Christopher O. Collins Photography

I had alot of fun photographing Rhonda & Brian’s wedding with photographer Christopher Bell of “The Cool”.  Rhonda, Brian, & I also go way back to freshman year in college at USM. Throughout the day I got a chance to see ALOT of familiar faces from college and t almost felt as if it was “Homecoming” already.  You know I really have to THANK alot of friends like Rhonda & Brian that I’ve met throughout my college career that have given me the opportunity to photograph one of the most important & special moments in their life. For this reason, whenever I photograph a friend’s wedding it always seems so much more personal than just “taking pictures”. I like adding that personal touch to each of my clients so its like i’m shooting a friend’s wedding every time. Sorry to digress people but I just had to add that in. Let us now proceed to the “good stuff” & check out some of my favorites from Rhonda & Brian’s special day. I hope you all enjoy & I look forward to reading your feedback!

I recently met up with a great couple Percy & Kimberly to do their engagement session. Instantly I could see and feel the unconditional love Percy & Kimberly have for each other. They go together like peanut butter & jelly! lol. Well we waisted no time getting into the session with both parties being equally excited. There was a location in the area I couldn’t wait to try out that was “perfect” for an engagement session & perfect for Kimberly & Percy. So we started out at the reservoir in Jackson, which is also where Percy proposed to Kimberly. I wanted to incorporate that significant location into their session and everything else just seemed to come together after that. After finishing up there we took a trip to the Renaissance mall in Madison to continue with the second half of the session. This is the location I really was looking forward to photography Kimberly & Percy. It was a different environment but different in a good way. We took photos here, there, & a little bit of everywhere including Books-a-million and at P.F. Changs (one of my favorite restaurants).

One of the things I liked most about Kimberly & Percy was that they were naturally comfortable in front of the camera which allowed me to truly capture their individual personalities as well as the strong chemistry between them. I think you all will agree with me when I say that you can tell from viewing these images that Percy & Kimberly are very much in love with each other. I hope you all will enjoy viewing these images as much as I enjoyed taking them. Please feel free to comment & share. I’m looking forward to reading your comments & thoughts!

Thanks again Percy & Kimberly, I’ll see you Dec. 11, 2010 for the wedding !!!

So the wedding season finally got kicked off for me this spring starting with two good friends of mine, Nick & Evette. We previously did an engagement session so the only thing left was the “Big Day”. You can click this link to view images from Nick & Evette’s engagement session . We began the day by getting a few pre-wedding shots of the bride & the bridesmaids getting ready for the ceremony & ended the day with one of the most memorable receptions I’ve shot to this date. I would have to say my favorite images were from the bride & groom portraits at the train depot & the dance floor shots during the reception. I hope you all enjoy these images from Nick & Evette’s special day!

Oh yeah I almost forgot, you have got to check out the groom’s cake. It was definitely one of a kind & you can guess what he does from the cake. lol.

Gotta love that groom’s cake!!! lol

Here is the latest collection of random images I have taken from the last couple of weeks. They consist of an evening at Kamper Park, a summer league baseball game, & a few other places around town.

One evening after work I decided I would drive around the city & see if I could find a couple of things to shoot. Well I ended up in downtown Hattiesburg where I encountered several independent vendors at a “Farmer’s Market”. One of the things that instantly struck me was the uniqueness of each vendor & the products or mechandise they had for sale. There was everything from homemade honey, jelly, & jams to goat jerky. I love beef jerky just as much as the next person but I don’t think i’m quite ready to venture off & cross over into the goat’s side of the fence (just yet). However, I was tempted to buy some of the “Goat Jerky’ just out of plain curiousity lol. Well anyway I  just wanted to share a few of these images with you all. While snapping a few of these shots it really was a great reminder to me of

1.why I love photography so much
2.why I got into photography in the first place.
3.how relaxing and therapeutic it is to just go out & photograph any & everything you see.
It’s definitely a good break from fashion, wedding, & portraiture styles of photography.

I had the opportunity to work with a fellow photographer, Derrick Hicks, whose work & shooting style I really admire for this wedding. I always enjoy working with other photographer’s because you get the chance to see things from another perspective & learn a few things.

I enjoyed meeting the bride & groom along with the wedding party, family members, & friends. One of the things that stood out to me about this wedding was that they released white dove’s as part of the wedding ceremony. I’ve always wanted to photograph the releasing of the dove’s since starting wedding photography so this wedding was the perfect moment. I also thought that the ice sculpture at the reception was pretty cool also.

Without digressing any further here are the images I have selected to share with you from Reginald & Lanea’s wedding. I hope you enjoy. Once again a big shout out to photographer Derrick Hicks for letting me shoot with you. I’m definitely looking forward to working with you again soon!

Well, well, well….what can I say? Larry & Sara tricked me lol. Larry & I are good college buddies that go back all the way to freshman year (BOND-HALL, SMTTT!!! ). I got a call from Larry one day saying that he & Sara wanted to just take a few photos together. Nothing to elaborate or formal. Well what do you know, right before we began the session they told me that they were going to California & getting married the very next week. So this “informal” not so “elaborate” portrait session turned into a full fledged Engagement session. I didn’t mind at all though & I was happy for them both (did I forget to mention SHOCKED as well). So anyway I mentally switched to “engagement session” mode & it was on from there. The park we were at was a really good location, especially as the evening sun began to set. I really love the images I captured of Larry & Sara. Trust me its not easy getting Larry to smile, its a very RARE event lol… I hope you all enjoy these images & don’t forget to leave your comments !

P.S.  CONGRATULATIONS MR. & MRS. LARRY GUSTA !!!

think I’m starting to take a liking to photographing “1st Birthday” Parties. There are just so many priceless first time moments to be captured during this celebration. Blowing out the candles for the first time, eating birthday cake, & of course opening birthday gifts. All for the first but certainly not the last time. When I think of turning 1yrs old or a first birthday party, it reminds me of this birthday card in one of our family photo albums back at home. The card is an image of a 1 yr. old with his bib, birthday hat, & a face full of birthday cake EVERYWHERE. So, every time I photograph a child’s first birthday party & get the “cake” shot, it takes me back down memory lane.

These images are from Kirsten’s first birthday party on April 25. I’ve known both of Kirsten’s parents (Josh & Christina) for several years now & we even took a couple of classes together back in college. So it was an honor when Christina asked if I would photograph the party & Kirsten’s christening. Everyone really enjoyed themselves & had fun watching Kirsten eating cake & opening her birthday gifts.

I hope you all enjoy these images. I have several favorites but the one that stands out the most of the black & white image of Kirsten looking up into the camera with a face full of cake lol. PRICELESS….

I had to pleasure of photographing another great engagement session with one more of my college buddies Reggie and his fiance’ LaDonna. This was probably one of my most laid back sessions to date. The only instructions I had for them was to just have fun & pretend like I wasn’t even there. As you can see from these images they did just that! I’m also glad that we chose to shoot down at the train depot. I’ve done several other portrait sessions there but each one is unique in its own way. It was really hard to choose which photos I wanted to share with you all but I’ve narrowed it down to the images below so enjoy !!! See you in September at the wedding & thanks again !!!

Well looks like the ground hog did see his shadow this year. On top of that the NEW ORLEANS SAINTS won the SUPERBOWL, AND…yet it SNOWED again in SOUTH MISSISSIPPI in the month of February which just so happens to be my birthday month as well. I can’t recall, in the 25 + years that I’ve been living, it snowing in February or for Valentine’s Day & on top of that it being one of the heaviest snow accumulations we’ve seen so far. I personally think that Global Warming has played a role in all of this abnormal/unusual weather we’ve been getting in the south the past few years, but that’s another discussion/debate for another time. Right now I would like to present to you some of the images I captured while venturing off into the wintery February snow we received this past Valentine’s Day weekend. After walking around for a few minutes & testing out camera settngs I then realized that it might be a good idea to get some type of protection for my sweet Canon (Canon 40D). There’s nothing worse than getting camera equipment wet when it can all be avoided. So needless to say I grabbed what I had nearby (a plastic Walmart bag) & off I go. I hope you all enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed taking them. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions. Your feed back is greatly appreciated!