Joy comes to Philly-Southern NH portrait Photographer

Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of meeting one of my facebook friends for the first time. Joy is a wonderful, joy filled young woman. Never have I met someone that is so aptly named.The joy of the Lord is very evident in her life, and it really comes out when you are around her. I went down to PA for her church’s Christmas program-Finding Christmas. It was a wonderful blessing, her other 3 sisters were also in the program, and all of the girls have amazing singing voices and are just as beautiful. Joy’s dad pastors the Manoa Presbyterian Church, where the program was held. On saturday, Joy and I had planned to do her first shoot at the Eastern State Penitentiary, we found out too late that a model shoot needed to be scheduled in advance, but we still managed to sneek off a few photos before we were told we couldn’t! Its an amazing old building, in a terrific state of decay-lots of textures, peeling paint, rust, and some great natural light. Another trip to the prison with the proper paperwork filed is in the works for the summer. On the way to Philly, we drove thru one of the more run down areas of the city, but I saw some areas that would make some great backdrops so we stopped the car and shot for awhile. Needless to say, when you have such a breathtaking subject, as I had, you are bound to attract an audience, and Joy had more than one offer to have her picture taken with some of the locals! All in all it was a fun weekend, and her entire family was a great blessing to me. I left PA with a very full heart, and look forward to another trip to visit them all again, and of course take a few more photos! I also had the chance to do a sister shoot with the 4 beautiful women while I was there. that is the subject for another blog post! Here are a few of my favorites, as always you can see a larger gallery here.