Grazier Photography

We've Retired! (... from blogger)

2009-06-10T15:36:00.003-04:00

Come over for a visit at http://www.grazierphotoblog.com!

Thanks Blogger - you have served us well... but we were ready for a facelift!!!

Lauren & Steve

2009-06-10T00:41:00.007-04:00

For Lauren and Steve's engagement shoot they suggested something a little different. They suggested going to the elementary school they both attended:) These two are total love birds who dated in school and through college and are now planning an amazing wedding at the Granite Links Golf Club and have Gabrielle Stone planning the event. We hit the playground, were denied access to the inside of school simply because it was locked up and empty, and then went to the nearby pond for the sunset. Lauren and Steve are having Enna design one of her custom guest books with images from this shoot and it is going to rock!

St.John, Virgin Islands

2009-06-10T00:02:00.011-04:00

After Ann and Todds wedding we hopped on the ferry for a short stay at St. John's. All I can say is WOW! We loved this Island! We stayed at Maho Bay in a wood frame tent on the hill side on one one of the most amazing beaches in the world. Just off our beach we found sting rays, nurse sharks, an octopus, and sea turtles. Ollie almost went snorkeling - he didn't actually put his face under water:) Will loved the wild life, and Enna and I soaked in as much sun as we could. Here are a handful of images from the trip.

Nanna enjoying some time on the beach with the boys

Will loves animals and was not afraid to have birds on him

Will even feed the sting rays at the aquarium

Enna and Ollie looking for sting rays

The many steps from the beach to our tent

Ms Lucy's!! By chance we ended up at this amazing restaurant for their traditional full moon pig roast. Good food, good music, amazing location.

Will does not like to have his picture taken:)

Ann & Todd's Caribbean Wedding

2009-06-03T20:58:00.013-04:00

Enna's mom remarried about 15 years ago. I'm sure she'll be quick to email me the exact number of years after I've posted this blog entry:) So we have only been able to meet Enna's step-brother Todd a few times since the marriage. When he invited us to his St. Thomas wedding I offered my photography as a wedding gift. There were only 16 of us total at the wedding, and for a guy who goes to one or two weddings a week with 150-300 guests at each, this was a nice change of pace!

I have only met Todd once before. He is a spitting image of his dad, in every way: Great guy! So for the months leading up to the wedding Todd humored himself with my curiosity about Ann's dress and what he was going to wear. Hey, this is what I do:) He was pretty excited to have us come and maybe even more excited to entertain Ollie and Will as he quickly booked us seats on a submarine tour (unfortunately it was canceled due to low visibility). Our planes landed at the same time and we by chance met up at the luggage carousel.

Ann, who we had never met or spoken to, is awesome. Congratulations Todd, you've got yourself a great woman! She has a great sense of humor and lives for the moment. During the days leading up to the wedding we'd meet for drinks at the resort bar and as soon as the topic of the photo shoot came up she said... "I'm going into the water with my dress!" Later she reasoned to her mom "It's disposable," simply meaning that she was only going to wear it once, so why not have fun!

Ann and Todd had a beautiful ceremony at Secret Harbour on Thomas. It rained a bit during the ceremony and about half way through when the officiant asked if they wanted to run for shelter they both grinned and said "no thanks".

Let it rain Ann and Todd :) But first there was some beautiful sun

Here is Ollie photographing his first wedding:) Unfortunately he didn't take any photos, he just liked watching dad work:) But he got a kick out of holding the flowers

Will crashed hard just before the ceremony

The next night Todd treated us all to a sunset dinner cruise. Guess who brought her dress!! Just before dinner they changed back into their wedding attire and literally took the plunge! We then hopped in the dinghy and went ashore for some shots with them soaking wet.

Noelle & Dane at the Charles Hotel

2009-06-02T15:23:00.010-04:00

Noelle and Dane were such a great couple to photograph for the kick off of our New England wedding season! We wrote about their love for Cambridge on their engagement blog post, and we had a great time in Harvard Square photographing their wedding day at the Charles Hotel. The dance floor was rockin due to the great sound of Night Shift. Check out these fun shots from the day.

Bicycle Built for Two... Giving Back!

2009-05-18T12:58:00.004-04:00

Many of you will remember our lovely couple Linsay and Ryan, who in 2007 made their wedding getaway on a bicycle built for two. Next month Linsay and Ryan are participating in a cycling event to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association, a cause which is very near to our own hearts. Our son Oliver is named for my dear cousin Ollie Henderson (1979-2001) who had Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. We will be honored and grateful if you will join us in supporting Linsay and Ryan's fundraising efforts - every little bit helps, and the MDA is a wonderful cause to support. The MDA supports both research towards a cure as well as direct support for individuals with Muscular Dystrophy and their families.

Enna and Matt

Here is Linsay and Ryan's fundraising letter:

Dear Family & Friends,

On Friday, June 26th, Ryan and I will once again be riding a “bicycle built for two” as we participate in the Trans NH Bike Tour. This three day, 250-mile cycling event benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The ride will begin on the NH/Canadian border and end three days later in Concord, NH after riding 100 miles, 75, & 75 respectively (with a few NH hills along the way J).

This year’s ride is dedicated to a young boy named Teagan House who was diagnosed with Duchenne MD at 3 years old. He is now nine, trying to live as “normal” a life as possible as his muscles atrophy away. There is currently no cure or even treatment to help slow the disease progression. This event is about the people of all ages and their families who fight each and every day to live with Muscular Dystrophy.

In addition to training for this grueling (yet rewarding) ride, we have established a fundraising goal of $3,500 in donations to support the MDA. Ryan has also opened the ride up to his students at Coe-Brown Academy and currently seven individuals are working to raise an additional $6,000 to benefit this cause. We are calling on the help and support of all our family and friends to make this possible. So, if you able to contribute any amount, please make a tax-deductible donation to the MDA and allow Ryan, myself, and our student team ride for this cause. All contributions go to the Muscular Dystrophy Association of New Hampshire to fund research and help those affected with MD.

Donations can be made online using a Credit Card at: http://www.transnhbikeride.org/

On the right side of the page under "Donate With Moola," you will find "Ryan and Linsay Kaplan" in the list (alpha order by last name). This will take you to our fundraising page.

Stassia & Nate

2009-05-03T01:53:00.011-04:00

Meet Stassia and Nate:) A Cape Cod couple that we met over a year ago. As many of you know Enna and I love getting to know our couples. Usually we get to know them best during the engagement shoot, but for us it happened while Stassia was searching for their photographer. The past year or so has been anything but easy for the two of them as they have dealt with some of lifes hard blows. Stassia and I had many emails back and forth before they officially hired us, and with each email I knew we had to be their photographers as we gained great admiration for their love and support. Now a year later, they have bought a beautiful house by the Cape, are settling in nicely, and their wedding is not far off.

Here are a few from their e-session. Can't wait to see them all dressed up on their wedding day!

Welcome Baby Sho!

2009-04-08T23:52:00.001-04:00

Welcome Baby Sho! Check out Baby Sho’s gorgeous announcements! Sho’s mommy LOVES things from Paper Source, so she ordered some beatiful blue and gold paper to wrap around the announcement, which we had printed on pearl 5×7 cardstock.

Bank of ... America?

2009-04-03T12:19:00.004-04:00

I just had to post my shock that Bank of America is now requiring people to leave their thumb print in order to cash a check. As I understand it, the only way to avoid this is to open an account with them. This freaks me out. Suddenly a state-issued drivers license is not enough? Or even my U.S. passport? SS card? Birth certifiacte? Really? We now need thumb prints to avoid check fraud? So Bank of America is having people either scan their thumb print, or ink it directly onto the check, so that the bank will have it, and if you ink it onto the check, the person whose check it is will have your print when the check is returned?! There's an interesting blog post about a court case against this policy here. We need to rename the bank. Bank of No Privacy? Bank of Communism? If your a Bank of America customer, consider what you are doing to the people you write checks to who may want to cash them there. Maybe just send cash. Maybe close your account(s) and give your money to someone else:)

Here's a blog post about students making false prints to fool computers for just $10. So for all those fighting for thumb print security, or think it's a safe way of doing things, read how easy it is to steal someone's print and use it.

~Matt

Gretchen & Paul

2009-04-01T23:30:00.011-04:00

Gretchen and Paul were so much fun to watch get married. I feel like we have been on this amazing run with grooms who are just besides themselves with the good fortune they have. All night Paul looked at Gretchen in total awe and love. And why wouldn't he? Gretchen is beautiful in every way! Their reception was held at the Ballroom Veronique and while it was brutally cold outside, they kept the night warm with their excitement:) Check out these cool images from the day...

Gretchen's mom was so fun to photograph, the excitement was eating her up!

I love this shot of Gretchen taken just before we left the hotel

I snuck to the back of the church quickly to get this cool shot of Paul anxiously awaiting the start of the ceremony

Gretchen through the church door window just before the ceremony

There was a moment during my own wedding ceremony I remember perfectly, and I had my eyes shut, I wonder if it's the same for Paul

This is the look I was talking about! Paul had it all night long. Nothing but pure love:)

Thank you Gretchen and Paul for inviting me to be such a part of your day! You are such a wonderful couple and I can not wait to get your album in your hands - it's going to be full of beautiful emotions:)

Spring 2009 & Photoshop World

2009-04-01T13:47:00.010-04:00

Spring has hit Boston and we are loving the change of weather! Last week Photoshop World came to Boston and Enna and I were able to attend as exhibitors. I was helping out Lens pro To Go, an awesome local rental company that has some great things happening right now. Paul who owns LPTG is really an amazing guy who has something big on the horizon and I can't wait to blog more about him in the coming weeks (hint hint). Enna worked for Now I Lay Myself Down To Sleep, one of the most amazing photographic organizations in the world. What Enna, and all the other photographers do for NILMDTS is amazing. Also at the convention was RPG Keys, which meant our good friends Paul and Krystal from Studio Foto were coming to town, so we insisted they stay with us and we all had a blast hanging out for the week.

Here are some photos from the week:

Will loving not having to wear a winter coat

Let the battle over the stick begin!

Our neighbor Leo

Ollie hard at work making a mess

And the battle over the stick continues!

All of the following foto's were taken by Paul and Krystal

Enna at the trade show

I had no idea this photo was taken. I also have no idea what I was talking about but it must have been exciting:)

My new friend Tim (creator of RPG Keys) and I catching lunch

I dig this shot Krystal got of Paul in our living room

A fun portrait of us at the park by Paul

Wide Angle!!!!

Pizza night

Where's Matt?

Paul got this cool shot of me reading to the boys at bedtime

Ollie in the house!

Paul horsing around with Ollie

I put this shot in because you can see that my clothes are wet from falling in the stream. Yes, I had my camera on me and yes, it did go under:( Luckily nothing bad happened to me. I'm still waiting to hear from Nikon about the camera!

And the best for last. Ollie being stripped down from his muddy clothes before being allowed in the house. Awesome moment caught by Krystal!

We totally miss having you two in our house and hope you'll be back soon! It was a fun week hanging out together!

Much love
~Matt & Enna

Beautiful Getting Ready Photo

2009-03-31T23:50:00.004-04:00

We're putting the finishing touches on Gretchen and Paul's wedding and I just stumbled on this gorgeous image by Matt. I love the intense emotion, the fleeting quality of their foreheads touching each other. Just a wonderful mother-daughter-right-before-the-wedding photograph!
~enna

Vintage Enna :)

2009-03-31T23:48:00.003-04:00

If Matt gets to post photos of himself at 23, I think I will too.... here I am with best friend Cassandra (now makeup artist extraordinaire!!!!) rocking out in the UO bookstore.

Vintage Mattion:)

2009-03-25T22:45:00.007-04:00

My good 'ol budy Justin, aka "Lappy", just found and emailed me this shot. I think I was 23 at the time. Before anyone sends me an email and gives me crud for not having ear protection, I am - and was - good about wearing ear protection, just not for this moment caught on film. BTW - I did not put the stamp on this photo, but thought I'd leave it for Enna:)

Matt's Great Idea

2009-03-15T12:27:00.002-04:00

Click here:) to see the funny video from the We Click retreat.

We Click 2009!

2009-03-12T23:28:00.053-04:00

For the past 3 years Enna and I have hosted a winter retreat for married wedding photographers. It started with us just wanting to get to know two other couples better, then five couples, now six. It went from a 3 bedroom condo to a 7 bedroom room house. Next year we are thinking of getting a 10 bedroom house:) We call it the "unworkshop" because it is not a workshop. Enna and I organize the retreat, but there is no real agenda. We invite them to come, unwind, cook, eat, drink wine (and John's home brew), talk shop, and find inspiration in each other. We may have never met the couple in person before (some were e-friends until the retreat) and are instant best friends the second they walk in the house. We pick one night in which each couple shows a short slide show of their work, and that is really about the only planned activity for all. Some of us go snow shoeing, skiing, or just spend every day in the hot tub:) In the end, we all become incredibly great friends and help each other find new inspiration as artists, business owners, and married couples.

This years attendees were: Christine and Andy from Bello Photography, John and Kim from Sanderson Images, Justin and Mary from Justin Marantz Photography, Laura and Paul from Laura Eaton Photography, and Paul and Krystal from Studio Foto.

Enna and I want to say how honored we are to have such great friends, and how fortunate we feel to be able to get away with you all for those 4 nights that go by way way too fast. ~ Thank you all for coming.

The above image is the entire gang hot tubing it on our second night. Larry and Tabitha Sherrell came to spend the day but had to get home to be with their beautiful baby girl.

Here is Jackson and I at the top of an overlook we hiked to in snow shoes with a small group.

There were many things that happened in those 4 days:) Too many to talk about here. There is a video floating around somewhere of the guys racing out of the hot tub up the hill of snow and tumbling back down the hill into the tub only to discover we had cut up our legs running through the ice crusted snow! OUCH!!!! The big joke from that point on was not to listen to any of my ideas:) Our favorite part of the trip is always the last night, when after enjoying some great wine and a great meal - the tunes get cranking, a little dance party erupts and the cameras finally come out for some crazy fun portraits.

These are all images I shot at our "Last Night Soirée"

John and Kim Sanderson

Laura and Kim

Laura and Paul Eaton

Justin and Mary Marantz

Paul and Krystal McNerney

Christine Ferullo and Andy Beet

Sorry mate - had to post this great shot:)

My beautiful wife:)

Paul Eaton made sure to get me in front of the camera for a few

My toughest model of the night was my best friend Jackson. Sit Jackson! Sit! :)

We may post more later as other images emerge:) I know John has some fun portraits from the last night that he did with unique lighting style that are going to be awesome:) Here is a cool shot by Laura of the coffee mugs Enna and I made for everyone:

Ashley & Jamie, an Anguilla Wedding

2009-03-03T00:19:00.001-05:00

Ashley and Jamie's destination of choice for their beautiful wedding was Anguilla. The ceremony was held at a beautiful small stone church on the island and the reception was at Cap Juluca. Ashley and Jamie truly are two of the nicest and most considerate people we have ever met - the amount of effort and thought they put into making the journey easy for their guests was amazing. The weekend's events included a welcoming cocktail party, a beach barbecue at the Cuisinart Resort, sailing, croquet, tennis matches, yoga, beach fun, a rehearsal dinner at the cozy and wonderful Blanchards restaurant, and a "thank you for coming" departure brunch at Geraud's bakery (side note: Geraud makes absolutely to die for coconut croissants... out of this world)... and oh yeah, a totally gorgeous wedding reception at Cap Juluca.

Since we were there for a week we took a lot of photos... and I mean a ton! Trying to decide on what we would share on the blog was tough. Our original selection was about 100 photos:) Could you imagine how long that post would be! So after a long time sitting here posting and re-posting trying to keep the length of this reasonable, here are some of our favorites from the wedding....

Cap Juluca from the water

Jamie surprised his groomsmen by taking them out for an incredible sail around the island

Ashley's dance partner Matthew led a yoga class on the beach

Here is Ashley and Matthew showing off and goofing around with some dance moves on the beach

The Moroccan architecture at Cap Juluca was beautiful

Jamie and Ashley's father getting ready

We absolutely love this moment caught: Ashley's father helping her with her train and giving her a kiss just before they walked down the aisle

Ashley and Jamie exiting the church

The happily married couple

This is the setting for the reception dinner. Nothing short of breathtaking.

Jamie and Ashley had a very fun first dance

Loved the fireworks!

The following images are from our amazing Day After shoot with Ashley and Jamie (and Elysium Productions).

Enna snapped this cool "behind the scenes" shot

Congratulations Ashley and Jamie - and thank you for including us in your very special wedding!

~~~

Here's our Anguilla Team:

We also can't neglect to mention how wonderful it was to work (again) with Alexis and her husband Brian of Unique Weddings by Alexis (working hard in this photo) and Alex and Julie of Elysium Productions. There was a lot of other talent working behind the scenes to make this wedding a gorgeous success, we're just so impressed at how perfect everything was. Here's the team from left to right:

Peter, Julie and Alex from Elysum Productions, ourselves ;) - Matt & Enna, Alexis and Brian

Pretty Penelope!

2009-03-01T23:17:00.003-05:00

It's always a great honor when another photographer asks us to do portraits for their family, so it was a great honor when our friends Sonia and Ravi asked us to photograph their little Penelope. Sonia is a wonderful photographer whose work I have always admired.

Penelope is a total sweetie:

Her dad is a VERY entertaining fellow...

Look at how in love this momma is :)

Do you think Penelope likes the camera?

Eventually Penelope grew tired of me and my camera:

My son Ollie twists his hair when he's tired - he's always done this. I love looking for similar habits in other babies. I'll bet good money that this gesture follows Penelope as she grows older, and she might even still do it when she's an old woman.

Style Me Pretty - Hard at Work!

2009-02-26T15:22:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I got to visit one of our favorite portrait clients and people in the world of weddings... Abby Larson, founder and webmistress extraordinaire of Style Me Pretty. We adore the thoughtful and inspiring articles and ideas that Abby showcases on Style Me Pretty.

She needed a few pictures for a magazine article about Style Me Pretty, so we did a few shots of her hard at work.

Abby has the CUTEST baby girl, shown here in her supervisory capacity:

And her husband Tate (who works at SMP too) is a total sweetheart too, just like Abby! I absolutely love their his and hers desks made from reclaimed wood. It was really cool to learn that Abby's mom also works for Style Me Pretty - she's one of their fabulous writers.... so it's a complete family affair!

Thanks Abby - you're the greatest!!!

A New Year's Eve Wedding!

2009-02-20T12:13:00.010-05:00

Claudia and Justin had such a fun wedding on New Year's Eve! It was also the last wedding to be held at the Gamble Mansion as it was sold and will become a private home. New Year's Eve was a very cold and windy night here in Boston. The temperature with the wind chill must have been in the single digits. But no one paid it much attention - how could we when the bride was dressed so elegantly! Check out this dress folks!!

Claudia getting ready surrounded by her friends

Showing off her dress for her friends before leaving the hotel

I love this shot of Claudia entering the mansion

Claudia and Justin exchanged gifts before the ceremony. She gave him very cool cuff links made from watch parts, and he gave her beautiful pearls

Justin looking sharp

The happy couple just before the ceremony

After the ceremony they snuck upstairs for a little alone time and let me snap a few shots of them

At midnight they rang in the new year from the balcony overlooking the ballroom

Thank you Claudia and Justin for inviting me to be such a part of your wedding! I can't wait to catch up and make your album:)

~Matt

Chocolate Cake Predicts Steelers will Win Superbowl by 3!

2009-02-01T11:58:00.007-05:00

It's Superbowl morning here at the Grazier house and Enna is off at a portrait session. With big plans to watch the game tonight with Keelin and Joe I decided to entertain Ollie and Will by baking two Superbowl cakes. A yellow cake for the Cardinals, and a chocolate cake for the Steelers, each one with the team's logo on it. We'll be able to see which team is favored by observing which cake is eaten first.

Not being much of a cook I picked up several cake mixes while shopping at BJ's last night. The only problem with shopping at BJ's is that you can't buy just one mix of each, they come in six-packs. So i bought a six-pack of cake mixes: three yellow, three chocolate.

10 a.m. Game Day: cake plan goes into effect. With Enna gone and the three of us home alone, we break out the mixing bowls, eggs, and oil... not a good combo;) if you consider that two of the bakers are under 5 years old.

Everything seemed to go well for the first two cakes (I was only going to make two). The mess was contained, the silly putty did not make it into the batter, and 30 minutes later I pulled the cakes out only to discover I had reversed the oil/water ratios... Oops.

2nd down, ten yards to go...

I clean out the mixing bowls, found another set of cake pans, and got started. At this point in the morning (11 a.m.) the younger bakers are suffering a serious case of cabin fever, so I was constantly saying things like "Ollie, keep your hands out of the bowls." "Will, do not stick your head in there," "Hey guys, playdough does not taste good." With that last quote you can guess that my offensive line did not protect the batter.

3rd down, STILL ten yards to go...

After dumping the 2nd batch of two mixes down the sink disposal and cleaning everything I realized it was a good thing I had to buy six boxes of mix. This time I got organized. I made sure I had all my measurements right, barricaded the bowls from the play dough, and ensured no little fingers or faces could be dipped into the batter. There was only one problem: I needed six eggs but I only had three. I called Enna to see if she could make an emergency store run on her way home. She asked me "have you already mixed the batter without the eggs?" ("... yup.") and promptly told me to run and ask the neighbors for eggs as the batter would not last. In my pj's I dashed around the neighborhood knocking on doors but alas no one was home.

This is what makes Superbowl Sunday so great, having to make a tough call. I realized I can only bake one cake. So... do I bake a cake for the Cardinals or the Steelers?

I grew up loving three teams: the Pats, the Cowboys and the Steelers. The past decade with the Pats has been, and I know will continue to be, amazing. The legendary "snowbowl" between the Pats and the Steelers was a turning point for our local franchise and I found it fun to watch the Steelers suffer under a controversial play. We did deserve the win, as I don't believe that one play alone wins the game (although some single great plays have "won" games, if you know what I mean... that's a tough thing to write after last year's "helmet catch").

The Cardinals haven't won a Superbowl yet. That should be reason alone to cheer for them. BUT... They did lay down for the Pats this year when they came to Foxboro. I must admit that I was shocked at how poorly they played and was pretty upset that they made it to the playoffs after witnessing that performance. Now they are in the Superbowl?

So the three eggs went to the Steelers:) When it snowed hard in Foxboro they played hard, very hard. And our Patriots had one of the greatest wins in franchise history. Between these two games and the fact that I loved Mean Joe Green, I put the yellow cake down the drain and let the chocolate win:) Since it was three eggs, maybe this means the Steelers win by three? I'd love to see a close game.

Now... how to make frosting?

Mentoring Sessions for Wedding Photographers

2009-01-30T16:09:00.004-05:00

We are pleased to donate our time once again for the Thirst Relief Auction! This year, Enna will be available for a 1.5 hour mentoring session at the WPPI convention in Las Vegas. Alternatively your mentoring session can take place via phone and email, or in Boston any time this spring or summer. Included in the session are a complete set of Grazier Photography's promotional materials, outline of our pricing analysis methods, and a copy of at least one of Enna's favorite business-related books.

Goal-setting, pricing, long-term business planning, marketing & branding, personal values, and artistic vision are all topics that we find especially exciting to discuss, and the mentoring session will be tailored to address the topics that you wish to explore. If you are the winning bidder, we will send you a pre-mentoring session worksheet, so that we can prepare for your session and better address your needs.

Thirst Relief International collaborates with grassroots organizations and programs to provide safe, clean drinking water to those in need around the world.

BONUS: If you're NOT a wedding photographer but still want to participate, we encourage you to make a donation directly to Thirst Relief. Clean water is a necessary commodity for everyone on this planet, and each dollar has a great and tangible impact.

Click here to start bidding on a mentoring session!

Anguilla... a First Glimpse

2009-01-29T11:51:00.009-05:00

This blog post is just going to be torture - TORTURE - for Ashley and Jamie (sorry guys!)... We're going to start by sharing some of our first and last impressions of the island. A few wedding pictures will follow. :)

First of all, this was the view from our little apartment at Turtle's Nest Beach Resort.

The view didn't change much, but we photographed it repeatedly.

Here is our resort viewed from down the beach... notice how many people are on this beach?

Here is the inside of where we stayed. Turtles Nest Beach Resort was a perfect base for us - central to all of the wedding festivities, immediately on the beach, daily housecleaning and lots of beach towels, and lots and lots of peace and quiet. I highly recommend it.

A neighboring resort:

We spent as much time as possible exploring the island. Here's Matt in our sporty jeep - don't worry, he didn't shoot the wedding with that camera.

Traffic signs on the island are a little different, but fairly self-explanatory:

I took the following pictures on my "location scout" tour around the island... guess which spot we went back to for a "day after" shoot with the bride and groom?

There are lots of domestic farm animals on Anguilla - chickens, goats, cows, donkeys, and dogs. We didn't see any wildlife, except for many different kinds of water birds.

As we were driving Matt saw a desperate lady with a baby waving at cars for a ride. So he decided to pull over and help (because she really did look like she was having an emergency) only to be suckered into giving a ride for her whole family that was hiding behind the street sign awaiting such fools:) So they all piled in and we ended up driving them to do one small errand before dropping them off. Here we all are packed into the tiny jeep.

On our first day we checked out a couple of the locations for the wedding weekend. The Moroccan-themed architecture of Cap Juluca, beautiful rocks and beach, and dramatic sky let us know that we were in for a really beautiful wedding.

This is the inside of Pimms, the restaurant where the wedding reception was held.

After the wedding weekend we decided to treat ourselves and stay one extra day for a little r & r before returning to cold cold Boston. This meant that we got to watch Barack Obama's inauguration from Anguilla, and we chose a rustic beach bar for our inauguration base. Anguillians are probably 99.999% pro-Obama, so it was really exciting to watch the inauguration with them.

In the back of this crowd is a man wearing a Boston Red Sox cap. Matt later put on his B cap and introduced himself:) As Matt suspected, Robert is from the Boston area and we ended up having a nice long conversation on the beach. He's already emailed asking us when we'd blog these shots:) (Hi Robert!)

(the bartender is pointing to her goose bumps)

We're culling through the thousands of images we captured while on the island... stay tuned for more soon!

Yes we are home:)

2009-01-28T16:27:00.004-05:00

As many know Enna and I were recently gone for a week, and we are very anxious to blog the wedding we shot in Anguilla. We have been crazy busy this week catching up and taking Ollie (our 4 year old son) to school interviews. That's right, the schools interview the kids for kindergarten. The Boston school system (public and private) is crazy, I just can't believe how much time we have invested into this. We have found some really amazing schools, and are keeping our fingers crossed that he will be admitted to one of them, or that we win the public school lottery and get one of the top three of our choice (that's how it works in Boston). I feel like I now belong to an underground club, like Fight Club:) Example... I went to see my tailor and as he was pinning my suit the small talk was about the school interviews. Everywhere I go this is now the topic of choice with those I meet. Somehow we just know that we each have kids being interviewed and the conversation starts. Crazy. So we'll be posting some fun images soon and catching up on our blog this week. Until then I wanted to share this note from our accountant John Schacter with you all...

Massachusetts is willing to grant businesses half of the price - to a
maximum of $20,000 per vehicle - to acquire a plug-in hybrid. In other
words, they will give you money if you buy plug-in cars for your company. To
get this free money, apply by February 13 2009. Here is a link to detailed
information:

http://www.mass.gov/Eoeea/docs/doer/pub_info/cc-plugin-pon-12-12-08.pdf

If you need an accountant, John is the best:) He works for a lot of artists!

Lindsay & Matt

2009-01-13T22:41:00.014-05:00

Sometimes love is like a train that can not be stopped, and this is the case for Lindsay and Matt. Lindsay and Matt were high school sweet hearts who had an incredible winter wedding at the Chatham Bars Inn on cape Cod just before Christmas. The outpouring of warm emotional support from family and friends beat out the gusty cold winter winds so much that Lindsay couldn't keep herself from kicking off her shoes and stepping into the freezing North Atlantic waters... a symbolic gesture of her love for their home on the Cape. Here are few of our favorites from their wedding day...

Brrrrrrr.....

The Inn had a huge ginger bread display in the lobby and I couldn't resist getting a fun ring shot with the fisherman on the sugar beach.

Then I saw the catch of the day (slap knee, haha):

The best wedding crashers I've ever seen:) The fire department was called in after a bridesmaid's shawl was accidentally tossed over a table candle and went up in flames.

This shot is straight out of the camera.

Thank you Lindsay and Matt for inviting us to be such a part of your wedding day!!

3 is a Big Number!

2009-01-12T16:14:00.002-05:00

We are busily preparing to travel to Anguilla for Ashley and Jamie's wedding - and we're super excited about this trip! I just had to take a quick break from editing and packing to share a couple of highlights of our son Will's 2008. He just turned 3 on New Year's Eve!

Here is Will with one of his heroes:

And here he is on his first day of school... I can't believe how quickly he is growing up!

It seems like just yesterday that he was just a little baby!

A Season to Give

2008-12-22T13:25:00.010-05:00

This year, we've heard from more relatives and friends than ever who are opting to make a charitable donation instead of giving holiday gifts. We think this is a great trend, and as our way of thanking all of our blog readers, we've made a donation to Heifer International (in the form of honeybees, Matt's favorite).

Are you thinking of making a charitable gift this winter season? Whether you're making a financial donation or offering your time as a volunteer, we recommend choosing a cause that is meaningful to you - this way you can follow the organization's progress and really get a sense of how your contribution helps over time. In case you're looking for ideas, here are a few causes that are near and dear to our hearts:

Heifer International
NEADS
Room to Grow
Habitat for Humanity

Your local food pantry and community arts centers are also great options, especially if you want to give within your community.

We count ourselves as deeply lucky that we have wonderful clients who make it possible for us to make a living doing what we love. Thank you to everyone who we work with, who re-blogs our photos, who offers us encouragement and advice, who refers fabulous clients to us, or who simply is a fan - we have each of you to thank for another successful year!

~ Matt & Enna
Grazier Photography

Beautiful Family

2008-12-16T22:34:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite ongoing jobs is to photograph the children at our sons' preschool. While I don't exactly have favorites, there are two siblings (aside from my own) who I have always adored photographing. In November they got a new baby brother, and I was overjoyed when their parents asked me to visit them for a family portrait session.

Check out those peepers!

Here are proud big brother and sister:

Baby Julian is super kissable...

Leo and Willa did an excellent job holding, playing with, and soothing Julian!

I wonder who will have bigger feet when they're all grown up...

All of this visiting made baby Julian very tired

I'm predicting right now that Julian will sleep with his hand like this for the rest of his life:

Congratulations Nikki and Jeremy - you have a beautiful family!

The importance of the "Get To Know You" Engagement Shoot

2008-12-03T21:36:00.024-05:00

The engagement shoot as it has been known for many years has become an endangered species. It has been replaced with something much more dynamic and fun, the "Get To Know You" shoot. An engagement shoot is nothing new to the world of wedding photography, but only recently has the "Getting to Know You" approach become the dominant style for the engagement shoot. This makes perfect sense as photojournalism has also become the in-demand style for wedding photography.

During a Getting to Know You shoot we focus on getting to know our couples (as the name suggests), but in addition they get to know us as well - during the process of the shoot our relationship turns into a friendship, which is very rewarding for Enna and I. When we take pictures our goal is to tell the story of our couple's relationship and personalities - the shoot is no longer about making one formal image to hang on the wall or print in the newspaper. We often meet in the late afternoons to take advantage of the best light of day, and after the shoot it is not uncommon for us to stop at a pub for a drink or two:) What better way to be more comfortable in front of your photographer's camera on your wedding day than to spend a few hours with them having your photo taken and getting to know each other over drinks and food!

When our studio was new Enna and I charged separately for the "Get to Know You" shoot, but not every couple included it in their package and we missed having an established bond with those couples on their wedding day. We also noticed that that those who did the GTKY shoot laughed more, felt more natural, and interacted more passionately with their guests on their wedding day. So we made the "Get To Know You" shoot a complimentary item for all of our brides and grooms. The result of which has surpassed our expectations. Not only have we been able to create more intimate images, but we have also made closer friendships with couples who now invite themselves over for Sunday brunches, invite us to concerts, and Enna's favorite - out for great meals :) But the core reason of the complimentary shoot shines through so much in our wedding day images. The smiles and laughing is genuine and the emotions are intimate because trust has been established. The trust our couples have becomes a sort of camouflage for us on their wedding day, as they have an established comfort zone in front of our lens.

Over the past few weeks I have been traveling around meeting up with some of our 2009 couples for their GTKY shoots. I always encourage our couples to go someplace special to them. Here are some of my fav's from 3 recent GTKY shoots.

Nicole & Dominick

Nicole & Dominick live just outside of NYC. We met up in their favorite neighborhood and went for a fun walk. Their wedding will be at the Harbour Oaks Estate in RI next summer and is sure to be nothing short of amazing. How do I know this? Because they have strong bonds with family and friends. As a photographer I am always asked to talk about amazing weddings and people will expect me to talk about the huge flower arrangements, designed lighting, designer gowns and other fantastic details of the wedding day. But regardless of fashion designers, locations, and other big-budget items, I always talk about the people and the love they share... nothing beats that!

Gretchen & Paul

Gretchen & Paul are our 2009 Valentine's Day couple. That's right, they are tying the knot on the most famous day of the year for Love at the Ballroom Veronique. They invited me to the bridge where Paul proposed to Gretchen. We had a tough time getting our schedules in sync, so when it rained, and I mean it rained hard, they had no intention of trying to reschedule. They marched right on out with umbrella in hand and had a blast! I love the Red Sox vs. Yankees image. As you can tell from the fun they had in the rain to the established sports feud, these two have a great sense of humor and are very carefree, totally able to go with the flow:)

Noelle & Dane

What do you call someone who lives in Cambridge, works in cambridge, and just plain ol' loves Cambridge? A Cambridge-ite? A Cambridgian? What ever it is, these two fit the bill:) Noelle & Dane met and fell in love at The B-Side Cafe, which unfortunately closed its doors forever just a couple of weeks ago. We were fortunate to get in for a few photos (and drinks) before they closed for good. The photo of them sitting at the bar with the support beam between them, is the exact spot where they first saw each other and met. Their wedding will be... where else... at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge!! One random fun fact discovered between us, Dane works with my cousin-in-law and good friend Joe! Here are some cool shots of them taken around the Central Square area of Cambridge...

Fumiko & David

2008-11-26T14:41:00.011-05:00

Fumiko & David were married at the Old State House in Boston, and held their reception at the Downtown Harvard Club. What was so much fun about their wedding was being able to walk from the Boston Harbor Hotel - to the Old State House - to the Downtown Harvard Club - with them. Fumiko and David are some of the happiest people I have ever met and the laughing, joking around, and hugs seemed endless! I was joined by my good friend James Federico for this shoot and we had a blast hanging out together. Check out the fun we had on the streets of Boston...

David's mom was so happy and excited she just let it all out when she saw him for the first time on his wedding day

Fumiko & David

Fumiko gave David these awesome cufflinks

The next 3 rockin shots were taken by James!

There are a ton of images of everyone having fun in the streets - to keep this post reasonable in length I chose only to show this one of Fumiko looking amazing

The wedding party

This is one of my new all time fav groom portraits

The mustache is officially back in style!

It's always fun to have security guards clear their desk so we can make a fun portait:)

Congratulations Fumiko and David!!! It was a blast to be their for you on your wedding. Thank you ~Matt

A Wedding at the Winslow Estate

2008-11-26T00:21:00.015-05:00

Megan & Dominic recently tied the knot at the Winslow Estate in Orleans, MA. Everything about this day was amazingly beautiful!! Megan was stunning in her dress, Dominic was looking sharp in his suit, the weather could not have been any better, and their friends and family danced all night long.

Here are a few of our fav's from the day...

The happy couple

I had fun sitting the rings on Cape Cod:)

I absolutely love this shot Enna got of Megan getting dressed.

Here is a great image by Erin (one of our former brides), who joined us for the day to shoot and assist

The ceremony

Love this detail of a wedding gift

As the sun set, we were able to catch this beautiful light that bled into the tent and highlighted them for their first dance

One of their good friends joined the band and rocked out on the guitar

Dominic's uncle took charge at the dance off:)

As the sun set the water was calm, the moon was out, and the colors were amazing.

Congratulations Megan and Dominic and thank you for inviting us to be such a part of your day!!

A Wedding at the Intercontinental

2008-11-14T22:34:00.015-05:00

I recently received a phone call from a CT photographer I hadn't met before asking me to second shoot with him for a wedding planned by Josh Chalmers of Hey Cinderella at the InterContinental Hotel here in Boston. I was originally planning on going to Maine for the day with friends for a photographers shoot-out, but I love shooting weddings with other photographers and... how often do I get a chance to be a second shooter? So I had a blast shooting this wedding with Kiva Sutton. The bride and groom, Lesley & Harold, were beautiful people and everyone there was incredibly excited for them - it was great:)

Here are a few from the day

What stood out to me the most throughout the day was the amount of love and support the bride and groom had from family and friends. I loved making this image of Harold's hands being held by all the men in his wedding party.

Harold and his brother

The ladies get ready to exit the bridal suite

Lesley looking amazing in her gown

Just before Lesley left the suite I noticed the video guy had his LCD turned around and I was able to get this cool shot

The Chapel at BU

This DJ rocked! I'll have to get his info from Josh:)

I love this shot of a couple dipping on the edge of the floor

Congratulations Lesley and Harold!!! And thanks for inviting me along Kiva, it was a great wedding to shoot!

Beautiful Baby Boy!

2008-11-11T23:26:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite things to do is to photograph new babies... one of our favorite Boston event planners just welcomed her second baby into the world, and I was delighted to visit the hospital to take pictures of little Cameron when he was just two days old.

Here he is angry that his mommy wants to unwrap him and show off his lovely belly.

A tight swaddle is definitely a happier place to be.

I love how babies look like they're concentrating so hard when they sleep.

Check out those dimples!

Congratulations Alexis! Thank you for having me visit you!

Enna

WFNX 2008 Halloween Prom!

2008-11-07T13:13:00.015-05:00

For the past few years I have been at the WFNX Halloween Prom at The Harp with my camera doing prom style portraits. Usually they have a semi elaborate back drop for me, and it looks more "prom-ish" , this year the background was back-in-black (hey, AC/DC just rocked the Garden this week). It's always a great time with about 400 people bringing out their inner freak. Shooting the prom this year was extra special (for lack of a better term) for me as Mike Snow at WFNX made some things happen and I was able to donate my bartered air time for advertising to a nonprofit art center. The nonprofit art center is the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC) in Portsmouth, NH.

PMAC is amazing, and I'm very proud to have a connection to it. My brother Russ and his wife Katie started the center about 6 years ago and he is the Executive Director and a faculty member. When Russ moved home from school in Chicago he found himself traveling to teach private saxophone lessons in several communities in NH and MA. The combination of gas, time in the car and being an independent contractor was killing him. So he networked with other local musicians to create a non profit in which they would have their own school (thus eliminating drive time and associated stress). The community has benefited from this tremendously. PMAC now has 30 faculty and hundreds of students from kindergarten to... well lets just say they have grandparents that have never played instruments before, or haven't in years, taking lessons and playing in bands now. They have visual arts classes, a teen rock camp in the summer, jazz bands, wind ensembles and more. Big names in the local music scene such as Amanda Palmer of the Dressden Dolls, Al Barr from the Dropkick Murphy's, and Dan Zanes are all supporters who are now donating their names and voices to radio plugs to be used with my barter. Some of them have even done private workshops at the school for the students.

So it was a great Halloween for me as I was able to help my bro's school get some airtime on the local rock station. Here are a few of my favorites from the night...

Was there a Halloween party this year without the Joker? This guy had it down!

Check this group busting out the Breakfast Club pose

Shyla, Krista (Our former studio manager) and Suzanne

Shyla and Suzanne had the perfect costumes for a Boston Halloween

Gotta love the Diamond Dog!

A BIG THANK YOU to Mike Snow and the gang at WFNX for hooking us up and supporting the local art scene as always, can't wait to see all you freaks again next year!

~Matt

The Love Boat, a Wedding on Boston Harbor

2008-11-05T01:28:00.010-05:00

Kandace and Kevin were recently married in Boston's North End and had their reception on Boston Harbor aboard The Odyssey. The Boston waterfront is a very special place for them, as they love spending time together there and it is also where Kevin proposed to Kandace.

Gotta love this note:)

Kandace looking fabulous

Nothing beats having your best friend along for the ride

Kandace's dad walking her down the aisle

"This is it!"

At the end of the night they were sent off with sparklers!

Congratulations Kandace and Kevin!!

A Poem for Today

2008-11-04T19:47:00.001-05:00

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

'Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon's white cones - nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi's stream:

This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name - the still small voice vibrating -America's choosing day,

(The heart of it not in the chosen - the act itself the main, the quadrennial choosing,)

The stretch of North and South arous'd - sea-board and inland - Texas to Maine - the Prairie States - Vermont, Virginia, California,

The final ballot-shower from East to West - the paradox and conflict,

The countless snow-flakes falling - (a swordless conflict,

Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's): the peaceful choice of all,

Or good or ill humanity - welcoming the darker odds, the dross:

- Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify - while the heart pants, life glows:

These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,

Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.

~ Walt Whitman, 1819-1892

School Picture Time!

2008-11-01T01:02:00.007-04:00

I love photographing kids.

This year I got the special privilege of doing school portraits for BOTH of our sons, as they are at the same preschool. I probably won't get the chance to do both boys' school portraits again, because next year Ollie starts kindergarten so they will be in separate schools. As much as I love doing school portraits, I cannot imagine photographing all the students at a school much larger than their preschool. So right now, school portraits are a special service that we only make available to very small and very special schools (special = our boys go there).

Hee hee, check out Will's haircut! :) Ollie insisted on wearing his hat - he let me take a couple without it, but I like his expression here.

We are available however for family portrait sessions. We have a VERY limited number of times and days that we can do more family portrait sessions this fall. So definitely contact us soon if you wish to schedule a portrait session in time for the holidays!

Our gift certificates are also a fabulous way to give someone the gift of photography. A gift certificate may be used towards a portrait session or albums and other products.

My Mom is on Facebook!

2008-10-31T14:57:00.007-04:00

Yeah. :) I invited my mom to join me on Facebook because I knew she would enjoy reading things like my daily status updates ("Enna is looking for the best way to deskunk her dog") as well as the random photos that I post from our weddings, portraits, and daily family life. She's been cruising along over the last few weeks, dabbling with her Facebook settings, chatting here and there with her two Facebook Friends (me and an old roommate of mine). Then one day she accidentally invited her whole address book - she felt kind of stupid, but it's actually REALLY easy to do this in Facebook. So now she's got all her cronies asking her how to use Facebook. She asked me for help explaining to them how to get started. So, here goes...

First, what is Facebook? Facebook is like.... a bulletin board, and you control who has access to it - you get to decide who gets to walk by your bulletin board, and those people can both read and post on it. Or for an even better analogy... it's like a back yard. The yard can be all private, or it can include a more public section, like the front of the house and front porch. You get to decide which friends are able to enter the yard, and you can also decide how high to build your fence (and whether to have one at all). You can decide how much of your personal business you conduct in your own yard. It's still the Outside, so unless you are truly an exhibitionist you probably don't want to expose all your private parts. If your children are in the yard you probably want to keep an eye on them, to make sure they are playing safe (and you should play with them, so that they can learn from you how to play appropriately, and you will get to learn about the pitfalls). Of course if your children are old enough to play unsupervised they'll probably be much happier if you leave them alone and head to the front porch for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine...

So to continue with the yard analogy, I've written a few pointers for my mom and her friends.

1. Before you let the dog out, build a fence. The first thing you should do after you sign up for a Facebook account is modify your privacy settings. For those just starting out, I suggest going through all the options and select "Friends" only for everything. This means that only those who you have accepted or invited to be your "Friend" will be able to see this section.

2. Hang a few jingle bells on the back gate, so that you know when your friends are visiting. Go to Account Settings and set your Notifications. You can set Facebook to notify you by email if someone posts on your wall, posts a picture with you in it, or sends you a private message, among other things.

3. Get dressed. Okay, some people including me hang out in the back yard in a bathrobe. But on the off-chance that your boss drives by, or your child's teacher drops by unannounced, you probably want to be wearing something fairly decent. Create an avatar - this is a picture of you. Or at least it's a representation of you. Remember, you can control who sees the avatar in your privacy settings. You should also complete some of your profile information - again, you control who sees this, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about the wrong person finding out that you "live in Arkansas", or "love Michael Jackson", or that you are a "bona fide liberal". Just make sure that your profile contains information that you're comfortable sharing with your future Facebook friends.

4. Invite some friends over. Facebook has a tool that allows you to invite everyone in your address book - it's pretty efficient, but you may not want to share your back yard with everyone in your email address book (mortgage officer, doctor, ex-friend, workplace acquaintances from 10 years ago...) So I suggest using either the "find a friend" feature, or invite people to become your friends. Also check for "friend requests" in the upper right corner - these might include invitations from others who have found you on Facebook. If you don't recognize a name, just hit "ignore".

5. Maintain the yard. Oops... did you invite your whole address book? Chances are this is where Facebook will show you one of its most wonderful benefits - helping old friends reconnect. But there may be a few people in your address book who you don't wish to share your yard with. If this is the case, first head over to your privacy settings and make sure that the world isn't notified when you add or drop a friend. Then go to your list of friends and remove the people you'd rather not network with on Facebook. Your best friend will probably notice if you remove him or her. But a casual acquaintance or person you met once at a conference five years ago probably won't notice, or if they do they might not realize that it was because you removed them from your friend list.

So there you have it. Simple guidelines for a pleasurable Facebook experience. I think Facebook could be fun if you just have one 'Friend' on it... though for maintaining that kind of relationship there's no substitute for personal emails, letters, phone calls, and in-person get-togethers. But for casually maintaining a network of friends, family, close acquaintances, and keeping them up to date with our somewhat mundane but sometimes humorous family and business life I've found that it is really fun!

A couple of things to remember about Facebook and the internet in general:

Part of its beauty is that it can help to strengthen the network of real people in your life. So use your real name.
It's the internet. So if you're posting anything sensitive, private, or that can be misconstrued depending on who is reading it, consider your other options - send a private message or email, pick up the phone, write a letter, or don't post at all. Or go back and delete if there's a post you regret.

Just like on our blog, I try to keep a fairly even mix of business + personal on Facebook (though on Facebook I share a bit more personal stuff). I have more thoughts on how to use Facebook to your advantage with business networking, but that's for another post.

PS - feel free to send me a Facebook Friend request, but be sure to write a message identifying yourself and letting me know HOW I know you. I "ignore" facebook friend requests from names that I don't recognize.

A Wedding in Mexico

2008-10-29T00:33:00.010-04:00

This was a tough wedding to blog about - I started with about 30 images that I wanted to post, but had to narrow it down as that would be a very long blog post! I spent a week in Cancun Mexico with Dilnaz and Joe to photograph their wedding. They live in California, so we had not met in person until I arrived in Cancun. We immediately clicked and enjoyed a week of dinners, clubbing, sight-seeing, and of course...celebrating their wedding! The weather was great. Rain lingered the first day I was there, but after that it was nothing but sunshine (and high humidity). We swam with dolphins, saw Mayan ruins, snorkeled, swam in a huge underground sink hole, and missed our chance to go diving with whale sharks due to staying out too late the night before.

Dilnaz and Joe actually eloped about a year ago, but then decided they needed to have a wedding celebration. So they invited their family and closest friends to spend a week with them in Cancun. The months leading up to the event were not easy as Dilnaz's mother passed away. Then Dilnaz, her sister, and Joe became very ill while traveling to India for the funeral. Nonetheless the wedding was a very special week for them and it was an honor for me to be there to document it.

Their invitation

The dolphins jumping over Dilnaz and Joe. The dolphin pool was right below the balcony of our rooms.

The cave. This is actually a sink hole. We drove for a few hours to get there and at the entrance there is a well with a spiral staircase going down. We went down about 75 feet and it opened up to this amazing site. The water was perfect!

Dilnaz at the rehearsal dinner with a gun.

Joe jumps in with a change of props for a fun shot

Dilnaz making her way down the steps

Uninvited guest

The ceremony was beautiful on this ocean cliff

Resort photographer and video guy. This is how I had to shoot, but I managed:)

A cool shot of the ladies sporting the "just married" shades

I caught this quick detail of Dilnaz walking on the rocks. how women do this with heels is beyond me

A quick roll in the sand for fun

Congratulation Dilnaz and Joe!!! I had so much fun. I enjoyed meeting your friends and family and I hope to cross paths with you all again soon. ~Matt

A Harvard Campus Wedding

2008-10-25T11:51:00.004-04:00

Heidi and Wesley were such a fun couple to photograph! I really admire their ability to just have fun, be in the moment, and express joy.

Before their ceremony, we went on a fun photo-walk through Harvard Square.

The Chess Master invited Heidi to make the first move.

A glowing bride at the beginning of the day

Look at Heidi's father as he sees his daughter for the first time on her wedding day

Wesley's father gave his blessing at the ceremony.

They took a very unusual approach to their reception. After light hors d'oeuvres and a first dance, a microphone was passed around and almost everyone in the room said something special about Heidi and Wesley. These two have touched everyone in their lives in a most special way, and it was a great honor for me to spend their wedding day with them.

Here they are after cutting their cake:

Their friends decorated a hot car for the getaway:

Congratulations Heidi and Wesley!

Jill & Allen, a Caramoor Wedding

2008-10-22T23:21:00.009-04:00

Jill and Allen were married at the Caramoor Music and Arts Center in NY. This was one of the most beautiful wedding settings we have ever seen! Sunlight filtered down through the trees and cast everything in clean yellow light. In the week before the wedding we were so worried that we would have to shoot the day in a hurricane, but fortunately for Jill and Allen, the hurricane blew by the day before, and there wasn't a sign of the storm except for the sparkling fresh air.

Here are a few highlights from the day... Jill and Allen you were a joy for us to photograph!

The happy couple:

Another great "1st look" image by Enna:

Allen working on his vows:

Jill looking beautiful:

Allen looking very suave before the ceremony:

I was inspired by my good friend and mentor for this shot - photographer David H. Wells, who emphasizes the importance of light, shadow, and motion:

This is the kind of image that we live for: I got this shot of Allen's mom completely in the moment and very emotional:

Enna was quick to see and catch Allen's mom holding his hand and feeling the new ring on his finger. Just beautiful.

I was asked to be a witness and sign their marriage certificate after the ceremony (an honor for me).

Last but not least, I have to post these 4 ladies who were all great sports and enjoyed being caught in matching outfits!

Thank you Jill and Allen - it was an honor to be your photographers!

Love Story - Joya Beauty

2008-10-20T13:44:00.002-04:00

Okay brides and blog-reading friends... it's time for me to share one of our treasured secrets... Joanne of Joya Beauty. Oops, did I really write that? If you're one of our own clients RUN to your telephone and book Joanne now, before all our other blog-readers snap up her remaining dates!

Joanne is probably the most talented makeup artist we have ever worked with. We LOVE it when our brides book her, because we know several things: 1) our clients will be utterly charmed and cared for by Joanne - and for busy brides this is priceless. 2) they will look fabulous... need I say more? Brides who look good feel good, and brides who feel good look better in their pictures! And finally, reason number 3) this is our little studio secret... when we work with Joya we do less photoshop retouching. All of these things free us to do what we love most - documenting the moment and portraying the inner and outer beauty of each client, their stories and relationships.

I have to admit, I am makeup challenged. Choosing, buying, and using makeup is intimidating for me. I have some tried and true techniques that work (light mascara, lip gloss, a smudge of eyeliner), but beyond that I am totally lost. I can never select the right color base for my skin, and even if the color turns out right it is usually the wrong consistency for my skin type and I end up never using it. So I need some serious hand-holding when it comes to choosing and wearing makeup.

Last week I visited Joya Beauty with Sallie (one of our FAVORITE clients ever... mother-of-the-bride extraordinaire), and we both got custom blended makeup and application lessons.

Joanne custom blends everything from scratch, testing on your cheek as she goes, and this is always wonderful because she is just so fun and peaceful to spend time with. I always feel rejuvenated and inspired after spending time with her, and I know this is her special gift.

Joanne's shop is super fun to visit. It's full of beautiful colors, powders, and components... it's sort of like a chemistry lab too, because she mixes everything by hand.

Thank you Joanne, for a lovely afternoon (and Sallie too). I'm LOVING my new makeup!

Style Me Pretty, Baby!

2008-10-16T22:25:00.007-04:00

Does anyone out there have a favorite blog? We do... of course there are tons of blogs that we peek at once in a while just for fun, and we follow all our photographer buddies' blogs, but for wedding style our top pick is Style Me Pretty. Abby's blog is choc-full of beautiful DIY ideas, pretty inspiration boards, and lots of links to fabulous weddings vendors in her Little Black Book. She looks at photographers' work from all over the world on a daily basis, so I was SUPER flattered when this blog mistress extraordinaire called me for her new baby's photos. I spent the afternoon with her family at their home in Boston... we ventured out for a few photos in the pretty afternoon sunlight, but it was brrrr cold so mostly we just stayed inside and I took photos of baby Audrey snuggling with her happy parents.

Baby Audrey is pure gorgeousness isn't she? Audrey and her parents were a delight to photograph. Thank you for choosing me, Abby!

Oanh & Patrick - Let it Rain!!

2008-10-15T00:36:00.016-04:00

Oanh and Patrick invested a lot of time planning their special day. They were referred to us by Laura & Rebecca, whose wedding seems so long ago now. At the time Enna and I were living in our little apartment with two baby boys when Oanh brought her siblings, nieces and nephews along for the visit. The living room was packed with people, every chair in the apartment was being used and we all had a great time getting to know each other. Then about 6, maybe 8 months passed. We hadn't heard back from them and were thinking they hired another photographer when we suddenly got a phone call from Patrick, "are you still available for our date?" We were thrilled to hear from them and even more excited to still be available for their date. They both drove to meet us at a wedding show in Newport RI that weekend to retain us and they decided to hang out at our booth and talk us up all day to the visiting couples. It was incredibly sweet of them. It turns out, according to Patrick, they had taken their time shopping around and interviewing other studios, but after 6 months or so of research, decided they liked us best. I was beside myself when he told me this. So now, almost 2 years since we met, we are proud to show off the images from their beautiful wedding at Glen Manor:)

An awesome shot taken by Enna during their first look.

Oanh's fabulous shoes:

Oanh and Patrick refused to let the rain stop them from having portraits outside. Never before had I seen two people so happy and having so much fun getting soaked. Here they are rushing back for cover when the rain became torrential downpours! Enna had an umbrella, but I just got soaked. Good thing Nikons are weather proof!

Oanh retouching after being out in the rain

Nothing but attitude:)

One of my new all time favorite bridal portraits!

At the end of the evening they both dressed in traditional Vietnamese wedding attire

Patrick cutting loose on the dance floor!

At the end of the night I caught this intimate moment on the patio:

"The Real Deal"

2008-10-14T10:55:00.004-04:00

There has been a lot of blog love for Enna and I this week. We are just beside ourselves and incredibly flattered. Yesterday we received an email from Michelle at Style Me Pretty who sent us Abby's destination listing for Enna and I on their blog. Check it out here:) Abby rocks!! In fact, her whole team at Style Me Pretty rocks!! Thank you so much Abby!!

Who Needs a Veil?

2008-10-10T10:50:00.004-04:00

We are still waiting for one of our brides to wear one of Marie Galvin's fabulous creations:

She's having a special preview on Friday of the Fort Point Channel Open Studios next weekend.

Get one in wedding white, or introduce some bold color to the wedding day with one of her brighter creations!

Bride Ascending Staircase

2008-10-07T18:43:00.003-04:00

We couldn't resist giving this shot its own post...

Name the work of art we have punned here and the artist who created it, and we will mail you a copy of his biography.

Yes Enna, Summer is Over

2008-10-07T18:32:00.004-04:00

Two sad facts: 1) we're behind on blogging, and 2) summer is over... so while we work on editing our autumn weddings we're going to share a few of our favorite photos from the past year here and there. Here is the first installment... we spent a week at a state park with friends in July. Did you know that you can rent a yurt for a week? I highly recommend this method of "camping" with young kids, especially those who still nap. Our yurt was just steps away from a sandy beach that we had all to ourselves for most of the week. Here is Ollie hunting for frogs, and our friend Olivia getting warmed up after a great day of swimming.

You Go Girl!!

2008-10-07T11:49:00.004-04:00

I sat down to check my email this morning and Google Alerts notified me of Enna and I being mentioned in a blog post. I clicked the link and... WOW! :) What a way to start the day!! Kayla - YOU ROCK!!! I'm not only saying that because you wrote such a nice thing about us, but also because your blog is awesome! Click here to check out her blog:) We are honored to be your photographers!!

It's Family Day

2008-10-04T14:58:00.002-04:00

Our son Will, who is almost 3 years old, can be very stubborn and sometimes insists on wearing his rain boots on the wrong feet:)
-- Post From My iPhone

Anna & David

2008-10-04T14:09:00.010-04:00

Anna & David were recently married at Temple Emanuel in Newton, Ma. Anna had her family fly in from Russia, and David's family lucked out as they were mostly local:) I loved the excitement Anna and David couldn't hide. Anna had this huge smile plastered across her face all day and David was anxiously cool. Here are a few from the day:

In the back of the temple I found this classroom and snuck the two of them away from the guests for this fun shot.

A detail of Anna's dress

David, maybe out of nerves, sat down just before Anna came out for the first look. I love this shot as she leans over to kiss him and he has that huge grin on his face.

David's mom Robbie planned the event and did an amazing job. She and I have gotten to know each other very well over the past few months and her reading during the ceremony was a tear-jerker.

I love this shot of Mark, FOTG (father of the groom, yes that is wedding photograper lingo)

These little ones were standing behind me every time I turned around ready for their close-up. So they deserve a blog image for their perseverance alone. But I also love the shot:)

What I love about this image isn't just that they are holding hands, but look at Davids other hand. It is clenched so tight as he listens to the emotional toasts being given.

There is a bride and groom under there:)

Mozel Tov Anna and David!! Thank you for inviting me to be such a part of your day!
~Matt

Please don't make my babies (and yours) orphans!

2008-09-30T10:17:00.007-04:00

With everyone's eyes and ears pointed to the big meltdown on Wall Street, the Senate quietly passed the Orphan Works Act a few days ago... and we're VERY concerned about what this means for copyright law.

These organizations oppose the orphan works bill as it is written.

Read about why so many artists and small businesses oppose the bill here.

Tell the House Judiciary not to pass the bill now.

Here's an example of a potential scenario under the new legislation... yes, this may seem like an extreme scenario, but we think it is entirely plausible:

1. I upload a cute picture of my son:

2. The image gets separated from our website... perhaps a friend re-posts it elsewhere, it gets linked in an online image catalog, or some other innocuous event.
3. Then a 3rd party finds the image, and decides that they would like to use it for a commercial purpose (perhaps they've invented a new kind of toothpaste that cleans blue tongues).
4. That party tries to find the original creator (me) of that image so that they can request my permission to use the image (and pay me of course)... they rack their brain looking at old websites they have visited, in search of where they found that original photo posted... they call stock agencies and ask if they have any photos registered of kids with blue tongues...
5. Eventually, they give up... they've tried to find the author to ask permission, but could not find the author. THIS IMAGE IS NOW AN ORPHAN!
6. Now that my image is an Orphan, that person or company can use the image without worrying about having to pay me for violation of copyright.

Artists of all kinds (photographers, illustrators, musicians etc) who make a living from their art have their livelihood at stake, but this law does not just affect artists. If you post images or other creative works on the internet, you should be concerned. Please take the time to learn more about this bill, and take action to oppose it if you disagree with it. Here is a list of sample letters that you can send to your legislators - scroll to the bottom to use the sample letter written from a member of "the image-making public".

GovTrack.us. S. 2913--110th Congress (2008): Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008, GovTrack.us (database of federal legislation)

A Green Wedding!

2008-09-28T17:49:00.015-04:00

As many of you know we are a green studio. We invest 1 ton in carbon offset credit for every wedding we shoot, are working hard at reducing paper use, and do many other things around the studio to reduce waste and support our local community. Christine and Jamie are much the same. They held their wedding at the Epicenter for the Arts in South Boston, a green building with no a/c, but fantastic air circulation, they used local florist Faxon Green, who uses locally grown flowers, and they even worked with the caterer to make sure the food was local and to top it all off they had Big Spike, an awesome bluegrass band! It was really great to be part of this event. Christine and Jamie were so much fun to work with. They did a first look and portraits at the Renaissance Hotel, then headed off to the Epicenter for the ceremony and portraits.

Here are a few from the day:

Christine & Jamie

Christine struttin her stuff at their first look

This is one of the coolest wedding details we've ever seen. Christines veil has been worn at weddings for generations, this document shows the dates going all the way back to 1889!

A very cool detail shot the veil being handed to Christine

With the fear of a hot day in a non a/c'd building, Christine and Jamie used colorful fans for place cards. There was no need for them, but they were super cool:)

The hotel has this very cool hallway with lights lining the walls. We snapped a few quick ones of the ladies before heading off to the ceremony

The groomsmen wore seer sucker pants - gotta love that!

Big Spike! The a great, no make that amazing, blue grass band!

Thank you Christine & Jamie! We can't wait to catch up and hear about your honey moon!!

Alysia & Michael

2008-09-24T14:42:00.012-04:00

Alysia and Michael have been such a great couple to get to know over the past year. They hired us in August of '07, we shot their engagement session shortly afterward... it's been a long time since we first met them, so it is great to post these beautiful wedding photos for them. Their wedding was at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. We saw a few drops of light rain during the day, but lucked out and were able to do portraits outside in the court yard. Here are a few from the day:

I found this old garage and loved how one side was black and the other white. It was just screaming at me to do a fun black and white image of them in front of it:

This little dude was a break-dancing fool!

As you can see, the dance floor was hopping!

I just can't resist getting these sneaky shots of the security guards half asleep:)

Thank you Alysia and Michael. We had such a great time with you and can't wait to deliver your album... which is going to rock!

Wedding Memories

2008-09-24T10:38:00.003-04:00

I just sent an email to Fumiko, whose wedding I will be photographing soon. One of the things she asked me was if I knew how long it took to get a marriage license at Boston's City Hall. I don't, because Enna and I were married in NH, and there it took all of 5 minutes. But this question brought back a memory of one of my favorite moments of our marriage. Enna and I were visiting friends at their lake house just a few weeks before our wedding and borrowed the jet ski to go to the town hall for our license. It was very fun to walk into the town hall wet with swim suits and life jackets on to apply for our license. My mom was at the dock and snapped a photo of us departing. This was before digital photography, so recalling this reminds me that I'll have to go through some boxes at my mom's house to find that photo and scan it. Hopefully I'll be able to post it here someday soon.

I just though I'd share this memory from our lives as we love to hear and document other peoples moments that become cherished memories:)

~Matt

Those Silly Grazier Boys

2008-09-22T21:56:00.001-04:00

Out for a nice family dinner at out local pizza shop

-- Post From My iPhone

When Art and Science Collide

2008-09-22T13:56:00.008-04:00

One of the most flattering compliments we receive as wedding photographers is when another wedding vendor asks us to do a portrait for them. We know the vendors we work with see a lot of photography, and to know they love our work and want it for themselves means the world to us.

Meet Shelley and Jacob. Shelley is our favorite letter press printer. She is an artist who has a great eye for composition, colors, and quality. Her studio, Albertine Press, not only does our business cards, but also customized the beautiful envelopes we use to mail our DVD portfolios. We love to see her creations at weddings when our couples have her create one of a kind table cards, invitations, and other items for their wedding day. Jacob is Shelley's husband. To say Jacob likes science would be an understatement. In the hour I spent photographing he and Shelley at the Boston Museum of Science, I learned more about the exhibits than I have in the many many mornings I have spent there as a museum member with our two boys:) Jacob is a physicist and currently working on his phd at Harvard University.

Our shoot started at the Science Museum, where Jacob loves to visit, and wrapped up in the historic Beacon Hill area of Boston. Here are a few from the day:

Shelly & Jacob at the museum's interactive map:

I love this shot of them in the space capsule. I lit the interior with a remote flash to give it some realism.

This is a shot of Shelley at the angled mirrors display.

Which way should we go? Standing on the line between Boston and Cambridge:)

I loved incorporating this leaning lamp post into a shot.

Check out this cobblestone road. I was so stoked when we stumbled across it. I love how the grass is growing between the stones.

Tomorrow I get to visit Shelley's studio to go over some new work she'll be doing for us. It's always fun to see her studio with the old press in action. Thank you Shelley and Jacob for asking us to do these portraits for you! Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

~Matt

Megan & Dominic

2008-09-19T10:59:00.015-04:00

When Enna and I first moved to Boston some 10 years ago, Enna landed a job managing the studio for Joel Benjamin, a prominent Boston fashion photographer. Joel has always been not only a great friend, but also a trusted resource. Joel has sent several couples our way and they are always amazing couples who love good photography. Megan and Dominic know Joel 2 ways: they live in the same artists building as Joel, and Joel did photographery for Dominic's company. I recently had the pleasure of spending a Thursday evening with them for their "get to know you" engagement shoot. Megan and Dominic have a very cool live-in studio where Megan works as a graffic designer. We walked from their studio to the ICA and watched the sun set over the harbor. we then headed back to their studio where they entertained me with great food and wine. Here are some images from the evening:

Megan and Dominic

The steps behind the ICA. A great place to hang out if you have yet to go.

We found this cool Blue Man Group mural

And check out this bright red sign on the side of The Barking Crab

Their very cool dog, Bundu, a Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Good wine = good times:)

It was so much fun hanging out with you two! Can't wait to have you visit us at our place in a few weeks. I'll have to think up some cool h'ourderves and get a great bottle of wine:)

Quick Update

2008-09-19T10:59:00.014-04:00

Enna and I are in our busiest month of the year. Luckily Enna's sister Elise, or as the boys like to call her, Aunt Sip (her nickname is Skip) has been able to stay with us and help around the house. I just returned from an amazing wedding in Mexico. Dilnaz and Joe (bride and groom) were so much fun, and I made some great friends with their family and friends. We went to Maya ruins, swam in a sink hole that seemed 100 feet underground (the entrance was a well with a spiral staircase that went down and down and down.... swam with dolphins, went clubbing and then we had their wedding on a perfect September day in Cancun. We lucked out as Ike the hurricane missed Cancun and we just had some rain and strong winds early in the week. Enna stayed in Boston to shoot Heidi and Wesley's wedding and is really excited about her work from the wedding.

In the 3 days I've been home I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off getting caught up on so much and getting ready for our weekend of shooting. Tonight we get to shoot Kandace and Kevin's wedding on Boston Harbor, then tomorrow we are off to the Cape for Hilary and Ryan's wedding.

So we will posting a lot in the coming week! Meanwhile, here is a shot of the gang from Dilnaz and Joe's wedding. This was taken by our tour guide just after our swimming adventure 100' below ground. That's me on the far left:)

PS... stay tuned for our favorite family photos from our summer too!

A Beach Wedding:)

2008-09-08T23:49:00.013-04:00

We first met Jacki & Chris over a year ago when Jacki was a brides maid at Sarah & Dan's wedding. Jacki called us soon after Sarah's wedding to make sure we could be there for her big day, and we are so glad we were! They tied the knot at the beautiful Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster, MA. The weather was perfect and the wedding party and parents had fun taking their shoes off and walking on the beach for the portraits. With every season Enna and I love our job more and more as we go to these amazing events and see so many couples we have worked for and their families. We love going to weddings and having the mother of a bride we photographed a year or two before come up and greet us with a hug. We all had so much fun seeing each other again and Jacki & Chris looked amazing and loved every minute of their wedding day!

Here are a few from the day:

Jacki & Chris

Thier ceremony

We had a waitress snap this shot of Enna and I with Sarah & Dan

Chris is an MMA fighter. These glasses fell victim to he and his buddies horsing around the night before.

Jacki with her two girls

Thank you Jacki and Chris!!! We had so much fun and can't wait to get you your album! I also could not have asked for a better wedding to edit right before I get on plane for a Cancun wedding. Talk about getting me excited for more beach shots:) Let's hope my plane makes it through Ike without any delays or layovers!

~Matt

Refresh the flickr:)

2008-09-05T23:21:00.004-04:00

I love the randomness of the photos on the right side bar of our blog. Enna set this up and I just crack up seeing photos I haven't seen in a while. From Ollie blowing out his birthday candles, to the WFNX '80's prom, random wedding images, and just all around fun family shots. It's fun to refresh the page and see what pops up next. Click your refresh button and see what pops up.

Heidi and Wesley... Love.

2008-09-05T12:56:00.001-04:00

Heidi and Wesley are a delight to be around. They are so joyful and in love - I love watching the expressions on their faces when they are in each others' company. Their wedding is going to be in Cambridge, on the Harvard Campus... in keeping with the Boston-Cambridge theme, we did their Getting to Know You photo shoot in the Public Garden and on Beacon Hill. They also took me to their favorite Charles Street Bakery, where they had one of their first dates... mmm they have good taste! :)

I can't wait till your wedding Heidi and Wesley - it's going to be a wonderful day!

Love my new iPhone

2008-08-31T10:48:00.002-04:00

Ollie loves to make intricate drawings of perpendicular lines intersecting each other. I was fascinated to see him creating the same design at a much larger scale on the beach.

A Love Born on Chappaquiddick

2008-08-25T19:51:00.010-04:00

Ashley and Jamie spent their summers as kids on Martha's Vineyard. While their families knew each other, Ashley and Jamie were not introduced until just a few years ago. Now they are engaged and planning an Anguilla wedding. For their engagement shoot they invited us to spend a night at the family home on Chappaquiddick. Ashley's family entertained us for the night with amazing swordfish grilled by her grandfather who just turn 90, martinis on ice mixed by her father, and to top it all off, mom made pancakes with blueberries that she picked from the wild blueberry plants around their house. There were so many great moments of the trip: besides the amazing time spent with Ashley and Jamie, Enna and I rented a Jeep and spent a day cruising the roads, swam at the beaches, ate plenty of seafood. We also had the most incredible night swimming experience of our lives with Ashley's family as the phosphorescent phytoplankton was glowing like you couldn't imagine!

Ashley and Jamie were referred to us by their wedding planner extraordinaire, Alexis Eliopoulos O’Mara, who owns Unique Weddings by Alexis, and we can't wait to be part of their wedding festivities at Cap Juluca in Anguilla.

Here are a collection of a few of our favorite images from their engagement shoot

Meet Ashley and Jamie...

The hammock outside their house. When we arrived at their house, Enna introduced herself to the family then promptly crashed on the hammock... it's pretty inviting:)

The path from their house to the beach

Ashley is a principal ballet dancer for the DC Ballet Co. at the Kennedy Center. She just couldn't resist showing a move or two for us:)

Blueberries!! Super yummy.

When the sun went down we went in the water for a few shots.

It took a little coaxing, but we got Jamie wet too:)

It was truly a great time. Thank you Ashley and Jamie for inviting and entertaining us! We can't wait to see you again and make more beautiful images of you in Anguilla.

~M & E

August PUG

2008-08-24T23:25:00.007-04:00

As PUG leaders (Pictage User Group) Enna and I like to mix it up and have fun social events (like the cruise we hosted last month) and educational events that will help photographers grow their studio. This month we were fortunate to have good friend and fellow wedding photographer Richard Esposito (if you read our blog regularly you'll remember his wedding) came to talk about using video on the internet. Richard used to work for channel 7 in Boston as a video editor, and has won Emmy's for his work. Now as a photographer he uses his video background to make fun short online video's of himself working. So watch out folk's, video clips of Enna and I will soon be on the site! :)

Here's Richard stretching to make a point during his presentation

Showing off his sweet little video cam

Enna and I with Richard

Paul and Krystal from Studio Foto also came to show albums and talk about their design service

Richard will be giving this one day workshop. Hopefully I'll see you there!

Thank you Richard!! The photographers and students that attended the PUG meeting loved your talk and left inspired:)

~Matt

Fumiko & David :)

2008-08-22T22:09:00.005-04:00

Fumiko and David are getting married this October in Boston and we did their engagement shoot on one of the hottest days of the year! I think I drank 3 chai tea frappuccinos before we headed out:) We walked around the Beacon Hill area of Boston, one of my favorite locations for classic "Boston" portraits. Beacon Hill is an amazing place: buildings are tightly packed, old cobblestone streets have grass growing between the stones, paint is faded and peeling off brick walls and well, it's just an awesome place for portraits. Add a couple like Fumiko and David to the mix and beautiful things happen.

We started at the Public Garden pond and they instantly let their funny side show

I just love this toe touching moment:)

It took nothing to get them into the laundry mat for a few fun pics!

As the sun went down we headed to a pub for a few drinks. When we emerged we were caught in the rain, so why not take a few while getting soaked? An elderly couple sitting in the car loved helping us out by letting us use their headlights.

At the very end of our night out we stopped back where we started for some night shots on the garden bridge. The rain had let up and some street performers on stilts came by.

Thank you Fumiko and David!! Can't wait to see you again soon!!

~Matt

Leslie & Eric!

2008-08-15T17:07:00.014-04:00

We first met Leslie and Eric about a year ago when Leslie was a brides maid for Jennifer, who had us photograph her wedding. They hired us shortly after we met and we had a very cold winter engagement shoot in downtown Boston where we ended up by chance at the New England Aquarium, where they happened to have their first date:) So after a long winter it was great to see them finally having their day, and the weather was perfect, which seems to be rare these days in Boston.

The wedding was The Barn at Gibbet Hill. Leslie and Eric had a "first look" so they could enjoy the cocktail hour with friends. One thing Leslie kept hoping for and happened was the cows coming to the top of the hill behind the ceremony. It was great to have the occasional "mmooo" during the "I dooo's"! The Colby's, who we recommended to them, rocked the barn with their unique blend of musical styles. The sure telltale sign of a great wedding band is how busy the dance floor is, and this floor was hopping!

Some of our fav's from the day...

Leslie & Eric

A cool shot of Leslie during the ceremony

Even the wedding party couldn't hold back tears during the ceremony

This is jennifer leaning in for a good laugh during the formals:)

A cool night shot of Gibbett Hill

Last but not least, the one and only Bev, lead singer and wash board player for the Colby's

Congratulations Leslie & Eric!!!

Lots of Rain

2008-08-14T23:30:00.001-04:00

Website is down, Artwork is up

2008-08-13T23:26:00.005-04:00

So our site is off the radar for a few hours, but it should be online again tomorrow.

In the meantime, why not check out our work the old fashioned way - in person! Two of my favorite large canvas prints of Will are hanging in a group show curated by the lovely Mary Jameson at Jameson and Thompson in Jamaica Plain, for JP 1st Thursdays. The show will hang through the end of the month.

Jameson and Thompson, by the way, does the very best fine art custom framing in Boston.

~Enna

Sarah & Harold

2008-08-06T11:37:00.012-04:00

Sarah and Harold are not getting married until May next year, but they were smart to take advantage of the warm summer weather to do their engagement shoot. We started at the Arnold Arboretum then headed to the back bay area of Boston. These two are an impressive couple as they have a long distance relationship (Sarah in DC, Harold in Colorado) and they don't mind racking up the air miles to visit each other:) They hope to change that soon, especially since their wedding is less than a year away!

Their wedding will be at the Ballroom Veronique in Brookline, MA, and their wedding planner is Bernadette Smith who owns It's About Time Events. Here are a handful of fun images from the shoot.

We couldn't resist having some fun with the yellow tape we found on a tree!

One of the wild things about being a wedding photographer is that we meet our couples sometimes more than a year from their wedding date, then we'll see them about 8 months before for the engagement shoot, and by the time the wedding arrives we've talked on the phone, emailed, and seen each other enough to have become friends. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Sarah and Harold and now we have to wait till the end of May 2009 to see them again!

a highlight of this summer

2008-08-02T17:41:00.002-04:00

Last night's summer highlight: night-swimming in the ocean among bioluminescent phytoplankton while gazing up at a brilliant milky way.

The pitch-black water sparkled and shimmered everywhere we touched it, and we played at making sparkle-angels in the water and letting diamonds of water droplets fall off our hands. The best way to experience it was floating on our backs so we could see the cloudy bands of the milky way at the same time.

What's that you say? Where was our camera? Well, we were so giddy and living in the moment that we didn't even think of it till we were all cozy drifting off to sleep in bed.... photograph bioluminescent plankton has been added to our list of things to do.

Alison & Bryan's Marblehead, Massachusetts wedding!!

2008-08-01T00:03:00.008-04:00

Remember Alison & Bryan? A few months ago we posted about their destination engagement shoot and how much fun we all had spending Cinco de Mayo at their SC beach house. Well we can now share their wedding photos...:)

The wedding was held at Alison's parents house in Marblehead, MA this past June, and we couldn't believe how cold it was! Alison was such an amazing sport braving the cold wind to get a few photos of her on the waterfront. Luckily the rain held and everything went as planned with an outdoor ceremony and the party went late into the night. I can tell you that towards the end of the night we all (parents of bride and groom too) indulged in shots from a bottle of Patron and I have some really crazy photos of that, but I'll spare everyone from posting them here for the world to see us being really crazy!! Also at the wedding one of our former brides, Erin - who is working hard to become a wedding photographer - joined us as an assistant and took some great images.

Alison and Bryan:

We were setting up a shot when I made this image and I just love the quiet moment of this image:

A fun image of Matt working:

These next two images were taken by Enna and are some of the most amazing limo shots I've ever seen!

One of Alison's flower girls showing off part of her bouquet:

Bryan's parents during the ceremony:

Alison carrying her mom, Sallie. If this doesn't say enough about how much fun these two are together I don't know what can:)

At the end of the night we headed out to get the limo with Alison and Bryan. I loved the mist on the street and wanted a shot of them standing in it. Just then the limo drove around the corner and we quickly snapped this amazing shot of Bryan dipping Alison in front of the limo:

Congratulations Alison and Bryan!! It was an honor to be your photographers and we can't wait to see you again and have margaritas!!!

Wedding Photographers Know How to Party

2008-07-31T21:33:00.003-04:00

25 savvy and talented (and might we say fashionable) photographers joined us for a cruise on the Boston harbor last Friday night... thank you Pictage for sponsoring our party! Here's Matt with a gaggle of super gorgeous 80's babes:

We're going to mail a prize to the first person who can correctly tell us what year Matt got that Cheap Trick t-shirt.... to enter the contest just send us an email with "Cheap Trick" in the subject line.

(image hijacked from the super talented and fun Feds' blog).

Family Portrait Time!

2008-07-31T17:32:00.004-04:00

Yay, we finally got family portraits done! Our good friends Justin and Mary came up from Connecticut and spent a whole day with us... they just posted some of their favorites from the shoot on their blog and I'm reposting a couple here:

Yay, thank you Justin and Mary! We can't wait to see them all!!!

Wine Flight

2008-07-30T19:35:00.002-04:00

Yummy... what a fun way to spend a summer evening. Wine tasting while waiting for a table at Sophia's Grotto. The entrees were good, but what I learned was that several small plates would have been more fun and completely satisfying.

A Bar Mitzvah Like No Other!

2008-07-28T21:34:00.006-04:00

Enna and I recently photographed Adam's bar mitzvah at the Franklin Park Zoo. This was pretty cool way to celebrate a bar mitzvah. The Thursday before the party I did some formal portraits at their temple, then the family hosted about 150 of their friends for food and drinks at the zoo's rain forest two days later. The gorillas seemed to enjoy watching everyone watching them and also had fun giving the occasional scare by beating on the plexiglass. The zoo gave the kids a behind the scenes tour, and towards the end of the night everyone played a serious game of Family Fued.

Here are some fun shots from the event...

Adam

I love this shot of his hand opening the scroll

Family in suits

Family out of suits:)

Adam and his siblings

A couple of the guests:)

The entrance to the rain forest

The rain forest cave was lit with these amazing light boxes

A fun before and after with the green screen

Adam at the end of the night

Mazel Tov Adam! We had a blast!

Hilary & Ryan

2008-07-25T15:28:00.005-04:00

This year we had a record number of couples hire us without ever having met us in person. Most of these couples live in NY, DC, CA, or elsewhere. Some came from strong referrals, and some found our site while surfing the web. It's always fun when we finally get to meet the couple in person for the "get to know you" shoot and we are able to walk around the city and talk and bond before their big day. When I opened the door to meet Hilary and Ryan they were standing there with the warmest smiles on the faces. We hung out in the studio for a bit looking at albums, then headed out to the Arboretum (which didn't last long due to rain) and then downtown to Copley Square.

Hilary and Ryans wedding will be at the beautiful Wianno Country Club this September. This will be a perfect venue for them and we can't wait to see them all dressed up for the wedding and meet their families and friends.

A few from the shoot

A Rare Movie Date

2008-07-24T13:12:00.003-04:00

Matt and I went on a rare date last night to see Dark Knight.

This is a fantastic thriller! Our enjoyment of the movie was made bittersweet by the knowledge that we won't see Heath Ledger in another performance. He carried the film, and at each brilliant scene or line we found ourselves contemplating this sad point.

Part of what made his performance so great is the camera work that was paired with Ledger's Joker scenes. Look closely - the filming is more loose, shakey, close, and just a bit crazed... this was a perfect method to convey his crazed and unpredictable character.

These more fluid and spontaneously shot scenes are a great example of how photography and film techniques can shape the emotional impact of an image. I want to encourage fellow photographers to take inspiration from the film making here - a perfect composition with perfect focus or stopped motion does not always convey the physics and emotions of a scene as thoroughly as shooting with a more intuitive and fluid approach....

It's a Small World:)

2008-07-24T12:40:00.005-04:00

One thing that I love about our job is being on a Get To Know You Shoot (engagement photos) and discovering that we have the same friends as the couple we are photographing. Christine and Jamie are getting married this August and are having a "green" wedding. Everything is local and environmentally friendly. After the shoot we went out for a coffee and started talking about Jamie's new venture as a self employed caterer. I started talking about my good friend Chris who used to own a restaurant in Boston and what do you know... Christine used to work with Chris's wife Sam, and they are good friends as well. Enna and I will be posting photos of a recent camping trip we had with Chris and Sam here soon.

So it's a small world after all:)

Christine and Jamie live along the Charles River, so for their shoot we walked around the Cambridge side of the river. The first time we met we got caught in the rain and were completely soaked by the time we made it to cover. The second time we met the sky was an amazing blue with beautiful clouds. They were so much fun to photograph and are going to have such a great wedding. Christine's bridesmaids will be in bright summer colors and Jamie's groomsmen will be in seersucker pants with ties to compliment the ladies.

Here a few images from the shoot. Can't wait to see you two in a few weeks!!

Julia

2008-07-20T15:07:00.008-04:00

Julia's bat mitzvah is this September. Enna and I photographed her brother's bar mitzvah and unfortunately we wont be able to photograph Julia's because we are booked for a wedding in NY on the same day:( Enna and I have become good friends with her family over the past few years and they are so much fun to photograph. Our weddings couples get a complimentary engagement shoot, or as we like to call it, a "get to know you shoot". I like to offer a similar portrait session when I am asked to photograph a bar/bat mitzvah, and while I am unable to be at her event, I was honored when they still wanted me for her portraits.

When I do a portrait I want to know about the person. I learned the importance of this while interning with the late, great Arnold Newman. Julia is a bookworm! She loves to read, especially Harry Potter, and spends a lot of time at the library. So for her shoot we started at the library, then spent some time around the family home. She was a natural in front of the camera and I know she is going to have an amazing bat mitzvah.

Here are just a few from the day.

Mazel Tov Julia!

On the stairwell of the newton library

Finding good details is so cool. I love this shot of her hands with the textured wall.

The stairwell in the family home had such amazing natural light.

The one above and the one below were taken on the dinning room table. I just loved the reflection and the curtains lit from the sun outside.

From Russia with Love

2008-07-18T00:21:00.004-04:00

Anna (from Russia) and David are getting married this summer here in Boston. When we met up for their engagement shoot we stopped at a train station to check it out and it fit them perfectly. I always try to find new places for each couple so that my engagement shoots are unique for them. I had worked in a subway before, but this was the first time I had used a train station and it was a blast.

A few shots from the day

Gorgeous Wedding Album!

2008-07-03T15:57:00.005-04:00

Okay, if you're a client of ours you know that we are SUPER picky about our albums. And you don't even see the "behind the scenes" work that goes into our album designs... we spend many hours making the preliminary design and final draft of an album, and retouching each image that will be in the final version. We have favorite techniques for incorporating favorite images in the album, pacing the story and graphic elements in order to ensure that looking at the album is an emotional and narrative experience. So we were flattered and honored that our album company decided to feature one of our recent books on their website.

Scott and Priscila's red-themed wedding called for drama, elegance, and quality, and we knew that a Queensberry Album would be a perfect fit.

Here's a snapshot of a few of the page spreads... read the whole story here.

Kim and Jeff: A Wedding Portland, Maine

2008-07-03T12:08:00.001-04:00

Kim and Jeff's wedding was very romantic. They are each others' best friends, and this was evident throughout the day.

The color red was incorporated everywhere... my favorite red element was Kim and Jeff's instruction to their friends to wear just a "touch of red"... everyone's clothing was different but they all were complimentary and it looked very elegant.

Kim was just glowing all day:

I had a bit of competition on the photo front:

I was very impressed by all the great dancers!

Congratulations Kim and Jeff!

Ilana & Paul

2008-07-02T21:18:00.013-04:00

Enna and I have become well known in Boston for our unique way of documenting Orthodox Jewish weddings. Our approach is simple, but it can be difficult to accomplish due to the energetic and spontaneous nature of the event. One of our favorite moments of the day is always the Bedeken, or "veiling of the bride". The men (who have been in another room to this point), parade the groom out to see his bride, led by musicians, and there is often singing and dancing. As they approach, the crowd separates to reveal the bride sitting on her throne. Tradition has it that this is the groom's opportunity to lift the veil to make sure it is his bride. But there is much deeper meaning to this ritual. The veil signifies the individuality of each even when united in marriage. It is also a reminder that although a woman's physical beauty may vanish, the beauty of her spirit never will. The family members' and guests' energy and excitement bring the emotion in the room to an all time high. After the groom has lowered the veil, the bride is blessed by the fathers and the grandfathers and it is all so beautiful that we never want it to end. But, just as fast as it began, the Bedeken does end and the men dance off , sometimes quite boisterously carrying the groom on their shoulders. The Bedeken is always an amazing photo opportunity. Getting in close to capture this moment charged with excitement and emotion is always moving, and Enna and I have cried while taking these images at several weddings. Ilana and Paul's wedding was no exception for show of emotion and support from their family and friends.

Ilana and Paul

Ilana praying before the bedeken

Paul is paraded out of the tisch for the bedeken

This is my absolute favorite moment for the orthodx jewish wedding, when the groom visits the bride on her throne during the bedeken

Paul with his brother and sister

Ilana with her sister and mom

We were able to make some amazing light for the ceremony

TV celebrities Bart Simpson and Mr. Burns even joined in on the dance floor fun

I believe this is Ilana's father, Dr. Waxman showing off his flexibility. Things happen so fast on the dance floor it's tough to pay attention to who is doing what.

Mazel Tov Ilana & Paul! We had so much fun, thank you for inviting us!

Rock On!!! Boston PUG Party is set for July 25!

2008-07-02T12:40:00.018-04:00

How many photographers can we fit on this boat?

This is a live concert with the 80's cover band Split Infinity!

When/Where:
Friday, Jul 25, 2008 8:00 PM EDT (7:15 PM Doors)
Board at Mass Bay Lines MV Freedom at 60 Rowes Wharf Boston MA

Pictage Members:
Reserve your space by July 11th! If you are a member of Pictage, reserve your spot by sending an email to mattion@grazierphotography.com before July 11th with "July 25" in the subject line. Ticket prices are discounted for Pictage members who reserve by July 11. Price depends on number of people attending. After July 11th tickets are $25, and should be purchased directly using the link below.

Non-Pictage Members:
Non Pictage photographers and friends are welcome to join us but must purchase tickets separately. Non-Pictage members Click Here to purchase tickets

More Details:
Boarding Begins at 7:15 - BOAT DEPARTS AT 8pm SHARP, and returns at 11pm. DON'T BE LATE!!! You do not want to be that guy/gal who watches the party float away and there will be no refunds as we are purchasing tickets in advance.

Rock On! Concert Cruises are on Mass Bay Lines and depart from Rowes Wharf at The Boston Harbor Hotel Atlantic Avenue - There is $5 Parking @ INTERNATIONAL PLACE GARAGE across from the Hotel after 6pm, get your parking pass stamped at Box Office.

There is a cash bar so stop at an ATM machine on your way.
Light snacks and hot dogs are available on the boat.
DON'T FORGET YOUR ID! THIS EVENT IS 21 AND OVER!

Love in the Air at Peabody Essex Museum

2008-06-25T23:31:00.003-04:00

Andy and Tammy are such a romantic couple - they are both wonderfully bright and optimistic and happy and in love, they are truly a joy to spend time with! I'm certain this is how their family and friends felt on the big day.

The happy bride, the gorgeous dress:

Sometimes I feel like the wedding guests just radiate joy and love for a couple, and we definitely felt this during Andy and Tammy's first dance:

The ketubah signing before the ceremony:

Check out Andy's stylin' necktie:

How about another kiss! (That's an inside joke... Andy and Tammy teased Matt at their engagement session because he likes to say that)

The centerpieces were clustered of tall vases overflowing with fresh flowers in shades of purple, green, and white.

Tammy loves butterflies so it was serendipitous that the museum atrium was decorated with origami butterflies.

Thank you Andy and Tammy for inviting us to be part of your big day! We are so happy that you have found each other.

Kelley & Richard

2008-06-18T23:15:00.006-04:00

It's always an honor and incredibly flattering to photograph weddings for other artists. Richard Esposito is an Emmy award winning video editor and an awesome wedding photographer. I actually never met Richard until the night before the wedding, and am so glad to have finally become friends. He and Kelley are a blast to spend time with. They were having the times of their lives for a second time... meaning that this was their second wedding. They both love San Diego, so they invited their immediate family and closest friends to SD for an amazingly beautiful and intimate wedding that was photographed by good friend Chris Humphreys. About 3 weeks later they held an east coast reception and invited about 170 friends and family. Just like the Marantz's wedding I shot with DJ last year, this wedding dance floor was hopping with pros with their gear.

Kelley and Richard

I love it when my shutter catches other peoples flash and gives this cool harsh lighting, especially when the action is great.

Kelley and her dad having an emotional dance

Kelley and Richard snuggling on the dance floor

Hey Rich, put down the camera and dance!!

They say if you dance you will live a long happy life - count Kelley in!

Here come a few shots of my good friends and fellow photogs from CT. These next three so much fun to hang with it almost makes me want to leave Boston and move south. If the Celtics and Sox ever move to Ct I just might go.

Paul and Krystal

Steve

Carla

Here I am at the end of the night with Richard, Carla, and Kelley

I had so much fun, thank you Kelley and Richard for asking me to document your east coast affair. It was an honor.

First Family Camping Trip

2008-06-16T23:03:00.009-04:00

Enna and I took the boys camping for the first time this week and we had a blast. We reserved a cabin at Mohawk Trail campgrounds, a smart choice with a 2 and 4 year old, especially with the heat wave we had. Luckily we had a thunder and lightning storm roll through one night and cool things off. Our agenda was pretty simple, let the boys play at the river, visit Mass MoCA, and roast marsh mellows. I bought Ollie and Will some fishing poles but did not expect Ollie to figure out how to cast. With in about 20 minutes he was casting his rubber fish at least 50 feet and in Ollie heaven! Will could get his fish to drop and then reel it in and quickly went back to throwing rocks. Jackson, who is just over a year old, tried desperately to catch the moving water in his mouth, and learned how to swim. Once he realized he could swim we couldn't throw the sticks fast and far enough for him.

We also had a little furry visitor that was begging for food. His first visit happened while I was at the camp alone with Ollie napping and I was able to quickly snap this shot before scaring him off. The second time he came he scared Enna and she practically jumped out of her pants:) We spent a good hour trying to get him to leave, but sadly he is used to people feeding him. Jackson showed his loyalty by chasing him up a tree. We thought he had finally left and we turned off our lights to enjoy the campfire. Then Jackson growled and I pointed my flash light towards the woods and the bear was just about 20 feet from us. He and I had a shouting/growling match at one point and when I tried to chase him off he'd just climb up a tree. I wish people were smart enough to know that they are putting this cute little guys life in danger when they feed him.

The Mohawk Tribe Memorial

Our cabin for the week.

Ollie loving his fishing rod

Will playing peek-a-boo

Enna and Will

Will practicing his "look"

Our master rock thrower

Water dog!

The cutest bear I've ever encountered, but also very stubborn

Ollie at a Mass MoCA exhibit

My mini-me

Ollie napping on the cabin porch

Jackson swimming as far as I could throw the stick

Great games in LA, but a tough loss last night.

2008-06-16T10:42:00.004-04:00

Last night was another great come back for the Celtics. Unfortunately the Lakers forced a game 6, fortunately it will be in Boston! I will be shocked if LA wins game 6. The Celtics have been playing like champions, Paul Pierce had two amazing games in LA and now will have the home court advantage. One thing that I couldn't help noticing is how different these teams are on the bench. Phil Jackson sits most of the game and so do his players, while Doc Rivers is pacing and the Celtics are standing and cheering. I can't recall ever seeing a team sit so much during playoffs. Not that I think there is anything wrong with it. The Lakers are amazing and play a great game, I just find it odd. Lets hope they are able to get some rest before Tuesday. If they win (I don't want to jinx them) I can't wait to see who gets play-off MVP - Pierce or Allen - both are playing amazing ball.

Enna and I took the boys camping last week and had a wedding and an engagement shoot this weekend. So we are finally back in the office and will be catching up on the blog over the next few days.

Happy Fathers Day - Celtic Pride is Back!

2008-06-15T15:33:00.004-04:00

My parents understood the potential waste of time that tv can be. When I was kid we had a tv, but no cable or antenna, instead we had a VCR. But when the Celtics season approached the playoffs my dad would have the cable turned on so we could cheer on our favorite team. When the finals were over he would promptly call the cable company and have it turned off again. Going to the old Garden was also an experience in itself. I remember the obstructed view seats and the view from the top balcony where you were victim to the cloud of haze from the humidity trapped inside and could easily leave as sweaty as the players. After graduating high school and moving out my parents house I have never been one to want cable. In our house we have a nice flat screen tv with surround sound (I love good action films), but I only pay the minimun $8/month for cable so I can watch the local news and The Office:) It is tough not being able to watch the Red Sox at home, but luckily baseball is fun to listen to on the radio. I had the chance to see this years Celtics play with my dad, but unfortunately he forgot to check my calendar before he bought tickets and I was booked for an event that night (my life story).

So tonight, on fathers day 2008, we have the opportunity to watch the Celtics win their first World Championship in 22 years. Luckily for me it's on basic cable. So tonight I'll be sitting on the couch with the lights off, enjoying a Sam Adam's, wearing my "Beat LA" shirt, and having on and off phone calls with my dad and bro. Many people are hoping they loose so they can win the championship at home. That would be fun, nothing beats a home court celebration, but after the loss of the Superbowl I think Boston is more than anxious for a victory tonight.

The amazing 1986 Celtics

Time for the captain's 10 year pay off!

Oanh and Patrick

2008-06-04T14:50:00.004-04:00

Here's another engagement session from our trip to New York. We knew Patrick and Oanh would be a blast to work with when they came to our home with all of Oanh's family in tow... we can't wait to be part of their big day!

The 72nd Street section of Central Park is a great place for portraits - we found lots of cool architectural and natural backdrops for their pictures. I had a lot of fun shooting through the cherry blossoms.

Jill and Allen

2008-06-03T11:57:00.004-04:00

Hooray we're finally ready to share photos from our New York City engagement sessions! First I'm going to post a few favorites from Jill and Allen's shoot. These two are such romantics, I know they're going to be a lot of fun on their wedding day.

The Graduate

2008-05-29T17:15:00.009-04:00

I made a trip up to Maine last week with Ollie and Will for my sister Elise's graduation from college... at long last, after 5 schools and I'm not sure how many majors, she has finished! Here she is in her 3-season living quarters:

She bought this old bus turned camper and has been living in it during her senior year of college in Machias Maine, just about 20 minutes from the Canadian border on the seaside. Matt has appropriately named it the "Bouse". The above image is a collage of 57 photographs.

And here she is in her bath of rubber duckies (at Terry and Greg's house), courtesy University of Maine's graduation festivities... just to clarify, the bath wasn't part of the official festivities, the ducks were! Mom and Aunt Terry collected all the duckies from the pond on campus and brought them home for Elise's special surprise graduation spa:

The family enjoying some warm spring weather... which is a long awaited phenomenon in Downeast Maine! Elise, Izzy the Cat, Will, Terry B., Enna, Ollie, Mary, and Cameron the dog. (Matt spent the weekend in Connecticut documenting Richard Esposito's East Coast wedding festivities... we'll post pics from that lovely day soon!)

Preparing coffee in the Bouse kitchen suite:

Check out the mural Elise painted at the local bowling alley! In exchange for the mural, she was able to throw an awesome graduation party for herself AND she gets free bowling for life! What more could she ask for??? For those of you not familiar with the Downeast way of life, this is Candlepin, NOT ten-pin. Big difference... Candlepin's tons of fun and I highly recommend that you make a point of trying it out the next time you're in New England.

A Seattle Wedding

2008-05-19T13:44:00.011-04:00

Kate and Jeremy recently tied the knot at Port Ludlow, just north of Seattle. Their wedding was beautiful and emotional. Kate works with my sister Ruthanne, so it was special trip for me. I got to photograph an amazing couple getting married and also spend some time visiting my sis. We all had a blast at Kates wedding and I just have to say that my sister has some rock'n friends! Kate was absolutely stunning in her dress and I loved photographing her and Jeremy in the tall grass.

An eagle landed on the totem pole just before the ceremony began. I slowly made my way over to the pole and was able to get underneath and get this cool shot of the eagle taking flight.

Kate and Jeremy

Kate looking amazing!

Jeremy was a bit camera shy, but we got him to loosen up:)

The wedding party

I love the excitement Kates friends had for her.

Kates dad was lovin every minute of it!

Thank you Kate and Jeremy for flying me out for your big day. It was so amazing how we instantly became friends the second we met. You two are so much fun and are going to have such a beautiful life together. Thank you!!
~Matt

Lovin the Daily Updates:)

2008-05-19T13:20:00.003-04:00

Everyday we receive emails from the Mosaic School telling us what the kids did for the day. Recently they have been sending photos along with the email. Today I received this image of Ollie taken during their field trip to the Frankiln Park Zoo. I'm probably going to suffer some serious payback in a few years for posting this one!

Jackson Goes to School

2008-05-15T14:46:00.006-04:00

This week Ollie's Pre School class is learning all about dogs. Our dog Jackson loves kids. He loves it when Ollie and Will pull his tail, climb all over him, and fall asleep on the floor cuddling with him. The truth is, when we went to adopt a dog, Jackson choose us. When we walked by the kennel he came running over and wanted to play with the boys. When we took him for a walk at the kennel and saw how happy he was with a 1 and 3 year old pulling his tail we knew we had our newest member of the family. Jackson was in heaven today with all the kids wanting to pet and hug him. This photo was taken and emailed to me by Kim who runs the Mosaic School. The most common observation by the kids, as is with most people when they meet Jackson, is how long his tongue is!

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

2008-05-14T00:05:00.004-04:00

Should be the title of these blog posts! We've seen most of the Atlantic Seaboard in the past week, from Charleston SC to Machias, Maine. This post is dedicated to the "Trains" segment of our travels over the past month.

For vacation week at the end of April Ollie and I decided to take the train to New York City and visit my childhood best friend. Cassie (aka Cassandra) and I have known each other since the first grade, and we always feel like we've never been apart when we are together. Her son Kai is now 1.5, and he is super cute!

On one of the days of our visit I went into the city by myself to do three engagement sessions for three really great couples (stay tuned for more pics of those shoots tomorrow!), and Ollie got to spend the day with "Auntie Cass" and Kai. That day happened to be his 4th birthday, and I was so happy to get back to the house to find this:

The image on the left is just the crazy expression Ollie made as he tried to push his push-pop. And on the right... well, that's self-explanatory... I think this has to go into the "Ollie Brings His First Significant Other to Meet the Parents and They Proceed to Embarrass Him" album.

I don't know if I've seen a more doting dad (except maybe Matt, and even he doesn't play trains as much as Takeshi)... Takeshi is just a wonderful dad, and it was so much fun to watch him playing with his son.

The boys had a ton of fun together

Cass seemed pretty sure of herself when she told me that Kai only likes sweetened cheerios, but then I caught this photo of him eating all of Ollie's dropped Os, and I know for a fact that those weren't sweetened, so we have proof right here that Kai will eat regular Cheerios.

Cass is a very talented makeup artist and image consultant, and I did a really fun shoot for her make-up portfolio, so stay tuned for those pics tomorrow too (they get their own blog post!) She even gave my good friend Lauren Rutten a mini-makeover, but I didn't take any pictures because we were too busy laughing and catching up.

~ Enna

A Destination Engagement Shoot

2008-05-12T13:51:00.010-04:00

Enna and I just spent 4 days on Sullivan's Island with Alison & Bryan who are getting married this June. They flew us down on the family plane (a Piper Navajo) - Alison's stepfather Kirk is a pilot. The trip was amazing! It was only about a 4 hour flight and their beach house, originally built by Alison's grandfather in the 1940's, is beautiful. It was such a treat to be able to step out onto the warm sand in the morning with a hot drink and watch the sunrise. OK, not every morning... I didn't get out of bed till 12pm on the first day:)

Thank you Alison, Bryan, Kirk and Sallie for having us down. It was such a great way to get to know each other and become friends! We hope we get to visit again.

Enna and I also had the rare opportunity to witness the parents of one of our couples meeting for the first time. We laughed at how it would be like "Meet the Faukers" but the truth is they instantly hit it off and we had a great beach BBQ and played bocce all night with drinks in our hands. ;)

Here are Alison and Bryan with Mimi & Dickie and Sallie & Kirk enjoying the sunset on the beach.

Alison and Bryan

Sallie giving Alison a big hug and kiss.

Bocce. Team Mimi and Matt won by one point!

Summer and Gibson on the steps to the beach house.

Summer has lost her sight, but amazingly walks around the house and the beach without a problem.

Enna's favorite restaurant in Charleston is the Hominy Grill. It is impossible for her to not go there when we visit.

Bryan took us out for a tour of the area on his fishing boat.

This is how I got my sunburn. Luckily it's faded into a nice tan now.

Pelicans are so much fun to watch: they have this clumsy way of diving into the water.

We made a pit stop to deliver some lumber via boat.

Kirk working on the flight plan before take-off.

Kirk, Sallie, Enna and I just before our return flight.

Enna jet-setting.

The sun setting over Maryland.

Now we are back in Boston and the wedding season has kicked off. It was really an amazing time and a much needed break. Thank you Alison and Sallie for inviting us! We can't wait to see you again in about 5 weeks at the wedding!!

Happiness!

2008-05-11T12:03:00.010-04:00

Many couples contact us via email first, and we love it when the couple has a cool joint email address. Hanna and Eric's email address is "Happiness"! From the very first email, and for years to come, Enna and I have been and will keep calling them "Happiness":) They are an incredibly passionate couple madly in love and it was an honor to document their wedding.

I love this image of the ladies getting ready.

Hanna glowing in her dress just before seeing Eric.

Eric is a very cool guy. It was pouring rain outside but we found some amazing light in the hotel.

Moments after the ceremony.

I love how Enna lit this shot. The highlight on the champagne glass and the circles of light are fantastic. I also think it's funny that I'm in it:) Many photographers would edit a shot like this out due to the fact that I am in it, but I think it is a very cool image as it truly tells the story of the day.

Thank you Happiness for having us there! We can't wait to catch up and hear all about your honeymoon:)

One of our Copilots

2008-05-04T12:51:00.003-04:00

Gibson the flying Lab!

sent from my treo