One Love Photo

Winter Calm

close the windows, turn on the stove, brew hot tea to hold. winter is coming, winter dark, winter cold, winter hunger. harvest the moon and be prepared.

begin to search for a new direction, but first keep the warm air trapped under the comforter for a few more sleepy minutes. eyes open and close and open. branches slowly come into focus and a list is made of all the things to make and do for the next 1,000 years.

light is hard to come by. we make do with what there is to the shrouded days. at night we have to generate our own light, make our own heat. there is energy to burn. dance party, bonfire, the oven is hot! make love, bake a pie or two to share, hold hands, and soak in the bathtub all night long.....

*we spied this lonely slide along the hood canal on our way out to the cabin for our thanksgiving feast. we had to do a u-turn and whip out the camera to capture the grey quiet calm. the lovely copy above was pulled from one of my favorite books collect raindrops by nikki mcclure. Get some great artsy gifts designed by nikki over on buy olympia.com.

Baby

when they cut your umbilical cord,
we are separated
and reunited
-lily wang
 

The B-List and our little plastic cameras

last weekend a group of talented and stylish wedding bloggers met up in brooklyn for an event called the B-List. the event was a way for all the women to meet in person, face to face and introduce themselves to each other. a chance to talk about blogging and weddings, and to share tips and ideas with each other. it was a huge success and plans are being made for more B-List events in the future! we really wanted to jump on a plane and meet all these wonderful women when we first heard about it. but we had two weddings the same weekend so decided to sponsor the event if we couldn't attend. part of the sponsorship was providing info or samples for a goody bag for each one of the attendees. we started brainstorming immediately over dinner. from one idea to the next we jumped around until we both fell in love with the idea of a small toy camera or a viewmaster with our photos on a reel. it took a lot of time, research, trial and error but we managed to figure out a way to bring both ideas together into one.    

one.) find little plastic viewfinder toy cameras online and order a ton. luckily we did because out of the five colors per pack we only like the pink and yellow.

two.) tear apart the camera and see how it works and see how teeny tiny the slide/wheel is inside.

three.) design our own wheel using our favorite wedding photographs.

four.) print our tiny wheel on transparency and realize the dot per inch thing is ruining our brilliant idea.

five.) think.

six.) figure out that we need to shoot the wheel on slide film to get the image quality that we need.

seven.) print the wheel out large, hang it on a wall and photographed it with slide film.

eight.) test a roll, check size, scale and exposure. fire off several rolls once we've got it right.

nine.) cut the film in a perfect circle, punch necessary holes

ten.) take cameras apart, replace image wheel and put it all back together again.

eleven.) smile and pat ourselves on the back!

The The B-LIST bloggers: if you are planning a wedding or just like pretty things you must visit these blogs!

100 layer cake, blue orchid designs, brooklyn bride, elizabeth anne designs, from "i will" to "i do",  green wedding shoes, iDiY,  oh so beautiful paper, once wed, perfect bound, santa barbara wedding chic, the bridal wishlist, the bride's cafe, little white book, vintage glam weddings, wedding bee, junebug weddings,  with this ring, the ritzy bee blog

 

Clusters

i shot this photo at heather's parent's house moments before she got dressed on her wedding day. loved looking at all of their family wedding photos and was excited to know that our photos would be displayed lovingly on this wall in the family gallery. this photo has really got me thinking about my blank walls. it's quite ridiculous how many we have (considering our profession). my favorite thing is to study a friend's cluttered fridge or a bulletin board covered in old images. started to wonder why i couldn't cover my walls in a similar haphazard fashion.

am drawn to this idea of random wall art clusters. it reminds me of the installation art by barry mcgee. his art clusters were inspired by a church he visited in south america. the church was filled with items left behind by the thousands of people who had made a pilgrimage to the church. one wall contained clusters of small framed images holding drawings of people, places, and cars. after his visit to the church he decided to begin framing his accumulation of drawings he had been making for years and hung them in groups on the walls of his studio. eventually his art clusters found their way into museums and galleries.

 

as much as i love his work  i know that most of us will not be able to install something quite that dense and complicated in our own homes. but we can draw from the energy that his work evokes. to consider filling a wall with personal photographs and sketches of the sweet details of our lives. below are a few of my favorite walls i have found  while looking for inspiration on my favorite design sites. am now on a hunt for vintage frames at thrift stores and will be making a run to aaron brothers framing for their penny sale this week. am very excited to shuffle through old boxes of photographs and to frame familiar faces and far away lands, sunsets and smiles. don't know why i have been content for so long to stare at plain butter walls.

upper left: a group of black-and-white photographs in white mattes and black frames read as one large work when hung in a loose, unfussy grid.

upper right: not your typical office space. inspiration pulled from magazines and photo albums to get the creative juices flowing.

lower left: from the home of my friend laurie cinotto. here hangs art by several artists along with family photos, found objects, and miniatures.

lower right: inexpensive frames joined with duct tape create one large piece. color blocks and nature shots balance out the baby photos.

  love this bedroom. i want to jump into this bed, rest my head on the blue and white floral pillow and stare at the paintings and little details and call this my own. can't imagine a better place to nap.

  the last one is off subject. but i just love bookshelves arranged by color. a literary rainbow. now go buy or make some frames. and please save the wedding photos from the "box".

Perfect Pairs

 thought i would share a pair of photos from my two beautiful november weddings.

 wedding baby

the other side

wedding braid and serenade

before she was a flower girl

am home and back in the groove. much more to come on both of these but first i need to finish a few wedding stories from october.........

For the love of Bokeh

a relatively new word for me. bokeh is a word i should have known sooner. am glad to have it now. since i now know i have always admired good bokeh. i just never had a word to describe it.

Bokeh:
a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image.

scroll down to see more from this beautiful seattle wedding .......

Something New

a little paint, layers of paper and ephemera, a lot of beeswax and a perfectly imperfect photograph that inspired it all.

above image shot with another homemade lens created by that clever jon. i named this one dirty harry.

Dizzy Delight

this photo makes me want to go roll down a big grassy hill. reminds me of rotating faster than i thought was possible. the world turning upside down and uncontrollable laughter. with no line and no admission price, it was simple pleasure. remember the dizzy delight when you reached the bottom!?!

Beatles Fan

am certain my little friend leo outgrew his favorite abbey road t-shirt awhile ago. at two he could name john, paul, george and ringo crossing the road right over his belly button. can't believe how fast they change. his blond curls now just a sweet memory. am thinking he may need a new beatles shirt for his fourth birthday. oh, how i love the clever questions of four year olds! the way they hear every little thing. am thinking the study of beatles songs would be a perfect preschool lesson. actually a good life lesson for all of us. if you are a fan and you haven't already, go rent across the universe. you will either love or hate it. but it's worth the risk.

Hello Beautiful

been enjoying the beauty of elly and stephan for the last few days. these two were married in august at kitsap memorail park. besides being completely breathtaking, this spot was extra special for stephan who spent his summers here as a child. this was one of the most scenic weddings we shot this summer, with hands down the most spectacular pink sunset! the gianormous tress truly made me feel like a little wedding elf. keep catching myself humming "everything i do" by bryan adams. am thinking this wedding has something to do with that. more on that later.......

Golden

headed south bound this weekend to enjoy a golden autumn adventure. day one was the wedding of marcie and christian in longview, washignton. this is marcie's hometown and they were blessed with a perfect warm fall day. surrounded by hundreds of loving family members and dear friends, it was a perfect celebration of family, friendship and love! these two are most likely in thailand by this point. enjoying a relaxing three week honeymoon. now that's the way to do it! hoping at some point they can take a break from the beach and pad thai and have a little peek at a few of my favorites.

 

 

 

after the wedding we continued south to portland. spent the night in the city and were much too tired to even leave the hotel. day two we headed out into the sunshine to shoot an engagement session and enjoy some spectacular views of downtown. shelly and heath will be tying the knot next month. the two live in portland but will be getting married over thanksgiving weekend up in port townsend, washington. i can't wait to see all the thoughtful details and touches they have planned put into action. it's going to be something special!

 

 

  

moved out of town to the edgefield manor which is a hotel owned by the mcmenamins brothers. they have at least eight clever hotels that reuse old spaces like schools and retirement homes. the edgefield has a bit of everything, a pool hall, movie theater, glass studio, brewery, golf course, winery, gardens and my favorite a spa and soaking pool. day three was a day of rest and relaxation. we celebrated our three year anniversary by getting massages and floating together in the lovely pool surrounded by beautiful plants. felt really lucky to have had such a perfect golden weekend!

Just Because......

  who can resist a cute little berry monster?