bring on the rain

So if you know me in real life, you know how much I love Australia. If you don't, the reason is that I spent six months there doing a semester abroad at the University of Melbourne and touring the east coast.

Seriously, Oz is the most amazing place. It's full of all these totally cool things and sayings and plants and places that are nothing like anything that exists on any other continent. One of the places I didn't get to go to but is on the top of my list for when I go back (and I will be going back, thank you very much!) is Uluru (formerly known as Ayer's Rock). Uluru is in the middle of the Outback in extreme desert conditions. So when I saw this post (via web-goddess), I knew I had to share. This week, Uluru got a rainstorm for the first time in over 20 years. This photos are pretty awesome and speak for themselves.

Photo credit: Peter Carroll

re-entry

And we're back!  Adjusting back to real life is no simple task, and we're tackling it head on with some good old fashioned quality couch time.  Teaser photos are in, so recap and honeymoon talk coming soon!

Ok, I couldn't resist.

Courtesy of our amazing photographer Noah Devereaux.

my photographer is the best!

Yes.  My photographer.  He's so awesome, I have laid claim.  Though I did pass kindergarten, so I am willing to share (just not this Sunday!  eep!).  Take a look at these awesome engagement shots he took of Ari and I in Central Park last weekend.

This is just a teaser, Noah was so nice and sent along a few photos sooner rather than later so I'd have something to buzz over to the NY Times (which I may have been too late to have published anyhow, but it's worth a try, I suppose).  I'll post the rest when they come around, but it'll probably be after the wedding and our honeymoon.

Seriously though, Noah has been really great, totally relaxed and unobtrusive.  I can't wait to sing his praises even more after the wedding!  Check him out on his site: Noah Devereaux Wedding Photojournalism.

All images taken by and courtesy of Noah Devereaux.

photo city

This is the reason that you really need to research a photographer before you hire them.

It's one of many reasons I'm glad we picked our photographer (who is definitely not the perpetrator of the above photograph!), Noah Devereaux.  I'm excited for totally awesome photographs like this instead.

Ari's coming in next weekend and we're doing our engagement session (better late than never, right?).  I'm really looking forward to working with Noah and getting comfortable on the receiving end of the camera lens.  We're thinking maybe the Met and Central Park for a location.  Anyone have any cool places in the the city they like to take photos?

wedding photography giveaway

Photographer Kara Layne is giving away free wedding photography!  The deadline is 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 and your wedding has to take place in 2011.  Check out all the details here on her blog.  Good luck!

I would like to live in this tent

and eat this fruit

for the rest of my life.

Images by A Bryan Photo via Snippet and Ink.

An engagement session I can get behind.

When I first started reading wedding blogs, I thought the idea of engagement sessions was really cute.  You got a chance to work with your photographer before your wedding, some lovely photos of you and your chosen and a chance to practice in front of the camera.  Now though, I am sick of cutesy, overly adorable couples sitting on an old quilt in a woodsy area with a repainted antique bedside table, pretty, tiny flower arrangements, fruit and something (Scrabble tiles, a banner, a book, whatever) that says "love."  We get it.  You're pretty.  You love each other.  Your photographer likes sun flare.

But this, this is an engagement session I can really get behind.

Image by Carl Zoch.

Check out the details and the rest of this awesome, Delorean-filled engagement session here on Rock 'n Roll Bride.

This is a party I wanna get in on.

Not only because these three guys are awesome, but because I'm sure I would learn so much from whatever photographer took that photo that my mind might explode.

To-do list checking and celebrity sightings: Part I

Sorry for being MIA this last week, guess I wasn't feeling the blog.  Ari surprised me by coming home at lunch and spending the afternoon with me on my birthday.  It was really fun.  He bought me flowers and didn't complain when I wanted to go purse shopping at TJ Maxx (I love my new purse, been using it nonstop). 

Wednesday we skipped out on dance class (we're taking a salsa/cha cha class through the community college so we aren't hopeless come the wedding) and hopped a plane.  There was all sorts of weather out of in Chicago, so after our fourth rebooking on as many airlines we ended up in St. Paul for the night and on to Newark the next morning (at the ass-crack of dawn).  Dad was a champ and picked us up in Jersey.  Once we made it to Brooklyn, we had three rapid-fire meetings; first the rabbi (delightful), then the photographer (signed the contract), and then the baker (delicious!).  All in all, incredibly productive.  Oh, and sitting outside we saw John Hodgman of the Daily Show and the "I'm a Mac" commercials (he's the PC).  It was pretty exciting.

Yeah, that just happened.

Plus, last chance to win a seat to Love Affair Workshop.  Read details and sign up to join in on the fun!

Yes yes yes.

Today, I get up and start looking through my never-ending blog roll.  A day like any other it seems.  When I first started reading wedding blogs (maybe 8 months ago?) Style Me Pretty was pretty much the best thing going, the one really chock-a-block full of gorgeous wedding inspiration.  In recent months, however, other blogs have begun to assert their place on the forefront.  Let me tell you, today SMP has won me back.  Last month (?) they began a new feature called "From Inspiration to Reality" where they take inspirational images collaged by readers and transform them into admittedly awesome photo shoots from their sponsoring vendors.  Usually, I'm underwhelmed, simply because these orchestrated images are editorial and essentially digital magazine features.

Today was different.  Today's fantasy wedding shoot featured two brides... marrying each other.  I have seem same-sex couples getting married on other sites and it warmed my heart, but this was a situation where a main stream media with a lot of conservative subscribes intentionally chose to use a same sex couple because they could, and because, I hope, they wanted to represent a highly underserved but very real segment of the population.  (And hot damn!  Are these ladies sexy!)

SMP, I'm proud of you.

This new turn in wedding media is not totally unique.  Martha Stewart recently featured her first same-sex couple in her magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings.  There was no fanfare, just the same treatment as any other couple.

And of course, the New York Times have been doing it for ages.  This week there was R. Douglas Arnold and Alexander Michael Quinn, and that's just online.  I'd be mighty surprised if that was all there was in the physical paper as well.

In the insanity that is wedding planning, it becomes really easy to lose sight of why you're doing it in the first place.  A lasting, public and official declaration of love to the one person who means more than everything else.  That's why.  And everyone (lucky enough) feels that.  They deserve to get married regardless of their gender and the gender of the person they love.  Love is love.  It means something different to everyone, but it's always worth fighting for.


I haven't quite figured out how or when, but at my wedding I'd like to acknowledge all those who are still legally forbidden to marry the person they love the most.  When I think of being in their shoes, it makes my heart twist.  I am proud that the value of my marriage will only increase as same-sex couples are allowed in increasing numbers to wed across this country that loves its universal freedom and acceptance.


Photo credits: from Style Me Pretty, Carla Ten Eyck; from Martha Stewart Weddings, Jaclyn Greenberg and Chris Brown of JAG Studios; from the New York Times, uncredited online but if I can check from a paper copy and let you know, I will!

A lovely weekend

Ari and I have had a really lovely weekend so far.  Thursday (what?  It still counts.  It was almost the weekend!) we had dinner downtown at our favorite Indian restaurant.  Ari met me after work, but I went down to play with my new camera a bit.  There's a train yard right downtown, with some really great brightly colored cars that stay there all the time.  Here's some of my favorites.

Then, this morning, Ari and I got out early (for a Saturday, and for us, at least) and headed over to the first farmer's market of the year.  Turnout from both vendors and attendees was better than in past years, but the offerings weren't astoundingly special.  Our best purchase was an awesome but too small for the six bucks we paid for it barbacoa quesadilla that we shared for breakfast.  On the upside, lots of people to shoot!  My favorites (unsuprisingly) are of people eating their lunch from the same place we did!

After the Farmer's Market, we went to pick up Ari's car from the shop (little baby had to have it's 15,000 mile check-up.  I periodically remind him he loves me more than the car.  He knows, sometimes he just needs to remember. ;o).  From there we decided to check out Sam's Club.  Verdict?  Decidedly less awesome than Costco.  Almost as sad inside as Wal-Mart.  Only thing it had over pretty much everywhere else - free Cuervo Margarita samples.  Now, I'm not a margarita kinda gal (I pretty much hate them), but nor am I the type of gal to turn down free booze.  Especially from the top shelf.  Anyhow, I ended up getting myself the sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (which was INCREDIBLE.  Let's just say I won't miss Ari when he goes to work Monday, because I'll be up to my elbows in an awesome novel.), The Girl Who Played With Fire.  I got tired of waiting to get of the list at the library.  The only bummer is that Larsson died shortly after delivering the three manuscripts (Dragon Tattoo, Fire, and the third book in the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest), no more from him once it's over.

Well, that was a tangent I hadn't planned on.  Oh well.  Go with it.  The other thing I got was a nice bunch of these cute pink flowers (no idea what they're called, the sticker just said "filler flowers") that I arranged in the 5 vintage vases from Goodwill last month.  I think they came out pretty well.  This whole flower arranging thing isn't too hard.  ::runs off to knock various wooden things::  If you're beginning to sense a theme, you're a sharp cookie, you.  I photographed the flowers too.  But that's it.  No more... for tonight at least.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend too!

Snap it up!

Or how I spend too much on photo gear and it's never enough.

So, as I posted about the other day, my new (to me) Canon 20D arrived the other day.  The nice UPS man brought me my memory card yesterday, so I think I may take it down to the Haymarket during the golden hour later to take it for a spin in the old train yard.

Now, I have a lovely camera bag that is currently the home for my '70's Nikon FG 35mm film SLR.  It's not a beautiful handbag, but it will likely become the new home for my 20D (once it airs out and stops smelling like smoke).  The thing is, there's a bag I really, really want for it.  The currently only in pre-order Kelly Moore Hobo Bag.  It's a camera bag in disguise.  It looks like a purse.  It wears like a purse.  It comes in a really pretty fake leather (that I'll forgive because it's outstanding awesomeness outweighs this shortcoming) and beautiful, saturated colors (grey, teal, mustard and cranberry).  Inside it's padded and has velcro-attached dividers so you can go from bottomless pit purse to snug compartments for delicate camera... stuff.  Needless to say I want one.  It's not cheap, but the price is reasonable enough that I may just suck it up.  Regardless, she's giving one away on her blog. Check out the love affair blog to enter to win a Kelly Moore Bag.  And I do have a birthday coming up... just saying.

Mish mash of epic proportions.

I'm kind of all over the place today, so I guess this post will be too.  Brace yourselves!

• My camera arrived!  It's another Canon 20D (my last one had a bad error message).  It has a grip (very cool, a grip serves 4 purposes: extends battery life with extra battery storage, allows for the usage of AA batteries, gives you a place to rest your pinky finger and has a vertical shutter button for ease of shooting vertically) and came with the kit lens.  I haven't got a new CF card yet so I haven't had much time to play with it.  From what I can tell, I'm very happy with it, only problem is that the whole kit smells like smoke (guess I should have asked if the seller was a smoker, but that's on me for forgetting), but I think that should air out eventually. 

• We picked our photographer and have a verbal agreement.  More on them once t's are crossed and i's are dotted.

• Save the dates are sent.  More on that once I upload my photos.

•  These cakes are beyond amazing.  This one especially.  To heck with Gabriella Marie, god bless whoever made that awesome cake!  That christening gown is crocheted with... something edible.  Anyone who crafts knows how totally labor intensive and talented that is.

•  Love Affair Workshop is giving away a cool Davina Fear Insight Kit.  Check it out.

• Went to visit some of Ari's family in Minnesota this weekend.  It was fun, but exhausting.  I got my ring resized while we were there.  I no longer worry that overly emphatic hand gestures will cause it to go flying and be lost forever, which is quite nice.

• I'm on a boat!

• Whoops.

Images by James Moes via Green Wedding Shoes.

• Went rollerskating with Ari on Thursday.  It was awesome (seriously).  Still haven't bought my skates yet.  In all truth, I was a bit intimidated by all the other people there (who were really good skaters), but I'm determined.  Though I will wait until I have some wrist guards, the one time I did fall, I went down hard.  I got pretty good at crossovers and got some real speed.  Still haven't ordered my skates.  I've been spenderella lately.

• Ari wasn't such a fan of skating, but he was, in fact, the best sport ever.

• The coolest hats I've ever seen.  Seriously.

Nicaragua

So I just got my photographs back from Nicaragua this summer.  It helped me a lot.  I have been toying with the idea of getting more serious (as is the trying to have people pay me to do it) with my photography, and I got some shots that I'm really proud of, and if I had access to a darkroom, I could even be happier.  I guess I'll try my hand at a bit of computer editing.  I'm going to start posting some of my favorites here.  Please please let me know what you think, the feedback really helps!

On the roof of a cathedral.

On the beach for lunch, way off the beaten path.

Chucho, the resident dog at the house we stayed at in San Juan del Sur.

Just looking at these makes me all warm again.  More than the heat, I miss all that sunshine.  Winter, can you be almost through here?

More photographic goodness!

Hello Children,

First off, Happy Saturday!  Congratulations, you made it to the weekend.  For some of us (ie. me), we have work anyway, but still.  And to brighten your chilly winter morning, I've got some good news on photo front for you all.

First up is Oh, Darling! Photography.  They're running a winter photo special right now.  If you book them for your wedding on a date between February and April 2010 in the NYC area, you get 15% off their regular prices!  Check it out here.

Next up is another contest for FREE PHOTOGRAPHY.  That's right, Photos by Millie is giving away the whole shebang (8 hours coverage, second photographer, online gallery of images and a 10x10 album including 50 images).  Get all the deets here.  Plus, winners are drawn at random, so if you're worried about what to say, don't be!  It won't effect your chances of winning.  Winner is responsible for photographer transportation from Arizona.

So go forth and save!  win!

More Giveaways!

I have two totally awesome giveaways today, totally different, too.

The first is for your own personal letterpress machine!  That's right, a total (tiny!) at home letterpress system, ready for all your DIY papery goodness!  Check out the Lifestyle Crafts blog here to check it out and hit up the giveaway on the iDIY blog here.  And if you don't win, you can still buy yourself one here from Paper Source here ($149.99).  They're running free shipping on orders over $100 (Code: SHIP100) through Sunday and they start shipping Monday.  The contest ends this Wednesday, 11/18. 

Photo Credit Emily Takes Photos.

The second is another awesome free photography contest!  This time you San Franciso brides are so in luck!  Emily Takes Photos is giving away a complete photo package to one lucky couple including:

• Grand prize: 8 hours day-of coverage with 2 photographers, engagement session, 5x7 prints of images, CD of images + proofbook, 12x12 custom-designed leather album ($3600 value)
• Runner-up: engagement session + CD of images ($600 value)
• All finalists will receive 15% off any services booked

The rules:

1. Create a 12-second video telling us about yourselves. Feel free to get as creative as you want.
2. Upload the video to YouTube or Vimeo.
3. Email us at contest [at] emilytakesphotos [dot] com with the following: a link to your video, your names and email addresses, date and location of wedding.

Entries must be received by 11:59pm PST on November 30. Finalists will be announced here on the blog on December 1, and voting will be open until 11:59pm PST on December 14. Winners will be announced December 15.

 

Go, go!  Enter, win!