Friday, January 30, 2009

They're Gonna Make a Big Star Out of Me

Doug will kill me for doing this, but it's his own fault for sending me this clip (that was emailed to him by a coworker). See, back in the day, Doug made his living as an extra and he managed to get on a fair amount of tv shows. This is a scene from Six Feet Under where he actually got a fair amount of camera time. It's so much fun to watch! You don't need to watch very far to catch him and remember, since Six Feet Under was on HBO, the entire clip is probably not safe for work or for children!



I think at the end of the day, Doug brought home a charcoal drawing of a tree.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I Just Want Your Extra Time

Kiss

It's always nice when you can combine good food, good friends, and a photo shoot. Sarah & Derek are awesome, cooperative friends who have turned into models. Over the summer, I shot a series of photos for them in preparation for their wedding. Instead of just naming the tables, they wanted photos at each one. But not just any photos - photos of body parts. So, we set about photographing body parts (the PG kind) - lips, chins, ears, eyes, cheeks, elbows, toes, etc. I never posted the photos because I didn't want to ruin the surprise on the wedding day. They put a lot of time and effort into the details of their wedding and far be it from me to steal their reveal-thunder. As I go through my archives today, trying to pull images for my new website(s), it's fun to see all the different work. When I came across this one, I knew it was time.

Take Me By the Hand and Stand By My Side

Yesterday was such a productive day! I felt so good at the end of it. I am trying to be equally as productive today. I'm doing pretty well. I'm lucky I don't have to go anywhere in the snow - I can just stay inside and watch it. So far I'm not totally impressed. We'll see how the day progresses. That being said, I thought it was about time I posted a slideshow from Molly and Mark's wedding. I'm embarrassed to say they got married in the beginning of October, so it's taken me a long time to get to these. After the rush of editing came the rush of the holidays and Buenos Aires and now I'm trying to catch up! Molly & Mark, sorry this took so long, but at least you've had the photos in hand for months now!

The wedding and ceremony were at the Andover Country Club. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Mr. Postman, Look and See

Lots of things to say today! During the winter months, New England photographers seem to busy themselves kicking some business ass (lots of seminars, workshops, meetings, etc) and booking shoots for the warmer months. We all can't live in Southern California! It is almost 3:30 and I have been sitting at my computer since 8a working. That's right - really working. So, you can imagine how happy it made me to get an email saying this:

"... Just for the record, your pictures are amazing. If someone's wedding pictures that I
don't even know could bring tears to my eyes, that' saying something."


In the past few days, I've also received these emails:

"As K and I celebrated our anniversary last week your name was brought up as we remembered how lucky and blessed we were to find you! You made our special night one filled with lasting memories."

"I can't say enough how wonderful the photos are. Truly, you have such a gift of capturing the moment and spirit of the party. I have never felt that looking through people's wedding photos before I watched the slideshow of E's wedding. That's not to say that I haven't seen wonderful wedding photography, but yours is that PLUS."

These emails come from a potential client, a previous client, and a wedding guest. Their kind words have definitely warmed up the winter a little!

And now for a beautiful picture:
Chris & Emily
This is from Chris & Emily's wedding this fall. I am designing their album now and fell in love with this photo all over again. It's in their slideshow but today I want it to stand alone. Plus, do you notice anything different about this photo? It marks the debut of my NEW LOGO! Hooray! I am so excited about it and want to put it everywhere! In fact, Doug just bought us a new phone and one of its features is you can customize the "art" on the handset. He thought I might want to brand it. AWESOME!

Friday, January 23, 2009

All We Are Saying

I actually took this photo in the fall of 2007 and have been meaning to do something with it since then. I love the colors, the green of the building, the blue of the sky. In the midst of all the business stuff I have been doing, it's nice to have a reminder of what I love to do. I'm not so good at the business stuff...

All We Are Saying

Strike A Pose

What photographers do when they're just messin' around...
Strike a Pose
This is the lovely, creative, quirky Rachel of mergeweddings.com. She organized a crazy shoot with lots of brides and, before they showed up, we couldn't help but take some photos of ourselves. We also took photos after they left. It's as if we just can't help ourselves.

So much to say. I have been actively working on my business which is certainly keeping me busy. I am finalizing my new logo, which I am SOOO excited about. It is similar to the heading on the top of this blog, but a little more polished. After that, the website! I want to totally update my portraits and I am going to finally create a wedding gallery (or separate site). Keep checking in to see what's going on!

Just a small rant on the Oscar nominations... Benjamin Button was good, but not 13 nominations good. It makes me sad that Slumdog Millionaire is nominated for some big awards but the Academy overlooked the acting, especially the different boys who played Jamal. I was surprised that Leonardo DiCaprio didn't get nominated (or Clint Eastwood), but my biggest gripe has to do with the song category. Last year, there were five songs nominated, three of them from the movie Enchanted. This year, there are only three songs nominated total, two from Slumdog Millionaire. Know what's not nominated? Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler." It won the Golden Globe and is a fantastic song. There doesn't seem to be any sort of eligibility issue so I am baffled as to why it wasn't even nominated. For Pete's sake, they totally could have found 5 good songs to fill the category. The Academy has lost its mind and I think it's a travesty.

In the next month, I need to see The Reader, Doubt, Milk, Frost/Nixon, and Revolutionary Road. Luckily, after the Oscar noms come out, a lot of the movies release wider.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Let Me Dance to Your Beat

It has been a long couple of days! I finished editing the Buenos Aires wedding photos and sent them in the mail today! Phew. And let me tell you, this morning was not the greatest of mornings. I may have had a small nervous breakdown, but that's neither here nor there. The rest of my day has been quite productive. I mailed the photos, went to Vanessa's cheese party (yum!), and created this slideshow! So, for those of you who want to see what a wedding in Buenos Aires is like - here it is! This one is definitely my longest yet, so sit back and enjoy!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Just A Song Before I Go

Ferns

I know everyone is waiting for me to post my photos from Buenos Aires. I promise I'm working on it! I have a deadline for the wedding photos so I've been working like a fiend just trying to edit them all. Not only did Doug and I shoot the wedding, but also the rehearsal dinner and the day-after party. We took a bazillion photos! I came across this one as I was editing and it's just cool. This was a fern of some sort in the corner of the restaurant where the rehearsal dinner was held. No flash, ISO 200, f2.2, 1/60.

What else can I tell you?

Monday, January 12, 2009

It's Time To Light the Lights

Confetti

Those of you who've been reading my blog regularly not only know that I am a movie awards show geek but also that I like to re-cap the best and worst of the broadcast. I will preface my comments by saying that I definitely did not get to see all the movies I had intended to, so my comments are going to be a little more superficial than critical... In no particular order, here are my thoughts on The Golden Globes.

1) Where was George Clooney? An awards show is not an awards show if it's Clooney-less.
2) Renee Zellweger was the worst dressed, by far. Sure, she took a risk, but it did not pay off. Her hair was bad, dress was bad, posture was bad. What is it about her that people find attractive? She squints her eyes all the time. She clenches her legs together when she's standing. It literally looked like she had to pee on the red carpet. Horrible.
3) I was thrilled to see Sacha Baron Cohen on stage as himself and not as a character. First of all, he's a pretty good looking guy. Second, he's got a pretty sexy accent. I thought he was one of the funnier presenters. His joke about Madonna was wicked funny, even if the audience didn't laugh.
4) Which brings me to my next point. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie need to crawl into a hole and stay there until they can find their senses of humor. Really. I don't care if they're huge philanthropists. They didn't get to where they are by bagging groceries at Stop and Shop. They are supposed to be entertainers. If they can't laugh at themselves (or at anybody else), it might be time to find another job. People can poke fun at Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, even the Holocaust brought a laugh (albeit slightly uncomfortable) but god forbid they say anything about sainted Brangelina! The only one who seemed to get away with it was Don Cheadle and I reckon that's because he's friends with Brad Pitt. Brad and Angelina also dissed Ryan Seacrest at the pre-show. Sure, the dude is annoying and everywhere, but at least he knows what he's doing. How could they choose Billy Bush over Ryan Seacrest? Rumor has it that Angelina can hold quite the grudge. Lighten up. Deal with it, Angelina Jolie!
5) Which brings me to Tracey Morgan... I happened to find him pretty funny, even though he was a little irreverent. Tina Fey may regret that promise, though.
6) If I say wonderful glowing things about TIna Fey, do you think she'll mention me in her next awards speech? I love that she called out people who talk trash about her on the internet! Sorry, dianefan - Tina Fey is awesome.
7) Ram jam! I am really glad Mickey Rourke won (although it could have easily gone to Sean Penn). Considering what a big comeback this is for him, I found it surprising the cameras didn't cut to him much, especially when Seth Rogen joked about them snorting cocaine at the Globes. My partner-in-obsessive-movie-watching-crime, Vanessa, thinks maybe it was because he was up drinking most of the show. A possibility. I thought he gave a really good speech. Held it together. Although apparently he has a weird thing about his dogs. Vanessa sent me videos and articles from the internet proving the man really is that attached to his dogs. I guess he's a tough guy with a soft inside.
8) Smile Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie!
9) Very little political talk.
10) Yay for Slumdog Millionaire! It's a great movie if you haven't seen it yet.
11) Yay for Kate Winslet! She's talented, gorgeous, and funny! Who didn't love that she forgot Angelina Jolie's name?!
12) Earlier this week, the Golden Globes site had accidentally marked Anne Hathaway the winner of the Best Actress-Drama category. They took it down pretty quickly, but not before people saw it. Perez HIlton even posted something on his site. So, I'm a little sorry that she lost.
13) I also happened to like Ricky Gervais. He's a pretty funny guy.
14) Tony Shalhoub was wearing quite the shirt. I'm pretty sure it had a sequined collar.
15) Yay for Bruce Springsteen! Good speech. Good song. I also liked Peter Gabriel's song for Wall-E. What I didn't like? Sting's new look.
16) We, as a society, need to be done with Miley Cyrus. She's gross. Her voice is gross. She tosses the peace sign too much and still sticks her tongue out at the camera. Huh? I'm glad she lost.
17) Martin Scorsese is fun to look at. And he has a good sense of humor (American Express commercials). Fun fact - Back in the day, Martin Scorsese was one of the editors of the documentary Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music. I wrote a paper about that in one of my undergrad film classes.
18) I missed George Clooney.

I am sure I could say a million other things, but I think that about wraps it up. The Oscar nominations come out on January 22nd, so that will be my focus soon enough!

*The photo in this post is from the Buenos Aires wedding. Around 1a, air guns positioned at the sides of the ballroom started shooting out confetti approximately every 45 minutes. Smoke machines, confetti-shooting air guns, maracas, crazy hats, a Brazilian drum corp... the fun goes on and on!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

It's 2009 now, and although I'm not one for resolutions, I am going to write out some goals for the year and really try to cross things off the list. I think actually writing that list is one of the first things I need to accomplish. I do a lot better when I work with to-do lists, anyway. I am going to be making some changes to the business side of things, which I am excited about. I want to be able to offer my clients the best service and the best products, so keep a look out for the occasional announcement. There's something about 2009 that feels like a fresh start. It feels... really optimistic, and I like that.

Those of you who follow my blog know that I'm "competing" in a movie race against the Golden Globes on Sunday night. I won't be able to see every movie nominated, but I'm doing my best. Slumdog Millionaire was amazing. I saw WALL-E last night and The Duchess today. I can now cross those off my list. Doug and I are supposedly going to see Benjamin Button tonight. That means I need to maybe see Doubt tomorrow. My plan is to see Frost/Nixon on Saturday. Maybe I'll squeeze The Reader in on Sunday, before the red carpet. Speaking of the red carpet, I heard from a bride who is flying out to LA this weekend to SIT IN THE BLEACHERS! I am so frickin' jealous! Of course, I will be at home, on my couch, yelling at the TV and enjoying our traditional awards night snack of goat cheese crostadas. Yum.

So, since I'm being so wordy, I thought I should also include some photos. I'm working my way through the Buenos Aires images and I wanted to post a couple from the wedding. I can not even begin to describe how amazing this wedding was and how much fun it was to speak Spanish for a week. Sra. Alvarez would be so proud of me! I think I even used the correct tenses! Anyway, these photos were taken around 3a.m. or so. That's when the Brazilian drum corp arrived on the scene and that's when we all got crazy hats.

Bride in Hat

Doug used my back-up camera to shoot and we had it all set up for him to shoot with just the ambient light. Lucky for us, they did crazy things with the lighting. The photos we took without our flashes on are so cool! This is one of his coolest shots.

Blue Bride

It feels like I'm keeping the bride's identity a secret since you can't see her face in either of these. Just wait - I'll post those soon!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The First of December Was Covered With Snow

I photographed Anna and Jayson right before Christmas (not exactly on the first of December) and right after a big snowstorm. In fact, we were supposed to shoot during the storm, but we decided to postpone until the next day. Thank goodness. We met up on Boston Common and just walked around, enjoying the winter scenery. Here are a few of my favorite images from the session.

In Love

Kiss under the Trees

Under the Bridge

Snow

They're getting married at the end of January, so they will be my first wedding of 2009! I'm so excited. They're getting married at the Top of the Hub, so I know it will be a great time. Anna requested that all the male guests wear black and all the female guests wear red. As a photographer, I usually find myself in pretty neutral colors, so I am looking forward to spicing it up a bit!

As for Buenos Aires, it's my goal to work on Emily and Nicolas' wedding photos this afternoon (after I go to the movies). Doug and I had an amazing time, despite me being extremely ill the first few days. We took TONS of photos, of course. I will most likely subject most of my friends and family to them at some point. In the meantime, I'm going to try to whittle them down to make the experience as painless as possible.

For those of you keeping track, the Golden Globes are on Sunday. There are still so many movies I have left to see. Last night I saw The Wrestler, which was awesome. Today I am going to see Slumdog Millionaire, which has gotten great reviews. It's my goal to see Doubt, Benjamin Button, and Frost/Nixon by Sunday night. Totally possible. The Oscar noms come out on Jan. 22nd, so that's when the real race begins...