Making Music With Wine Bottles. And Roller Skates. Yep.

Ok so I said the next video post would be about wedding albums but I lied. I found this instead!

Michel Lauzière, "Master of the Unusual" plays the "Toreador Song" from the opera Carmen using wine bottles while roller skiing past them. Enjoy!

First Video Post!

Check it out! Sorry about the Steelers hat but here at TSD we bleed Black and Gold! GO STEELERS!!

FREE Wedding Photography Contest Announcement!

Yes, you read that right! As we have said here on the blog for the last few weeks, we have so much cool new stuff to tell you about (getting sick of hearing that yet?!) and I get the honor of telling you about one of  THE coolest things of all!

Val and I are thrilled to announce that for one lucky couple in 2008 we will be shooting your wedding for FREE! We wanted to do something to give back to all the folks that have supported us for so long now and, well to be honest we had heard of a few other photographers doing this sort of thing and we thought it sounded like a GREAT idea. So here's the deal:

We want you to email us the story of  a couple who, in your opinion, REALLY deserves free wedding photography for their wedding this year. If you like, you can even send in your own story!

Here's what we are looking for:

• A couple who has a wonderful story or who has overcome great odds
• The couple must be getting married somewhere within a reasonable driving distance of Connecticut (say the Northeast in general) and it must be for a date that we are available for
• The couple must be willing to have their story told here and/or on our web site (www.thesweetestdays.com)
• The couple must not be able to afford an extravagant wedding

And here is what we're NOT looking for:

• A couple who is having an expensive or extravagant wedding and is just looking to win something for free
• A false story
• Couples planning destination weddings

The winning couple will receive:

• Up to 7 hours of photography coverage with 2 photographers (Val and Bruce)
• 400 images presented in an online gallery for sharing
• 400 printed proof images in a proof album
• An 8 x 12, 20 page flush wedding album especially designed for them

Contest deadline for all entries is February 29, 2008. Please email your story to info@thesweetestdays.com and include a picture of the couple. The top three entries will be posted on our web site and/or blog and a decision on the winning story will be made by March 15^th, 2008.

So come on folks, get those typing fingers warmed up and ready to go! Inspire us, move us, make us laugh, make us cry, but just get those stories in!

We really want to pass along a special thank you (and some link love!) to Jessica Claire for her permission to use her idea as inspiration for our own contest. Hey when we see something we like, we go with it! She is an uber-talented, California-based wedding photographer who is running a similar contest right now. When I emailed and asked if we could "steal" her idea for our own contest her answer without even a hesitation? "Go for it!!" Thank you Jessica, you ROCK!!

Good luck everyone, we can't wait to read the stories!

~Bruce

To everyone!

How cool is this??

A "Sweet" New Year!! (It's just so 'us'!)

Ruth & Travis

Here's a sneak peek at some of the shots from Saturday's wedding... Ruth & Travis. They were just one of the sweetest and nicest couples I've ever met and their families completely blew me away with how genuine and wonderful they were. :) And yes, I know I always say I get the best couples, but it's true!! It really is!! I don't know who's working with the Bridezillas, but it's not us!

Can you believe everyone outside at the end of December in New England?? The weather was great and the light was perfect for the finishing touches on the makeup, too.




Awesome shoes and a gorgeous dress....



Moments captured...






Just Married!



Love, love, love the little black dresses!



A little fun with the 'traditional' formal pose!



I love this shot...one of my favorites of the whole year! I think it says it all! :-)



~Valeen

May we have your email address, please?

Ok, ok maybe I didn't sell you on RSS? Maybe you don't need all that wiz-bang stuff that us crazy kids are into these days. Maybe you just need a kinder, gentler approach to keeping up with TSD news. Or maybe, just maybe, you just can't get enough and want to make extra sure you don't miss ANYTHING? You know, belt AND suspenders...

We aim to please!

You'll notice in the right hand side bar of this blog under that spiffy looking orange RSS button (hey orange is the new pink!) is an email subscription box. ..

"Oh the horror they're gonna start collecting email addresses and selling them to Acme Widgets and all those other big mean and nasty conglomerations and all I'll get is an email inbox full of S*P*A*M!!!"

Nope. No way. We hate that as much as you do. More, even.

"Sure I've heard this line before. No S*P*A*M from Acme Widgets but YOU GUYS are gonna S*P*A*M me I bet. Right??"

No! Absolutely not. Here's what you'll get:

By entering your email address in the box, you will receive a grand total of 1 (that's ONE) email per week, on Sunday which will include a collection of any blog posts we've written in the previous week. That's it. Well for now...

"AH-HA I knew it! I knew there was a catch!"

Ok you caught us. Shame, shame. Slap my wrist.

We would like to add to this an occasional extra email newsletter announcing anything we want to announce, such as specials, new products, cool wedding photography related news, whatever. We're not there yet though so don't panic. And we promise not to get carried away with the sales-pitch type stuff ;)

And hey, you can UNSUBSCRIBE AT ANY TIME! So...

May we have your email address, please?! ;)

Thanks!

Bruce

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

You may have seen this icon before when browsing web sites and wondered what it meant. Or perhaps you've wondered what all this talk about "RSS" is and how it all works. I wanted to discuss it here on the blog for a couple of important reasons.

First, as Val mentioned we had our "Company Meeting" this week and talked about lots of things related to the business and some new plans for 2008 that we'll be telling you about real soon.

Second, as readers of our blog you know that we can be a bit, um, sporadic with our posts ;) partially because we get so busy we don't have time to update. But we will be making a more concerted effort to post to the blog in the weeks and months ahead. Partly because it just makes good business sense to do so but also because there are so many of you that read it and comment to us that it really has motivated and inspired us to write more. So we don't want you to miss ANY of it!

Dane Sanders is an awesome photographer and teacher and I was reading a post on his blog (which coincidently I was reading through my Google Reader and oh by the way HE keeps HIS blog up to date!) and I wanted to share it with you. He describes the RSS process very clearly and also provides a number of links to other sources of info. He also (as I do) recommends Google Reader as his RSS weapon of choice.

If you find yourself visiting multiple web sites every day to check for new or updated content, then consider yourself a PRIME candidate for using RSS to your advantage. It can greatly simplify how you use the Internet, how you get info, and how much time it all takes. Check out this EXCELLENT Commoncraft video explaining how it all works in very simple (really simple!) terms:

 

 

So do yourself a favor and give RSS a try! I'm sure you'll love it and if you get stuck or have any questions, drop me an email (bruce AT thesweetestdays DOT com) or post a comment here on the blog and I'll be glad to help you out!

And once you get up and running with Google Reader, don't forget to plug in our blog address http://thesweetestdaysphotography.blogspot.com/ so you can keep up to date without having to check back every day to see if we wrote anything ;)

Enjoy!

-Bruce

A busy weekend!

I got to shoot a wedding yesterday that was just wonderful (photos on the blog real soon!) and will have another tomorrow for New Year's Eve! Of course there is some talk about a "snow event" tomorrow too?? What is that? 2"? 5"? 20"? Do they even know? Hey, that's why I bought an all wheel drive vehicle, it's New England!! LOL

Company Meeting

So Bruce and I had our sorta kinda company meeting this week at one of our satellite offices...Starbucks, of course! lol After about 4 (or was it 5) hours of discussing what we are doing, what we want to do, etc... and some lattes and cranberry muffins, and oh by the way, those sandwiches are pretty good too.... we got some great ideas that we are really excited about! Watch the blog for some upcoming posts real soon to get a peek!

Merry Christmas!

I know it's been a long time since we've posted a blog, but I'm sure you know how it is... trying to get all the work done and be able to enjoy a little time off with our families too. We are going to try to blog more in the upcoming year, maybe even every day!!! Okay, well, maybe not every single day, but ...what the heck, that's our goal and we will certainly try!! :-)

I wanted to post a special thanks to all the wonderful couples that allowed us to be a part of their special day this year, it's was simply the best! And to all those brides and grooms that have booked their wedding dates with us for next year.... we can't wait!!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!



Emily on the Essex Steam Train for Christmas this year.

~ Val