The day after the wedding, Michele and Josh opted for a trash-the-dress shoot.  They were worried that it wouldn't be exciting to us beacuse we are able to do so many of these shoots in beautiful places like Sedona.  On the contrary though.  We love places that are fresh and new for us.  China, Michigan was full of rustic old barns, lovely fields of wildflowers and miles and miles of corn fields ... we have always wanted to do a photo shoot in the corn fields.  This was like being a kid in a candy store to us ... we ate it up!!

There was only one drawback.  People, I have lived in Florida for heaven sakes.  I have trudged through some seriously mosquito infested swamps.  I have even been to Africa and slept along river banks swarming with the blood-sucking creatures, but Michigan ... Michigan in the summer is as bad as any swarm I have ever had the misfortune to be in.  I hate mosquitos ... they love me ...

We want to thank everyone for their infinite patience while waiting for their blog postings.  Fall season has proven to be one of the busiest we have ever had with 10 weddings since the beginning of September, two of which were destination, not to mention the triple header we have beginning tomorrow and the countless shoots in between, all of which will eventually make their way to the blog.  We haven't forgotten anyone :-).

With that, we wanted to go ahead and get things started with our first wedding of the fall season.  We received a wonderful Thank You card in the mail from this couple yesterday and wanted to go ahead and get their posting up.  They have been so patient and I am sure they are dying to see some photos.  Michele and Josh were married Labor Day weekend in St. Clair, Michigan, which was the main reason behind our big road trip.  We first spoke with Josh while we were driving along the slopes of Haleakala in Maui last year scouting for our own wedding.  The two live in Phoenix and were inquiring about an engagement shoot.  Once we were back home we met up for the shoot and the rest is history.

Michele is from China, Michigan (a very small town adjacent to St. Clair) and it was her hometown that she and Josh chose for their special day.  It is a very charming town positioned on a pretty little river that overlooks Canada on it's opposite bank.  We absolutely love this couple because they are such genuine people and their families and friends were no exception.  We were treated more like guests than "the photographers" and we had such a great time over the course of the three days we spent there.  They had a trash-the-dress session the day after the wedding and afterwards we went back to Michele's parent's home where we were well fed by her mom while her dad washed our car before we hit the road again ... now come on, you can't beat that for hospitality :-)!!

The one thing that really impressed us about this couple was how much fun they had on their wedding day ... doing it just the way they wanted.  They even rented a motor home which Josh's dad used to chauffeur the couple, their wedding party and close friends around town for photos.  They simply played by their own rules instead of the "traditional" rules of a wedding day and had an absolute blast doing it.  We think the photos really portray that :-)!  Thank you both so much for everything and for including us in so many wonderful ways in your special weekend.  We had so much fun!!

We are super excited about this announcement ... we have a brand new website!!  This has been six months in the making and we are very pleased with the outcome.  Aside from a new format with really big images, we have a bunch of new photos in our main galleries, four new featured weddings and an all new Trash-the-Dress gallery.  Please take some time and check it out!  Thanks for viewing!

www.sierrablancophotography.com

This all began with the booking of a destination wedding in Michigan for Labor Day weekend.  We decided that rather than fly, it would be a great idea to drive and see some areas of the country we have never seen before.  Thus began the planning and execution of the Great American Road Trip!

We really wanted to visit Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park so those were our first big stops.  We spent 2 days in Grand Teton and almost 4 in Yellowstone, both of which far exceeded our expectations!!  We spent much time in the company of bison (my new favorite animal), sometimes finding ourselves within 20 feet of the 2000 pound animals.  It was great!  The rut was in full swing so we got to see plenty of spit-flinging, snot-snorting fights which was also great!  We loved the many geological features of Yellowstone, but not the smell so much :-).

We then headed across the heartland through lovely, and flat, North Dakota, picking up plenty of bugs along the way.  We finally ended up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where we spent a couple of days exploring Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along the wild shores of lake Superior.  I have always wanted to go there and it was well worth it!  From there we headed down into lower Michigan for the wedding and then continued on to Chicago to have a very quick visit with my friend Daniela (she photographed our wedding last year.)  We left Chicago on Monday knowing we had to make good time ... we had to be in Tucson on Thursday for another wedding.  We did spend a little time in Taos, New Mexico on the way home which was really cool.  After the Tucson wedding we headed straight home so we could be at a wedding in Sedona by Saturday!

So there it is!  Three weeks, 15 states, and 6500 miles later we came full circle on our Great American Road Trip.  Some of the highlights included spending a lot of time with bison, being charged by a male Pronghorn who confused us for a male he was catching the scent of over the ridge, a raging thunderstorm over the plains complete with american symbols in the foreground like bison and bald eagles, seeing the world's largest cow, Salem Sue, seeing my friend Daniela and those are just to name a few.  It was an amazing trip and I am so glad we decided to do it!  We took thousands of images while we were there, but these five emerged at the top!

Bison grazing at Sunrise

After this trip my new favorite animal is the bison!!  I completely fell in love with these giant lumbering creatures.  We had many amazing opportunities to be in the company of, get way too close to, observe and photograph bison in both Yellowstone and Grand Teton.  We were there during the rut and that was definitely something to witness.  Side note: don't find yourself in the middle of two rutting bulls - bad, bad idea ... we are OK though :-)!  We also saw and photographed Pronghorn, mule deer, elk, coyote, bald eagles and much more.  It was nice to concentrate on wildlife photography ... something we haven't done in way too long!

Yellowstone Bison