This past week Erik and I took a few days to relax before the start of wedding season. We headed down to West Palm Beach, FL and had an amazing time! Throughout the year we have big ideas for photo shoots. We keep a giant list containing ideas of things and places we would love to shoot. (Anyone want to meet us in Paris or New Zealand?) On the top of our list was shooting a vintage-y session with a small plane. We e-mailed a few places in the West Palm area on the off chance they would let us “borrow” a plane for an hour or so (if you don’t ask you don’t get!) and Tamara (and the other folks) at Sunquest Aviation were gracious enough to oblige. And not just oblige – they were truly excited to allow us in their facility! As Erik and I were planning this shoot, we remembered that our very good friends Robert and Kathleen just launched their new vintage travel inspired brand. We have known Rob and Kathleen for a couple of years now, and some of their favorite things are vintage style, traveling, and airplanes! Guess who was willing to jump on a plane at the last minute to be our models!!

We had the plane reserved for us in the late afternoon, so we decided to head to Juno Beach to relax a bit.
It was about 80 degrees and the weather was perfect. A nice change of pace from the 40 degree weather we left in Connecticut.

The water was nice and warm…

How adorable are they?

My favorite from the beach.

Love this shot Erik got under the pier. Look at that perspective – and that water!

Then we headed to Sunquest Aviation where our little yellow plane was waiting, and Rob and Kathleen brought the fabulousness!

Love this shot of Kathleen that Erik got!

FAV!!

So fierce (I have been watching a bit too much Top Model lately)!

For these next three I was going for a “film still” look. Think Casablanca.

I have never loved yellow so much ; )

Catch Me If You Can Inspired…

We know how much Rob and Kathleen love silhouettes and sun flare ; )

We had such a BLAST with you both Rob & Kathleen. Thank you for taking that flight – it was SO worth it!!
Don’t forget to check our Rob & Kathleen’s shiny new blog!

This post has been a long time coming since these images are from back in November when Erik and I visited his parents in Placerville, CA. I am finally feeling rested and recharged from our “holiday break”, which consisted of watching TV, getting reacquainted with World of Warcraft and the new expansion, and knitting! Knitting has become one of my secondary passions – something that I love to do in my spare time to relax. Lisa taught me to knit a couple of years ago, and I feel so lucky to have been taught but such an extremely talented artist and knitter. As you may know, I LOVE color, and Lisa creates the most amazing colorways, it makes me want to create something just as fabulous! Since Erik and I started dating 6+ years ago (now THAT sounds crazy to me), I have been fascinated by Lisa’s process for creating yarn. I saw her website pretty early on and was blown away that someone actually “makes” yarn. I still really couldn’t comprehend the extent of it, and just like any creative art, there is SO much more that goes into it than just buying some fiber and dunking it in some colors. As a photographer most people think we just show up for a wedding or portrait session and we are done. Yes, we have amazing jobs, but that is just a small piece of what we actually do! I will get into that in another post, but I will say that I foolishly didn’t realize the amount of work and creativity involved in creating what Lisa creates. She makes it look easy!

In the past year since our visit from last Christmas, the Souza’s added a “little house” or “mini-me” as I call it. It is a studio space / guest house, and a smaller version of their “big” house. This was where Erik and I stayed for our visit – and it was heaven. It was almost like staying at a bed and breakfast. Placerville is extremely quiet, and we spent most of our vacation being more relaxed than I ever remember being. We took a drive up to Lake Tahoe, stopping to take in the beauty along the way, we spent some time in small-town historic Placerville, and we re-watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. And, I got to spend some time shadowing Lisa as she worked her magic.

Here is a glimpse of part of the studio/guest house where we stayed.

Everyday I would look at all of this amazing yarn and I had the urge to pick them all up and put them in my bag to take home with me. Lucky for me I got a “care package” for Christmas with some of this very yarn.

One of the spinning wheels that Lisa sells and uses herself. Isn’t it pretty?

Here is Lisa in her studio, arming herself with rubber gloves.

Some of the many jars of dyes

Lisa explained that there are MANY techniques involved in applying color to fiber. I got to see 3 different techniques.
Painting:

Pouring:

Soaking:

Neat, huh?
And of course I had to get a picture of her husband Rod, helper-extraordinaire. He reminds me a bit of Erik ; )

Those are my in-laws. I’m pretty lucky, wouldn’t you say? Check out her website if you are in the market for some amazing yarn!

Criss contacted me a while back – just after Mardi & Chris’s Wedding. Mardi is Criss’s aunt, if you can believe it ; ) For the longest time I thought they were sisters. In any case, Criss contacted me to take some holiday portraits with her boyfriend Jeff, and their two ferrets, Paris and Bones. I have been looking forward to this session for a long time! It was freezing cold, but the light and fall colors were so gorgeous.

Here they are!

Working with animals is always a challenge ; )

They don’t always cooperate

But Paris and Bones sure are cute!

These next two are my favorites!

Paris likes to climb

It was so beautiful – love the stream in the background

and this pond too

Not to mention that Criss and Jeff are adorable together

Bones was cold and a little timid

And Paris was super curious! Just look at that cute little tongue ; )

They are good buddies.

I had a blast with you all! Thanks for spending the morning with me in the biting cold – you are troopers!