Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  To me, Christmas is a time to spend with family and friends, laughing over old memories and making new ones. Jared and I were lucky enough to be able to travel to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with both of our families. While it's always a hectic time of year, I can't wait for the opportunity to play with my niece, hang out with my brother and parents, and relax with Jared's family.  Bellefonte is especially pretty in the snow, which we have a few inches of this year, courtesy of the storm that slowed down our trip up! Not only did we have a white Christmas, but we got to ski on Christmas Eve day as well. Christmas Eve was spent at the Christmas Eve service with Jared's family and then the annual Grove gift exchange at my grandparents.  Today, we spent the day between my parents and Jared's parents houses, exchanging gifts, eating good food and generally enjoying each other's company.  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family!  Here are a few of the random photos I took over the past two days:

I think this is my favorite from everything I took...

Sarah and Emma doing squishy cheeks!

Emma's new winter hat!

As promised, a picture of Bella in her stylish new coat.

My two favorite men in the whole world!

Nothin' like a redneck Christmas... open gifts, eat, then shoot something! Jared playing with his new toy!

The rest of the photos are on the website (http://www.sarahreedphotography.com/).

I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as I have!

Brrr....

Baby, its COLD outside!!  We left Florida in balmy 70 degree weather to come home to Pennsylvania's cold snowiness.  I love that we have snow for Christmas and skiing, but wow, what a change! Annie loves playing ball in the snow:

Bella, on the other hand, requires a coat and prefers to EAT the snow... which leads to much coldness and shivering! The poor thing was shivering so hard yesterday that her teeth were chattering! And because she is cold inside too, she got a nice new coat to wear inside (pictures coming soon).

Bella does play outside, but that's not nearly as fun as eating snow.

We also went to a PSU Women's basketball game with Jared's family. Our niece Emma loves to wear her cheerleader outfit and couldn't wait to see the Nittany Lion.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Baby Zander

Jared and I finally got to meet Zander, our cousin's new baby, yesterday! Zander was born in November to Steph and Trevor.  We spent some time taking some photos; here are a few of my favorites!

Trash the Dress!

Okay, so we didn't REALLY trash the dress. But we sure did play hard!  Here are some of my favorites from Sara's mock Trash the Dress session in Alachua on Sunday.  We had a blast and managed to keep the dress fairly clean, too!  Sara is not just one of my favorite models, she's one of my best friends. We always have a great time when we go out and play.  So on Sunday, we ran around Alachua and took some photos.... Alachua is great for shooting -- fun old store fronts, train tracks, playgrounds and more!

We had some gorgeous light when the sun decided to peak out through the clouds.

"Don't look, I'm not trying to break in!"

Yes, even prom queens can skate!

Check out the rest of the photos at Sarah Reed Photography!

Christmas....

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the baking (followed, of course, by the eating).  I spent some time on Saturday with friends at Marie's apartment -- which, I might add, is amazingly decorated for Christmas, this girl seriously has talent -- decorating cookies for Marie's students.  I didn't do much decorating, since my artistic skills are fairly limited outside the camera, but loved the company and took some photos of the amazing cookies they made and Marie and Hao's adorable mini mutt, Starbucks.

Christy's amazing Tim Tebow gingerbread man

The adorable Starbucks

Fun with Sara

So when we have time, one of my best friends and I kick around and play... that is, she gets dressed up in some sort of crazy way that we dream up and I go take pictures of her.  Today we did a mock "trash the dress" session. For those of you who don't know what that is, imagine a photo shoot with a beautiful bride (or prom goer, or ....) gets dressed up again after the special day and has a session with no holds barred. Photos in places you wouldn't typically think to wear a wedding or prom dress because, well, it might get dirty.  They're great fun for brides to de-stress after the big day, or girls to get together with their friends after a formal or prom for some fun, unique photos. Let me know if you want more information!

I haven't gotten through ALL of the photos yet, but I couldn't wait to put this one up here because Sara is just so amazing.  We had a blast in our little getaway to Alachua today. Can't wait to check out the rest of the photos and get some more up for you to see!

Good friends, good wine, good times!

Jared and I went to a dinner party last night to celebrate our fried Sara's birthday and her husband John moving back to Gainesville.  It was the perfect end to a week that has been seriously less than perfect (but that's another blog...). We went to Ti Amo, a cute place hidden in downtown Gainesville.  Sitting there last night made me really think about how much I truly appreciate all of my friends and how important they are in my life.  Sara and John have both been great friends of mine through grad school. AND they invited me to Spain next year to photograph their wedding (yes, they're already officially married, just no wedding yet...).  How much luckier can a girl get? Here are some of the photos from last night. Enjoy!

Sara and her sister, Megan (aka Bunny)

Sara and John

My sadly empty glass of sangria at the end of the night.  This place has *awesome* sangria!

Horse Shows in the Park Banquet

Every year, all of us that show horses and usually look all grungy and ditry gete cleaned up, put on our best clothes, and get together for the awards banquet!  This year, the Horse Shows in the Park awards banquet was held at the beautiful Ocala Hilton. Wynfield Farm and Sundaram Farm put on a great showing, with a ton of Championships and Reserve Championships!  It was a great evening with great friends.  We all worked incredibly hard all year; it's amazing to see how well it paid off! A few photos from the evening:

Scooby's beautiful third place ribbon.

Bailey and all of her loot!

Ella and TJ

When does the show season start again??

The Gamage Family

I am so lucky to have wonderful (and beautiful!) friends.  Last night, Jared and I spent some time with the Gamage family before the Horse Shows in the Park banquet at the Ocala Hilton.  While everyone was dressed up in their finest, we took some photos in the lovely hotel. This family is so much fun and I really enjoyed taking some family photos for them.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! This will be a place that you can keep up with what I'm doing and where I'm shooting.

A quick intro, for those of you who don't know me: I'm a post doctoral research associate at the University of Florida during the day. But two of my other loves are horses and photography which I am lucky enough to be able to combine in Sarah Reed Photography. But don't despair! I do more than just equine photography -- I love shooting portraits, be it individuals, couples, families or babies. I hope this blog will showcase the diversity of my photography. Check back often for photos and specials!

A few of my favorite photos to start off with: