Kiss Album

The album comes in this cool packaging to help protect it during shipping.  It's also more environmentally-friendly than peanuts.

The cover in the nicest leather I've seen in an album. 

The pages are nice and thick.

With no gutter down the middle, the pages will lay flat.

The back is stamped with a 'Kiss" on my sample. 

For brides and grooms out there, this is the album I use for my "Beg" package.  It is a top-of-the-line leather album, square, 12x12 in size. You have your choice in many colors of leather, including this bright red, hot pink and a beautiful green, along with more traditional colors, and the book comes with the fabric cover you can see below the album in the last shot to protect it. The sample above is a 10x10 album, so the album I use in my package is larger than what you see above!

Blogger

Fun news! I googled myself and saw my name on a list of 100 women bloggers to watch for 2009!  Didn't know that and I wasn't sure what it was, but my name was on the list!

Lilacs

Someone forgot to tell my lilac bush that it's still the middle of winter!

On another note, I can't tell you how much I appreciate having a car window. Not having one for a week made me more appreciative.  That just goes to show you that we take the little things for granted.  

Temperature

In a loaner car now due to the fact that my window glass is actually broken and they had to order the glass.  At least it's an Audi.

Winter

Hey Guys, it is still freezing out there and today I have to drive an hour, with my car window now 1/2 down, to get the window repaired!  Wish me luck.  The past few days have been brutally cold and we've even gotten some light snow, but I wouldn't miss a chance to get a few shots.  I couldn't really drive anywhere so I stayed in the yard. 

My View of Things

Today is a historic day for the country. I have many friends who have been counting down the current administration's last days in office.  Whether  you voted for Obama or not, it's my opinion that this country needs some fresh air and fresh ideas in the White House...and it appears, so far, that Obama is the man to do it. Things were going nowhere under the current White House (well, no where but down) and this new President can bring some much needed change to the country.  

Anyway, when I work from my home office, I look out my office door and here's what I see:  my GIANT canvas of E! I think it's crooked, which we can fix, but aside from that, I love it.  Here too is my bad dog.  He started running away, out of the yard, into the street and into the neighbor's yards, so we put our invisible fence back on.  So, now he's back to only our yard.   As bad as he's been, he's still the best-behaved dog we ever had.  And, as Norman says: "He's a very smart dog."  He's no dummy; in fact, he's currently sleeping upstairs on the guest room bed. 

LinkedIn

Happy Martin Luther King Day.  This year sure is an exciting time for the country.

For those of you who have profiles on LinkedIn, ask me to join your network!  Search for me and I'll accept your invitation. I've been having fun with LinkedIn over the past week or so, but I'm not really sure what it does, exactly.  For example, if I needed a job, how would it work to allow me to ask my connections, who have connections, to help me obtain a job?  If anyone has any experience with its practical application, let me know. 

I currently have 22 connections, and I'm looking to make that number grow!

Speech

Just as President-Elect Obama is working on his historic speech for  Tuesday, Ethan is working on a speech about Michael Jordan.  Unlike Obama, Ethan is not a natural speaker, so we're gonna have to practice! 

GO EAGLES!!!

Walking

You know I've been trying to walk lately.  I saw this shot above walking a week or so ago outside and liked the way the frozen water looked with the green grass.  It's been clearly too cold to walk outside the past few days, but I'm hoping that the weather is going to warm up a bit soon.  I do prefer to walk outside vs. walking on my treadmill which, even with music, can get a bit boring.   Do any of my local readers belong to a gym and if so which one? and do you like it?   

Yesterday

My driver's side car window broke when it was down, so I drove part of the way to work, yesterday, with the window down. It was cold and snowing. I spent the morning at the dealers waiting to see if it could be repaired, and it can, just not yesterday...they had to order the part and that will be in next week.  They propped my window up, but left it down about one inch, so even driving that yesterday was cold.  I'll just have to drive with the heat blasting and park the car in the garage for the next week.

Life has a funny way of reminding us what is important and what things to let roll off of us.  Yesterday's events of the USAir flight landing on the Hudson River reminded me what is important, and the annoying stuff, like having your car window break on the coldest day of the year, really are just an inconvenience, and nothing more.  

The shot above is probably one of my favorite shots from 2008.  I love the black and white version especially.  TGIF. 

This dog has been bad lately.  Here's what he did.  We had our football-shaped pretzels last Sunday for the big game, he jumped up on the counter and ate a pretzel, complete with mustard and the little plastic container that the mustard was in.  On Monday he jumped up and ATE A STICK OF BUTTER.   He wasn't feeling so well, following those over-indulgences, and we awoke one morning to the evidence of just how bad he was feeling. Yuck. 

The bottom shot was a real polariod that I took the other day and scanned. 

Magazine-Style Album

This is an album from my wedding package called "Steal."  It is a digitally-designed album, with nice thick pages, with either a faux leather cover or a traditional book-type of cover with a dust jacket designed with one of the shots from the wedding. The leather version has imprinting on the cover as seen  here. 

Barbie Pink

This is an album I show potential brides....it's made out of sparkle pink leather and holds one shot per page.  I use it to illustrate to brides that just about any color/material/size of album is available these days.  The shots I used in this album were taken this fall during Nicole's "Trash the Dress" session and were printed on metallic paper, which I love.  Almost everyone who has seen this asks about the prints and what type of paper I used.  Metallic paper makes the colors very saturated and rich. 

Orange!

A couple of shots from my iPhone to brighten up this Monday!  Notice the mileage on my car at the time as 33333 miles!  Yeah, I drive a lot. 

Game Day--Knotz, Swedesboro NJ

We've ordered some football pretzels from Knotz in Swedesoboro to get ready for the big game today!  GO EAGLES!

I thought I should mention that I was all set for some snow yesterday, but we never got any. Where'd it go?  Last night I thought we'd finally get some snow. You know how when you go to sleep and it's snowing the light coming in the windows is different somehow?  It's always lighter outside at night when it snows (and I'm not sure why that is) but that's how the light was last night.  I was all set to wake up and take some snow shots, but that's not gonna happen.. at least not here in South Jersey it isn't. 

BIG Canvas

Yesterday was like Christmas around here! I had ordered a big canvas of E for our living room, and then a smaller black and white canvas, and they finally arrived.  My canvas company does such an amazing job with everything they do.  I took a shot of the canvas of E, along with the actual E, so you can see just how big it is.  Keep in mind that E is over 5' tall so the canvas is a nice size.   You should see it in person....now if Norman will only stop working so much and hang them up!

It's going to snow today in the Philadelphia area.  E and I have a busy day planned complete with basketball practice, errands, and then I'm meeting the parents of a bride to show them some of my work. I only hope we can get everything done before the snow really starts coming down.  A Saturday night, snuggled in our warm house, while it's snowing outside, does sound nice.

Bad Blogger!

Tina reminded me today that I've been a bad blogger. I haven't had time for much of anything, but today I did manage to get a few photos, that were on my iphone, onto my computer. 

Here are a couple of shots to give you an idea of what my commute looks like! I drive on rural roads each day as well as highways.  For those of you who know me, you know all about my love affair with the blue route. 

TGIF 

Me!

 I'm a wedding and portrait photographer based in South Jersey, and I travel throughout the tri-state area (PA, NJ and DE) shooting weddings and portraits. I know a lot of photographers say this, but it's true--I've been in love since I picked up my first camera (and that was a long time ago). I've had a camera in my hands since I went on a field trip, in first grade, to Crystal Cave!  I can remember the whole experience;  not the cave part, but the parts that involved taking my first pictures and seeing the prints when they came back from the lab!  

When my son was born 10 years ago I bought my first digital camera and haven't looked back since.  My business has allowed me to meet so many wonderful people, people I still call friends to this day, and I consider myself truly blessed to be doing the thing that I love the most.

I currently run my business out of my studio at 19 S. Main Street, Mullica Hill, NJ (my little building is in front of a lime green barn which houses the Mullica Hill Floral Company), but prefer to shoot in natural light on location.  When necessary, however, I do bring out my portable studio lights and flash. I tend to like fun, funky backgrounds like abandoned farms and living in South Jersey there's no end to the great places we can find to shoot.  For portraits, including families, seniors, children and engagement sessions, we talk before your session so I can get to know you and understand what type of look you are going for and we come up with a location together. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Denise

A New Year!

Hello! I've been very lazy lately, and haven't been taking any pictures;  consequently, I have nothing to post.  I have been busy working behind the scenes.  I have a surprise coming with my blog--a whole new design. I'm working with super talented Madeline Miller who is redesigning my blog. I can't wait to unvail that. I'm also working with my graphic designer to redo all my wedding pricelists.  I don't know, I think a zillion brides got engaged over the holiday (and in the fall) because I'm getting a ton of inquiries about weddings for this year.  I've actually had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of couples who are planning some amazing weddings which I'd love to shoot. 

May is looking up to be fully booked as I have a lot of shoots scheduled already!  The couples that I have booked for weddings are choosing May for their engagement shoots, and on about 3 of them we're going into Philadelphia for the shoots.  That should be fun. April is usually fine, too, so if you want a shoot, don't let April's bad rep for rain scare you.  

Finally, later this month I have a shoot scheduled with Syd, the lead singer in the Love Jones Band.  It'll be cold, but I'm very excited since I'll be trying out some new lighting techniques.  I might ask for a few more volunteers as I work on my off-camera lighting.  If you are interested in driving to Swedesboro on a sunday afternoon in Jan or Feb, let me know! 

Oh, and just one more thing, we, as a family, are looking for a nice little trip on Ethan's spring break. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.  It'll only be the equivalent of a long weekend, so we can't really do anything too far...but I'm just stuck on what to do!

Happy Tuesday,

Denise

Our Gift

The gift I bought this year for the family is a new printer/copier/scanner. Truly, I have no idea why I waited so long using an archaic printer!  The color on the new printer is super, I can print directly from my camera or I can print from the computer, but I think the new feature I'm most happy with is the scan funtion!  Here's a sample.  This is a shot taken of me (I'm on the left) and my sister probably back in the late 60's. Santa looks young but today he's likely well over the age of 60!  

Ethan says we look 'like boys in dresses.'

NYE

On New Year's Eve, I had a couple of glasses of champagne and Ethan had some non-alcoholic sparking cider.  We had a quiet evening, but he did stay up until midnight which was a first.

I'll leave you with this thought:

Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.

--Ernest Hemingway

Happy 2009!

Last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice.

--T.S. Eliot

May the new year bring you health and happiness!  Denise

2008 Recap!

If I took your picture in 2008, you might find yourself in this collage!  I took too many portraits to fit everyone in, so I included my favorite shots. While doing this project, it really brought back a lot of good memories of all the great people I met and worked with.  It also filled me with hope for another super year...I am so excited for 2009 and all the new people I'll meet.  

Happy New Year!

Oh, and click on the collage to see it larger.