Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Author: Susan

  • Coelle & Corey – Engaged!

    Oh gosh, what can I even say about Coelle and Corey without getting uber sappy? Coelle is a very very dear friend of mine from high school. I moved to Virginia my senior year of high school, and Coelle was the first person on the first day to make me feel welcome at my new school. We clicked immediately and were inseparable from then on. I’m super happy that she and Corey found each other, and the two of them make the cutest pair. I think I sort of demanded that I shoot their wedding (you know, in a nice way) and thus their engagement photos as well, so we met this afternoon for the engagement session!

    We started off by walking their dog, Zoey, around their cute little town center.

    Whatcha lookin’ at, Zoey?

    Okay, not the best angle on Zoey, but I love the silhouette!

    Here’s a better one of Zoey!

    Are these two so cute or what?

    Okay, one last one of the pup before we dropped her off at home…

    Corey is a volunteer firefighter, so we stopped by the station to get a couple of pictures with the engine (Corey knows I love shooting there).


    Um, Coelle? You’re gorgeous!

    Corey suggested this beautiful little nook in their neighborhood and we finished up the session there.

    What did I tell you?! Goooooorgeous!


    So CUTE, you guys!

    Coelle and Corey, I’m so gosh darn happy for you two. You KNOW I can’t wait for your wedding! Eee!

  • Facebook and Cheese Crackers

    Susan Solo Photography is now on Facebook! We have our own shiny new page out there. I’m currently in the process of getting photos uploaded from past weddings and portrait sessions, so the page is slowly starting to buzz with activity. Stop by and check it out, and if you’re a fan of what we do, please feel free to become a fan on the Facebook page – it makes us feel super warm and fuzzy inside. 🙂

    And as a completely random bit of fun, Chris and I were grocery shopping last weekend and were suddenly curious about the difference between Cheese Nips and Cheese-Its, and we decided to do a taste test comparison. I mean, how can they have two crackers on the market that look exactly the same? Yes, things are that exciting around here on Sundays!


    Neither of us eat either brand of cheese crackers on a regular basis, so we feel that our test was unbiased and fair. We determined that the Cheese Nips seem to have more cheese flavor, and are lighter in texture. They’re 2 grams of fat less per serving, but have considerably more sodium than Cheese-Its. The conclusive results: we probably won’t buy either cracker again because Chris doesn’t really eat crackers, and I am more of a Goldfish kind of girl. Do you have a preference? Weigh-in on the cheese cracker debate!

    As a side note, sometimes I ask Chris about things that I am about to post on my blog. I said, “Is the cracker thing stupid or funny?” and he declared it was funny, so blame him if this is just too far out there for you! Don’t worry, I have Coelle and Corey’s engagement photos coming up this weekend, so we will return to your regularly scheduled photo blog shortly.

  • Melissa & Land – 10.24.09 (Part 1)

    And I’m really only going to have just “part 1” for you of Melissa and Land’s wedding! I spend quite a bit of time networking with other photographers in the area (and across the country for that matter!), and when I heard that Melissa and Land’s photographer was really really sick (and contagious) right before their wedding, I wanted to do anything I could to help out because I know someone would do the same thing for me. It turned out that another photographer and I were able to tag-team/split the day to work around our schedules and to also seamlessly cover the wedding day activities. I took over the getting ready portion of the day, so those are the photos that I have here! After meeting Melissa and Land, I’m so anxious to see how the rest of their day went. It started off beautifully, with everyone in such great spirits. The energy was so contagious!


    Melissa was on Twitter providing giddy wedding-day updates:

    And people were providing her updates as well! One of her friends tweeted a picture of the wedding cake. When you stop and think about it, isn’t technology just amazing?!

    Land was the perfect mix of calm and excited while getting ready.


    I have to say, I can’t wait to see how Melissa looked in this amazing dress!



    Melissa incorporated so many special family heirlooms into her day – I loved all the details:


    Another detail not to be missed – Melissa is a champion Irish dancer!

    GORGEOUS!

    Melissa and Land, I wish you all the best and it was such a joy to meet you and be a small part of your wedding. I hope the rest of your day was absolutely amazing!

  • Kara & Ernie – 08.29.09

    Back in August I took a lovely scenic drive up to Maryland to help Kate Triano photograph Kara and Ernie’s wedding at the Grand Lodge. After you’re done here, you should stop by Kate’s blog to see her fabulous images of the day. In the meantime, want to see a few of my own random favorites from the day? Yeah? Here you go!

    I spent a few minutes with Ernie before we headed over to the ceremony. Look how excited he is to be getting married!


    The details of their day were exquisite, including this bouquet. Check out the peacock feathers!

    And speaking of exquisite, how gorgeous is Kara?!


    Kara’s wedding ring was a family heirloom (and Ernie’s, too, if I’m not mistaken), and here they are showing the ring to Ernie’s grandmother:

    Speaking of rings…

    Gorgeous light, gorgeous couple!

    Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to spend some time showing you those grandfabulous* (yep, I just made up that word…) details, okay?




    Elegant first dance:

    After the cake-cutting/feeding, I love how they’re both all “hands-off…no face-smooshing.”

    *I actually Googled “grandfabulous” to see if it was anyone else’s made-up word (and because I’m just that much of a dork), and it does show up a few times in Google. BUT, it’s not defined at urbandictionary.com yet, so maybe the entry can be updated as a word to describe Kara and Ernie’s reception details!

  • Fall Family

    Go ahead, tell me how absolutely adorable this family is! When Ashlee contacted me about doing some family portraits in October hoping to have fall colors in the background, I was expecting to be able to accomplish that fairly easily in the middle of October. So we scheduled a time to meet at Gulf Branch Nature Center in Arlington, but for some reason the leaves there haven’t changed colors yet! We’re all bright reds, oranges, and yellows out here in the Dulles area, but not so much at that park. No matter – Ashlee’s family came completely decked out in the colors we had hoped to find, so it was perfect! Here are a few of my favorites:


    Jackson is at an age where he can follow directions really well and he was so good at giving me lots of smiles. So handsome!

    Sweet Miss Kennedy is at the age where there is so much to discover about the world, and there were a lot of other fascinating things going on around the park other than me with my camera. But I love these expressions. And isn’t her outfit so cute?!

    And this is Miss Lucy! She woke up from a nap to find me there with my big camera, but she was so good, too.

    We were all making owl noises here, hence the “whooo whooo” faces.

    I seriously couldn’t get over how cute their clothes were, right down to the socks!

    A couple of sweet moments with Dad:





    Towards the end of our session, Kennedy let me know that she wanted to “do it again” so it turns out she loves to model after all! We grabbed this last fun one just before we finished up.