I got a castle in Brooklyn...that's where I dwell...

Ok, that's not true...I don't have a castle in Brooklyn and I don't even live in NYC (and I'm not the 4th Beastie Boy)...but we did spend the last weekend celebrating Lisa and Marc's wedding in a castle in Tarrytown, not too far from Brooklyn. We were all a little nervous when it rained all day Friday, but Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day (it started raining on Sunday again...good timing). This time I wasn't the photographer...I was actually in the wedding. It's been a while since I went to a wedding without being one of the photographers, although I did bring my camera to take a few pictures (the property was just too nice not to). Lisa and Marc chose Gulnara for their photographer...she was just named one of the top 100 photographers by the Wedding Photojournalist Association so I'm really looking forward to seeing shots from the day (she said they might be up in a week or so on http://gulnarablog.com/). It was fun to talk with Gulnara and her associate Maria, and see some really good photographers at work.

Here is Marc multi-tasking while we enjoyed a pre-ceremony drink at the castle bar:
The proud parents of the bride:
Claire, the flower girl and Oliver the ring bearer where really cute:
The first dance...this may be one of my favorite shots I have taken of a first dance:
Mr. Toth and Lisa for the father/daughter dance:
After some dancing and a few drinks Marc serenaded Lisa with "Everlasting Love"...it was great:



Last few pics are of everyone just having a good time...which we all did. Marc and Lisa, if you read this, I hope you are having a blast in Thailand!

Matt

Breakfast with some old friends

One of my closest friends also lives down in the Pinehurst area (very close to Duff and my sister). Matt (yes another Matt) and I have been friends since 4th grade. He and his wife Linn and their son Logan met Karin and I out for breakfast on the Sunday of my sisters wedding weekend. We got to catch up over a good breakfast and then got a tour of their house. We tried to get a some shots of the family, but Logan wasn't really in the mood to be photographed...still got a few though.

Next time we visit (hopefully soon) after doing some fishing, we'll get some better shots (I promise Mrs. Clark!!!)

Introducing Mrs. Rebecca Meyer

Ladies and gentlemen...boys and girls, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the last of the Lisacks is officially off the market. The other weekend I had the pleasure of shooting my younger sister's wedding in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Rebecca and Duff met while they were both assistant coaches at JMU, she the women's soccer assistant and he the men's golf assistant. They both decided to leave college coaching and move down to Pinehurt a few years ago.

The wedding was on Friday night, the weather was perfect (we even had a chance play Pinehurst #6 that morning...don't ask me what I shot...) and everything went off without a hitch. Here are a few shots from the day. Getting ready at the Carolina Hotel:
The wedding was held at Sacred Heart Church...the proud father and the bride:We were able to find some nice light around the Carolina Hotel for the family and portrait shots:Here is Allison sharing the pine needles that she found...such a giver:Rebecca and Duff decided it would be fun to have Duff's nieces cut the wedding cake, so they wheeled the cake onto the dance floor and let the girls cut away. It was really cute, they delivered the first pieces to the bride and groom.
I have to give a special thanks to Duff's friend Tom for taking my camera off my hands and making sure that I was in a few of the shots. My Uncle Stan, brother, and Catherine all stepped up to the plate as well to take a few shots to prove that I really was there...thanks guys I really appreciated it!At the end of the night it was time to relax: I had a blast shooting the wedding and can't wait to get back down to Pinehurst to visit again.

Sneak Peek

It may seem like I have been slacking lately...I still haven't posted images from my last two weddings that I assisted Matt M. with, but things have been busy. I shot my sister's wedding last weekend in Pinehurst NC (of course we fit a round of golf in)...so I have been going through the pictures the last two nights and should have some up in the next day or two...but I figured I would post this one that I was working on last night (remember to click on the pic to see the full size).

More to come soon.

A Quick Preview

I have not had time to get any new pics up lately (still recovering from our trip to San Antonio for the Final Four)...still need to get one of my memory cards back from Matt M...but in the mean time you can see a few shots that I took at the last two weddings on Matt Mendelsohns blog...he used some of my shots:


http://www.mattmendelsohn.net/matt-mendelsohns-dark-slide/2008/4/15/evermay-times-two.html


http://www.mattmendelsohn.net/matt-mendelsohns-dark-slide/2008/4/4/back-in-the-saddle.html


Just so I have at least one shot in this post, here is one shot that I took on the way to the wedding near Delaplane, Virginia:

Jacob Hammond

This past Saturday I helped Matt M. with another wedding. The ceremony was at Ft Myer in Arlington and the reception was near Front Royal...so it was about a 45 mile drive...but we had good weather and I was able to stop by and meet Anne and Kevin's baby on the way to the reception (while Matt M. went around DC with the couple to get pictures) so it worked out great. Here are a couple quick pictures I took while I was there:

The pictures from the wedding should be up soon.

A Winter Wedding and Easter Sunday

It has been a while since I posted wedding shots, but I haven't been doing many weddings lately...this is the slow season. But it is about to pick up. Here are some shots of Doug Sackin and Jessica Adelman's wedding from January. They got married at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC. As usual, I covered the guys getting ready while Matt Mendelsohn took shots of the girls.

Here is Jessica's father giving her away:

Here are some shots of the party afterwards...it's fairly obvious that everyone had a great time!



See if you can spot Matt M. in the picture below...



We spent Easter with my family, and Kim set up an Easter egg hunt for Allison. To be honest I didn't think she hid the eggs very well...I mean I could have found them way faster then Allison did...but then again she isn't even 2 years old...

After finding all the eggs, she read a book to Grandpa Symons:

And after dinner she went exploring on the back deck while the boys smoked cigars:



I am helping Matt M. with a wedding this Saturday so there will be more pictures coming soon.

Swimming with the fish

Well...not exactly swimming with the fish but we did swim with a dolphin while on our honeymoon in Cozumel.  Here are a few pics from the disposable waterproof camera we bought right before getting in the water.

Karin catching a ride:

Photoshop practice

This is a pretty random post...these pictures are from over a year ago, but I have been looking through some old pictures trying to find a few to get enlarged to hang around the house. While doing this I have been playing around with Photoshop trying to get better at converting pictures to black and white and also working on actions, multiple layers using masking etc...so here are a few that I did last night. The first two are from a trip Karin and I took to Saranac Lake in 2006:

This one is from my trip to Africa when I was in Zanzibar: