Oh man, that was a fun wedding!  Leanna and Willie arranged for me to meet them and their entire bridal party the day before the wedding for a casual photo shoot in the Redhook area of Brooklyn/NYC. It was a great idea!

[ more photos here and here ]

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“You can’t get to wonderful without passing through all right.”

- Bill Withers [ watch the fantastic short here ]

This is a teaser for Beth and Dave’s UK wedding. Just one small taste of the awesomeness that ensued.

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Since Allissa and Seth are getting married this next Sunday (!) (another Rhode Island wedding), and they’re as busy as I am lately, we ended up having a super quick session… 10 minutes! Seth seemed a little bit shy from the camera at first, but he’s an awfully handsome man. They’re really in love.

[ more photos from the quick session here ]

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I am ridiculously excited for Erin and Jared’s wedding on a campground in Maine in a couple of weeks, and just about did a little happy dance when I received an email from her with the best PS ever.

P.S. We’ve got 100 fake mustaches on the way for the reception. Prepare yourself for some silliness.

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Niloufar and Amir’s Sofreh Aghd
(Iranian wedding celebration)
[ more photos here ]

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If had to choose only one photo to take during this trip to San Jose, I would want it to be this one:

Anita, Haady and I snuck away from the wedding for a few minutes right as the light was ending on Friday. This is the perfect moment - the wind that picked up her hair, the look of happiness and contentment they have together, and the soft muted tones from the very special light.

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So… Ali and I came here to San Jose to attend his cousin’s big fancy Persian wedding - of all the weddings I have been to this year, this is only the SECOND I have been able to attend as a guest. Although it was really difficult for me to stay in my seat, we enjoyed dancing (and eating!) at Niloufar and Amir’s wedding. I found it really interesting to see a Persian wedding from the ‘other side’ since so much of our own day in February was somewhat distracted by being at the center of everyone’s attention.

I decided to go get my hair styled since all the Persian women get so fancy for weddings, and when I took it down it was this amazing mess of curls and pins and hairspray. I had her add a few braids to funkify the updo a bit, which you can actually see in the photo below even after I took it down. Also, it’s really nice to see my husband after being away for the UK wedding for 10 days.

I’m here in San Jose for two more days. This morning I happened to get sucked into MTv (we don’t have it at home) and spent the first couple of hours watching ‘my super sweet sixteen’ — and omg those two Persian girls they featured were just as out of control as the other party throwers. What in the world are we coming to if this kind of thing is normalized for sixteen year olds? Lavish parties ($30k-200k), live entertainment that costs more than a wedding itself, being carried in on chaises carried by buff, oiled hott guys, brand new sports cars as gifts, and the ‘I need to be the hottest girl at the party by having the most expensive custom-made dress’ mentality. The funny part is that now they’re doing this feature where two years after their OOC 16th party the kids are profiled (apparently all still living off their parents and living lives of extreme leisure) and the parents surprise them by exiling them off to remote locations for hard labor to teach them a lesson. It’s pretty hilarious and disturbing. Ludicrous really is the word here.

Well, with that notable start to the day, I’m off for some crazy processing of some of the thousands and thousands of images that have built up over the past few weeks.

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I did in fact manage to meet up with Rob Sanderson (Curve Photography - Liverpool, UK) today and we had a fantastic little adventure wandering around a village and taking photos together and talking about all sorts of things - from past clients who say mean things in public forums, to future goals and current life. I knew for sure that I liked him when he suggested a shoot using our umbrellas and a bench for props. In the photo below he didn’t have his sunglasses, so he used his circular polarizer as a monacle. It may be noted that we spent… oh, an hour? with our cameras propped up on our camera bags running to set the 10 second delay on our cameras and then running back to pose. And yes, those are my heart sunglasses from TopShop.

You have to know something about photographers, and that is that when we get together, we take photos of each other. All the time. We spent an additional 30 minutes at the end of our meeting with the 10 second delay running to jump up into a stone arch and then strike ninja poses. Anyway, here’s a good one of Rob.

Thanks for the great conversation, Rob. I’m still thinking about that idea that we have lost the craft aspect of photography. And next time, seriously… I need to meet Lou!

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I thought I’d say a few words about England since I’ve been here for awhile now. First of all, I consider this my first real visit. I went to London briefly as a tourist when I was in university, and got scolded by some Brits for standing somewhere I wasn’t supposed to near Buckingham Palace. Also my traveling buddy was badly harassed by the passport people at the airport for no real reason, so I wasn’t too fond of that visit to begin with.

The major thing I have noticed on this trip is that I prefer to visit with locals rather than see the sights. Some version of a combination of these things - being taken to local sights by local friends - is ideal. I’ve been hosted by a fantastic family and feel right at home eating meals around the dinner table and learning about why the English so love their gardens. Holmfirth where I am staying is a totally beautiful small town with quirky local highlights like a daytime soap opera about eccentric old people being filmed in town. The hills are gorgeous and make a wonderful little walk just at dusk when you can see the cows, residents, and patches of heather starting to peek through. Cheryl, my host ‘mom’ cooks great food and I had the best meal I’ve ever experienced in the British Isles the other day when she served Yorkshire Pudding and potatoes, followed by a good pudding (dessert cake of sorts).

I’m told my fake British accent is horrible and I should just say things the way I would say them… but it’s inevitable to find myself repeating words and phrases as people say them in a way that seems peculiar or charming to me — like the way they emphasize the syllables in the word ‘garage’ or ’schedule.’ People here actually say fortnight in daily conversation (it means 2 weeks) and measure their weight by stones (14 lbs).

Today I took the train into Manchester to meet up with beautiful Zoe. She’s one of those people you know you love the second you see them for the first time. Full of life and passion and heartfelt enthusiasm, I would look forward to one day hopefully shooting a wedding with Zoe! She took me on a tour of some posh stores, and we went up in this giant wheel to see the city from a great vantage point. Tomorrow, I am hoping to meet up with another wedding photographer friend called Rob.

Now that the wedding is over, I have been able to relax a bit. I had hoped to be more productive in the evenings with processing sessions and keeping up with my email, but I have to admit I am so tired and out of ‘business’ mode that I am finding it difficult. Once I am back in Boston it will be nonstop sessions and processing for the next two months. Can’t I just stay here and photograph the cows for a bit?

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Rachel, you have no idea how thankful I am for you. Our pictures are more beautiful than I could have ever imagined; your talent really made this day even more special and our memories are going to be so well-preserved because of the amazing time and effort you gave to us.

thank you so much.

-Leanna
(Brooklyn-NYC July bride)

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