Bryleigh - 1 Year

Well Bryleigh will officially be one year old on November 21, 2008, so I am a bit premature with this post... Since I will be out of town for her actual birthday I wanted to post now.

To say it was a great year would be an understatement. We have been blessed with the sweetest little girl. She is so calm and happy. There may have been 1 or 2 days throughout the whole year where she wasn't her typical smiling self. Even when she had a 105 degree fever (due to a UTI), she was smiling. We all love her sooooo much :-)!

Having a daughter has definitely changed me, for the better of course... Having boys has been a wonderful experience, but having a daughter has been extra special. Firstly, we found the name Brylee, but decided to change 'lee' to 'leigh' to honor the memory of my first daughter, Jourdan Leigh. Secondly, having a daughter has made me want to be a better man. It want to be an example of the man I would like her to be with someday. It is so easy to sit back and be worried/concerned for her future, but I am choosing to be a better example instead. Easier said than done somedays!! I know I am not perfect and have my shortcomings but I sure am making the best of it.

With that being said, I just want to wish Bryleigh Teresa Burke a Happy 1st Birthday!! Thank you for bringing so much joy to our lives. Thank you to Bridget (Mommy) and her 3 big brothers, Damon, Christian and Brayden. We all love you so much! Just think, next year at this time YOU will be a big sister too!! We love you baby girl!!!

Bryleigh at birth...


Bryleigh at 1 year....


**About the 1 year picture - I made this portrait yesterday 11/16/08 and decided to mess with Photoshop a bit. This image is way out of my comfort zone, but I am liking it. It is very rare that I extensively edit an image, but I think it is important to try new things and grow. Not sure if I will do any more like this soon, but it sure was fun! Hope you like it!**

Brittany and Josiah

Brittany and Josiah are getting married this January! We met at Peters Lake (which is where Josiah proposed to Brittany) for an engagement session. These two smiled and laughed the whole time! They are so comfortable with each other. I always enjoy watching couples interact on an engagement shoot. It is a great indication of how they will be on their wedding day. I am really looking forward to this January wedding! I am positive that it will be a beautiful day and we will have a lot of fun. Stay tuned for some wedding images...

In the meantime here are a few from the engagement shoot:

Shoot N Learn - December & Miscellaneous

Hey all! So we are mid November and I realize that I am not going to be able to have a SNL this month :( The good news is that we have been extremely busy/productive here and things are going great. I have also scheduled the next Shoot N Learn for Tuesday December 9, 2008, 6PM @ my studio. We will be SHOOTING this time! We will work in the studio, shoot, learn & have fun. Sound good? I hope to see you all there!!

In other news we have been shooting like crazy, editing, doing albums etc... Please bear with us if you are on our list.. We are getting to you soon ;-) We have experienced some growth lately and have been granted some incredible opportunities. Life is Good! I am headed to Cabo next week to shoot a wedding and am bringing along my good friend/photographer, Kenny Kim. Good Times for sure!

Home has been fun! Bryleigh will be 1 next week! I cannot believe it. She is so stinking cute! She smiles, 24/7. She is so smart and tries so hard to have a conversation. She will sit with me and just hang out for hours. She really loves her 3 older brothers too (and of course Mommy!). Each time one of us walk in a room, she lights up like a Christmas tree with Joy. She reminds me of how WE need to be. Much like the behavior of a dog that is unconditionally happy to see his owner, always! Please keep Bridget in your thoughts and prayers as she has not been feeling very well this first trimester. Hopefully she will be out of the sick days soon and be her happy self again. We love her no matter what! She is my hero for being able to maintain a household, keep the kids in line, keep ME in line all the while being sick constantly. I am the luckiest man around!

The more I think about having 5 children, the more excited I get. Each day I learn what is "Really" important and things that "Really aren't" important. Lots of fun.

OK, sorry for the tangent there. I need to blog more. I need about 24 extra hours a day. Thanks for letting me chat for a minute!

Can't post without a picture. Here is one from a recent family session.

LaMarr Woodley #56 Pittsburgh Steelers

I recently had the distinct pleasure to work with LaMarr Woodley of the Pittsburgh Steelers and his publicist Carmella Rackham of 5000 public relations in New York City.

When LaMarr walked in, he said, "What's up David?" I said, "Hi LaMarr. I figured we would be about the same size..." Insert Laughs here! He smiled and said, "Same size, huh?".. It was a good ice breaker. LaMarr is every bit of 6'2" and 265 lbs. Pounds of Muscle that is. Giant.

LaMarr Woodley is one of the hottest Linebackers in the NFL and was named NFL Defensive Player of the week for Week 7 this year. He also had an incredible college career with The University of Michigan. He is such a personable man and photographs extremely well. Working with LaMarr and Carmella was a joy and I look forward to working with them again in the future.

Here is one of my favorite images we created. This image is used with LaMarr's permission.




Keep your eyes out for LaMarr, he is doing great things!

David Burke Photographer Pittsburgh Steelers LaMarr Woodley

Shooting Lots

I have been shooting a lot lately and enjoying it tremendously. I have been working with such wonderful people. I am sooo far behind on blogging these shoots, but I wanted to drop a few recent images (that are a little different than what I normally shoot) and say Hello... So... 'Hello World!' Please tell me what you think!

Pics:

My Favorite Girls

My two favorite girls!

Hmm.. could be three I guess ;-). In case you haven't heard we are expecting again! We are so excited and will gladly accept boy or girl.

We spent the past two days in West Virginia and it was beautiful. Peaceful. I grabbed this shot as we we went to the creek to catch some crawfish. Bryleigh is such a cuddly girl. She loves to be close to Mom and me. Bridget says that she is a Daddy's girl. I think I agree, but nobody ever takes pictures of it. LOL.

The White Sessions

I love the clean simple portraits and I love Black and White. I have decided to do a few signature sessions for a limited time in the studio. The first of these sessions is The White Session. We are doing the White Sessions November 13-15 here in our studio. We have set times right now, but may expand the timeframes if needed.

The goal is to create clean, simple portraits of individuals, couples & families (1-4 max) while wearing white. We are working in 20 minute mini sessions on a grey or white background. Bring along your personality :-) Happy, Mad, Sad, Goofy. The choice is yours. We will have fun!

These portraits make great gifts for those that love you!

Please follow this link to the PDF and contact us if you would like to set up a session. I look forward to seeing you here at the studio!

Amanda and Lou - The Wedding

Wrapping up October 2008 with the wedding of Amanda and Lou. What a fantastic day they had! We started at the Omni William Penn Hotel for preparation shots and the rest of the day was spent at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Originally the ceremony was to be held outside, however the weather was being a bit fickle so a decision needed to be made early in the day to move it inside. This did not damper anything. It was beautifully done! We did get a bonus after the ceremony when the Sun came out for a bit and we were able to use the light for formals and some portraits. It was a win win all around!

The Metropolitans provided the entertainment and they rocked it! This wedding was a perfect fit for my style of shooting. We were literally in the shadows just documenting the day. It was great because no one paid attention to us :-) We captured so many fantastic moments!! Week in and week out this year we have been blessed. Thank you to all!

Amanda and Lou thank you for having us along on your day. It was perfect. Enjoy Cabo and please let me know when you return, so you can give me some tips! My next wedding stop is in Cabo!

Enjoy some images from the day.
Emotions after getting into the dress.


Capturing the mood entering the elevator


Amanda's gown is gorgeous


Amanda and her father. Priceless.


Lou looking GQ


I love this image of Amanda's father :-)


Taking advantage of the few sun rays we had available


David Burke Wedding Photographer - Children's Museum of Pittsburgh Wedding - Omni William Penn Wedding