Dana Eason Blog

Stylish Parking Lot Pimpin'

2012-03-20T12:45:00.000-04:00

Love in Black & White

2012-03-12T12:39:00.000-04:00

Baby meets Monique Lhuillier

2012-02-23T12:50:00.000-05:00

I met Marla while attending church with my friend Annette, owner of Chaviano Couture. I instantly took to Marla because of her caring & graceful attitude. The way she held & kissed her two-month old, Vaughn, made my insides melt with joy & love. Not only could I see her love, but I could feel it as well... & I knew then that I wanted to capture that experience with my camera.

Days later, Marla & I were planning our photo shoot together. She really wanted to get some photos taken of her & baby Vaughn while in her wedding dress. She'd married her husband in a beautiful Monique Lhuillier gown & she was getting ready to sell it so she wanted memories of both of her loves - gown & baby together.

We had such an amazing time together. The sheer joy & love shown during this session really showed me that LOVE is beyond magical! Thank you Marla for sharing your love of baby Vaughn with me! Motherhood truly looks beautiful on you! ... & so does Monique Lhuillier!!! :)

Love

2012-02-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

What I know for sure...

Love is the best accessory.

As a Valentine's Day gift, I'm offering a special Valentine's Engagement Collection which includes hair & makeup by Scoobie West! The collection is only offered for a limited time February 14 -18! So email me today if you'd like to schedule a session or want more details! Sessions do not have to take place immediately, but must be done this year!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Coveting Ona

2012-02-02T12:34:00.000-05:00

After seeing this camera bag on one of my favorite blogs last year, I knew I had to have it! Ona, the maker of these beautiful camera satchels believes in enhancing a photographer's personal style & boy oh boy would this baby do just that for me! :) I've been coveting this beautiful work of art since I saw it... my little Lolita {that's what I'll name her}! :) Let's hope the stars align & God blesses me with this treasure of a bag soon! :)

blessings

Strike a Pose

2012-02-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

I'm often asked by my brides for advice on what they should wear to an Engagement session, so I decided to put together a shoot to give a few examples! My brides are casually elegant women who are naturally & effortlessly beautiful & FUN... so we put together looks that would go great with their style. Below is our first of 4 looks ... more wardrobe ideas to come from this shoot later in the year! :)

Look 1: Casual Elegance meets FUN & Flirty!

For this look we paired a shimmery silver top with white jeans & light brown heels. For hair & makeup I wanted a look that was natural yet sexy, so we went with sexy loose spiral curls & a natural makeup palette with a pop of sex appeal around the eyes!

We had an absolute BLAST on this shoot! Special thank you to my friend Scoobie West for his FABULOUS hair & makeup magic. & my friend & photog colleague Angie Watson for being such an amazing & fun model! I've worked with Scoobie at majority of the weddings I've photographed so I'm extremely excited to announce that I'll be working exclusively with him in 2012 for Engagement session hair & makeup! :) If you or someone you know is interested in an Engagement or Love shoot, contact me today! I would love to get you in front of my camera!

Elegance

2012-01-30T11:16:00.000-05:00

Woven in Elegance

Stunned steadily ascending thisstaircase of meaningful manifestations

So close yet so far 

Come closer my love 

Touchme 

Embrace me with your words of wistful 

Wonderings 

Kiss me with intuitiveintensity 

Love me with all you possess 

Move me beyond sight, sound, 

And reason 

Myheart you cajole 

as I succumb in sweet silence

enveloped in your elegant verity

BY: STEPH MORRIS

Here's to a great, elegant, fashionable, & FUN week!!!

4 Carrots 1 Apple

2012-01-25T14:52:00.000-05:00

This morning I started my day with a Pilates workout & rewarded myself with my favorite fresh juice afterward...

carrot & apple juice.

Ingredients:

4 Carrots

1 Granny Smith Green Apple

1 Princess House Glass ... made in France

Tomorrow begins my first day of being a private Pilates trainer again & I'm excited for my new & returning clients. I'm currently taking on 3 more private clients & I would love to have YOU as a new client... contact me if you're interested!

Here's to a healthy 2012!

1 + 1 = 3

2012-01-24T12:36:00.000-05:00

... and then there were 3

Love intertwined creates such beauty! Erin & her family are so beautiful - inside & out. Erin is a fantastic hair & makeup artist here in the states but I was blessed to meet these beautiful souls while in France. I'll never forget their love & seriously cool laid-back vibe! I totally love this family!!!

Bridal Beauty

2012-01-23T13:46:00.000-05:00

A Bridal portrait session is a beautifully special dress rehearsal before your wedding day... & one of my favorite types of sessions to book! It is a time to relax, model, & have FUN... just you, your beautiful dress, my camera... & great light!

Sun Kissed

2012-01-16T14:33:00.002-05:00

Love is so beautiful... especially when illuminated by God's beautiful creation... the Sun.

Ocean Beauty

2012-01-10T15:41:00.000-05:00

When it is time for me to marry, my dream is to do so on a beautiful beach surrounded by my family & friends.

I've had this desire since the first time I fell in love.

The ocean is such a beautiful & magical creation... just as I view love between soulmates...

Holiday

2011-12-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

Having great friends with beautiful souls is something I am truly grateful for in my life. Every year or so, a few of my friends from college & I get together to catch up & explore a new place or revisit a place we enjoy. Last year we went to Madrid, Toledo, Sitges, & Barcelona {Spain}. This year we opted to revisit the beautiful mountains in Gatlinburg, TN. I love being able to spend a few days at the cabin playing games, drinking red wine... & margaritas, making breakfast, lunch, & dinner together ... all while sharing funny stories... & dancing... lots of dancing! Our trip was total perfection ...

& just what I needed.

Featured | Style Me Pretty

2011-12-26T06:30:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! :) A day before my birthday, I received news that Valerie & Paul's beautiful wedding was being featured on Style Me Pretty! I am so appreciative & simply over the moon thrilled! Thank you so much SMP for this feature & early birthday present! This was truly a dream come true!

Exposed

2011-11-14T16:57:00.069-05:00

Jasmine Star has been a major part of my cyber life since I came across her photography blog in 2007. Like many others in the wedding & portrait photography industry, I can honestly say that she changed my life. I decided to pursue a career in photography because of her... & I'm so happy to be on this path... it was definitely no accident that I came across her work at that time in my life.

Jasmine recently announced the launch of her new magazine Exposed & I of course purchased it! I haven't started to devour the pages just yet, but I'm planning to read it cover to cover with a cup of hot peppermint tea tonight! If you, or someone you know, is interested in wedding photography, I highly suggest reading Jasmine's blog & purchasing Exposed! Both are filled with invaluable information that I'm sure you'll appreciate... I'm also sure you'll quickly develop a love for Jasmine! She's fabulous! ;)

Christina Getting Ready | The Mansion on Peachtree Wedding

2011-09-23T11:29:00.009-04:00

Christina... one of the most beautiful brides i've ever seen & one of my greatest friends in the world. We've known each other most of our lives & have watched one another grow into women. I was absolutely honored to photograph such a loving & memorable time in her life. To see her in love & with a man that is truly a gem makes me overjoyed for her! ;) I wish them nothing but the best in life & love!!!

Below is a glimpse of Christina preparing to meet her man at the alter! It was an emotional time filled with love & lateness... wouldn't be my Chris if she weren't late!!! ;)

The image above makes me smile so big! She was so nervous but no matter the emotion, she always looks so beautiful!!! I love you Chris! Thank you so much for trusting me to photograph your BIG day as my very first wedding! I feel extremely humbled, honored, & blessed to have had such trust in me!!! I am forever grateful to you & Aidan!!!

******

Venue:

The Mansion on Peachtree

Wedding Planner & Floral Designer:

Jade Lee of Lovelee Affairs

Hair & Make Up:

Scoobie West

Photographer:

Dana Eason

Wedding Season

2011-09-12T19:13:00.003-04:00

i'm beyond ecstatic that wedding season has finally made its way to georgia. to have my vision be a part of someone's most precious day is an absolute honor. i look forward to beautifully photographing the sophisticated & elegant details of each bride & groom... & their venues! it's going to be magical!

The Client that Changed My Life...

2011-06-14T15:57:00.005-04:00

Ashlyn Horry...

Sadly, I received word this morning that Ashlyn passed away today. She was truly a beautiful soul. Ashlyn & her family were my first clients as a professional photographer. A memory that I'll forever hold close to my heart. Her mom Keva gave me a chance... and a big one at that. I was chosen to photograph Ashlyn's Sweet 16 Birthday. A milestone that was very unexpected given Ashlyn's medical history. At the time, I didn't know the effect that Ashlyn would have on me on a personal level. I walked away with the experience of knowing true love and happiness from a girl that could not speak with words, but through her heart... and what a BIG heart she had.

My heart and prayers go out to Ashlyn's mother Keva, father Robert, & brother Cameron. I love you guys! Ashlyn, may your beautiful smile shine as brightly in Heaven as it does in my memories!

With all my love,
Dana

Shooting with Tanya Malott | Bahamas Destination Wedding

2011-06-13T10:37:00.024-04:00

I met Tanya Malott last year while attending Elizabeth Messina's workshop in France. I really admire Tanya as a business woman & artist. She shoots most of her weddings in the Hamptons & NYC... & out of the country. Yes lovelies, Tanya is on another level entirely from me... I shoot weddings for a couple grand, Tanya shoots weddings for multiple grands! ;) She is phenomenal at what she does & learning from her over this past weekend in the Bahamas was an experience that I know for a fact will propel me to another level as an artist.

As I wrote here in a post from my old blog, photography to me, is about your vision & how you see things - not gear or software. Tanya taught me so many things over the weekend & the most important, to me, was to push past any fears and open my eyes to see & capture things even more differently than I already do.

I'm not going to lie, this weekend was truly a challenge for me. I've never shot a wedding of this caliber... E.V.E.R. in life! haha It was absolutely beautiful, grand, & more intricate than I could have imagined as a little peon photographer. Believe me, this isn't me downing myself. I'm good at what I do, but my goal is to be PHENOMENAL and to reach Tanya's caliber of professionalism but make it my own. So, this is me being absolutely REAL & honest! ;) I have a lot of work to do to get to that level of phenomenalism. ;)

My role for the wedding was to shoot all of the details for the rehearsal dinner & wedding. I was like Oh this is going to be great. I take pretty good detail shots so I felt very comfortable with those tasks... until I saw them... the details, that is.

Center pieces with a sea of gorgeous flowers, sea shells, candles, glasses, etc. These are definitely details you would see at any wedding, but more... so much more extravagant & lavish. I was instantly overwhelmed. What do I concentrate on? How can I shoot this & show the grand beauty of the overall scene? What angle & perspective should I take? To all of these questions I had no answer.

In walks Tanya. I tell her my dilemma & she immediately starts giving me tips and showing me how she would photograph the details & what she would concentrate on & what questions she would pose in her mind about the scene. I had a jaw dropping "Lenny Kravitz" moment as she was giving me these tips, because they were truly spot on & more artistic than my limited view of what I've experienced so far.

I was seriously humbled by this experience and will work so much more harder (I know that's grammatically incorrect) than I ever have to reach my full potential. I walked away from this experience sore, liberated, exhausted, new, & improved. That's not to say that I'm a totally new photographer in a weekend's time, but I know what I need to work on now to improve my skills even further. I also now see why people pay what they pay to have Tanya Malott shoot their wedding. She has an awesome team & she is quite the photography artist. Simply AMAZING. I'm truly blessed to have gotten this opportunity & experience. Only God could have orchestrated such a time as this! ;)

Watch out world! ;)

Valerie & Paul | Atlanta Engagement Photography

2011-06-06T08:00:00.019-04:00

Two very loving and endearing people that are made for each other... that's Valerie & Paul. I had the sweet pleasure of photographing these two for their Engagement at Piedmont Park here in Atlanta. Because the park gets VERY crowded on Sundays, we opted to do a 7am photo shoot! You'd never be able to tell that it was super early given those bright & beautiful smiles in the images below. ;)

Valerie & Paul, THANK YOU for waking up at the break of dawn to be photographed as only you two love birds could be photographed. I am grateful that you allowed me to have a small glimpse of your love, care, & kisses! ;) You made me even more happy & passionate about what I do for a living! I can't wait to photograph your beautiful September wedding!

Thank you for trusting me with such precious memories of your lives together!

Christina & Aidan | Atlanta Engagement Photography

2011-05-23T08:00:00.199-04:00

As I walked into their home, Aidan greeted me with a big hug. He told me he liked my outfit and I said "Thank you!" as I smiled back at him and quickly jetted off into their bedroom to see if Christina was ready. I've known Christina for practically our entire lives so of course I know that she is ALWAYS the late one! ;) It's not like I can talk much though... I sometimes share that character trait. But to my surprise, she was actually almost ready! Aidan, on the other hand, was nervously walking back & forth from their bedroom to their 2nd room to find an outfit {of course Christina has the master bedroom closet to herself! LoL ;) }. We searched through his closet but couldn't quite find the right look. It took a little trial & error, but he and Christina were finally able to find his first outfit- then we hurried out to beat the sunset and capture beautiful photographs!

I am thrilled to be photographing Christina & Aidan's September Wedding in Savannah, GA! I am blessed to have them in my life & I'm super honored to photograph their union & love.

Christina & Aidan thank you so much for allowing me to document your beautiful engagement love story. I had an amazing time photographing you two on an abnormally cold day in May...in HOTlanta. The laughter, the love, the smiles, & the hugs were genuinely YOU! I'm so blessed to have captured your amazing'ness on camera! You guys inspire me to love, laugh, and always be myself!!!

Vinewood Weddings & Events | Newnan, GA

2011-04-15T10:11:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the First Annual Open House at Vinewood Weddings & Events! The venue is absolutely breathtaking! I honestly cannot wait to shoot a wedding there. Below are just a few of the images I was able to capture while exploring the grounds!

A lot of awesome vendors put in mucho hard work to help make the event a success!

TLC Event & Tent Rental, Jackson Durham Flowers, Events, Design, Your Chef To Go, Sweet Sensations, Shannan Huff, Irvin Antley, Linen Hero by Chair Covers and Linens, The Funky Shack Art Studio, Geri Sims Productions, Christina Wedge Photography, Gray Landry Bagby Designs, Classic Canopies, Jerry Parker of Bright Star Entertainment, Vin-Vino-Wien, Kayla Taylor, Andy's Nursery, and Paige Fleming

Congratulations to Vinewoods Weddings & Events for having such a successful Open House last night! I met some really awesome people, took photos of really awesome details, and had an amazing time exploring the venue!

I'm putting it out in the universe right now... I want to shoot a wedding there THIS year!!! ;)

Happy Friday!

She's Getting Married

2011-04-08T11:46:00.011-04:00

One of my oldest friends (we've known each other since the 3rd grade), is getting MARRIED!!! I'm so very excited for her & her beau! Isn't her ring GORGEOUS! I tried it on last night at her engagement celebration dinner (with just the girls) and had dreams of one day receiving my own engagement ring! =) We ooohed, ahhhhhed, and totally gushed over her stunning diamond! This is such an exciting time and I'm so happy to know that the man she will be marrying has a heart made just for her!

Congratulations Christina and Aidan!!!

Leisure

2011-04-01T10:19:00.003-04:00

Location: Private Beach of Eden Roc Resort Hotel
French Dessert: La Provence French Bakery & Cafe
Photo Credit: © Dana Eason

I love to relax and let life flow! A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure doing just that on the private beach of Eden Roc Hotel in Miami, FL. I needed to relax, regroup, and rejuvenate. I love to hear the ocean waves crashing against the shore... there's something about it that makes me realize all that truly matters in life.

Here's to relaxing & eating French desserts on the beach! ;)

Happy Friday!

Fine Art Videography...

2011-03-31T11:00:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you encounter someone who's existence makes you better in some way. Kristen of bliss* video productions is one of those people in my life. I had the pleasure of meeting Kristen at Elizabeth Messina's A Lovely Workshop in France last May. The video below was composed outside of the Chateau we were blessed to call our home away from home for a wonderful week.

Viewing Kristen's work has opened my eyes to an unknown beauty that I can't articulate or describe. Her work is amazing... and so is she. Until I'd met her, or saw her work, I'd never experienced videography in this way so I'd like to share this artist's work with You! ;)

... the Fine Art Videography of Kristen of bliss* video productions

The Bride & Bloom :: Spring 2011 Shoot from bliss* productions on Vimeo.

To see a list of all of the vendors, artists, and models that participated in this shoot, please visit Elizabeth Messina's lovely blog kiss the groom!

The Joy of an Artist's Truth

2011-03-30T11:00:00.005-04:00

The joy of an artist is revealing their truth through their art. In what is being called an "over-saturated" market, my challenge to all photographers, amateurs and professional artists alike, is to remember what photography is truly about ... a moment of life, frozen in time... how awesome is that? There is value in that truth. A value that will never be diminished by over-saturation. Embrace your art, your truth, and your vision ... no one can compete with that... because it's yours!

2011-03-29T10:34:00.002-04:00

Have you heard of Pinterest? It's my new favorite obsession! I stayed up until 4:30am this past Saturday night... "pinning"! How crazy is that?

For those that don't know and have never heard of Pinterest, it is "a place to catalogue things you love" i.e. an online inspiration board! To see a few of my boards, go HERE. I totally recommend using this site if you are a visual person that is looking for inspiration! You are sure to find it here! I've included a few of my favorite pictures from the site that I'm planning on using for a future photo shoot! ;)

Photo 1: BDBarcelona
Photo 2: Flickr (limited info on Pinterest)
Photo 3: TheDecorista

Happy pinning!!! =)

*Hugs*

A Piece of My Story

2011-03-28T11:00:00.008-04:00

Hi there!

I'm Dana. A fun-loving, laid-back, sometimes uptight & reserved, perfectionist-aholic, caring, dependable, sometimes adventurous, honest, risk taking, and internationally traveling woman.

I'm not sure of the exact date my love of photography began, or the exact date wedding & lifestyle photography found me, but I do remember the year. It was 2007, a few months after my best friend's tragic death... the year my life truly began. Up to that point, I think I was just existing in a maze of rat-races, long hours at work, and eating poorly. My life was truly mundane and pathetic... and then photography found me. I began a journey of living through photographs. Wishing I was the person in the photographs, then progressing to wishing I was the person taking the photographs.

Life just so happened to hit me in 2009 with a lucky break - I was laid off from my consulting job and sent off onto the road less traveled that somehow seemed to be more crowed than usual with other lucky breakers. Instead of trying to jump back into that rat race that had made me fat and miserable, I decided to pursue my passion and interned with one of the top Destination Wedding photographers here in Atlanta.

I knew that starting a business wasn't easy. At that point, I'd been a business consultant for 7 years and had worked with some of America's most profitable fortune 500 companies, so I definitely knew starting a business would not come without its toils. I was prepared to pay the dues of learning in order to become a success; dues of failure (which killed some of the perfectionist-aholic in me), dues of insecurity, and eventually dues of reward. If I was going to pursue photography as a business and new profession, I was determined to learn from the best in order to be the best. My efforts in learning from the best paid off. Liana Hall taught me about the business of photography and helped me hone my skills as an artist. She laid the foundation and told me to go finish the rest of the construction.

Like any perfectionist that doesn't want to fail, instead of taking her advice, I retreated back into my old world. But after 6 months of being back, I knew Liana had been right... so the construction began and is still in progress. ;)