Bar Harbor Florist Laurie Riddell of Cottage Flowers

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting talented wedding vendors in Maine....Working today on a print order for Bar Harbor-based florist Laurie Riddell of Cottage Flowers, I'm reminded how it's always a pleasure to work with her. Always found with a smile on her face, Laurie can do it all. Her work is showcased at all the regular wedding venues in the Bar Harbor area and in weddings held on private sites all over Mount Desert Island. If you are planning a wedding in the Acadia Region, you should stop by and see her when you are in the area because her web site gives only a small peek at her talents.I was fortunate to work with Laurie at several weddings this past summer in Bar Harbor (at the Bar Harbor Inn and at the Bar Harbor Club) and also in Northest Harbor (at the Asticou Inn). The arrangements in the photographs that illustrate this post are all Laurie's creations.

Brunswick Bids Good-bye to Highly Successful Coach

That sound you heard coming out of Brunswick earlier this week was a collective groan over the news that record-setting Bowdoin womens' basketball coach Stefanie Pemper is leaving Maine. The talented coach has been selected as womens' basketball coach at the U.S. Naval Academy.In her ten years on the Brunswick campus Stefanie has guided the Polar Bears to a 235-48 record and amassed the fourth-best coaching record (.830) in Division III history.
It was just a matter of time before a Division I school snapped her up, but of course Polar Bear faithful hoped the inevitable might be delayed as long as possible.
The photographs with this post are from the Polar Bears' 2004 season when the team went 30-1, losing only in the Division III national championship game. That year Stefanie was named WBCA Division III Coach of the Year and senior Lora Trenkle was named All-American.
The popular coach leaves big shoes to be filled. For more details of her incredibly history with the Polar Bears, see the Bowdoin College web site.

Maine DJ Tracy Carson

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting talented wedding vendors in Maine....

I had the pleasure today of meeting one of my very favorite wedding vendors, disc jockey Tracy Carson, for a lobster roll at the Brunswick Diner. (The banner on the side of the classic diner reads "Best Lobster Roll in Maine" and so that demanded an unofficial taste testing.)

Tracy is an incredible DJ, he can be counted on to keep the dance floor hopping. Very easy-going, he's also the consummate professional and a joy to work with. And, perhaps because I give his name out all the time, I am lucky to get to work with him at several weddings each summer.

After lunch he dropped by my studio for a new head shot for his website; having recently purchased a lovely new Nikon lens designed especially for taking portraits, I was very happy to have the opportunity to test it out! We quickly captured, tweaked and posted a new head shot for his web site at DJResources.net.

If you are looking for a disc jockey for your Maine wedding, you can't go wrong with Tracy.

And, yes, the lobster rolls were yummy. Ah, the taste of summer in Maine!

Fiddle Dee!

I was fortunate to be asked to shoot a story on the Maine Fiddle Camp for Down East magazine. The story, shot last summer, appears in the April issue of the magazine, which is on the newsstands at this time.

I was told before shooting the story to focus on the camp food, and having spent many a summer at camp--first as a camper and later as a counselor--I thought I knew what to expect--s'mores, shepherds pie and spaghetti night.  Boy, was I wrong.

Omigosh, this was a camp food experience like no other. Think rosemary focaccia, beet salad and blueberry cobbler from scratch.  And, everyone insisted that I not go home hungry. I can't remember the last time I was fed so well on an assignment!

If you are a Maine fiddler, no doubt you already know about the camp. If you are a Maine fiddler and haven't attended, don't put it off any longer. You owe it to your stomach to go to this camp!

(Still) More Snow

As much as everyone in Maine is surely ready for the end of this year's record-setting winter--where many towns have seen almost 100 inches of snow, road departments have nearly depleted salt supplies and school children have been sent home because of fears that roofs may buckle from unanticipated loads--it's difficult not to see the beauty in March snows. 

With temperatures hovering near freezing, March snows are usually the most photogenic. The temps are cold enough to form fat flakes of snow but warm enough that photographers can get out and take pictures without paying for it with throbbing fingers and toes.

Here's a lone oak with tire swing from one of my favorite roads in Brunswick.

Bravo to the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory

Okay, I'll admit it:  I'm smitten with the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory.  I've been to the top of the observatory at least ten times and I still smile in amazement each time I round the bend on Route 1 and catch the first glimpse of it ahead. I can't help but pull my car over and jump out with my camera, hoping I'll be lucky enough to catch a tugboat or ship making its way under the span.

The new structure, which is located adjacent to Fort Knox, carries U.S. Route 1 traffic across the Penobscot River near Bucksport--more precisely between the communities of Prospect and Verona Island.

More than just a bridge, it's an engineering marvel, a work of art. The 2000-plus-foot-long cable-stayed bridge (in the style of Boston's Zakim Bridge) sports one of only four bridge observatories in the world--yes, in the world, and the only one in the U.S.  The 420-foot observatory tower, fashioned after the Washington Monument which was made with granite quarried nearby, offers incredible, panoramic views in all directions. On a clear day visitors can see the Camden Hills, Acadia, and even Katahdin.

Kudos to the Maine Department of Transportation, to Figg Engineering Group or to whoever it was who came up with the ingenious idea of incorporating an observation tower into the new bridge. In its first season the observatory drew almost twice as many visitors as officials had been expecting.  I guess that shows a lot of folks were smitten, or at the very least intrigued.

I was fortunate to be asked to shoot photos of the bridge and observatory for a story that appears in Down East Magazine's  April Vacation Planner issue. The issue won't be on newsstands until the middle of March, but subscribers are getting a sneak preview as the magazine is already showing up in mailboxes.  If you are a bridge aficionado or just enjoy great views, check out Jeff Clark's story in the magazine. 

And, by all means go see the bridge in person if you haven't already.

More photos of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory click here.

Caribbean cruise up for grabs starting March 1st

Now through November 14, 2008, couples can register to win a Princess Cruise Lines voyage to the Southern Carribean. There is no purchase required; you only need to schedule a free in-person consultation at my studio in Brunswick.

The cruise is the grand prize in the "Escape to Paradise" sweepstakes.  The grand prize, valued at $5,000,  also includes airfare to and from a major airport nearest the winner's home and ground transportation to and from the destination airport and the port of departure.  

The sweepstakes is made possible by Professional Photographers Association of America. PPA is "the world’s largest association for imaging professionals'' with a membership of more than 19,000 worldwide.

For the second year in a row, PPA is sponsoring the sweepstakes, which allows member photographers (like me) to pool our resources to fund a contest for our clients. By contributing $100, I can enter all my wedding clients into the contest. 

Additional prizes up for grabs include a 50" plasma screen TV, digital camera, a GPS navigation system, PDAs and a $500 American Express gift card.

It's fun knowing that for a relatively small fee I can qualify my wedding couples to win some great prizes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The Fabulous Nell Bryden

I am so excited to be able to feature the music of indie singer songwriter Nell Bryden on my web site.

Nell is a New York City native who is making waves on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in Brooklyn to an impressionist painter dad and a classical singer mom, Nell began her formal music training early with piano lessons at age four. After thinking she might try classical music or opera, she finally found her voice in a bluesy-folksy genre influenced by the likes of Patsy Cline, Janis Joplin and New Orleans Jazz.



I was lucky enough to cross paths with Nell at a wedding at the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor, Maine. A good friend of bride and groom Phoebe and Craig, Nell had agreed to sing The Beatles' "In My Life" for their ceremony. With a simple guitar accompaniment  she sent chills up my spine with the best rendition of that song outside of The Beatles!

Later, during the reception, when the band took a break, Nell took the stage and wowed the crowd with her original composition "Tonight."

One incredible benefit of my job is meeting so many wonderful couples and their friends, many of who are just getting started in their careers. I expect that I'll hear their names again as they go on to be leaders in industry, the arts, public service, academia and other fields. I fully expect that one day Nell Bryden will be a household name, and when I hear her on the radio I'll smile and think back to Phoebe and Craig's wedding in Northeast Harbor.

Please take a minute to visit Nell's web site at NellBryden.com or her My Space site. You can also find at least four of her albums and over two dozen singles on iTunes. If you live in the New York City area, catch a live performance if you can. At You Tube you can catch a particularly stirring rendition of Tonight for a radio station in Holland.

If I'm allowed to toot my own horn...

I'd like to share my excitement over having two of my 2007 wedding images place in the most recent contest of the Wedding Photojournalist Association. The WPJA, a screened directory of wedding photographers, sponsors four contests per year and I enter the contest on an irregular basis as often the contest deadlines fall during our busiest season. This year, despite being up to our necks in Christmas reprint orders, I was able to steal a few hours to submit images.

Though I market myself as a Maine photographer, as fate would have it, the images that placed in the last contest were from out-of state-weddings. The first image shows Mary's anticipation as she is about to walk down the aisle at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston.

The second, from the Sunapee Harbor, New Hampshire, wedding of Sarah and Carter, shows Sarah's fear and she and Carter were lifted up on their guests' shoulders during the dancing.

These two images, join another WPJA winner from the third quarter contest in 2006, this time from a Maine wedding. It shows the wind picking up Katie's veil as she entered the ceremony at Clark's Cove Farm in South Bristol.

Deadlines for holiday reprint orders

Every year we get deluged with reprint orders in the weeks leading up to the holidays. There are days when the mail brings us orders for over a hundred reprints; in the busiest part of the holiday reprint season we might not be able to even start on your order for two weeks after it arrives because we are still tied up on the orders that preceded it.

Because I am a home-based business, zoning ordinances bar me from bringing more than one employee onsite at a time. Since I can’t add more staff to make it through the holiday reprint rush, my "solution" is to ask you to get your orders in as early as possible so that we can start on them as soon as possible.Unfortunately, every year we run right up against the holidays with an order or two, with a variety of unanticipated problems. Try as hard as we can to get everything right, sometimes things still go wrong. Perhaps the person ordering wrote down the wrong image number, or they got their order in very late. Or, perhaps the lab sent us the wrong size print, or it left a few images out of the order. Or, maybe when a print came back from the lab, we weren't happy with the quality and decided to redo it. Or, maybe we missed one image on our end or we got a number wrong. We've also had some delivery issues, where the post office just didn't get something where it needed to be. So, in some instances, regrettably, we need time to do an order and we need time to redo it. So, it really pays to get started early, so we can head off any potential problems as early as possible.

A big thank-you to everyone who has already turned in holiday orders. You should definitely get your orders in plenty of time.

An advisory to everyone else: If you can turn in your order before November 1st, we will do our best to get your photos to you in time for holiday gift giving. Our goal is to take every order turned in by November 1st and to have it in the mail to you by December 10th.If you turn in your order after November 1st, we will still do our best to have it to you in time for holiday gift giving, but we can't guarantee when you'll get it. You might have to pay for expedited shipping if you have a tight deadline.

Instructions for ordering prints are on this page of my web site. On that page you will find all of the reprint sizes and prices, and there is a form you can download and print out for your order. We find that orders go most smoothly when folks use the form and submit their order through (snail) mail. So, to get your order the quickest, please use the form.When folks don’t use our order form they often omit essential information we need to fill the order, and the order gets held up while we contact them with questions. Also, orders sent as attachments to emails can get scrubbed by a SPAM filter, and an email order can get lost among the incessant junk email we got. So, please use the form and please send it in using regular mail.

All reprint orders are custom work, and as such they need to be paid in advance. Couples who have an album credit on account with us and anyone who has a gift certificate on account doesn't have to send a check for reprints unless the order exceeds the balance on account. Folks who don't have a credit should enclose a check; failure to enclose the proper payment will hold up reprint orders.

Any questions? Don’t hesitate to e-mail for help.

KATRINA: There is still so much work to be done

Last week I was able to travel to Mississippi and Louisiana and witness firsthand the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Though I grew up on the Alabama Gulf Coast, and visited Mississippi numerous times after Hurricane Camille struck there in 1969, I still wasn't prepared for how widespread and intense Katrina's destruction would be.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'll repeat what so many others have said: it's difficult to appreciate how complete the devastation was until you see it in person. Pictures in magazines and newspapers and reports on the tv news just don't prepare you for mile after mile of houses rendered uninhabitable by the August 29th storm and the subsequent levee breaks which sent storm waters rushing throughout the New Orleans suburbs.

I spent several days with a group for Bowdoin College in Brunswick that traveled down to work as volunteers in a free Soup Kitchen located in St. Bernard Parish. While there I was able to drive around and photograph some of the worst devastation in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

When we entered into an area of heavy devastation (adjacent to one of the levee breaks) the first thing that caught our eye were four houses slammed into one another. Overhead dangled traffic signals that were still inoperable nine months after the storm. Unfortunately, things didn't get that much better as we proceeded. Driving a few blocks to the left we saw empty lots littered with vehicles, broken wood, and mostly-unidentifible dirty-brown debris.

There was a giant tree trunk sitting on top of a car, a car on top of another car, and a sofa dangling precariously off a pick-up truck turned on its side. A truck was rammed up against a set of concrete house steps, the only sign of the residence that one stood there. Another house had been shoved off its foundation and stuck out into the street.As we progressed to streets where homes were still standing, I imagined this must be what a war zone looked like: gutted ruins of houses with no sign of life. A vandal with a can of spray paint apparently agreed.Homes that were still standing were most likely stripped of all their contents, either by vandals or by their former residents eager to salvage any relics they could find of their pre-Katrina lives.And, it was not only homes that stood vacant. At least ninety-five percent of the structures we saw appeared to still be in ruins: fast-food restaurants,entire shopping centers,churches,doctor's offices, banks, the library, fire stations, schools, the post office, government offices. Katrina got them all.

Wherever we drove (for miles and miles) in St. Bernard Parish it was desolate, damaged and depressing.

The handful of businesses that had re-open stood out. The Home Depot had a full parking lot. We stopped at a Walgreens drug store with a "NOW OPEN" sign, and patrons were lined up at the two cash registers. At the Murphy Oil filling station on the main drag, one of the few filling stations we noticed open, there was a car at every pump.

It's difficult to even imagine being a resident of St. Bernard Parish today. I know that I would have given up and fled to a new home had I lived in St. Bernard Parish pre-Katrina. I would not have the heart to go back and face the struggles that are there now.

The new norm is FEMA trailer parks everywhere. On the parking lot of the Dominoe Sugar refinery, in grassy fields adjacent the main drag, flanking the pond in the public park behind the parish government center, there are rows and rows of identical white trailers.

And the FEMA trailers are not house "single-wide" trailers, but instead tiny travel trailers. Many of the trailers we saw had only one window per side. Surely, it must be like living in a tin can.

As the new hurricane season opens today, we can't allow ourselves to forget the victims of Katrina. These people, in New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, have years, maybe even decades of uphill struggle ahead of them trying to rebuild some semblance of a life. They need our continued prayers and support.

Is it okay for our guests to also take pictures?

Absolutely!

There are so many wonderful things going on during your wedding day that our philosophy about cameras is "the more the merrier." Even though we will work our hardest to deliver the most comprehensive coverage possible, we admit there will be some moments that we miss simply because we can't be in all places at the same time. Try as hard as we might, we can't do it all.

We'll try our darndest not to miss the defining moments, but we might miss the flower girl yawning during dinner or your grandmother tearing up during the toasts, and if you have a guest with a camera who is right there and can capture the moment on film--or in pixels--then we are all for it. And, sometimes even if we get the moment, your guest might capture it from another, equally interesting, angle.
The one thing we do ask is that you do not hire another photographer to also document your day. We can add additional photographers to our team to expand our own coverage, but we don't want to be put in the position of competing for shots with another professional who might block our view of the first kiss or compromise our ability to do our own job well.

Professional photographers who are family or friends and who bring along a camera tend to be no problem at all as they typically are incredibly respectful, aware that we've got a job to do, and they tend to go out of their way to not interfere. We find that they complement--but do not complicate--our job.

During the posed portion of the photos it can slow things down to have other people around with cameras, but we don't shoo them away. Instead, we simply try to coordinate the process so it goes as smoothly and as quickly as possible. Our primary concern in that context is to have all eyes looking at us when we are taking our shots so that we can give you posed photos where all faces are smiling and looking at the camera. The last thing we want is a group of confused people who don't know which camera to look at!

There is such a thing as too much light for photography!

If I'm out in public with my camera gear and it's a bright sunny day, invariably someone will spot my cameras and comment "What a great day for taking pictures!" Actually, it couldn't be farther from the truth, but I don't want to appear rude, so I'll usually nod in agreement and say "It is gorgeous, isn't it?"

Well, the truth is that photographers actually avoid shooting in the brightest sun. Those lovely landscape photos that appear in calendars and grace the covers of travel guides are usually taken in the first few minutes after sunrise or the last few minutes before sunset, capturing what photographers refer to as "Magic Light." At the very beginning and end of the day the sun is low, close to the horizon, and any shadows that it casts are long and soft. Often this light is in extraordinary shades of pink, red, purple, orange, and gold. So, landscape photographers typically set their alarm clocks and rise an hour or so before sunrise so they can be in place for the very first light of the day. They shoot like crazy outdoors for an hour or so, then they move to the part of their shot list that has shots in the shade or even indoors.If there are no indoor or shaded items on their shot list, they might pack their cameras away and go eat breakfast, take a shower, take a nap, do office work, or scout for the location where they'll spend the next sunrise and sunset. Then, just before sunset, they spring into action again to catch the last light of the day.

Believe it or not, photographers actually like overcast, cloudy, and even foggy days, as the clouds and fog can diffuse the light, making it soft and even. Sometimes photographers will get really lucky, and get the best of both worlds: light wispy clouds which persist throughout the day, enough clouds to soften the bright sun but not enough clouds to block out the deep blue sky.From the Greek photo (light) and graphy (to write or to draw), photography is all about the light. It's not about having the most expensive camera or whether you shoot digital or film. Instead, it is about capturing images in the most beautiful light possible. Beautiful light can make or break a shoot.

Just as Magic Light flatters the landscape, it is also excellent light for portraiture. If you hire a photographer for family portraiture, chances are the photographer will suggest that you schedule your photo session late in the afternoon, when the outdoor light is most flattering to people.
Or, if your family is available only in the middle of the day, the photographer might suggest that the photos be taken indoors maybe with studio lighting.

Unfortunately, wedding events in general and the posed photos in particular usually can't be scheduled around when the outdoor lighting is most likely to be ideal. That's because the wedding typically is scheduled with regard to when a church is available or how long the reception site is booked, or when the cocktail hour and meal need to be set so guests won't be famished. Likewise, wedding photographers can't cover only the portion of the outdoor activities that coincide with the "Magic Light," though chances are if the photographer is hired for extended coverage, the light will be excellent for at least a few hours during the coverage period. During the rest of the coverage period if the guests and festivities are out of doors, a good photographer works to make the best possible photos in the existing lighting.

Wedding photographers are often called upon to cover outdoor wedding ceremonies that are outside in the middle of the day when the sun is its brightest and directly overhead. If the wedding happens to fall on a bright-sun-blue-sky day--exactly what every bride and groom wish for, this often means special challenges for photography. Sometimes it means a bride (in a white dress) is standing in direct sunlight while the groom (in a black tux) is standing in the shade. The special challenge there is that film (and digital) cameras aren't able to record the full range of tones that our eyes can handle, so the either the bride's dress must be overexposed or the groom's tux underexposed. With cameras' limited abilities to record such a wide range of light, it's simply not possible to record both correctly. Or, perhaps the guests are seated in "broken shade" where rays of very bright sunlight break through otherwise flattering shadows to cause hot spots. The photographer can't interrupt the ceremony and ask the couple (or guests) to scoot a few feet to the right where there is shade, but must execute the best possible photos under the circumstances.

Most "formal" or posed pictures at a wedding are taken directly before or after the ceremony, in the same sort of light, and this is where the photographer can step in and take control and move the subjects to more flattering light. Not only does bright sun entail dark shadows, and encourage squinting, but if the weather is warm, the hot sunlight can make subjects uncomfortable and bring on perspiration, especially when the men are in dark tuxes which suck up the hot sun. When I'm shooting wedding portraits and the light is bright, I look for more flattering light in large areas of shade, on porches, in open doorways, and inside near large windows.

Porch light can be very sweet, flattering light. It is usually stronger from one direction (from the open side of the porch) but usually not so much stronger as to be contrasty. Coming in from the side (instead of from overhead) it wraps around faces very softly.

Open doorways are much like porches. Light is soft, shaded, directional and flattering.When light is very strong outside, often it's very soft inside right by windows. And, if the color of the room is warm (yellow, gold, wood) the light indoors is often warm.When it's cold and/or rainy, it's often possible to get very flattering light right next to window, especially if there is a wall of windows, a large sliding glass door, or an enclosed porch providing a very broad source of light. One key when moving inside for photos is to find a background that is "clean" or not distracting. When I move indoors or in the shade, if the background is not particular scenic or compelling, I'll often zoom in closer on faces, cropping out/minimizing the background.If I move my subjects to a shady or indoor spot for midday formal posed portraits, I usually look for the opportunity to repeat a few of the most important posed shots (the couple, the bridal party) out of doors, later in the day when the bright sun has softened and gorgeous sunset conditions have developed. Later in the day, closer to sunset, when the Magic Light has materialized, I like to sneak in a few more quick shots in light that is flattering to both people and the scenery.

New Maine Events Venue: Retreat at French's Point

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting wedding resources in Maine...

Today's mail brought an invitation to the Grand Opening Gala for The Retreat at French's Point, a new events, wedding and conference venue on the shores of Penobscot Bay in Stockton Springs (between Belfast and Bucksport.) I won't be able to attend as I'll be on Cape Cod to photograph a wedding that day, but I look forward to my next trip to the area so I can stop in and see the results of the fourteen-month-long restoration efforts on the old Hersey Retreat.
Built almost a century ago as a gathering center for the Universalist Church of Bangor, the shingle-style cottage has a commanding view of Penobscot Bay. In 2002, the Robert N. Brooks family purchased the land with the idea of restoring the historic cottage and grounds for weddings and other events.

I visited the grounds years ago, just after the Brooks family purchased it but before any construction had been done, and even at that point it was obvious that the location could be superb for weddings and other events as the shingle cottage, with its wide porches, sits on a point of land jutting into Penobscot Bay; it is surrounded by water on three sides. According to the web site, the facility will be able to host weddings with up to 299 guests, and that should come as great news to prospective Maine brides and grooms who want to get married waterside, but find that many existing spaces simply can't accommodate as many guests as they would like to invite. It should be especially attractive to couples from Bangor who don't want to travel as far as Mount Desert Island.

I wish good luck to Jessika Brooks, owner and CEO, and look forward to my next trip Down East when I can stop in and meet her and see the fruits of her labor.

"Should we hire a videographer?"

Couples often ask me if they should hire a videographer. My answer is consistently "if you can afford to have videography, I think it's a great idea."

There are definitely aspects of the day which video can capture but that still photography cannot: the music, the quiver in your voice when you say your vows, the texts of the toasts, the fluid motion in the dancing.

My favorite example of video's special contribution comes from the wedding of Prince Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor and Diana Frances Spencer; when Princess Di said Charles' names in the wrong order, the video caught it.

When all is said and done, all you have to remember the day are your fading memories and the still photographs, so if you can add to that with video, then go for it!

My only advice is to shop for videographers looking for the same qualities you've looked for in a still photographer; if you've chosen an unobtrusive photojournalistic photographer, then most likely you don't want a videographer who will be staging photo opps and getting in your way all day.

And, it's great if your videographer and photographer can talk for just a minute or so ahead of time to make sure that they understand how each other works and can both serve you well without getting into each other's way.

My favorite videographers are the ones who have at one time worked as TV cameramen because they understand the "photojournalism" perspective.

If you've hired me as your still photographer, and you want me to look at the web site of any videographers you are considering, just let me know and I'll take a look.

Can't find a spot in your budget for professional video? Ask a friend or family member with a video camera to bring it along for the day.