10/31/2007

Happy Halloween

A couple posts down you'll see Graycen asleep in her car seat. We've been running her so hard lately that she's been sleeping a lot. After going trick-or-treating tonight at the Northwood's Mall in Charleston, she was pretty whipped. But she had a great time!

We'll start with a few poses (a la Vanna White) before we begin...






Now let's get to it!!!


She was pretty timid at first...




But it didn't take long before she was getting the hang of it...






She even passed a couple of other bees!


She's winding down...


Until she saw the playground...and that's when the wings came off!




And at the end, her Lola met up with us at the mall. I'm pretty sure everyone thought she was wearing a costume, but she had actually come straight from teaching Karate. Yikes!


When we got home, mommy and daddy and everyone else gave her candy a good "safety inspection" and now her bag is about 3/4 gone. ;-)

Penguins (or dolphins) and Fashion Week

Last week was Fashion Week at the Mall at Millenia in Orlando. We were there on Thursday to pick up a couple things and we were walking along the second floor outside the MAC cosmetics store when Graycen yelled, "Penguin!" She was pointing toward the floor.

We looked and there in the tile was a dolphin. Shhh, don't tell her...she thinks it's a penguin. And she's been talking about it now for a week!








The next day, Jim Cook was in town to shoot with me in St. Pete, so we went back to the mall to check out Leopard (the new Apple operating system) and also get a little peek at the fashion show.











Of course Graycen didn't care about fashion or Leopard, she just had to show Jim her penguin.

100 miles per hour...literally



Because of the nature of weddings, our calendar usually sets itself 9-12 months in advance. In fact, I’ve occasionally caught myself writing 2008 on checks, applications, etc., even though it's not 2008 for a few more months.

For quite a while we’ve known that October was going to be a crazy month, but never did we realize to what extent.

It started with two wonderful weddings in France and Scotland, and then a shoot in Italy with Kate and Nico. Then we were home for about 16 hours before driving to Florida for Tiffany and Andrew’s wedding. Then I flew to New York for three more shoots, and two presentations at PhotoPlus Expo. I returned to Florida, where we photographed Melissa and Jered’s wedding. We then drove back to Tennessee, where we were thrilled to spend 3 full days at home! Then we flew to Florida and photographed Kristina and Bobby’s wedding in St. Pete. The following day we drove to Charleston, South Carolina, to visit Joy’s family and photograph Brittany and Sam’s e-session. And we return back to Florida tomorrow, when we’ll prepare for Nicole and Jeffery’s wedding at Isleworth this weekend. On Friday we have two more e-sessions in the morning, then on Sunday we’ll fly home.

It’s been a busy month. We’re a boutique studio and our goal is quality, not quantity. But somehow we’ve been blessed with both quality AND quantity. And we’re very thankful for that.

But out of curiosity, the other morning I calculated our travel this month and came up with approximately 20,000 miles. That’s 80% of Delta’s ANNUAL requirement for Medallion status! And in just one month!

That’s a loose average of 650 miles per day!

Or to be more realistic, we could consider a five-day workweek, at 22 workdays per month, that’s 909 miles per workday!

And if we’re considering a full workday to be 8 hours per day, than this month we’ve been gong 113 miles per hour!

That’s crazy.

So on that note we’d like to especially thank our family and friends for pitching in and watching Graycen while we were overseas. And our album designer Carla and image processor Miriam, who have helped us stay relatively caught-up. For photographer friends helping us out on shoots and such. And little Graycen, for somehow seeming to understand what’s going on and remaining patient with us. And to each other, for maintaining sanity even when it’s difficult, and realizing that this wouldn’t be nearly as much fun on our own.

What a ride it's been. We can’t wait to celebrate Thanksgiving in a few weeks.

10/30/2007

Brittany and Sam E Session

We're always excited whenever we have the opportunity to shoot in Charleston. And yesterday was extra special because we had two outstanding shoots!

The first one was Brittany and Sam's e-session. We've enjoyed knowing Brittany and her colleagues at Solutions Bridal over the past couple years and we were so excited when she emailed a few months ago to let us know that Sam had totally surprised her by proposing. I'd met Sam a few times before at various Solutions events, so it was great to get to know him better during the shoot.

It was a bit cold and windy, but they did outstanding!





























If we haven't mentioned it before, Charleston is amazing. It's storied history and beautiful architecture make it one of our favorite cities anywhere.

We'd also be remiss if we failed to mention Brittany's fantastic bridal blog, TickledPink. Check it out!

Thanks Brittany and Sam for a great session! We can't wait to work with you again at the Ritz in February.

Garrett and Jim in St. Pete with Live WebCam!

Garrett and Jim went to St. Petersburg, FL for Kristina and Bobby's wedding last weekend. Garrett called and told me there was a live web cam on the beach where they were getting married. So I took a screen shot of them :)



Stay tuned for pictures :)

10/26/2007

Gift from liveBooks

An amazing gift we received from liveBooks since Garrett spoke for them at PPE in New York.



Thanks Michael and the liveBooks team!

Enterprise Hotel in Milan, Italy

Joy's Perspective: Okay, so we barely touched on Milan (sadly, we were only there for a day) with our last Europe blog post and I just couldn't let it go without going into detail where we stayed...
The Enterprise Hotel is an amazing place with its chic decor and the experience and service was just incredible. I was inspired just for the design!

I got these photos from their awesome website and so when you are in Milan and need a place to stay, check this place out!

The beds, (we had the green kind):



The lounge Garrett and I hung out in:


The outdoor lounge:


The restaurant with AMAZING complimentary breakfast!


From their website:
"Enterprise Hotel is the boutique hotel that best represents Milan’s creative and innovative spirit, with its ideal combination of inventive design and traditional efficiency."

10/24/2007

Melissa and Jered

We had been looking forward to Melissa and Jered's wedding for quite a while. So this weekend we traveled to Plant City, FL, where the wedding took place.

Melissa was beautiful in her Kenneth Pool gown from Solutions Bridal.


And Jered was pretty polished too, next to their sweet get-away Lamborghini.






[IMG]http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e171/garrettnudd/14-1.jpg[/IMG]


Melissa's father came walking up during this series of shots and eagerly pushed Jered aside. :-)








The reception details were amazing. This was a serious cake!







About mid-way through the reception, Melissa changed dresses, into something that she could move around in better. So we ran outside and grabbed a night portrait.


And they're off....


Thanks so much guys for letting us be a part of your amazing weekend. We wish you much happiness and many blessings to come.