MCO > LAS

We are very excited to be going to Vegas this week to attend our first WPPI. WPPI is the annual international convention for wedding and portrait photographers and we’re going to be 2 of over 15,000 that descend upon the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. During the day we’ll be visiting some of the platform classes, making the rounds on the tradeshow floor to meet the vendors we’ve been using, hopefully finding some awesome new stuff to offer our clients, eating way too much (so Nate has more stuff to review on his up and coming food blog), getting our own engagement photos shot by Jeff, and meeting as many people as we possibly can. And by night, well… let’s just say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Just kidding, we’ll be good. ;)

Yes I colored and threaded the map myself. And yes I forgot that I had yellow till about halfway through. ;)

Thank you to everyone who left me sweet and encouraging notes here and on Facebook when I opened up a bit to you all. I really didn’t expect the volume of notes you all took the time to write me and it meant more to me than you can know. Thank you.

For all of you who aren’t photographers or who are photographers that aren’t able to go to Vegas this year, we’ve got you covered… We’ve got a bunch of blog posts on deck that are ready to go live throughout the week for your perusing pleasure. And we’ll be keeping up with everyone as best we can via Twitter so if you aren’t already, follow Nate here and follow Becka here.

If you’re a photographer and you want to meet up in person in Vegas, just send us a message on twitter or come up and say HI. I’m kind of an introvert so I’ll probably be attached to Nate’s hip most the time. And Nate is an extrovert so he’ll probably be bouncing all over the place at the speed of light. :) We want to meet as many people as humanly possible!

Our schedule so far for Vegas is tradeshow and platforms during the day and at night…

Sunday: Arrive, Photolovecat Happy Hour, Zumanity, J Sandifer Poker Tournament
Monday: Photoshoot with Jeff,  WPPI Pool Party
Tuesday: Pictage Party at Studio 54 & PIF Party
Wednesday: TBD
Thursday: leaving early in the morning :)

For clients, readers, and everyone else… thank you in advance for your patience as email and voicemail replies will be delayed until next week.

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Film | Yashica D Twin Lens Reflex

Nate has taken to collecting old film cameras. For the last few holidays, his family has helped him out by tracking down some really cool old machines as well as various accessories and parts and then gifting them to him. For Christmas, Nate received a Yashica D Twin Lens Reflex camera. They were made from 1957-1973 in the Rolleicord style. Since both Nate and I learned photography on digital cameras, it’s been really fun to learn how to use these film cameras (and keep our fingers crossed that they still work, and that we don’t ruin all the film).

These were taken on two different rolls of film during our recent road trip through the southeast. The images below were taken in Atlanta and on the beach in Charleston. I have been holding out on diving into film because I feel a bit over my head with it and I feel bad ruining film but these images from the Yashica have completely stolen my heart. We did nothing to them except resize them for the blog and add a watermark. No editing was done at all except removing one dirt smudge from the last frame. No color correction, no toning, no cropping. Just look at the gorgeous tones in these frames. The gorgeous square format. I’m a believer. I can’t wait to play more with this and our other antiques…

Our favorite film used so far, Kodak Ektar 100. Such a pretty toning naturally…

This one was our favorite shot of our friend and road-trip buddy, Philipe…

That second shot was a mistake while learning how to advance the film… But it turned out really cool to look at…

These last two were from a separate roll of slide film. These two of Atlanta make me swoon…

All of these images were taken by Nate on our Yashica D Twin Lens Reflex camera.

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Disney Boardwalk | Orlando, Florida

Becky and Jeff, who you may remember from their sugary sweet engagement session at the Port Orleans Resort at Disney, had a fun wedding for their closest friends and family at the Disney Boardwalk a few weeks ago. Becky had the most smile-inducing details and I can’t wait to show them off here on the blog but I realized that I had completely forgotten to post a sneak peek for them. (For shame!) We feel especially flattered and loved by our Disney brides. Since we are not contracted Disney photographers, we are not allowed in the parks at all to photograph. So all of our Disney brides make us feel so loved when they bring us in to capture the parts of their wedding day that are outside of the theme parks. Becky and Jeff made our day even more exciting by deciding to do a “first look” before the ceremony so that we could have more than enough time for beautiful portraits of the two of them…

…and one last one to wet your appetite for the rest of the wedding on the Croquet Lawn:

More to come very soon!

If you are a bride planning a Disney wedding and would like us to creatively capture the parts of your day that are outside the parks, contact us with your date and your plans.

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Celebration, Florida

Elsa and Mitch met up with us the other day for their engagement session in Celebration, Florida. If you have never been to Celebration you should really take a trip over there. It’s a bit Stepford Wives-y, a bit old time Americana, a bit Disney. Well, not really Disney exactly… there’s no Disney characters or anything but it caters to a lot of tourists who are visiting Disney so I kind of lump it in there with The Mouse. Elsa and Mitch will be having their wedding at the Celebration Hotel which is one of the most beautiful hotels in Orlando. The Celebration Hotel, as well as all of Celebration, has a charming old Florida meets European town square feel. Right outside of the Celebration Hotel is the town’s “main street” where there are tons of shops, restaurants, a theater, and one of the best ice cream shops in Orlando. Elsa and Mitch came dressed to impress with the kind of effortless affection for each other that we love so much to photograph and we had so much fun getting to know them both better. We can’t wait for their wedding this June. Enjoy these favorite frames from their session…

Doesn’t Elsa look like a Shiri Appleby twin?

Celebration has these beautiful fountains. We were thrilled that Elsa and Mitch were willing to really utilize them. ;)

If you would like to inquire to have us be your wedding photographers, contact us here.

To see sneak peeks, inspiration, and what’s going on in our lives before everyone else, subscribe to the Studio222 Photography Blog here.

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Tuesdays Top 5 Volume 3

It’s been a while since i’ve don’t a top 5, but as always there’s a lot of cool stuff out there, and I’m thrilled to share it with you!  Let me know what you think.

Favorite APP

1Password Pro – If you ever get your passwords mixed up, you’ll love this app.  I picked up this app when they were giving it away for some reason another, but if i had missed that deal i would pay the $7.99 any day.  You can set a general PIN as well as a Master Passcode (if you’re extra paranoid).  Then you have a convenient list of all your passwords for all of your logins.  1Password is also available on the computer and works as a plugin for your browser to manage all of your logins.

Check out the official website for more.

Favorite Beer

Anything from Lagunitas Brewery.  My good friend over at Redlight Redlight got married (we got to shoot his wedding!) introduced me to Lagunitas last month, and there was plenty of it to go around at the wedding.  I had to test for consistency so i re-tested it on my recent “that was delicious” road trip and it was still just as good.

http://www.lagunitas.com/

Favorite Music

It’s not new, but I’ve been listening a lot to one of my favorite albums by “RX Bandits”, an album called the resignation. It mixes a combination of hard rock, reggae and ska (yes i said ska, they have horns, i don’t’ know what else to call it).  Great lyrics and a great jam band style, you definitely have to give it a listen

Favorite Movie

Zombieland – laugh your pants off funny, pretty gory, and one of the best surprise cameos ever!

Wildcard

Why does this always end up being a lens?  About a month ago, I tested out the 85mm 1.2 from my friends at thelensdepot.com (Our favorite place to rent gear from).  It was splendid, I didn’t want to give it back, but I didn’t have a choice.  I was able to talk Becka into it, and now it’s ours!  Using it has pushed me to shoot a lot tighter than normal, but it’s sharpness and bokeh are really second to none.

Which brings me to my final point…

We’ve got a couple extra lenses now, and it’s time to pass on a couple of our favorite tools to you. Shipping will be added on based on your zip code.

First, a classic:  the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L $875 (Retails for $1329 on B&H)

Disclaimer -We may or may not have lost the hood… Ok, we did.. It’s not the end of the world. We lost it in New York City, so that’s a good story… Also, there are some scratches and a small dent on the rim in the front of lens where the filters screw on, but they still go on fine. Can you tell this was our go-to lens for a while? It’s such a perfect range, especially for traveling. The glass is in great shape, the barrel is metal (a little loose when it’s fully extended, which is standard across the board on these).  It’s one of the go to lenses for professionals, and it has served us very well… but we’re just about full on zoom lenses and switching to primes…

Second – the Canon 50mm f/1.4 – $275 (Retails for $349 on B&H)

Another go to lens, it’s in perfect shape and is the best affordable prime lens that will really push the way you shoot.  Canon’s 50mm lenses are favorites among photographers for their versatility and gorgeous background blur. We upgraded to the 1.2 so this one doesn’t get much use anymore. It’s fast and great in low light, great background blur, fast focus, and sharp.

We’re selling them first come first serve. Email us if you’re interested and we’ll send you a paypal invoice. We’re letting you blog lovelies know first, then we’ll be announcing it to our facebook fans. We’d like to get this sold and shipped out before we leave for Vegas on Sunday.