Well I didn't have a wedding yesterday which seemed like madness for a Saturday. I wasn't quite sure what normal people do on Saturdays. So, I tried to fill up the day as best as I could. Late in the afternoon, I met Katie & Josh (getting married June, 2007) at the Library of Congress for their engagement portrait. It was Josh's b-day and they were all dressed up to go out to dinner. We wandered around Capitol Hill and got some fun images.


After the shoot, I swung by my house to meet my sister, Lauren and we headed over to Nissan Pavilion for the Goo Goo Dolls/ Counting Crows concert. Our friend, Paul was running sound for the Goo Goo Dolls and was kind enough to put us on the guest list complete with backstage passes. We must have parked about a mile away since we arrived so late and I was turned away at the gate and sent back to my car to put my camera away. Sadly, professional cameras are not allowed. Apparently you're allowed to take pictures at the venue...just not good pictures. Very disappointing! So we finally got in and had fantastic orchestra section seats, enjoyed a huge swirly $12 margarita and then met Paul who led us backstage. We hung out on the GGD bus and in a tent behind it named "Camp Damage" after one of the guitar techs. Sat back there drinking Coronas and eating hot dogs and at one point were invited to go jump around on the stage during the Crows' "Hangin' Around". Had not consumed enough alcohol to embarass ourselves that publicly.

When we finally got home around 1am, my phone started ringing...not a familiar number. I was thinking that there was no way I actually wanted to speak with anyone who would call me that late but I answered the phone anyway. And I was glad I did. It was Lori Hill, an event planner from D.C. and fellow ISES (International Special Events Society) member calling to tell me that I had just won the International Esprit Award for Photography. Yay! I won the award last year and was present to accept the award in L.A. last summer. This year's awards were held in Honolulu and as much as I would have loved to have been there, since I'm heading to Trinidad on Thursday to shoot the wedding of Amit & Gillian and I thought that was just too much travel for one week.

(Amit & Gillian)

Since I'm leaving for Trinidad in 6 days, I'm trying to squeeze in as many shoots as humanly possible just so that I can return to sit at my computer for days and days of editing. :)The photographer's lament...having to edit the thousands of digital images we shoot these days. What can you do though?

I had 3 shoots yesterday. The first is inappropriate for web posting. ;) The second was with my cousin, her husband and their 7 month old baby, Jordan. What a doll...and great hair! She did pee on her daddy during the shoot...a regular occurence when working with babies. I was lucky enough to catch her midstream.


Later in the afternoon I zipped over to Capitol Hill to attend a pink-themed cocktail party thrown by my absolute favorite caterer, Well Dunn. They served fresh watermelon martinis and a delicious summery menu of crabcakes and other delectibles. Sadly, I had to leave early to head over to Union Station for a shoot. Leslie and Peter started as a long distance relationship and she would take the train into D.C. from Philly to visit. We thought it would be a great place to shoot their engagement portraits. Peter's teenage boys came along. They were good sports about watching their dad kiss and make out in public. :)

Prego Portrait

Last night I had the pleasure of catching up with Sam, an old friend from college. It turns out she now lives across the street from Kelly, my best friend from high school. So, when I heard that she's now 8 months pregnant, I knew I just had to get her into the studio. Honestly, one of the most gorgeous pregnant women I've evern seen! Here are a few images from the shoot.

Today I went to the dentist to have a cavity filled...my second one in 28 years. Same tooth both times. Since I can't feel my face I'm trying to avoid making any calls today so instead I'm working on editing some shoots from the past couple of weeks. Here are a few favorites.


Carolyn is actually the daughter of my real estate agent. Only 3 years old, but super tall.


Hayden. I just thought this was a cute one because of the pouty expression. :)

This was a shoot for former wedding clients who recently had a baby girl, Hadley. I went to their house for the shoot. Their dog, Leah is the classic displaced "1st baby".




Mary and Andy on the Alexandria waterfront. A gorgeous couple, I'll be shooting their wedding in November.


Liz & Ken. A really fun couple getting married in Chicago next year. We wandered around and shot in Georgetown where Ken proposed.

Introduction

So even though I'm just starting this blog now (a project I've been intending to work on for a long time now), I've decided that I absolutely must backtrack a bit to include some of my favorite images from the summer. Early in July, my boyfriend Gary flew out to D.C. from L.A. (lots of cities with initials) to attend the wedding of my friends Katie and Jason. Even though I hardly put my camera down for 5 seconds the whole night, I still somehow managed to drink enough not to notice that I had broken both straps on my dress and had fake eyelashes hanging from one eye.



(GK must be funny)

The next day, we drove up to NYC and checked into the legendary Chelsea Hotel, where in 1978 (the year I was born), Sid Vicious murdered his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.

The place looked and seemed haunted, and although we didn't get any ghost sightings, we did get several peeks at our elderly neighbor (a Chelsea resident) wandering the halls in his underwear. It was at that moment that I decided that I someday I would really enjoy being rich and crazy and living at the Chelsea Hotel.


(the hallway outside our room at the Chelsea)

After tooling around NYC for a couple of days and checking out my sister-in-law's show at the Mercury Lounge, Gary and I hopped on a bus to Boston. I had never actually ridden a bus before aside from the schoolbus, some 14 years ago for the last time. It was enough to decide that I'm really not a bus person. It was a fantastic opportunity for people watching though. Wow! We checked into what was essentially a hostel, although they called it a B&B online. It was the most minimal room I have ever seen. Really just a large closet with a bed that took up 90% of the space. Very insteresting but every hotel room in Boston was reserved that week for a Microsoft Convention. Go figure. We were only so glad to get the hell out of that room to head down the street to Fenway Park for their annual "Hot Stove" fundraiser. It was rainy and nasty out. They had to move the musical acts inside under the bleachers. But everyone rocked out anyway and I got to see my niece and nephew running around and wreaking havoc. And that's always a good time. Kay and Michael and friends put on a fantastic show and leave it to Kay for calling out Howie Day for being an asshole in previous years. The crowd loved it. Feel free to kick Howie Day in the face the next time you see him. :)


(Kay at Hot Stove)