pure photography by april cochran-smith

samara cuties

So, while at the Samara Garden Party last weekend, I couldn't resist getting a few pictures of some very cute kids.  I think you may even recognize one of them from my website!

samara garden party

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of being the photographer for the Garden Party at Frank Lloyd Wright's Samara.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Samara, it was built in 1954 for Dr. John Christian, who still lives there today, his late wife Catherine & their daughter Linda.  It is so amazing to tour the house & realize that you're walking through a piece of architectural history.  Even more amazing to me is the fact that Dr. Christian gets to live there & enjoy it every single day.  Lucky him, huh?  The event on Sunday turned out great.  The Wabash Valley Youth Symphony performed, and there was delicious food by Bea One & Snowbear.  Of course I sampled some of the offerings & I have to say that the potstickers from Bea One were sooo good!  Of course you can never go wrong with the classic vanilla frozen custard from Snowbear either.  Here are a few shots that I got that day.  There's also a slideshow below.  If you'd like to see the show in a larger size just click here.  (Ok, I can't get the slideshow to work on the page right now, so feel free to click over to the larger version--sorry!)  Thanks again to everyone involved with this great event.  I really appreciate you letting me be a part of it!

Look close...see anyone familiar?

Dr. Christian

Dr. Christian & his daughter Linda

Jeff Smith from TV18 was the emcee

Wabash Valley Youth Symphony

Making tissue paper flowers.  <3

The driveway looked so pretty with all of the flowers & red balloons...

The amazing harpist

fu dog

cool lanterns...

yum-my frozen custard!

Chelsea & I enjoying the aforementioned custard :)  Who's Chelsea, you ask?  More on her later...

happy graduation!

I've been unbelievably busy this past week & it shows no sign of slowing down.  I'm definitely not complaining, in fact it's just the opposite.  Our wedding season kicked off on Saturday & we also shot a garden party at Frank Lloyd Wright's Samara in West Lafayette on Sunday.  I'll have posts for both of those coming up within the next week or so.  In the meantime, here are the pictures that I promised you last week.  My nephew, who you may remember from this post, graduated from preschool a couple of weeks ago.  I stopped by & got some cute pictures for his mom & dad.  Just like the Christmas program, he stole the spotlight.  To say that he's comfortable in front of an audience would be quite the understatement.  Enjoy!

 

waltz for venus

We went out a couple of weeks ago to watch some friends of ours who are in the band Waltz for Venus. Dustin actually went to high school with two of the band members, so we've known them for quite awhile. The show was great & I highly recommend checking them out. Here's the link to their myspace page...

waltz for venus

I couldn't resist taking my new lens (& camera bag-more on that later) to test out in the dark conditions of Hunter's Pub. To say that I love my new 50mm would be quite the understatement. I could've taken pictures all night, but tried to restrain myself so as not to be such a camera nerd...

Ok, so we're not actually in the band! Someone offered to take our picture & since there aren't many of the two of us, I couldn't resist. Who cares that I'm not in focus?

scout crossover

I had the honor of photographing my nephews crossover ceremony from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts last week. I'm still working on the pictures, but promised that I'd get a few up on my blog for a certain antsy mother :) (you know who you are!) As soon as I walked in to the gymnasium where the ceremony was held, I started to freak out a little. The lighting in the room was very, very orange! I tried my best to compensate for the insane color, but in the end realized that black and white was the way to go. Not that I mind, I think that everything looks more classic & timeless in b&w. Plus, I think it really simplifies the image & helps you to focus on what's happening in the picture. Anywho, enough about my processing! Like I said, it was a big honor to be asked to photograph this. It's quite a momentous occasion for the scouts. I wish that I had the space to post more because I got a lot of really cool details. They had plaques, scrapbooks, blankets, certificates, wall hangings with all of their badges.... all kinds of cool stuff. So congratualtions to all of the scouts--job well done!

My brother made the bridge....