Selene's Kansas City Plaza Wedding Portrait - Sneak Peek!

Hey everybody!

Tomorrow I'm going to tell you all about my old friend Selene! She's quite the coolest, and I'm super excited to share her snow portraits with you all!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

[B] School get together with NWA photogs

Hey everybody!

Northwest Arkansas has been a great place for photographers lately. Because of the [b] school we've found an easy way to connect with each other and become pretty close. For the past year we've hosted a number of get togethers - and I think we've got a great group of friends forming. I love the direction we're heading.

Wednesday, our group got together for some awesome bowling action at FastLane. For the most part, we were terrible. But we clowned around and had a great time. I have to give props to Mere, who beat us all both games. It was a bit of an anomaly, as she claims she's not very good.

Check out some fun shots from the evening. If you're a photographer in NWA who has a great attitude and wants to hang with the cool kids, sign up for the bschool and send us a club invite request.

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Here's Ashley McCarty, Mindy Worthington, Ashley, Geoff Duncan, Kristin Hartness, and me on top.

He doesn't even stick his fingers in the holes.

Mere, Ashley, Mindy, and Rachel Blackwell

Rachel eyeing our little pizza. Excuse me, I think we ordered the large.

Geoff doing his part.


Mindy fell on the follow through, but got a strike... so...

Geoff thought he'd hit the deck too. It didn't work.

Mindy wasn't drunk. AT ALL.

Best Website Award!

Hey everybody!

I'm stoked to announce that we won the contest for best engagement website through Showit, our website company. We didn't know we were nominated until a photographer emailed me and said she voted for me. The winner was supposed to be announced on my birthday last week, but wasn't, so I was eargerly waiting the results. Then, I got the email that went a little something like this...



Cool right? Here's the winning website: http://brittanyandchase.net/

If you're one of our engaged couples and want your very own website, we can hook you up! Email me for details!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Landy's Senior fashion shoot in Ft Smith (pt 2)

Hey everybody!

As promised, more fabulous and fun portraits of our fashionable senior, Landy, from Fort Smith. How's that for alliteration?










Apparently Meredith kept her cracking up, which is GREAT for pictures! Great job, Mere!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Landy's Senior fashion shoot in Ft Smith

Hey everybody! Here's a sneak peek of what's coming tomorrow. Meredith went to Fort Smith to shoot Landy's senior portraits. Remember Landy? She is a super fashionable senior we photographed a few months ago, and got to photograph her again where she's from. We don't shoot many portraits in Ft Smith, so it was refreshing to have all those AWESOME alleys and buildings as backdrops.

Check out more tomorrow!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

My own iPhone App!! Download it free!

Hey everybody!

How exciting is this?! Benfield Photography has its own App in the iTunes store!
We have some pretty sweet plans for this. It already has a photo of the day (so check it everyday for the new photo), an easy way to contact me, tips for photographers AND brides, and some other cool features. We're going to be doing a couple specials (we NEVER do specials!) through the app, so make sure and download it to your iPhone or iPod touch.

How do you get the app? Search the app store for Benfield is probably the easiest way - that's the way I put it on my phone. Or, just click the icon image below.

Click this link to download:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/benfield-photog/id355399564?mt=8



Screenshot:




Talk to you soon,
Dale

Army Wife's secret session ~ Arkansas Boudoir Photography

Hey everybody!

Here's what I love...
Meredith has developed a very unique style when it comes to boudoir. She's not that "one kind" of boudoir photographer. Instead, she keeps it classy; she keeps it creative; and she keeps it unique. All the while keeping it sexy.

Today's session is of an Army wife who is surprising her army man with these amazing images. Pretty sure if Mere sent me some while I was overseas, I'd run, jump, and swim back to America! Ha ha!

Take a look! Leave a comment!








Talk to you soon,
Dale

View Mere's Secret Session Website
P.S. We got permission to show her face in these - so don't go thinking you shouldn't do one b/c you don't want the world to see. :)

Sexy Sneak Peek! Arkansas Boudoir Photography

Hey everybody!

Tomorrow on the blog we're going to have a secret session Mere photographed at the Pratt Place Inn in Fayetteville Arkansas. Here's a sneak peek from her boudoir session:



Come back tomorrow for a full post!
Talk to you soon,
Dale

STDs - the other kind.

Hey everybody!

My abbreviation for Save the Date has raised eyebrows on many occasions. I love STDs. ;)

Mere and I used to love doing save the date cards and magnets for our clients. That is, until we got way too busy for all the other stuff we were doing. I did, however, just do one for Tom and Emily, but only because he's my childhood best friend of a million years. Yes, I'm a million years old. Here's a fun shot of that one. Feel free to steal this design. You won't hurt my feelings because, again, we don't really do stds.




So, I realized today that I never announced this on my blog - and it's kind of a big deal. If you use the most amazingly talented and wonderfully creative paper designer, Queen of Wedding Invitations and Save the Dates, Amy Hannon, we will give the full resolution files of the needed images FREE of charge! Yep, free. Why the heck would we do that? Because she will make our images look gooooooooooooood. I mean, even better! :)

I 100% hope that you do a save the date, and I %200 hope that you use Sincerely Yours to design and print it. Everybody wins!

She's the freakin' best.

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Ask Me Anything! Anonymously!

Hey everybody!

I get lots of questions from photographers every day. Normally they are in an email or FB message, and most of them are the same questions I've gotten before. If you're a photographer and would love to ask me a question about shooting, business, or whatever - head over to formspring.me/dalebenfield and type in a question. It's anonymous so nobody will know it was you. :)

Also, if there is something you want LOTS of info about you might suggest a blog topic for me! Obviously, I love blogging, and I love helping out photographers, so let's take care of two birds with one stone!

Lastly, if you're too lazy to go to the link, I put a box on the right column of the blog that you can type your question into.

Have a great day!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Hello Luvah!

Hey everybody!

I can't wait for March 6th! Our super fabulous bride brought these girls to her bridal session. While I can't show you any bridal portraits, she did say that her lucky groom has seen these shoes, and gave me permission to put them out into the world. Oh how I love Christian Louboutin shoes - and these rockstars are about the best I've seen!

Oh, I can't wait!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Dallas Boudoir Sessions - this weekend!

Hey everybody!

There are two spots left for Dallas this Sunday at the amazing Hotel Zaza! If you're going to be in Dallas this weekend and want to snatch one of these, reserve your spot by clicking the following link. You don't have to have a paypal - you can just pay with a credit card.

Get it while it's haute ;)

Thirst Relief Mentor Auction

Hey everybody!

Today's post is for photographers.

Do you wish you could just sit down and pick the brain of a super successful photographer to see what they did to get to the point they're at? Do you wish you could be candid and ask business and marketing questions of industry leaders? Do you wish you could do this while helping out a great cause?

Boo-yah! You can!

For the next 20 or so hours (I'm publishing this late Tuesday night), there are auctions available to you with such individuals and 100 percent of the money raised goes to Thirst Relief (thirstrelief.org). Click this link to be sent to the Thirst Relief Mentor Auction to bid for your favorite photographer or business leader.

Among the bunch, there are a few photographers I'd love to hang out with and pick their brain, and one of them is MY wedding photographer. :)

Good luck!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Weekend Wrap

Hey everybody!

How do you stay on a wedding diet? Not by traveling! Mere and I headed to Kansas City this weekend right after Joy's wedding (see yesteday's post) for some love-y Valentine's time and for a FREEZING but fun shoot with one of my old friends (more on that this week).

Meredith picked Edokko, a super sushi restaurant (is anyone surprised?!) for Saturday night and I picked the Capital Grille (again, is anyone surprised?!). Both were super yummy but I'm pretty sure Lobster Mac and Cheese isn't on ANY diet. I was happy to spend the time in KC - it's a fun city and for some reason I hardly ever go.

Lastly, here's our foot shot. You know, the shot we do EVERYWHERE we go. This was at the Plaza right after we finished the freezing shoot.



Talk to you soon,
Dale

Tears of Joy: A Very Special Moment

Hey everybody!

Mere's aunt Misty and Uncle Stan adopted Joy when she was 8 years old, Misty was a special education teacher and Joy was one of her students. Joy has a spirit about her that can lift you up off the ground, She's always smiling or giggling and always gives plenty of hugs, so it was no surprise that she captured Mere's family's hearts from the beginning.

Yesterday Joy and her sweetheart Emmanuel got married. As her dad walked Joy down the aisle, she began to cry. I'm not kidding when I say there wasn't a dry eye in the house, myself included. I feel as if it re-sensitized me to marriage; you could just tell how happy they were together and also how happy the entire room was for them, It was truly touching.

Here is a super sweet picture of Joy and her father (mere's uncle Stan) walking her down the aisle. Joy is overcome with emotion...so SO precious.





During the ceremony, Mere (who as you may know from previous posts, is known for her gorgeous singing voice), sang one of Joy's favorite songs: Love Me Tender. I actually accompanied her with my guitar! Half way through the song Mere became so overwhelmed with emotion, she ended up crying through the rest of the song. Even though Mere felt bad for letting her emotions get the best of her, I thought it was so sweet and so did everyone else! Seriously, there wasn't a dry eye!!!

Congrats to Joy and Emanuel!
And Happy Valentines Day!
I hope all of you enjoyed a sweet day with your special Valentine!

Dale

Ellie's First Flowergirl Experience

Hey everybody!

I have a very special wedding to share with you, but first I want to post two gorgeous flowergirls: Ellie and (her soon-to-be cousin) Caroline. They both adore each other and were overjoyed to be able to be flowergirls together. Aren't they precious?!





I can't wait to share a special image with you tomorrow - be sure to come back!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

P.S. Those to-die-for big fabulous earrings Ellie is wearing was one of our great finds at Riffraff yesterday (see previous post)

Happy Birthday Riffraff!

Hey everybody!

One of my very favorite stores is celebrating its first birthday! Ellie and I L-O-V-E Riffraff in Fayetteville, owned by a friend of Mere and mine, Kirsten Blowers. Kirsten is super talented and abundantly creative. Her store is full of super fabulous reasons I need to get a bigger house.

In honor of their first birthday, Kirsten is having some super sales. Ellie got to pop a balloon with a "special deal" inside - another super cute idea. If you have some time Saturday, head in there and go crazy ga-ga over all the goodies! Below are a few such items.

Talk to you soon,
Dale



One more thing... the images below were shot on film. Yep, film. Remember film?

Two fun things!

Hey everybody!

First, everybody should head over to the MpixPro blog and see a fun little post about something I do during every shoot I do! It has to do with this image:


Next, head over to the Album Cafe - we're featured on their blog today too! Yay!

Congrats again to Mere!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Secret Session Featured Album part 2

Hey everybody!

Here's the follow up to yesterday's post about Mere getting featured with this amazing album. Let her know how great she is! I'm so proud!

Talk to you soon,
Dale