Entries from July 2008
July 31, 2008
“If you fly in only one vendor, make it the photographer. Since so many of the dealings with your shutterbug will take place after the wedding (…ordering prints, assembling albums, etc.), it’s actually more convenient to have that professional based near you. And if you use a local photographer in another country and something goes wrong (worst-case scenario: He or she loses the film [sic]), you’ll have little or no legal recourse. Also, as a stylistic consideration, American wedding photographers tend to have a much more journalistic style than many of their foreign counterparts (who often take more traditional, posed photos), so if you’re marrying abroad and would like your photos to have a natural, candid look, you may want to fly in a photographer.”
-the Knot Guide to Destination Weddings (p. 70)
While I absolutely do not want to be referred to as ‘your shutterbug’ I will travel joyfully to your location of choice and create extraordinary photographic art with and for you. This wedding that you’re investing a bazillion dollars into? I’m pretty sure that resort package photographer who gives you an hour of time isn’t necessarily going to capture all the moments. (And for the record, it’s not all fancy umbrella drinks on the beach for your import photographers… see Nick Haskin’s entry about why destination photography is actually not a vacation for the photographer.)
What excites me about traveling and learning about different cultural traditions is that I come at each experience with wide open eyes. I am delighted by the colors and smells and deep symbolic imagery from a South Asian or Pakistani wedding celebration. I am enamored by the drinking songs the old Irish grandfather will bust out. I am totally incredulous at how many times a couple will prostrate themselves in a traditional Korean bowing ceremony. Checking out the special details a couple places around the ceremony and reception, traveling to a new place and scouting unfamiliar streets for artistic and funky bridal portraits… I discovered in previous years that when I happened to come across these situations at my wedding commissions, I completely came alive.
And when you completely come alive, you know you are connecting with a deep calling written into your soul. I cling to this delight, wonder, and electricity I experienced in the first few years of my business. Reflection upon those windows of joy prompted this year’s change in emphasis to encourage ethnic and destination wedding commissions.
So who is ‘ethnic’ enough? What is a ‘destination’ wedding?
Good questions! I like to say that I specialize in documenting the joyful collision of cultures. There’s no straightforward definition of destination, nor of what constitutes an ethnic wedding. Your wedding might happen two blocks from my own flat in Boston or three thousand miles away in a place I need to purchase special adapters just to charge up the necessary accoutrements. The collision might be a bunch of Texans celebrating a wedding in the Caribbean, or a Japanese doctor marrying a Croatian scientist (true story!).
I want to live at the intersection where two people join their families and lives - that point of merge. I love to experience this cultural collision of lives and traditions and food preferences… I love to laugh with your British granny who is smoking her marlboros in her big elegant British lady hat. I love to be on the dance floor when the Irish groom is showing off his Bollywood-inspired dance moves to his new bride’s cousins.
You know who you are, my dear target client base.
Posted in destination, wisdom 
No Comments »
July 30, 2008
There is a photo that I simply can not stop looking at today. It’s a bridal portrait of California’s South Asian bride Manisha, taken at her recent wonderful and colorful wedding with Arvind by a photographer known as Dina. Andrena Photography regularly photographs my dream clients who throw lavish and joyful celebrations, and perusing her blog is like eye candy for the soul. Yumyumyum.
This image… the one I reference above that I can not stop looking at…. has inspired me even more. I really want to connect with South Asian brides, especially in the Boston area, for a portrait collaboration. I definitely want to integrate some desi brides into the Juxtaposition project, but more than that I just want to photograph you and your husband together, separately, and celebrate the joy that surrounds a South Asian celebration.
And, the ongoing search for talented makeup artists and stylists continues. Do you know someone who can do styling like that beautiful and colorful makeup in the photo? Email me! rachel@mergeweddings.com
photo copyright Andrena Photography.
(referenced with permission)
Posted in clients, portraits 1 Comment »
July 29, 2008
July 28, 2008
I am in the midst of getting the photos from Leanna and Willie’s NYC wedding finalized, and I have to stop and appreciate how wonderful they really are. Leanna and Willie exuded such joy on their wedding day — despite super hot temperatures and a threat of rain — and when I look at their best friends I start to understand why. Many of the people in these photos have dedicated their lives to the service of others. They spend their weeks ministering to the children of Brooklyn. And their passion for people wells out from a fierce love in their hearts.
[ more here ]
Posted in clients, destination, inspiration, wedding 2 Comments »
July 28, 2008
July 27, 2008
So, I have had this idea for a long time, and only recently been able to execute it.
Heather, who is due on July 31, was an excellent model and didn’t flinch when I brought her to the area of crazy construction just outside Boston where I had scouted my signs — she even suggested that she’d be happy to sit on the curb near the traffic for this shot. Noted: it is surprisingly awkward to pose a very pregnant woman with a large orange sign next to a busy highway.
And the photo below is dedicated to Rima. It is one of the bizarre disembodied baby heads, a bronze installation (Antonio López García’s El dia y la noche) outside Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts near where we live. This makes me laugh a lot - both at the fact that Heather was all for traveling to get this shot after I told her it was just for a joke, and at the fact that these disembodied baby heads exist.
[ more of the hilarious attempts at getting the BUMP photo to work: here ]
On a serious note, my wedding clients all have the benefit of complimentary maternity and newborn sessions with me. I’ll be launching a more formal BUMP site eventually, but right now I’m just trying to get our Boston boudoir photography site off the ground.
Posted in clients, personal, portraits 2 Comments »
July 26, 2008
This past week I was blessed. I got to photograph two artists who are true movers and shakers in their genre. Jazz artist Jared Sims is working on an album and commissioned me to help out with some cover art.
And Julia, Cambridge-based illustrator whose work shows crazy amounts of talent, needed some shots for her own promo work.
Posted in clients, portraits 2 Comments »
July 26, 2008
Yesterday I shot a wedding in Springfield MA with Marie Cox of Phreckles Photography. I got to hang out in Northampton MA last night with some of my favorite people, and it just so happens I found a cat in the bathtub this morning. I have recently realized that a disturbingly large percentage of my favorite people come with cats.
Posted in destination, personal, travel schedule No Comments »
July 23, 2008
Thank you SO MUCH to those who I’ve been working with to schedule bridal sessions for the juxtaposition project. I’ve only released two edits out of the four we’ve shot so far, and already everyone seems to love the work. And those of you who have helped on the session, pointed people in my direction, and sent words of feedback and encouragement (you know who you are)… I LOVE YOU.
I have been making the first girls wait a bit while I get things in order, but now I am pleased to announce that the final design is in. I hired James Kershaw to design a graphic to work as a standalone and to layer over the juxtaposition photos… for display and for the BOOK PROJECT… and he did a fantastic job. I look forward to using this beautiful graphic.
Between weddings, travel, bridal shoots, and Boston boudoir photography, I am now completely booked solid until late September. I won’t be taking any new commissions until after I am back in the states and settled back after two weeks in Manchester, England for a wedding in August. September is a month of constant travel (Phoenix, Minneapolis, Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut, Long Island). Of note: it will be my first time in Minnesota.
I’d like to get together a few Phoenix boudoir sessions when I am there (September 21-26). Anyone know anyone out there?
As for the future, let’s just say Hawaii is on the books for December, and I’m already thinking about a very special boudoir project involving naughty santa goods in November. Candy canes and Santa hats, anyone?
And… I’d love to do a gallery installation with images from the juxtaposition project. I am working on a proposal right now.
Posted in boudoir, clients, fearless bridals, travel schedule, wedding 4 Comments »
July 22, 2008
