I guess this means goodbye...

Hey!  I'm alive after over a month of blogging hibernation! I actually decided to quit writing my blog when we started getting busy photographing full time.  It just became too much to continually write and take & edit photographs for this blog and our photography website.  So, I made myself put my camera down one day, somewhere during our week in Maine, and told myself to just enjoy the last 3 weeks of our road trip and our new home in Charleston without journaling every move.  But, I figured that after writing nearly every day for 4 years, I should probably give this place a final farewell. 

 Before I officially say goodbye, I'll give one last Osteen update for ya!  We've been living in Charleston now for almost 2 weeks and renting an awesome house that's 0.2 miles from Folly Beach (oh yeah!), we have a lovable 8 year old 100 lb dog named Cash who wakes us up every morning by moving his big fat body up next to us so we can all spoon together, we officially own a business now and work from home - sometimes in our PJ's!  We have breakfast together and make coffee in our new Kourig in the mornings, we take walks on the beach with Cash every night after dinner (and sometimes go for a lil swim, since the ocean feels like a bathtub here!!!) and we just bought adorable beach cruisers, so now we go almost everywhere on our bikes!  We're busy, everyday, setting up the business, creating business cards, designing the website, finalizing our logo (Thanks Keri!)...updating our Aaron Nicholas Photography Facebook page and ANP Instagram pages (which we'd love for you to "like" and be a part of if you're not already), meeting with business tax guys, having coffee with wedding planners and other wedding photographers, and enjoying every single second of it! (Weddings are definitely on the brain these days.)

So, I may not be updating here on my beloved blog anymore, but I will however continue to update my personal Facebook and Instagram accounts with photos around town and on future adventures, so feel free to follow me there. :)  Let this not be a goodbye, but a see ya around instead!

www.Facebook.com/JillHoppyOsteen

www.Instagram.com/JillOsteen

Love, Jill

Dave and Meagan at Beomeosa!

We've completed our final photo shoot of the year and can not wait to see what 2013 brings our way!

Introducing Dave and Meagan

Sneak Peak of Meagan and Dave

Aaron and I had a photo shoot with Meagan (originally from Texas) and Dave (originally from Perth) this afternoon at Beomeosa Temple, and there was actually a little bit of SNOW! The 4 of us romped through the snow, slid on the ice, and froze our little tushies off in the freezing temperatures, but it was all worth it, and all for the sake of beautiful photos like this one!

The full post will be up soon at Aaron Nicholas Photography, so be on the lookout!

Bobby + Jestine

I am so excited to reveal our engagement photo shoot with Bobby and Jestine from a couple weeks ago!  They were so much fun to work with and were complete naturals in front of the camera!  I think my friend Katie Olson said it best when she said, "I'm in love with their love..."  They really are the sweetest!

Gary and Sharon!

Aaron and I have been super busy, every weekend, building our photoraphy portfolio for when we come back to the US next year!  Last weekend we did an engagement shoot for a darling Irish couple named, Gary and Sharon!  Check it out!

 FULL POST HERE

Funny kids!

Last Saturday, after the baseball game, Anne, Jinho, Aaron and I all drove over to Gwangali Beach together to get in a photo shoot of the two of them! 

We love how they turned out! 

Full post here!

My co-teacher's family!

Check out the photo's that Aaron and I did of my co-teacher's neice and nephew at a park on Yeong-do a couple weeks ago!  I'm pretty sure Korean kids are some of the cutest on the planet!

Full post here:

 Aaron Nicholas Photography

 

Help us choose a name!

If you don't follow me on Facebook, you may not know that Aaron and I are in the process of choosing a name for our beloved photography company in the making. We've narrowed it down to 4 names and are asking our family, friends, blog readers, and future brides through WeddingBee to give us their input.  It's important to us that we hear all sides and opinions.  So, that's where you come in!  We need your help, so let us know which name you think is best! 

1. Aaron Nicholas Photography (Nicholas is Aaron's middle name)

2. Red Elephant Photography

3. Plus One / +One Photography

4. Osteen Photography

Vote by commenting below - and feel free to do it anonymously!  We won't judge! :)

Jess and Mayo's photo shoot!

Last weekend, between eating delicious food, playing cards, drinking craft brewed beer, chatting about life and love, hiking, walking, picnicking on the rooftop, and shopping with Jess and Mayo in Seoul, we were able to sneak in a photo shoot near the Han River!  Between the two of our cameras, Aaron and I had well over 100 photos that we absolutely loved!  How could we not, with such a stunning couple who ooz so much love, passion, and adoration for one another?! 

Click below to see

Jess and Mayo

... and if you look really carefully, Jess's growing baby bump! 

Love you two!

Sam and Al - photoshoot!

Last Saturday, Aaron and I did a photo shoot of a darling married couple named Al and Samantha.  We are still loving building our photography business portfolio and getting all this experience (and meeting great people - a HUGE PERK!)!  Also, I'm proud to say that I've moved from primary photo director (which I thought would be my strength) to the PD/assistant photographer! :) Aaron's been teaching me a lot as we figure out where our strengths are and what our roles will be when we move back to the US and now I'll be behind the camera just as much as him, which I think I love!   All that to say, we just posted our photo shoot of Al and Samantha to our photography blog!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL POST

We're published online!

After smoothing things over with Busan Haps Magazine, Aaron and I were asked if we would be interested in putting together a "photo essay" to be featured on their website.  We quickly threw together some of our favorite photos of the tribeswomen and children living in Sapa, Vietnam and sent it over to the photo editor.  Our submission was accepted, and today, the article went live!  Pretty darn exciting! 

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!

Baby Trip

The photo's of our inagural newborn baby photo shoot are up on the blog!  

You don't wanna miss this one!

Click HERE!

I'm published...

... Or not?!  

Yesterday, Aaron and I went to get massages at an AWESOME Thai place in Nampodong... Ahhh, splendid bliss if you ask me... but that's beside the point!  

As we were waiting for our masseuses, I grabbed the Summer issue of 

Busan Haps Magazine...

...and began flipping through the pages, when to my surprise, I came upon a photo that looked oddly familiar.  I quickly grabbed my iphone and pulled up my Guinsa Temple Blog entry, which I had written back in 2010, and sure enough, the photo printed in the magazine was one that I took when I did a temple stay there.... stolen right off my blog!  

What the heck Busan Haps?!  No one ever contacted me and asked if I would mind if they used it, and I surely wasn't sent a paycheck, or even given a simple photo credit!  WOW!  That's shady business if you ask me! 

It gets better (or worse, depending on how you look at it) because when I got home and went to their website to write them an e-mail about the issue, I typed in Guinsa Temple and there was an online article published as well, but this time, it had ANOTHER one of my photos, stolen from my blog. 

Don't worry, I wrote up an invoice and sent it right on over to Busan Haps Magazine's publisher!  We'll see what they say.

So, am I technically published, or not?!  hmmmm

*** UPDATE: I received two VERY nice e-mails this morning, one from the photo editor and another from the chief editor of Busan Haps Magazine, apologizing for the oversight of including my photo without consent and agreed to compensate me for using the photos.  They also added a photo credit to their website photo. 
It's official, Busan Haps is back on my good side!   

Photographs galore!

Aaron just went through and edited about 100 photos from our trip back home, and our honeymoon in Europe!  You can check them out on our photography blog!

www.AaronNicholasPhoto.Blogspot.com

Check it out!

The photos of Dave and Meg have been posted to our photography blog!  :) I'm so excited about how they all turned out! 

aaronnicholasphoto

Meg and Dave

Aaron and I had the pleasure of doing an anniversary photoshoot with Meg and Dave Rushbrook for their 5 year wedding anniv!  They happened to have come to Korea at the exact same time as us, 3 1/2 years ago, yet we had never gotten together until now because they live on the far, far, far end of Busan!  :(

We decided to meet at a bus stop on the back of Yeongdo island and hike to our location, which happened to be about 200-300 steps down to the beach... great on the leg muscles!  Luckily, we were able to stop and take a couple breaks on the beautiful pathway leading down to snap some photos!  Here's a lil sneak peak of the photoshoot.  Wait till you see Aaron's photos!  Eeekkkk!  Stunning, as always! 

They are totally in love and you can tell with every kiss!  Anytime we would snap a kissing photo, Dave would ask if we needed another take!  It was so cute and endearing. He definitely adores his wife!

I happened to have discovered this beach on Wednesday when I was out jogging around the island.  I completely fell in love and knew it would be perfect for a photoshoot!  Problem is, there's no easy way to get down there, or back up for that matter, but when Meg and Dave said they loved the location and didn't mind the trek, I was thrilled!  Meg went above and beyond and packed and ENTIRE picnic for the shoot!  Then, after the sun went down, the four of us got comfy on the blanket and chatted for a long time while the waves crashed nearby and the moon lit up the water!  It's was GORGEOUS!!!

    

We were having so much fun getting to know each other that they asked if they could take us to coffee before they headed home!  We weren't about to turn down a coffee date, especially with these two! :)  So, we spent the next two hours in a coffee shop on the island laughing and sharing stories!   It was such a fun, fun night with these two!  The full photo shoot will be up on www.aaronnicholasphoto.blogspot.com in the next week or so, so be looking out! 

Adam + Ashley Sneak Peak!

The photo's are up of our photoshoot with Adam and Ashley!  ENJOY

www.aaronnicholasphoto.blogspot.com

Let's do this thing!

Aaron and I have talked a lot about what we would do for jobs when we move back to the US one day.  I seemed to always revert back to being an admin assistant, while he would throw around things like: being a teacher, a personal trainer, or something related to sports... but would always say that his DREAM is to do photography full time!  I am such a HUGE fan of his work that I couldn't resist being supportive of him pursuing this DREAM!  

So with that, I'd like to officially introduce the humble beginnings of our new business and photography blog!

Remember to save it as a favorite place, or subscribe by e-mail, to see what we're up to!  

If you happen to live in Busan or are planning to be in the area, and are looking to have some photo's taken, shoot us an e-mail, or leave a comment on the blog and we'll work on setting something up!  We're currently offering FREE photo shoots as we are building our portfolio!  Free photo's for you, free practice for us! :)  I'd call that a win win!

Ashley and Adam

Aaron and I have been pretty seriously throwing around the idea of starting a photography business when we eventually move back to the US.  How could we possibly work an 8-5 office job after all the freedom we've had for the past 3 1/2 years!  Plus, we love the creativity of photography, and would rather be together than not during the day, so why not try doing something we love, and do it together, right?!  

We're pretty sure we'll end up settling in Charleston, SC, and lucky for us, there happens to be a good market for wedding photography in that area!  With that said, we figured we'd get our feet wet (literally) and get a little practice in.  Our sweet friends Ashley and Adam allowed us to do a couple's photoshoot with them for 2 1/2 hours!  Hey, free photo's for them, free practice for us!  It's a win win! 

We decided to meet up at Da Daepo Beach, on the west end of Busan.  Pretty, right?!

 I ended up being more of an artistic director, while Aaron snapped photos, which was really fun for me and actually more my speed!  I did, however, snap a few of my own little behind the scenes photos, just for kicks! These solo shots of Adam (& later Ashley) turned out REALLY stunning! 

You'll have to wait to see those though!  SORRY!

They were so fun to work with!  Neither of them had ever done something like this, but with a little direction, they were total pros!

Aaron climbed up on this huge rock to get them from above. (Another EPIC pic that you'll have to wait on!) 

Oh yes, there was a dirty dancing move!

Lots of laughing was involved in making this one work!  The final photo is really cool!  They look like couple ice skaters that just happen to be practicing their lifts on the beach! ***
I'm not sure I'd be as brave as Ash!   Props to these two!

I snapped this one while Aaron was changing his lens!  How great is this heart rock that Aaron found as we were walking along the beach!  

More behind the scenes of Ashley and Adam...

I had to get in a little artistic shot between giving directions to the gorgeous couple! :)

The sun was setting perfectly in front of them as we were working on this shot.  The one Aaron got of them kissing with the sun between them makes me practically drool!  

Another fun one that I caught between positioning them!

Aaron's going to be working on putting together a little photography blog for us in the next week or so, so you can check there to see the final pics!  I'll keep you posted when it's up and running!

HUGE thank you to Adam and Ashley for being our guinea pigs!  You guys were AWESOME!

Yoga photos!

Aaron didn't have ANY classes yesterday (LUCKY), which gave him plenty of time to choose some photos from the weekend to edit!  I love how they turned out!  He hasn't finished editing some of my favorites: the blurred bicyclists in front of Dawn and Jess, and the roof shot of Dawn, but here's some eye candy for ya to enjoy for now!

....and the crew that made it all happen! :)