Engagement | Champaign and Urbana wedding photographer

Champaign and Urbana wedding photographer | Holly Birch Photography bio picture

Welcome to my blog!

Hey! Thanks for coming to my blog! If you're here as a bride or groom, I hope you like what you see. I'd love to meet with you in person to talk about your wedding day and how I can help you. I love photographing weddings and hope that shows in my work!

Things I love: the Illini, the color orange, lobsters, my husband, my son, weddings, my Nikon D700, socks, my dogs, Johnny Cash, American Idol, my iMac, The Sound of Music, Hereford cattle, a pair of good-fitting jeans, the Food Network, & macaroni and cheese (and my Grandma Hazel wants me to add her in here too).

Scroll down to view images from recent weddings and sessions! Also, be sure to "like" my Facebook page to keep up with announcements & specials!

Category Archives: Engagement

May 17, 2012

Julia + Mike | Champaign engagement photography

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Julia + Mike are getting married in August, and I am so excited to be a part of their day. Mike has been a good friend of mine for many years, and I actually met Julia for the first time at my own wedding in 2009. I’m so happy that they’ve found each other, and though I don’t know Julia as well as I know Mike, I could tell just from their engagement session that they are perfect together. They are just the right mix of serious and quirky, and they compliment each other so well. Also, Julia has her own line of handbags, so be sure to check out her site!

On to the photos! We started at West Side Park & ended at the Idea Garden by the Arboretum. Thanks to my friends Stef & Sheila for tagging along with us too.

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Tags: Champaign, e-session, Engagement, Idea Garden, Urbana, West Side Park

May 8, 2012

Samantha + Jacob | Mahomet Lake of the Woods engagement session

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Fourth time’s a charm! We had to reschedule Samantha & Jacob’s engagement session 3 times due to the weather this spring! Crazy! First there was rain, then more rain, and then finally tornado warnings, so we kept having to put it off. Then finally on our fourth scheduled date, the clouds parted and we had some beautiful weather for their session. I had a great time getting to know them prior to their wedding, even though they are Packers fans.

The first shot here is actually my first successful Brenizer method shot (for the photogs out there!), and I’m happy with how it turned out, but know I have a lot more practice to do. Using Brett Maxwell’s calculator, this image is the equivalent to a 24mm f.52. Amazing!!

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Tags: Brenizer, e-session, Engagement, Lake of the Woods, Mahomet

January 31, 2012

Lara + Mike | Champaign engagement photography session

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Lara & Mike sought me out for an engagement session recently, and I had an assistant come along to help me so I could shoot some video while she was doing stills. I’m learning more about my HD movie capabilities the more I use my camera, and these are so fun to do and put together! I think I’m going to start offering the videos as an add-on to engagement and portrait sessions. So if you’re interested in having one of these done, definitely let me know!!

Lara + Mike from Holly Smith on Vimeo.

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Tags: Champaign, e-session, Engagement, video

January 23, 2012

Like us on Facebook!

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Hey blog readers! I know many people read my photo posts over here, and many others also ready my Facebook fan page posts, so I’m trying to close the gap a bit. If you are reading this, would you please “like” Holly Birch Photography on Facebook? As a fan, you’ll get more up-to-date announcements, sales, and just day-to-day tidbits of information (in fact, there’s a sale going on there right now!). Thanks so much!

Here’s a photo from my most recent engagement session which I will hopefully be finishing and posting in the next couple of days.

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Tags: Engagement, facebook, sale

October 26, 2011

Heidi + Matt | University of Illinois campus engagement photography

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Heidi + Matt are so cute together. They were both a little nervous about having their photos taken, but they did a great job. Heidi has an exuberance about her non-stop so she didn’t quit smiling the whole time. Matt on the other hand has more of a grin, and I told him he was giving me a George Strait vibe. We started their session at the UI Arboretum Hartley Gardens, then made a trip to the outdoor steps at Krannert, followed by a quick stop at the Busey-Evans dorm which holds a special place in their hearts.

Also, a fun tidbit about Matt… He and I both used to show Herefords at the State Fair at about the same time. Small world!