Alamance Regional Medical Center is the parent company of a wonderful retirement village in Burlington, NC called the Village at Brookwood. The marketing staff at ARMC and the Village at Brookwood contracted the studio to shoot the artwork for a series of magazines ads and direct mail pieces. Our main task was to illustrate four central themes describing the Village: Choices, Community, Convenience, & Comfort. The campaign was shot in January for a spring campaign so outside shots had to avoid looking like winter. We scouted the facility choosing locations, amenities and residents that fit our needs for bright, fun, clean imagery. After hours of planning, 2 days of shooting, a solid edit and some fancy Photoshop work by and design work the campaign is now in circulation. Special thanks to the marketing staff at the Village, Kent Kirchen and Sherrie Walker who painstakingly recruited great residents and helped organize the staff to make our job go smoothly. Thanks to Angela Partin of the Partin Design group for her excellent graphic design work and ad content and overall campaign concept. Contact: www.creative-wise.com. Thanks to Joey Seawell first assistant and Photoshop guru, Contact: www.joeyseawell.com. Thanks to Jessica Benton, second assistant. Contact: jmbentonphoto.blogspot.com. And last, thank you Laura Rodgers, our always upbeat make-up artist and stylist. Contact: laurarodgersnc@yahoo.com. The studio will be shooting a 2nd part to this project later this spring to update their website. The studio will be illustrating many of it's new amenities including a fitness center and swimming pool. For more information about the Village go to http://www.villageatbrookwood.com/

This is one of my favorite wedding "Kiss" images for so many reasons. Aesthetically I love the juxtaposition of the panoramic image with the vertical pier as well as the contrast between the softness of marsh grass with the strict structure of a man made pier. Symbolically, the long pier represents the road of life that the couple has joined together on. They pause for a moment in the middle of their "walk of life" to kiss before continuing forward together. This particularly wedding was my most memorable for the story of their day. Chad and Julie from Raleigh, NC  were married on the beach in front of a small group of family and friends on a day in which there ceremony SHOULD have been completely rained out. As I drove down from Elon NC toward Wrightsville Beach early that morning, the weather report called for a 100% chance of severe thunderstorms. We'll I know their are Angels now and that this happy young couple were blessed by a higher power because exactly 5 minutes before their 3 pm ceremony the rain stopped. It did not rain for 2 hours on a day that had begun with  torrential down pours. This 2 hour window allowed for their ceremony to take place outside on the beach and  it allowed for group photos and portraits on the beach. The break from the rain lasted long enough for us to make a  short drive to this wonderful pier for me to shoot a few more portraits. When they got into their car to drive to the ceremony, the rain started again. 

By Molly Exum - I have romanticized expectations for just about every situation imaginable. So, Christmas … oh, Christmas…it plays on all the senses and conjures images of harmonious family get-togethers singing carols by a roaring fire-- Currier and Ives picture perfection--in my mind, that is. That said, this photo is my dream come true on digitally aged card stock in sepia-tone hues. It tells a lovely story. However, in reality, our children didn’t even want to go with us to pick out a tree. They chose not to join their Daddy (i.e. Clark Griswald) and me in our search of the perfect tree at a farm I had so diligently researched-- a Christmas tree farm promising mountaintop hayrides, caroling, hot chocolate and the opportunity to cut our own Fraser fir. What child would not love this adventure? Instead, our pair pleaded to stay with cousins at a lakeside cabin lounging in a hot tub and watching movies on a giant flat screen—imagine that! That’s how “Clark” and I ended up at the Country Corner Market, in Marion, NC, watching a woman bind our parking-lot-chosen evergreen by running around it with a ball of twine. So, there you have it ... the truth. No, we did not cut down that beautiful Christmas tree in Doughton Park off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Nooo, we drove it there-- from Marion to Elon to Roaring Gap. Then, we lugged it a good mile round trip up AND down the perfect bald mountaintop, offering 360º views, on the coldest day of the year. The ax was a prop bought and returned to Lowe’s Home Improvement. There’s more. Capturing that perfect moment took quite a production. We loaded up the children, the gear, extra clothing, the tree and photographer, Joey Seawell. Then, we drove 2 hours under ominous skies, rain and sleet. After persuading the children into 4 layers of clothing, convincing them that yes, they were having a good time(!), getting a shot of the mountains, the tree, and all four family members carrying it, the production was still not over! There’s postproduction: digitally mastering the look while painstakingly searching for the perfect quote. We combed pages of quotes, poems, and movie lines. Our favorites included Dante’s, “Nature is the art of God,” Muir’s, “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks,” and Joyce Kilmer’s poem (to which Steve gave an emphatic “NO!”) “I think I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree ... Poems are made by fools like me but only God can make a tree.” We didn’t want anyone to focus on the fact that we are uprooting God’s art.  Another one that gave us a good laugh was Charlotte Carpenter’s, “Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.” True, but ... When we stumbled upon the Huxley quote we knew it was the one because when we reached the top of the mountain and looked out over the majestic Blue Ridge, it started to snow. It was a breathtaking, awe-inspiring, “the hills are alive with the sound of music” moment. We ran around catching snowflakes and singing Christmas carols. So, we didn’t have the hayride or the hot chocolate; Heck, we didn’t even cut our own tree. Instead, we had each other and the mountains and the snow (and Joey)—a blessed, harmonious Exum family Christmas memory captured in a photo .        

 --- Wishing you many beautiful Christmas memories.

**Special thanks to Joey Seawell who patiently and artistically documented our adventure, then spent hours at his computer editing and creating the look.