, a super fab day and MSU won too!!!

  • Rachael - Oh my gosh Dustin!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING. I love you for helping me out. I love love love love the reflection in the piano. I heart where she is walking down the aisle. I love them all.

  • Rachael - DUSTIN!!!! thanks for catching the moments. you do fine work. I can’t decide which is my favorite. Thanks again….the other Rachael

  • Matt Hall - Great work Dustin! Hey on the HDR image, did you use Photomatix Plugin or did you use what PS offers? Either way, love it!

  • Dustin - Matt, I use Photomatix (stand alone, not the Plug-In) for real HDR stuff, PS can’t compare and is much slower. Lately though, I really take advantage of what is available in ACR 5.xx….it’s so sweet! That image of the silos you commented on, on FB was just a JPEG from a P&S processed in ACR. Also, when I do use Photomatix, I save as a 16bit TIFF and then use ACR to do the final tonal adjustments and I”m loving the results. I can’t wait to do some HDR work soon 🙂

I first met Nikki back in 2001 when I worked at a movie theater with her.  We had lots of fun, such as; rolling office chairs down the hallway and other fun “mature” things 🙂  I then worked with her again in 2005 at Lowe’s and also met her fiance Dan who worked there.  Nikki and Dan invited me to come photograph some candid moments at their wedding that November, which was a lot of fun and my first experience photographing a wedding.  Well now the Snyder family has three with the addition of Tristan a couple years ago and will be four strong soon enough!  I went over to their home a couple weeks ago to grab some shots of the family as well as a few of Nikki and her belly.  I ended up shooting a lot of Tristan, but there’s no surprise there, as he is a cutie and of course full of energy.  All in all it was a great day and I was happy to be able to see the growth of the Snyder family and am anxious to meet the newest addition soon!

We started outside to get a few of the three of them…here’s Tristan

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And the boys…

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Love the hat!

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Weeee!

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Looks like a happy family to me 🙂

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Their yard is so big, Tristan can run A LOT!

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I’m diggin’ this one…

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I wanted to try and get a few of moody one’s with Nikki…

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Tristan was definitely jumping on the bed…

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I wonder what this is for?

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Some fun belly painting with finger paint….NICE!

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It was funny, the first couple times Tristan put his finger in the paint and painted on Nikki’s belly, he wanted to wipe off his finger….very cute…

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This one reminds me a little bit of ET…

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I LOVE this moment…so genuine and I love the emotion you can see in Nikki.

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Why would you not want to put it on your nose?

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You gotta mix it up to make the famous BROWN!

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A little belly and baby love…

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“And I’m spent.”

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I think this is referred to as a “Hot Mamma.”

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Yes, they’re really that blue.

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Love it!

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Mamma + Daddy

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A final one of Tristan running around before I left…

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Thank you Nikki and Dan for letting me come do this and I look forward to meeting your new little one soon!

  • Gail - LOVE the finger painting shots — I’ve wanted to do that with a couple for a long time — so fun!

  • Laura - Dustin, you captured the beauty of this family perfectly. What a lovely mommy-to-be. I especially loved the finger painting shots. As always, your imagery brings out such warm emotions.

  • Alyssa Turner - What a cute family! The little boy is so fun and you did an Awesome job capturing his eyes. The colors just jump off the pix! Great work. I’ll be back to check out more!

  • Melissa - SOOOOO cute! Painting the belly is a very cool idea!