So here is a lil’ glimpse into the inner workings of the Aves Cave (that’s a stupid name that I just made up. I wish I could take it back, but I already typed it and kind-of like it). Watch out- you may have to have your brain erased after this; possibly just a quick lobotomy.

Once we’ve taken the pictures, here is a quick overview of what will happen next. This example is from a wedding, but portraits are pretty similar; just abridged.

1) Images are downloaded from memory cards and backed up to multiple hard drives. Time it takes for a wedding: 4-6 hours if the wedding isn’t too huge. Will and I both do this.

2) Raw Culling: We go through all of the images one at a time and tag the best ones, zooming in to each image to check for focus, composition, and to weed out any uglies/duplicates/people running in front of the camera with one eye closed. I wouldn’t let you have a one-eye-closed/icky face picture on the internet for all to see. Time it takes for a wedding: 6-8 hours, more or less (hey, we’ve gotten this way down. It used to be closer to 15 hours). There are thousands of files at this point. Will and I both do this too.

3) Raw Processing: The files we shoot are RAW, meaning that they are GIANT layered files with all kinds of goodies embedded. Mostly metadata, but sometimes they contain information that can be contributed to the world’s safety. Very important stuff. Raw processing means going through the hundreds of files we selected and applying color-correction, exposure and highlight recovery, and a little bit of a pop to each and every image. Time it takes for a wedding: 6+ hours, then the computer converts them to jpeg while we go and read Fail Blog for another hour or two (at least that’s what Will does while I answer emails. Slacker. Hehee j/k). This one is usually Will’s job. He is very good at it, and I prefer to be more on the editing side of things.

4) Now that the images are jpeg files (and are much smaller and easier to handle but are still very large; you know what I’m talking about if you have received any discs from us ;), they are ready to be pretty-ified. But first we need to categorize them so that you aren’t overwhelmed when you open your wedding gallery for the first time. Your wedding is labeled by category (Getting Ready, Pre-Shots, Ceremony, Altar Formals, Romantics, Reception), and all of the images are put into a pretty viewing order to make it fun to go through. We like to put the details at the beginning to give the galleries a real storytelling feel. Time it takes for a wedding: 1-2 hours. Will likes it when I do this because I usually tell him he did it wrong and re-do it myself anyway. Haha. I know; I’m working on that.

4.5) I usually can’t wait until after editing the wedding to get the images ready to put on the blog. It would probably take less time for us to edit them all at once and then to get the best ones for the blog set to the side, but that’s assuming that I’m not impatient and Type-A in the personality department. Blog choosing, editing, sizing, logo-ing, and lastly writing time: 8-15 hours. This is something that I consider the most important part of our business because it is truly the time when we show the outside world what we are capable of. It’s like publishing my diary in the newspaper or something: very soul-baring, but it feels good. Going halfway on the blog is like going no-way to me. It’s all or nothing, and I like to give it all. So I may spend two or three days on this to get it to come from the right perspective.

5) Highlights Selection and editing: Now we are ready to go through the entire culled-and-happy wedding to pick out our favorite 100-175 images for the highlights slideshow and folder within your gallery. The images we choose for the slideshow are all edited, by hand, in photoshop. The images are individually opened up, and with each one I like to clear my mind and imagine the very best that the image could be. I ask myself, what is the final look that was intended when I shot this picture? And with that, I go into art mode and sometimes do 3-5 different versions of each picture, whether it be a film black and white, a vintage look, or simply a clarified color image that just needed that little oomph and airbrushing to get it on its way to amazing. After we’ve completed all of the edits, we tag the very best ones of each of the versions to go into the highlights section and create the slideshow. And the extra edits are put back into your other categories so that you don’t miss out on all of the different versions. Time it takes for a wedding: Haha, don’t ask me. Definitely a lot of hours; this is the longest part in the editing process because it’s the actual editing. Will and I both do this. If there are any images where I think you might like to be slimmed in the waist/chin/neck/arm area, I pass them along to Will because he is the Liquify King. He could make Rosie O’Donnell look ladylike…okay, maybe not. But at least Lady Gaga (is it possible that she is a man? I think I’ve seen her Adam’s Apple. We can push that in too).

6) Internet Posting, Highlights Uploading, and Notification: Pretty self-explanatory. We upload the images to the gallery, set up the slideshow (and watch it 100 times first to make sure we love the song and the order, usually re-arranging and adding/removing images from the slideshow), and then activate the gallery after it is posted. Time it takes for a wedding: 4-8 hours. Will and I both do this.

So what was the point of all of this? It wasn’t to say, “Oh, yeah,” (in a really husky voice), “The work we do to your pictures takes forever” (most people won’t be surprised that so much goes into it); It’s more to tell you how we go about selecting and editing them so that you know a) what to expect when you get your gallery, and b) where to find all of the best pictures. From our perspective as the people who got to be so many places you weren’t on your wedding day. Oh, and c) to get you EXCITED about getting to view your gallery! So get ready, because we intend for the day you look at your wedding gallery to be almost as good as the wedding day itself. Almost.

Words-only makes for a boring post, so to close, here are a few from the latest gallery we just posted of Brennan at one year (I’m sorry we can’t post the pictures from everyone’s portrait sessions! There are so so many others I’d like to share that I can’t, but eventually we’ll be updating our portrait website to get all of our favorites on it that haven’t ever been shared! I’ll let you know). He already looks so different from his Seven Month Session; it’s amazing. Not any less adorable though, and some extra teeth to show for his age!

This one is my absolute favorite. I think it should go above the fireplace in giant gallery-wrap-like form. Just like the one above our fireplace of Jack, but of an actual person. Happy late birthday, Brennan! Sally and Blake, can you believe you have a ONE YEAR OLD?!? Congratulations! XOXO, Lauren and Will

Get ready for lots of Style Boards, lots of real emotions, and the best of the best from Jenna and Nathan’s new life together.

This was actually the first picture I took that day. Like, literally the first click of the camera. Jenna had just come in, all fabulous from her hair and makeup goings-on, and before heading downstairs to put on her dress, made a beeline to the ballroom at Colonial out of excitement. Her breath was taken away and all she could do was hold on to her Dad. And say how perfect it was and how much she loved it, of course.

Getting to be a part of this kind of excitement and seeing people when they first see their receptions really makes me happy. But to start the day like this…was more than that. It was the warm fuzzy feeling that photographers usually only dream of.

These shoes and this dress have already made their professional debut onto our new price guides because I love them that much. Feathers on anything, especially anything bridal, can also make a girl swoon.

This was, as you already know, no ordinary day. But when the dress came on, so did the feeling that this was real. The Maggie Sottero and the chandelier earrings proved that. And the look on her face.

Jenna’s waist looking tiny, and her makeup, done by Shannon Caldwell of Something You, looking flawless. We update our vendor list each time a vendor blows us away, and let me just say, Shannon Caldwell + Airbrush Makeup = must have = I just updated my vendor list.

The one thing that will stand out to you from this wedding will be that it was fun. Every couple has fun at their own wedding, yes, but at this one, everyone had fun. And that starts with having seven amazing and fabulous bridesmaids to make sure you don’t get too bored. If fun came packaged, it would look like this.

Some pretties and another excuse to show off Jenna’s awesome dress silhouette. A style-board of the wedding textures, if you will.

As we were photographing the girls, a groomsman brought Jenna’s gift from Nathan. She opened it up, and it contained 1) a bookmark engraved with their wedding date, because she loves to read, and 2) the letter Nathan wrote that would later be read to her during their wedding ceremony. We’ve heard personal vows before, but these letters, which were each prepared separately by Jenna and Nathan, were more than meaningful. Listening to them, you could truly feel the love that they have for each other. No one in the room could deny that. Which is why I love this image in the upper-right of Jenna’s hand up by her collar-bone as she reads the letter. And tries not to cry.

She takes a deep breath and replaces the box lid. My favorite part about this image is that her sister’s eyes have filled up with happy tears but haven’t yet spilled over.

At the same time, Nathan is opening his gift from Jenna, a journal.

This is the time to show off Jenna’s soft, romantic, wedding hair. Her hairdresser took cues from Reece Witherspoon, and it worked.

A style-board of the pretties at Robert Carr Chapel. And another shot of the shoes because I really would like to make a necklace out of them to wear to work each day. It would be like that guy who wears the big clock around his neck…ah, yes-Flava Flav, except that it would be less ghetto and more fabulous.

As the time began to wind down, their officiant/close family friend of the Virtues had a prayer for Jenna and Nathan. Everyone tried not to cry, but it was very hard. After all, this would only happen once in Jenna’s life.

The candles are now being lit, and the string quartet begins to play. The chapel is full of guests; all waiting to see them get married.

There are several other images I love in this series too. The first, being Jenna’s Mom looking out from behind the curtain at the chapel filling up with their closest family and friends; tears in her eyes (it’ll be in the slideshow). A few moments later in this shot, she is hugging her husband, just wanting this moment to stretch out in time.

And then they are there alone; just Jenna and her Dad. The processional has pretty much processed (her sister is the last one left and will step out into the chapel at any second). Arm-in-arm, they look at each other, just taking it all in. The sounds of the strings, the wedding smell of the chapel pews and books mixed with the fresh florals, the warm sunlight streaming in through the front window of the chapel above the door, and the feel. That Nathan is standing at the other end of that aisle and that it’s just right.

The doors shut. Jenna takes her place now and that sunlight streams through her hair and veil. I especially love the wispy tendrils of hair in the back, the delicate earrings, and the two subtle jewels at the edge of the veil.

Because they were so joyful, I’m going to show three of these. This is an all-time favorite of a Dad giving his daughter away in my book.

Finally she’s at the end of the aisle, only one person away from Nathan now. Everything in her being wants to reach out and take his hand, because she knows that being there with him will calm her nerves and will make everything…just as it is supposed to be.

The minister reads her letter to him, which is just so Jenna that everyone laughs. The unmistakable part, however, is that she truly loves Nathan and wants God to be first in their marriage, no matter what. I hope that some time in the future, when they are getting on each other’s nerves because Nathan got the wrong kind of doggie shampoo for their pup or that Jenna’s spent too much shopping…again, that they will look back on these letters and will remember exactly how they felt. Not only when they wrote them, but when they heard them read amongst all of the people closest to them.

And how right it was.

Nathan’s letter is very funny and sweet too.

Jenna’s Dad brings a meaningful message to them. Knowing that this marriage is something that God prepared for them before they were even born, and that it is way better than anything they could have ever hoped for…well, it makes marrying the love of your life even better.

If you know her, you know that this had to be the look Jenna had on her face when they were pronounced husband and wife. This is what caught my eye about the picture first, but then I saw Nathan and how admiringly he is looking at her.

I love the dress in this one. It just looks so float-ey and happy. If a dress were to have an emotion.

Just before they are out of Will’s camera-view.

One of my favorite moments of the entire day.

Which warrants this moment; their reaction to being married.

These girls were awesome every second of the day; I’m telling you. There are so many pictures of them wrapped up in Jenna’s wedding because they really do love her and care about her that much.

As Jenna would say, “Whaa Whatt?!”

No, really. That was the title of the last email she sent me.

Okay, you guys are going to have model kids. Not yet, though-haha.

Alone in the chapel, after everyone has left and before they head to their wedding reception. The truly happy look she gave him in between the “posed” shots is the one that I love the most. I think that they’ll appreciate it the most too.

That’s my wife. And yes, she’s hot.

I wish we could stay here forever and be in love, but we’ve got a reception to get to.

So we’ll finish these up at Colonial.

As the sun sets over the green.

There were many pretties within the reception. Pink lighting and sparkly crystals were among them.

The Cake Guys. Enough said. You can tell how great these cakes are. This bride’s cake was the bling-iest of the cakes. The bottom tier was my favorite.

Since Nathan started his first year of Med School at Texas A&M (woo-hoo!!), THE MONDAY AFTER THEIR WEDDING, this cake was rather fitting.

More wedding details. The letterpress notes were for each guest to write to the bride and groom and to put in the bird cage. And the birdie soaps that were for each guest at their place-setting came in a super-cute box, nestled in a nest-like nest.

They dance their way in to the reception.

Another of my favorites of the bridesmaids that evening. There is another one in this series where 6-7 cameras were pointed at Jenna and Nathan during the cake-cutting. And that’s just in that shot; I’m sure there were at least double that.

No one has a hard time toasting them. Because they are the easiest people in the world to love.

My very favorite of the toasts.

Jenna’s parents laugh hysterically at the best man’s toast.

It was a beautiful first dance.

Jenna dances with her Dad and he can’t hide his pride.

Nathan and his Mom. She loves him so much and couldn’t be prouder of him.

We have had the most hilarious bouquet tosses these days.

In between the picture above and below this, there are about a million AWESOME/really funny pictures of Jenna and Nathan dancing. They know how to break it down, and I have an iphone video to prove it. These dancing pictures will need to be given their own post because they do tend to deserve it. So keep an eye out for that later on this week.

Joy.

Nathan and Jenna, Congratulations from the bottom of our hearts. We are so happy for you. You are two of the kindest, funniest, most ghetto-fabulous, loving, sweet, and awesome people we know. You are both huge examples of God showing kindness through people, because every person you meet feels your warmth. We hope that you never forget how you felt on this day.

And Will is really jealous of your dance skills. Okay…I am too. XOXO, Lauren and Will

I know I keep teasing you, but it will be so worth it. ;) Lauren