Meagan and Andy’s Engagement Portrait Session

We started simple and pure…

Then we moved on to a bit more emotion and closeness…

Then we really got them comfortable!

What a moment… these guys were awesome!



I met Andy and Meagan at the last Cross Creek Ranch Bridal Show a couple of months ago. I remember taking a quick portrait of them that night and saying to them, “Oh my, you two are going to make REALLY nice photos!”

Today, they fulfilled on my bold prediction! These two were so intimate! They offered up everything from giggling to snuggling and everything in between. With Sepia being our chosen shooting style, they literally put themselves into my hands and let me just take them on a journey. These guys were so relaxed and so willing to be intimate on camera, so I had the idea to lay them down and see what we could create down low. Oh my… They relaxed right into what I was thinking, and made some beautiful shots!

I’ll be shooting Andy and Meagan’s wedding in November out at Cross Creek Ranch, one of my favorite venues to shoot at. With the ranch style natural Florida surroundings and massive grandfather oaks, CCR, as we call it, is an awesome outdoor venue. Check them out at www.crosscreekranchfl.com. Stay tuned in November for images of their CCR wedding.

Congratulations Meagan and Andy!

Sometimes Everything Comes Together

Okay, so I’ll begin by saying that this one was pure magic from the beginning. From my intial chat with Leona in April in the parking lot after a quick shoot up in Ocala, to riding bikes through a German village on a gorgeous golden German morning, Kim and I had the ‘gig’ to die for — Kim and I because she got to go too! I was actually hired to do several things. First on the list, take great photographs of the folks on this trip having a great time wherever they went and whatever they did. Gee, I think I can hang with that! They are all of our client’s top selling insurance agents – this was an incentive cruise down the Rhine and Mosel rivers in Germany, originating in Amsterdam. Somebody pinch me. Of all the places we could go, there’s nowhere more dear to our hearts than the very place Kim and I “grew up” as young Air Force adults stationed above the Mosel in the early to mid ’80’s. Unbelievable!! I’ve included some of my favorite shots and moments from the trip, where, as part of my ‘package,’ I sang two gigs, one atop the ship as we cruised the Rhine on a gloriously sunny, crisp blue day, and one evening down in the ship’s lounge. Got to pull out my Deutsch and let ‘er rip with some of the ship’s staff and play interpreter to some of the passengers. Kim and I had no luggage the first 4 plus days, making our trip even more ‘memorable!’ The trip was a total success, as we were invited back next year when they treat the company’s best to a Banff, Canada! We met lots of new friends, and had the time of a lifetime. Kim and I really used the trip to truly take a look at life from afar, and we came back clearer about life somehow. Europe can do that to a person. Enjoy the shots and thanks for “listening.” BT

We grabbed a nice little lunch in Amsterdam before boarding the Casanova.

A slice of life in the German town of Trier. These 5 kids were fluent in German! Amazing!

That’s the president and cofounder of the company we were working for, in one of my favorite places on the planet, a German Beer Garden (yes, I meant to capitalize!)

Tell me, what’s more European than a couple of street accordion players?

Came upon a group of artists painting a cathedral, only two of whom noticed I was there.
Here are Kim and me in front of the Roman gate of Trier, a city over 2,000 years old.


Cool shot of a German bridge, somewhere in the night…

View through the antiquated glass of the Cochem Castle. All of the Insurance folks were equipped with cool red umbrellas.

I’ve always been a sucker for a cool German cafe window, especially one with a cool handwritten chalk sign.

This is yours truly doing my thing. Before our luggage was located, we were traveling with only a guitar, a laptop, and a camera bag. Three things that we decided we could start a new life with if necessary. (-:

I love Amsterdam because the cafes are always full. This is 3:00 pm on a weekday. Hmmm… what do they know that we don’t?
And I think that this is where they all parked…

View of Cochem on the Mosel River, this is definitely one of the coolest castles on the river, and there are many!

This is the name of the ship we cruised…

The Kids of Easter Seals Portrait Gallery







As many of you know, we have a 15 year old son Eric who has Down Syndrome. He has just completed Middle School and is off to high school, but in his early days as an infant, he had a list of medical ailments that made his first couple of years pretty tough. Heart problems, lung issues, failure to thrive, were among some of his challenges. After his heart surgery was complete, one ailment after the next disappeared, and by the time he started daycare at 2 years old, he was on the road to becoming the unusually healthy kid he is today. Kim and I have always wanted to give back to the community that helped Eric get back on his feet and that provided the therapies and support that made such a difference after all of his medical challenges. We recently were inducted on the Board of Directors at Easter Seals of Tampa Bay, after being introduced to the board by Joanne Sullivan of Academy at the Lakes, and whose wedding we did last year. Our first project was to create a gallery of portraits of the Kids of Easter Seals, so people would have an understanding of who these kids are. They’re typically underprivilidged special needs kids from rough family backgrounds who typically can’t afford the services and support that special needs kids almost always need in their early years. Easter Seals helps prepare these kids both mentally and pbysically to be able to successfully enter the school system and become productive and healthy kids. Here is a number of the portraits we shot of the kids. What an amazing shoot!! These kids are amazing, and you can almost see their past and their future in their eyes. The gallery of prints will be on permanent display at the Murray Center, Easter Seals’ brand new facility on East Henry Ave that has its grand opening almost as this blog entry is being posted. Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Thunderbird Resort Photo Facelift

So, on a side note, we’ve decided that
this blog will f rom now on be a Thompson Studios blog, highlighting some of the cooler things that we are up to as a studio, and not limit this to strictly weddings. We realized that there’s so much we do that is worthy of sharing with everyone. We also realized that trying to keep up 4 separate blogs would be an impossibility, so, on we go!

Here’s a shoot that had some fun built into it — we got a call from David King, the owner of the historic Thunderbird Resort on Indian Rocks Beach. He and his family have had the resort for close to 40 years. The resort had undergone a facelift of sorts, and now it was time to give their website a photo-facelift. The shots he’d been using were aged and out of style, so basically we laid out a plan to shoot the entire place. We shot everything from rooms, the courtyard, the restaurant, lobby, EVERYTHING!! This ties in beautifully with our Custom Stock Photography concept, where we come into a company and shoot everything that there would be a need to shoot, then provide the client with a catalogued library of images that they can use for anything that can come up. In David’s case, the website was the most immediate need, and you can see the new photography at his website: www.thunderbirdflorida.com. Since this was a multi-day shoot, of course we had to stay and get a taste of what the Thunderbird had to offer during our stay. What a great place to hang at the beach!! The Tiki Bar was a great place to be at sunset and after a huge day of shooting. We really enjoyed the resort and encourage you to check it out! Give us a call if you’d like more info on Custom Stock Commercial Photography…





We’re just are coming down off of Sheila and Rich’s Wedding this last Saturday. Wow! What a party!! We ran out of gas around midnight, and they were still going strong!

One of the things I love the most about weddings is that no two weddings are alike. Sheila had a vision for her special day — simple, elegant and absolutely gorgeous. She included in the invitations the request that all guests be dressed in white, and what a sight it was to approach their home, where they prepared, to see everyone hanging out in front with white. Combine that with the angelically warm tropical light we had that afternoon, and combine that with the fact that Sheila is a salon owner (she owns Shepre, the trendy hair and color salon in Cory Lake Professional Park where our studio is located), so all of the guests looked just fabulous!

The venue was perfect, and actually Rich and Sheila were boating through the inter-coastal one afternoon and Sheila spied the location to find out that it is actually a condo-complex with this terrific and massive gazebo out beyond the sand of the beach. They researched it and booked it!

I’ll let some photos speak for the rest of this entry, even though I can’t get this thing to display them in the right order.. hmmm…. Anyway, Kim and I both had a blast, as did Mike who will post his own photos from the wedding in a day or two. Expect to hear more from Mike, and for those who don’t know, I’m proud to introduce Mike as a hugely talented photographer and even cooler guy as a part of our Thompson Studios team. Mike will be shooting alongside me as well as taking care of weddings on his own. Look for a portfolio link to his wedding work shortly, as well as some of his favorite shots and observations from Sheila and Rich’s wedding this last weekend. Enjoy the photos!

Meet Sheila and Rich

Sheila and Rich decided to make their engagement portraits in true Florida fashion, so we hopped on Rich’s boat and headed to Egmont Key and made some extremely cool photos. These two were awesome on camera, and admittedly, Sheila is ‘crazy about pictures!’ so we went crazy indeed. Here are a few from our sunny session on and near the water.

Next on the agenda was Sheila’s bridal portraits, which Rich had/has no idea she had photographed. Sheila is absolutely stunning as well as playful during her entirely studio session. She owns Shepre Hair and Color Salon located in the same plaza as our studio, so she
brought her posse of supporters and caretakers to help her get the look just right. Awesome.

Sheila and Rich will marry this Saturday, look for images soon!

Meet Travis and Fiona of New Tampa

Travis and Fiona

I’d like to introduce you to Travis and Fiona, of New Tampa. We are doing for Travis and Fiona what we’d love to do for you – to capture not only their actual wedding day, but to completely document their entire wedding experience, from engagement to their first anniversary. Before I jump into that, let me tell you how much fun it was to sit down with Travis and Fiona in our studio and just visualize and create. We laid out every aspect of their photography vision. At one point someone actually cried, but I won’t say who that was!

First order of business was the engagement shoot, so we headed down to Ybor City, one of my favorite Tampa Bay locations to shoot at, and just played. We walked around 7th Avenue and Centro Ybor and found little spots along the way to shoot in. I’ve got to hand it to Fiona – she really had a way of just completely playing with the camera, and Travis did a great job of going with the flow and being completely relaxed on camera. We had a BLAST!! Here are a few of my favorites…

Next item on the Complete Wedding Event Checklist was the rehearsal dinner. Travis’ family came down from Wisconsin (gee, see if you can figure out which gentleman is Travis’ father!), Fiona’s family is more local. They met in a private room at The Stonewood Tavern, a rich location for an intimate family gathering. We kept it pretty simple so these guys could enjoy the wonderful dinner.

The big day was next. I began by visiting Fiona and her Mother at the salon across Mandalay Ave. from the Sand Pearl on Clearwater Beach, an absolutely lovely beach venue that also has a flair for the elegant. The thing I loved about being with them was how much fun they were having! Kim joined in the fun too as we all watched Fiona transform before our eyes.

After Fiona’s hair was perfect, we all made our way back to the Sand Pearl to let the rest of the day unfold.

They got married on Sunday, December 28th on one of the most beautiful days on the beach I can remember. The beach was actually well populated, which made for some fun shots of the newly wed couple on the beach. They enjoyed a simple beach setting with a modest number of guests. Simplicity ruled the day and as you can see, simple is beautiful too.


Congratulations Travis and Fiona, who absolutely LOVE their photos! Want to see a cool slideshow of their entire collection? Click this link:

http://www.thompsonstudiosweddings.com/Media/TS-Sandpearl%20Presentation09%20Flash.html

Thanks for checking out my blog! See you soon!

Bob

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the first ever entry ever on the wedding blog! This will be a great space to share what’s going on beyond the photos and share the stories and people that make photographing weddings such a rich experience. But before I really dig in, you must be warned — I’ve been told by those close to me that I can tend to be a bit wordy. (You may have already noticed!) Maybe that’s okay on a blog… cool.

I love weddings. When you take great groups of people who look fabulous, put them in a gorgeous setting among close friends and family, then add the emotional elements of love and romance and then have a party, well that sounds like something that I’d like to take pictures of. I’m in, let’s go. I guess the real truth is that I love people, and making great photographs of people is what keeps me going every single day.

I’ll wrap up for the moment, but thanks for visiting. In my next post I’ll introduce you to some recent clients, their stories and share some of their more special photographs. Cheers.

Bob

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