Welcome to Encompass Photography. My website showcases my best work, while my blog displays my most recent projects…and the stories behind the shots.
Stay tuned: I constantly update.
Welcome to Encompass Photography. My website showcases my best work, while my blog displays my most recent projects…and the stories behind the shots.
Stay tuned: I constantly update.
Dan was my manager when I first started working with my job Cutco, so we’ve known each other since I was 17! I’ve known Jonna pretty much ever since they started dating. It was so cool to be a part of their wedding.
Jonna and her family were hilarious and inviting. Mom’s a jewelry designer, and one of her sisters is a wedding planner. Everyone has this great sense of style. Jonna’s was one of those weddings where people’s love of the couple was evident in their participation in the couple’s event: the decorations and desserts were all handmade—and it was one of the prettiest weddings I’ve seen yet. Props to all participants and the results they produced.
One of my favorite parts about this wedding was the joke Jonna and her family played on one of her sisters. They pretended that David’s Bridal had sent Jonna the wrong dress by mistake–and since the store was 1 hour away, it was too late to return the dress before the wedding. Of course it was all a joke, and the bride was in on it–but look at the emotions it produced! Follow the captions for more details on that story.

Jonna's mother designs jewlery and she made these emerald earrings..

..and Jonna's dad put the feathers on these shoes...

Jonna's love for these shoes reminded me of Carrie Bradshaw...

You've got to admit, they're pretty stunning.

Just one more look at them...

Jonna's nickname as a child was some kind of bug or bee, so Mom made this jeweled piece for her flowers

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"Oh no... it's the wrong dress!!!! Um...Jonna???"

Here Jonna's sister's boyfriend is pretending to yell at David's Bridal for sending the wrong dress (they didn't really, but her sister believes it at this point, and she's panicked)

This was the moment that the girls revealed that the whole "wrong dress" thing was a joke.

She took it rather well.

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Jonna's love for her guests was so obvious. Doesn't it just make your day when someone greets you like this??

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Their cake was beautiful.


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All the desserts were homemade..

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I love the anticipation of "getting ready" shots...

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Robin was glowing and gorgeous.

..and so was her wedding party

The groomsmen took a dip in the pool to prepare for the big day...cool, huh?

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Love this effect for this photo.

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Trampoline + fun groomsmen = quite original photo session

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Pushing the boundaries of exposure

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One of my current favorites

wide angle

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Expressions like these make the night...

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Love the movement in this photo

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I know I’ve chosen the right business when I come home from 8 hours of work so excited I can’t sleep. I absolutely love my clients. Kristy and Drew’s exhuberant New Jersey family won not only my affection but that of every vendor involved in their wedding. There was no shortage of celebration here, in true Italian form. From the Eagle’s fight song to Kristy’s 70-year old grandmother putting everyone else to shame on the dance floor…I can’t wait to shoot another wedding like this.

























Kristy’s grandmother was 70 years old and put the youngest dancers I know to shame. She was awe-inspiring.



No Italian wedding would be complete without the pastry desserts. These were every bit as good as they look.


The Eagle’s fight song was a spirited part of the reception.







Lucy was a childhood friend of mine. We grew up playing My Little Ponies and having odd adventures together. Haven’t seen each other since high school, so the first time I got go meet her husband of 3 years was our photo shoot! Lucy and Tyler are part of my Dirty Dozen couple-shoot series: ask me if you want to be included!
Special shout-out thanks to my Assistant-In-Awesomeness and Official Motorcycle Chauffer, Dan Holcomb. (see earlier photo album on my personal page)













Ryan & Brittany
Ryan is a friend from high school and Brittany is his stunning new wife. They met when Ryan was at school in Alaska. Ryan was one of my favorite people from high school and Brittany proved to be one of the sweetest brides I’ve ever met. She scored tons of Cool Bride points by handling every situation with ease. What a great couple.
**Friends & Family: Prints are available at www.pictage.com/703046–ask Brittany and Ryan for the password!













I really wish I could express how much I love shooting a friends’ weddings. There’s nothing more fun than being able to capture and distill one of the happiest days of someone’s life. I’m even excited as I’m posting these photos! Thanks also to 2nd shooter Ken Staab, who did a PHENOMENAL job.
Bonus: Travis,one of Ryan’s best friends, just informed me that he is engaged and would like me to be their photographer–look for more Encompass photos in the future!










** This is the newly engaged couple!!!! I’m already fired up for their wedding.

**Travis, 2nd from the right in the red tie. CONGRATULATIONS!

I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that I would really enjoy Portland if given the chance, and on a quick business trip this week I’ve discovered I was right. Adding to my delight with my first experience of Portland, I found myself lodging at the charming Portland Howthorne Hostel instead of the typical Hotel. Sterile, lonesome lodging just didn’t seem fitting.
If I have to describe a Hostel to you, you probably wouldn’t like one. But hostels are magnets for all sorts of genuinely interesting people—like the Lauren, the homeschooling mother-of-three I met tonight. Her family’s contracting business has recently experienced enough success to spend the last year traveling on a boat: they’ve recently docked in the Dominican Republic and have decided to stay put for a while, while establishing a sustainable non-profit that supplies local welders with much-needed safety equipment. Now I’m sitting here chatting with people from New York, Iraq, and Oregon, and I cooked ravioli with a girl from Kentucky.
I have only 2 free evenings, but also (thanks to a recent mishap with UPS ) $350 worth of unused (rented) photography equipment. A 5D Mark 2 and a 17-55 lens. So guess what I’m doing? Speed-exploring Portland, armed with a 50 mm lens.
ON MY MIND: On the bus to downtown, I read the first few chapters of “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. In several fascinating studies on success and the succesful, Gladwell scorns the typical explanations for success and examines factors other than talent and determination that cause people to reach outlandish levels of success. After learning why 70% of pro hockey players are born in the first half of the year, I learned The 10,000 Hour Rule: ”the magic number for expertise is ten thousand hours.” Calculating time spent by the Beatles, Mozart, Bill Gates, Bill Joy (designer of Java script), various athletes, and hundreds of elite music performers at Berlin’s elite Academy of Music, Gladwelll shows that even prodigies don’t master their craft until they’ve spent 10,000 hours honing it. Basically, they’re crazy about whatever their particular “thing” is. I thought of Van Gogh…
….how many more times do I need to click my shutter before I’ve shot for 10,000 hours?
In these photos I’m experimenting with 1) Sun flare and 2) a very specific and non-central focal point, leaving most of the photo out of focus.






I met Kirsten and Seth through a college friend and they are quickly becoming some of my favorite people. We took these shots in Harrisburg.






Jonathan is a friend from Houghton. He and Cheryl work with Wycliffe.




Alicia works with me and her kids are awesome! Ethan is such a stud and Alia is adorable. We shot these in the park the day I’d bought some new lighting equipment and thanks to Alicia and her family, I had some great-looking subjects to try it out on! Thanks also to Alicia’s mom for helping us out with the lights and equipment.








Click here to see my website. Once on my site, you can choose the tab “contact” to email me for information about a *free* photo session for your children or a friends’!
Annie is my pastor’s daughter and the first senior pictures I did using a reflector. We did very traditional shots, and although I like them next time I’m going to be sure to include some non-traditional shots.




My friend Kelsey works with Americorp in Philadelphia at an organization called Norris Square. She is a volunteer coordinator, teaching and fixing up the gardens in Kensington. We painted a fence to look like crayons, as you can see from the pictures. The time with the kids was priceless. I will be posting a link to her website soon.
These pictures are taken with a 35-millimeter point and shoot, not my usual camera.





