Coming home

Today we headed to Stavern with Silje and Crispin to do some photographs along the coastline. It was absolutely beautiful! Pics to come...

We head to the airport in a couple hours.

Precious

Since we're tourists we've been shooting primarily with our Canon G7 because it's so small and light-weight compared to our real cameras. But when I pulled out the 5D the other night I was excited to find this image on the card.

I had forgotten about this image. Snapped the night before we left the states, I sneaked into her room about a 1/2 hour after she went to bed. Used the light from the hallway, and bumped my ISO up to 3200.

It's always so peaceful watching children sleep. And of course she loves sleeping with Baby and Penguin. For now she's sleeping in her pack-n-play because we're waiting for the gate to arrive to block the stairway.

What a day!

What a day! We got home from the wedding this morning at 3 am local time. And today we're going to the coast with Silje and Crispin to shoot some more. Their wedding was beautiful, but I'm still loading their images, so we'll save those for later.

On Sunday though (the wedding was on Monday), we had a great time visiting a couple small towns on the coast. Drobak was the first town we visited, and it was so beautiful and quaint.







Then we went to Frederikstad, which is on the river Glomma. It's also a quaint little village and we found a great Pizza restaurant. The pizza was outstanding, but what a surprise to discover that over here the pizza sauce comes on the side, and you spoon it onto your slice of pizza.

Norway day 3

On day 3 it rained a lot, so we spent a good portion of the time inside. Andrew arrived this afternoon and we were pretty curious about how we might meet up, without us waiting at the hotel all afternoon for him. So we emailed him a general idea of where we might be, and a couple hours later while walking down the sidewalk, we spotted him.


Here are a few mini-camera snaps from day 3.


The Parlament.



We've lived on some pretty interesting street names before, but fortunately none like this!



This statue sits in front of the Norwegian Royal Palace.



I couldn't believe we actually found a Mexican restaurant...and without even trying!!!



Andrew is sending Rachel a message to let her know that we found Mexican food and everything will be okay.



They don't have Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi over here, but they do have Coke Light and Pepsi Max. The Coke Light is pretty gross, but the Pepsi Max isn't too bad. So I've been ordering that with dinner the past few nights. Well, last night I studied the bill and realized that it 35 NOK or $6. WOW! Won't be ordering that anymore!



At the waterfront we found a great photography exhibit. There were 100 large wildlife images on display from photographer Steve Bloom. Amazing stuff!



I love what this one says.







On the way back we stopped off and had some dessert. The carrot cake was amazing!


We returned to the room about 10:30 and were thrilled to find Joy's suitcase sitting in the entrance. Alas.

Norway day 2

Okay, so I've fallen a slight bit behind, but since you're still sleeping stateside, I'm going to make an effort to catch up, though in a few minutes it'll be time to run downstairs before breakfast closes.

We spent day 2, our first full day in Norway, running around the city. We visited a mall and bought a few items. We're just trying to keep Joy dressed since she's still waiting on her bag to arrive.

Here's a shot from the waterfront. Joy said this really brings back memories from when she lived in Scotland, growing up.



We saw this wedding gown in the storefront. It's priced at 10,700 NOK, which is about $1,877. I can't imagine a salon could get anything close to that for this dress in the states.



At dinner. I think she's wondering when, or perhaps if, she'll see her luggage again.



On final approach to the hotel. Around 11 pm local time, as it's starting to get dark.

Day 1 in Norway

From Atlanta to Baltimore to Reykjavik to Oslo, we made it.

(GARRETT'S PERSPECTIVE) We arrived in Norway around 1 pm local time or 7 am back home. Joy's bag was left in Baltimore it appears, but they said it should arrive tomorrow at the hotel. We have a rental car, but we don't know what any of the street signs mean, except for the arrows, and we can't even begin to pronounce the words on the street signs. LOL.

Fortunately we somehow made it to the hotel, got checked in and then got a nap. Then we found a mall to get some clothes for Joy and a few groceries.

For dinner we found this great little restaurant called Peppe's Pizza. And would you believe our order: Garlic bread bruschetta, a large garden salad and fajitas with guacamole...at a pizza place! Amazing.

There is a 7-11 on every street corner and they appear to be nice! LOL. They even sell fresh bread, see inside...








IcelandAir gave Joy a day-kit because they misplaced her luggage.




(JOY"S PERSPECTIVE): We made it! I am so excited for Garrett since this is his first trip to Europe and a new adventure for the both of us. The highlight of the day was definitely when they gave me the day kit that had everything in it including a T-Shirt! It was so unexpected and I was very much thankful for it. There are many shoe stores here...shopping has been fun! I found and bought what I have been looking for so long: perfect mary jane shoes for photographing and are dressy enough (goodbye crocs) made by VAGABOND, its very comfortable and Scandinavian chic :)
We thought it was strange to not be able to find and buy VOSS water, which is from here and we had to guess our way in the grocery store with food/neccessities we needed to buy...also to find out they only accepted cash, and only in kroner! So we had to cross our fingers that the ATM machine would take one of our cards, (Bank of America card was the only one that worked!). Fortunately, despite us not speaking/understanding their language, everyone here have been gracious in answering our questions and explaining things to us. Norway is beautiful too but its also a little chilly here for me! More later!

Off to Norway!

We are in Atlanta right now getting ready for our flight to Norway. We are photographing Silje and Crispin's wedding on Monday. They are so wonderful and we are so excited for them. We will be there until August 1. We won't have cell phone coverage but we will have Internet access, yeah!




Andrew Niesen of Lacour will be joining us there on Saturday. We dropped in on their awesome workshop last night and visited with some of our photographer friends, (photos from Lacour blog).



Should be a fun adventure so stay tuned for pics!

Lori's portraits

Several months ago we photographed our great friend Brian with his violin. Brian is a music instructor and he's currently in NY pursuing additional education. Well, we've been talking for a while about doing a session with Brian's sister Lori. It wasn't until we finally saw each other at Isaac and Grace's wedding in California last month that we finally got it scheduled. And fortunately, just in time too, because this week she leaves for California for medical school.

Lori did great! She's a natural for sure, and after working with her I can see where her brother get it. LOL!

We wish you all the best and nothing but continued blessings, Lori, as you head west.

How sweet it is...

For those photographers who read our blog, if you've ever been to a photography workshop or convention with me you know about my food preferences.

You most likely know how I love chips and salsa and guacamole and pretty much any Mexican food in general, as long as I can work around the cheese. Jim Cook in Kentucky makes some amazing guacamole. And Mike Colon...his Chimichangas are out of this world!

Moving away from Mexican food, last November it became evident on YouTube and Open Source Photo that I have an affinity for Ketchup in large quantities. A group of photographers were visiting town and they witnessed me at Chick-fil-A bathing my fries and chicken nuggets in Ketchup. It became such a tale that one of our brides and grooms, Brandy and Sticky, who are also photographers in Ohio, presented us with a huge bottle of Heinz Ketchup after we photographed their wedding! It was such a thoughtful gesture and one that we very much appreciated. But please let me clarify and dispel any rumors...I don't put ketchup on everything, just on the things it belongs on. And on those particular things, yes, I like it in mass.



But perhaps my most exciting food discovery took place last Sunday evening. We had just finished photographing Natesha and Chris's wedding in Orlando. We stopped off for a snack and as I was browsing the aisle I found the long awaited and much anticipated DARK Chocolate peanut M&Ms! It's impossible for you to realize how happy this made me. They came out with dark chocolate M&Ms for a limited time back with the Star Wars movie was released a couple years ago. Soon they were discontinued and I was disappointed. Then, a few months back we discovered dark chocolate plain M&Ms. Alas, I had hope that some day soon the dark chocolate peanut versions would be back. And I'm very pleased to announce that they're here!!!!!!

So party! And please eat responsibly.

Happy 7th Anniversary To Us

Happy Anniversary to us today....7 YEARS, its been an amazing time!!!

(Photos by Katie and Chris Torres - 6 of Four Creations) (more on these fantastic pictures/photographers later).

Ann Marie and William

We had a great e-session last weekend with Ann Marie and William. We shot at the bride's home, in Ponce Inlet. What a beautiful and serene location to live, looking out the front of their home at the Ponce Inlet lighthouse and out of the back of the house at the beach. What I didn't realize, though, is that their portion of beach/ocean has the largest concentration of sharks in the United States!!! Fortunately we didn't get close enough to meet any of them.

Ann Marie and William did great! We shot on the beach, around the house, with the Bentley, and then finished up with a gigantic leap into the pool.





We can't wait for their wedding next month in St. Augustine.