Jonathan at Baker's Dozen, 2009

When I started thinking about redesigning my website, one of the goals I came up with was to make sure that the site was simple and focused. Since my focus on the business front is weddings right now, I removed all of the content that wasn’t related to weddings.

The children and family photography portfolios will return in the near future, but the personal project that I’ve been working on for the last couple of years was suddenly left homeless. Well it’s got a new home now at http://www.joefoleyphotography.com/faces.

Looking at it as a whole has also given me a chance to give some more thought to what it’s all about. It’s got a new name “RACE FACES” and I’ve got the first shoot for 2012 planned for next weekend at Snotcycle. I’m still in the process of uploading the old shoots to the new website, but you can see the original Baker’s Dozen portraits and last years DCCX portraits up there already.

It’s been a while since I blogged about a family or newborn shoot, but I’ve had a couple of really fun ones recently so here’s the first. I’ve been friends with Alicia since our days working at the Collegiate Times at Virginia Tech. She and Tom were back in town visiting family for the holidays with their new son, Zach in tow, so they asked me to come by for a session. We made some portraits of Zach by himself and took a little walk, but mostly I just tried to stay back and capture the fun and love that was going on and look for those little details that make all the difference.

Click the thumbnails below for some more pictures form this fun family photo session.

Darren has been a teammate of mine on DCMTB for many years now. When Darren starting talking about Sara, the team knew something serious was brewing. It wasn’t long before Sara impressed the entire team by showing up to the Leesburg Bakers Dozen and helping keep order in the DCMTB camp. That was only the first of the races and trips that Sara came along on so I wasn’t surprised when, about a year ago, Darren mentioned he might need to talk to me about photographs soon.

A few months later they were engaged. Now they’re in full swing planning their wedding for next fall and we got together for an engagement session in Georgetown last month. We had a great time searching out new place to (and revisiting some of my old favorites). Congratulations Sara and Darren, I can’t wait for next year.

Click the thumbnails below to see more from their engagement session…

Here’s a quick look at Dyanne and Erik’s engagement session. We met up in Rock Creek Park at the newly renovated Peirce Mill and spent a couple of hours exploring the mill and wandering the nearby trails for great places to take photographs. I’ll be seeing Erik and Dyanne next year for their wedding in Pittsburg. Congratulations and Thanks for choosing us!

If the groom looks a little familiar his twin brother is Matthew, who’s wedding to Patty was the last one posted here. It’s been great getting to spend two weekends with this wonderful extended family.

Look down to the end for an updated preview gallery with more pictures from Laura and Peter’s unbelievable day…

Click on the thumbnails below to see the rest of the preview…

Click the thumbnails for more pictures from this wonderful day…

The Hewick Plantation was built in 1678 by Christopher Robinson and in it’s day was a gathering place for leading families of Virginia. Over 300 years later the plantation became a gathering place for Aimee — an 8-generation descendent of Mr. Robinson — and Kevin, their families, and friends as they celebrated their wedding on a beautiful late summer afternoon.

Framed by magnificent old trees flanking the driveway, Aimee and Kevin were married in front of the Mansion and celebrated the evening on the beautiful grounds.

Click the thumbnails for more pictures from Aimee and Kevin’s wedding day…

Here’s a quick preview of Sam and Daniel’s wedding at Washington Hebrew Congregation. I met Sam a couple of years ago when she joined DCMTB, the mountain bike team that I’ve ridden for since 2005 and now sponsor. Sam left the team when she stopped racing cross country and switched over to downhill racing but it was great to hear from her a couple of months ago about being a part of documenting her wedding day.

Since we didn’t have time before the wedding, we’re going to be meeting in a couple of weeks for a post-wedding engagement shoot on their farm near Frederick and I can’t wait to spend some more time with this wonderful couple.

Click the thumbnails below for more photographs from their wedding…

Mike and Bonnie are getting married in just a couple of weeks, but they hadn’t done an engagement session. To get some fun pictures of the two of them, and give them a chance to get used to having a photographer following them around, we met up in Georgetown on a morning earlier this week and spend some time walking along the river and exploring the back alleys below M street looking for fun places to stop and take a picture or two.

Georgetown early in the morning was a great location. The streets were calm, the riverfront was quiet and we had a great time finding lots of great brick and stone walls, steps, and hidden little spots to stop. This is definitely a location we’ll be revisiting and exploring more in the future.

We finished the morning off with a stop for coffees and croissants at Dean & Deluca to talk through their wedding plans. I’m looking forward to being a part of their wedding in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for a look at that later.

Click the thumbnails below to see more photographs from their session…

We started early and were blessed with a cool morning, a surprise for July. We started at the tidal basin and worked our way through the FDR memorial towards the Lincoln Memorial as we were all reminded of what what a beautiful city Washington, DC can be (especially when you avoid the tourists). Read on for a few previews from their session and click on the thumbnails to see more…