Tuesday, April 30, 2019
By CJCruz Photography
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Had to share a recent wedding I got to be a part of. I was called last minute on a Monday afternoon to come to a local hospital to photograph a wedding. Now I know what you’re all thinking but no this wasn’t one of those types of weddings. No, I was called to photograph a wonderful couple by the name of Carol and Everett who shall we say were not your typical soon to be newlyweds. While both are mature in age, they are very much young at heart and finding love in each other later in life brings them so much joy. Everett told me he was as nervous as he had ever been while standing there waiting for his bride to be escorted down the isle of this small Hospital Chapel. Carol had the biggest of smiles as she laid eyes on her handsome soon to be husband. The room was small, but it was bursting at the seams with all the love felt between these two and you couldn’t have asked for a better last-minute ceremony.

 

So why were these two getting married at the hospital? Well just two weeks before their official wedding date was to take place Carol fell and broke her hip. After having surgery Carol was going to need some rehab to get back on her feet but the hospital was concerned with who would take care of her in the mean time. Being the loving fiancé that he is, Everett insisted on it being him, but Carol does not believe in living together before marriage. So, on Everett’s birthday no less (he said marrying Carol was the best birthday present could ever receive) in this small hospital Chapel surrounded by friends and hospital staff their Sunday school teacher a retired Circuit Judge preformed a wedding ceremony so that they may go home together while Carol recovers. They still plan to have their official wedding date and their honeymoon once Carol is fully recovered but as you can see it didn’t stop Everett from spinning his bride around in the lobby as they had their first dance as a married couple.

 

Now how sweet are these two? It was such a pleasure to meet them and share in a small page of their love story. No matter what age never stop searching for that one who makes you smile until your cheeks hurt. May you all have as blessed of a day as Carol and Everett and join me in congratulating them on their marriage and wishing Carol a speeding and full recovery!!

 

 
Saturday, January 26, 2019
By CJCruz Photography
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How many of us remember family picture day as children? I don’t know how it was in your home but for mine it was always a negative experience. We would put on our Sunday best and head to a studio were some guy posed us like statues and tried to make us laugh with corny jokes. It often left everyone frustrated as my sisters and I never stood still or smiled at the same time, so we always were getting yelled at. I told myself then that if I have children, I’m not subjecting them to that type of torture ever! Today’s photographers have replaced the studio with a beautiful scenery or a funky cool cityscape, but the feeling is still the same to me, lacking soul. Family dynamic so much more than dressing nice and having a nice background. Therefore, people who aren’t model types struggle with taking family photos in this modified traditional sense, I know I do. I have done this to clients as well as my own daughter in the past and ended up with the same results I disliked from studios.

 

It wasn’t until one day I watched my 3-year-old daughter play and do things that made her happy. Like any parent I grabbed my camera and started clicking off photos and it was at this time that I really felt like I got to know my daughter. Personality shined through in those images and not in the hundreds of posed shots I’ve taken over the years. Her free spirit, kind loving heart, her passion for all things music and art seemed to jump off the screen and I knew what I needed to start doing. Taking family photos isn’t just about capturing nice images not for me anymore. It is now about capturing memories more over creating them so that the candid nature of my photography really shines a spot light on what makes your family unique from mine and everyone else’s. They are not always technically perfect, but neither are our families and that’s the beauty of it. I’d love to sit down with you and discuss how we can create those memories frozen in time on a photograph that you will enjoy for generations to come.