Nicole & Jonathon DePierre Wedding

Nicole & Jonathon live in Washington but came down to Florida to be with their families on their big day! Their wedding ceremony was held at the beautiful Holiday Inn Harbourside . It was such a windy day that when we tried to walk over to the beach it was so cold and hard to get pictures! But we definitely tried! The reception was definitely a blast with lots of singing and dancing and shots! Of course the party was complete with my favorite DJ, DJMC Brownie! Congratulations to Mr & Mrs DePierre!

Tiffany & Chanel: Country Photoshoot

One of my close friends, Ashley, asked me to photograph her beautiful nieces, Tiffany & Chanel. Chanel, the oldest, is her princess & Tiffany( Youngest) is her diva. That is totally apparent in their pictures too! Tiffany most definately had her diva-attitude turned on (: These were the cutest little girls and listened so well which made the photoshoot a blast.

Ashley wanted a country themed photoshoot, we were actually supposed to go to a ranch but we got lost and couldn't find it so we found a few spots on the side of the road we pulled over and used then finished in Phillipe Park! It turned out perfect. The country look was completed with white dresses, pink boots, pink cowgirl hats && A lace umbrella!

Data Backup PSA

I had a very long and upsetting weekend this past weekend. I'm posting this not only to try and get some help but also to bring this to others' attention.

First of all, let's start out with last Tuesday. My computer had been acting up and the hard drive (500gb) was full.
I decided it was probably time to get everything off my computer, organize && re-install windows on my computer. It was a 24 hour thing getting everything off my computer and making sure everything was backed up on the external 1tb hard drive. Once everything was off I re-did my computer and everything was great. Reinstalled photoshop and I was ready to begin editing again. Of course it was already Thursday by this time and was going to use my quiet weekend to get started on all the photos and transferring to my computer.

Saturday morning I woke up plugged in my external hard drive - the one I had transferred 500gb to. And guess what. Nothing happened. No drive was pulling up. I freaked. I plugged it into another computer and nothing. Took to a computer shop and my external hard drive with everything single bit of data on it was crapped out. There's something physically wrong and the data can not be read without sending out to specialist.

When I say every single bit of data- I mean EVERY BIT. My personal folders, ALL of my pictures ( holidays, vacations, family photos, my son's pictures, me and my fiance's pictures, every picture I have ever had), every single backup of photography photo sessions, photo sessions I had yet to edit.

Now I'm not asking for any pity. This is a lesson learned on my part and I wanted to share it so everyone else is aware of how technology can totally mess up everything up in a matter of seconds. I am now setting up a home server with 3 backups of everything and constantly doing backups of my computer hard drive. Also, everytime I have burned a CD for a client now, I am also making a copy for myself and placing in a CD booklet. Some may think this extreme but I NEVER want this to happen again.

Luckily there are some amazing computer programs and I was able to recover recent photos from my formatted hard drive so that I could atleast edit the photos I hadn't already. That is what was most important as I had a WEDDING- YES A WEDDING to still edit. I was able to recover it and my most recent portrait sessions and I am still running recovery programs to see what else it may find.

Since I was able to get the photos I am not rushing to fix the hard drive. Since it is physically damaged, it's going cost $1000 to fix. That's the major bummer. SO planning my wedding and everything at this point, I cant pay for that.

I am asking anyone that has a CD/DVD from me or any photos I have done in the last year, if you can send me a copy, it will mean A LOT to me. If it costs you for CDs/DVDs or to take anywhere to make a copy (anywhere that will make CD copies-walgreens walmart, office stores, etc) I will pay for the copy! I like to keep backups of files just incase anyone's photos ever get ruined and also just to have. If you are able to send me a copy- WEDDINGS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT TO ME PLEASE let me know. XtinaPhotography@gmail.com It will mean A LOT to me.

This concludes my PSA- You can never have TOO MANY backups!
Thank you all for being such great clients and understanding!

Yada & Kenny Stache Bash

Today I had the opportunity to take a few pictures at the Valle's babyshower. They had a stache bash for the the twins! It was definately an afternoon to enjoy with all the delicious food and cupcakes. They also had blank onesies and fabric markers for the guests to create custom onesies. Some were very creative! Also, Yada & Kenny revealed photos to the guests of the babyshower as very few have seen the beautiful boys yet. It was a wonderful shower and here are some of the pictures I captured and also a photo of the beautiful couple and I.

ALSO, please note how AMAZING Yada looks for just giving birth to twins!