a few scenes from my trip...

double click photo to make it larger.

Diana

Ben got me the most awesome v-day present EVER!! A Diana camera... and just in time for my Japan trip too!

I have been wanting one of these for years and can't wait to take it out and play with it.

Check out its capabilities here.

Thanks b!

Wallpaper Love

About a month and a half ago, when I got this new computer, I randomly looked for an image to be the new desktop wallpaper.  Not sure what I entered into GoogleImages, but somehow found this peach.  It's been my desktop both at work and at home since then - it is the perfect background.  Not too much going on, neutral palette, AWESOME image... And I'm sure it doesn't translate too well on blogger, but the resolution is really high in my version, so it still looks great on my laptop or my cinema display at work.  Love it.  Can't change it.  Let me know if you want the high-res version :)

Happy NEW YEAR!

WOW! indeed... we have been MIA. I have been traveling like crazy, home to NC and Atlanta which I am back to tomorrow. So in light of a new year, lets not stay away for so long ok?

I would like to make an introduction though. Ben and I created a blog starting today. The gyst is that we want to utilize our iPhones camera, and show our perspectives.

So I introduce: BE combined. check it out.
Happy New Year. yay 2009... I'm ready for a Change. This year is gonna be good.

halloween party... a week late

It feels like a decade since last week, so many things happening! So I almost forgot to post Halloween pictures!!

This is Ben and my halloween costume. Richie and Margot from Royal Tenenbaums.

You can see the rest of the pictures on Flickr here.

sweet relief

find image and more great ones HERE



What a day in history!

Ryan

Ben sent over the link to his long time friend Ryan's freshly launched website. I knew Ryan was talented, but these are incredible.... and fun to look at. The diptychs he has created on his site are pretty rad too.Ryan has also started doing wedding and event photography. So if you know anyone, pass on the word.

PSD Actions

I downloaded a set of actions from Pioneer Woman a few weeks ago, and today, in a (brief) moment of boredom, played-around a bit with them. I love- LOVE -these actions. Here are some before and after's (some of the before images aren't the same... my organization is pretty weak and I'm having trouble finding the original files - might have accidentally deleted them, but they are all from the same 'roll').

24 before 25

Erin told me to read her post and do my own - seemed like an easy task until I started it. Giving myself short-term goals is easy. There's no deadline. But giving myself until August 0f 2009 is tough. Trying to come up with goals that aren't all self-critical and instead are optimistically ambitious is even more difficult.

1 Lose the weight - I mean it. I'm down the majority of it already, but I've got 15 to go. I want it gone by Christmas, and maintained all through next year.
2 Run three times each week...outside...I'm too cheap to pay for a membership to the gym these days - for some reason I have a feeling I should be saving money (coughECONOMIC CRISIScough)
3 Learn football - not just the basics, but really learn it during this season and before next year's season starts.
4 Develop a wardrobe I'll wear.
5 Send gifts on time or early - especially to family.
6 Take a trip with my frequent flyer miles to a place I've never been.
7 Make a dress.
8 Make my bed each morning.
9 Vote, and learn enough about the candidate to defend my vote.
10 Write thank-you notes for each gift I receive.
11 Eat breakfast every morning and make coffee instead of buying it.
12 Participate in at least three runs.
13 Use the library for non-work related reading.
14 Throw a baby shower for my best friend, and try not to feel sick over the thought of someone my age reproducing.
15 Try new restaurants in Charlotte.
16 Go on a gallery crawl in NoDa.
17 Go for a run through Uptown.
18 Stop buying so many clothes.......(full price)
19 Spend more time outside.
20 Work on my LEED certification.
21 Keep photo albums up to date.
22 Re-paint my red credenza.
23 Figure out where to live next - locally or not.
24 Spend some time re-learning my old 35mm SLR, AND get the film developed.

Clearly I had to use my list of resolutions, as well... It was good to look back at the list now that we're in the last leg of the race for 2008, see what I've accomplished and what I need to put more effort into. Lets see how this list goes!

yipee!

B and I are moving in together this weekend!

the picture isn't us.... but isn't the room cool?!?! via The Selby (cheri messerli and david rager)

accidents

Ben and I went to see Ratatat at the Granada last night. It was a pretty good concert, lots of super cool 'scene kids' my brothers would have loved it!

Anyway, I used my phone to take a picture of the front of the Theatre and it did this weird split screen thing. I didn't notice last night. I just took it and moved on, but I actually LOVE it. The accident turned out better than i could have planned. so fun when that happens.

Love + Obama

First of all, I agree with erin on the previous post - I love the approach Obama's supporters have taken to help earn him the presidency. However, and please forgive me for saying this if it seems sacrilegious, but I'm a little concerned on a McCain-kinda level that it's becoming more about the celebrity / graphic / marketing side of Obama than about his history in politics and plans for the future. Either way, I love the print from The Scoop, I just hope that throughout the debates they start to balance it out more - the U.S. isn't full of JUST young people :)

On another note, I've been stalking wedding photographers' blogs again this morning... It's pictures like these, from DrewB, that make me so anxious to find that person. I think that's the trick - it's not that I'm envious of their clothes, the setting, or the photo shoot in general, but of the connection between them - probably one of the toughest things to capture in a series of photos. Love them!

Bluejake

In a list of 30+ blogs / sites I look at in the mornings (stalling? broadening my horizons? waking up with some help from some creative people?), I looked through the photos on Bluejake - a NYC photo blog - and came across this photo of some cool graffiti... I love the graphic arrow on the wall - it's the kind of graffiti I referenced during my last semester in Iarc doing my thesis project on a downtown public art museum that used different types of graffiti / street art as wayfinding.



On another note, as much as I (gulp) dislike NYC - I'm way too self-conscious to spend very much time in a city full of beautiful, successful people with attitude - I've walked past the Apple Store on 14th a few times and never gone in. This photo makes me regret that in a pretty big way... next time I'm definitely going take a moment to stop and smell the iPods a la NYC.



And one last photo from their site - this is one of a few of the Glenwood Power Station in Yonkers. I think one of the best attributes to our generation is that we're able to look at the potential in things. I think 8 out of 10 people in our age bracket would look at this building and drop their jaw at how beautiful it is and, furthermore, could be. Appreciating the industrial, raw-edged, straight to the point and rehabilitated aspects of a building both for residential and commercial re-uses seems to be one of the trendy trademarks to our generation - something I hope to get in-on soon...

i'm back!

My apologies for the extended hiatus on posts out of Charlotte - I've been distracted by all of the right and wrong things, but that's life, right?

In checking-back in with the blogging world, I've missed a couple great weddings, in terms of photography. Just came across this one from Mary Kate McKenna- I love the details! I love the style of his suit, and the fact that it is gray, and I love that both of them have this vintage-modern appeal that is totally emphasized by the purple tie and yellow flowers! For whatever reason, the people and the clothing seem a little dated (in a good way) and the style of those yellow flowers with the pop of purple give it that great contemporary flare :) I might be way-off on this one, but I love it none the less.

* PS: check out their rings from Etsy!

On another note, Braedon posted some photos from an all-white wedding he did with Jessica Claire. Both are amazing photographers, which I think was probably pretty helpful to pull-off this kind of wedding. I guess this is one instance where it's okay to where white as a guest to the wedding :) I love it - I hope that someday I can take such an idea so simple and clean and use it in my kind of wedding. Keep the focus (from the beginning) on keeping things minimal, and just go with it. Love it!

100++ degrees!!

Go for a swim this weekend... it is HOT! or stay inside and check out Brigitte Sire photography portfolio.

it's wedding season!

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while... besides being preoccupied with this that and the other, it's wedding season and I've been totally absorbed in all of the great photography to be seen from it.

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending one of our sorority sister's weddings in Winston-Salem. It was really cute- a Catholic wedding in a really adorable little church, followed by a reception in an art center, I think. It was a very-much pink + orange color scheme and the reception hall was beautifully decorated- the linens, flowers, accents, and decorations all around matched so well. All of these paper lanterns / lights were apparently hung the night before by a few people, including the mother of the bride who has a broken ankle or something! Such a trooper...



I've pretty-much decided that the second I get engaged I'm calling Mary Kate and scheduling my wedding around her availability... you know I stalk these photographer's blogs, but her photos tug at my heart like no other. Hopefully she'll be doing weddings for a long time because I haven't even found someone to marry, but I would have a wedding just to have her photograph it!

mark brooke

Mark Brooke is a photographer, like a few others, who has a blog that I check... almost daily. Still forever-far from my OWN wedding, let alone engagement photos, I have an obsession with the variety of styles that I've seen in these *romantic* portraits!

Mark Brooke seems to have a vintage style in his- or at least the end result of his photos do... Not sure if it's the clothing the couple chose or the photography style that makes this session so cool, but I love it either way :)

Vegas Boneyard

A week ago I was in Vegas for a little pre-pre set up and we had some very rare downtime one day. Oh the luxury! Gregg had wanted to go to the Morelli house for sometime and I had wanted to check out the Vegas neon boneyard. We were going to attempt to do both before we had to head to the airport.

We almost didn't get to do either because of the strict appointment policy that both of them have. WE did get to go to the Boneyard because we begged and pleaded and used out god given patience and waited it out to see if there were any no-shows so we could go in. as luck would have it we did.

I took some really rad photos and am really excited about them so I made a lil coffee table book at blurb. You can get one too if you are so inclined. Just follow the link in the column to the right labeled from erin.

Ashes + Snow

I've mentioned my coworker who is traveling throughout central + south america these days with his wife (for a year, I think), and the blog that they keep to chronicle their experiences.

Recently they posted about an exhibit they've seen- 'ashes and snow' -which has something to do with animals + humans via photography + film. Just the picture they posted makes me want to look into it... check it out.

Jessica Claire + My Dream Wedding

You'll see me talk about Jessica Claire, one of my favorite wedding photographers to date, and the amazing photographs she manages to take away from every and any wedding. Most of the time there are things that I like from each one, but it seems to be more about the photography rather than the decor / style of the wedding.

In this case, it's all of it. 9 things out of 10 make up my 'dream wedding' here- the colors chosen, the style, the SETTING, etc... photos like this make my decision more and more secure that I'll want a 'destination wedding.' Now all I need is the groom...

(I sure do have a lot of choices made without having a wedding to plan!) These are some of my favorites: