I am posting this image today for just one reason: glow factor. As die-hard old-school as we can be—we do not intend to give up our retro babies (and by that, I mean our Hasselblad, our land camera, etc.)—our newest digital equipment is taking the old digital equipment to school, especially when it comes to strong low light and flare, which one can only love, if one is a sentient human being.
Here’s a third posting from Jen and Chris’s engagement shoot. Check out some of Jen’s sweet props, including hundreds of homemade fabric flowers, below.
Did everyone know this already? Ben used to joke around that we would shoot for free if the bride would jump into a swimming pool during the reception. This was because we had an underwater movie camera and wanted to make the most amazing wedding video ever. Now we’re wondering if we should offer a discount to couples if they provide a trampoline. You can’t go too wrong. All the jumping and the joy and whatnot. Anyway, never hurts to ask.
So here are Jen and Chris, again, doing freestyle.
What photographer would not want to shoot this couple? Jen has an Etsy store—her profile there says she loves to make stuff and dance in the car to Chaka Khan. Chris is an amazingly talented illustrator—check out his work here. After seeing his work, I changed my alternative fantasy profession from World Cup soccer player to unpaid intern for Chris Silas Neal.
Jen and Chris came out to our country home Memorial Day weekend, and we zipped down the street to the nearby Black River and Western Railroad. This location makes us crazy! For those interested, they actually host parties, and I am just waiting for the day that I get to shoot a wedding there. Most of the charm is outside, but there’s actually one old train car with a bar and upholstered furniture that looks very 1920s. I want to sit in there with fancy gloves and drink a martini, even though I don’t like martinis. Anyway! We had no access to the interior of the train this day, but we did have some fabulous light and tons of fun.
Check our posting tomorrow to see Part II of the shoot! Jen and Chris spent the weekend out here, and on day two we went over to Stockton, NJ, to shoot on a farm complete with trampoline, and many of Jen’s adorable handcrafted props that we’ll see again at their wedding August 7th at Martha Clara Vineyards in Riverhead, Long Island. Obviously, we can’t wait for that.
We are happy too for our posting on 100 Layer Cake today—a tiny preview of this engagement shoot.
We are proud to have photographed some super cute baby bedding for a former wedding client, Vanessa Bartko Huynh, who left her job at Michael Kors to venture out on her own. Find Honeyami on Facebook to see some more photos of Vanessa’s adorable son and sweetie-pie playmate bouncing around on organic owl sheets and butterfly pillows, or look for the brand on Fawn & Forest.
We are thrilled to have been featured on two different blogs this week. Amanda and Luke appear on the very lovely (indeed) Lovely Bride. May we use the word “lovely” again to describe this couple? We spent a few fun hours with them on Amanda’s birthday in and outside of the Ace Hotel, which is one of the hippest places to stay, grab a cup of coffee, or just sit in the lobby and feel sort of Euro and sophisticated.
Christina and John, who are featured on Once Wed, borrowed a friend’s loft in Ft. Greene for their intimate celebration. Christina is a paper/installation artist and John is a graphic designer—being quite a papivore myself, I knew even before we met that I would love to shoot their wedding.
The day itself was perfect. Beautiful people, check. Beautiful dress, check. Great decor, cool loft, stylish guests, T-shirts. Yes, I said T-shirts! John designed one of the best take-home gifts we have seen—T-shirts with an amalgam of the couple’s last names (”GRAFSKY,” from Graf and Pinsky) printed on the front and a sweet little heart on the back near the neckline. Picture coming soon, in my next post.
To add to the last blog entry, here is one of our favorites from Couture Books. The St. Tropez, with Coptic stitching, tan suede cover and stamping. Lovely!
Albums: We have a lot to say about albums! Where do we even start? We have spent ten years trying to find economical, quality albums. There are many cheesy albums out there! Albums from which to steer clear! And also some companies (like Leather Craftsmen and Queensberry) that make amazing books, but these are never cheap (to us OR to our clients), and they are very time-consuming to design and make. In short, it is hard to make a nice book for not very much money.
Our recommendation for a nice, economical book (especially for parents) is to go to Kate’s Paperie or some other place with nice albums and make your own! A homemade book can be the nicest kind. And now there are Apple Books and all kinds of digital options that are quite cute if you are working from scans and digital files.
Anyway, I have gotten away from my point, which is to introduce a new line of books that we just found. Please note, these are not cheap either, but they are oh-so-exciting and I imagine they are worth every cent! They are called Couture Books, and if you go to their website, be prepared for a heavy dose of glamour that is a little much for our humble selves, but DO look at their books, which are absolutely stunning and make me want to save all my pennies to archive ten years’ worth of personal photos into the various kinds of books they offer.
Download their catalogue here. We are particularly smitten with the Victorian, the Piccadilly, the French Line, the Himalayan, the Jaipur, the Tokyo, and the Madrid books—but oh how we would love to see them all in person. We will certainly be making some sample books this year, so ask us more about this if you share our sensibility on this!
We are also thinking about offering people a credit to swap out their proof book and get a small credit toward a more finished product like this. Something to think about….
Check out this link by tomorrow to win the coolest camera bag we’ve seen yet OR a Fuji Instax Mini Camera!
For posting some of our pictures from Pauline and Dean’s stylish wedding at the Harold Pratt House:
http://blogs1.marthastewart.com/weddings/2010/01/event-style-real-wedding-nyc.html#more
Pauline, a designer for Anna Sui, fashioned her own dress, and Dean, a chef at Bar Boulud, brought an entire team of his chef friends to create the most memorably outstanding food we have ever experienced at a wedding! (Thank you, Pauline and Dean.)
What we love most about the Martha Stewart blog is that someone scanned these medium-format black and white prints with the black edge showing off the old-school KODAK 320TXP and ILFORD DELTA 3200PRO. Oh, how we love that stuff (the film , the edges, the good old days)!
