BANFII - logged!

I had written about Kimblee and Tre a while back! I had the privilege of shooting their wedding in Hattisburg, MS. Not a bad flight to Jacksonville and the drive to Hattisburg was quite enjoyable as well.

Ok, here's a story for photographers that do a lot of destination weddings. 1. Quad-triple check your gears before you leave, 2. Quad-triple check your clothing before you leave (make sure you have your pants, your suit is truly a suit and not a Blazer, your belt and socks are intact), 3. You want to make sure you pay CLOSE attention whenever you drive and follow people from one location to another so you remember to how get from one point to another 4. Repeat points 1 - 3.

Here's the story; I went to the mall with Kimblee and her sister to get images of her getting her hair and make-up done. I returned back to the hotel at 2 PM and decided to take a shower and get ready for the day since I was scheduled to meet the wedding party at the Church for 3:30 PM. Then the day truly began...drama!

Got ready to put on my suit and noticed that my pants had dropped out of the hanger way back in Kansas City and had not noticed it. The only other pair of pants I had would have worked but things have to match you know...can't wear non-matching stuff to a wedding! It was already 230 PM. Boy, Kim was not going to ever find out about this so I got partially dressed in my jeans, shirt, tie and "blazer". I got my gear and headed out to the mall (hopefully I still remember how to get there).

Long story short, I was able to get to the mall, purchased a pair of matching pants for my "sports coat" and arrived at the church at 3:15 PM. Not a single wedding party at the church. Guess what, Kim complemented me on the way I looked :) She didn't hear the story until she came to pick up her proofs!!!

"Class Act" - my words to describe Shannon & Curt!!! Shannon is what you would consider a perfect bride :)

Shannon was so care-free on her wedding day and it appeared nothing could get to her and as such, she was able to enjoy herself and so did Curt!

What a small world! Fola's parents are good friends of my folks and she had worked and lived in small town Ottawa, KS, a mere 30 mins drive from my home for several years with either of us not knowing until she wrote to inquire about our services. Dele on the other hand had cousins who were school mates of mine at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO.

Needless to say, no week goes bye now without a family gathering of some sort!

It's been ages since I posted out here! As it is, I have a lot of catching up to do with regards to keeping you current with the events of the past 8 months! Life has been good!

To my sidekick, Bass, thank you so much for your faith, trust and encouragement! It is a good feeling when one's spouse believes so much in one's ability :)

To my friend Keith, thank you so much for helping me get back on track. You've been an amazing friend and your unselfishness with regards to photography has been wonderful and refreshing!

To my pastor, Pastor Cal Lawanson, thank you for keeping it REAL!

OK, here we go: AFRICA was a blast! Caroline & Richard's wedding was nothing but perfect!!!

Although I had planned on visiting some orphanages in East Africa, I was unable to due to time constraints BUT, I visited the Kirikiri Maximum Women's prison in Nigeria where there 8 kids between ages 3 weeks to 2 years of age that were born right there at the prison. Images and complete story will follow!!!

Now to weddings from the past 8 months....:)

For more than a year now, I had known that I would be getting on a plane and flying to East Africa to shoot Richard & Carolyne's wedding. My trip will take me to Kenya where I would be shooting the traditional Engagement ceremony on July 24th. A couple of days later, I would be flying into Entebbe, Uganda in preparation for the wedding ceremony which is scheduled to take place on July 28th. On July 29th, I will be on my way home to Nigeria.

For a very long time now I've prayed for the opportunity to be able to impact the lives of the less fortunate people of my continent. As a lot of photographers would agree, going to Africa under these circumstances is the ultimate dream...the opportunity to create images that are artistically rich because of the different environment. Some would talk about it with pride and hopefully gain the envy of their peers.

Think about these numbers:

• Orphans in Kenya due to AIDS - 1,100,000
• Orphans in Uganda due to AIDS - 1,100,000
• Orphans in Nigeria due to AIDS - 930,000
• An estimated 350 million to 500 million clinical malaria cases and more than one million malaria deaths occur each year, the vast majority of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 80% of malaria deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and the large majority of these are in children younger than five years of age.

Worldwide stats for children

• 28 Million children die from easy curable diseases each year
• 17 million children die from malnutrition and starvation each year
• 1/3 of the world population is malnourished
• 20% of the world has no access to safe water at all
• 40% have no sanitation
• 10 million children are involved in the sex industry
• 100 million children are on the streets
• 200 million child labourers
• 1.4 million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV

So, how could I be excited about going Africa to make money or better my career when my folks are dying from Malaria a disease that can be prevented by a little as a $1.00 insecticides or insecticide sprayed mosquito nets?

I've always prayed for the opportunity to be able to go back to Africa and be a difference in the life of a single child. So, I believe that the Lord finally answered my prayers and is allowing me to go back home and do what I've always desired.

Over the years, I've had a lot of my clients ask me "How can I help?" Well, Carolyne & Richard have promised to take me to as many orphanages as I would like to visit. My intention is to take with me as many children's clothing and insect repellant as I can carry. I truly believe in my heart that we can all help. It does not matter where these children are based. I believe we can slowly start to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate.

A few of you know that between the ages of 4 and 9, while my parents were in the U.S. attending school, my siblings and I stayed with one of our uncles in a rather remote area of Nigeria. Even at that tender age, I can still recall how difficult life was. I say this because, despite that we had the resources and family members to depend on, life was never really the same without our parents being around. But there are millions of African children out there without parents that would ever come back home. Try that fact with an impending disease that could take your life!

I believe that together we can change the world! When I was 7 years old, I can recall walking about a mile to get to school. I remember being in a classroom where there were probably 60 other students. I remember the floor being without any carpeting - just your regular red clay. I remember that at 10 years of age, I could hardly read a word from my English text book. I can still recall giving my lunch to a classmate so he could teach me how to read. 38 years later, with the Lord as my rock and shield, with a lot of you that have positively impacted my life, I can truly say that because of the opportunities I've been given and the helping hands along the way, my life has been forever changed for good!

Please come to Africa with me! Please come on this trip with me! You can make donations to world organizations that provide treatments for children in Africa that are orphaned and infected with AIDS. You can walk into a Wal-Mart or one of your favorite grocery stores and purchase a can of Insect Repellant. You can give a dollar. Whatever action you take today, I guarantee you, one child's life could be forever changed because you cared. I can take your items with me. You can send children's clothing, repellants, mosquito nets, whatever you believe the Lord is laid on your heart. Somehow, I will figure out a way to haul everything to Kenya and Uganda. In return, I promise I would post here images of little children smiling because you've touched their lives in an unimaginable way! 

If you care enough to send anything you can ship them to:

Roland Omoresemi

12905 W. 138th Street, Overland Park, KS 66221

Below are links to Organizations where you can personally make a donation:

http://www.childinfo.org/areas/malaria/

http://www.savethechildren.org/programs/health/hiv-aids/global-epidemic.html

http://www.amref.org/index.asp?PageID=41

http://www.abaana.org/resources/statistics.cfm

Kimblee & Tre are getting married on July 14th in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This would be my first trip to Mississippi and I'm very excited to have been selected to be the photographer at their wedding.

I met Kim & Tre through my friends at House of Diamonds - Gene & Karen! I had shot their wedding sometime in the summer of 2005 and it is amazing how they've now become one of my strongest referral base.

Tre is a tackle with the Kansas City Chiefs and besides his passion for football, Tre and Kim's love for Christ was something that struck me during our first meeting. I can refer to myself as always being on fence where my faith is concerned because I know that I often don't run and walk as I should. But when my clients profess their faith as these two did, it goes a long way in getting me back on track and in acknowledging to whom I owe all that I am.

Their wedding is taking place at Mt. Olive Baptist Church and the reception at the beautiful Hattiesburg Lake Terrace Convention Center.

See their Guestbook images

I got call a few months ago- "I've got this beautiful couple getting married in Nassau, Bahamas but we only need you for the reception." So, I'm like what's up with this picture?" Why would you want "Snap Shots" to take your client's wedding images at Sandals? Needless to say, Kelly and her mom came over and after seeing my work, they decided to bring me along with them to shoot their wedding!

I showed up at Sandals at 7:30 AM - this time riding with another personable cab driver - Dennis (see the previous post). Upon dropping me off, I walked into the reception and introduced myself to the receptionist - ", "uncle Roland", the only black relative the Duncan's have in their clan!

Before John (Kelly's Dad) arrived, I took a walk around the resort and got some images of the whole area. This later turned out to be a brilliant move as it the whole resort looked totally different once people woke up.

John picked me up from the reception area and we headed out to their cafeteria where we had some nice breakfast. As if he knew I was hungry, the list of breakfast items was endless. Lynn, Kelly's mom, joined us a little after 8 AM. Together we headed out to Kelly's dressing room.

I worked with Kelly and Jason until 1:30 PM! I am glad that Kelly and her mom saw something interesting in my work that made it convincing enough for them to invite me and my family to come along! I enjoyed myself tremendously and feel truly blessed that these couple would invite me to be a part of their big day!

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So, its been almost a year since I posted here! I've had several of you contact me regarding the pathetic effort I had put into updating this blog. Please forgive me! Over the course of the last 8 months, I've gone through what I would consider to be some life changing experiences. From all perspectives, I can truly say that these past few months have been some of the most important months of my life. Now to a lighter subject. 

I had an opportunity to shoot a wedding in the Beautiful island of Nassau, Bahamas on June 6th. What made the trip so special was that I was able to bring my family along with me.

Last year, my alsmost 4 years old son Myles and his mom traveled to London to spend the summer and I missed out on the opportunity to see his reaction while on a long distance flight. This time around despite the short stay, I wanted to make sure that I brought them along with me...Maya our 7 months old daughter was able to go on her first long distance flight...she did amazingly well!

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It felt like home coming at Leah & Cory's wedding this past weekend. Danielle & Brad Jodts (who had referred them to me) were in attendance and so were their parents.

I remember telling Leah a few weeks ago that we would end up with a perfect weather as God would have it, it turned out to be the most beautiful day of fall!

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Ok, some of you know that I had been searching for a new car for a VERY long time now. For the last 4 or 5 years, I had talked about changing my car to something closer to my dream car!

In the last few years, I had often thought I would get a Mercedes E320, a Jaguar XJ8, Hummer H3, an Infinity FX35...the list is endless to the extent that my wife stopped taking me seriously regarding what I would end up buying.

But the search was over a couple of weeks ago. I purchased something closer to my dream car a Mercedes Benz E430

Getting this car has been a major dream in the making and with my faith in God regarding my finances, we could not have asked for a better year financially to make the purchase. This is a testimony of the great things God is doing in my life and in my family!

See Promotional Video created with Candace & Craig's Wedding Images

I wrote about Carrie and Pat several months ago when they booked with us. Carrie had been referred by a recent bride and during our initial consultation we soon discovered that I had shot several of her friend’s weddings.

In trying to determine a location for their after-wedding shots, I recommended going to a beautiful garden at the back of a church where I had recently shot a wedding. It turned out that Carrie's parents actually got married at the same church...needless to say that we were all thrilled about being able to tie it all together!

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Since June 17th, I've shot at least 10 weddings, survived a terrible accident, stayed home alone while my family visited London for 3 weeks, added a deck to my home, started a patio project, purchased some 9 pairs of shoes...the list is endless. In all of this, I'm grateful to God for His mercies and blessings!

When I started with this blog, I imagined I would be able to keep a daily journal thereby keeping my friends, family and clients abreast with what's going on in my world. But I did get caught up and became rather too busy for my own good. I will take the time to reflect on a few major mile stones from the previous months:

1. On August 13th while returning home from Springfield, MO, my car hydro planed off the road into the shoulder and into an embankment. Although I had survived another life threatening accident once before in my life, this time around I was in the driver's seat. Without going into too much details, I came out of the wreck without a scratch but with a severe whiplash and $8K worth of damages to my wife's car. More than anything, I'm extremely grateful to God for sparing my life!

2. July Bridal Show: Over the years I had comtemplated on several ideas on how to better reach my photography target audience. One of the things that had come to mind is having former clients represent me at a bridal fair. This past July, that wish came true as three beautiful former clients helped showcase our work to new brides. The results have been encouraging! 

3. Amazing Couples & beautiful images: The last few months have also brought us numerous opportunities to work with some amazing couples. I plan to display all of their images here in my blog within the next couple of weeks. From Carrie & Pat to Jennifer & Jake - the whole 9 yards!

4. In a few weeks, we would be opening another chapter in our lives - the world of web development for my peers - other photographers! Stay tuned!

5. Purchased a 5D a couple of weeks ago and I can't seem to get enough of it!

6. Some interesting weddings and travel opportunities coming up. The next few weeks are going to be interesting - weddings in St. Louis, Tulsa, back to St. Louis, then to Virginia Beach, back to St. Louis then finally here - with our last wedding of the year taking place on November 4th!

We are also excited about some interesting opportunties on the books for next year - a multi-country destination wedding opportunity in July of 2007 - Carolyne & Richard's wedding in Nairobi, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda. The engagement ceremony is scheduled to take place in Kenya and the ceremony a few days later in Uganda.

So, here we are, back to square one!