Coffee Table Books

Recently I've had some inquiries from future Brides who live outside of New York. Since my wedding packages include hardcover coffee table books, and they're not able to see them in person, I said I'd post some pictures up.

The pictures don't really do the books justice...they really are beautiful. Up until a few months ago they were they only "album" I offered my clients. I've since added a luxurious leather album with thicker pages that is available as an upgrade. The coffee table books remain a beautiful, more budget friendly alternative.

Each book is designed by me, just for you. No two books are the same. You pick your favorite images from your wedding day and I do the rest. The cover image is printed right onto the book cover as well as the dust jacket. As you can see, the photographs are printed right onto the paper, just like a book. I have an aversion to matted wedding albums!

A side note: I know many of you have expressed interest in photo purses for Christmas. In order to have them here on time I need to place the order by December 4th, so don't delay!

Jump! Jump!

Some snapshots from last night. Every time I look at these pictures I start singing that song by Kris Kross. Did they even record any other songs?

The Feast

My intention was to document our Thanksgiving day with pictures, but it just didn't happen. I'm not quite sure why, either...in fact, when I think about it I get perplexed and then I have to stop thinking about it because it makes my brain hurt.

I did take the time to set Junior on a tripod and take a shot of the Walshton clan in our fancy Pilgrim and Indian hats. (You can't see my future daughter-in-law, but she's there). I took this right before our tradition of going around the table and telling everyone what we're thankful for. Family and friends topped the list for most of us, with the exception of The Youngest.

He was thankful for his Geo Tracks.

Macro Monday

The general consensus last Monday was that it was a picture of a hubcap or rim, but it was actually the top of a humidifier. Better luck this week!

Da Bears

I'm posting this during the 3rd quarter of the Bears vs. Broncos game. Holy cow, what a crazy game! Win or loose, Devin Hester is my new favorite player. :)

Demolition

Part of the reason the blog has been a little neglected is that we've been working on some home improvement projects. Our house was built in 1820, and while it has lots of the old charm I was looking for in a home, it needed some updates as well.

One of the things I've always wanted was a kitchen that was a little more open to the rest of the house, and our previous 2 houses didn't even have a way to accomplish that based on their construction. This house has a wall seperating the kitchen and what we formally referred to as "The Woodstove Area". We couldn't wait to knock it down and open it up.

I've got some visuals for those of you who either haven't seen the house since we moved in 11 months ago (shame on you) or can't visit for a while. I'm going to let you know right now that A) these are not photographic masterpieces and B) the house is messy.

You can see the first visual here. That's a before shot of the kitchen as it was up until a few weeks ago. Notice the way the island is facing, the pot rack above it, and the spot next to the stove is pretty much empty because the person on that end of the island sits there.

The first thing we did was to take out the tile on the island and replace it with black granite tiles. It was a little harder than we'd originally expected it to be due to the fact that your's truly is unable to measure things. I prefer to round up or down when I have a tape measure in my hand, and in this case I rounded up. That meant that the 12x12 tiles we bought had to be cut down.

Oops. I'll let The Husband do the measuring from here on out.

When cutting tiles the wet saw is your best friend.

The end result. If you're paying attention, you can also see that we moved the kitchen around some. One of us is all for it, and the other wants it put back the way it was. Leave us a comment and let us know which you prefer!

The fridge used to be where the backer's rack is now, and the island used to face the windows in the front of the kitchen. BTW: right now the plan is to remove the door next to the backer's rack, and that little section of wall between the buffet and door is coming out, too.

Here is where the fridge is located now. Those ugly orange-ish countertops will be replaced with granite slab, and we'll have tile installed on the floor.

As soon as the woodstove was removed we went to town on the brick wall that was behind it. Even the kids got involved in the demolition.

This is the view from the living room area. I love that we will be able to see straight through the windows to the golf course from the couch! The woodstove used to sit right in front of this wall (the black thing on the ceiling is where the chimney connected).

And the view from the kitchen into the dining room. The room where the woodstove used to be located was really wasted space. Now that it's gone we've been able to move the dining room table there and use the former dining room as a family room/studio.

That's all for now!

Flag Football

It's not easy being me. No, really. I can't please everyone when it comes to this blog stuff. I get a lot of comments like "So-and-so wants to know why you didn't post about (fill-in-the-blank)." To which I usually respond "Oh, really. I didn't even know So-and-so read the blog." (Hint, hint).

This came up recently in relation to a couple of things going on here, and one was The Youngest's flag football festivities.

You shouldn't have got me started on that one.

It was The Husband's idea, and I was against it from the start. Not because I have anything against organized team sports. Of course I don't. It's just that, well, The Youngest is not the toughest nail in the box. On any given day you can here him screaming 30 miles from our house after he's run through the living room (again) and fallen flat on his face. If there's any blood...even the tiniest microscopic drop that could only be seen by The Youngest and a team of CSI Investigator's...you can hear him in PA.

So I asked The Husband why, WHY, we were going to pay $50 to listen to him scream every Saturday afternoon. I mean, don't we get enough of that at home for free?

But I digress...it hasn't been that bad. In fact, after assuring The Youngest the morning of the first practice that he did not need a helmet, he seems to have toughened up a bit. In fact, he fell flat on his face last Saturday and while my heart stopped as I waited for the screaming to begin, he got right back up and was fine.

Which brings me to the reason you haven't seen any pictures.

Flag football is boring. I mean, The Youngest spends half an hour sitting on the sidelines so all the kids get their turn to play. The other half of the time, when he is playing, he has no clue what he's supposed to be doing. The first 2 Saturday's he ran around ripping flags off of anyone within reach. It was right about then that we realized the Coaches weren't really teaching the fundamentals of the game. To top it off he's 5, which means there isn't much of an attention span. If someone doesn't show him what he's supposed to be doing, he starts rolling around doing somersaults on the floor. It's about that time that I start looking around for a place to hide. I explained all of that to Thelma but I guess she thought I was exaggerating. She went with me for the first time on Saturday, and about halfway through she looked at me and said "I thought it would be more exciting."

Didn't I tell you it was all I could do to stay awake??

Yesterday I overheard The Husband ask him if he wanted to play soccer. God help me!

Macro Monday!

First, I need to apologize for slacking off on the blog a little bit. Things have been crazy here between following up with wedding leads and working on home improvement projects. Friday I had the pleasure of meeting with Lindsay and Pat at Irene's in Geneva, NY. Lindsay and Pat are getting married next October and having their reception at Traditions at the Glenn. I haven't had the opportunity to shoot there yet, but the way they described the location I know it's going to make for some beautiful fall wedding images! I had a great time meeting you both and can't wait for the Engagement session this spring!

Okay...on to Macro Monday. The Husband and The Oldest nailed it this time. It was a shot of the chimney liner.

To: Louise...From: Thelma

Thelma and I had made plans to go to dinner Thursday night. When she arrived at my house she handed me a gift bag. It wasn't my birthday or anything, but she said she saw it in the store and just had to get it for me. I laughed out loud when I opened it:

This is now my new favorite coffee mug! Thanks Thelma!

Horsin' Around

It's been weeks since I last wandered aimlessly around town with my camera. Since we closed on the house we've been doing home improvement projects that were on hold, and I just haven't had time to get out. It really is a stress reliever for me, so I'm making it my mission to take some time in the next few days to get out and shoot!

This was taken the last time I was out. I was hoping to take pictures of the fall foliage, but at the time most of the leaves still hadn't turned color yet. I happened to see this horse while driving on a road that wound through miles of state forest, so I stopped, introduced myself and told her I could make her famous if she let me shoot her. (The Husband can attest to that). I explained my philosophy of "lifestyle portraiture", where the subjects are relaxed, not posed, and act as if the camera isn't there while I shoot away.

As you can see, she totally understood what I was going for.

Peanut

Peanut was born one month ago today, and it's been so much fun to watch her grow already. Not long after she was born I'd asked Shirley if she'd be willing to let me experiment with her every once-in-a-while. I don't get the opportunity to photograph many newborns, and I wanted to try some more unconventional shots. Shirley was willing to let me do whatever I wanted, so this morning I went over and spent a couple of hours with them.

I have a shot just like this where she's not crying, but I just like this one better for some reason. I guess it's because I'm one of those photographer's who doesn't spend the entire session trying to get kids to smile and look at the camera.

My Little Buddy being a good big brother.

My favorite. I knew I wanted to take Peanut's picture on this antique sideboard the moment she was born.

Thanks for being such a good sport Shirl! I really appreciate you letting me come over and have some fun with you guys.

Macro Monday

Okay, so I forgot today was Monday. Oops!

H-dub was the closest to guessing last week's image correctly. The 3 white lines were the edges to the new albums I'm offering.

Good luck this week!

Fire, Fire

*Said in my best Beevis and Butthead voice*

We moved into this house in December of 2006, just in time for winter. Although it came later than usual (we were watching people golf that month), it did come. It didn't take us too long to realize that our living room was so large it was nearly impossible to heat it, so we decided that once we closed we would have a wood burning fireplace insert installed.

The Husband and I love fire.

Fast forward 11 months and the only positive thing about closing almost a year after the fact was that it was the perfect time of year to actually enjoy our fireplace insert. Even more so due to the fact that the furnace still, yes still, isn't working.

We were scheduled to have it installed today, but they had a cancellation and felt bad that we had no heat, so they came and installed it yesterday afternoon. Things aren't always easy here at the Walsh household, and this wasn't any different. They had to use a lift to get the liner down the top of the chimney, and in order to do that we had to cut the fence. The Husband and Tom are directing helping Lance "back that thang up."

Here's Lance building the first fire.

The end result. I love it!

Brrrrr, Part Deux

Sorry, no interesting blog post today. They came to "fix" the furnace yesterday but it's only 57 degrees in here right now and I'm trying to keep my fingers from getting frostbitten so I can continue my photography career.

Not cool.

Brrrr

Yep. Woke up this morning and the thermostat read 58 degrees. There's nothing quite like repairing a furnace a mere 4 days after closing on a house. Why couldn't it have waited until Saturday, after our brand spankin' new fireplace insert was here?

Macro Monday

There were many good guesses last week, but in the end Thelma did it again! It was a close-up of a fire hydrant.

Finally

It's offical! We finally closed on the house we've been living in (and waiting to close on) for 11 months and 1 day. We could write a book on this experience, but that would mean we'd have to re-live it. We don't want to go there.

No, we don't have snow yet. This picture is from last winter. We've been running around all day so I don't have time to take a new one. We're off to help Thelma paint HER new house.

New Albums!

A while back I'd mentioned that Amy and Bob had decided to upgrade their wedding album to one offered by a new company I was anxious to try, KISS. It was nice of them to trust me, since I didn't even have a sample to show them. I wasn't really surprised, though. That's the type of couple they are...adventurous and willing to experiment!

We've been waiting patiently for a couple of weeks, and the album arrived today! I can't even describe how beautiful it is. It's exactly what I'd been wanting to offer my couple's, and I'm so glad I kept searching until I found the perfect company to work with. The cover is Italian leather and the images are printed right onto the pages. (No mats for my couples). The pages are thick and "non-bendy" as I like to say. (Think child's board book). The most important feature for me is that the pages are gutterless, which means that unlike the coffee table books, you don't loose any of the image during binding.

I can't wait for Amy and Bob to see their album!

Doesn't my new logo look fabulous on the pictures? Cari totally rocks! Today I asked her to design some letterhead. I gave her an idea of what I wanted and she nailed it on the first try! I can't wait to have it printed!