Meet Christine and Patrick!

This wonderful couple was married in Cape Cod this Fall. You’ve seen sneak peaks of their photos on the blog, but I’m so excited for you to see Christine and Patrick’s Slideshow!

Here are a handful of my favorite wedding images!

Christine’s personality is electric! She lights up the whole room. And her laugh, her beautiful laugh is completely contagious! I love this shot of her laughing as the ladies all toasted her.

Christine headed out to make her way to the ceremony site. As the door opened below bright sunshine flooded in with such intensity that you couldn’t see the people waiting below.

The extreme expressions of sunlight throughout their wedding day are one of our favorite elements about this wedding!

Dad and daughter walking down the aisle. Their faces say it all.

As you heard, Brian and I flew in to Cape Cod a couple days early. We rented bikes and rode all over looking for the perfect spot for wedding photos.

Brian found this quiet spot off the beaten path.

Look at the sun flare in this image. I love how the soft, red circles add to the beautiful, embracing story of their relationship.

The light changed and a quietness settled.

Resting place.

I also love this shot of Christine adoring Patrick.

Aside from the beautiful couple and the amazing light, Christine and Patrick did an incredible job planning every detail to their wedding. This was an especially big thing to do because Christine and Patrick were planning their wedding from their home in NY. Their event planner, Tasha Bracken from The Simple Details, seemed to be the secret weapon that helped every last piece come together. Tasha, you are amazing!

The menus were wrapped in satin.

The bouquet was gorgeous!

Even the ground was magical!

Chatham Bars Inn, the wedding location, crushes seashells and covers the ground with them.

But my absolute favorite image of the day is this one. You can only attempt an image like this, and then hope that the sun gave you a gift in return. The design of the sun flare at the bottom is more than I could ask for!

But don’t stop here! Check out Christine and Patrick’s Wedding Slideshow! Just click on their name!

The song they sent me is called Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros. This is an Icelandic post rock band. (Brian and I just love the diversity of songs that our couples pick to express their wedding day.) I love the translation I found for Hoppipolla online. Here is a short piece of the lyrics in English;

smiling

spinning in circles

holding hands

the world is a blur

except when you’re standing

Many congrats to Christine and Patrick!

Brian and I had the most wonderful experience working with you both. Thank you for also introducing us to the stunning beauty of Cape Cod. We’re hooked for sure!

We love you both! Me Ra and Brian

p.s. Your slideshow is only a preview of all the hundreds of images to come!

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Upcoming Photography Workshops UPDATE!

SEATTLE-I thought we had one space left before, but we had two and someone grabbed it, so now we really do have ONE spot left for the Seattle December Workshop!! Who is the lucky lady that is going to get the last spot?! Register for the workshop and give yourself the perfect Christmas gift! Click HERE to register!

ATLANTA-Start 2009 with a weekend of inspiration! If you live on the East Coast and want an inspiring type of Christmas gift for your loved one, send her to Atlanta! The dates are January 16th and 17th! Register here !!

For fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version that is now available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!

Two of our dearest friends are getting married today! Brian and I want to send them a BIG congrats on our blog!!!

Misty and Jajuan, we LOVE YOU!!!

We will be team shooting their wedding with Yuriy and Julia today. I’m so excited because we rarely get to shoot together. Usually Brian and I are shooting in one place, and Yuriy and Julia are somewhere else. But not today! Today we get to work with our Amazing Associates! We’re going to shoot the Getting Ready Photos and the Bride and Groom shots all together. Then Brian and I will hand the rest of the day off to Yuriy and Julia so we can pick up the kids and guests at the wedding ceremony and reception. This is one celebration we want to party at!

Misty and I met ten years ago! My mom introduced us, and the rest is history. Misty has this amazing gift of encouragement. If you are ever feeling down on yourself, have coffee with Misty. She’ll bring your spirits back up in no time! Back in the book days, Misty would come with me to my speaking engagements/book tours and help run the book table and administration details for me. Her belief in me was and is an incredible gift.

Now she is running her own photography business. Check out her blog!

But Jajuan…I met Jajuan 20 years ago! He would come over and play with my little brothers. And my favorite story about Jajuan is that my mom would tell him he had to go home because it was dinner time. So Jajuan would say goodbye, and my mom would close the door. But then (sometimes a couple hours later), one of us would walk by the front door and notice someone standing outside through the stained glass window. It would be Jajuan! Just standing there this whole time, waiting for us to finish dinner so he could keep playing with my brothers. Hilarious!

Now he’s this 6′4 man who my kids often use as a point of reference when they’re trying to figure out how tall something is. “Is it taller than Mr. Jajuan?” they ask. If not, it must not be that tall. Shoot, Jajuan has to duck his head when he walks in the front door! (Yes, he has played semi pro basketball.)

Yuriy did a great job on these engagement photos. To see them all, check out Yuriy’s blog!

Misty and Jajuan, we will see you in a few hours! We love you so much! Yeah!! It’s YOUR wedding day today!!

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Upcoming Workshops UPDATE!

SEATTLE-I thought we had one space left before, but we had two and someone grabbed it, so now we really do have ONE spot left for the Seattle December Workshop!! Who is the lucky lady that is going to get the last spot?! Register for the workshop and give yourself the perfect Christmas gift! Click HERE to register!

ATLANTA-Start 2009 with a weekend of inspiration! If you live on the East Coast and want an inspiring type of Christmas gift for your loved one, send her to Atlanta! The dates are January 16th and 17th! Register here !!

For fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version that is now available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!

Brian and I have the most wonderful clients. None of us knew we would need to wait for our Sony A900 images to go live until mid November. I felt so bad asking Katie and Fred to wait a couple weeks longer. But they totally trusted us and have been amazing clients and friends.

Katie and Fred, I am so excited for you to see your slideshow and images! Your wedding was one of the most memorable, beautiful and absolutely enchanting weddings.

Every detail in Katie and Fred’s wedding was magical.

From Katie’s super sweet bows

to the magical lighting and decor of the reception.

Cherry Hills Country Club was closed for the weekend due to construction. And their staff graciously let us take the golf carts out for photos. (They must go on record as one of the nicest staffs we have ever worked with!)

The autumn leaves and the lush rolling, green hills, with the incredible color and 24.6 mega pixel camera we used made this experience AMAZING!

While I shot the full frames of Katie and Fred dancing, Brian worked his magic with the 70-200mm lens. I love the way Katie adores Fred. She loves him with every part of her being, and to capture this dynamic is an incredible honor.

We have photographed countless ceremonies, but Brian and I witnessed something at Katie and Fred’s wedding that we have never seen before. Katie, one of the sweetest women

who wears her heart on her sleeve,

got super emotional during the ceremony.

And without thinking, Fred gave her a kiss in the middle of the sermon!

I don’t think either of them realized what they had just done, or the audience for that matter. And then everyone started laughing. It happened so fast, Brian and I were in shock and laughing ourselves! The pastor even said that he had never seen a couple skip to the end. It was the BEST!

There are so many favorite images from this wedding! I went crazy trying to narrow them down for their slideshow. The Director of Low Strung, from Yale University gave Katie permission to use their song for the wedding slideshow. Katie had emailed me and was worried the song might be to long for the slideshow, but she loved the music. (You’ll understand why when you hear it. This group is made up of twelve cellists!)

Katie, if anything, the song was to short! There are so many beautiful wedding images to choose from! You are going to freak!

But, if I had to pick one of my favorite moments, it was when Katie saw her dad for the first time after putting her wedding dress on. Her face just lit up. One of my other favorite moments is when Katie’s dad hugged her right after the ceremony. You have to watch the slideshow to see that one.

One of Brian’s favorite moments was when the sun started to set. I love, love, love this shot below that Brian captured.

Cheers to Katie and Fred! One of the sweetest couples we have ever had the pleasure of working with.

Want to see their wedding slideshow?!!!

To see Katie and Fred’s Wedding Slideshow, click here!

We can’t wait to hear what you think!!! We are so excited with how the images and music turned out!!

Congratulations Katie and Fred! We love you two!

xoxoxo, Me Ra and Brian

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Stay tuned to see Christine and Patrick’s beautiful Cape Cod wedding, also shot with the Sony A900!

For 2009 wedding booking availability, email our wonderful Touchpoint, Genie. (genie@merakoh.com)

To learn about aperture, shutter speed and ISO, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version that is now available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!

If you want to attend one of our workshops sooner than later, Atlanta/Jan 09 is your best bet! We won’t be back for another Beginner workshop until Spring or Summer 09, so check out the Atlanta details and take advantage of the Early Bird Registration price before it sells out!

Last month I blogged about the great opportunity Sony extended us. They basically overnighted us their new Sony DSLR-A900 camera and invited us to shoot with it for our last two weddings.

The camera wasn’t available on the market yet, so it was pretty fun being one of the first wedding photographers to use it. Actually, fun isn’t the right word for it. It was AMAZING!

Sony asked us to not share the images until mid November. I’m allowed to show you these shots that Brian took of me shooting with the 900, but I can’t show you what I was shooting…yet.

From the beautiful landscape of Cape Cod

to the lush, rolling hills of Colorado

We shot the new Sony DSLR-A900 like there was no tomorrow!

We took our clients through sand and beach grass

made them jump fences

and even climb over scary, thorn filled bushes

to find the perfect setting

Wouldn’t you do the same if a billion dollar company overnighted you their new pride and joy camera?!

A big thanks to Sony for trusting us with their new camera and giving us such an incredible opportunity!

Sony asked us to wait to show you what was on the other side of my camera until mid November. I’m thinking this week is starting to feel like mid November.

Don’t you?

Stay tuned!

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To learn about aperture, shutter speed and ISO, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version that is now available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!

If you want to attend one of our workshops sooner than later, Atlanta/Jan 09 is your best bet! We won’t be back for another Beginner workshop until Spring or Summer 09, so check out the Atlanta details and take advantage of the Early Bird Registration price before it sells out!

I’m so excited for you to see this wedding slideshow! I usually don’t put the Rehearsal Dinner in the slideshow, but this was such a fun group of people. They all had a blast at the Rehearsal Dinner, and from what Brian and I understand, they started celebrating the night before. When a large group of people flies in from all over the country to celebrate two people with such adoration, wow, you can’t help but love shooting the event.

Thus, you get to see a little bit of the Rehearsal Dinner in Catherine and Trevor’s Slideshow.

But before you watch the slideshow, I want to share some of my favorite photos with you.

Just before the ceremony, I had Catherine sit on this ottoman. The ladies got ready downstairs in the Women’s Locker Room at the Sanctuary. There weren’t any windows or available light. Lockers were everywhere. Keep in mind, it was a beautiful locker room! But I wanted to capture Catherine in the setting without the setting taking over the image. Does that make sense?

I decided to have Catherine sit and look up at the light to illuminate her face and dress. Because I metered on Catherine, the lockers went dark in the background. I was so excited with what happened. She glows. Isn’t she beautiful!

Light was the theme of the day b/c at times we would have light, then we would lose it and have a down pour of rain instead. But when the sunset started, I ran to Catherine and Trevor. They were such great sports b/c I swear they had barely sat down to finally eat. I’m sure my body language yelled, “Stop! Don’t EAT. We have to go back outside!!!” We couldn’t let this sunset lighting get away from us!

Brian’s perspective.

And mine.

The light was golden, and then the stormy clouds decided to have their say in things. This photo has to be one of my FAVORITE from our whole year! I love how dark every thing was getting around them, how moody the sky was, but the sun is still illuminating them as it sets.

The groomsmen were a blast to work with. They were up for just about anything. The slideshow has some fun shots of them too, but this is one of my favorite.

And last but not least, a classic Brian shot. Tight frame drawing out the intimacy between these two. I know I say this all the time, but I am saying it again, “I love Brian’s eye!” Brian captured the second shot as well.

Catherine and Trevor, we are so happy for you! Thank you for allowing us the honor of capturing your day. Your family and friends were wonderful to work with. And you two, you two were amazing!

Much love to you both!

xoxo, Me Ra

p.s. Now the rest of you click on Catherine and Trevor’s Wedding! Then if you have time, post a comment to congratulate these two.

…..

Upcoming for Monday…

I’m going to get back to answering some of your questions, and we are going to announce the winner for the Chicago Running on Empty contest! Yeah!!!

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To see our day job , visit here.

For more fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese , our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice!

Brian and I are often asked “Where is the most beautiful place you’ve ever shot a wedding?”

Well after this weekend, we have a new answer!

Cape Cod, Massachusetts!

Brian and I have never been to Boston or the Cape, so when it came time to shoot Christine and Patrick’s wedding, we decided to tack on a couple extra days and enjoy the area. Wow…Cape Cod took our breath away!

The shingled homes with colored shutters, the quaint town of Chatham with stores named after the Mayflower, the quiet sea, the cute restaurants…it was amazing! You may be thinking, ‘Why aren’t you showing us pictures of all THIS?’

The answer is kind of fun! Sony overnighted their new Alpha 900 SLR to us. This camera is unreal and will blow photographers away. Just for starters, the camera is 24.6 mega pixels and shoots lighting fast! The Alpha 900 has not been released to the market yet, and I think we may be the first wedding photographers to ever shoot a wedding with it. Shooting the Cape Cod wedding with the 900 was so exciting. But the deal is we had to promise Sony we would not show any 900 images until the end of October (when the Alpha 900 releases to the market), so you’ll have to bear with us. Promise, it’s worth the wait!

For now, here are a few of our favorite shots taken with the Sony A700. These images are just a taste of how wonderful this wedding was! Notice the subtle blue hues. The color of blue in Cape Cod’s light is so different than the blue hues in the Pacific Northwest or Southern CA. It’s a soft, washed blue that is ever so subtle but in the light surrounding you.

The sun was setting when we took these shots, and I decided not to brighten them up in Photoshop because the low light lends to how intimate this couple was–how deeply they connected at the slightest touch of the other.

I don’t know if it makes sense, but can you see the undertones of the soft blue in these images? It’s so subtle, and yet it changed every thing for me and Brian.

Here is Brian’s favorite “blue hued” example. This one was photoshopped a bit. Brian caught me having fun on the dance floor with the guests. You would have put your dancing shoes on too if you heard the band they had! And yes, I can still take great pictures while dancing.

Congrats Christine and Patrick! We hope you have a wonderful honeymoon! It was a complete gift to document your wedding.

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For fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!

The Seattle December Workshop has a couple seats left!! Click HERE to register!

We took the red eye last Wednesday to Cape Cod to shoot an amazing wedding and then do a photo shoot in Boston yesterday. We just got home at 2am this morning. Miss all of you and blogging! But I just wanted to post something quick and say lots coming tomorrow and the rest of the week on the blog. Today…lots of snuggling and cuddling going on with the kids.

Have you ever been to Cape Cod? It was our first time. Wow, talk about Charming with a capital C!!!

See you all tomorrow!

xoxoxo

Me Ra

Brian and I got back late last night from shooting another beautiful wedding in Colorado. You may remember me doing an engagement shoot for Katie and Fred back in June.

If you didn’t see their engagement slideshow, check it out by clicking here!

This weekend was Katie and Fred’s wedding at the beautiful Cherry Hills Golf & Country Club. One word kept coming to mind for me and Brian as we went through the day. The word was enchanting. The decor, the dress, Katie’s hairstyle, it was all enchanting.

Here is just one image to show you as a sneak peak shot.

Brian and I adore you Katie and Fred. Have a wonderful honeymoon!

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For info on our next Photo Contest Theme, click here. I’m so glad you all like the new theme!

SUBMISSION PHOTO CONTEST DEADLINE: Sunday, October 26th 2008 at Midnight PST.

For fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!

The Chicago Workshop is sold out. But the Seattle December Workshop is still open for registration with only a few seats left!! Click HERE to register!

In the last two years, Brian and I had one wedding in our home state of WA. For some reason we end up going out of state for all our weddings, but this one…this one was super special.

Nicole found us through Grace Ormonde’s Wedding Style magazine. From our first phone call, she and I connected so well. I felt like we had been friends for years. That was almost 18 months ago. What a thrilling experience to have the wedding day finally arrive and meet Nicole and Eddie in person.

Picture gorgeous blonde with amazing smile, great laugh and a beauty that shines through her very being.

Then picture a handsome guy who is Portuguese and runs his own dairy farm with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cows! FYI, we learned that dairy farming is huge with the Portuguese culture. Something I never knew! (But of course, Brian knew this already. ACTUALLY, Brian was convinced that Eddie was from Argentina. And Eddie kindly corrected us. :))

Put these two beautiful people together and you have Nicole and Eddie.

I am excited for you to see Nicole and Eddie’s Wedding Slideshow. They were so wonderful to photograph. In the time we had to work with them, they opened up so many parts of their relationship to us.

How much they laugh together.

Their passion for each other.

The rest they find in one another.

Nicole and Eddie’s relationship is a like a beautiful prayer that is honest, true, full of life, trust and passion.

What a complete honor to capture their story.

Click here to see Nicole and Eddie’s Wedding slideshow. The images with the music make me hit replay over and over again. I’m so thrilled with how it turned out. Turn up your volume and get some Kleenex.

And don’t forget to congratulate these two in the comments! They deserve all the wonderful blessings we send.

Congrats Nicole and Eddie! Brian and I loved shooting your wedding. We loved laughing with you and celebrating all the parts of your day. I can’t say it enough, we adore you both!

xoxo, Me Ra and Brian

After trouble shooting the reasons of why my keyboard won’t work this morning…I’m finally here! Yeah!! You have to love little problems like that when they burn hours of your time.

I have loved reading about the things you did to escape during the three day weekend. So proud of you! If you haven’t shared yet, go to this post and tell us what you did in the comments.

Even though Brian and I were working most the weekend with our wedding in Colorado, I still stole some time to myself to write in the morning and catch up with dear friends. In fact, Brian and I not only caught up but stayed with them all weekend! (love you guys!)

The wedding in Colorado was spectacular. The location was at a private golf course called the Sanctuary (the website doesn’t do it justice). When a place is named the Sanctuary, I find that I have high expectations of what this place should look like. The Sanctuary blew my expectations away. We even saw buffalo as we made our way up the winding, dusty road.

This next shot is just for my dad. When I was a little girl, he’d be getting ready to take a trip for his company and would say (insert broken Asian accent)

“I’m going to go catch BIG, BIG buffalo for our family on this trip Me Ra. You wait and see. This buffalo will be so big, it will feed the family for several months. Make sure you learn how to catch buffalo when you get older. Catching buffalo is very important to surviving.”

Here’s me catching a buffalo. Love you ahba!

Back to the Sanctuary, the view from the top of the Sanctuary was unreal. Took my breath away. And the coolest thing is the story behind this place. Supposedly, the owner wanted to join a nearby golf course, but he couldn’t get in. So he decided to build his own! That’s one way to solve the problem! Thus, the sanctuary. Even cooler, the golf course is only used for charity events and weddings. Isn’t that a great story!

Here’s a sneak peak at that beautiful view and the beautiful wedding couple.

Coming this week!

We start the nominations for the Running on Empty seat for the Chicago workshop. Nominate the women you know who needs a break and is running on empty. If she wins, she’ll be given a free spot at the Chicago Two Day Beginner Workshop (this has sold out), plus the Add On Day with Bob and Dawn Davis (value is $1299). This starts tomorrow!

We are also going to announce the winner of the Water Photo Contest and the Random Voter Award Winners this week! AND, you all AMAZE me because we got 440 votes by the deadline!!! The goal was 400! And then another 40 plus votes have rolled in since then making it a total of 487! The most votes we’ve ever had on a photo contest was 356! I’d say we blew that number out of the water!

And best of all, we’ve got a new slideshow to show you from a shoot we did!

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For more fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese , our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice!

The Chicago Workshop is sold out. But the Seattle December Workshop is now open for registration! Click HERE to register!