Last night we were privileged to photograph two wonderful out-of-towners, Jaelin and David.  They’re from Colorado and stopped by on their way to a Bahamas getaway.

Jaelin is stunningly beautiful, and David is a good looking guy himself.  He even knew what a 5D2 was when I mentioned it in passing and had a good idea of the sticker price.  Props to Dave on that one.   We had a ton of setbacks that threatened this shoot from technical issues with the flash triggers to a bad weather forecast and a later than expected start to the session which put most of the shots in the dark

So… how’d it turn out?  Well, if the proof is in the pudding, then I’m very happy with the pudding we got.

Early in the shoot we had a constant intruder in all of our shots:  Jaelin’s purse kept managing to get into the frame no matter where she put it.  After moving it a few times I finally decided to give up … drop down into the dirt and let the purse take center stage:

The purse behaved much better after her photo-op

Well, back to developing the images of this fantastic couple.  Jaelin, I hope you end up loving the photos, enjoy your vacation in paradise!

This one below was directly inspired by a fellow photographer’s shot on FM… I’m sorry I don’t remember who you are, but I just thought I’d give a shout-out anyway

Thanks to the Broward County Parks employee who said I didn’t need to pay for the sprinkler I broke last night and thanked me for reporting the damage … she said it’s the first time she gets a call from someone who damaged property and was willing to pay for it

Special thanks to Brenda, Laura and Greg, who took care of our little ones while we were out shooting. We love you guys!

You can see the full set here

South Florida is such a special place to get married.  Wonderful beaches, wonderful weather, world-class accomodations.  Lucky for Ahyde and Denis they only had to drive maybe 10 miles to get married on the sand at the historic Yankee Clipper hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

We are so excited!  This was one of the funnest weddings we’ve done.  Ahyde was gorgeous!  Check out Denis’ expression when he first sees her coming down the isle accompanied by her son!  The bridesmaids looked great in their orange dresses, and the guys were great!  they all had a great sense of humor … you have to see the football sequence (Denis is a big Jets  and Dolphins fan).

We were very happy with all of the spreads.  We had a hard time picking favorites to show you here.

Lisy really likes this one:

After long deliberations, I’ve decided to post this one as my favorite:

Be sure to check out the whole album available online now by clicking here.

All the photos from the beach wedding and reception were taken at the Yankee Clipper in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The engagement photos were taken at T.Y. Park in Hollywood, Florida.

What a blast!

We were hired by local artist Laura Mae Atria to take photographs of her art in a hotel room.  At first we thought “Photograph her art in a hotel room? … What’s up with that?” but it was weird enough that we just had to accept.

When we got there we were blown away.  Every one of the carefully selected artists was given a room at the full-of-character Biba Hotel in West Palm Beach, that they could do anything they wanted with.  Laura created a room called 12,458 cents which used an enormity of pennies in all sorts of cool ways to symbolize the decline of the penny and the fall of capitalism.  Here’s a close-up of the amazing comforter made out of pennies and metal rings (can you immagine the time it took!?)

Here’s one of our favorite shots from thedavidKspace “i love you; me either…” room:

See the rest of the photos from this and other rooms here.

All Photos taken at Hotel Biba in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Updated on 10/17 with significantly larger image and behind the scenes images.

MostlyReal are our top signature product for children photography.  To be blunt they are expensive as heck, compared to a regular portrait, but those who have seen the results in the flesh agree that the money they invested in this lifetime keepsake is more than worth it (and you can rest assured there’s a lot of time poured into these labours of love).

Itsy Bitsy devil is one of the MostlyReal portraits we feature in our portfolio, it never ceases to get compliments.  Of course only the 20×30 print does it any justice.

Today I finished the latest MostlyReal portrait where I painstakingly turned one innocent little 2 year old into Spider-Man, in a New-York setting.

This was a great project which nearly resulted in my getting murdered by Luca’s mom.  In order to get him to match up perspective-wise with my vision of what the final MostlyReal would look like, we had to shoot him, on location in downtown Hollywood using the stage they have set up there as his standing spot, with an umbrella in front of him and a snooted strobe behind him.  Well… the platform looks low enough when you see it from afar… but by the time you plop a 2 year old there you realize he’s well over 6 feet off the ground.  Oh, did I mention there’s no form of railing or anything like that?

Photos taken at ArtsPark in Hollywood, Florida

And now for some behind the scenes…

No, you’re not Superman Luca… no flying off the ledge!  … note the snooted speedlight behind him meant to backlight the right side of his hair

Here’s one that shows the lighting setup:  Large umbrella very close to him used as a shoot-through, and the snooted speedlight you saw above to accent his hair.  No, he wasn’t supposed to touch the umbrella of course… had to rescue the umbrella while making sure I could still catch him if he decided to go for the 6′ jump.  Ah the excitement!

Here’s proof that photography does not in fact capture reality as we often seem to think.  Indeed look at him:  the pure definition of innocence… ah if you only knew the truth of what went on during the shoot!  He is adorabe though, I have to give him that!

The image selected for the MostlyReal Portrait

Below is the image half-way through post-production, the building in the background is missing, the ledge hasn’t been cooled yet to match the ambiance, gloves haven’t been fitted, the outfit’s colors haven’t been boldened and a few other atmospherics are missing.

And once again, the final image, mainly for comparison with the image above.

We’re still working on the photos from Ahyde and Denis’ Fort Lauderdale Beach Wedding.

We just finished going through the ceremony and just had to post this one shot of the bride:

Photo taken on the beach in front of the Yankee Clipper on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

The first time I held a camera up to my face and attempted to shoot a picture of older family members I was immediatelly admonished “Stop!  Don’t shoot into the sun!” and then I was carefully turned around so that the sun was now shining into my subjects’ faces (causing all sorts of squinting and harsh shadows I’m sure… but I digress)

I remember the event as if it were yesterday.  It was one of a thousands of little moments we go through in life where a “rule” is tacked on to our body of knowledge.  We tack it on and move on without giving it too much thought.

Who knows how many other butterflies in the evening sun I’ve missed in my shooting career just because I chose to follow that one silly silly “rule”

The adorable little Butterfly was shot at Veterans Park in Hollywood Florida