Summer time can be summed up in one word: VACATION! And that’s what this photo contest is all about! Send in your pictures of you and/or your family on vacation. It can be a vacation from the past or one you’ve taken this year. Be sure to include a description of who is in the picture and where you are vacationing at! Send pictures by email to denaehula@denaehula.com.

The DEADLINE to email your picture will be June 30th at midnight. Voting will begin on July 1st and will end on July 15th at midnight. The winner will be announced July 16th. In order to vote, you must first LIKE Denae Hula Photography’s facebook page and then LIKE the picture you wish to vote for.

FIRST PLACE PICTURE will win:

A FREE 30 minute photo session of your choice

5 edited pictures on CD to be printed at the location of your choice in 8×10 or smaller

SECOND PLACE PICTURE will win:

50% off of the session package of your choice

(discount does not include any additional services)

THIRD PLACE PICTURE will win:

25% off of the session package of your choice

(discount does not include any additional services)

So go ahead and start sending in your pictures! I look forward to hearing about all the fun vacations yall have been taking!

Rusty and Kristy Wagoner were married on May 11, 2012 at Cozy Corner Plantation in Vidalia, Louisiana. It rained the day before and day of the wedding, making us all a little nervous. The rain stopped about an hour before the ceremony and made for one of the prettiest outdoor weddings I’ve been to!

You can click on the link to the client access page. Use code WAGONER and password WAGONER to access the wedding pictures and order some of your favorites!

All photographs are copyright protected. Do not cut, crop or alter in any way.

Crave Photography is giving away a FREE all expense paid two day in person workshop. That’s right. ALL expenses paid, including air fair, hotel, etc. There are also many other valuable prizes being given away which include: FREE 50 mm 1.4 lens for Canon or Nikon, $500 credit at the CRAVE design shop; and gifts from the following vendors: Rock the Drops, MCP Actions, Kelly Moore Bag [btw Kelly is a photographer/bag designer in Monroe, LA!], Jessica Drossin Texturs, Florabella Actions, The Bloom Forum, Kaleidoscope, Zozobug Baby, Gracylu Originals and Rock the Shot.

To find out how to enter, visit http://cravemyphotography.com/blog/world-wide-giveaway-2012/. There are many ways to enter and not much time left so hurry! =)

Rusty Wagoner and Kristy Smith had a beautiful engagement session. Their pictures were taken on the grounds of the plantation where they were married this past Friday night. Stay tuned for pictures from their wedding!

Charlie, Casey and Avery had fun at the park behind St. Mary’s Cathedral in Natchez, MS taking some family portraits! They were a lot of fun to photograph, especially when Charlie would make Avery laugh in the pictures. She is so adorable! And the incentive of ice cream if she would smile was the icing on the cake for her to smile so I could get some good shots!

Copyright © 2012 Denae Hula Photography

A few from a senior shoot done in December 2011 for DJ, a senior at Vidalia. It was windy, cold, but still lots of fun!

Currently, I am in the process of fully launching Denae Hula Photography. This has been in the makings for a quite a few years now. Four years, to be exact, except I wasn’t Denae Hula then; I was still Denae Ball. Anyways, that’s beside the point. The point is that after all of the years of doing shoots for friends, family, friends-of-friends and a few complete strangers every now and then, I am finally ready to branch out as a photographer and put myself in the ring with the rest of the professional photographers out there. There are many photographers that I look up to and aspire to have the skills in photo editing that they possess, but already there’s something unique about my work that makes it a step above the average Joe. Lance can attest to the many hours I spend learning new things in photoshop so that my work will be on a professional level and not just “a good picture taken by someone with a good camera”.

I am very thankful to my parents who started this passion in me at a very young age and have encouraged me throughout the years to go after what I dream of. For me, that dream was to own my own photography business one day, and that dream is more a reality now than ever.

Now, the encouragement has passed from my parents to my husband. He has really been the one to push me over the past few years to go after what I want. He knows my heart; he knows my passions. Lance has always been the one to encourage me to book a shoot with a client even if I really wasn’t feeling up to it. He’s seen me lock my camera away in the closet for months, and run from cameras when I was asked to take a few quick pictures at an event we would be attending. But he never forced me to pick the camera back up, never questioned why I suddenly could not stand the thought of photography; he simply supported me through everything. And now, he is still my biggest supporter! He is constantly telling me of others in the photography business and he always says, “But your work is so much better than their work!” [No, he's definitely not biased or anything!! Haha] He recommends me to more people than anyone else I know. And he’s been fully supportive of the expense that it’s taking to get everything up and running on the launch of the website. He has always been my assistant in weddings and has never complained once. Lance is just as much a part of this as I am and makes just as many sacrifices as I do, if not more. I couldn’t be more blessed with a loving and caring husband. God truly, truly knew what He was doing and had this all planned out before I ever dreamed it up! I’m just thrilled to be a part of it!

So here’s what you can expect in the very near future: The launching of www.denaehula.com which will be the home to Denae Hula Photography. Here you will find everything you need to know from booking information, galleries to browse through my work, a link to client proofing galleries and a link to this blog. There has been a lot of work put into this website and I owe a HUGE thank you to Blaize Stewart for creating the website for me and another HUGE thank you to my brother, John Ball, who has played an integral part in the website/hosting process. Both of these guys are going to be a forever part of Denae Hula Photography.

In the meantime, to help me get the word out there are a few things you can do: The first would be to like Denae Hula Photography on Facebook. This not only helps my page out, but your friends can see that you just liked the page and they have the option to like it as well. You can invite friends to like the page. If we’re not already friends on Facebook, send me a friend request @ www.facebook.com/denaehula. You can subscribe to and follow this blog. This allows you to get updates anytime I create a new post. Also, tell your friends about it. Post it on Facebook or Twitter. Use the link www.p31hulagirl.blogspot.com.

And let me lastly say thank you to YOU! Yes, you. Without supporters, clients, friends and friends-of-friends, there would be no need for Denae Hula Photography. The supporters, which ever fashion you come in, are what start the business and keep it running. So please, continue to share with others who I am and what I do. I truly appreciate it!

Meet the Reed family. Danny, Calley, Josiah, Isaac and Amaus… and Camila! I know, you’re going to look at these and say, “I don’t see a daughter in the pictures,” and that’s because you won’t. Not yet, at least. These were taken last summer in preparation of the Reed’s family adoption of their precious daughter, Camila, from Peru. So where you see the pictures of the country of Peru, you are seeing Camila.

As I am writing this, the Reeds are in Peru, right now, at this moment, with their princess Camila. I was honored and privileged to take these pictures for them and look forward to taking family pictures with them with their newest addition to the family when they return home! If you’d like to know more about their story, check out Calley’s blog at http://ahomemakershallelujahs.blogspot.com. She has been faithful to blog throughout the whole process and is currently blogging every day with updates from Peru! You will truly be blessed by it!

These are some very close and very special friends of mine, the Gamberi family! I could talk about how much they have done for me and Lance, but we’d be here for hours! Needless to say, getting to do a family portrait session with some individuals of their daughter, Cadyn, and them was such an honor and a TON of fun! We shot these at Duncan Park early one morning before it got too hot. Of course, with children, they can’t be all business all the time so the park was a perfect choice. Cadyn got to play and I got to take pictures! These were taken almost a year ago [see, I told you I was SERIOUSLY behind on updating this thing!].

 

Lance and I started a tradition a few years ago to send out Christmas cards every year to our friends and family. So, we always take our own, edit it and then stick in a cute little Christmas card to mail out. Last year and this year, and probably the coming years, I take Trey and Becca’s picture also so they can do the same thing! This year, we went rustic and used an old Chevy to take our pictures with. They turned out really cute! Here’s some from that day!