St.John, Virgin Islands

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

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.

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: