Megelaine Images

Bathroom Remodel: Part 2

2010-01-08T11:39:00.003-05:00

Moving on past demo, we began to rebuild our bathroom. I did lots of measurements and cutting of styrofoam and moisture resistant drywall. Tim and his dad totally rewired the room.

We knew that high quality tiling was out of our league, so we called up Eric at Jensen Tile. While tile prep and setting were happening, Tim and I were running between Home Depots, Menards and Lowes to make sure we had everything we needed. Tim learned how to cut tiles in half (for the marble floor) and I was busy in the basement priming and painting the baseboards, trim and beadboard.

Since we had a tile team at our house we decided to also go ahead and tile our kitchen floor, which had been a project in waiting for about two years. So in our small Broad Ripple house, both the bathroom and kitchen were out of use. During the workday, we got accustomed to going to the Lowes or McDonalds bathroom. At night we stayed at a friends house who so willingly put us up for what totaled 8 nights! As Christmas approached we got the project to a good stopping point, one that involved a working toilet and shower, and headed out of town to spend time with family in a non-construction zone house. Directly following family Christmas gatherings, we left bright and early for the Urbana Conference in St. Louis.

I am super excited to shoot my first wedding of the year tomorrow for Amanda and Adam. They are so in love and so ready to be married!

Bathroom Remodel: Part 1

2010-01-06T14:07:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned earlier, Tim and I have been tackling some major home renovations this past month. A few weeks ago our bathroom looked like the before pictures below. It is our only bathroom and we knew that work was looming. It was spacious and pretty functional but water damage had begun to show on the wall by the shower and we had already removed a large section of wet and loose wall tile this summer. Our sweet handwork to get us by so far involved lots of caulk and a bit of duct tape.

You might wonder, why home improvement in December? Sure it's freezing outside, time to enjoy the holidays, but it was also time when I had little Megelaine Images commitments and Tim and his dad's man power were available. Yes we are frugal and yes we tend to be do it your selfers. I knew it was the real deal when the dumpster got delivered to our driveway. This pictures are the first two days of work. Lots of crow-barring and bucket loads of debris hauled to the dumpster. At the time of these photos we were still staying at our house overnight.

As a note, our house was built in 1926. Let me tell you that they built them to last back them, which is great but made demo hard work. It was neat to see how different the construction was from techniques and materials used today. Turns out the bricks for our chimney were made right here in Indianapolis. More to come soon in our adventures of home remodel...

Urbana 09

2010-01-05T14:51:00.005-05:00

Well, to say my life has been a little out of the ordinary lately would be an understatement. With all of my 2009 clients taken care of and my next wedding being this weekend, Tim and I have been tackling major home renovations (which are nearing completion) as well as visiting family for the holidays and photographing Urbana in St. Louis, all in the last month.

Urbana is a giant (17,000+) mission conference for college students that is put on by InterVarsity. Last year I helped out photographing InterVarsity's Greek Conference in Indy. I was thrilled that Tim and I were able to be a part of the photography team at Urbana. Working on a team was fun and essential to share the load of documenting such a huge event. The other fabulous photographers were Dave, Barry and Adam, who's wife just had her first book published. A special shout out to the other wedding photographers on the team, Wayne and Angela! You can check out their Urbana pics here.

Urbana felt like shooting 5 weddings in 5 days with very tricky lighting situations. It was great for me to have the challenge of shooting so much. Each day consisted of two large gatherings, hundreds of different break out sessions, manuscript study, a 200+ mission organization exhibit hall, and feeding 14,000ish people in 2 hours for dinner. It was incredible to see so many passionate people in one place that are committed to living purposefully.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T14:17:00.003-05:00

I hope today brings a chance for you to share in the awe and joy of the season. May you be full of great food and your time spent with great company.

Amber + Kyle : Indianapolis Engagement

2009-12-23T22:29:00.003-05:00

A few days ago I got to hang out with Amber and Kyle. They have been together since high school and are getting married this spring. I am really looking forward to their wedding.

Construction Zone

2009-12-14T13:20:00.002-05:00

Well, since all of the orders are in for Christmas and all of my sessions (but one) are wrapped up for the year, it seemed like a wonderful time to remodel our bathroom in our 1926 Broad Ripple home. It's been a back burner "we know it needs to get done" project but knowing its our one and only bathroom made us intimidated to undertake this before. No time like mid-December for a home renovation! With a dumpster in our driveway, work has been underway for a few days. I've been taking photos along the way and will be posting as soon as it's complete. (here's hoping for sooner rather than later!)

The Incredible Murray Family

2009-12-07T09:30:00.004-05:00

Brad and Jen are the tag team that are raising adorable quadruplet boys. They were on the blog earlier for their first birthday. Hard to believe that they will be three soon! It has been such a joy to see them grow up, how they interact with each other and how they love one another. This photo shoot was really depicting what life is like at this point in time for the Murray family. I think this type of a shoot is a great way to really capture life as it is to bring you back to that place in years to come. No shoot with four 2 year olds would be complete without some meltdowns and candy bribing. This family truly is incredible. I hope these pictures will in the future show the boys just how much love their parents surrounded them with every day. (and how in love their parents are)

Welcome to the world of two year old boys; trains, books, basketball, food, stories, parks and mommy & daddy! You can find out more about the Murray Crew at their amazing blog.

Partner Con: I love to learn!

2009-12-01T10:39:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's been about a month since I was down in New Orleans for Pictage's Partner Con conference. It was inspiring to be around 500 other creative professionals. I always enjoyed school (weird I know) and I really enjoy the opportunity to learn within my profession. So many people in this industry are willing to share, encourage and learn from each other. This year I have taken to opportunity to learn at several conferences including WPPI (Wedding Portrait Photographers International)in Vegas, OSP in Indy, and Partner Con in New Orleans.
I have gained so much knowledge, inspiration and vision from taking the time to invest in myself and my business.

Partner Con was jammed packed, full of great speakers and a few shoots. I had a wonderful time with my roommates from Indy, Kiera and Maya. Although I heard many great talks such as; Dane Sanders, Joe Bussink, and the Youngren's, my favorite thing was going on a shooting workshop with Joe Bussink. His love and heart for photography and the person he is capturing is incredible. It was awesome to hear someone so successful talk about how it is about how a person feels. That's exactly what I try to do with my photography, remind you of how you felt on your wedding day. When you look back at your pictures I want you to be transported.

Here are a few images from New Orleans. (where it was 75 and sunny everyday!) Many thanks to models Abigail and Ashly for being amazing!

Drumstick Dash

2009-11-26T10:50:00.002-05:00

Tim and I ran in our first Drumstick Dash this morning. It is a huge (9,500) race around Broad Ripple to raise money for Wheeler Mission. Since Tim and I decided about 2 1/2 weeks ago to sign up we opted to just do the short 2.3 mile course instead of the full 4.5.

It was crazy to see the streets we use everyday completely packed with runners. It never really thinned out and I spent most of my effort trying not to run into anyone. Tim however spent most of his energy yelling out "Happy Thanksgiving", "YMCA", and random words of encouragement.

Unfortunately I totally goofed and apparently held down a button too long on my watch and so we can only guess what our time was. We were happy to finish, support a good cause and be out with our community this morning. Special props to our friends, Jenny, Kevin and Sarah who ran the 4.5 mile course today. (because a post needs a photo, I took one self timer pic on our way out the door, you can see my enthusiasm)

Now to feast and be thankful with family. Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome Sweet Evelyn: Newborn Goodness

2009-11-25T11:39:00.003-05:00

My friend Lindsay, who was recently seen on the blog as the adorable pregnant lady, recently welcomed her sweet daughter Evelyn to the world. Her sweetness was born on November 9th. I love photographing new parents, there is such a glow to them and they are full of love. Lindsay and Matt are no exception. Evelyn has no doubt captured their hearts and changed their world.

As another joyous note, Rachael and Billy, who was the other maternity shoot I did a few weeks back, just welcomed Lizzie into the world yesterday! Yeah, for sweet, precious baby girls!

Carson : Sweet Baby!

2009-11-18T13:08:00.005-05:00

Carson, the son of my past wedding clients, Kaleena and Eli, has grown a bunch since I first met him at his newborn session. Classically, the best expressions of the shoot were once he was just in his onesie after wearing all the adorable outfits his mom picked out. At 3 months you can't really blame them for wanting to be in their own world and wear as little clothes as possible. We all totally melted when he put on his lion costume from Halloween. His crazy hair was cracking me up. I can't wait to see more of his personality come out as he continues to grow. It's been so much fun to see Kaleena and Eli's relationship grow into becoming a family.

Cooper : Totally Two, Totally Boy

2009-11-19T13:09:00.000-05:00

Cooper enjoyed showing me all his favorite things at home, reading Elmo books, playing basketball with dad, his dog Oscar, swinging, and playing in piles of leaves. Cooper is lucky to have some awesome parents, George and Erin. I love that these pictures capture what being two for a little boy is all about.

My First Colts Game!!!

2009-11-16T16:25:00.004-05:00

Hard to top my first Colts game experience yesterday.

The festivities began with some at home tailgating at a friends, eating taco dip and playing my first competitive game of corn hole. Yes, I had been fighting it for a while, but as it turns out I'm pretty decent. The crew headed down to Elbow Room for some pre-game food. Good eats and good laughs. Then as Tim's heart rate increased, we made the pilgrimage into Lucas Oil Stadium. I had no idea how many people and how crazy it would be just getting to the stadium. (I'm such a newbie) We had some incredible seats and I was just blown away by the energy and noise in the place as the game began. Home team advantage! I had fun doing a little of sports photography but then put it away until the incredible ending of the game. I couldn't believe people were leaving the stadium and missed such an awesome ending. After the Colts pulled off the win, the madness grew! Pouring out of the stadium, people were screaming, giving high fives to each other and honking their horns. You would have thought we won the Super Bowl again. The only bummer of the night was being such in the same place in a parking garage for about 40 minutes and being hungry. By the time we got back home it hit me hard that it was 2am and needed to sleep.

Super thanks to my friends for organizing such a fabulous evening.

Victor + Stephanie : Purdue Engagement Photography

2009-11-12T09:38:00.004-05:00

Victor and Stephanie were so much fun to hang out with! Since they met on campus just a few days before freshman year, it was only fitting to do their engagement pictures at Purdue. We managed to get the very last bit of fall on campus. Victor had his motorcycle on hand which was fun to work with. Apparently its the choice way to get around on campus, when the weather is nice of course. It started to sprinkle just after they changed outfits, so we managed a few more shots before the rain poured. Despite the stress of finishing college and working on a masters, they still manage to transport into their own world of laughter and sweetness together. I am so excited to document their big day next summer in West Lafayette.

Lindsay + Matt : Expecting New Joy!

2009-11-06T18:16:00.004-05:00

Lindsay has been my trusty side shooter and assistant at many weddings. Lindsay and I were both brides together, we met when we were both engaged. The year before we got married we spent lots of time together, including being bridal bootcamp workout buddies. I was so excited to hear that she and her hubby Matt were expecting! They are high school sweethearts and have been together 10 years now!

Little Evelyn should be arriving soon, really soon. Lindsay is such a wonderful woman inside and out. I know how much she is looking forward to being a mommy and know that her and Matt will be amazing parents. I had such a hard time picking some for the blog, Lindsay is such a model on the other side of the camera!

Dara + Andy: Indianapolis Engagement

2009-10-30T15:54:00.003-04:00

It all started on a blind date at Rock Bottom where Dara was 45 minutes late due to being unfamiliar with driving downtown. Good thing Andy was patience because he soon met his match in Dara. Lots of their firsts were downtown, first dates, first kiss so it was a lot of fun to hear them remember those moments while we wear walking around. Dara's smile can light up a room and bring out Andy's cute dimples too.

Maureen + Mike : Indianapolis Wedding Photography

2009-10-29T11:25:00.004-04:00

Maureen and Mike are great neighbors of ours here on Rosslyn Avenue. I was so excited to be able to document such a special day for them. All of the ladies started the day getting glammed up at Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in Fishers. It was awesome that they just took over the whole salon for a few hours. Mo and the ladies headed back to her house, where they got dressed as the guys were getting ready at the Marriott North. After a few photos with beautiful yellow leaves outside the church, Mo saw her little guy Korbin dressed in his tiny tux. Adorable. During the processional the coolest thing happened, the church had a large skylight above the alter area. During the processional it had been pretty overcast, but right when the music changed and the doors were opened for Mo, sunshine blasted through the skylights. Being from Broad Ripple, we decided to stop for some fun photos at the fabulous Indianapolis Art Center after the ceremony.

The reception went seamless at the Marriott. I was completely impressed at how great the venue and service was. The whole evening was a great celebration for these two; full of friends and family both young and old. I was so honored to be a part of their day and a new milestone for their family.

Stephanie & Kyle Engaged at Indiana University

2009-10-27T15:18:00.003-04:00

Stephanie had the great idea to do her engagement session with Kyle at IU at the peak of fall, where he proposed and they've shared many fun memories. Kyle pulled off quite the engagement, proposing on campus and then heading to Nick's for Stephanie to be surprised by all their family and friends. It was fun to hear them remember how that all happened.

The evening was gorgeous; crunchy leaves, sweet evening light and a fun couple. Stephanie is a seasoned pro at working the camera with me, she's been a bridesmaid in two other weddings I've photographed. I'm so excited to capture her and Kyle's big day next summer.

Fun Trip to Cincinnati!

2009-10-26T21:14:00.002-04:00

After four weeks of weddings in a row, this last weekend I was camera free and ready for some fun. The weekend started out with a great visit with my parents. We had a yummy dinner and headed off to the Keystone Art Cinema to watch Amelia. It was pretty good.

Saturday, Tim and I drove to Cincinnati for a good friend's wedding. Such a sweet candlelight ceremony and a super fun evening catching up with Tim's college fraternity brothers and dancing!

Since we were in Cincinnati, we decided to check out a few local hot spots. First we went to Jungle Jim's, the craziest grocery store ever! The place is huge and has food and produce from every part of the world. They give you a map when you get in the store, and there is even a separate map for the beer and wine section! Tim stopped for an Iphone photo by the large section of hot sauce underneath a firetruck!

After that we decided to go to Ikea. I love that place because they have sleek, modern designs that help the house look good and get organized. Tim and I ended up buying a purple rug for our living room. Great weekend!

Rachael + Billy: Expecting in Brownsburg

2009-10-22T12:04:00.004-04:00

I was honored to be able to document Rachael & Billy's wedding day exactly one year after Tim and I were married. Now, I got to document this very special time of their family growing. They are expecting to meet their sweet little girl, Elizabeth (Lizzie) in just a few more weeks. Rachael had the great idea to do the shoot at Beasley's Orchard in Avon, a place where she remembers visiting every year with her family for as long as she can remember. Sunday afternoon was the most perfect day outside, sunny, crisp fall air, the smell of apples and crunchy leaves under your feet. We really enjoyed sharing in their joy as they anticipate the arrival of Lizzie.

Tim and Billy searched long and hard for the perfect pumpkins and succeeded. True story that three little kids were walking in front of our house and were pointing, gawking, at our large pumpkin this morning!

Maureen + Mike : A Sneak Peek

2009-10-19T21:50:00.003-04:00

I just had to post a few images from Mo and Mike's fun and fabulous wedding last Saturday. More to come later, but I wanted them to see a few before they take off for their honeymoon! Congrats you two.

Emily + Dave : A Zionsville Engagement Session

2009-10-17T12:14:00.000-04:00

Oh, how I love this couple! Tim and I have know Emily before she even met Dave. It's been awesome to see their relationship grow. We get to hang out with them every week at our house church gatherings.

Emily grew up in Zionsville, and that's where he proposed, so it was only fitting to do their engagement session there. It was a gorgeous fall day. Clearly, they are a fun couple who have lots of energy and love to share. We wrapped up a great evening eating at a local Zionsville icon, Friendly's Tavern. (the pork tenderloin was out of control!)

Letitia + Ryan: A Fall Brownsburg Wedding

2009-10-16T11:54:00.003-04:00

Letitia and Ryan had a beautiful wedding day. I know they are eager to see some images, so I'll go ahead and post. I'll fill you in on their wedding story later...

(The adorable young man in the several of the images is Tish's son, who did the honors of giving her away. So sweet.)

Fun New Product: KISS Mini Albums!

2009-10-14T14:25:00.003-04:00

When I started Megelaine Images, I new that I wanted to give my brides the best quality album possible. I went on a search far and wide, and I ran into a lot of pretty good albums. None of them are a match, though, for the KISS Wedding Books that I use now. The albums are beautiful with edge-to-edge photo prints. And the leather is so soft and gorgeous. The coolest part about the whole thing is the amazing turn around time that I always get from the fine folks at KISS!

That is why I am so excited about a new product that KISS recently came out with - Little KISSes!
These 4 by 4 inch beauties are exact replicas of the larger KISS books, a perfect size to carry in your purse and show off to all of your friends. Check out these pictures to see what I mean...

Parke County Senior: Jenna

2009-10-12T10:38:00.004-04:00

Jenna is the younger sister of my future sister-in-law Megan. Their family lives basically in their own State Park outside of Rockville, Indiana. (or at least what feels like it once you live in the city) We decided to do her senior shoot before the masses rolled in for the Covered Bridge Festival, which is going on now. We traveled over to Bridgeton, where I had shot Courtney and Justin's engagement session earlier this spring.

Special thanks to Megan, who was an excellent light stand for me during the shoot! Best wishes to Jenna as she firms up plans for college next year.

All the seniors at her school make their own "senior pants" and get a senior pictures in them. Jenna went above and beyond with the overalls.