The Mad (Skillz) Scientist!

Our buddy Steve DePino(.com)has been working up a crazy cool new set of actions that are set to release for beta testing any day now. We are one of the lucky few to get our hands on them first and we can't wait! From what we've seen already these things are going to be killer! Steve has a whole "chemistry lab" approach to his actions that allows you to mix & match them for the perfect reaction...and he's carried that through to all of the branding. The whole thing takes me back to my M&P class (Materials & Processes of Photography) at RIT (oh, how I miss the smell of fixer)

They should be out pretty soon, so make sure to keep checking the site for the official release date. And you can check out more samples, including the rockin' "Mr. Perfect" HERE

Lisa & Rob (Trash the Ring!!!)

"We genuinely love doing things together…as Rob has said in the past 'why would I want to go somewhere new and exciting and not experience it with you?' That pretty much sums it up."

When we got Lisa & Rob's "get to know you" sheet back from them, I piled on the couch with a bowl of black cherries (love those things!), and with my computer on my lap I was ready to take it all in.

I always LOVE reading these sheets from our couples! Hopeless romantic, party of one! But Lisa & Rob just blew me away. Their love for each other just jumps right off the page. With great quotes like the one above and "The fact that I can’t wait to raise our child(ren) together. She’s such a wonderful caring person that I can’t even imagine how lucky they will be to have a mother like her," I pretty soon found myself crying into that bowl of cherries. Life's just like that sometimes. :)

From reading their sheet (and from our meeting with them), we discovered that Lisa & Rob are total foodies who love nothing more than cooking and collecting cook books. So we thought what better way to start the shoot than cooking up something messy in their brand new house!

We had a lot of fun making Lisa take her ring off and put it back on all day! But I think we got some really cool stuff out of it:

We sort of jokingly mentioned putting the ring in the yummy waffles these guys made...but Lisa one-upped us by saying "Yea! Do you want us to cover it in syrup too?" ummm ok! So we now officially own the rights to www.trashthering.com Sweet!! If you guys have any cool ring-trashing pics that you want to submit, just email us at justin@imagine-imaging.com

Since Lisa & Rob have made it their mission to visit every crab shack in the North East, we decided to end the night at one of their favorites: The Place in Guilford, CT. Thank you guys so much for the awesome dinner...we had so much fun!! Let's get together soon for our "save the world" movie marathon!

How gorgeous is this girl!? I think she's going to make the most stunning bride!!

By the way, the get to know you sheet is an absolutely fabulous idea that we give TOTAL credit for to the lovely and uber-talented duo of Davina Fear and Millie Holloman. We had first heard about giving out these sheets before an engagement shoot as a way to really "get" your clients from Davina's session in LA last year. And then in May when Millie came to visit she totally hooked us up with one of her copies. I can tell you, they have totally changed the way we approach engagement shoots! Thank you guys so much for sharing...you rock!

For more info on these gals and their killer work, check out more on their SWEET workshop next Feb 25-March 1 at www.loveaffairworkshop.com

Halloween

Am I crazy or have you guys felt Fall in the air the past couple of days? Maybe it's just because fall is my absolute favorite season and I'm just wishful thinking....or MAYBE it's because the killer new Halloween remake comes out THIS FRIDAY and I can't wait!! It seems almost wrong to release this movie before Fall officially sets in, but on the other hand 1) I don't have to wait as long to see it and 2) if it makes it feel like fall sooner then I'm all for it! So, are we all going to go see it together this Friday night or what!? :)

Tiffany & Brian

This evening I had an awesome engagement shoot with Tiffany & Brian who were the winners of our giveaway at Traci Romano's Fashion event back in May. We started out at a downtown New Haven favorite, JP Dempsey's, which is also where the two first met, and had a ton fun shooting all around State street! I'm really so happy for these guys...they're such a sweet couple and you can really see how truly happy and in love they are! Congrats guys!

Where will you go?

While we were down home we got to spend a lot of time with my four year old little cousin, Chris, who is also going to be the flower girl for our wedding. What a smart kid! we were constantly blown away by the things she would come up with. For example, after a rousing game of Candy Land in which our grandma came out the victor, she walked over to shake her hand and said "Congratulations.......this time!" hahah love that competitive spirit! :P

While Justin was taking some pictures of her one morning, he got this sound clip of her talking on his Nikon D2xs (a very cool function of that camera!) about what she wants to be when she grows up. What she had to say really got us both thinking.



Wow, how many adults have that clear of an idea of what they want to do with their lives...and more importantly, how many of us are putting in that kind of work to get there? It seems like the word "practice" falls out of our vocabulary sometime after we leave high school. That was what you did to play baseball, not run a business or build a career. But how else are you supposed to reach those dreams you have in your head without....practice? I guess what my cousin was saying could be summed up with two (of our most grown up) words: Focus and Drive. Either one with out the other and you're just standing still or going around in circles. Like I said....smart kid.

In the words of the Great Dr.Seuss

You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose.
You're on your own, and you know what you know
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where you go.
And OH, the places you'll go!

Ava Grace

Ok, we're finally getting caught up enough to start doing some of the recap from our WV trip. Mary's friend and bridesmaid, Nicole, had asked us to take some pictures of her little girl while we were down there. So the morning of the shower I got to hang out with their whole family and little Ava Grace who turns 2 this week. We had such a blast chasing her all around the farm at Mary's aunt's place. Here are just a few of our favorites!

** Nikon D3 Giveaway! **

Ok.. you may have seen in the comments of the last post that I will be giving away Nikon D3 cameras to everyone who comments here if I win tonight's Powerball Jackpot :-) So this morning I walked over to our local liquor store to visit my friend Rocky and buy the official Nikon D3 giveaway lottery ticket! I know it's a long shot, but why not have a little fun with it? If you want in, then you better comment before the numbers are drawn tonight whoops...make that Saturday night.

Here is what we're playing with: 08 09 22 43 52 PB# 17

UPDATE: I'm sorry to say that we didn't win :-( but thanks all for playing! We did get one number correct!!

(Take a look at the first-aid job Mary did on my finger after I sliced it open loading some paper into the printer. Don't make fun of me... It really hurt!)

Nikon D3 and more!

Well it took some time, but I think Nikon finally made a wise choice to add a full frame sensor to the their line of pro digital cameras in the new Nikon D3! Add to that, they've also announced two new 2.8 zoom lenses: a totally sick 14-24 2.8!!!! and a 24-70 2.8, all of which should be available in November. Now I just have to go add that to our wedding registry ;-)

(is it too much to ask for a 24mm 1.4 also!?)

Super Bad & the Super Talented Naomi Martinez and Janice Raccio

Last night we headed up to the studio of the fabulous Naomi Martinez (who has done makeup for the likes of the Tyra Banks Show and Ms. Grace Ormonde) for my makeup trial with the equally fabulous Janice Raccio. Janice will be doing my makeup for the wedding and we got to go through the whole process last night, INCLUDING... fake eyelashes!

Can I just say... I heart fake eyelashes! They are so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking some up. :) (I also heart Ferris Bueller!)

Janice and Naomi are both just the sweetest people you will ever meet! They are the most genuine, down to earth people and I could tell the second I met them what big hearts they both must have. I feel so blessed to have them helping out with the wedding (especially since Janice was actually booked for that day, but got a cancellation right before I met her. How lucky am I?!)

Here's a shot of Janice workin' it at Faye & Stu's wedding:

So after I got all glam, we decided to give Carla a call since we were up in her neck of the woods. She was up for some fun so we all went to see the late showing of SuperBad together. hahahah what can I say about this movie? well, not much really from the actual movie since this is a G rated blog...but let's just say it is both SUPER funny and SUPER baaaaaaaad. I think all three of us were in a state of constant blush for at least the first 30 minutes. I honestly didn't know they could even say some of that stuff in movies anymore!! hahahah and there goes the blushing again!

I am McLovin!

Gotta run...Alana & Dan are back from their honeymoon and they're heading over for some Turkish food and scary movies (neither of which do they know about yet!)

Tag...you're it!!

We've just been tagged by the absolutely adorable Whitney Carlson in this fun blog game that's going around where we have to list 8 random things about ourselves that you might not know and then tag some other photographers to get in on the fun! Here goes...

1) Mary gets SERIOUSLY grossed out (we're talking major gag reflex here) by small things in clumps. Inside of a green pepper, bees on a hive, ewww those fish clumps in the hatcheries...you get the idea. She once got a dozen roses that she couldn't stand to look at because there were spores on the back of the ferns. ICK!!

2) Justin never closes a cabinet door. When left to his own devices, our kitchen ends up looking like that scene in the 6th sense where the mom walks back in and all the doors are open. you know what i'm talking about. He says it's because 1) he hates loud sounds and 2)he likes to multi-task by pushing it as he's walking away. This combo means they never quite get closed (or even come close).

3) Mary leaves bowls of milk on the nightstand for obscenely long lengths of time. and yes, she knows just how gross this is. :)

4) Justin is OBSESSED with his 1989 Nissan 300ZX (that he cruised around in back in high school...he was SUCH a heartbreaker) or any other "Z" he sees on the road for that matter...and he insists on pointing every single one out to me.

5) Mary once double dared HERSELF (lame!) to walk out into the middle of a frozen pond to see if it was skate-worthy for all of her friends and fell right smack dab through the middle. None of her friends could get to her and she kept falling back through the ice every time she tried to pull herself out. Let's just say it was a close call!

6) We are addicted to Subway subs and eat them pretty much every single day for lunch. We're not really sure why.

7) We were in London during the 2005 bombings...on our way to the tube, in fact, right before it happened. Thank goodness I always spend that extra 5 (ahem 15) minutes on my hair!

8)Every single time Justin leaves the house to drive somewhere, even if for just a few minutes, I tell him the following four things: 1) go slow, 2) stay in the right lane, 3) check your blind spot, 4) don't forget that seatbelt. I'm pretty certain that he totally ignores at least half of these, but it's become sort of a superstition thing (like baseball players jumping over the foul line) and now I have to say it every time to keep up the safety streak! OCD much?

Nice! That was fun! Now we're gonna tag....

Amanda Harris
Brian Khang
Steve DePino
Studio Foto
David Jay
Nathan & Amber Holritz
Regina Holder
Heather Colt

Woo Hoo! We're Back!

We got in late last night and we've just been taking the morning to regroup and put everything away. We'll be back in a bit to post some pics of all the fun! We missed you guys!!

Food & Friends

Hey guys...we're just checkin' in from our friends Erica & Matt's house in Lewisburg, WV. We just got back from an awesome dinner at Food & Friends! Erica and Matt were nice enough to enable our internet addiction by letting us check up on blogs, email, etc. We're still trying to catch up on all the emails, so please be patient if you're still waiting! Here's a fun quote of the day from Erica & Matt's wallpaper:

"Cap'n Crunch does not hurt the roof of Chuck Norris' mouth."

Think about it.

Country Roads....Take me Home....

to the place...I BELOOOOOOOOONG. West Virginia! Mountain Mama...take me home, country roads!


photo by David Schultz


oh lordy day! Be so, sooo happy that you only had to read that and not listen to me sing it! I honestly couldn't carry a tune if I had THREE buckets! That being said, I did track down a killer dance mix of the song to play at the wedding and I'm sure there will be tons of tone deaf singing going on there!

Today we start the first leg of our crazy busy travel schedule for the next month and a half. We're driving the 12 hrs it takes to get to my little mountain home in a big Jeep so that we can load it all up with a ton of stuff we need for the wedding...including our favors, which I am super excited about.

My maid of honor (my aunt) is also throwing my "bridal tea" this weekend at her incredible house on their, oh, 40 acres of land in greenbrier county. I absolutely love going there! For all of you photographers out there, it's very near The Greenbrier if any of you have shot there before.



Here's a little piece of history for ya: The Greenbrier had a huge bunker built under it to house all of Congress in the event of nuclear attack during the cold war. Almost 600 people could survive down there for up to two years. It was supposed to be this big secret, but I had heard about it my entire life. And when they finally officially revealed it was down there, my family and I got to go on a tour of it. There is this one place in the hotel where an entire wall swings out to reveal a tunnel leading down into the bunker... and that's just ONE of the secret entrances! Crazy cool stuff!

So anyhoo, we'll be down home until next Monday. We're going to try our best to blog...as you can imagine, internet access can be hard to come by down there. But we've already mapped out all the Starbucks in WV. hahah it didn't take long...there is only one within a fifty mile radius of us! So don't forget to come back and keep our blog company while we're gone...just in case!

The Lovely Amanda Harris...

Just snagged this quote from the lovely Amanda Harris on her blog:

"But after the wedding the only two concrete things that remain are your spouse and your photographs - CHOOSE WISELY :)"

I love it!!

You can check out the rest of her adorable post (with a sneak peak into some of the details of her upcoming nuptials) HERE!

Very Disturbing! (Mr. Shia Labeouf in action!)

Last night 10ike came over to join us and Joey & Brian for some crazy fun Disturbia action and Chili's take out. All 5 of us piled onto our couch with bowls upon bowls of kettle corn to watch the movie. It was soooo good! The movie itself was pretty good, but what made it awesome was all of us screaming out loud and then laughing til our bellies hurt at what wimps we all are! Good times, GREAT friends!




this one's for you C! (Mr. Shia Labeouf in action!)

Faye & Stu's Wedding!

Yesterday we shot the wedding of Faye & Stu and had such a blast hanging out with everyone, especially Miss Heather Colt who came along to second shoot with us. Heather is absolutely awesome and I see such big things happening for her. I get really amped up thinking about how her business will grow in just the next couple of years. I dunno, I just get really passionate about helping people take their businesses to the next level and Heather is definitely someone I could see doing that really fast! She is so full of energy and kindness...just a really awesome person to be around...and that plus her crazy talent are going to take her so far. I can't wait!! :) :)

Here's just some of the fun from yesterday:

The guys just chillin':

The BEAUTIFUL bride:

Brushes!

And check out this HOT detail shot by Heather!

Big League Chew!

(Check out the guy on the package... he's even more juiced than Barry Bonds!)

Mary and I were in Chester this morning so we decided to stop into Simon's Marketplace for breakfast. Not only does Simon's make a mean breakfast burrito, but they always have the COOLEST stuff, like old kids toys and retro candy including a personal favorite of mine, Big League Chew! I tell ya, tearing open a pack of the original gum brought me right back to the glory days like this: