Lake Nicol, You Make Me Smile

I love Lake Nicol.  I love the Lake Nicol Spillway.  I love the water.  I love the rocks.  I love the trees.  I love the retro sign (ten points and a kiss to whoever can tell me what that building is).  I love hiking and climbing and getting dirty which, if you know me, is ridiculous, because I generally prefer being clean, very clean.  Let's face it, I am an indoorsy girl, so I will be the first one to admit my surprise when I discovered I like hiking.  I don't even mind wearing ugly shoes while I do it.  GASP, I know!

Lake Nicol is in Northport, Alabama.  In my mind it's close to the middle of no where but someone more familiar with the area could possibly correct me on this one.  I know how to get there (thanks Richard Hebert!) and that is all.  It's a bit of a climb down to the spillway but this is where I want to be, kind of all the time.  A road is perched high above the spillway, just by the damn, and the cement walls of the supports are covered in the most colorful and interesting graffiti.  The angles of the road and supports create the most amazing shadows when the sun is shining.  I think this is one of the things I love the most about Lake Nicol, it's never the same view twice.  Everything there is constantly changing, moving, and evolving.  Nothing is static. 


Every time I visit I find myself noticing the tiniest things.  I even made a few nature friends last time.  A nice lady bug posed on a branch for me and a spider had spun the most beautiful web for me to photograph!  Not to sound like a corn dog but I felt really blessed to have the opportunity to photograph that spiderweb.  It was so delicate and fragile and beautiful and there it was, just hanging out between two branches, waiting for me.  I wonder who else got to see it?

Even though the lighting makes it tough to shoot there, I love doing sessions at Lake Nicol.  My latest engagement session with Nikki and Andrew was there and we had such a great time!  Some of us (there were three of us and I was not one of them...you do the math:) even got to splash around in the water.  There's just something about Lake Nicol that just brings out the happy!

Nikki and Andrew - Engagement

Last weekend I had such a great time shooting an engagement session with Nikki and Andrew.  We also got a few shots with their precious 2 and 1/2 year old son, Logan.  He was so hilarious!  Tell that kid there is a deer and he will  look anywhere!  His Mimi came along and she can work magic, I guess all grandmothers can, but she seemed particularly effective:).  She took the pictures with Logan at the Old Center Church in Northport, AL.  It was originally built in 1875 and has been continuously used ever since.  it's an amazingly beautiful building.  I need a bride to get married there!  From there, Nikki, Andrew, and I went on to the Lake Nicol Spillway to shoot their engagement session.  I should really start calling them "engagement sessions and nature hikes."  The Lake Nicol Spillway is one of my favorite places on Earth and I love sharing it with other people.  We definitely got our workout in but also got some great photos along the way.  Here are a few of my favorites that I just had to share, I couldn't wait!  The entire engagement album will be available HERE soon.

Sauyer Dodd Ryan - February 18, 2011

Newborns are so cute and sleepy and wiggly, and Mr. Sauyer is no exception!  Man, I could just eat him up!  He is SO long, was 21 inches when he was born to be exact, and has the most precious and LONGEST fingers you've ever seen!  He's pink and smells really good!  I might be a little biased because his mommy, Jessica, is a sweet friend, but I don't think so.  "Cute" and "adorable" seem to be the general consensus.  He made his grand entrance on Friday morning, February 18, 2011, weighing 8 lb. 1 oz.  If you want to check out his mommy's maternity photos HERE you might wonder, as I have, how that long baby fit in there.  Ahh, the mysteries of the universe.  Oh well, these pictures were taken when S-man was eight days old.  Pretty bright and perky for eight days old if you ask me.  I think it's a sign of genius. 

Help ESP and Mary Kathryn at the Same Time

Doesn't that sound like fun friends?!  So, Modern Bird Studios creates really neat studio art pieces from your photographs.  Each one is one-of-a-kind and personalized, well, obviously.  Anyway, they are having a fun contest on Facebook where people submit their photos and whoever gets the most "likes" wins an art piece.  The lovely Mary Kathryn Mathews submitted a picture that ESP took last summer of her three precious kiddos.  Click HERE and "like" Modern Bird Studios, then "like" our photo, well, that would be just swell. 

This is the photo you will be "liking" by the by

Speaking of Facebook, don't forget to check out the Erin Schmidt Photography Facebook page and "like" us too!  Heck, might was well while you're "liking" everything else on Facebook.

UPDATE 3/21/2011: ESP's Photograph is in the Top Ten out of 157 submissions!  Now an esteemed panel of judges will select the winner!  Click HERE to see the other finalists!  You can also comment on how cute the picture is, you know, just if you want to let the judges know your favorite:)  Thanks everyone for your support, this is SO fun!!

Welcome to the New Blog!!

Welcome to the new and improved Erin Schmidt Photography blog!!!  This is where I will post about the latest and greatest sessions and post sneak peaks.  Also, just to get real here, if any of you have tried to Google Erin Schmidt Photography, like I do weekly (doesn't everyone Google themselves?), my page doesn't show up.  Well, that's because my web host wants me to upgrade to "pro" so I will show up in Google searches and I just refuse, on principle.  They intentionally keep ESP from showing up on Google searches unless I upgrade, the nerve!:)  So anyway, here I am on blogspot now, YAY!  Guess who shows up on Google searches?  That's right, blogspot!

I have a link to the Erin Schmidt Photography website posted here and will link to this site from the ESP site so we'll all be connected and happy together.

This weekend will find me doing an engagement session on Saturday for Nikki and Andrew.  Our session is going to be at the Lake Nicol spillway in Northport, Alabama, one of my favorite spots for shooting.  I can't wait to see the pictures.  I will have some sneak peaks posted here by early next week.  I will be wearing my rain boots because I will most likely be standing in a river while shooting and even though I hate showing up to a session looking like a hobo, I sure would hate to kill myself and my equipment tumbling down a spillway because I was trying to be cute and slipped!  

Enjoy friends!