Bridal Show

Sunday I'll be at the Day of Elegance Bridal show at the Garden House at Look Park, in Florence, MA. The show is run by CJC Events. I'm running a special offer during the show: anyone who books with me at the show will get a custom engraved iPod nano pre-loaded with their highlights!

I haven't done a bridal show in a couple of years, so we'll see how it goes.

International Wedding

I was in Connecticut last weekend to shoot an Australian-Canadian wedding. There were a lot of signs around explaining Aussie and Canadian slang, and a lot of national identity jokes, especially between Australians and New Zealanders (apparently they have a very intense rivalry). Well, the location was beautiful, and the activities and decor were masterfully orchestrated by Dixie Todd at Party Resources (in Kent, CT).

Seating cards uniquely displayed.

Ceremony by riverside.

Surprised by the flower girl!

Woo-hoo! New camera

Received our new Canon XH A1 this week, and put it right to work, shooting a video for the Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA. The A1 is capable of shooting in high definition (HD), but for this project I am using it in standard widescreen mode. After some inital tweaking with the presets, I beginning to get the images close to what I want.

Here are a couple of screen shots from today:
The High School building, Piening Hall.

Two seventh grade boys doing perspective drawing in the shadow of the Mt. Holyoke range.

Four Seasons Boston

Tonight, I was at the Four Seasons in Boston with my favorite photographers, Glenn and April Livermore! Anne and Marc were the wedding couple, and they were so easy to work with, very sweet.

The Four Seasons was, well, The Four Seasons—luxurious, efficient, and AMAZING food! Anne and Marc did a fabulous planning job, everything looked so beautiful.

Here are some pics:

The cake...

The bouquet...

And a detail from the ketubah.

Chipmunk Returns

A bit of chaos here yesterday, as the chipmunk who visited a few weeks ago returned. We called a wildlife control specialist, who doubted our word that a chipmunk was running around the house. Flying squirrels was his suggestion.

Well, he had to apologize after chasing the little creature around our girls' playroom. And the chipmunk gave him quite the runaround, darting among barbies, polly pockets, and countless other toys strewn about the room.

Well, "Chippy" (as our youngest daughter named it) is now removed, and things are settling back to normal, though there is a bit of Chippy mess to be cleaned up in odd corners.

Chipmunk!

I'm at my desk editing last Friday when my intern, Fiona, says, "Tom, there's a chipmunk in your office." Now, I get a little freaked out by wildlife, especially when it's indoors, but I managed not to startle until I actually laid eyes on it. Yep, right there, paused on my floor—a chipmunk. I followed it through my house, opened the front door, and casually herded it outside, with Fiona's help.

About an hour later, Fiona had gone home, but the chipmunk had returned. Yes, back in my office. And since I was alone I was free to really jump when I spotted it. I though it would be a simple matter of herding out the frfont door again, but this time, the chipmunk ran into the kitchen and under the stove.

I made a system of barricades in the kitchen to force the chipmunk closer to our open back door, but it took to hiding under the refrigerator, and stayed there until the next morning. I saw it beside the fridge, so we left it alone with our barricades up and the back door open. Several checks later in the day found no further sign of chipmunk. It seemed like a good opportunity to pull out the fridge and clean all around it, vacuum the coils, etc., so I can with certainty say it isn't in the fridge anymore. We sure hope it found its way outside and is not lurking somewhere in the house, waiting to startle me a third time.

Fire Alarm

On Saturday, I was at the Elm Bank Reservation in Wellesley, MA. Elm Bank is the home of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which has quite beautiful and extensive grounds. The bride and groom, Eliane and Shawn, had the ceremony and reception there. Below is a shot from the ceremony, with a grand vista!


And from the opposite angle, before the ceremony, with the Manor House in the background.


Somehow during the reception, a fire alarm was accidentally pulled, and there was 40 minutes of flashing strobes and an intermittent alarm sound. Everyone continued with the reception as best they could, and fire trucks soon responded. While the firefighters were resetting the alarm, guests were snapping away at the bride and groom in front of the fire truck, as shown below.




Aside from the alarm, the day went very well, with great weather, a beautiful bridal party, and happy guests. Who could ask for more?