Christine and Dustin are getting married this fall at the Estia Restaurant. in Philadelphia. I could tell right away that this shoot was going to go very well. These two were happy together and it showed in the photos. We took advantage of some interesting wispy clouds as well as many other great spots at the Water Works.

I always tell couples that most of the time they should pretend I'm not around taking their photo. Christine and Dustin really understood that concept and I was able to show off their relationship with each other.

Below are some of my favorite shots. If you would like to view the entire gallery click here.

The Dusk Epilogue shot is often the most difficult shot to orchestrate on a wedding day. When done right, it usually becomes my favorite shot of the day. That's partly the reason for the company name. There are certain conditions that need to be met to accomplish this photo.

First, the weather needs to cooperate.

Second, The schedule of the evening must allow the couple to come outside at the right time. (between dinner and certain other wedding activities.)

Third, the shot must be set up quickly and timed perfectly because the light is only right for a couple minutes.

Fourth, the couple has to want to leave their friends and family for a few minutes during the reception. This is often a challenge because once the reception is in full swing, many people don't want to leave for more photos.

There are variations/exemptions to those rules, but for the sunset photos you see, these steps are crucial.

For people who do decide to let me photograph a book end shot the results are show below. These are some of my favorites from the past couple wedding seasons.

Every wedding, I try to take a unique picture of the Couple's wedding bands. Many photographers will take a simliar photo everytime. I have always tried to come up with a new look for the ring shot. I am always looking for interesting textures, colors, and objects to incorporate into the photo. This is not always easy. Sometimes both rings are in separate locations, other times we don't have enough time and need to take certain photos then leave for the ceremony. I always try to take the photo before the ceremony. I don't like having to ask the couple to take off their rings so soon after the vows.

Below I have compiled some of my favorite ring photos. I tried to reflect the wedding day with a single photo. Some meanings are more obvious than others. The Beer, Grapes, M&Ms, and Sunflower are easy to decipher, but others are a little trickier. For example, the fence post photo was right outside the groom's house, and I snapped it just before he left for the church.

In March, Sarah and I took a long weekend vacation to New England. This is usually our yearly trip to somewhere in North America. This year marked the fourth year Sarah and I have been together.

We started by visiting my college friend, Jayme, in Maine. Her family was kind enough to put us up for a couple of days. Sarah had her first experience tearing into a whole Maine Lobster. I enjoyed a fantastic moose steak her father had killed the previous season. We also went snow shoeing for the first time, behind Jayme's house. We went to the Portland Art Museum, the Portland Headlight, and took a ferry ride. And no trip to Freeport, Maine would be complete without a trip to the LL Bean megastore.

From Maine, we worked our way south to Boston. I have been to many cities, but Boston was not one of them. We spent a couple days in Boston seeing the sights. We walked the freedom trail, which includes some incredible gravestones in old cemetaries, the Old North Church, Boston Common, Paul Revere's house, we did quite a bit of walking.

I had a Boston Pretzel, which is a big soft pretzel, only it has seasame seeds instead of salt. I have to say more cities should adopt the Boston Pretzel. We also went to a crazy German restaurant which included some sing alongs with a piano man.

We even made to to the Bunker Hill Monument. Not only to the bottom of it, but we climbed all the stairs up to the top. That's right folks, no elevator. Sarah beat me pretty handily. (That'll be the building that looks like the Washington Monument in DC). By the time we reached the top of the monument, we watched as the fog rolled in, more like gusted in. I have never seen fog move so fast. You'll see some of the city shots later in the post.

On our way home, we dipped down to Newport, Rhode Island to see the old Mansions. For those who don't know, Newport was where many wealthy industrialists summered around the turn of the century. Most of the homes are from the Guilded Age. Today, many of those homes are no longer standing, but there a few that were preserved as museums for the general public. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take any photos inside the homes, so you'll just have to imagine the splendor, or plan your own trip. I did take some photos of the exteriors.

Click here for a full gallery of our trip.

A few weeks ago Sarah and I went on a Mediterranean Cruise. We had a great time. When we arrived home, we really needed another few days of vacation to recover. I don't usually set goals for myself, but one goal I had was travel to Europe before turning thirty. Made it with three years to spare. The order of the pictures pretty much follows the timeline of the trip. We cast off in Barcelona, Spain. We had a couple days before and after the cruise to do some sight-seeing in Barcelona.

After a full day at sea we reached the ancient port of Valletta,Malta. This is where they film a lot of the epic pieces (gladiator, troy etc.). Malta had some wonderful locations and I took some of my favorite shots of the trip. Sarah and I really liked Malta and plan to go back again someday.

Next stop was Naples, Italy. We had the opportunity to visit the city of Pompeii. Pompeii was my favorite historic site. It was simply amazing walking 2000 years into the past. Roaming the ancient Roman streets was really incredible. After visiting Pompeii, we started our driving tour of the Amalfi coast. Our driver was nice enough to take some photos of Sarah and I (see the full gallery). The best part of the entire vacation was Sarah and I getting engaged in Positano, Italy on the Amalfi coast. I asked her in Italian and, she didn't realize at the time, but she actually didn't officially say "Yes". I assumed she said yes from her reaction. Hours later I mentioned she didn't say yes and she quickly responded, "yes, yes,yes." Before the cruise we had a custom ring made with gemstones we mined ourselves in North Carolina.

The next port of call was Rome. Before I talk about Rome, we learned the origin of the term, POSH. It comes from pleasure cruising in the 1800s. It was said the best way to travel by ship was Port Out, Starboard, Home and only the well-off could afford that kind of travel. Back to Rome, we went to all the ancient ruins as well as St. Peter's Square, the catacombs, Spanish steps, Trevee Fountain, and the traffic was almost unbearable. It was almost like being on I-76 during rushour.

The next port was PIsa and Florence. We got to Pisa very early, so you won't see many other tourists in the photos. We also learned that at one time Pisa was a canal city like Venice, but over time erosion changed all that. After leaving Pisa we drove through the countryside of Tuscany. I now understand why everyone always talks about the Tuscany region. It is spectacular. Our favorite city on the trip was Florence. There was so much to see and our driver Andreas, made it even more interesting. The amount of historical sites is staggering. The part of Florence I remember the clearest is, my legs burning as we climbed 463 steps to the top of the Duomo. I had to take a break for about five mintues before taking any photos.

Then we went to Nice in the south of France, and Monte Carlo in Monaco. Monte Carlo felt too much like LA for my tastes. On the back end of the cruise we had another day in Barcelona, and we traveled to Montserrat which is an old monastary on a mountain. There were paths and rock climbers everywhere. After all that, flying, traveling, walking, climbing, riding, these are the photos that I liked the best. I can't wait to go back for another round.

Below is the just a fraction of the photos I took on the trip, if you would like to see a more complete picture of the trip click here.

In March of 2006, we spent a week in Montreal, Canada. Montreal is one of my favorite cities. It's definately in the top 5 of places I would live if I wasn't in Philadelphia. There were a lot museums, good restaurants, and historic sites to fill the entire week. Also, Montreal has an underground walkway that connects most of downtown as well as the metro, which is helpful when you visit in March. We also didn't appear to look American, many times during the trip people were asking us directions in French.

The shot directly below is atop Mount Royal. I had a lot of stairs to climb and I was trying to hurry to catch the daylight. Here's a quick list of what we did, we visited the Art Museum, Olympic Tower, Biodome, Botanical gardens (which had a butterflies go free exhibit), Old Montreal, underground ruins of the old customs house, firehouse museum, a whole lot of pretty churches. The prettiest church being the Bascilica of Notre Dame (see below). It's the most beautiful church I have ever seen.

For our 3rd year anniversary of Sarah and I being a couple, we took a quick weekend trip to Baltimore. We went to the Art Museum, Aquarium, Maryland Zoo, Fort McHenry. We stayed at the historic Admiral Fell Inn in Fells Point. We went to one of my favorite restaurants outside of Philadelphia, which was the Charleston.

The highlight of the trip came when I surprised Sarah with a cake from Charm City Cakes (Ace of Cakes Thursdays on Food Network). We had planned to just drive by where the bakery was, but she didn't know I ordered her a cake. I had a hard time getting her out of the car. I tried begging, asking, cursing, nothing was going to get her out of the car. (They are not a retail store and can't allow visitors). Sarah did not want to get out of the car. It took me a good 10 minutes for her to follow me to the entrance. She was in shock for the next few hours. repeating "You bought me a cake" over and over. Just for the record, their cake is just as good as their designs.

A few months ago, Sarah got the urge to travel. When she gets the urge we plan little trips to places we can drive. Neither of us had ever really been to Pittsburgh, we thought it was time. We jammed a lot of activities into our long weekend. We went up the Duquesne Incline, went to the conservatory garden, a Pirates game, a river cruise, the Frick estate, and, of course, the zoo.

The Frick estate was an amazing mansion. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the house. It was owned by Henry Frick, who was a coal man during the industrial revolution. This mansion which was built during the Victorian period, and is 90 percent original. Including the original bed sheets. There is even a Monet in the study. Frick's daughter never married and put all the money into an art museum and keeping her house the way it was when it was built. It was a really incredible house.

Another interesting fact we learned at the garden is, Vanilla comes from Orchids. I never knew that.