Charlotte turned one yesterday.  I held her in my arms last night and realized that she’s starting to grow out of that little space.  It’s as if she stopped being a baby and became a little girl overnight.  You know that kind of emotional fullness that is all at once joyful and devastating?  I have never experienced that sentiment more than in my first year of parenthood.

So we had a party.  A decadently sweet get together with Charlotte’s few little friends at one of my favorite spots in town, Natasha’s Mulberry and Mott.  There is no place more fanciful to have a little girl’s birthday party.  I was pretty excited about letting her try her first cake, because Charlotte loves to eat.  When we’re out at a restaurant and a waitress walks by with a tray of food, she exclaims “Mmmmmmmmm!!!”

Her first taste of cake, as you will see, did not go over with her as it did in my dreams.  But the party couldn’t have been better.  And I couldn’t love her more.

Here’s a peek at the party…

Tyler’s shot of the tea cup below

The Wirken boys make crowns…

Tyler shot this picture of his boys Zack and Alex- they are the biggest snugglers- it’s so cute!

Tyler’s shot below..

Tyler’s shot below…

and I just love this lovely moment Tyler captured…

Here’s to the year ahead!!

Just after New Years was the wedding of Laci and Ryan.  A wonderful, down to earth couple that I have not known very long, but that did not matter. Very quickly they let me into  their lives and I was able to shoot their day with no inhibitions. With just one meeting before their wedding we got to know each other and trust each other. Made me realize that people come into your lives at moments you are not expecting and exceptional things happen. Most exceptional  to me was how they met. New York City a few years back. Laci and a girlfriend are sitting on a front stoop of her building and Ryan and a friend are walking by on their way out for the night. Ryan stops and introduced himself to Laci. Invites her and her friend to join them for the night. The rest….is history. Exceptional history.

Details:

Wedding: The Cathedral of Immaculate Conception

Reception: The Sawyer Room

Coordination: Soiree Event Designs

Flowers/Lighting: Studio Dan Meiners

Catering: Avenues Bistro

Getting ready at the Sawyer Room.

A cold and snowy first meeting did not damped their excitement.

Great show by Kate! I love the look on his face when he first sees Laci.

They were such troopers! I loved the look of the snow in these images….did not love the cold so much.

Nice moment right before the new couple gets announced into the reception. Laci just taking a moment.

Fun first dance.

Emotional toast by Laci’s Dad really got to both of them.

LOVE Grandma. She had the best time celebrating. Here she is happily looking on as Laci and her Dad dance.

A few more toasts and presentation of gifts to the couple.

A very emotional last dance for the couple. Here they share the moment while their guests encircle them. Even with everyone there it felt very intimate and loving.

End to a wonderful night!

Thank you both for letting us in. We had a wonderful time meeting and getting to know you. We hope these images convey how wonderful your day really was.

Mimi takes Char for a walk on the beach…

Some people try to sneak drugs over the border- it’s diapers for us!!

Char starting making friends as soon as we got there…here she is with Papi

Baby boudoir…….

All that new experience caught up with her on the way home…

What a fantastic way to wind down the wedding season.   Michelle and Nathan and their families were an absolute joy to document.  I had the couple and Michelle’s family in the studio last night for a viewing and I was so touched how close they all are.  It was wonderful to sit back and watch how they reacted to the images of that fantastic day.  It was Michelle, Nathan, Michelle’s parents, her younger brother and a bridesmaid in the studio last night.  What struck me was how unapologetic they all were with their showing their emotions.  Just like on the wedding day.  It was so refreshing to be able to really see such a great family dynamic.  It was a flashback to the wedding.  The entire day was the same.  I told Michelle’s dad and Nathan last night how impressed I was that both of them just let themselves get wrapped up in the moment of the day and did not worry about how they looked and if it would bruise their machismo.  In the end those two men made for some of the best images of that day.  You do not see that much anymore.

Thank you all for being so welcoming to me and Kate on that day.  Thank you for reminding me what life is all about.  Family.

The details-

Ceremony- St. Thomas More

Reception- Californos

Dj- Holmes Music World

The images.

I love when brides get ready at the house they grew up in.  It is like pressing fast forward in the learning process about them and their story.  Michelle’s parents house was no exception.  It helped me to see what they valued and gave me a great idea of what images I needed to make to tell the story.  Here is Michelle as a wee little one.

Michelle and her bridesmaids getting down in the kitchen.

I love this shot by my assistant Kate of Nathan starting his process.

They had a bit of trouble with the first part of the dress.  Then success.

Finally dressed Michelle waits in the basement till everyone is gone and her father comes to get her.

Still waiting.  It was totally obvious this family treasured photographs as the house was filled with images of all three children from when they were babies.

Funny story.  Michelle had to wait with just her and her mom for quite a while till her dad came to get her to go to the ceremony.  She was getting pretty anxious waiting for her dad to come through the door.  Finally a car pulled up and in through the garage door comes her BROTHER!  It was so funny.  Here she is still waiting for her dad in the kitchen.

You can learn a lot about someone by their house.  Judging from the fact that they still had on display father/daughter dance photos from every year, I knew the moment her dad came in to get her was going to be an important one.  It was.  To me and to them.   The ceremony was starting in fifteen minutes as the three of us waited for dad for come from the church and get us.  Suddenly the garage opened and we heard the song “I know you want me” by Pitbull blaring from the car stereo.  The door flings open and in comes Michelle’s dad.  In an instant he went from dancing to crying as he saw his daughter in her wedding dress for the first time.  It was amazing to witness.  I loved it.  He later said that that moment was one of the best of his life.  Awesome.  Seriously inspirational on how to be a parent and to not take yourself or life to seriously.

I love this image of mom watching as they load into the car for the ceremony.  In case you were wondering someone came to get mom and I rode with Michelle and her dad!

Some comic relief.

Nathan and his guys joking around as they wait for the cue.

Michelle’s brother walks his mom down the aisle as she gives Nathan a thumbs up.

Such an emotional moment as Nathan saw Michelle for the first time that day.  Michelle said she could not see him as she came down the aisle and almost forgot he was there for a moment as she was having so much fun seeing everyone else.  Once she locked eyes on him she too lost it.  It was another wonderful moment to witness.

Finally.

What a trooper.  Michelle braving the single digit freezing temps for a really fast portrait.  Impressive.

The cake.  I love this image by Kate with all of the reflections of folks watching.

My angle with about 20 kids watching.

First dance.

One of my favorite images of the day.  Nathan enjoys his dance with Michelle.

A new father/daughter dance photo to add to the collection.

This was awesome.  A couple of groomsmen broke into a wicked rendition of Cheap Trick’s Surrender  as Michelle rocked out along with them.

The conga line.

The last dance.

Mom and dad.

Tyler

For that reason, I knew I just had to get my hands on that toast.  Luckily, our friend Jeff Stultz was the videographer, and he graciously let me use the audio that he so aptly recorded.  I also need to thank Tyler bigtime for sitting down with me today and helping me pull off this multi-media slideshow since he has had much more chance to dabble in it than I have. (and Mike Varel, good friend, thanks for editing those audio clips for me)

Annie, Victor, Berenbom, and Wishna families- I was truly honored to record your story.  Pop open a bottle and enjoy the show!

When Sarah’s mom approached me about documenting her daughter’s Batmitzvah I was excited about the opportunity.   When we met I told her I had never done one before but was willing to give it a go.  See as a photographer on a newspaper you never knew what you were getting into.  You just shoot it.

In the end I admired her confidence and willing to basically take a risk on this one.  It paid off.  It was a wonderful thing to document.  Sarah was very impressive to me how seriously she took this and how mature she was throughout.

Thanks for letting me be a part of it.  Lets just say I forgot what it is was like to be 13!

The details:

Ceremony- New Reform Temple

Floral/event design- Blue Bouguet

Party- The Berg Event Space

Photobooth- boothBOOTH

The images.

I attended the rehearsal for the ceremony and I am glad I did.  This moment between Sarah and her mom really shows how close the family is.

Sarah on the actual day doing her readings.

I loved all of the family interaction at this event.  Here Sarah’s grandmother and grandfather take part.

Sarah with Torah in hand leads her parents in a lap around the temple.

Jaws were dropping as the kids laid eyes on the ginormous limo waiting as transport to the party.

It was a very loud ride that night.

Our dear friends at Blue Bouquet hit this one out of the park.  Total home run on pulling together all of the lighting and design ideas.

Yup.  Live goldfish center pieces.

The party begins.  Sarah’s brother sporting the fake mustache.

Sarah and friends getting loose in the booth.  boothBOOTH was a huge hit.

The party had it all.  A photobooth, ice cream cart, dancing, and of course temporary tattoos.

Sarah leading the conga line.

A quick impromptu tribute to the king of pop.

This I found funny.  The age old 13 year old straight arm slow dance.

One last trip to the boothBOOTH with some company.  Blue Bouquet even designed and printed t-shirts for the night.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I would like to introduce to you a new direction we are currently going in with our wedding photography storytelling.

The key word here is baby steps.  This is one of the first attempts of mine at using multi-media to tell a better story.  I have always felt that the combination of still photos and audio to be quite powerful and have wanted to really explore using that technology to further our ability to tell our couples stories.  I have even tried a bit of it at some wedding this past year.  To those clients that are reading this, thanks for letting us experiment and I promise you will see the end product soon!  This stuff just takes time.

Here is the wedding story of Kelly and Pete.  I need to give you a bit of background on this one as I just love this couple.  Kelly came to me with a rather unique story.  First and most obvious was that she was pregnant with their son Augie.  Second was the way they planned their wedding to be.  See Kelly and Pete are both very established folks with a ton of wonderfully tight friends and family.  Plus they just do not like to be “normal”.  I connected  with her immediately and her no BS, take life by the horns attitude.  I loved it.  I got to spend a lot of time with Kelly as I did her maternity images, Augie’s newborn images and then the wedding which took place over two days.  I had not met Pete till the week of the wedding when we had our final meeting.  He was the same as her.  Full of confidence and vigor to make the most of things.

I loved their no apologies approach to this wedding.  They were going to do it their way no matter what.  They kind of like to do things backwards as was evident  as they basically had the reception on Friday night and the wedding ceremony on Saturday with a lunch following.

They had told me that their favorite thing to do was to sit around with friends and a beer and just shoot the breeze and that’s how they wanted their wedding to be.

At the rehearsal dinner on Friday I quickly figured out that I needed to be recording audio of the toasts.  So I took my camera and started just videoing for audio capture only.  I did the same on Saturday and was able to really add to the essence of who these two are and what their wedding celebration was all about.

In the end I am so pleased with this first attempt I can not wait to start exploring this more for our couples in the future.

So sit back and enjoy Kelly and Pete’s show, and our passionate attempt for something new and different.

Thanks

Tyler

Hey photographers!

Wanted to share a really cool thing happening on Wednesday Jan 27th. that I am a part of.  Most of you have heard me talk about the Foundation Workshop I teach at down in Dallas every year.  Well the on-line forum I am a part of that is associated with that workshop is hosting a benefit to help the people of Haiti next week.  We wanted to do something to help as a group and we came up with this-

The Mentor Marathon 4 Haiti will be held on WEDNESDAY JAN. 27 to raise money for charitable organizations that provide relief for Haiti earthquake victims.

For a $100 donation, photographers receive unlimited access to a day-long online mentor session by the industry’s top photographers. Mentors will be conducting portfolio reviews, image critiques, answering questions, etc. Of course, the amount of 1-on-1 interaction depends on the number of photographers participating.

Mentoring schedule for Wednesday (all times Central USA)

7 am – 10 am : Sergio + Critsey Rowe
10 am – NOON : DQ Studios
NOON – 2 pm : David Murray
2 pm – 4 pm : Tyler Wirken
4 pm – 6pm : Ben Chrisman + Anna Kuperberg
6 pm – 8 pm : JVS
8 pm – 10 pm : Brooks Whittington

For more details : http://www.fwforum.com/showthread.php?t=8077

I will be on-line doing what I can for a couple of hours that day along with some of the best in the industry to do our part to raise money to help with the earthquake victims.

Help make a difference by clicking the link to learn more.  It will be a lot of fun!

Thanks,

Tyler

Emily and Johnny and I got connected through mutual friends, David and Holly, who’s wedding I photographed two Decembers ago.  Last night these two came to the studio and we watched their warm winter wedding slideshow for the first time.  At the end of the night, I felt the same way that I did about them on the wedding day.  That they are beautifully certain about what they like and who they are, and also that they always leave me happy and wanting more of them.

Emily’s favorite wedding photos are the classics- Princess Grace, Jackie Kennedy, any large semi-formal, but wierdly informal family photo from over 60 years ago.  We connected on our love for nostalgia and the elements of classic style.  Johnny admitted that he had a thing for the look of lights in the distance- out of focus and dreamy.  Hey, me too Johnny.  And, happily, beneath these surface compatibilities, we also connected on what we held most dear.

To start…Emily dealt with her leaning cake with a refreshingly casual attitude.

The dress arrives…she loooves the dress!

Emily’s bridesmaids help her change her underwear

The next two beautiful shots are Jewel’s

Jewel’s photo below

Excited kids wait for the grand entrance

Inspiration was around every corner and in every laugh line.  I love you guys!

See the beautiful work of the Parsons here

Ashley and Jeremy gift each of their wedding couples with this don’t give up poster that they integrate into one of the wedding day portraits.