One Love Photo

Isla Mujeres

  

still here and falling deeply for this sweet little island. yesterday was such a blessing. am so excited to share much more but for now we are off to explore.......

Belleza

inspired by our upcoming trip to mexico i was cutting and gluing late last night. rusting and melting probably when i really should be packing. now i am posting when i definitely should be packing! here is my most recent collage of a very special girl named zoe. the wax is still settling but i am quite pleased.

20x24 beeswax collage panel
paper, paint, lace, dollhouse pieces and lots of little milagros that i collected on my last trip to mexico. am excited to find new treasures and inspiration this week. to see more photos from my session with zoe go here. and i love this square of the two of us. to see more on my collages please visit my website.

last night i read a few paragraphs that really resonated with me and i thought i would share. i was enjoying my new book titled " a certain alchemy" photographs by keith Carter. his wife patricia wrote the afterword and since i always look at art books backwards this is where i began.

"i don't know what constitutes a creative life for other people. one night in mexico we were at dinner with a diverse group of friends-there was a chef, a writer, a musician, a scientist and a couple photographers. the talk, fueled by good food and ample wine, was about the creative process-how to catch that spark that ignites the imagination. each person had a different take, but the musician capped the conversation when she said "i think you just get run over by a sugar truck".

"earlier i had had a conversation with our scientist friend, who spends his days doing research which has the potential to benefit us all. he is married to a photographer, and was talking about the difference between his work and hers. he said his own work would get done, with or without him.. "what I am looking for is there to be discovered, and if i don't find it, one of my colleagues will." "but an artist," he said, "if an artist doesn't do their work, then that work never gets done."

-patricia carter

i  must have read that five times last night before turning the bedside table light off with my waxy fingertips. feeling content knowing i had done my work. so the rest of you, please go make your art because no one can do it for you. we are off tomorrow with lots of work to do in mexico.

adios!

Avi's Collage

 
6x6 mixed media beeswax collage.

Avi and her Horse

Garden Delight - eileen & matthew

  it's my delight to share these lovely photographs from eileen and matthew's wedding! this is one of the first weddings that i shot where i felt magic. it left a deep impression. it cast a spell on me. after this day i was determined to follow my heart. it sent me on my way to approaching wedding photography as my art. it made me realized that the two did not have to live apart. from this day on, i knew my artistic subjects of choice would be sweet brides and grooms and darling flower girls. i experienced the enchantment of sharing a similar aesthetic vision with eileen and mathew. the bliss of knowing that they appreciated my blurry, soft and somewhat antiquated style. i could never go back.

 

"The full weight and mystery of your art rests upon your relationship to your subject matter."

- Keith Carter

 

to read more on this wedding please visit a practical wedding.

Garden Delight - the details

this wedding was timeless. classic and beautiful. it could have been forty or fifty years ago or right now. it was neither but a few ago (well, five ago). nothing looks dated. it is still more precious and beautiful than one could dream. my memory of this day seems to get more vivid as time goes by.

"This wedding casts the same magical spell. It's a simple backyard wedding transformed into something otherworldly by flowers and fairy curtains strung in trees....and by love and community and commitment."
meg, a practical wedding

flowers by the fabulous and always inspiring laurie cinotto.
     
eileen's dress was designed by the amazing lisa defrance. the long vintage netted material was a train for the ceremony and also could be wrapped around eileen's arms for the reception and photos. it was so unique and beautiful. the delicate pattern and texture of the dress photographed beautifully. including the soft ruffles and feathers on her shoulder.

 
flower girls and twins.

the music man.

 

married!

 the magic flower tree.

 

cocktails and teacups  

brothers.

 

fairy tent and o.j.

glow.

Garden Delight - thanks meg!

am so excited to have one of my sweetest weddings ever featured over on a practical wedding! meg, the author of "a practical wedding" asked me if she could post this delightful wedding because it made her believe in fairies. it also reminded her of these sweet backyard parties she use to throw as a teen for her friends. i think meg was born to plan practical creative weddings. can't believe this wedding was five years ago. i shot the whole thing with film only, didn't even have a digital camera back then. at the time i was teaching high school photography and feeling completely overwhelmed by it all. to simplify things i just gave eileen (the bride) all the negatives. don't know how many times i've wished i had a better scans of their photographs. have always wanted to work on these images and share them with others. this seemed like the perfect time to reconnect with eileen and finally properly scan and edit all of their wedding negatives. i think you will agree that this wedding has a special magic about it. meg has such a unique and thoughtful way of looking at the world. she falls in love with my favorite weddings, we both share a mutual appreciation for simple beauty and genuine moments. she featured my best friend ember's wedding this summer and it tickled me pink to read it. am tickled again today, she amazes me with her words! now go read the whole story of eileen and matthew's wedding.

in addition to this awesome post by meg, we have been featured on some other really great wedding blogs the past couple months. don't know what brides did before blogs, seriously. so much inspiration and pretty ideas are out there in blogland! reading them is like getting a brand new bridal magazine everyday. except it's free and you don't end up with giant pile that you have to recycle. check out a few of my favorites and our photos featured on them.......

snippet and ink is full of stunning color boards and real weddings, we really enjoyed all the positive feedback from this post.

always a blogsmaid was quite excited about bethany and josh's wedding and their playful love parade.

east side bride always brings the sass and a new way of looking at things, i was thrilled when she posted one of our bicycle shots. 

green wedding shoes is full of modern yet vintage ideas and real weddings. jen created a beautiful layout with our photos from heather and barry's laguna wedding.

with this ring did a two part feature on lindsay and jason's beautiful seattle wedding. check out it out here and part two over here.

modern romance is a great place to focus on the little details that make weddings oh so special. christine highlighted all the great details at melissa and mike's fox island wedding this summer.

peonies and polaroids is the perfect place to visit when you want to reflect and unwind. a recent bride herself and gifted photographer her blog is full of inspiration and beauty. she just did the sweetest post with a set of three of my most favorite B&W photographs.

*** a few more great blogs to visit ***

the very new and very beautiful 100 layer cake, their color inspiration boards make me weak in the knees! just look at this muted jewel inspiration and the above vintage horse board. i just want to leap into these fictional scenes with my camera in hand!

a must see is once wed, don't miss their weekly DIY projects created by the talented laurie cinotto. 

if you need a little break from weddings and photos, i highly recommend a visit to marta writes. this girl spins magic with her words. have really been enjoying her write club weekly posts, with fun prompts to get the brain and pen moving. she linked to us during a blog hunt last week, go check it out it's full of awesome links.  as an added bonus she also designs beautiful wedding invitations and bridal books.

Sweet Thing #10 - candy bartender

it's been quite some time since i've posted a sweet thing (much too long). sweet things are kind of like a martha stewart "good things" but with a one love photo wedding spin. our featured sweet things are clever and creative things that our clients do to add a personal touch to their weddings. such as this colorful candy bar from mary and erik's christmas wedding!

what made their candy bar extra special was that a good friend dressed up in a cute apron and took on the role as their "candy bartender". she set it all up and kept it tidy. she explained which were mary and erik's favorite treats. and she helped all their guests dig in and not be shy! with her encouragement no one felt guilty about getting a sugar buzz on before dinner was served. candy bars are a really easy and great way to treat your guests. add cute bags to the table for them to fill up and you have a perfect gift.

oh how cute! mary is passing on her favorite (gummy sharks) and eating erik's candy of choice, orange slices! i have to vote for erik's favorite on this one. the other day at the zoo, my dad and nephews were having a weird conversation about meat. my dad was asking them what was their favorite type of meat to have for dinner. am thinking it seemed weird to me since i don't eat meat and we were at the zoo. i had to laugh out loud when my nephew reece quickly replied "gummy hamburgers from grandma sally's!" he is our junk food kid through and through. warning: don't let him anywhere near your candy bar.

love this....dinner roll in one hand and orange slice in the other!

we seem to attract very clever and creative couples and feel so privileged to work with them! the other day my mom asked me if all our clients were graphic designers and artists, i laughed and replied "it certainly seems that way, doesn't it?!" feel free to visit past "sweet things" and get inspired while reading about our client's awesome weddings here and here. 

just one more

"she's spoken for"

a little tidbit on punctuating titles pulled from an online resource........" for individual works of art like paintings and sculptures you underlined or italicized because creating a work of art is an enormous task and a big accomplishment."

"note: a photograph, which is much smaller than a work of art, is placed in quotation marks."

just to be defiant i decided to underline, italicize and use quotation marks for the title of this photo!

before getting on the plane back home from new york i bought myself a copy of PDN (photo district news magazine). i don't often read photo magazines, because i get sidetracked by my beloved domino magazine. but since domino is no more, i decided to revisit the world of photo magazines. not being a gear girl, i often find very little in these magazines for me. there just doesn't seem to be much, besides reviews of the newest and fastest cameras. not that i don't think these cameras are great, i just don't want to read about them necessarily. but i had over six hours to kill and had already read the last copy of domino on the way there. i was pleasantly surprised to find an interesting feature on serbian photographer boogie sandwiched between articles on the latest DSLR's and the hottest new ad campaign for levi jeans. but this little story in between all the commercial crap caught my attention.

it's always exciting when someone puts into words what you have been trying to figure out for years. in a few sentences boogie explained why i have more success with my slow manual film camera than my much faster and intuitive digital one. boogie shoots mainly b&w film and had this explanation as to why he chooses film as his medium to express himself....

"when you shoot digital you have instant gratification. you have your little screen in the back of the camera and you look and you are like "oh, i got it". but it could've been better", he says. "when you shoot film you keep going, you keep trying, you never know what you have. i like that."

immediately i elbowed jon (since he had headphones on) and over exaggerated as i mouthed " you got to read this, this is what i've been trying to explain all along!" i think i even gave a thumbs up and then started reading the next article on photographer's studios (which wasn't half bad, but no domino).

Love is Brown

"it's easy to say you love someone when skies are blue or grass is greener,
the dawn is gold, cheeks rosy and snow makes a fairyland of things
you see, love is more than beauty; and if you want to wear it's crown,
then you must be willing to wade the mire of life as one
because you see....there could only be one color for love."

 

-s. graham

"heath loves shelly" breakfast special

a muffin with gouda and jelly

"don't cry because it's over. smile because it happened."
-dr. seuss

am thinking this post should be told in a silly story book format, since there is sooooo much to tell. please bear with me and my rhymes but a girl just has to play sometimes.......

there once was a girl named shelly, who usually didn't care too much about flair. but looked awfully pretty on her wedding day with flowers in her hair.

she met her husband-to-be near the fountain on water street. she carried a comb and a wedding umbrella while she waited for their first sneak peek.

she braided his long hair into wedding braid while a man passing by played them a lovely serenade.

as the man said goodbye, good luck started to sprinkle down from the sky

shelly popped open her umbrella and smiled like cinderella.

they took a stroll around town but did not stray. everyone they passed would smile and say
"happy wedding day"!

they breathed in deeply this perfect pair, enjoying the fresh salty air.

shelly proudly spun in circles in her wedding shawl. glad to have finished it once and for all!

with a chill in the air, she slipped into her coat. they met friends at the chapel eager to see what they had wrote.

as she waited in the doorway, shelly appeared to be missing her wedding bouquet.

but she had a plan that would make everyone smile. her friends and family handed her flowers as she walked down the aisle.
with each step they helped create her impromptu bouquet. each bloom adding something new to this wedding may day.

it was time for the long awaited ceremony to began. dear friends sang a love song and they hoped it would never end.

with a kiss and a cheer they were sentenced to life! shelly and heath were finally husband and wife!

guests headed to the reception in their rockets with the gocco printed programs stuffed in their pockets.

the newlyweds stayed behind to have a quiet moment and unwind.

 

and then they moved on to the next location, it was time to start the celebration!

personal touches were everywhere, including rock sculpture centerpieces and handcrafted cake ware.

heath topped all the toasts when he sang an irish tune. shelly turned quite pink as she swooned.

the bluegrass band warmed up their fiddles for the first dance. their energy was contagious, they put their guests into a romantic trance.

from the youngest to oldest no one could standstill. the bluegrass rhythm was an unexpected thrill.

so they danced and danced and took a quick break to eat chocolate and cake. with full bellies they continued to shake. the room was full of laughter, oh and of course.....they lived happily ever after!!!

shelly and heath live in portland but were married up in port townsend, washington the place they first met. the ceremony was at chapel bay and the reception was nearby at the commons at fort worden. since they have many local port townsend friends, the cafe near the marina served a "heath loves shelly" breakfast special that weekend, how cute is that! am not certain it was gouda and jelly, i made that part up. here is an explanation of why they choose port townsend as their wedding spot. i pulled this from their lovely little wedding website....

"we chose this spot, because technically this is where we first met, although not where we went on our first date.  port townsend is a fun, quirky little town and is likely to be more quiet, more relaxing and more retreat like than where most of us live (with the exception of our alaskan friends.)  and we thought everyone might like that. it is on the Northeast corner of the olympic peninsula and is surrounded by salt water on 3 sides. we find it to be an enjoyable getaway on its own, and a wedding just boosts the fun!"

-shelly and heath

more photos from this unique wedding here.