This weekend was so beautiful... I saw the green of the daffodils and crocus peeking through, then Wham! More snow! It didn't last, but like everyone else, I have Spring fever!! I also have a total mess of a yard, sheesh! I think it needs professional help. Anyone know a really awesome landscaper? :)
So anyhow... while waiting for my flowers to come up... I have these to make me smile. :)
Think Spring!
~ Valeen
Everyone knows I watch ALL the wedding movies! I can't help it, I'm a complete Hopeless Romantic. So Bride Wars is released today and I just don't think it's one I want to see. The previews are okay, but I've read some reviews that are terrible.... they are saying the funniest line is about the Vera Wang dress and they put that on one of the trailers. Hmmmm.... so if you go, let me know what you think, ok?
~Valeen
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
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
Ok, bear with me while I geek out a little bit here ;)
One of the gadget blogs I read called Gizmodo has a series of posts up recently with reports from the Mars Lander "Phoenix". It is getting near the end of it's useful life after accomplishing all sorts of cool science experiments and the batteries are going. Honestly, didn't they think to send spares?? ;)
Anyway it's fascinating reading if you're into that sort of thing. He's quite well-spoken for, well, a probe and can you believe he has over 38,000 followers on Twitter?? Too cool!
Some interesting facts:
And the most famous Twitter post from the little guy?
"Are you ready to celebrate? Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!"
Cool stuff! Anyway that's enough science for a while, enjoy the article!
-Bruce
I could not help but post this here, a very creative photo set on Flickr by UK photographer Mike Stimpson. Some really cool recreations of famous photographs in LEGOS! Yep, Legos ;) Cool stuff.
Enjoy!
-Bruce
Pretty spiffy, eh? Looks great at the top of the blog AND makes a great shipping label. (Hope you love it Kelly!)
:)
-Bruce
We have had THE absolute best weekend! Two amazing weddings with great couples and families and I know you guys must get sick of hearing us say it but we really do love what we do!
We have some amazing photographs to share with you over the next few days from both weddings and I am totally stoked to get them posted so stay tuned!
In the meantime, have a wonderful Memorial Day and please please PLEASE it doesn't matter what any of us think about politics or war or ANY OF THAT STUFF all that matters is that if you have the opportunity to do so, please say thank you to a Veteran or an active duty service member for what they do for us. We don't ask you for much here at TSD, so help us out with this one ok? Cool!
We shot at the Seaport in Mystic today, what a place to be on Memorial Day weekend! Love this flag shot. Have a GREAT weekend everyone!
-Bruce
Take a few seconds and check out this MGM Grand flash-based web site, it is AMAZING! Click on the "Enter Maximum Vegas" button and a 90 second Flash video will start that will blow you away.
The visual medium we work in is advancing by leaps and bounds every single day. Sometimes it boggles the mind what some folks are doing!
Have a great weekend-
Bruce
This one's been around for a while but it's worth a repeat. Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance" video. I want to see someone do this at a wedding for us! ;)
Hope everyone's having a great weekend!
-Bruce
Just some random shots from the weekend. I was in a collage mood ;)
Val is not under the weather, she's SICK! Like icky, wouldn't wanna be ya, sick. So send her some love and wish her well!
Take care. And don't forget to wash your hands. And take your vitamins ;)
-Bruce
This is just too cute, a 3 year old girl telling her Dad what the Star wars movie is about. According to Dad:
"She explained the whole movie to me in much greater detail but unfortunately I didn't have the camera going. When I finally caught her talking about the movie again she delivered this truncated, but still funny, version...Believe it or not, she has seen the movie only once, and I spread it out over three days so it wouldn't be too much all at once for her."
I know my kids were young the first time they saw the movie but probably not this young. And I know it didn't make quite this much of an impression on them ;)
(Originally posted on Gizmodo and CrunchGear.)
-Bruce
Thanks everyone, we have our winner for the free portrait session! Stephanie S. (aka Quick Draw) was first, within just a few minutes of the post last night :)
Thank you!
-Bruce
And it looks like they're almost all either wedding or photography related links, too! For a change ;)
Here's a weird one: If you happen to have a digital picture frame and it came from Best Buy, you may want to take a closer look. Apparently a bunch of them came from the manufacturer with computer viruses on them. Not a major deal and easy to fix, but still. Might wanna check yours out. Effected brand was "Insignia" and the model number is NS-DPF10A. Original Washington Post mention is here.
Ok first off, I'm no prude. (Can a guy even be a prude??) And I get the whole fashion thing, I mean we kind of have to to even be in this business. But check out this NY Times article about wedding dress trends. Is this what's coming? Seems a bit over the top to me, but I'll let you make up your own minds ;)
How 'bout this: a wedding ring with the point sticking out! OUCH! Designer Tobias Wong has come up with this killer (literally) wedding ring design that can "cut skin down to the bone". Hey nothing says romance like a terrorist weapon on your ring finger ;) Only one article linked to this and I couldn't verify independently so who knows if it's real or not, but man I would not want to be on the business end of this thing!
The most bizarre wedding cake I've ever seen. And then there's Mario.
Ok last one, if you haven't heard about this yet you need to check 
Ok that's it for today! Enjoy the snow tomorrow!!
-Bruce
207 people freeze in place in Grand Central Station at exactly the same time and stay that way for 5 minutes. My questions are:
Wicked cool, check it out:
Quite possibly one of the coolest desk ideas (and websites) I've seen in a long time. I can only imagine how much they cost!
And what chair would you get for a desk this cool??
-Bruce
Ok folks just some quick links before I head out for a long weekend. I have a few posts cued up to launch automatically while I'm away (What? It's technology, what could possibly go wrong??) so check back every now and then, or just plug us into your RSS reader and be done with it, will ya? ;)
Sorry but any comments will hafta wait until I get back to be published through. I hear our hotel room doesn't even have a phone so wireless is probably out of the question. Besides, Roland and I will be out fishing or wrestling alligators or flying around the swamps in a airboat. Or maybe just hangin' at the hotel pool drinkin' beer. What kind of beer is best for a 9 year old? (Oh I'm kidding, relax...I'll make sure it's light beer)
Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll post some pics (who me? take pictures??) when we get back!
See ya!
Bruce
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Retrevo is a web site designed to match people with electronic equipment they're looking for. No it's not Gadget Dial-a-Date, think of it more as an index of electronic equipment. You can find product manuals, get recommendations on a particular item, or even find support for something you may already own. It's an interesting concept and along the lines of our Valentine's shopping post the other day, they have some gadget shopping ideas for you as well.
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Rumors of Microsoft wanting to buy Yahoo (my favorite potential name I've heard for the new company? Microhoo!) has Flickr users up in arms. I must say, I'm a big fan of Flickr too and would hate to see it ruined. This new group on Flickr is for folks to voice their opinions about it and boy have they ever! Some pretty funny stuff in here and currently it's showing 2,539 members and still growing!
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This is amazing. One family's ritual of taking a photo of each family member on June 17th of each year since 1976. So cool to see the transformations throughout the years! Check it out here.
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Amazing "Web Trend Map", hard to read with this snapshot but if you click on the link, it's an intricate map of everything hot on the web right now. As a twist, it's an actual map of the Tokyo-area train routes.
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Have you heard about Google's 411 telephone information service? It's totally free, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411. It works great and you can even get an SMS message sent that includes the information about the business or number you called about. Check it out here.
New York Giants 17
New England Patriots 14
Congratulations to Eli Manning and the New York Giants for their awesome upset in today's Super Bowl! No one gave them a chance and they didn't listen to any of it. They kept their heads down and got the job done. Bravo!
Plaxico Burress caught the game winning touchdown and we'll never forget what color his jersey used to be...
AND one more Steelers fact for the night; Fox had a poll running to vote for the best football dynasty over the decades and the Steelers of the 70's won by a huge margin. Of course they did!
-Bruce
