More from David & Lindsay’s DAR wedding…

This might be one of my favorites from the day.  I love the mood of it – such a simple moment in time that really tells a story.

David had some pretty cool digs.

First Look.

I love how sexy this photo feels.

Lindsay’s flowers were gorgeous.  Very vibrant.  The florist was Melissa from Greenworks by Shane

Simple, but elegant Bridal Portrait taken in the hallway next to the room where she got dressed.

I should have the Ceremony and Reception to post in a few days!

I remember waiting to meet Lindsay for the first time.  As I sat in the lobby of the Hotel Palomar, she came around the corner and the minute I saw her, I knew I wanted to photograph her wedding.  She had this beautiful, wavy reddish hair and a smile that was infectious.  When she started describing the wedding she and David had planned for Memorial Day weekend at the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution), I was knew that this one going to be one hell of a party put on with style.

The best way to describe Lindsay and David together is that they are MADLY in love with one another and with life.  They kept telling me all day that they  just wanted their friends and family to have a fantastic time at the wedding (which I can guarantee that they did…the DJ was Ah-mazing!)  This was quite the wedding, which is why I’ve decided to split it into multiple posts to that I can share all of the photo goodness.  To start you off are some of the two of them – from steamy to sweet.

Enjoy!

I just got back from the beautiful Outer Banks where I spent Memorial Day with good friends, great food and plenty of drinks.  For 3 whole days straight, I thought nothing except when I should switch from the beach to the hot tub…it was perfect.

I’m off again today, heading to Pennsylvania for April and Dan’s wedding.  Still have lots to post, including Lindsay’s and David’s wedding, which I’m probably going to do in a series of posts, the first one hopefully being tomorrow morning.  In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some beautiful sights of summer.  I’ve never really considered myself a great landscape photographer, but these first two sort of jumped at me.  Hope you enjoy them!

My version of a self-portrait…since I hate being in front of the camera.

When Irene first approached me about photographing her wedding, I was excited…and nervous.   450 guests – by far the largest wedding I’ve ever photographed.  Egyptian Coptic Orthodox ceremony – absolutely nothing familiar about this.   But familiar is, well, boring…and way overrated in my opinion.  When it comes to both my professional and home life, I like being out of my element, because it pushes and challenges me to work harder and try new things.  It’s one of the main reasons I love my job so much because nothing is ever the same – lighting is constantly changing and things are moving at what often seems like an incredibly fast, out-of-control pace.  But when it’s all over and I look at the camera’s screen and see that awesome shot, I know it’s all worth it.

When I woke up the morning of the wedding, I had a pit in my stomach.  Not so much because I was nervous, but because there were threatening rain clouds everywhere.  We had planned on going to beautiful Burke Lake to take photos.  At 12:30 when I arrived at Irene’s parent’s house, the rain seemed to still be holding off, so I asked her what she thought.  I couldn’t help but be glad when she told me that she’s a risk-taker and that she wanted to just go for it.  Well the rain did in fact hold off long enough for us to get some serene, scenic photos at the Lake.  It even held off throughout the entire ceremony and then promptly when the bride and groom needed to exit to get in the limo…holy thunderstorm!  Talk about timing…

Sameh and Irene were married at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox church with the reception at the Hilton Dulles.   The ceremony was BEAUTIFUL.  Coptic Orthodox ceremonies are vibrant and energetic.  The bride and groom mark their union together which what are referred to as “pictures,” which include their rings, a set of crowns, vestments, oil, candles and incense.  While there was so much going on throughout the hour long ceremony, my favorite part (as simple as this is going to sound) was watching Sameh and Irene together.  They couldn’t stop smiling at one another – it was too cute.

On a side note, this wedding was extra special to me because I got to photograph it with one of my favorite people in the whole world – my Dad and one of the main reasons I’m a photographer today.  Growing up as kid with a professional photographer for a dad, who would have thought that 15 years after he gave me my first Nikon FM10 camera, we would be shooting a wedding together.  I love you Dad!!!!

So enjoy the photos and the holiday weekend!  I will be leaving this evening after an engagement session for a short trip to the Outer Banks.  I will not be available via phone and will probably not be checking email so please be patient if you send me something and dont’ hear back for a few days.  I will be back on Thursday and ready to share some highlights from David and Lindsay’s DAR wedding!

There is something about this shot of her father…he looked so proud of his daughter when he saw her for the first time.

Sameh waiting for his beautiful bride.

So sweet!  This is one of my favorites of them from the day.

She looks amazing.

In Coptic Orthodox tradition, Irene is given away by her father at the entrance to the church and from there, the bride and groom walk down the aisle together.

During the ceremony, the bride and groom are cloaked in beautiful capes and crowned as a symbol of their marriage and union together.

There are those smiles I was talking about.

The reception decor was simple and elegant.

LOVE this one of them dancing together.

Lots of good laughs during the toasts.

Congratulations Sameh and Irene!

A few teasers of what’s up next!

Sameh and Irene’s Wedding – May 16th, 2009

Astrid’s Rock the Dress Session (it’s gonna get a little wet later on…)

The Washington Post Hunt is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever participated in and probably the closest I’ll ever get to being on CBS’s The Amazing Race.  Created by Dave Barry, Gene Weingarten and Tom Shroder, the Hunt is an afternoon adventure in downtown DC that challenges your mind to think outside of the box in order to solve puzzles and win $2000! It’s sort of long and complicated to explain, but I’m going to attempt to try, of course with the use of photos I took to document our journey along the way.  Make sure you read the captions that go with all of the photos, otherwise you’ll be completely lost as to why I’m posting a photo of a concrete ghost (don’t worry, you’ll see why!)

So Sunday at noon, over 5000 people gathered at Freedom Plaza with a copy of the Washington Post Magazine in tow, ready to stretch their minds to crazy places.  Thanks to my sister, Stephanie, who organized our group, we were among them.  My parents were in the town for the weekend so they endulged us young ‘uns and joined in on the fun.  A few quick pics of the team and the family.

The Hunt started at exactly noon with Dave, Gene and Tom getting on stage to announce the starting “clue.”  They gave us 5 numbers, which went along with 5 letters that we had already pre-determined by answering questions in our copy of the Washington Post Magazine.  By combining our letters with their numbers, we now had 5 coordinates for our map.  Our goal for the next 3 hours was to visit these locations and solve a different puzzle at each place.  The puzzles could be anything, as long as it was weird and outside of the box.  Our answers HAD TO BE A NUMBER.  So off we went…

PUZZLE #1: AIRPORT SECURITY

When we arrive to the spot, we were ushered through a single file line where a man in white gloves handed us a clue.  It said “Find the missing letters in what I said.” We solved this one pretty quick, thanks to my smarty-pants sis.  The guy never said anything to us, BUT, on closer inspection of the Washington Post Magazine, the guy who handed us the clue was the EXACT SAME GUY who was featured in the “First Person Singular.”  So by writing down all of the letters of the alphabet and crossing off any letters that appeared in his article, we were left with the following letters:

“S”  “I”  “X”   =  six, so our answer was the number 6.

Puzzle #2: Human Statues

At the second spot, we’re handed another clue.  This one was mighty strange and confounded us for some time.  It read:

“According to ancient Native American Legend, the Earth was originally pooped out of an eagle.

PLUS

It is believed to be the world’s largest freestanding polyp.

MINUS

Little Alice loved hanging out with Uncle Henry, but she kept a sledge hammer ready in case he got frisky”

What the hell, right?  Oh, and to add to the confusion, there were two people painted completely white who were frozen in statuesque poses.  Well, it turned out that on our trusty map, there were 9 different statues.  At each of the 9 statues, there was a person holding a number.  The key to the puzzle was to figure out which statues went with the clue and add and subtract those numbers to get your final answer.  It took us some time, but we finally got it.

According to ancient Native American Legend, the Earth was originally pooped out of an eagle.

It is believed to be the world’s largest freestanding polyp     AND       Little Alice loved hanging out with Uncle Henry but she kept a sledge hammer ready in case he got frisky

Puzzle #3:  The Failed Monuments

This one was pretty easy and only took us minutes to get.  At the 3rd location, there was a set of 3 concrete figures set up near the Washington Monument.  While the figures appeared to be rather random, we quickly noticed that they each were a phonetic representation of one of the Presidents.

Can you figure out what they are? (hint the first top two photos go together as one)

The first one is Buchanan (boo + canon).  Second is Hoover (a vacumn).  Third is Eisenhower (eyes + hour)

But our final answer had to be a number, so there was one more step.  We had to figure out what number President they each were (in order) and when we strung the 3 numbers together, we got our final answer of 153134.

Puzzle #4: The Debate

When we arrived at the 4th spot, there was a fake Congressional Debate taking place on Bill 98999.  The “candidates” kept repeating certain words/phrases, such as “it’s in the text.”  “The key word is accountability.”  When we texted the word “accountability” to number 98999, we got an instant reply!  The response was “The solution is a simple majority.”  Well, seeing as how we were at a Congressional Debate, we figured the answer was the majority votes for a bill to pass through legislation – 218 was our final answer.

Puzzle #5: The Bailout

At the final spot, two Uncle Sams were throwing fake $100 bills into the air shouting “Post Hunt Stimulus Package!  Take the money!  It’s Yours!”  Next to them was a poster with different commodities and their price listed (i.e. Corn, Steel, Oil).  After WAY too long and looking for the answer in the completely wrong direction, our team member Chris noticed something strange about the fake dollar bill.  Instead of “In God We Trust,” it said “In GOLD we Trust.”  Gold was in fact one of the commodities listed on the board.  Our final answer was the price for Gold, or 893.

The EndGame: Let’s win $2000!

So we had solved all 5 puzzles.  We now had 5 numbers that corresponded to 5 additional clues (don’t worry, we’re getting close to the end!) located in our Washington Post Magazine.  They were:

“6 – At 3 p.m. we will give you the end”

“218 – It starts five-three.”

“580 – For cinematic realism, madam, you will be tied to a four-poster bed and compelled to squeal as we tickle your feet with an emu feather.”

“893 – “Do not foreclose on this home, Snidely!” “Indeed i shall not – for two thousand dollars, your daughter’s virginity and 24 toy poodles!”

“153,134 – Let it bee”

So at 3pm, we gather back at the main stage.  Our final clue was going to be given to us.  Dave, Gene and Tom got on stage with a guitar and started playing Old MacDonald.  They stopped mid-sentence, the crowd shouted out “EIEIO”  Dave then said, “Now turn that over in your mind.”

confused yet?  This is where thinking outside the box is key.  If you turn EIEIO upside down, you get the numbers 01313.  One of our clues said that at 3pm, they would give us the end.  The other clue said that it started five – three.  So we had the following numbers: 5301313.  Add a 202 to it and you have a DC phone number.  We called that phone number and got a recording saying “Look for an important message immediately after four.”

If you go back and look at the rest of our remaining clues, you’ll see that some form of the “four”, appears throughout the clues.

“580 – For cinematic realism, madam, you will be tied to a four-poster bed and compelled to squeal as we tickle your feet with an emu feather.”

“893 – “Do not foreclose on this home, Snidely!” “Indeed i shall not - for two thousand dollars, your daughter’s virginity and 24 toy poodles!”

“153,134 – Let it bee”

Taking the words directly after all of these instances of “four,” we came up with the following statement: “Cinematic Poster Close To Toilet”

On our map was a toilet.  When we went to that spot, there were three posters.  One of the Eiffel tower, one of a soccer player, and one of R2D2 and 3CPO from Star Wars.  Well, Star Wars was the only cinematic reference so we went with that poster.  Taking R2D2 and 3CPO, we again found ourselves with coordinates on our map.  Located on the map in those spots were the following:

A Hand.  A Jail Cell. #2.  A Boxer.

String them together and you have “Hand Cell to a Boxer.”  This is as far as we got.  From here, we didn’t know where to go or what to do.  Turns out you were suppose to travel to the spot of the Boxer on the map where someone was walking a Boxer Dog.  You were suppose to hand your cell number to this person to win.

So in the end, we were close, but no cigar!  We figure 18 more of these hunts and we can finally win the Grand Prize!  Either way though, win or lose, it was a great afternoon.  If you want more information about the Washington Post Hunt, you can read about it and watch videos of the actual contest here.  And if you made it all the way through this post, I congratulate you!

Lots to post this week, including Irene’s and Sameh’s wedding so make sure to check back soon!  Ciao!

I love shooting Boudoir sessions.  There is something awesome about photographing women who are strong, sexy and confident.  Ashley and Cristin are two remarkable, gorgeous women who fit this description perfectly.

The two had contacted me awhile back when Cristin decided to do the portraits as a gift to her hubby for their upcoming one-year anniversary.  Ashley (being such a good friend) said she would do them for her husband as well!  So this past Saturday, the three of us crowded into a room at the Hotel Monaco in Alexandria and spent the afternoon drinking, laughing and taking some amazing boudoir portraits.  My favorite part came at the end when they both told me how much fun they had and how they were so much more comfortable than they thought they’d be (although that might have more to do with the mimosas than with my glowing personality!)

Both women did a fantastic job picking out their lingerie.  I especially loved this one on Cristin.

I swear that I did not saturate the color of Cristin’s eyes…they are really THAT gorgeous.

I LOVE this shot of Ashley.  She looks like a model!

Showing off some beautiful curves.

Thanks Cristin and Ashley for letting me share with everyone!  I can’t wait to show you the rest…

After 10 days straight of rain (I’m not even joking), I was beyond excited to see the sun today.  I woke up bright and early, attempted to do some work (so not happening) and then decided to throw in the towel and go for a bike ride.  After my bike ride, I drove into DC to pick up some equipment for my Boudoir Sessions tomorrow at the Hotel Monaco, stopped at my FAVORITE coffee shop, Buzz in Alexandria and arrived home to find my brand spanking new sample engagement guest sign-in book.  Talk about a perfect day in my world!

More photos to come soon with some details of the spreads, but for now, a sneak peak.

For those of you who may be new to my blog, you will occasionally hear the name Ian mentioned, most often followed by a photograph of an adorably cute man who probably looks annoyed by the fact that he is having his photograph taken yet again.  While we don’t officially have rings on our fingers, Ian is my better half and the love of my life.  He is my best friend.  My rock.  He is patient…extremely patient and I wouldn’t be able to be doing what I love today if it wasn’t for his support these past 4 years.

So Happy Anniversary to us!  He surprised me on Sunday with my favorite flowers, Alstromarias and Irises.  They were so pretty sitting in on our kitchen table in the afternoon sunlight that I had to get out my camera for a few photos.

This past weekend I was excited to be back in Boston shooting Brendan and Michelle’s Cape Cod Wedding.  I met Michelle many many months back, but I didn’t get the chance to see her and Brendan together until their engagement session last fall, which we were lucky enough to get to shoot INSIDE of infamous Fenway Park (see photos here).  Even though he is a hard core Yankee’s fan, Brendan didn’t even grumble once during the session (probably because we let him wear his Yankee’s hat for some of the photos).  It’s just one of the ways that these two compliment each other with their differences.  Michelle is very enthusiastic and energetic.  Brendan is a bit more laid back and seems to go with the flow very easily.  You can tell that he just wants to make Michelle happy.   I love that as a couple, they compliment each other perfectly with their differences…in fact, in many ways they sort of remind me of myself and Ian.

So after shooting the engagement session, I was SO pumped for their wedding.  On the big day, we were graced with beautiful weather, mild temperatures and even a few brief moments of peak-through sunshine.  The wedding took place in Falmouth, MA at the Coonamessett Inn.  Brendan and Michelle kept the wedding very simple and classic.  Thanks to the couple, as well as my second shooter for the day, Jovee Photography, the entire day was so relaxed and everything went exactly as planned…It absolutely was perfect.

Michelle wore this GORGEOUS dress.  I loved the intricate work on the back.  When she wore it, she floated across the ground.

Brendan waiting patiently for his bride.

First look.

One of my favorites from the day.

Sooo Stunning.  Michelle is an absolute natural in front of the camera.

The sun peaked out right before the ceremony!

mmm…I like this one.

And this one!

After the ceremony, we snuck off alone to a nearby beach for a few more intimate photos.  The sky turned at the just right moment…

Simple, but classic decor for the reception.

Having fun during the toasts!  Lots of good laughs…

This was Michelle’s dance with her dad…I just loved the mood of it.

Michelle and Brendan dancing.

Congrats Brendan and Michelle!  Thank you for having me as a part of your wedding day!