meeting of the minds I

To celebrate the first day of summer, among other reasons, Sandra Downie, Make Up Artist extraordinare and I coordinated a bridal fashion shoot in Hartford's Elizabeth Park, when all of the roses were in super full amazing bloom! We could not have done it without the help of so many talented and wonderful people: Christina on hair, Emily & Kim- our amazing talent; Stevedepino.com my right arm shooter and comic relief; Stephanie Nelson & Amanda Harris as assistants to the stars; Pamela from Philip David Jewelers in West Hartford Center; Sandy from A Special Place in West Hartford for the to die for flowers and Brides to Be, a Dress Consignment Shop in Glastonbury and the amazing Geoff Boka form The Light Mill Studios who was filming the whole experience! We all had so much fun running around, setting things up and working together to achieve some of the most amazing images. We were almost done shooting when it looked like an extremely threatening storm was headed right for us! Luckily for us there happened to be a HUGE while tent set up smack in the middle of the park where we were able to relocate and shoot what we thought was the final shot of the day. The rain was CRAZY- we had to cover Emily with a table cloth to keep her and the dress dry and work super fast. So we shoot, we celebrate and then Geoff shouts- 'turn around!' I turned to see the most amazing gift of light bursting through the clouds- Steve and I started flailing trying to get Emily into her dress, grab a veil, grab a bouquet and R-U-N! for the crazy light! Emily was such a sport, she ran through the park while we shot like nuts, only to look up and see a rainbow to finish off the day! Come on, right? What a killer way to end a long day of working hard by everyone.

A special shout-out to my boy RE PhotoDesign for hooking me up this afternoon with his non-action action work on some of my images. Mad skillz! And Jaq, you are SO an art director waiting to bloom, sister!

guest book preview slide show!

Here is a slideshow of a guest book I just got in for Michelle & Omar! They are going to be married right on the beach and wanted a beach themed guest book / engagement shoot- so they got it! I design my books with a very clean design overall, no lines to limit the guests' thoughts, no wording that says 'GUEST BOOK' anywhere, so that if you change your mind you can have a beautiful engagement shoot album instead! At the wedding on Sunday I just shot I got to see a guest book being signed- it was awesome! What a great way to share the day with your guests! I have to say I loved the signatures and sweet messages in the book, I shot some images of it and I will share them soon! It all came together to create a wonderful keepsake for them, how perfect!

natalie + yves wedding at st. mary's church in new haven + the great river country club in milford

Last Saturday I shot the most amazing wedding- maybe you remember this couple? The cloud umbrella, can I hold you closer couple? That would be Yves and Natalie Georges, the most emotional and loving pair! No matter what happened throughout the day they were so kind and gentle with each other and so happy just to be near one another. Their son is also the cutest little guy ever, I couldn't keep my camera off of him! The ceremony was at St. Mary's in New Haven, a very old beautiful church with incredible architecture with the reception at the Great River Golf Club in Milford. The staff there (hi Jennifer & Karen!) were so super accommodating and wonderful to work with- I have a few more weddings there this year and I can't wait to go back and work with them again! They got a big kick out of me lying on the ground AFTER IT RAINED to get a cool angle of the clock tower! The DJ, oh the DJ. He was AWESOME. DJ Spynfo, to be exact! He played the most diverse music- I was dancing the whole reception, while shooting of course! I am sure I made more than a few people laugh watching the 'dancing photographer!' I just could not help myself. The wonderfully talented Matthew J. Wagner shot with me and kept me going with his boundless energy and ideas. He even brought his laptop and did a slide show for me at the reception, something that I am now seriously considering doing on a more regular basis...more on that later!

dear diary....today I was not a very bright girl!

Ahhh, so the big, demystifying story behind the story is here! Well, Friday I had thought I lost a memory card from one of the most exciting and fun shoots I have ever done. I know, right? So not cool. The day was packed with so much action and coordinating on my part- to wrap it up there was even running in the muddy wet grass with a model actually chasing rainbows and lens flare! That's right. The kicker is I have such a controlled way of handling spent cards, I don't even want them on my person in the event that I rewrite over them, which I will never do anyway because I do NOT format cards at a shoot, ever. I even have these color coordinated pouches for (green) means go in my world, it's free, it's useable, shoot em up; yellow- caution- shot on, no touchie for you, but still has to be backed up and red, stop- talk to the hand, shot on, backed up, step away from the vehicle, the end, fin. Ah, but the best laid plans, you know how it goes. So in my flurry of physical activity I had filled a card, put it in my back pocket and jammed another card in my camera to keep shooting. Later I thought I had misplaced the card when I had actually already backed it up and the real funny-ish part here is that I had already viewed the images in bed on my p-2000! I thought that I just had either a dream or a super memory of what I had caught in camera! So when everyone was here, helping- Krystal asked what the images looked like in case they found them on a card. So I pulled up one image, looked at it, started bawling because it wasn't even the best image and it still was really pretty! When lo and behold I started scrolling thru a little deeper than I had before and discovered that the images were on my p-2000 the entire time! So then we all got a good laugh, I cried from relief, called .com to tell him he did not in fact have to rip apart his car and gear looking for my stupid card- we decided to celebrate with some yummy margaritas!
But the best part- the next day Jean, my kick butt assistant told me that after she got off the phone with me she rounded her husband and two kids up and scoured the park for my card! How thoughtful are they?? People really come through for you in a bind, I SO have been feeling that lately!
Thanks to everyone who posted their support here, it really means a lot!

with a little help from my friends

I just have to say that I have the most amazing friends. I am in the middle of what is turning out to be a super duper horrible, no good, very bad day and am in a place of need right now and I feel like I have people banging down my door to help me! How amazing of a quandry is that to find yourself in? I actually hae four of my dearest friends en route to my studio to help me with something at a moment's notice. I didn't even have to ask, Mary Bess & Justin marantz just said 'We're on our way!' Paul & Krystal called and said 'We're on our way, what do you need?' And Stevedepino.com lent his support via teleconference with some very strong verbal support- I could feel the love over the phone lines! It's ironic because we just had this super big Pictage User Group meeting (PUG) about 'how PUG has made a difference in your life' and I can honestly say that it has totally changed my life- my way of working has changed dramatically, I no longer feel so isolated and alone but totally supported and cared for; I feel like I have truly made life long friends who will be there for me for any and everything (tonight is just one such example!) Well, more later, they just got here! I'll keep you posted!

a skull a day keeps the freaks away!

My sister Tere's friend Noah is making a skull a day and posting it on his blog, called, appropriately, skulladay.com! They are fascinating and worth checking out. He either finds them au natural, just in the environment- not real skulls, stickers, spray painted, clouds even! The ones he crafts are fantastic! I especially love the one he carved out of a fresh, organically grown turnip.
I am a fan of self-imposed assignments- this is what I miss most about not being in school anymore- I LOVED getting an assignment and then making it my own- and then seeing how everyone else interpreted the same assignment. Very interesting stuff!

father's day foolishness!

Sunday was a fabulous day on the shore, where I celebrated Dave's Daddy Super Powers with our two monkeys and my in-laws. Dave is the best father any kid could ever wish for- he is so present with the kids and is always orchestrating something fun and special for them to do together. I am SO the boring parent in this duo! ;) So we got to do something that Dave loves, mountain biking down at Bluff Point in Groton. It is a beautiful place with a nice set of trails to ride on which can get pretty challenging! Dave organized his mountain biking pals, a pretty cool group of guys who can do some amazing tricks on their bikes and their sons for a nice afternoon ride. Oh and then me! Which is hilarious, actually. I love biking and am super competetive but I was competeing with the 7 year old in the group! Pretty hilarious! Especially when I wiped out and got a major scraped knee, although I felt pretty cool because there was blood and all. Made me seem 'less girly' in the words of one Sean Kelly! I was able to take this one picture with Sean's camera of all of the guys at the overlook. Pretty fancy!

yeah, they're mine!

Is this legal to create children SO DARN cute?? I know, I know, they're mine, I'm completely biased but COME ON! We had so much fun yesterday having our own photo shoot in Elizabeth Park- which ended up being perfect because we were expecting rain so the place was empty! No crowds to deal with, no run away frisbees, no people in my shot that I don't want!! I saw this super cute dress and got it at Marshall's and am planning on doing a super special thing for Super Daddy-O, my Dave, for Father's Day from the kids. They were so excited to be the subjects! I can't wait to post my Daddy's Day Surprise!!

mayor mike's new nine 2007

Today kicked off my official fourth year of shooting portraits for Mayor Mike's Restaurant in downtown Hartford! I can't tell you who I shot but I can tell you that it was the first ever couple, making the 'Mayor's Nine' now the 'Mayor's Ten.' Every year there is a big anniversary party and unveiling of the new nine in July (this year's unveiling is scheduled for MONDAY JULY 16TH) which always yields a BIG party jam packed with the Mayor's friends, family, the old nine, the new nine, my friends, family and loyal supporters- all in all a knock down drag out fun party! The unveiling also serves as a fundraiser for Channel Three's Camp for Kids, The Downtown Arts Council and will also serve as the official kick off the The Million Faces Campaign for the Portrait House, run by the one and only Justin & Mary! More details to follow about that! I also wanted to post a few more pics from Melina & Zak's wedding, since I can't really post any Mayor Mike's shots- and I am tirelessly editing and tweaking so that I can share these with Melina & Zak's friends and family!! Enjoy!

melina + zak wedding at the villge at boulder ridge barkhamsted ct

Yesterday was a crazy rainy morning that yielded a beautiful overcast day for Melina & Zak to be married on! Even though it was pouring when I got to the salon, Melina was so super relaxed, thanks to her early morning pre-salon massage! She highly suggests other brides do this, it kept her super calm and relaxed ALL day. Zak & Melina are the cutest couple and both have such incredibly welcoming families, I was truly honored to be a part of such an emotional and special day! Their venue, The Village at Boulder Ridge in Barkhampsted was THE ABSOLUTE BEST, hands down, in how they treated me and my staff. Everyone was so accommodating and helpful and went out of their way to make up feel at home and part of a team in working to make Zak & Melina's day be the best it could be! Thanks Kevin and staff!The flowers, which were amazing, were done by TK Floral Designs in Rocky Hill. Here are a few of my favorites from yesterday that I couldn't wait to share! The slideshow will be up soon!!

the big apple

Yesterday I took an education day to attend an all day seminar at the Javitt's Center in New York for a class on Adobe Lightroom with some of my CT Wedding Photographer buds! We all learned so much and are excited to improve our post-production and workflow, which will really benefit you, the client! It was an all-out nerd fest, for sure- so we all totally felt right at home! Of course there was a cacophony of cameras, minus mine. I was taking a break...but wished I hadn't when we got out of dinner and saw the sun setting down the street form Carmine's where we ate and had my most photogenic of friends with me, PAUL!! Not to mention Martin, my old college buddy who I love shooting as well! We decided to go to Times Square and be total tourists- went right smack in the middle and got some fun group fish eye shots! It was non-stop shooting, almost like a mini-seminar- people were sharing cameras- I actually was shooting with a Canon, and could barely figure out how to use it! I love my Nikon!! I just know mine so well, no dig intended...;) We then wrapped up our relaxing train ride by posing in the New Haven train station at almost midnight. We were almost out of the tunnel and I just had to see what it would look like through Richard Esposito's fish eye lens, practically assaulted the poor guy getting it off his neck and flipped out! It is an amazing shot!! What a nice end to a totally outrageous and fun day with some of my most favorite people!! Thank you REphotodesign.com for letting me snag your picture to share!

pug craziness slideshow - check it out!

Just a note- check out the awesome slideshow that Paul from Studio Foto put together from our shootout! It is SO awesome!!

http://studiofoto.com/blogphotos/blog.html

I am posting from Safari and can't rock a handy link, cut and paste, sorry!!

ten eyck + depino = 1 hell of a team

I am still recovering from an action-packed wedding that I had the pleasure of shooting with the rockin' stevedepino.com! Ian & Danielle were kind enough to not mind me being there and sharing in their day with them and their families, thank you guys!! It was so amazing to shoot with someone who mirrors my energy and enthusiasm level while at a wedding- we were able to tag team this wedding with very little spoken communication! Our strategies while shooting are so similar that we were almost like that last scene in Mr. & Mrs. Smith when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are back to back with guns in the big shoot out scene, just blasting away, tossing clips back and forth, getting shyte DONE. I can't wait to see .com's shots, he was really pushing for some creative shots and trying new things! We also ran into our buddy RE Photo Design at Lighthouse Point! All in all a super fun day!

hold me closer!

To complete the trilogy of my Memorial Day weekend shoots was my engagement shoot with Natalie & Yves that had me crossing state lines and up into Northampton MA way. We had a beautiful morning walking around town discovering little nooks of color and texture that were completely unexpected hidden gems- thank you Jean, assistant to the stars, who kept noticing little alley ways and spiral staircases! The thing I loved most about Yves and Natalie was how totally in love they are with each other! I asked Yves to stand across a doorway and hold Natalie's hand and he was like, 'WHAT? That is TOO far away!' I got about 3 shots before he had to go back to cuddling! Come ON! Right?