I just posted Tracy and Bryan's wedding slide show on the home page of the website www.thesweetestdays.com so check it out when you can. They were an awesome couple to work with and although it was freezing cold that day, it was a blast!! Thanks for letting us be part of your day!!
~Valeen
I know the blog posts are kinda out of order but what the heck, right? It's all about the holiday and I had to share a few more. Okay, I'm going to say it, I have a gorgeous family!!! I had planned on making some amazing Christmas cards and sending them out this year, but... um....well, I got the flu, it got crazy and I didn't get them sent... So here's a big MERRY CHRISTMAS from all of us!
Our very own "Mr. McDreamy!" ... Matthew... he walks in the room and all the girls start to giggle and completely freak out!! Watch out Hollywood!! 
Ah Ha!!! Caught ya' chimping!!
Twins! Okay, not really... but I think you can tell they are related!
Love this pic!
Katelyn went to see The Nutcracker this year, can you tell? Here come the ballet classes!
Daddy and Em. And also kind of a before and after set of pictures. Sweet and cute to start....
And then.... ROCKSTAR!!
Of course, now I have to introduce you to my two newest photographers, trust me, you'll love their work! (If they aren't fighting over the camera!)
Katelyn and Emily! Watch out world! They are going to completely change the way we take a picture in the future!! ("I got my first camera when I was 4, and I've been snapping pics ever since")
Love to all! Merry Christmas!!
~Valeen
Taken out the back door on Christmas night... the sky was simply gorgeous and a minute later, it was gone.
Um... no, not really... but does it matter when it's your very first Christmas? It was fine with him that total chaos reigned... and what I wouldn't have given to do the same thing! :)
I had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you did too!
Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!
We hope you have the best holiday with your family and friends, may the spirit of the season be with you always.
~Valeen
Tuesday was awesome! I have to tell you that I was nervous about it though and I'm not sure why, it really was the BEST day! I had so much fun, learned so much and met some great new people too! (They even offered to come help paint and renovate a room in my house for a studio, how awesome cool fabulous is that???)
Carla is really one of the most wonderful and talented people I've ever had the joy of meeting. A kindred spirit, from the unbelievable Victorian house (with a purple couch!) to our shared love of our D3's and of the name George! I also got to meet the fabulous smokin' hot Mr. Eric Foley and his super special, utterly gorgeous wife Erin, they were up for absolutely anything we asked them to do, and they did it with style!! Just check out these shots of them and you have to agree!
I still can NOT believe that they were taken in a parking garage and a gravel parking lot in West Hartford. :)
~ Valeen
Love does not make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
~ Franklin P Jones
Wedding photography has seen a bit of a renaissance in the last several years. The trend of "not your mother's wedding photographer" caught on, quickly grew and effectively changed the industry as we know it. Things like "trash the dress" sessions and injecting elements of photojournalism and high style fashion photography into the wedding arena are now commonplace. Thinking outside the box is expected.
Regardless of your particular tastes in photography or what you hope your photographer will achieve (or did achieve) with your wedding pictures, I hope you can draw some thoughts from this particular artist. John Michael Cooper is truly a pioneer in pushing the boundaries of wedding photography, hell photography in general. He breaks the rules every time out and does his own thing.
There are a couple of iconic images created by John (whose business name is altF and be warned the images on this site are not for everyone) that will soon be retired from public view, at least for a while. Well at least those of us that have been around this business for a while would certainly consider them "iconic" if such a term can be used within the confines if this specific line of work.
You can visit John's blog to learn more about Joan and Ophelia, and the images, and perhaps even buy prints if you are so inclined, before they are retired. There aren't many left.
And in the spirit of professional courtesy and doing what is right, I am disclosing right here and now that I totally stole these directly from John's blog and pasted them here. Honestly, I doubt he cares.
Thank you John for inspiring, pushing the limits, doing what you do, and especially for how much you give back to this business and to us as photographers. We are all waiting to see what trend you will start next.
-Bruce
Ok, ok we're camera geeks here at TSD but hey I know how many questions we get about cameras and photography and I KNOW how many of our clients are camera geeks too so I know some of you out there in blog-land will enjoy this one ;)
Apparently the Fuehrer is upset with what Nikon is trying to soak us charge for the new flagship D3X top of the line camera. Poor guy. He can throw quite the hissy. Who knew!
-Bruce
I have a problem, at least according to my family and there must be a support group for it somewhere. It has something to do with picking a tree that is way too big for the house, every single time!! So this is AFTER we cut a foot off the bottom, and a foot off the top...
Got out the landscaping tools and trimmed it down a little...okay, okay, a lot!! And right when it was almost done....Crash!!! In slow motion and just missed the little guy on the floor! He thought the garland was nice though!
Tom was not amused.
So after some intense work on the stand (which was brand new!) and the trunk (too soft!) and vacuuming for an hour, and redecorating the whole thing...oh, by the way, nothing broke... it's perfect! (Well, sorta!) And what the heck, the Barbies love it!
I have been officially banned from picking out the tree next year!! :)
~Valeen
I had the privilege of attending a very inspiring photography workshop with the wonderful, amazing, fab-u-licious, one-and-only, uber-talented Carla Ten Eyck at her home/studio in Hartford yesterday. And yes, you will know you've made it when someone refers to YOU as fab-u-licious and uber-talented in the same sentence!
What a day!! Here's the cast of characters that went along with me for this crazy ride that had us thinking so far outside the box, I think one or two of us had tremors. Seriously.
Jason Henriques of West Haven. Down IN IT. If you've shot with me, or had me at your wedding, you know I spend a lot of time on the ground. I like this guy.
Cheryl Cronin joined us from balmy Branford. Shhh, don't tell anyone, she's wearing long johns in this shot. Shhh. She's looking a little nervous here 'cause I'm getting too close. But by the end of the day she was fine :)
Andrea Walpurgis from Shades of Images in Enfield. It was so cool to see different photographers get their take on the same setup. Little different angle, different lens, whatever. Love it!
While they were workin' that angle, I grabbed this shot. Sort of looks infra-red-ish, right?
So we spent a good portion of the day moving from spot to spot in Elizabeth Park in Hartford. And speaking of characters, our subjects for the day were Carla's second in command, Mr. Mike Romano and his super-pooch Max. We each took turns setting up shots, trying to think creatively while Ms. Ten Eyck followed us around ruthlessly yelling "what aperture are you at, AND WHY??" I'm kidding of course. It was shutter speed...
One of the first shots on Carla's blog is of me on the ground (there's something new, I think Val could make an entire slide show of just shots of me on the ground). Anywho, here's what I was doing:
Look up the term "big-ass dog" in the dictionary and you'll find a picture of Max. Holy cow. 220 pounds of pure canine. I love this shot of his paws but there's really nothing to give you a sense of scale. So I'll tell you the scale: BIG.
The man, the myth, the legend: Carla Ten Eyck. No wait, maybe Mike's the man, Carla's the myth and the legend? Or I guess it could be Mike's the man and the myth and Carla's the legend. Aw, the hell with it, I forgot where I was going with this anyway...
So I'm a country boy, and Carla's a city girl. When you're strolling through a park with a city girl in her home city, and she happens to be an awesome photographer who also happens to see something interesting, you should probably pay attention.
"Killer sea grass..." she says. "And look at that light!"
Ok, I see weeds. But we'll go with "sea grass". This is why she's teaching and I'm the student. Go to her blog and look at the rock-star shots of Mike and Max against the sea grass. No really go ahead, I'll wait...
Killer right??? Weeds. And light. Sheesh!
I love the vines and ivy that were framing this shot. (Special thanks to Andrea on the reflector!)
This one's for Carla. She LOVES dog drool. Pyscho this girl is, I tell ya! Slimy dog drool, can you imagine? LOVES it!
A park bench, a hedge, Mike and Max. We spent a lot of time in this area really thinking about angles and light and composition. Lots of different stuff from this one spot.
Here's Carla stuffing her camera bag into the hedge. No worries, she got the shot!
I love the washed out look with this one. Max has a wrinkly face but what's really strange is that he also has lines of soft black fur that make the wrinkles look deeper than they really are. Almost like tiger stripes.
I think Max has an aiming problem. Headed for the cheerio but got Mike's nose instead :)
Again we're still in the same spot and Carla's challenge to us was to get portraits without moving Mike at all. Same spot. Same light. Same everything. Think grasshoppa, think!
Mike busted out the hat, which was such a cool look with the jacket. Here's my take on the shot Carla mentioned on her blog. Again, different angle, different lens, same moment in time, completely different shot!
Carla rockin' the 100 mm macro. Gotta get me one! Mike rockin' the poker face. I swear, every cop I know can do this face. At will. They must teach it at the academy...
A little "direct positive" in Lightroom. For some reason I'm thinking album cover here, dunno. Nickelback maybe?? Hmmm...
And I'll finish back where I started, on the ground! My favorite shot of the day. Max looks so intimidating here. Don't be fooled, he's a peach!
Thanks to everyone for such an inspiring day! CARLA YOU ROCK!Can't wait to hook back up again sometime! Special special SPECIAL thanks to Mike Romano and Max, you guys were great today and so patient with us! Mike, get Max that steak ok?!
And for you photographers out there, the next Ten Eyck Tuesday workshop is already full (Val will be attending) but I hear there's still some spots in the January 6th class. What are you waiting for?? Git to it and send Carla an email: carla@carlateneyck.com You'll be glad you did!!
-Bruce
This was such an awesome wedding and we had a blast shooting it! How can you go wrong with a beautiful couple, St. Patrick's Cathedral for the ceremony and Harkness Mansion for the Reception? Oh, and then there were the horses! The amazing, fabulous, wonderful horses that Beth gets to work with all the time. They are Shires, which are actually bigger than the Clydesdales! They also thought Beth's bouquet would taste pretty good too! :)
The slide show will be up soon, but I just had to post a few sneak peeks!
~ Valeen
