Old Guard Flag detail in front of McClellan Gate at Arlington National Cemetery

Old Guard flag ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, love the tat's.

Reflection of flag on casket at Arlington National Cemetery

Rifle salute by Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery

The snow missed Arlington so far this year, but not last winter! The Caparisoned Horse

Rain doesn't stop the honor guard band at Arlington National Cemetery

Caisson Team at Arlington exiting through the McClellan Memorial Gate

Navy memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery last month

Air Force Bugler at Arlington National Cemetery following Taps

Christmas Wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery

Old Guard Caisson with Christmas wreaths in background

Arlington National Cemetery Christmas wreaths before the snow.

Marine honor guard in early morning light at Arlington National Cemetery

DC Fashion Week and Juried Exhibition

FashionWeek hit DC last week.

DC Fashion Week is growing with shows last week at 8 different embassies, hotels and other locations. As many will note, we're not New York, but DC Fashion Week is really growing and known for showing a lot of new designers creations from around the world.

In conjunction with DC fashion week a number of our photographs were exhibited at the Carriage House Studio last Friday night and extending through the weekend. The juried exhibit consists of work from The Edge Photography Studio and 13 other local photographers.

The Carriage House Studio is a Co-op of artists and is located just a couple of blocks from the DC convention Center.

Carriage House Studio is in the Logan Circle neighborhood.

1327 Naylor Court NW (entrance behind 918 O St. N.W.)

Washington DC

Thanks to those of you who joined  Ines and I for opening night from 7PM to 10PM on Friday September 24th 2010.

... and remember we can create amazing images for designers that want the Edge.

Blair Underwood and The Event last night.

The Event with Blair Underwood

We already experienced the Event with Blair Underwood earlier this summer.

Blair is the close friend of one of our brides.

He was a guest during her wedding at White Hall Manor in Bluemont Va.

So, if you get lost in the storyline, just drop us a note and we will tell you how our event turned out!

This wedding was lots of fun with a great couple and exciting location, plus Blair whose acting I really appreciate.

Of course Ines and I watched  The Event last night on NBC. We'll  see if it will keep us on the Edge of our seats.

Rest In Peace Boring Wedding Formals that run too long.

 

These are some fun pictures from a recent wedding at Fauquier Springs Country Club with a great bridal party that put up with my insanity.

When Ines and I meet with couples we've discovered a frequent refrain is that the bride and groom have been in lots of bridal parties and hate the length of time that may be spent on formal pictures. Time that could be spent at the cocktail hour with friends, family, and a drink or two. The couple wants to know that we're not going to torture their bridal party, but still get great images. We promise to deliver, in fact even weddings that are running late are frequently back on track as we move quickly through formals that will still impress not just the bride and groom, but their parents as well.

Anyway, this is sort of my vision of what happens when the bridal party lapse into a coma from boring long slooow... formal sessions.

Let's have fun, remember that the wedding day is about your family and friends celebrating the day and still get those pictures unlike any you've ever seen.

Don & Ines Harper

The Edge Photography Studio

South Asian Weddings

We have developed a reputation amongst Indian brides for great photography with reasonable pricing that blends the needs of a modern American bride and also the expectations of their parents for traditional posed pictures. We know not to miss any of the dozens of significant moments in the Hindu ceremonies and celebrations. Keep in mind that most of these events span three or more days.

This image is from a wedding last week at Rosehill Manor here in Leesburg for a New York couple.

We also had the opportunity to photograph their engagement session in Manhattan earlier this summer.

Maybe I should be known as Raj Don

Tennis anyone? match point fifteen love and tennis Regency Dominion Country Club

This is an album collage from one of our spring weddings. Great couple and as you might guess really into tennis.

This was one of those torrential rain Saturday's with waves of rain and than short respites. We raced out during a lull in the rain to capture these quick images before rejoining the reception.

I'm never put off by rain on a wedding day as we always find some great elements that create distinctive images. We find episodes of wonderful light, reflections, saturated colors, colorful skies. In short, the same things that excite landscape photographers work with weddings. The most essential element are bridal couples that are flexible, fun-loving and trust us to deliver something different.

Let's go play in the rain!

Don & Ines Harper

Hemlocks, Windmills and the Purple Fiddle

Yesterday was time for a trip to the West Virginia Highlands including Cathedral State Park on Highway 50 that features super trails through a virgin hemlock forest with an understory of mountain laurel, ferns and mossy downed trees and a small stream.Very easy and level trails make for a short interesting walk.


Ines and I than traveled south along the Cheat River and crossed over to Thomas passing these Windmills The windmills are now in fair numbers around the highlands both west and east of Thomas and the Mt. Storm Power Plant. In Thomas we stopped at the Purple Fiddle cafe for home made ice cream. The Purple Fiddle is eclectic with a splash of blue grass and hippie. They feature a diverse lot of live music groups, One of those places you need to visit and decide for yourself if it's a fit for you.
I think I could have a ball photographing the performers at the cafe with wonderful backgrounds and energy.

Don Harper
at The Edge Photography

Blueberries, Butterflies galore, wildfowers, and great vistas at Dolly Sods WV

It's been a super busy month with Ines designing wedding albums for all of our June brides, creating slide shows and also dealing with our July Arlington Memorial Service albums, videos and slide shows. We finally reached the point where we could attend a concert at Wolf Trap last night (Steve Miller Band) and than turn off the computers today and jump in the Pathfinder for a totally extemporaneous trip.


It's something I've always done. Just get out and go and explore new roads. Today we ended up at Dolly Sods Wilderness area in West Virginia. When we left the house my only goal was altitude with cooler temps. I was thinking Skyline Drive but I was pulled to the west. Our route required navigating some gravel and rutted roads but we ended up at a bit over 4000 feet away from the DC heat with a nice breeze and wonderful vistas that would remind you of the western US.

Actually the area is compared to the ecology of Canada above tree line with rugged rock cairns and paths meandering through blueberry patches. I think Ines could have parked and just spent hours plucking and eating sweet blueberries free of chemicals and whatever.

The streams were quite dry climbing up and down from the high country but what amazed us on top were the huge numbers of butterflies of all types crowded next to each other on the thistle plants. I've been to butterfly habitats at places like Brookside Garden in Montgomery County and Meadowlark Garden in Reston and although they are a great place to photograph butterflies what we found at Dolly Sods was a huge step up in quality and quantity of these lovely creatures.

I would of course want to use a nice short telephoto with macro capability but what I had handy was the Nikon 70-200 f2.8 lens with VR function. This is an image from a quick series I did in just a couple of minutes.

We were home by 6:30PM after a wonderful day of decompressing and now back to processing our July weddings and corporate work. We now have a goal to visit what for us is a new discovery Dolly Sods in the evening and different seasons plus stuffing more blueberries down our gullets. Dolly Sods is very different from lower Canaan Valley and the ski slopes although they do adjoin each other.

One note you may want to avoid this wilderness area if you don't have an SUV or car with good tires.
Don Harper

The Edge Photography Studio

Wes Skiles Adventurer, Photographer, Videographer and great guy is missed.

Wes Skiles: The abrupt loss of a great person, explorer and photographer.

On Wednesday one of my heroes died. Wes Skiles was the consummate caver diver, adventurer, photographer and videographer. His death comes as National Geographic features one of his images on the cover of the August issue and a long feature inside about the wonderful blue holes in the Bahamas. Without checking I think he's been a photographer for at least 4 major articles in the Yellow covered magazine.

Wes survived many adventures against all odds and his favorite quote on facebook really sums up what he was about.

Actually a advertisement for Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success". Pretty much reflects my real life...

A modest man that found public speaking a hurdle to deal with he always said to his friends. "Let me know I'm talking to my friends give me a big "Hey Now" when I get up to the podium."

I can't say his loss is unexpected, rather I'm surprised he made it as many years as he did.

I think Wes felt the same way, a sense of wonder that he was still here after some really amazing expeditions.

I spent a lot of time caving with the National Speleological Society and even more time diving as a PADI instructor and underwater photographer, but when I tried cave diving I found the avocation that just had odds stacked to badly out of my favor. It was one of the few crazy things I've done that made me say "No this isn't a good idea". Wes did this for decades and created wonderful images, added greatly to our knowledge regarding the underwater and subterranean world from Australia to his home in the Florida springs.

I see the luminescence from his fins lighting the dark sea as Wes strokes ahead of us leading the way through the darkness on the ocean at night. Wonders to see and new frontiers to explore. There are rare chances for someone to be the first person to see a place never before visited by man. Wes was one of the few of us to enjoy that thrill.

At Ginnie Springs on Wednesday his friends will gather to celebrate the life of Wes Skiles. I wish I could be there and shout out "Hey Now"

And Wes in turn I expect you to reply and let us know you reached the other side and shout out a big "HEY NOW".

RIP for Wes Skiles

Wes Skiles Memorial Service and Website

Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery Columbarium

Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery Columbarium.

Flags are placed prior to Memorial Day Weekend

Lieutenant General James Hollingsworth burial at Arlington National Cemetery

Lieutenant General James Hollingsworth burial at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday May 20th was attended by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.


Three Star general James Hollingsworth is the most highly decorated U.S. general after serving in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. His statue is located at Texas A&M University.

In WWII he was involved in the invasion of Northern Africa and his armored regiment under General George Patton was the first to enter Berlin at the end of the war. He was wounded in combat 5 times during WWII.
In Vietnam he received two Distinguished Service Cross.

In Korea General Hollingsworth commanded the largest number of U.S. troops of any commander (13 Divisions).

The Arlington Service was attended by many warriors both old and young paying their final respects.

This photo was taken moments before the guests took their places at the gravesite as Bob Gates observes the placment of the casket.

Lot's of happenings at The Edge

We've had a lot of neat things happening this year going into spring. I need to catch up on blogging about a lot of events for us.
First we've had our images published in the last two issues of Professional Image Maker magazine. The images were gold award winners in the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographer competitions.

We had a great Bridal Show at West Belmont in Leesburg where we offered free engagement pictures to brides. Harmon's Carriage gave us a great backdrop for the couples.

Two of our images won Silver Awards in the British Professional Photographers Assoc. March competition. I will post those images on here as well as add them to our facebook gallery.

Most unique, was our videography and photography at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, April 9th. We documented the memorial service and funeral for 4 helicopter crewman recovered from Vietnam. They were lost in 1965 and after decades of active searching the crash site was finally located last winter.
I was contacted by Medal of Honor awardee Bruce Crandall. Bruce was a Vietnam era helicopter pilot whose exploits (actually just a few of many exploits)  are documented in the movie "We Were Soldiers" and the book "We were Soldiers and Young". I understand that there are about 91 living receipients of the MOH and one passes away about every 6 weeks. Bruce was the commander for the Huey 808 crew and hired us to document the Arlington service for the families of the lost soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division.
Well known Hollywood tenor Steve Amerson also flew in at Bruce's request to sing at the memorial service in the Old Post Chapel on Fort Myers.
During the funeral a formation of Huey helicopters flew in formation over the gravesite and up the Potomac River creating a wonderful scene that I know the families will remember forever.
It's well worth the time to look up on Wikipedia the information about Bruce, his comrades and the bravery shown in war for our country.
The Delta Company honor guard also wants images from the service and I'm reminded of our trip in March to Valley Forge where I learned that they were actually the personal guard for George Washington during the revolutionary war.
Friday was a great refresher for any history buff of a huge timeline of events that's tied to a small number of great people.

I also encourage you to check out Steve Amerson's website for great music.

http://www.steveamerson.com/

Now back to processing images for everyone, that's obviously my medium for expression.

Don Harper

SWPP competition results for February

We entered a number of photographs in the February Photography Competition sponsored by the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers. This picture is one of the gold award winners and will be printed in Image Maker magazine later this spring.

The photo are two irishmen (father and son) at a Historic Long Branch wedding reception.

We have 8 other prints that received bronze awards in different catagories.

Enjoy.

Save the Date for the Bridal & Event Show at West Belmont Place in Leesburg

Hunt Country Celebrations an event networking group in the Virginia Piedmont is holding their annual bridal and event expo on April 10th at West Belmont Place in Leesburg Virginia. We will be offering free pictures for bridal couples around the premises and in a horse drawn carriage.

Register for some of the great prizes, see some great vendors and get great ideas for your event.

More details will follow as the expo date approaches, and don't forget to visit our photography website:
The Edge Photography Studio, northern Virginia's largest and highest rated by brides on the Knot and Wedding Wire We are holding our winter open house this Wednesday evening from 6PM-9PM.

Love of Family, Love of Country Asuka Books USA album of the week

We are honored to have one of our book publishers "Asuka Books, USA" select one of our memorial albums to showcase Love of Family, Love of Country.
This is a memorial book from our work at Arlington National Cemetery for one family. This is of course shown with the family's permission.

Asuka Book of the week "Love of Family, Love of Country"

There is also a link below the book cover that will take you to a flip-page view of the entire memorial book.


A memorial service at Arlington is of course a time for mourning the loss of a family member or friend but also a chance to celebrate their love of life and country.

More of our work at Arlington can be seen at:

Arlington-Photographer.com Website

The great snowstorm of 2010, at least we hope it won't be superceded.

These are a couple of images from Leesburg, Va on our street taken Saturday evening after the snowfall stopped and the sun was setting in a clear blue sky.

Wedding Wire Bride's Choice Awards 2010

Ines and I are excited to announce that The Edge Photography Studio has been chosen to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2010. This award recognizes the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service and professionalism.

The Bride’s Choice Awards™ are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds (brides and grooms) through extensive surveys and reviews, which means our past clients have spoken on our behalf and selected us to receive this honor.

Last year we were selected one of the top 7 photographers in the Washington DC area by Knot Bride's.

I think one of the keys to our success is not only great photography but also our emphasis on Value.

Couples and their parents are watching every dollar they spend and finding ways to have a unique and exciting wedding without overspending. We are part of that solution.

We want to provide great service, great images and the best albums at the very best price without compromise.

We also want people to say WOW! when they look at the images we create for our clients.

Give us a call to find out why bride's are stepping over to the Edge.

View from our cabin outside Smoky Mountain National Park

Ines and I had the chance to escape for a few days to a wonderful log cabin looking out towards the Smoky Mountains. This photo is a vertical panorama (vertical stitching) composed from 5 different images taken with a 400mm f3.5 lens on the Nikon D300s which with the crop factor made an effective focal length of 600mm. ISO was 2000 and exposure was 1/160 second at f4.

The cabins were new and real luxury with a hot tub hanging out over the 20 foot drop to the scree slope below us. Hi-speed internet, large jucuzzi tub and just a great place to watch the weather and fog move in and out of the valleys and mountains to the east. A great place to veg and read a book which in this case was "Priceless" by William Poundstone. A very entertaining book pertient to anyone running a business.

Time now to prepare for the bridal shows and process some images for competitions.

Free Tickets Washington Bridal Showcase January 31st

Free tickets for the Washington Bridal Showcase!
The Washington Bridal Showcase happens at the Dulles Expo Center on January 31st. This is the largest bridal show in the Washington Metro area each year.
We will be there of course in the Hunt Country Celebrations area. Stop by to talk with Don and Ines Harper to find out why The Edge Photography Studio is voted one of the best for your wedding photography. Quality and Value are a couple of words that we hear from brides on a consistent basis.
Give us a call to pickup free tickets for the show. The tickets are available at our studio in Leesburg but you must call first. 703.669.1000
See you soon.