Zoo Day

Yesterday Ollie and Will and I joined our friends Juniper and Orion for a few hours at our zoo. Juniper and I made sure to take the boys around to see all the different animals, but actually Ollie and Orion would have been perfectly content to just push their trucks around in the dirt.




I've always been fascinated by the bird decals that they put on the windows so that birds don't fly into the glass.


After we left the zoo we noticed a helicopter circling overhead. Ollie thought that was pretty cool, but then it got even more exciting - the helicopter started coming closer and it landed right in front of us! We hung out in the car and watched until it finally lifted off and flew away.

Photos from WPPI

The "First Ladies in Photography" panel discussion on Tuesday night was interesting and inspiring - these women are great role models! Thanks Lauren for helping me get in the door!

Will had lots of toys to play with in our hotel room, but his favorite seemed to be Nana's toothbrush:


Here I am with my buddies Pepper Nix and Lauren Rutten:

Dinner with Denis, Gary, and Joe

I had the honor of sitting down to dinner with Denis Reggie, Joe Buissink, and Gary Fong in Las Vegas the other night. These guys are kings in the world of wedding photography, and it was so inspiring to meet them and talk about life and work over an incredible meal. Yes, the meal was incredible. Jason Kiefer of Pictage treated us at Prime Steakhouse, and not only was the food good but also the wine... in fact it was amazing. It was great to finally meet Jeff Jochum - we had a great conversation about building community, something that he is passionate about. Jeff and Jason are visionaries, and it was truly exciting to hear them talk about their ideas and philosophy, and some of the behind the scenes workings of Pictage.

While in Vegas I was lucky enough to get one-on-one time with a handful of amazing photographers and business people... I usually get more out of individual meetings than larger groups, so even though my visit was short, this was perfect for me.

I went with three really big questions in my head, and these are the questions that I posed to everyone I met (their answers are paraphrased).
1. How do you stay true to yourself, in terms of artistic and business vision? In other words, how do you keep your heart in your business?
2. What is on the horizon of wedding photography? What trends do you foresee?
3. How do you maintain balance in your life?

Denis Reggie (he is so gracious!) on future trends in the industry: Denis sees green. As in Whole Foods. Organic, natural, local, real, honest, true, unembelished.... I think he's right, and it will be both exciting and interesting to see how the green trend is manifested in our industry.

Joe Buissink on staying true to yourself: "I work for myself". My clients are people who happen to like the work I am doing for myself, so they've hired me. I never take on work that I am not interested in doing for myself. Joe has such a peaceful zen personality - I can't wait to find an opportunity to do a workshop with him.

Pepper Nix & Mitch Burt, and Amber and Nathan Holritz, on working as a married 2-photographer team and maintaining balance: Define what 'success' means for you! Set your long term goals together, and then all the smaller tasks, responsibilities, and immediate projects will fall into place.

I can't wait to continue conversations started with new and old friends. This is a really exciting time in our individual businesses and also the whole industry.

~ Enna

Peer Pressure Works!

We weren't planning on attending the annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International conference in Las Vegas next week, but after being asked for the umpteenth time if we would be there, Matt and I decided at least one of us should make an appearance. I'll be hopping a plane Tuesday for a quick 2 night stay in Vegas. Matt's committed to a couple of our Boston clients next week, so unfortunately he can't join me. I'm very excited to sit down with some of the people who I truly admire most in the industry.

I will be available for meetings with photographers all day Wednesday. If you're a photographer and you'll be in Vegas, call our studio and Matt or Krista can help you connect with me. Our studio phone: 617-524-8718. I hope to see you there! ~ Enna

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Enna:

Your Irish Name Is...

Michaela Nugent

Matt:

Your Irish Name Is...

Alistair Nugent

What's your Irish Name?

Passing of a Legend

A great luminary in wedding and portrait photography passed away last night. Monte Zucker was a beloved mentor and teacher to many in our industry and beyond. He openly shared his passion and insights about life, light and photography with everyone he met and he shared these with great compassion, honesty, and love. I had the honor of hearing him speak just once at a Wedding and Portrait Photographers International conference, and I walked away from that brief encounter filled with great inspiration and optimism. Monte exuded a brilliant energy, and he will be missed by everyone whose life he touched. We hold his memory dear in our hearts, and send his life partner, family and friends our deepest sympathy.

1st Annual Ski Retreat!

3 husband + wife wedding photographer teams, 3 cute little boys, 3 days.... lots of good food, wine, and new friendships!

We had a fabulous retreat last week with our friends Christine and Andy from Bello Photo, and Tabitha and Larry and their son Eldon from Sherrell Portrait Design. These photographers do great work, and we suspected that we have a lot in common, so we invited them to join us at the Jackson NH ski condo for a few days of eating, playing, business/photo talk, and getting to know each other. We ate tons of good food, got a bit of snowboarding in, shared pictures from some recent weddings, and talked about ways we can help each other grow our businesses. It was an inspiring and restful week!

We all came away relaxed, rejuvenated, and inspired with new vision and energy for our work. Matt and I already have some cool ideas up our sleeves for next year's ski retreat!

We'll post the video up soon, but in the meantime here are some fun pics!

Engagements, 1st Place

Another of Matt's photos placed in the Wedding Photojournalist Association's competition - this shot of Scott and Priscila took 1st place in the Engagements category. It is hard to read, but under the image are the Judges' comments: "All the ambience of the pic lends to the perspective of size. I never saw such a portrait before." Scott and Pricila were great to photograph and had two weddings, one in Boston, and one in Peru!

Omakase

The literal translation of 'Omakase' is to 'entrust'. It's one of my favorite Japanese words (though it's kind of a tongue twister). It is usually used in restaurants, especially sushi restaurants, to defer to the chef's choice. Always a great compliment and signal of trust to the chef, ordering Omakase will ideally lead to creative pairings of the most delicious, fresh, and occasionally obscure items in the kitchen, all according to the chef's whims and talents. Omakase is a route for the adventurous soul when it comes to sushi, but it is also an apt description of our usual approach to designing albums for our clients. Choosing images for the wedding album can be a daunting task, especially for the typical bride and groom who in all likelihood have never created a 30-50 page custom designed book. We have found that the easiest approach for most of our clients is to simply have us choose our favorite images, and design the book based on those. Of course we work with the clients to fine-tune the images and layout after we've created the preliminary design, but this approach allows us to fully express our creativity and vision of the wedding day images. The Omakase strategy results in beautiful, creative, and highly narrative album designs. Our goals are simple: make beautiful pictures, present them in beautiful albums, and make the photography process as easy as possible for our clients.

PS - who says you can't make sushi at home? Here are a couple of recipes on my favorite food blog.