Switch, Switch, Switch

January 30, 2008 | Filed Under Administrative | Leave a Comment

Back in December, I purchased a MacBookPro. It is a beautiful new laptop, and as much as I wanted to love it, it was hard to adjust to a completely different operating system. I was trying for the first few weeks, but just couldn’t seem to dive right into it.

Then my Dell laptop, which is just over a year old, decided that it was jealous and hurt that I had bought a new Mac. It just locked up one night while I was exporting wedding photos for a client. Fortunately, I do a lot of work on external hard drives, so nothing was lost. The laptop was still under warranty, so we called in to Dell’s support and diagnosed that it was the motherboard that had gone out. They sent a new one.

Meanwhile, I was plunged headfirst into the Mac world. No options, because I had work to do. I’m happy to say that I’m thrilled with the Mac now, and I’ve gotten over most of the hurdles. I’m installing the last of my software, and soon I’ll do a final sweep on the again working Dell to make sure I’ve got everything before we reformat it and pass it along to my son.

While all of this was going on, the number one most important thing - getting images posted online for proofing galleries - was still going on. Nothing in that process was slowed down. It is the “extras” that got caught in the bottleneck.

The only hiccup in all of this was the migration of software and email. None of the latest slideshows have been created because I didn’t have the keys on the Mac until today. New slideshows will be coming soon now! Album design also had to be put on hold during the switch, but that is up next as well! I have a long task list of things to do, but I’m plowing through them pretty fast.

When it came to email, that was where I was most tripped up. I didn’t want to lose anything, so I was using Gmail for awhile as my mail client just to get by. Now, I’m all set up in Mail, so I’m going back through all of my old emails and writing everyone again to make sure they got a response. I’ve recently learned that some of my mail has been getting flagged as spam - probably because I was using Gmail to send it. So if you haven’t heard from me, check there. Meanwhile, I’m going through in Mail now as fast as I can and checking in with everyone to make sure nothing was overlooked. If you haven’t heard from me, please write again — I will be back to my twice a day email response system by tomorrow! (11am and 4pm are my email checkpoints, whenever possible. I always stop, check and respond to email at about the same time each day.)

Looking forward to hearing from you! I’ll be writing from the Mac from now on! I *heart* Apple!

Lauren & Dante - The Details!

January 28, 2008 | Filed Under Lauren & Danté, Wedding Photography, Weddings | 4 Comments

Lauren & Dante’s wedding was so full of many wonderful details! They did a fantastic job of carrying through the color theme of green & brown, adding in a wonderful blue that I adore for the tables that just really made everything pop! When they opened the doors to the reception, it was a breathtaking sight!

The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center

The photograph on the right was taken by Elaine.

The cake was made by The Woodland’s Resort & Conference Center, and it was both stunning and delicious! And Lauren’s flowers were just so incredible. They were provided by The Blooming Idea of The Woodlands. I would have never thought to go with green flowers, but they were amazing!

All four of the above photographs were taken by Elaine. She loves getting great detail shots!

Dante proposed to Lauren in Chicago, where her family was from originally before moving to Houston many years ago. Her grandgather shared the amusing story about how they came to Chicago to visit and he thought Dante was going to propose at a Cub’s game — and then didn’t! He did propose while there though, at Lincoln Park.

The theme for the wedding was Chicago, with all of the table signs having names of famous locations on them. The green theme continued with the centerpieces, also provided by the venue.

Their favors were Jones Soda Root Beers, personalized with their photo on the bottle. So cute! Of course, we couldn’t resist getting some photographs of the rings with the bottle and with the Lincoln Park table sign. We had so much fun with the macro shots of their rings!

The details:
Church: The Woodlands United Methodist Church, Coordinator: Sue Pagel
Reception: Shell Learning Center at The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center, Coordinator: Jennifer Wright
Flowers: The Blooming Idea of The Woodlands, Contact: Mary McCarthy
Cake: The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center
Dress: Watters Brides, purchased at Ventura’s Bridal
Tux: Men’s Wearhouse
Hair: Amine’s Coiffures, stylist: Kevin Matta
Makeup: L’Avantage

Congratulations to Amanda & Craig - Wedding in Tomball, Texas

January 28, 2008 | Filed Under Wedding Photography | 1 Comment

Elaine & I had the honor of photographing the wedding of Amanda & Craig today! What a beautiful day - we were lucky with amazing weather for the wedding. Amanda was an absolutely stunning bride, and Craig is quite charming too. More photos to come in the near future!

If you wish to be notified when their photos are online in a few weeks, please register here, creating an account using your own unique email address and password. Once you log in, you will be prompted for an access code for the gallery, which is the bride’s first name.

Best wishes to Amanda & Craig — and thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of your wonderful special day!

Two Be Wed - Open Studio!

January 23, 2008 | Filed Under Administrative | Leave a Comment

Just a quick announcement for those planning a wedding - there is an open studio tonight at Houston’s Two Be Wed! It is this evening from 6-8 pm, and it is a great chance to meet a variety of vendors - including me! There will also be videographers, invitation designers, florists, and cake bakers. I’ve even heard a rumor that there will be cakes there to sample! Yum!

Let me know if you will be coming, and if you have friends that might be interested, be sure to spread the word!

Lauren & Danté, The Reception - The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center

January 22, 2008 | Filed Under Lauren & Danté, Wedding Photography, Weddings | 2 Comments

Part 2 of yesterday’s post, the reception photos from Lauren & Danté’s wedding! (Be sure to check out the shots of the Ceremony and read about how we ended up photographing their wedding at the last minute!) In the photograph above, the guys asked me specifically to get a shot of their shoes. When I met with Lauren & her mom after the wedding, I asked her why. She explained that Danté had promised the guys that they were going to have nice shoes, nothing shiny and no fake alligator skin look. In the end, they ended up with shiny shoes that had fake alligator - both things combined!

Dante hugging Gary, Lauren’s father, before leaving the dance floor and the start of the Father/Daughter Dance.

Dante dancing with his mother, as Lauren hugs her mother in the background.

The band, photograph taken by Elaine.

I don’t remember now what they were singing, but somehow the flowergirl ended up on stage dancing along with the band!

Photograph taken by Elaine.

Lauren’s grandfather, sharing the story of how Danté proposed to Lauren in Chicago in 2006 - NOT at the Cubs game, as he thought was going to happen! This photograph and the one below were both taken by Elaine.

Dan, our connection that brought us in at the last minute to the wedding, is the groomsman on the right in this photo. Dan, you ROCK!

Photograph taken by Elaine.

I love this one! Probably one of my most favorite action shots ever! Lauren hadn’t told anyone that her throw bouquet was actually several individual flower stems. Right before she threw the bouquet, she took off the ribbon holding it together. As she threw it, it went several different directions, catching everyone off guard! She quickly spun around so she could see what happened!

Elaine’s view of the everyone catching the bridal bouquet!

She wasn’t posing for this - she was talking with someone, and I loved the graceful way she was standing there and the beauty of that bow!

Lauren & Danté, The Ceremony

January 21, 2008 | Filed Under Lauren & Danté, Wedding Photography, Weddings | 4 Comments

Lauren’s dad, checking the time as everyone dried off their flowers to get ready to enter the ceremony.

I’ve already written about the story behind Lauren & Danté’s wedding, so now it is time to get into the photos! Be sure to check out the post about how we ended up photographing their wedding - getting the call to be there 15 minutes before the ceremony was set to start. Also, you can view the photos of their Reception, and coming up in future posts will be the details and the slideshow.

I’m so glad that we were able to be a part of their wedding. They are such fun and fabulous people, and we all agree that it was really just a matter of what was meant to be - we’re so lucky to have made such great friends! (Lauren, we can’t WAIT for your birthday party! It is going to be so much fun!)

Lauren & I both loved this photo - it just seems to wrap up the sense of the emotion of the moment. It is a “mistake” shot, and not everyone likes it - but we both do. I think it is just the sense of the whole experience and the energy of the moment that it captures.

Lauren started to get a bit freaked out before the ceremony. Considering how stressful the day was with her original photographer not showing up, it is surprising it took her that long! She started doing deep breathing to calm down - and then her dad joined in by blowing on her to help her out. Which was, of course, rather hysterical and made us all laugh! I think that was when the coordinator came out and told us we were making too much noise. Oops!

These two photos are a great example of how Elaine & I work together on a wedding day. I almost always stay with the bride up until the time that she heads down the aisle; then, just as they close the doors before the bride enters, I slide in and speed walk down the side aisle to get the shots of the groom as he sees her for the first time. Meanwhile, Elaine has been inside at the center aisle, photographing the bridesmaids as they enter, and getting these shots. Together, it makes a fantastic blend and we are able to capture so much more. It also takes the stress off of both of us, just in case a flash doesn’t fire or something like that, the other one is able to get the shot because we are both taking photos.