Thursday, March 12, 2009

We Click 2009!

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: