3 Award-Winning Images!

The Wedding Photojournalism Association just posted the winners in their most recent contest and we were excited to see our names included in the winners' list! Matt placed in the Action and Engagement categories, and I placed in the Portrait category of the Artistic Guild.


Since WPJA has strict guidelines about artistic enhancement of images, they have a separate guild and contest for members who do extra photoshop work on some of their images. I did enough retouching on this image to bring out the light and color as well as darken the trees that it's hard for me to consider it a straight "photojournalistic" image, so I felt it was more appropriate to enter it in the Artistic Guild competition. What an honor to place 2nd in an international contest!

What's that sound? It's a Baroque A

My grandmother Helen sent her cello out to me this summer, and I've been anxiously awaiting a chance to start learning how to play it... last night was my first lesson! I'm starting with a group class, and it will be a great group - everyone comes from a different background, they are all eager to learn, and the teacher is really good at organizing everyone. We learned how to hold, transport, and tune our cellos last night, as well as how to hold the bow and a few basics about reading the bass clef. Our teacher commented that I have a "nice warm" voice, and I felt very special. :) My homework is to practice feeling my arms being heavy.

On my way back to the car after my lesson I passed a group of people discussing f-stops. It was a beginning photography class... ah, those were the days. Isn't it remarkable that we humans can learn so many things, and that we're capable of - once we learn technique - expressing ourselves through those skills. I hope I'm able to express myself with the cello some day.

PS - As for the Baroque A... did you know that our notion of the musical scale is going UP? In the Baroque era the note A was almost a full tone lower than what we call an A today! In the 1930s people were concerned that the standard A was creeping up the scale, going higher and higher, so a conference was held and it was agreed that A should have a universal standard of 440 hz. Even so, A is still creeping up, and the Boston Symphony's A is 442hz! Who knew!

Back By Popular Demand: Portraits In The Park

I'm so excited to be doing our annual Portraits in the Park sessions again this year at the Arnold Arboretum! We have 6 mini-session time slots available. These sessions are perfect for family, child, and baby portraits for this year's holiday gifts. Call or email us to reserve your spot!

BBC Boston has a few spaces left!

Don't forget to register for Business Boot Camp! We're hosting this workshop taught by the fabulous Liana Lehman December 4-6. Get ready to take your business to the next level!

Bicycle Built for Two - bonus track!

Bicycle Built for Two

We had sooooo much fun with Linsay and Ryan that it is just impossible for us to choose a favorite picture. They had a beautiful lakeside wedding at Linsay's parents' cabin in New Hampshire. Everything about the day was heartfelt and romantic, we all did a lot of crying - Ryan especially! Here's the slideshow of the story of their wedding day.

Linsay and Ryan planned two really cool things to surprise their guests. First they changed into different outfits and did a sexy Agentine Tango for their first dance. Then when it was time to leave the reception, they escaped on a tandem bicycle! While Ryan was putting the "just married" sign on the bicycle in the morning, he explained to me that in addition to being just plain fun, the tandem bicycle was an analogy for marriage: both partners have to collaborate, have trust in each other, support each other... come to think of it that's how Argentine tango works too!

Somehow Linsay and Ryan managed to allow a lot of time for pictures, without having it feel like they were taking time out from the wedding festivities - maybe that's because they enjoyed being photographed so darn much! Here are a few pics from their pre-wedding "First Look" photo session:

And here are a few from the sunset shoot after they said goodbye to all their guests:

Congratulations Linsay and Ryan - let's celebrate your anniversary next year with another lobster dinner!


Linsay & Ryan's Rock Star Wedding Vendors:
Muddy River Smokehouse
Bicycle Bob's
J. Crew
Rabbi Larry Karol
DJ John Dionne, Sr.
Country Daisy
Adagio Spa & Salon
GT Kosher Catering

Welcome Baby Stella and Baby Jackson!

Jackson:


Aren't those the cutest names ever???

No, they're not related, but their parents whose weddings we photographed around this time last year just emailed us at the same time today to announce their babies' arrival.

Congratulations Karen and Doug on little Jackson. He is just adorable!!! I can't decide which of his parents he looks like...

Stella:

And isn't Stella just the sweetest thing! She's looking VERY very serious here. Karen and Andrew are going to be busy with this one!

If there's any sort of cute contest I think these two will have a tie!!! I can't wait to do baby pictures for both families!

An Italian Villa Wedding... in Massachusetts

Eva's family home is an amazing Italian villa - it was built by an artist at the turn of the century. It made a lovely setting for their wedding, and we're so happy to present them finally - thanks for your patience Eva and Brian!!

Congrats Gary and Missy!

No we did not shoot the wedding, and we weren't there either. :) But I want to share an idea from their wedding that I absolutely love! Gary and Missy wrote letters to each other. And those letters - rather than being read in private - were read by close friends as part of the ceremony. Isn't that an awesome idea? You can read their letters here. So if you're looking for that perfect reading for your wedding ceremony, look no further than yourself and your own true love!

And while you're at it, check out Missy and Gary's video montage... great stuff!

Congratulations Missy and Gary - it has been so much fun to check in on your blogs now and then to watch your romance develop and culminate in one of the most gorgeous weddings ever!

Maine Squeeze

Christine and John met at Maine Photo Workshops, where we met. The funny thing is, even though we share many friends from MPW we never met them until they were looking for a wedding photographer!

Here's the slideshow from their big day...

It was so much fun to work with their fabulous event planner Alexis Eliopoulos O'Mara yet again.


:)

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

We haven't posted much in the last few weeks, and I could make many excuses such as we're busy, we're busy, and we're busy (all quite true). But to be honest there's another reason as well. We've been wanting to share a recent experience with our blog readers, but didn't want to make anyone sad, so have struggled a bit with how to share it. We've started to volunteer with a photo organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. NILMDTS is an international association of photographers who provide portrait sessions free of charge to parents experiencing the death of a baby. Sessions are available for babies of all ages, even babies who are not full term, and are usually done in the hospital. As my introduction to NILMDTS I accompanied one photographer on a session a couple of months ago, and last week I was called to photograph my first session. It was a difficult and sad session for me to do, but I also left the hospital filled with happiness that I was able to give this family beautiful lasting images of their baby. The parents at this session were an inspiration to me - they were loving and open and welcoming. I left the session finding myself filled with a profound appreciation for the complete spectrum of parenthood including this very very sad experience they were sharing with me.

Some of my friends and family and clients have asked why I feel compelled to volunteer with NILMDTS. As a portrait photographer I really want to be fully available to my clients...my clients being "parents". For me this means being open to doing any kind of session that documents a baby's life and the love that is felt for this child. I also feel compelled to share my gift of photography - all of us are guilty of neglecting to photograph our own children from time to time, but I can't imagine not having at least one beautiful photograph of my own children. As a parent I cannot imagine the sadness of losing a child - I am happy to share the gift of photography with other parents who might otherwise never have a chance for beautiful pictures.

I wish to express my appreciation to the founders of NILMDTS for recognizing a need for this service, and for creating a venue for photographers to offer their pictures. I also want to thank the lovely photographer Jessica Fineran for providing moral support to me during and after the session. We will not be sharing any images from the session here. Thank you again - you know who you are - for opening your lives to me and my camera for the brief time that we spent together.

First Day of School

Tuesday was Ollie's first day of preschool! He is going to an amazing school - he totally loves all of his teachers, and the classroom is so exciting that he just puts his backpack away in his little cubby and disappears to play the minute we get him there each morning. It has been so much fun to help him pack his lunch box and backpack each day - he doesn't need any school supplies, but he still insists on wearing his backpack. I put a photo of Will in it for him, and today he took his blankie too for naptime.

He was a little sleepy for the first day, because he and his brother have both had a hard time sleeping lately (end of summer nerves or something). I felt so sorry for him when I saw the circles under his eyes in this picture! He's doing much better today though - school is tuckering him out so he's sleeping very well now!

The teachers at his school have set up lots of different learning stations in his classroom, and Ollie just flits excitedly from one activity to the next when he arrives each morning.

We're joking about how the kids are totally excited about school but the parents are all a little blue because we're watching our kids grow up so fast! I'm privately hoping that Ollie waits a little longer to start saying "classroom" rather than "grassroom".