ask and ye shall receive...

Due to popular request, we are happy to present our newly updated blog with BIGGER BETTER pictures! Big happy shout out to Justin Marantz for helping us fix our blogger code so that we could share larger images here!

Stay tuned for more cool pics from our June and July shoots!

~ Enna

An Elegant Affair... Caitlin & Brian's Day

Matt and I were talking the other day about what sets a nice wedding dress apart from a truly extraordinary one... we decided that one of our favorite factors to consider is MOVEMENT. Caitlin's dress was a gorgeous example of a dress that moved... all day, regardless of whether she was standing or sitting still, walking or dancing, Caitlin's dress was a swirl of taffeta and sheer grace.

Caitlin and Brian's wedding was truly elegant, starting of course with her dress, but all the other details too: black and white invitations, delicate green floral arrangements, and rich brown bridesmaids' dresses all added to the sense of pure stylishness of their day.

The groom and his buddies looked quite dashing in their black and white polka dot ties.

Caitlin was an absolute joy to photograph - she made our job so easy!

Book Review: Study Your Pictures!

After reviewing student work this week we felt inspired to recommend one of the essay collections by Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, or John Szarkowski. But those are not stand-alone books: each one sort of requires that you read the other in order (and more) to get a well-rounded introduction to photography criticism. And then I found this book which is a collection of all of our favorite photography critics. It's a wonderful introduction to contemporary photography theory... read this book, or use it as a jumping off point to explore the individual writers' works in more depth.

Karen and Danny, or Why We Love What We Do

We're catching up on some blog posts - we've had so many weddings in June and July that we neglected to share stories from all of these great events! Here's number one: Karen and Danny...

Orthodox Jewish weddings are so amazing to photograph. Thanks to our clients and friends we've learned a Hebrew word: 'simcha', and this word arises in our thoughts and conversation often as we reflect on our work as photographers. In our own words, 'simcha' refers to a special life-altering event, such as the birth of a child, marriage, or the passage from childhood to adulthood. We are so honored that these families are choosing us to document their simchas. Orthodox Jewish weddings are passionate and spontaneous, incredibly fun and emotional to photograph - a perfect opportunity for our style of artistic documentary photography. These weddings help us to remember and appreciate what has drawn us to photography as our life work.

The most special moment for Enna at Karen and Danny's wedding was actually a very private moment that was witnessed only by Enna and her camera. After the bedekken (where the bride is greeted for the first time by the groom and his entourage), Karen greeted and thanked each of her bridesmaids privately. Enna said "I couldn't hear what she said to each girl, but I could tell that it was heartfelt because everyone was tearful." Karen's grandfather was watching these interactions, also not hearing exactly what words were exchanged, with a big grin on his face. He was just staring at his granddaughter. When Enna took this photo she could hear him saying under his breath, "You are so beautiful. You're the most beautiful thing in the world. Oh so beautiful." He didn't intend for anyone to hear his words except God and Karen.


Just to the right of the bride is our favorite caterer in Boston. Andrew Wiener works magic at weddings. Every time we work with Andrew we are in awe at how he is able to be in 10 places at once, gently urging the schedule of events along at a perfect pace, and managing to serve huge, beautiful, and delicious kosher feasts at weddings (no small feat considering that his kosher kitchen and food must be completely mobile to serve hundreds of guests in venues with non-kosher kitchens). Andrew was probably in this moment just for an instant, just long enough to make sure Karen was heading to her "alone" time with Danny right after the ceremony. Enna didn't even know she had taken a picture of him. We really admire the passion with which he gives himself over to each client, shown here in his helping the hem of her dress as she is escorted past the throng of guests.


Tradition holds that the bride prays and meditates prior to the marriage ceremony. In our experience, most brides fit that praying and meditating in wherever it can happen in the busy day's schedule. Here, Karen reads her prayers as her mom holds her arm steady (and probably holds herself steady) as Karen's dress is buttoned by her bridesmaids. The beginning of a romantic, beautiful, and emotional day.


And now for the fun...

Sometimes people ask us if we will bring a ladder to the wedding reception (ostensibly to record from afar the antics happening on the dance floor)... well, we don't bring a ladder, because frankly we're afraid of what might happen to it. Look what happened to the videographer's ladder:
And this just a couple of feet away:


Here's Karen twirling a hoola hoop around her neck at the reception.


Look at the expressions of shear exhilaration on their faces:


Another highlight of the day was the MUSIC. Danny is the drummer for an amazing band, Blue Fringe, so when it was time for the traditional serenade to his bride, he played her favorite song plus a couple more with his band.

The rest of the day's fesitivities were accompanied by Moshav Band, also a really AWESOME band! ... already regret not going to hear Moshav play at the Paradise the night after the wedding.

Cate & Brendan

Cate and Brendan's wedding at the Gedney Farm was truly amazing. They dreamed of an outdoor ceremony, and though rain clouds circled the farm, we were spared and the sun shone down for them. After the ceremony, Cate, Brendan and I went into the tall grass to make some beautiful images of them. I love this photo!

~ Matt

View Cate and Brendan's slide show here.

New Look

We're trying a couple of new things with our website, and would love to hear your feedback... what do you think? Is the menu easy to navigate? Does it work in the browser software you are using? Do the images look cool?

CLICK HERE to see our website.

Thank you for your patience while we do this testing!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Wow, we just learned that my cousin Nate is doing the landscaping for an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition near his home in Idaho. Nate is an awesome businessperson, who always dreamed of becoming a farmer when he grew up, and is living the dream with his own very successful landscaping company, tree farm, and nursery. Wow, way to go Nate! We can't wait to see you on TV!

Daniella's Bat Mitzvah Portraits

Daniella is such an elegant girl! This is one of my favorite bat mitzvah portraits that I've taken this year. I love how the window light is hitting her from both sides.

Tom & Lizzy

Tom and Lizzy had a PERFECT day! The weather was kind of stormy all weekend, but somehow the rain held out for every outdoor moment that they had planned! We'll share more as we get the whole weekend edited but we wanted to share one of our favorites right away!

We're getting lots of emails from Tom and Lizzy's friends, so if you're looking for their wedding pictures, just shoot us an email and we'll add you to the guest list to be notified when the pictures are online.

Birthday Betty

We had a fun visit with Aunt Betty and Cousin Kim in Greenfield on our way home from Tom and Lizzy's wedding. Betty's birthday is today, so we decided to surprise her with an all-staff birthday serenade at Applebees. We requested the song before Betty arrived but then Betty didn't want dessert, so rather than bring everyone out to sing anyway, our waiter totally dropped the ball! So then we went to a local park where there was live music and they had a little box where audience members could request announcements... Matt and I were totally giggling the whole time we were there because we asked them to announce Betty's birthday to the whole audience. But they dropped the ball too! Actually, we decided to head back to Betty's house because the bugs were eating us alive. So maybe the audience sang happy birthday after we left...

No worries though, because we had a backup plan. We had stopped at a farmstand in Vermont and picked up a homemade strawberry rhubarb pie, so Kim stuck candles in it and we all sang happy birthday in Betty's back yard.

Here are Betty and Kim hamming it up for the camera:

One Light Boston

One Light Boston was a great success! Zack is a great teacher and we had a really cool group of students who came from as far away as Michigan and New Jersey! We'll post a group shot as soon as Zack emails it to us... special thanks to Jeremy and Nicole for being such awesome models/assistants!

Lucky 3

Ollie had his 3 year check up today... 3 months late :) We thought it was pretty cool to learn that he is now 3 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 33 pounds.

Headed to Vermont

We are headed to Vermont tomorrow to photograph Tom and Lizzy's weekend wedding. These two are absolute sweethearts and we can't wait to help them celebrate their big day! We're looking forward to working with their event planner - she and her team have been working so hard to help Tom and Lizzy plan a wonderful event.

Nuts!

Okay, here is something new: personalized nuts! This company will actually etch your message on nuts! Peanuts, almonds, chocolate covered goodies, crackers... It's only for the adventuresome or bilingual among you because the website is all in Japanese, but I'm sure that if you can get through the ordering process they would create them with messages in English! It looks like they'll even put a logo on a peanut.

Happy 4th of July!

Have a safe and fun 4th of July!!! Here's a picture of Old Ironsides - Matt was shooting an engagement session on Georges Island last month and the old ship was out for a sail around the harbor. We learned that you can actually enter a lottery to go out on the ship on one of her two outings of the year... next year we'll definitely enter the lottery - wouldn't that be awesome to spend the 4th of July on board the USS Constitution!

Oh yeah, and here are a couple of the engagement photos... they are such a great representation of Matt's signature approach to photographing couples! Gabriel and Jennifer are going to be awesome to photograph on their wedding day!

Michelle and Evan

Michelle and Evan got married at the Tufts University campus - which has a gorgeous chapel! Right outside the chapel is a cannon which the students traditionally "vandalize" for special events. Evan and his groomsmen painted it in the middle of the night, and since the tradition rules that the cannon may only be painted between dusk and dawn, he had to guard it carefully until dawn to make sure nobody else painted over it! Now that's commitment...

After the ceremony the wedding party rode in a pretty old trolley to the hotel for the reception, and we were able to do a few fun pictures of Michelle and Evan walking on the promenade along the Charles River.

Congrats you two!

BBC Boston ~ Register Now!

We are super excited to announce that registration is now open for Liana Lehman's Business Boot Camp! The Business Boot Camp is an intense, intimate two-day experience designed to help you take your photography business to the next level, enforce business health and profitability, and create a better work/life balance. The third day is a half-day photo shoot which will take place at a cool Boston location.

Register for BBC Boston HERE.

Dates: December 4-6, 2007 (the workshop is Dec. 4-5, and 6th will be an optional photo shoot)

We are hosting the workshop at Taylor House Bed & Breakfast, and we encourage workshop participants to stay there. Please contact us if you need help with directions or wish to hear of alternate lodging options.

We're so excited to introduce Liana to the Boston photographers' community!