Daily Favorites

So what is the “Daily Favorite”?  Well, simply, everyday I sit down to retouch images.  No matter how hard I try to actually take a day off and do no work at all….well, that just can’t happen.  I always find myself migrating to my workstation and going through images and retouching.  And each day there is that one image that I just love for one reason or another.  Maybe it is the composition.  The look on the person’s face.  The light.  The mood.  Or any one of a million things that I just keep finding myself looking at the image and going, “Man, I just love this image.”  So, I have created this page to share these Daily Favorites with you.  If you enjoy them…..and I hope you do…feel free to comment on them.

 

11.23.2011

“OMFG!!!  We Did It!!!”

OK, I will be honest.  I did not even see this one until I was sitting down to cull their images for their Wedding Story Blog Posting.  But when I saw this image of Kim and Patrick turning to walk back down the aisle I had to do a double take.  The expression on their faces almost made me wet my self laughing.

10.23.2011

“Sneaking”

This is from yesterdays wedding with Kaitlin and Eddie.  The wedding coordinator at the golf club was adamant about us not being allowed on the golf course…….but come on, look how beautiful the sky is….we need that dune.  Plus, as Kaitlin said, “It’s my wedding and you can’t say no to the bride.”

10.02.2011

“Post Marathon”

So this weekend my wife and I left the kiddies at home and headed to Orlando to join friends for the 2nd Annual Disney’s Food & Wine Festival Half Marathon.  This is actually  a cool marathon because it starts at 10:00 PM and the runners run along a course that takes them through Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios Parks and around Epcot finishing at the entrance to Epcot.  In the meantime, friends and family get to play, eat and drink in Epcot from 7:00 PM till 3:00 AM.  At 9:30 PM the park closes so after that it is just the runners friends and family resulting in no lines any where.  Literally, we walked onto the Soarin and Test Track and a couple of times they asked if we wanted to just stay on and go again.  So, back to the picture.  This picture is of Ana the morning after having run 13.1 miles starting at 10:00 PM finishing at 12:58 AM just 5.5 month after delivering our son via c-section.  I am so proud of her.  So while she may look tired (deservingly so) with no make-up on and her 13.1 headband holding her hair back, any picture of my wife, the love of my life, is my favorite picture.

 

09.26.2011

“Mommy, Whatcha Doin With My Boobie Milk?”

OK, today was actually a full day off for me.  But of course, I can’t put the camera down.  Especially with such an important day.  This was shot late this afternoon.  Z (short for Zander which is short for Alexander) was looking at Ana wondering why she was pouring his precious boobie milk into a bowl with the brownish powder.  What she was doing was preparing Z’s very first bowl of solid foods (in this case oatmeal).  Outcome? Oatmeal, not so yummy.  Fresh pureed roasted sweet potatoes, YUMMY!!!!  Pictures of it all?  Priceless.  Post of the whole thing coming soon.

 

09.25.2011

“The One, The Only, Ms. Ann”

Today I was lucky enough to shoot not only the first woman I ever lived with, but the absolute, hands down best roommate I ever had (other than my wife of course).  Ann and I lived together along with a garbage raiding beagle named Sam for two years in Savannah.  While some people might consider their fondest memories of college as being all the keggers, for me it was the years spent with Ann both getting home late and still having the energy to stay up with friends till the sun came up playing Risk and eating like pigs (ah….to have young metabolism again).  So, jump forward 20 years and I am back in Miami and Ann is in Deerfield running her marketing and design firm as well as starting her own line of wallpaper.  Ann having grown up in a Minnesota home covered in wallpaper but then living for years in apartments hated the fact that as a renter, you can only wallpaper if you are willing to sacrifice your deposit and maybe more when you move out.  So, what’s a girl to do?  Well, if you are Ann, you create your own line of removable wallpaper.  Yep you heard it right, “removable”.  These are some of the dozens of designs she has available.  And as you can see from the final image…..it is totally removable.

09.20.2011

“Put Baby Against a Wall”

Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know, this Daily thing isn’t happening as planned.  But it’s still fun right?  So I am currently finishing up Alexandra’s Quince Album (before you go planning on calling me about your nieces, this was my last Quince.  Weddings and portraits only from now on.).  Alexandra is this really cute (but I guess she is now officially beautiful), funny, full of life 15 year old that was a live wire when I first met her when she was about 9 years old.  However, being in front of the camera is not one of her comfort zones.  After a while though I noticed that if you put her in front of a cool wall she became a super-model.  So guess what Johnny?  Maybe you can’t put Baby in the corner….but she doesn’t mind being put against a wall!

09.11.2011

“Mother-Son Dance”

I know, it has been a few days since the last Daily Favorite update.  Been a crazy week.  But it’s back. Normally people fall in love with the Father-Daughter dance but I just loved this one from last night at Adam and Dana’s wedding.  And yes, it is of Adam and his mothers first dance.

09.03.2011

“Seriously Love This Dog”

Yet another classic pose out of Daphne from yesterday mornings Engagement Session.

I mean, look at this perfect neck turn.

09.03.2011

“Momentary Obedience”

Daphnie (the puppy) is like the Lindsay Lohan of doggie models.  Just when you think trying to get her to pose is a useless feat she throws you one of these perfect poses.  Just love this frame from Victoria and Zoltan’s Engagement Session this morning in the Design District.

08.30.2011

“The Calm”

Normally my brides or shaking with the pre-wedding jitters which tend to build in intensity starting with putting on the dress, the the veil and all the way until the first kiss.  But Regina had this immense sense of calm about her.  Which is why I love this image.  Not only because it is just such a rich B&W image….I mean, who doesn’t love a beautiful B&W with crisp whites, lush blacks and wonderful gradients in between?  But also because of how regal and composed she is in this image.  It perfectly captures her exactly the way she was that day.

08.29.2011

“The Jump”

Jessica and David were not sure they wanted to take some shots on the beach mostly because it was really hot and humid that day even with the sun going down.  But I guess all they needed to hear were come of their bridesmaids and groomsmen saying, “You’ll be so glad you did and will regret it afterwards if you don’t.”  So off to the beach we went.  At the end of the wedding party pictures they decided they wanted to take a jumping shot.  So this was the final frame out of five tries.  Man, you would not believe how hard it is to get 18 people to all jump at the same time.

08.28.2011

“Lindsay”

This was captured while I was balancing light using this technique that I am guessing is lost on 90% of all photographers who started shooting in the last five years called the Zone System (for more on that, read here or to learn it, go here).  For her part, Lindsay (who openly admits to not being very comfortable in front of the camera) was trying to keep her mind off being nervous and get onto the mood of the session.  Well, it was that or she was trying to figure out how much longer she was going to be able to tolerate all the sea lice biting our ankles.  Either way, something about this image just looked so natural, warm and sweet.  Much like Lindsay herself.