Camera Stabilizer, No Tripod Needed

Just a quick post, something very cool that I found and thought some of you might be interested in. In some situations, there is just no substitute for a good tripod *HOWEVER* this is a pretty cool alternative!

Enjoy!

-Bruce

$1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera - Lose The Tripod - The best bloopers are a click away

We Have the Coolest Couples

I know we say that a lot but we REALLY do! Val and I met up with one of our couples, Kasey and Jeremy, on Saturday to discuss wedding plans, etc. and we ended up chatting for 2  hours about, well, you name it! We pretty much covered everything and had a great time doing it!

As we were talking, we found out that Jeremy races bicycles. Now me saying that is sort of like saying Dale Earnhardt Jr. drives cars. Jeremy, it seems, is crazy. Here he is:

And here he is in action:

And just to give you a little better idea of what this is like, I did some poking around on You Tube and found a video that should give you a feel for it:

Now that may not be the exact class that Jeremy races in but you get the point, right?! I'm right aren't I? The dude is insane, yes? I mean 80 bazillion miles an hour down a hill on a bike is crazy. But it's not even like one of those nice hills, it's one of those "go ahead and see how fast you can go 'cause I ate the last three riders just like you for lunch" kinda hills. Ok I think I made my point.

So (and this is where it starts getting interesting, so stay with me here...) we chat some more and find out that, well, Kasey does it too. I SAID KASEY DOES IT TOO! Yeah, 8 bazillion miles an hour down a hill on a bicycle for fun! Check it out:

And here she is in action!

 

How cool is that? Now, do we get the coolest couples or what? Told ya! Their wedding is September 13th and Val and I will be shooting this one together and I can't wait!

And I know, I know what you're thinking and we thought it, too. Girl races bikes, girl is getting married, girl is outgoing and a lot of fun and does crazy things....TRASH THE DRESS!!! YEAH!!!

Well she hasn't taken us up on our offer yet but we'll keep working on it ;) Maybe if you guys can email her or talk it up in the comments we'll persuade her to go for it! ;)

Guys it was great to finally meet you, Val and I had a blast talking with you and I'm sorry we kept you so long! And Kasey no bruises before the wedding, it's a TON of extra work in Photoshop to take those out of all your pictures ya know ;)

(And special thanks to Christine and Tony for hooking us up!)

Take care,

Bruce

Seamen's Inne Tasting

Well we had a great time today in Mystic! It was awesome to see many of our couples and meet some new ones while we were there too! What a blast!

The Seamen's Inne does such a great job and takes great care to make sure everything goes perfectly (and it always does!). And just a quick shout-out to a couple of the other vendors that were there:

Charlene Lindquist, aka The Cake Lady was there with some many different cakes samples, each one better than the rest. Our favorite? Creamsicle! YUM! Her work is incredible as you can tell by some of the pics. And just so you know, Charlene is extremely busy and yet has NO website, so that should tell you something right there! If you want to get in touch, give her a call at 860/437-8666 and she'll take good care of you but I suggest you hurry because she books quickly!

Also wanted to mention McQuades Marketplace in Mystic who supplied all of the flowers and centerpieces you saw today. Gorgeous!

And special thanks to all the couples that braved the cold today and let us take their pictures! ;) I hope you got a sense for how we do our portrait and formal sessions, quick and painless right? See the results below ;)

I wanted to post just a few pics from today, the rest will be up in the online gallery in a few days. Enjoy and thanks again everyone!

-Bruce

 

 

Off To Work

Well we call it work but it's gonna be a BLAST! We're headed to the Seamen's Inne today for the tasting event for couples that have booked there for the 2008 season and we can't wait! We'll be chit-chatting with everyone, have some stuff to hand out, oh AND we'll have a sample of one of our brand-spankin' new products, CANVAS PRINTS! (Think "upscale, trendy, your-picture-printed-on-canvas and mounted-to-a-wooden-frame, ready to hang in an art gallery" kinda cool!) More on that later this week :)

If you're one of our Seamen's Inne couples that have already booked, please be sure to stop by and say hello! Also, we're taking pictures today too so let's have some fun and do a little mini-photo shoot! We'll put the pics up in an online gallery in a couple days for everyone to see and order prints if you want to. No pressure of course, we're mainly doing this because we thought it would be FUN!

See ya there!

-Bruce

I know a bride...

...that occasionally does her bills in her wedding dress....shhhhh....it's a secret...cannot tell ya who...shhhhh....

-Bruce

2008 Weblog Awards - The Bloggies

Let's face it, the Internet these days wouldn't exist without weblogs (blogs for short) which are loosely defined as web sites updated with content frequently and organized in chronological order. We get tons of content from them in all kinds of topics, read them daily, plug them into our RSS readers (hey you're reading one right now!).

The eight annual Weblog Awards are going on right now and you can play a part. You can vote for your favorites in all sorts of categories. But mostly you can look through all the nominees and discover some amazing blogs that will become part of your daily reading, I'm sure. Sadly, this little TSD Blog was not nominated this year but hey, maybe next year! ;)

Some notable sites and sites I love:

Nominated for best application for weblogs are Flickr and Blogger. You should check Flickr out for uploading photos, it's quick and easy and FREE. And Blogger is how we write this blog! Go get one of your own and send us  the link when you do. That's FREE too!

Nominated for best American weblog is Lifehacker, a daily read for me. Love it!

One of the nominees for best photography is actually a food blog and another one in my RSS list. 101 Cookbooks has incredible recipes and I love her food photography. Amazing stuff!

In the computers and technology category are Engadget, Gizmodo, and Wired. Ok I really need to get away from my computer now, I read ALL of these ;)

So go check it out, it's all there: art, politics, news, writing, sports, you name it! Go discover some cool stuff and have fun voting for your favorites!

-Bruce

Friday Links

Just some random stuff for a Friday. I have several posts in the works but none are ready for prime time so I thought I'd throw out a post of some things I've been squirreling away. Some stuff related to weddings, some related to photography in general, some related to, well, nothing!

The National Geographic photography contest results are up and these pictures are just amazing! 148,203 images were submitted and boiled down to the results listed. I wouldn't have wanted to judge THAT one! (Oh who am I kidding of course I would have.)

I love this shot by Dottie Campbell that actually won in the landscape category. Sometimes the best images are not the obvious ones and this is very clever. Plus I love just the tease of what looks like a gorgeous old car.

Ok another one of those addicting, time-wasting, black hole type web sites, ToonDoo It allows you to create your very own comic strips. I had visited this site once a long time ago and it wasn't nearly as advanced as it is now. This is a blast! Here's my creation called "TSD-Land". I refer to Val as "TSD East" and she calls me "TSD Central" and I thought I'd show you the differences between the two offices:

Maybe I'll have to make this a series? ;)

And last for today, Trash the Dress began as the latest trend in wedding photography and refers to brides (and grooms) willing to go out somewhere on location after the wedding to do some very creative shots where the safety of the dress is not necessarily a concern. (Lemme tell ya, if we have any volunteers out there for a session like this, Val and I are TOTALLY up for it! Just let us know!)

And this "trend" has really taken off as a style of wedding photography, with more and more brides asking for these types of sessions and more and more photographers offering it as a service.

I love the creativity with some of these shots. They can range from mild to completely wild (go for a swim in your wedding dress!) and everything in between!

Ok that's it for now...have a great weekend!

-Bruce

If You Have To Ask, Don't

Got this from another blog and I thought it was interesting. For those of you into shoes (and you know who you are!) Christian Louboutin  is an insanely expensive line of shoes from Paris, known for their distinctive red soles. Sold only at "upscale retailers and shoe boutiques". Yes indeedy ;)

And I have no idea...

-Bruce

Renewing Your Marriage Vows?

I saw this article about a Filipino tradition related to renewing marriage vows on Valentine's Day and I thought to my self, "Valentine's Day? Why are they talking about Valentine's Day already?" And then it dawned on me that it's only 3 weeks away! Holy cow!

Well hey, if you happen to be renewing your vows on Valentine's Day and you need a photographer, you should click this link right here and maybe someone can help you!

-Bruce (Marketing Opportunity) Thivierge

Breaking News!!

Okay, I just love saying that! But really, there's an all new slide show up on the website...check out Ruth and Travis on the homepage! http://www.thesweetestdays.com/ I think they are just one of the most romantic couples ever. Let us know what you think!

The Seamen's Inne

We shoot at the Seamen's Inne in Mystic quite frequently and we love it there! The staff is amazing and the grounds and nearby Mystic Seaport offer so many opportunities for photographs. Val and I have often said we could shoot for HOURS there, every corner you come around seems to have something else interesting to take a picture of!

Of course we never actually have hours to shoot with our couples and what usually happens is a sprint around the seaport with me, Val, umpteen bags of equipment, a trail of Seamen's Inne staff carrying drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and oh yeah a BRIDE AND GROOM in this long, confusing, fast moving conga line of INSANITY!! (Honestly, where but this blog can you get that sort of literary GENIUS? Hmm? And ok fine, I'm embellishing a little bit.) We love every minute of it!

What results is an awesome set of pictures for our couples. Portraits shot in the Seaport just have this timeless character to them. Of course we put our touch on some of them during editing to create some amazing black and white or sepia or (sorry can't tell you any more about our secret sauce!) but for the most part, many of these shots simply stand on their own. And that's the payoff for the extra effort required during a "Seaport Sprint"!

One of our favorite couples was Christine and Tony who's wedding we shot at the Seamen's Inne on August 19th, 2006. You can see a blog post about it here and their slide show here. They were so much fun and I think you can see that in their pictures. They hired us because they get what we do and we were happy to deliver; it's really nice when you make that sort of connection with clients! Everyone wins!

I have some pictures I wanted to blog way back then and never got around to it so I thought I'd post them now. Like I said, we had so much fun with them, but honestly, Tony is a nut! ;) During the formals, we took a picture with Tony and each of his groomsmen and, well Tony wanted to put his spin on things! I love this series:

Sorry Tony, had to do it! I'm willing to bet Christine still visits the web site and reads the blog so it wouldn't surprise me if we get an email about this! Isn't that the funniest series of pics?!

The Seaman's Inne is having an invitation-only tasting event on January 27th for the couples they have booked for 2008 weddings. It's a chance for them to meet vendors, taste some samples, chat, etc and Val and I will be there as well! We have a number of couples already booked for this season and we're excited to see them again. If you're attending the event please stop by and see us and say hello, we look forward to talking to you and answering any questions you might have!

And just for fun, we're bringing our camera gear and we'll be taking pictures! (Hey it's what we do right?!) This is the first time we've done this and we're hoping to have a little fun with it! So stop by, say hello and let us take your picture!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Bruce

Contest Reminder

Hope everyone's having a great weekend! Just a quick note to remind you, there's a little less than a month to go in our Free Wedding Photography Contest, so if you know someone with a great story or you have one yourself, please get it to us along with a picture so we can add you to the list. The original announcement is here along with all the details and guidelines.

Can't wait to hear from you!

-Bruce

I Think I Have A.D.D.

And by the end of this post you'll probably think so too 'cause it's all over the place!  Here we go...

Have you heard about this stuff?? Chelada is either Budweiser and Clamato mixed, or Bud Light and Clamato mixed. And if you didn't know this, Clamato is tomato juice with clams in it. And yes it's real. All I can say is, EWWWW.

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The Internet is simply THE place to get content these days. I have to wonder how long it will be before TV as we know it is obsolete. Audio, video, pictures, the written word, it's all here and the king of content for video stuff is You Tube.

DV Confidential has posted the Top 7 Web Videos of 2007 (produced by professionals) and I must say it's a great collection. You may have seen some or all of them and it's just amazing how a video can be uploaded to the web and literally explode out of control, being viewed by millions of people. The link above is to the first part, part 2 is linked at the bottom of that page.

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And finally, my favorite topic for today. I guess I lied, I do actually have something for you related to photography ;) The Library of Congress has released thousands of photographs into the public domain, to be hosted on Flickr. The status of these is officially "no known copyright restrictions" but what is most fascinating is this pilot project, referred to as "The Commons" on Flickr is an attempt to get help from the general public in tagging these photographs for proper cataloging. From the site:

"The key goals of this pilot project are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the huge Library of Congress collection, and secondly to show how your input of a tag or two can make the collection even richer."

There are two categories in this collection, 1930s-40s in Color and News in the 1910s. I LOVE OLD PHOTOGRAPHS! I can look through them for hours and hours. I'm afraid I just may not be getting much done for a while ;)

It's amazing to see these shots from the 30's and 40's in color. And beautiful quality too! Here's one from Connecticut, the caption speculates Stonington:

They almost don't seem like OLD photographs! Amazing...

The 1910's collection is black and white news photographs and the pictures look more worn, but I actually like that ;)  Here's a couple:

Ok I guess that's all for today! If you like looking at old pictures too, you've been warned! You will be addicted to this ;)

Enjoy!

-Bruce

Movie time!

So I've been seeing the commercials for 27 Dresses and thought it would be fun to see it. Always a Bridesmaid, never a Bride...and I gotta admit I'm a wedding movie/romantic/chick flik junkie! So I want to see this one... and then when I was looking for when it starts, etc... I came across a trailer for another movie that just might even be better! Leatherheads! I know, I know...yucky title...but it's an old time football movie, and you do know how much we love football here....and the best part... OMG! George Clooney... enough said!! :)

Blog Comments

I can't believe it's been almost a year and a half that we've had this blog up and running! Ah, seems like just yesterday...

Since almost the beginning, we had to put the comments on full moderation due to, believe it or not, SPAM. I don't know if Blogger has gotten any better about eliminating this and I don't care to find out so we have decided to leave this function on moderation.

But have no fear, it's still very simple to post a comment if you want to. Click the comments link at the bottom of any post and fire away. Moderation adds one step to the process, then we push them through, but it's really easy! I can even do it from my cell phone ;)

So feel free to fire away anytime! We love hearing from you!

-Bruce

Snow Day!

Wet, sticky snow is a pain to shovel but it sure makes for cool pictures!

 

My kids wouldn't come out with me for some pics but my furry children were happy to oblige!

Hope you had a chance to go out and play today!

-Bruce

Bent Objects

A very clever combination of art, sculpture, photography, and well humor too! All made from simple every day stuff. This is so cool! Visit Terry's site here.

Enjoy!

-Bruce

Albums - Leather Craftsmen!

Much could (and has) been written about the quality and history of Leather Craftsmen albums, so I won't get into that much detail here on the blog. But I will say that Leather Craftsmen has been manufacturing and selling wedding albums here in the U.S. since 1942. Their philosophy is simple: use the finest materials and skills honed from generations of bookbinding experience to make high quality wedding albums.

We are proud to offer two different models of Leather Craftsmen flush mount albums here at The Sweetest Days Photography. The 300 Flush Series Albums and the 3500 Flush Coffee Table Series Albums.

The time honored Leather Craftsmen 300 Series is the original wedding album from Leather Craftsmen and has been offered by them since all the way back to their beginning in 1942.  It features same size prints expertly hand mounted flush to the page and separated by a linen hinge. Several sizes can be bound in genuine leather covers or non-leather premium fabric alternatives.

 

Also with same size prints hand mounted flush to the page, the 3500 Series Flush Mount album comes in several sizes with several cover options. The difference with this contemporary album is that it features no linen hinge which provides full panoramic spreads that can either be split or folded.

While we have been offering Leather Craftsmen for quite some time, we are thrilled to showcase these models and re-introduce them to you!

So whether your choice is the Capri drop-in, or one of the Sequoia or Leather Craftsmen flush mount albums, we think you'll love the results and most importantly the QUALITY of your wedding album! Hey we didn't didn't do all that work at the Photo Plus expo for nothing, ya know!! ;)

So if you have been waiting to get your album on order, please give us a call or an email. We'll be glad to get your album design started and also send you more info and pricing for each of the products.

And that's not all! (But wait, there's more!) We still have a few more new products that we can't wait to tell you about!

Talk to you soon!

-Bruce