I was delighted to see Jane and Dan featured in The Day, a Connecticut regional newspaper, with one of my sneak peek photos from their wedding. (The rest of the wedding is still being edited!!) Jane and Dan had a magnificent day, including a beautiful ceremony in a tiny historic stone church, a bagpiper-led procession through the streets of Stonington, and a chauffeured ride in a Boston Whaler to their waterfront home, the site of their reception.
A fun photo from one of my weddings this past September!
I am so excited to have recently started working with Cypress Albums on custom proof boxes and albums. Their custom handmade silk boxes are gorgeous, and they do beautiful embossing as well. The boxes below make lovely keepsakes – I love having the date included; it turns this beautiful object into mini time capsule.
Last weekend my husband and I traveled back to Ohio for a family wedding. On Friday, while the men went off fishing on Lake Erie, I zipped over to Sylvania to photograph little Reagan and her lovely parents. We indulged in a few things that two year olds are usually not allowed to do: jumping on the couch, a playful pillow fight in her parents’ bed, spinning around and around on swiveling leather chairs, and eating cookies in bed. I think, if you asked Reagan, it was an utterly successful afternoon!
The warning sign in college was that this former straight-A honors student was failing. Failing a class was a first for me, and it was Organic Chemistry that was about to finish me off. In retrospect, it was the best thing that could have happened to me: it forced me to look critically at the science career path I was tumbling down and to acknowledge that my heart just wasn’t in it.
My heart WAS in the fine art department: the photography kids were the coolest, and they just had it going on! Seriously, if I was going to bomb out of school on account of Organic Chemistry, I was gonna indulge my inner Ansel Adams and go for it. I didn’t have much to lose at that point. And in my first class, working on self-portraits (what a brave new world for a science dork!) I was introduced to the work of Francesca Woodman.
I don’t know how much I need to say about her work – it is beautiful, haunting, lovely, scary, amazing, and breathtaking. Her work influenced me greatly and gave my images a language to help me speak. A few weeks ago, I ran up to the Guggenheim on a brief break to view a show of her work that was closing that day. It was a much needed reminder for me to take things back to the poetic, the ephemeral, the wonderful and even the sad. To shoot more black and white film in this age of digital cameras and iphoneography. To slow down, breathe, and rediscover what it is that makes photography so magical.
A few months ago, I collaborated with the very talented Anne Kilcullen, owner of the New York City-based floral design company Blade. Anne and I set out on a very short deadline to create and photograph a modern tablescape for a competition on Brooklyn Bride‘s popular blog. Our submission can be found here, and while we didn’t win, we were thrilled to be one of the top contenders.
Anne and I met early that morning in the floral district to pick out our flowers, and from there went to a home belonging to good friends of mine, to set up & photograph a few table settings. We had the hardest time choosing which tablescape to submit, and the following photos were definitely some of our favorites as well.
This weekend I had the pleasure of catching up with my friend Susan Ruddie at the New York Bridal Market. Susan is an amazing seamstress (she did the alterations for my wedding dress!) and she creates gorgeous accessories for fashion-forward brides. Susan can be found at www.theweddingdresser.com and many of her accessories are available on Etsy.
Susan helped me accessorize my own wedding look with a glam vintage rhinestone belt, and she lent me an amazing ostrich feather shrug for my ‘something borrowed.’ In a word, Susan rocks! Check out her metallic laser-cut leather capelets and lacy shrugs. I’d love to photograph her accessories on a daring trend-setter bride!
It is definitely not all work and no play around here! When we saw cheap airfare a few months back, Brian and I jumped at the chance to head back down to Tortola with the hope of scoring some waves and visiting with our friends on the ‘No Work Team.’ (One of our friends even has business cards that proclaim him as the president!)
Our timing could not have been better! We had three days to tune up our arms on smaller waves before a beautiful swell hit, whose progress we could monitor from the comfort of the hammock at our little cottage in Carrot Bay. We surfed four different breaks, including the somewhat elusive Cane Garden Bay right hand point break (perfection!) While Brian was ripping the set waves, I was sitting at the end of the point, picking off a few end sections for my first ever paddle-out at Cane.
We had eight great days of laughs and BVI rum drinks (the Painkiller was a particular happy hour favorite after a few intense 3-surf-sessions-per-day arm burners!) While I definitely honor my own limitations as a surfer, I found it easier to push myself into more challenging situations with the comfort of a supportive group of friends cheering and paddling out with me. Big group hug to our friends: Jack, Nancy, Mike, Gail, Maria, JC, Sam, Lily, Noah, Brian O, Jed!
Below is the view from our hammock!
It has been a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel spring! First Lulu, now Boots, making his big blog and website debut. Boots is the proud ‘big brother’ to Baby Ella, who charmed us a few days ago with her sweetness and beautiful eyes.
Boots had some concerns about showing off his best side, knowing the competition was pretty tight between him and Ella. I assured him that, despite the lack of designer clothes, rock music, and catered lunch at his photo shoot, that his images would come out magazine-ready! Look out Vogue, step aside InStyle! Here comes Boots, and he has a few tongue tricks to show off!
Ella was a model baby today for our first shoot. She was tiny at birth, a mere 4lbs +, so just nearing 4 months, she’s still petite, lovely and dainty! She smiled through the whole session, making us all laugh this afternoon! She was an absolute delight to photograph.
Ella’s parents, Bobby and Andrea, were one of my favorite weddings in 2010, and I was thrilled to finally stop by and meet their latest addition! I have to say, surfer parents are the most chill kind there are! We had a great afternoon catching up and laughing at Ella’s sweet expressions and funny faces! (Ella’s “brother” Boots, a charming Cavalier King Charles, is also vying for a spot on my furry friends page after today’s shoot!)
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