Into the Lens: WE'RE FULL TIME!

Hello everyone!

Lance and I have been waiting a lonnnng time to write up this blog post. We are so beyond excited to announce that Lance is finally a full-time photographer!

Some of you are probably confused because you just assumed that that was his full time job already, but it wasn't.

Lance has worked at Cathy's Flowers in Russellville, AR for four years. He discovered his talent with working with flowers very quickly after he was hired and has been going ever since. The amazing owners and the amazing Cathy's staff taught him so much and felt like family to both of us. When we started our photography business we knew that he would eventually have to pick between the both of them, but he held out as long as he could.

Our awesome family at Cathy's held a going away party today for Lance, and it was so much fun just like it always is around that crazy bunch. I'm sure this isn't the last they will see of both of us, you can't get rid of family that easily, haha.

This was the amazing cake that they had made by The Cake Place! So amazing!

We have prayed for the right timing for this very important step in our lives, and a bunch of you have prayed with us. So, thank you! We are SO excited about this new adventure!

In celebration of this new journey we are starting things off with a BANG! We want you to join in our contest for a FREE SESSION! All you have to do is like our photography page and post a selfie with the hashtag #shingleurphotography to enter.  The contest ends Sunday, June 29th at 2:00pm. :D

Thank you!!! Since we will have much more time for photo shoots book yours now by emailing us at shingleur@gmail.com for pricing! We offer wedding packages, senior sessions, family packages and maternity sessions!

Happy, Happy Thursday (A.K.A The beginning of our adventure!) :)

Into the Lens {Royal Family Kids Camp: A Worthy Cause}

Hello everyone!

If you follow our little blog you know that we occasionally stray from doing client photography related things to post a little bit about what happens"behind the lens" at Shingleur Photography. This blog post in particular has to be one of the most special to us...

Back in 2001, my mom Debbie Young found out about a international camp organization named "Royal Family Kids Camp." She soon found out that it was a week long summer camp for children ages 7-11 that have suffered from some kind of abuse or neglect. Most of the children that attend these camps are in group homes, foster care, have previously been in foster care, or some have even been adopted by new loving families. The purpose of this camp is to provide a whole week long of "solitude" for the undeservidly-chaotic lives of these young children. My mom, along with several other very dedicated staff members, launched the first Royal Family Kids Camp in Arkansas in 2003.

Now, for 10 years our camp staff has poured God's love on the children through once in a life time activities such as a rodeo complete with horse and hay rides, a Tea party with fancy dresses and professional hair and make up for the girls, a Razorback Tailgate party for the boys, a HUGE birthday party for EVERYONE (including lots of presents) and much more!

We are all so thankful for the hundreds of volunteers over the past 10 years that have spent thousands of volunteer hours making this week special for these children. In addition, we are happy to say that there are now two RFKC's in Arkansas!

Our Royal Family Kids Camp invites children in Pope County and surrounding areas. Since we spend a week long at a beautiful campground, lavish these wonderful children with life experiences, and do not charge one dime of admission, it takes a monstrous budget to keep this going. For the past nine years our community has given thousands of dollars to keep this camp going. We so appreciate all of the wonderful donors that have already contributed this year, unfortunately, we are currently under budget by a few thousand dollars.  If you wouldn't mind, after reading this post please visit the national website here to learn more about the organization Royal Family Kids.

In my opinion, there is no more of a worthy cause than the future of OUR children from our own community.  Lance and I are very honored to get to be "camp photographers" for the third year this summer! We couldn't be more excited to volunteer our time for such a worthy cause!

If you would like more information about our Royal Family Kids Camp you can contact the director (my mom) Debbie Young at 479-641-2074 or email william154@gmail.com. You can also make a tax free donation to Royal Family Kids at PO Box 118 Pottsville, AR 72858.


Join us by praying, volunteering or giving to Royal Family Kids! :)

Happy, Happy Tuesday!

Into the Lens: Jah Mon!!

Hey everyone!

Disclaimer: this blog post has nothing to do (almost nothing) to do with wedding photography or Shingleur Photography. It is only a little look into our lives and the thing we love to do almost most of all: travel.

Ever since we visited Cozumel, MX on our Honeymoon (a little over a year ago) we became hooked- hooked on traveling. For those of you who share this same addiction, you can sympathize with us as well. We were hooked on visiting places we had only heard about and seen on the internet, in magazines and from other people who had experienced it. We knew we wanted to be saving up for our 1 year anniversary trip but we just couldn't decide where to go. Finally, in January we decided on a resort location which was Jamaica! We knew several people who had gone before and said that it was gorgeous, and it actually turned out to be quite affordable.

We found a gorgeous resort on Expedia called Grand Palladium at Jamaica in Lucea (pronounced Lucy), Hanover, Jamaica.  Every time I book anything online, despite all the hours of review reading, photo looking, and web-cam watching, I still have that nervous feeling as we step off the plane and head to our resort. Of course I'm thinking, does this place really even exist? Thankfully, our resort did much more than exist, haha. It was breathtaking!

We really enjoyed our little vacation, and we can't wait to go back some day. While we prefer photographing people, it is fun to do a little landscape photography, especially at such a gorgeous place as this.

 This is right before we landed in Montego Bay (or Mo-Bay as they call it)

There were so many people outside and walking around all of the time. I don't think many have cars, and if they do they drive CRAZY! They drive on the left side anyway, which was weird for us.

This tree was right outside our Villa at the resort!

 This is the lobby of the Grand Palladium at Jamaica. It's also connected to the Lady Hamilton Grand Palladium. It's lobby looks the exact same as this one.

 This is the right side of the main pool beside the lobby.

 Sunday night's dinner :) 

 Gotta love self-timer photos ;) 

 Since the resort was so big (one of the largest in Jamaica) it took a while to get anywhere. For dinner we had a shuttle come pick us up because there was no way I was walking that far in heels! 

 Main pool 

 Restaurants overlooking the main pool and the beach 

 This was on the main beach. It wasn't quite as rocky as the Cozumel beach, but there was a lot of coral you had to watch out for. The resort had four fairly large beaches that all looked totally different! 

 One of the gardeners walked by and asked us if we wanted to try a real coconut. (He of course wanted a tip, haha) He cut it open for us right there and gave us a straw. It tasted like 99% water and 1% coconut. It was really weird. 

 Caught him walking, hehe. 

 This was one of the villas.

 This was coral beach and it was our favorite! 

 It wasn't busy and there was so much wildlife. Large coral reefs and crazy looking fish were one foot off the beach! 

Monday night dinner :) 

 Looking at the main pool and restaurant at night. So pretty 

 On Tuesday we took a day trip down the northern coast to Dunn's River Falls and to shop at Ocho Rios. We have pictures on our phone and with our water camera, but we decided not to take the big one. :) This was Tuesday night's dinner. 

 This was their wedding gazebo. There were several weddings a day that happened up here. We were so tempted to sneak up there and photograph them all, haha. 

 Lance knew most of the names of these crazy flowers. #floristproblems 

 We spent our last day at Coral beach watching the wild life. There were crabs EVERYwhere! 

 After a wedding a bride and groom came down to the beach, of course we had to sneak a pic. 

 I've never seen a more beautiful sunset. It reminded me of the Lion King, haha. 

 The sun's taking a swim. :) 

Of course we had to do some self-timer pics for old times sake. 

Wednesday night dinner. 

 White out bonfire party 

 White out bonfire party. We were so exhausted that we left before they lit the bonfire. We had an early flight the next morning. :( 

We had such a good time! Thanks for letting us deviate from our normal photography posts. :)
Jah mon!!

Happy, Happy Friday everyone!

Into the Lens: Wedding Day Timeline

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since we have done an "Into the Lens" post, and as I was 2nd shooting today at a very "smootly running" wedding I had a brilliant thought. Why not do a post about our typical wedding day timeline?
Since Lance and I planned a wedding about 6 months ago I can totally relate to the HUGE amount of stress and time that goes into planning where 20-30 people have to be to make sure the wedding happens. Lets face it, the wedding will not happen if someone doesn't take charge and tell people when to be where, and at what time. Some brides, who already are natural born planners (aka. OCD+bossy) this is one of the easiest and most fun parts of the wedding. The week before our wedding I sat down and happily spent about 2 hours in front of my computer planning out every single hour of the day. I then printed out about 30 copies and highlighted each person's part of the day and where they should be. Now that I look back, I probably took it a little too far, but HEY the bridesmaids were only about 10 minutes late to the photo location and that was the only thing that went off schedule. We actually ran ahead of schedule for most of the day which TOTALLY alleviated most of my stress.

BUT for those brides who are totally lost on 'what should happen when' during the wedding here's an example timeline for a "typical wedding" (Typical wedding includes 50+ guests and bridal party). Of course this timeline is totally flexible and is not the same for any wedding that we shoot, but for the most part most of the weddings that we shoot follow this schedule.

First of all lets pretend that the wedding ceremony begins at 2:00 and the bride and groom have chosen to do a First Look. If you are confused about what a First Look is, check out this blog post. :) Also, the bride and groom have chosen to have us at their wedding for 6 hours of photography (which is our most popular package).

8:30: Bride begins getting her hair done. The bride should always get her hair done first because it will probably take the most time. Plus, if the bride is doing a First Look, she will need to be the first one ready.  (HINT FOR THE BRIDE: Your hairdresser will probably give you a more accurate time on how long it will take to get everyone's hair done, and when they want to do your hair.)

10:30: Groom and groomsmen arrive at ceremony site to begin getting ready. (HFTB: They probably won't end up getting ready until about 15 minutes before they have to be, so you might as well tell them to get there even earlier, just to be safe)

10:30: Lance and I will arrive at the ceremony site, and I will do getting ready pictures with the bride. Lance will sometimes snap a few pictures of the groom while he gets ready. We also take pictures of bridal details; like a picture of the dress hanging, jewelry and any thing else the bride wants.

11:20: I will come in the preparation room and take pictures of someone helping the bride into her dress. These are usually very special pictures. All of the bridesmaids should have their hair completely done and their makeup completely finished at this point so they can help with the dress. If they have cute matching shirts that were gifts from the bride they do not have to be in their dresses, BUT if they are wearing sweatpants and a ratty tank top, they should probably go ahead and dress before hand.

11:30: First Look time! As I said previously, if you are interested in how we conduct a First Look you can visit this blog post {here}.

11:50: The First Look and solo pictures with the bride and groom should be finished by now depending on how many pictures the bride and groom are interested in.  Next, is the bridal party. We typically do the bride with her girls first, then the groom with his guys and then the complete wedding party (including ring bearer and flower girl if they are there).

12:20: Family pictures- The bride is totally in charge of this section of the day because we typically have no clue who is family and who is not. (HINT FOR THE BRIDE: It really helps us AND YOU if you make a list of all of the people you want to be in each picture and then give me the list. I can help corral people if I know who is supposed to be in the picture. If you have a regular sized family, and everyone is on time and cooperative, we can knock out family pictures in 20 minutes, easily.)

12:50-  Finished with preliminary pictures- Now the bride and groom can go relax, chill, eat a snack and/or reapply lip gloss until ceremony time. During this unwinding time, Lance and I typically go to the reception location (if it is located at the ceremony site) and do detail pictures of decor. If the reception site is not on location, we will do lots of detail shots at the ceremony site. After doing the reception, we also do ceremony details.
By the way, we tell you that this hour is in place to let you unwind before the ceremony, and it is good for that, but honestly we make sure we keep this time slot in just in case someone is running late and preliminary pictures run overtime. As long as the bride is hidden at least 30 minutes before the ceremony we are still safe.

1:40- Guest arrive- Bridal party begin gathering in the back to prepare for processional. Lance and I will be at the ceremony site taking pictures of people signing the guestbook and being seated.

2:00- Ceremony begins- (HINT FOR THE BRIDE: I am going to leave out a timeline for the ceremony because this is totally up to you and your minister, and the last thing you will be thinking of is Lance and I. We try to stay hidden as much as we possibly can.)

2:30- Reception- We typically have nothing to do with the schedule of the reception events, either. The reception timeline is actually based on how long the guests stay at the wedding. If people start leaving we typically try to hurry the reception events so the b&g will have people for their photos. For those of you who aren't wanting to spend $200 on a wedding planner to help you plan a reception, here's an example timeline for you:

2:30- Intro of Mr. & Mrs.
2:35- First dance
2:50- Eat
3:15- Cut cake
3:30- Mingle/dance with guests
4:00- Bouquet and garter toss
4:15- Grand exit: Sometimes, just to fit it in the time slot that we allot for photography, the bride and groom do a "faux exit" where they leave the reception and have bird seed thrown on them, or whatever, and then they actually go back into the reception for more fun.

YAY! Sounds pretty simple doesn't it? Remember this is just a sample timeline and WILL be different for every wedding, in some way.

If a wedding day is planned out, and the b&g make it a goal to stick to the schedule, the wedding will be much less stressful for her, the groom, the bridal party, the family, the officiant, the photographer, the guests and anyone else I left out.

HINT FOR THE BRIDE: At the end of the day, it honestly doesn't matter if the hair dresser is running an hour behind, or the caterer doesn't get here until 15 minutes before the reception, you are going to GET MARRIED to the most important person in the world, and it is going to be wonderful. We will PERSONALLY make sure of that. :)

Happy, Happy Saturday Everyone! :)