Mia and James Castrission
Rayavadee Resort
Krabi
Thailand

I met James almost a decade ago, we used to rock-climb together when I lived in Sydney. I hadn’t seen him in seven years, but definitely kept up with his adventures. Not only is James an inspiration to me, he is an Adventurer, Author, public speaker, outdoor enthusiast, and with his buddy raised 10s of thousands for children’s cancer centers. With his best friend Justin, he was the world’s first to Kayak from Australia to New Zealand and recently was the world’s first to walk from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. A feat he completed only a few weeks before his wedding day. When he sent me a facebook message asking to shoot his wedding, I may have done a happy dance, or two! If you have a chance, please watch these movies, they make me cry, http://casandjonesy.com.au/sunday-night-reveal-all/.

I had never met Mia until Thailand, and immediate was drawn in by her warmth, friendliness, laid back personality and huge contagious laugh. Getting to know her a bit I realized just how inspirational she is herself, let me just say, I was very impressed. She planned her wedding while her fiance was close to dying in Antarctica, and instead of trying to stop him, she encourages him to follow his dreams. She has a way of making everyone feel special and making everyone around her happy. I could not be happier for my friend to have found such an amazing women.

The wedding was just amazing. I was worried, you see, photographically it is easy to make a mediocre wedding look spectacular, but it is a challenge making a jaw dropping wedding show the awe that was present. This wedding was the most spectacular wedding I have seen. The day started with groom doing a mulitpitched climb on his wedding morning, while the women got to sleep in a bit. Mia surprised all the groomsmen with custom underwear that read the role each of the guys had in the wedding, and these guys are not shy. I am used to girls not being shy around me, but wow, they had no problems changing underwear right in front of me (as you can see the groom changing his undies behind his best man a few images down – don’t hate me James). During the reception (and on other occasions) the guys were pantless, showing off their underwear. There were fire-twirlers, late night runs for the ocean, a wooden boat I got to ride on with the newly married couple, amazing Thai food, and a reception under a huge sky of stars. Crazy amazing!

I have many people I want to thank here, first and foremost, a huge thank you to Thu Tran, for coming all the way to Thailand to shoot this wedding with me, and coming to Borneo and letting me drag you all around Australia after the wedding. This was the trip of a lifetime and I love that we got to share it. You are one of the most amazing people I have met in my lifetime and your photography rocks, thank you a million times! My husband for letting me travel for 6 weeks. Amy and Holly for joining the adventure Jame’s family for making us feel like part of the group, and for inviting us to their home for Sunday dinner, what a great night. Sarah and Ben for putting us up and being so amazing. The way you two welcomed me back to Australia meant the world to me, and also made my cry while sitting alone at the airport trying to leave Sydney. I miss you guys. Zander for lending us his car, taking us climbing in the mountains, and for just being tons of fun to hang out with. And last but not least, a big thank you to Justin Jones for letting us in your home. Thank you for housing and letting us hang out, we had a ton of fun with you. I feel very blessed to have each of you as part of my life, thank you.

Feel free to follow James and Justin’s adventures on http://casandjonesy.com.au/ or on their facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/casandjonesy.

Hallee & Pedro
1420 Room
Atlanta, Georgia

I knew these two had an explosion of character and personality from the moment I met them. I actually met them at Pedro’s bachelor party at one of the biggest comic conventions in the world, DragonCon. Pedro had gotten stuck in an elevator with his closest guy friends all wearing undersized children’s superhero costumes. I got to wait on the other side of those elevator doors for over 2 hours watching the security guard rescue these trapped superheroes. My thought? These are my sort of clients! These two definitely delivered on their wedding day with Star Wars cake toppers, light sabers, and a Thursday party that went well into, well, Friday… I’ve never seen a Thursday with so much life, excitement and craziness. So I wish all you guys a very happy Thursday and I wish Hallee and Pedro a lifetime of crazy happiness!

I continued my education, I went to a master class offered by David Beckstead (an awesome photographer, and also a print judge), on what judges are looking for. After my four pages of notes, I was ready to start looking for competition worthy shots in my own portfolio.

I am so excited about some of my recent competition results. Kodak selected one of my images to go up in Time Square, I won my first fearless award (2 of them), I had an honorable mention in a National Geographic competition, I received accolades for 4 images from WPPI (which brings me up to 7 Accolade of Excellence awards), and last but certainly not least I won a first place in WPPI’s annual international competition. Placing in a WPPI competition was a life goal of mine. When I found out that I received a first place, I may have cried at a shopping mall (like one of those crazy women you see that has a break down outside of the GAP), yah that was me. I was happy though, so not crazy, just happy

So here are just some of my competition images, I hope you like!

The below image won First Place in WPPI’s First Half Competition under the Bridal Party Category.

I will say that I have had a lot of help along the way, there are so many amazing and giving photographers in this industry. A huge thank you to my good buddy Walter Van Dusen and Mystic Seminars for opening a huge door for me (if you are a photographer, you should seriously look into Mystic, I will definitely be there again this year), I don’t think words can describe how grateful I am to Walter. For Chris Rioux for helping me prep the image that went up in Times Square. To David Beckstead for giving me confidence in my work, and helping inspire me to get my work out there. Jacklyn Greenberg for giving me some much needed criticism (I love my honest friends). Thu Tran for being the coolest person ever, and for helping me with… well everything. Lisa Boggs and Debi Parker for helping me prep for WPPI amongst other things. Oh and my awesome office manager, Christoper Yost, who has given countless hours to me and my company (and for all the Pho trips). The list above is just a small handful of people that have helped me along the way, there are so many more, especially all the amazing and giving photographers in my area. I love all you guys!

Honorable Mention in National Geographic’s Wild Angle Photo Contest



Accolade of Excellence WPPI’s First Half Competition



Accolade of Excellence WPPI’s First Half Competition



Fearless Award



Fearless Award

A big thanks to all my facebook friends who helped by voting in the Fearless viewer choice Fearless Award! I think what touched me the most about this fearless award is that is just showed me how many supportive people I have out there. Lots of friends shared the image with their facebook friends to support me, even more friends went and liked it. That meant more then I can ever express! Thank you guys, you seriously are the best!



The image that went up in Times Square by Kodak



Now off for some more critique! I am so excited about my portfolio review (and a bit nervous), that will be happening on Thursday and Friday this week! Tomorrow I am off to New York, so wish me luck!

from Kristi Odom on Vimeo.

Music licensed from Triplescoop

from Kristi Odom on Vimeo.

Music licensed from With Etiquette

from Kristi Odom on Vimeo.

Music written and preformed by the groom for the bride

Happy Halloween everyone!
I have decided to blog one of my favorite weddings ever today that had all sorts of great halloween touched. Liz and TJ had a Spooky forest romance theme, with a two-headed taxidermy sparrow cake topper, a ring bearer coffin (saying till death do us part), Edger Allan Poe quotes panted around the room on canvas, and tons more. I hope you like! The wedding was also featured today on one of my all time fav blogs, RockNRoll Bride.

Liz and TJ are just such an amazing and such a happy couple! I am so happy I have gotten to know them and can now call them friends. You two are seriously awesome! Thanks for having me be a part of your crazy amazing day!
Kristi

I feel so fortunate to have a job in which at the majority of my shoots people cry since they are so happy.

In the last couple months, I have witnessed so much love, hugs, kisses, tears, and just pure happiness. I have been way too busy to keep up with my blog, but here are just a few images of things to come. I love that my work attracts so many different people, I have recently shot so much diversity, it just makes me smile… Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, outdoor, indoor, same-sex, tattooed like crazy, a wedding during a hurricane, weddings with beautiful sunsets, so much diversity but one thing is always the same, tons of love and happy tears.

Jessica is one of my favorite people ever! When I moved up to DC almost 3 years ago we met through the crazy wedding industry. Jessica is a super talented videographer in the area and we have worked together quite a bit now. She quickly became one of my favorite people in the industry, then soon after she became a good friend. She helped me network, turn my company more environmentally friendly, gave me travel advice, and always… always makes me laugh. Her and Bart are just so laid back, and such a breath of fresh air. It was a privilege to photograph them on their wedding day.

Jessica and Bart surrounded themselves with an all star wedding vendor crew, including the talented (and Eco-Beautiful) Katie Martin who did her flowers, my favorite cake make ever (who I am sad to say baked their last wedding cake for Jessica), and the picturesque Stonewall Golf Club. It was truly an amazing day!

What a beautiful day and what a wonderful couple! I am a bit jealous of their wedding, they are off in a few days to get married on top of the Grand Canyon! I wish you guys all the best, and have an amazing trip! Paula got her lovely dress from the awesome Blush Bridal Boutique.

I had way too much fun photographing Cristina and Pedro. Pedro was nervous, which I totally get, I am actually super uncomfortable in front of a camera. It was great though, because I noticed almost immediately that whenever he looked at Cristina, he just seemed happy and totally at ease. They are just so fun and natural together, that this shoot ended up full of laughs, a bit of craziness, a few bad smells, a bit of trekking, and some great fun. Pedro got really into it, and started getting excited and giving suggestions, it was great. I can’t wait to hang out and shoot your guys wedding next month! Yah for happy, awesome couples!

Allison and Brian’s wedding really had it all! Beautiful, down to earth and amazing couple, perfect weather, an all-star vendor team, a breathtaking bride, and ocean views. I met Allison not too long ago, when she helped me with my retirement funds. Soon after I became her client, she called saying that she had just been proposed to, and wanted to talk with me about her wedding. I was so excited, I love all the amazing people that my job let’s me get to know, and hanging out with Allison and Brian is definitely a great job perk. Their wedding was a photographer’s dream. Their amazing planner, Kelley Cannon of Kelley Cannon Events, had the day running so smooth that not only did we have all the time we needed for pictures, but honestly she helped make the day not feel like work at all. We had way too much fun to feel like we were working. I teared up watching the bride (and her father) cry during the ceremony, I danced with the bride’s family, I even got to have a piece of pie! It was amazing! The pictures came out so beautiful, this is one of my longest blogs ever! I love the rest too, and can’t wait to share them with Allison and Brian. You guys are truly amazing! What a great day

Yes I did take a bite out of the cookie for photographic purposes of course!


























I think I know what face was made behind me to get the kids to smile!