Don't "Say Cheese"

"Say Cheese!!!" How many professional photographers say that?  None that I know of and you want to know why?  Because that is what mom has been saying to you since you were a kid.  It's what she said to you when you were blowing out your candles on your 5th birthday cake, what she told you on the first day of school and most likely every time she took a photo of you all dressed up for a middle school or high school dance.

Now no matter how much you love your mom the last thing you want to be told on your wedding day or at your engagement or portrait session is "Say Cheese".  You want to feel like you; the most beautiful, amazing version of you.  When you say "cheese" trust me it's not a natural smile and my goal is to capture the naturally happy you not the cheesy version.  When you point a camera at someone 99% of people become at least a little self conscious.

"does my hair look ok?" "is there something in my teeth?" "do I look fat?"

There are three main things that I do as a photographer to help avoid these self conscious questions.

1. I get to know my clients.  Before I ever put a camera in a clients face I'm going to talk to them.  Hopefully I've met them before the day of the shoot and not only have we chatted about the shoot details but we went off on some crazy tangent about our mutual love of dogs, wine or even cupcakes.  We have built a relationship, however simple.  They know that I am not going to ask them to balance on one foot and touch their nose while crossing their eyes to create a photo.  All my clients have seen my images and can see the natural feel that they have. This instantly puts them at ease knowing that my expectations are not of some high fashion, over the top look.

2. I give positive reinforcement.  When we are shooting and the images are beautiful I cant' help but blurt out things like "WOW"  "You guys are SOOO CUTE"  "uggh I love this".  The moment I tell my clients that they are ROCKING it they smile, they take a deep breath and feel immediately more secure.  If they anyone is stiff or having a hard time realizing I tell a joke, make a funny face and often ask them to just take a deep breath.  Especially brides and bride and grooms together.  Often times they forget to breath!!! So just telling them to snuggle and relax into one another and take a deep breath can make all the difference between stiff and romantic, authentic images.

3. I always tell couples to "Just be cute" and families to just "be yourself" mostly this tip applies to couples at engagements shots or on the wedding day.  A lot of times they kind of look at me like "umm thats not much for directions" and if they give me that look sometimes I'll give them a little something to do like: hug, hold hands, give her a kiss on the cheek.  Most of the time saying things like "just be cute" can work wonders.  They end up snuggling up together in each others arms and stop paying attention to me.  I also will sometimes put them in a great spot with killer light and tell them to just relax while I get my setting right- then I never tell them when I start shooting and they don't even realize I'm taking photos of them for real (not just testing light) until I've already grabbed 10 or so great images of them just being THEM.  When it comes to families- The last thing I want is mom's and dad's telling their kids to smile and look at me.  Of course we want to try to grab at least one image of everyone looking at the camera but most of the time when the kid is actually looking and smiling mom is looking at them trying to make sure they are looking at me.  My goal for all my family portrait and lifestyle sessions is to capture the family as a family.  Smiling, laughing, playing and interacting.  Thats the true beauty of a family and the same goes for couples- their interaction IS the photograph not the forced smile.

The key for my style of photography is to capture moments and emotion.  For me to be able to do that I have to have my clients comfortable with me camera in hand.  There are lots of good tricks out there and these just happen to be the three that I use all the time.  Clients love to feel beautiful and confident and the more time they feel good about themselves while in front of the camera the better images I'm going to get- so my goal is to get time comfortable with me from the start.

If you are a photographer what are some of your favorite tricks to get people to loosen up and be themselves in front of the camera?  Leave a comment below and one lucky person will win a Starbucks gift card- which you should totally use to try their new Blond roast... soooo good :)

XOXO Spring

Wedded Bliss: wedding hair styles

My hair does not grow.  Well thats a little exaggeration but really, in all honesty, my hair grows so slowly that you would think it doesn't grow at all.  I have been 'growing' my hair out for at least 3 years and it's only about 4 inches longer.  I haven't cut more then an inch and a half off at a time in more then 3 years and I only get my hair cut 4 -5 times a year.  Needless to say when Silas proposed one of the first things I was thinking about (after date, venue and photographer) was needing to grow my hair out as long as possible to have options when it came to styling. Over the past year I've spent hours with my maid of honor looking at wedding hair styles.  We've scoured google images, pinterest and many other wedding and red carpet blogs looking for that perfect style.  I have yet to find something that I'm sure is "IT" but at least I finally have some ideas of the direction I want to go.  My actual hair style is one of those details that I hadn't thought a whole lot about early on.  I just wanted to have something nice that I liked and would work with the style of my dress.  Now that I'm one day before my hair trial I'm starting to realize maybe I should have thought this through a little more.  The thing about wedding hair and makeup is they are two things that although may not seem like the most important part of the day but are two things that can defiantly ruin a day if done wrong.  Think about it- your hair and make up show up in EVERY photo, on the video and defiantly have an affect on your self-esteem for the day.  If you hate your hair it could put you in a funk all day long and who wants to be in a funk over something as silly as hair on their wedding day?  Not me.  But that doesn't change the fact that realistically if I hated my hair there is a very good chance I'd be in a total funk- at least for the first part of the day.  The last thing I want to think about is not looking my best.  Which is why my goal has been to hire people that I trust to make me look my best so that that is one fear I wont have to worry about.

Tomorrow is the day when I'm checking a lot of things off my wedding to-d0 list.  My maid of honor and I are headed to the coast for a meeting at French's Point with the awesome staff there to go over details then on to a hair trial appointment and lastly off to meet with Capt Barns, who Silas and I have chosen to preform our ceremony and play bagpipes at our wedding (we figured if we are going to scotland on our honeymoon it's a fun way to bring that into our wedding day- plus who doesn't love bagpipes).  So the search for the perfect hair style begins again and here are a few ideas I've come across that really excite me:

I want to go for something that feels elegant but simple.  I am not a fussy girl, I almost never blow dry my hair or do much more then throw it into a ponytail so going for an over the top curled up-do just isn't me.  I've been trying also to choose something that shows the length of my hair that I've worked so hard to grow but I don't want a style that will be too hot for late July, and of course something that the wind wont destroy if there is a serious breeze as there is known to be on the Maine coast.  I think all these styles are soft, simple and classic.  I do have a vail so we'll see how that factors in and I'm still on the lookout for a fun vintage hair comb that I think would be fun to include.

If you are married please share some ideas and advice on how you picked your hair style?  If you are not married but have any thoughts or ideas for me please share them below!!!  The more input I have the better.  

XOXO Spring

Heather & Phil

Heather and Phil are getting married in October up at the lovely Whitney's Inn.  When Heather first came to meet with me Phil couldn't make it so we spent 3 hours sitting in my office indulging in wine and cupcakes.  When we had realized that our planned one hour meeting turned into 3 hours chatting I think we were both happy to have a new friend.  These two made the trip north for their engagement /maternity photos during that crazy warm week we had.  There was still a little snow on the ground in the shade but the sun was shining and we really enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the park. Phil & Heather, I can't wait for your wedding this fall and of course to meet your little one!!! XOXO Spring

Fine Art Friday

I've been slacking off... you've noticed I'm sure that this is my first blog post in over a week... sorry guys.  Life has gotten in the way. Wedding planning, wedding season and life in general has taken over most of my free time.  While driving home the other day I was thinking about my lack of blogging and realized that I had not done a Fine Art Friday post in MONTHS.  Just as I was thinking- hmm I'll have to make time to go take some photos I looked across the street from where I was sitting at a red light and noticed how beautiful the afternoon light was on the beautiful Conway Library building.  So I hit my blinker pulled over and took out my camera.  After getting a few strange looks I headed home only to stop again on the side of the road at this one spot, that almost every day, I think "wow the light in this filed is so pretty I need to shoot here sometime".  I hit the blinker again and pulled off the road to take a few more photos of the filed and a beautiful old farm house right next to it.  I'm sure the 10 cars that passed me while I was shooting thought I was nuts- but I didn't care because I now had something to share with all of you for Fine Art Friday. Any of you who are photographers, and really any of you that have a camera (even if it's just your cell phone) - look around you- notice the places you drive by everyday and make the time to stop to capture their beauty.  I know not all of you live in the country with fields and mountains but trust me there is just as much beauty to capture in back alleys in the city as there is here in the White Mountains.  I have been driving by this field for over two years at least once a day and every time I think to myself "ohh I've got to shoot here someday".  The problem was I never had a model or couple or anyone to shoot and kept driving.  The other day I decided that these spots are beautiful on their own and as much as I would have loved to have a bride twirling in that field in a beautiful wedding dress, I enjoy the field on it's own just as much.  Well... ok maybe not as much but I still love it.  The point is I may never have that perfect light, on that perfect day, with the perfect model to shoot in this field so at least this way I have captured it and can enjoy it even without a beautiful bride.

XOXO Spring

Wedded Bliss: MyRegistry.com

I always thought walking through Macy's with that little gun that scans all the goodies you could ever want to fill your home would be one of the highlights of the pre-wedding to do list.  For anyone who loves shopping and who get excited when approaching the home-goods section of TJ Maxx you know the excitement that having one of those registry scanner guns would bring to a girl.  As much as I looked forward to this day of Silas and I walking around Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Pottery Barn and Target the reality was there was no way Silas would spend a day with me checking things off of our dream home-wares list.  Also one big hitch in this wonderful plan is that there are things from so many stores that I want and not all of them have a registry option. Last August one of my best friends got married.  When I received her wedding shower invite it had the date, the time, the location and a link to www.myregistry.com.  Hmmmm I thought "what the heck is that?  I'm in the wedding industry I should be aware of these things" but somehow I had missed this little gem.  Well fast forward a few months and I'm now LOVING myregistry.com because it allows me to register from my computer while sitting on the couch all curled up with Coby and a cup of hot coco.  I don't have to drag Silas with me for a full day of walking around stores I can just say "hey hun do you think we should register for a set of guest towels?  blue? gray?" and I get an answer (granted it's usually a "sure whatever you think"- he's a smart man).  Now the best part is you can use this website for ANYTHING.  Not jut weddings or bridal or baby showers use it for your christmas or birthday wish list.  It's so easy!!!   You can even set up a Cash Gift Fund- which can be really useful for things like honeymoon money or in our case money to help us pave our driveway this year.

The key is the "Add To MyRegistry" button for your bookmarks.  Much like the "Pin It" button for Pintrest all you have to do it be looking at an item on any random website and click the "Add To MyRegistry" button and this wonderful little window pops up for you to put in the size, color, quantity etc that you want.

Then you have this great list of things all right there for your guests to refer to when buying your wedding/birthday/shower gifts.  It keeps track of when something is purchased just like a registry through a department store.

We are still working on our registry- It's hard when we already have a house and have lived together for 5+ years.  There are not as many traditional wedding gift things that we need. Plus I have no extra space in this house for more stuff!  (Maybe thats my hint to Silas that it's time for a new, bigger house??).

What was the best thing you registered for and why? Or what do you wish you had registered for?  Give me some good ideas to add to our list and one lucky commenter will get a Starbucks gift card! 

Happy Monday! XOXO Spring