Happy Halloween from the Hallowieners 2014

Yup - it's that time of year where I make our miniature dachshunds don their Halloween outfits and let me take pictures of them. It occurred to me that the dogs are actually 11 years old and they've never had hot dog halloween outfits...they've been...
Sharkwieners (my favorite!)
Bananawieners
Pumpkinwieners

...and on other holidays they've been
Easterwieners (yellow bunnies)
Easterwieners (terrible bunny ears)
Reindeerwieners

...so I figured 2014 would be the year of the wiener wieners :) Enjoy! We'll be back to wedding and engagement pictures in the next post!)

On the left is Coco Chanel and on the right is Tiger Woods (no she's actually a girl dog and yes she was named before Tiger's "indiscretions") 

The dogs aren't very fond of posing in hot dog bun outfits so Paul was my official dog wrangler:

I can take formal family pictures of up to 30 people at weddings each week and they're all looking at the camera and smiling but can I get the attention of 2 small dogs? No. 

Tiger decided to make a run for it:

We caught her and brought her back and she proceeded to ignore us:

Coco is only happy when she's sitting next to me or on my knee so being 4 feet away from me for pictures was torturous for her:

Have a safe and happy Halloween from the WienerWieners!

Happy Halloween from the Hallowieners 2013

With so many weddings and engagement pictures to share with you it's rare that I post personal stuff on the blog. I have to make an exception for Halloween though! Next up will be Melissa & Morris's North End engagement pictures and then the most stunning wedding of Lea & Aidan at the Boston Harbor Hotel but today I give you....the Hallowieners!!!

They've been SharkWieners

and PumpkinWieners

This year....BananaWieners! There were some technical issues and Coco Chanel was initially unable to see:

Paul to the rescue:

It's at times like these that I'm happy I'm a wedding photographer and not a dog photographer. The mini-d's don't follow direction so well:

This was as good as it was going to get. Coco Chanel is a stoic BananaWiener and Tiger Woods just looks defeated. 

Tiger Woods decided to make a run for the warmth of the house discarding her banana costume on the way:

Happy Halloween!!!! How about those Red Sox eh? We're still up in the wilderness of Northern Maine but as soon as I'm back on Monday I'll have lots more wedding and engagement pictures for you! 

In the meantime, if you're a Leah Haydock Photography wedding couple then check your email for your invitation to the inaugural LHP Client Appreciation evening. Sunday November 10th at 6:30pm in Boston - champagne, cheese from my fav Formaggio Kitchen, wine tasting and the Photo Booth for a new picture for your holiday cards! Not to mention surprise gifts and general merriment. Dress up or dress down. Come for the whole evening or stop by for 20 minutes. If you haven't seen your invitation shoot me a note at leah@leahhaydock dot com as I think a few ended up in spam. If you haven't yet replied please do!

Happy Mother's Day

The folks at Hallmark or wherever decided to mess with people who live in the US and have family in the UK by making Mother's Day on a different day yet Father's day on the same day. Seriously? What's with that?

Every year I manage to miss Mother's Day in the UK because it's a month or so ahead of the US and there are no obnoxious "Buy your Mom a card or she'll think you don't love her" adverts to remind me.

And every year when I realize I've missed UK Mother's Day again my Mum tells me that it doesn't matter. She doesn't need a card to know how much I love her. Her Mum, my grandmother always tells her the same thing "Now don't be getting me a card for Mother's Day, every day is Mother's day having you as a daughter!"

So here's my belated Mother's Day card to the best Mum & Nan in the world. I love you both tons and tons and tons and I'm sending virtual hugs and kisses :)

A few weeks ago I went back to the UK for a week and spent most of the time laughing in the kitchen with my Mum and Nan. We made my brother take this picture of the three of us, this was the 36th attempt as we were all laughing too much. I'm the luckiest daughter/granddaughter in the world.


I hope you're having a great day with your family today.

My Unplugged Christmas :: Happy Holidays!!!

I spent most of December in the UK with my husband and my family arriving back in the US tonight. The wonders of the internet and multiple hard drives meant I could work remotely - there were still weddings to edit, save the date designs to finalize, albums to order and emails to reply to - but I decided to bail on the majority of social media in favor of just relaxing/spending time with my family.

I *could* have taken all sorts of cell phone pictures and facebooked/tweeted/blogged/posted about:
- My random breakfast in Amsterdam with my husband on the way to the UK
- Taking the train up to Durham with my Mom to see some of my favorite relatives
- The "Haydock Day Out" to the races at Haydock Park and the wonders of the champagne bar :)
- Pictures of my parent's wonky but lovable Christmas tree explained by, "We felt sorry for it and bought it because we didn't think anyone else would"
 - The afternoon when Paul and I volunteered to take his parent's dog Millie for a walk, got permission to bring said dog into the pub and didn't do much walking ;)
- What a treat it was to revert back to being a teenager and have my parents bring me cups of tea, do my laundry, clean up after me when I made a sandwich
- Hanging out with my brother and laughing over really bad British TV
- Being my Nan's "plus one" for her pensioners Christmas party and being the only person at the table under the age of 80
- The delicious yet strange "British" food we ate too much of (bacon sandwiches, Quality Street, roast chicken crisps, Peking Duck and pancakes, really good curries, chips soaked in vinegar and wrapped in paper eaten in the rain on the walk home from the pub)
- How Paul took over my Mom's kitchen to produce the most epic Christmas Day Beef Wellington
- My grandmother winning the "Who am I? / 20 questions" game whilst wearing a hat saying "The Queen"
- All sorts of twinkly light/Christmas ornaments/Christmas tree pictures
- Catching up with old high school friends that I haven't seen in YEARS
- How angry we were at the USELESS KLM check in staff at Manchester airport who nearly made us miss our flight back home

But I didn't take any pictures. I haven't updated my personal facebook wall since December 16th. And you know what? It was pretty great to spend so much time NOT photographing/updating/recording everything. So here it is - probably the first and last blog post without any pictures. Feels kind of weird - even to me! But in 20, 30, 40 years time I think I'll be happy I spent the extra time with everyone vs. time updating social media :)

Don't worry! Normal blogging service with LOTS of pictures resumes in the next few days :) I have a wedding tomorrow as a GUEST (I won't know what to do with myself!) and then a fabulous New Year's Eve wedding on Monday along with a lot of catch up on email and other projects :)

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and wish everyone a happy and healthy 2013!

Five years. Fifteen years.

Disclaimer: This is about as mushy as it will ever get on the blog :)

She was 21 years old, about to move across the UK for her first grown-up job since graduating with a degree in Pharmacology. She bought some business suits and all kind of shoes and finally took her driving test. Just a few months later she went on a training course and one of the marketing guys hit on her - a first date involving a private plane and some fancy dinner, a weekend in Prague, not really her kind of thing but she found herself swept along.

He was 25 years old and a junior accountant at the same company dating another accountant. They'd hang out and even sit at lunch together once in a while. Her boyfriend moved away promising the whole long distance thing would work out.  He split up with his girlfriend.

They starting spending more time together - he'd call her work extension wondering if she had any plans for the evening. He'd buy groceries and she'd go over and cook for him. Despite their new grown-up jobs they'd go out in the middle of week to random bars and clubs and dance together until the early hours of the morning.One time they drove through the night to watch the UK equivalent of the Kentucky Derby, it rained all day, he held her umbrella and although one side of his suit was soaking wet he sheltered her from the rain. They could talk about everything and anything.

He moved to the US for work and they kept in touch. Emails. Phone calls. Sometimes he'd call her to talk to him on his way home from work. She'd wake at 2am when the phone shrilled and assure him it was fine and that she was still awake. He'd come back to the UK to visit. Sometimes he'd bring a new girlfriend. She'd ask him if it was serious. He'd say he just didn't like flying alone.  Sometimes the girlfriends would suggest she come to visit next summer and she'd raise an eyebrow and look at him as if to say "But they won't be around next summer will they....?"

His parents would ask why he couldn't find a nice girlfriend like her? Her parents would talk about how much they liked him and how maybe he might be a nicer guy that the long-distance boyfriend. Her grandfather had served in the merchant navy and didn't sugar coat things. He hypothesized that if she was on a sinking ship and there was just one life jacket that he'd give it to her.

One summer they found themselves both single. No long distance boyfriends. No American girlfriends. He suggested she come visit him in the US. She figured "Why not?" and booked a flight to Boston. It was just like old times, hanging out, laughing, drinking in Irish bars. He told her to pack a small bag as they'd be going to New York for the weekend. She packed a carry-on just for her shoes. He called in some favors from a friend who happened to be an event planner. The NYC weekend involved dinners in cozy dark romantic restaurants and front row seats at Les Miserables plus the biggest suite ever overlooking Times Square. She was impressed her old friend was making such an effort to show her NYC.

One night as they walked home from dinner, he reached out to hold her hand. She was a little surprised but mostly at how natural it felt. A couple of days later he asked if he could kiss her. She said yes.

This story started in 1997. 15 years later they're celebrating their 5 year wedding anniversary:

She can't imagine life without him. He says she'd be a better wife if she could just work on matching up his socks when she does the laundry.

Happy Holidays 2011

I thought I'd take a moment out of my mammoth eating and drinking tour of the UK to wish everyone happy holidays!
Merry Christmas!
Happy Hannukah!
Merry Kwanzaa!
Season's Greetings!

I'm planning a review of 2011 in the next week or so but in the meantime I hope you're having a wonderful time with friends and family and that Santa brought you everything you wished for ;)

This photo was taken on my iPad as it was all I had to hand when Paul decided that the mantelpiece wasn't just for Christmas stockings and that mini-dachshunds worked just as well.

Happy Halloween from the Hallowieners....

Regular blog readers might be familiar with our two dogs. Coco Chanel and Tiger Woods. Paul and I named one dog each - can you guess which names we were each responsible for ;) I would also like to point out that Tiger Woods was named before the indiscretions....

Anyhoo, although they're miniature dachshunds we don't really dress them up in clothes. But I make an exceptions for holidays :) So Happy Halloween from the Hallowieners!

Here's Coco:




And Tiger, she's already white on her face at only 8 years old:



If you'd like to see more dogs in costumes, you can check out:
- The Easter Wieners 2011
- The Christmas Wieners 2010
- The Easter Wieners 2010

And no costumes but snow dogs are cute too!

Royal Wedding Day Review

Well, I did it. Proved myself a loyal British citizen. Dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 to watch HRH Prince William marry Catherine Middleton. I'm normally a loyal Today show viewer but I couldn't deal with the random "experts" they were interviewing whilst trying to figure out what was going on ;) so I chose BBC America and they did an excellent job.

So my initial review of the Royal Wedding:
- The Queen looked good in her sunny yellow outfit
- Princess Beatrice & Eugenie's hats and outfits. Really? Beatrice looked like she had an alien on her head. Seriously, someone needs to take those two in hand.
- William looked pretty handsome in the uniform of the Irish Guard. I loved how he waited in the knave with Harry so he didn't accidentally see Kate before she walked down the altar.
- Kate looked beautiful. Bravo! Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen designed a wonderful dress. The Queen loaned Kate a Cartier tiara and her parent's gave her a beautiful pair of diamond earrings incorporating the acorn design of their new coat of arms. I wasn't loving the ever so slightly limp veil and the flowers were completely underwhelming but you can't have it all!
- As Kate got into the car with her father to take her to Westminster Abbey you could see one of the official wedding photographers taking pictures. She was wearing a full black skirt, super tight silk green halter top and a miniature black top hat. Not sure how appropriate/unobtrusive that was...
- Westminster Abbey was beautifully lit and filled with trees, a stunningly historic venue.
- Kate's sister and maid of honor Pippa wore white. She looked stunning but I couldn't help but think she looked a little too bride-like.
- The ceremony was lovely and they looked really happy. I can't imagine the pressure and nerves if you know 2 billion people are watching you!
- Loved the happy little waves from the newlyweds, the new Duke & Duchess of Cambridge as they rode in their carriage to Buckingham Palace.

I planned on having a couple of glasses of champagne but it was too early - perhaps I'll have one this afternoon! I promised you a picture of me in a hat for Royal Wedding day so courtesy of Susan Ashe here you go:


Don't worry - I wear unobtrusive black to photograph weddings but this was a pre-wedding race day in Saratoga last year and I was there as a guest with Mr H. Who needs a purse when you have a stylish black Nikon D3s...


Did you watch the wedding? Thoughts? Did you cry? Did you feel for Kate when you saw her hand shaking as she walked up the aisle on the arm of her father? I have a wedding to photograph in York, Maine tomorrow and I'm so excited. I'm in full-on wedding fever mode!

Easter Wieners 2011

Regular blog readers might remember the Easter Wieners of 2010 or the Christmas Wieners from just a few months ago...this year was somewhat less successful ;) Let's just say that there's a reason I'm a wedding photographer vs. a pet photographer.

I probably should have just kept it simple as the bunny ears and antlers have worked in the past but I was tempted by these ridiculous blue and yellow Easter dog outfits with bunny rabbit tails and "snuggle bunny" appliqued on the back.

Issue #1 Wiener dogs have long little bodies and the fit wasn't so great. Here's Coco Chanel.


Issue #2 The Petco outfits were kind of lame and the ears wouldn't stand up so they looked like loser bunny dogs:


Issue #3 The wiener dogs are not particularly well-behaved. Tiger Woods doesn't understand that each lens has a minimum focusing distance and insists on sticking her nose in my lens resulting in blurry pictures:


Issue #4: Did I mention they don't follow direction well?


Issue #5 They don't really like wearing clothes. Here's Coco giving me her best sad face so I'll take the outfit off:


Issue #6 Tiger Woods is easily exhausted and had to lie down half way through the shoot:


This is probably the best picture of both of them. At this point Coco was point blank refusing to open her eyes.


Of course Mr H was in charge of dog wrangling so you'll see his hands and feet in the outtakes video below:


So there you go! Happy Easter! We're off to have a lovely Easter lunch with our almost-family friends. I'm brining these very cute looking little chocolate mousse egg shells except I think I messed up the quantities so it's kind of like a chocolate soup. Mmmm

Next week in honor of the Royal Wedding I will be blogging EVERY SINGLE day. And I'll be wearing my best hat throughout :)

Happy :)

I have the best wedding clients ever. It's official.

I had an awesome client meeting via skype on Sunday with George & Cheryl - even though we were talking through the interwebs it felt super relaxed and fun. So I was super happy when George emailed me the next day to say they'd like to book me for their August 2012 wedding. And being a photographer himself, he'd taken a picture of the note that Cheryl had written whilst we were skyping. Makes me smile. George & Cheryl - I like you too ;)

Photo: George Welch. Check out George's blog **here**, I just clicked on the link to check I posted it correctly and George has just blogged about our "meeting" - yay!

I was catching up on email yesterday and got a super funny email from one of my lovely 2011 brides. I think she's trying to challenge me for the most smiley faces and exclamation marks. And then the email finished with this. Awesome!

THHHANNKKKKKKKKKKK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!! We seriously have the BESTESTESTEST photog EVER!!!
Talk to you soon!! :-)

And then my mail arrived and one of my clients from a boudoir session last week had sent me this little thank you card:


Sometimes I wonder how I even get to call it work when it's this much fun :) Happy Friday!

Thinking about Japan

A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit Japan. It's a fascinating country, so different from anywhere else in the world that I have been to. I took the image of the cherry blossom above whilst I was there. It was the most amazing experience, in most part because of the Japanese people who were so incredibly welcoming, kind and generous. From the complete stranger on the train to Kyoto who insisted on sharing her chocolate with us to the old lady in the park who noticed me patiently waiting to take a pictures of a wall and shooed away the teenagers sitting on it to the young man in a store who kindly helped me figure out which coins I needed to use to pay for my soda. Reading the reports and seeing the horrendous video footage on television about the earthquake and tsunami my heart goes out to the people of Japan right now.

I found this post on msnbc on how to help, click **here** to read more. And if you've been thinking about ordering any prints from your wedding or engagement or family pictures go to your online gallery and use the code JAPAN (all capital letters) at checkout to get 20% off your print order. The code is valid for 2 weeks and during this time ALL PRINT PROFITS will be donated to the relief efforts to help Japan. If you can't remember the link for your online gallery or you were a guest at a recent wedding and you'd like to order prints, shoot me an email leah@leahhaydock.com telling me whose wedding you were at and I'll send you the link to the gallery.

Education. Education. Education. Jerry Ghionis Workshop in Denver, Colorado

I interrupt my usual program of wedding related blogging to bring you a little review/update on a photography workshop I attended last week.

One of the things I love about being a photographer is that you never stop learning. There is always something that you can work on and it's really important to me that I push and challenge myself to improve year on year.

In 2010 I set myself an objective of improving my reception lighting and after much reading, discussions on forums, a number of workshops and seminars and spending a LOT of time setting up all sorts of crazy lighting in my kitchen I feel like you can pretty much throw any reception set up at me and I can make it look good!

For 2011, my fourth year of photographing weddings, I decided I wanted to continue my understanding of light and take my couples and family pictures to the next level.

You'll notice a common theme - light. According to Wikipedia: The word photography derives from the Greek words phōs (genitive: phōtós) light, and gráphein, to write. The word was coined by Sir John Herschel in 1839

Often the difference between a good photograph and a great photograph is how the photographer sees and uses light. In my opinion, Jerry Ghionis is one of the best if not the best wedding photographers in the world for his skill and talent in finding and capturing the light. Whether it's his stunning & glamourous couples portraits or his meaningful & touching family pictures, he has this ability to make the ordinary totally extraordinary.

So when I found out that Jerry, who is based in Australia, was coming to the US to teach a series of photography workshops I knew I had to sign up. I could have attended a local class in July but that's a crazy busy time for me so last week I headed out to Denver, CO for a whole week of nothing but the study of light and posing and direction and business and just a little karaoke...

Of course it was considerable investment - both time (a whole week away from my husband and the dogs without editing, finishing off album designs, blogging!) and money (thousands of dollars for the workshop plus flights and hotel) - but I'd say to anyone thinking that they can't afford such a workshop, they almost can't afford not to! You'll develop a better understanding of light and get incredible tips for posing and directing. You'll leave a better photographer, a better business owner, heck I think most of us came out of it committing to be better people in general.

So if you're wondering what actually happens at a week long photography workshop...

Monday was critique day and although it was completely nervewracking, each of us survived and left at 7pm with pages and pages of notes. Tuesday, we watched Jerry in action and started putting various techniques into practice. I think there's a tendency to assume that once you're charging tens of thousands for wedding photography you only have beautiful locations and beautiful people to photography but Jerry showed us his mad MacGyver skills with example after example of how he made absolutely amazing photographs in very ordinary situations. In the pictures below you can see how we used just window light and a simple navy curtain in a somewhat cluttered location:

Side note, Jen is an incredibly talented photographer in California who was doing double duty as one of our models and I'm so happy to count her as a new friend now (along with 9 other new photography friends and 1 old one ;)


Each of us then had 10 minutes with our "model" who also happened to be Jerry's wonderful wife Melissa. Melissa is originally from Massachusetts and she's one of the most kind and funniest people I've ever had the pleasure to meet. Oh and she's amazing to photograph:


Jerry then demonstrated the fun you can have in a dark room with a video light:


Wednesday kicked off with shooting in the bright Colorado sun. Most of the time it's tempting to run for shade to avoid harsh shadows and whilst I still prefer shade for family pictures to avoid squinting I think most of us were astonished with how amazing pictures in the midday sun can be. Patrick was one of our models and Jerry set up this shot by having him lean against a dirty black SUV window...


I totally get that most of my couples don't want to remember their wedding day as one long posing experience but equally many of them will look to me for a little direction in how to stand, what to do with their hands etc. Ultimately, who doesn't appreciate a little help in standing a little taller, slimmer, more elegant...

Walking is more complex than you think - seriously! - you're trying to catch a split second where your couple has a great expression and their limbs aren't awkwardly waving in mid-air. Jerry gave us some excellent tips and tricks for beautiful walking shots:


So now you're probably thinking, well it all looks like a lot of hard work. I thought this Jerry guy is supposed to be fun?! I'm happy to report that there was much laughing during the week, and with this being Jerry's first time in the snow, Melissa made sure to share her tips for making top snow angels:


We also had another individual 10 minute session with a model so we could implement what we'd learnt and have our images critiqued again. I had 10 minutes with Tammy who was such a good sport in the freezing conditions. The challenge was to come up with a beautiful image in the parking lot surrounded by storage containers...


Thursday and Friday were spent on individual mentor sessions, reviews of our marketing materials and general business and my mind is still spinning with all of the ideas and information that Jerry shared with us.

Thursday evening was our group night out and as you can imagine after 4 incredibly long days in a room we'd all gotten to know each other pretty well. We ended up in a rather bizarre but surprisingly popular Czech bar in Denver and karaoke was mandatory. I will spare you the stories but let's just say there's a reason this was only the third time I have ever sang out loud in public. My new friend Jen saved my life by singing the "Are you calling me Darling?" chorus of "That's not my name" by the Ting Tings.

Everett brought his camera and caught this shot of the group. Unfortunately this means that Everett isn't in the shot and also Barb is missing (oh, the stories I could tell you about the amazingness that is The Barb):

For any photographers on the fence about attending a Jerry Ghionis workshop I really can't recommend it enough. Frankly, by the end of Wednesday I felt like I'd had my money's worth and we still had two days of business and marketing to go. Jerry is not only incredibly passionate about what he does but he's an excellent teacher. It's a very specific talent to be able to break down what you do and how you do it and Jerry is so so generous with his knowledge, experience and time. Here's his schedule of workshops (plus he's doing a North America tour with Sandy Puc' that would probably be pretty awesome too if you can't make it for a whole week) **here**

And in the spirit of continued education I head out to Las Vegas tomorrow for WPPI - Wedding & Portrait Photographers International - not only do I get to learn EVEN more and check out the latest new photography products available but I get to meet up with many of the Denver crew again!

Happy Valentine's Day

I was in Denver, CO last week for a photography workshop that's pretty much changed my life, I'm still working through my notes and pictures so more on that later this week. In the meantime, I thought I'd wish everyone a happy Valentine's day.

Wikipedia tells me that Saint Valentine's Day has been around since 496AD despite the reputation as a "Hallmark Holiday" and it's a day for celebrating "love and affection". I'll admit in the past I've had Valentine's days where I'm all "where are my flowers!?!?" but I think there's a lot to be said for the little things that happen not on Valentine's Day...

I bought my current car about 2 years ago and a couple of months back I mentioned to Paul that it must have a HUGE container for the windshield-wiper fluid as I hadn't needed to fill it up since I bought it. He laughed and told me that he just fills up my car each time he fills up his truck. And you know what, I'll take that over the heart-shaped box of chocolates :)

And because I don't think I've ever done a blog post without a picture, here's the Kate Spade shoes I wore on Saturday night next to Paul's shiny tuxedo shoes. We were guests at a Bat Mitzvah party and had a lot of fun with some great friends and even a little slow dancing ;)


Update: I posted this around 1pm. At around 2pm the dogs went crazy as the flower delivery man came up the drive. So not only do I get my windshield fluid taken care of but there are now 2 dozen roses looking rather lovely on the top of the piano :)

Chocolate Truffles

January 29th was my first wedding of 2011. As I downloaded and backed up all of the image files yesterday I saw a picture that made me smile (well, I was actually smiling at lots of images coming up later this week...)

Saturday was such a great day; having a great photographer friend shoot with me, a wonderfully well-planned timeline, the bride getting ready with her best friend, sisters and Mom, a first-look with tears, a perfect wedding ceremony (more tears!), two welcoming families, an intimate wedding reception in the private room at Mistral and of course Becky & Duke themselves who have been just amazing to work with.

As the wedding reception wound down on Saturday night, and guests relaxed with desert and fine wine we packed up our equipment and said our goodbyes.

After Becky's Mom, Kathy had confirmed that we'd eaten (yay to the phenomenal team at Mistral who are currently #1 for taking the best care of us. I think it was the first time I've ever heard "What can we get you to eat and when would you like to eat it?") she tried to get us to take home slices of wedding cake. When we insisted we were so full from dinner she wouldn't take no for an answer and insisted we wait there.

We watched as Kathy located a clean napkin and filled it with teeny tiny handmade chocolate truffles from her own table before pressing the truffle-filled napkin parcel on us before we were allowed to leave :)

In the taxi back to my car, Kate and I ate the most delicious truffles ever and through a mouth full of chocolate I asked "How good is this?" And I wasn't talking about the truffles.

I am so incredibly lucky to get to work with my couples, they trust me to act as their eyes to document their wedding days, they open their hearts and their families welcome me in (and send me home with truffles!). I still can't believe I get to call this a job and I'm beyond excited for what 2011 is going to bring.

It wouldn't be a blog post without a picture so here are the truffles:


And the blog schedule for this week? In between client meetings for the last few dates of 2011 and the first ones of 2012 and finalising the last wedding albums of 2010 we'll have:
Getting ready pictures tonight or tomorrow
Wedding ceremony at the Seaport Winter Garden Atrium on Wednesday
Wedding reception at Mistral Private Dining Room on Friday.
You don't want to miss it!

A Message from the Christmas Wieners

The dogs like to keep up with the seasons from a fashion point of view, if you missed their Easter outfits you can see them **here**

For their Christmas outfits, they asked for matching red sweaters and reindeer antlers and who am I to deny them?

127 pictures later I had just one picture with them both dressed and sitting still. Of course they're not both looking at the camera but you can't have everything ;)

As always, the outtakes were funnier than the final result as Paul reluctantly wrangled them into position. Tiger kept wriggling out of her sweater or bolting back to the warmth of the house.

Click on the little white triangle to watch the behind-the-scenes movie:

Coco Chanel & Tiger Woods would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas. Woof!

10.10.10 EKGs, pistachios, robots, the most amazing wedding and the importance of contingency plans

Full coverage of Erin & Jeffrey's amazing 10.10.10 wedding at the Griffin Photography Museum in Winchester, MA will start tomorrow and I can't wait to share the amazing details, the family and wedding party pictures at the historic Sanborn house, the beautiful wedding ceremony and all the fun of the wedding reception....

I want those blog posts to be purely about the wonderful wedding so today I'll fill you in on some of the behind-the scenes stuff that was happening as it's too crazy not to share...but feel free to skip this post and come back tomorrow ;)

Last week I was in the UK and Sweden and I'm usually a pro when it comes to beating jet lag. I was feeling out-of-sorts, barely sleeping, short of breath, like my heart was beating really fast and there was this sort of heavy feeling in my chest.

Full disclaimer: I do have some hypochondriac tendencies. A pain in my leg whilst flying? I start imagining a DVT - you get the idea.

As we landed back in Logan airport on Saturday I had convinced myself that I was at imminent risk of a heart attack, I was panicking at the thought of collapsing in the middle of Erin & Jeffrey's wedding on Sunday (see what I mean about the hypochondriac tendencies...) so Paul pulled off the highway to make a stop at Lawrence General Hospital.

The whole ER team were just lovely, they said I was absolutely right to be concerned and in no time at all ran a full set of blood work and an EKG:

And I'm as healthy as a horse - my EKG was perfect, cardiac enzymes great, electrolytes A-OK. Paul had patiently sat with me, got me tissues when I cried as they drew blood (did I mention my needle phobia?) and he laughingly shook his head as they discharged me saying "Well, I'm glad you're not dying of a heart attack too."

One of the questions that you should ask your wedding photographer is what would happen if they get so sick they can't shoot your wedding. Although I don't keep another photographer on call 24 hours a day, I have a number of contingency plans involving great photographer friends and contacts through photographers guilds and forums that would have rallied to cover for me in the absolute worst case.

But once I knew everything was OK I felt SO much better, I slept for 11 hours and woke up raring to go for my Sunday wedding.

I'll start at the beginning of the wedding tomorrow - all of the getting ready pictures and the stunning details tomorrow but just to prove I was firing on all cylinders here's just a couple of preview pictures that caught my eye as I've been downloading:

So Sunday was going swimmingly, I had been looking forward to Erin & Jeffrey's wedding for the longest time - I mean robot themed centerpieces? Hello!?


Around 8:15pm I sat down with the wonderful Julia Snider who was assisting/second shooting for me to grab a quick bite of dinner before the cake cutting. The food was DELICIOUS thanks to Green Olive Catering. I'd finished the tasty stuffed chicken and enjoyed a few forks of cous cous when I noticed a weird tingling feeling in my lips and tongue...

About twelve years ago I ate my first pistachio nut and noticed a sort of scratchy feeling in my throat so have always erred on the side of caution and avoided pistachios. About six years ago my allergy suspicions were confirmed when I ate a chocolate that contained pistachio and noticed the same kind of thing. Now luckily pistachios are pretty obvious in food - they're bright green and tend to be scattered on top as a feature so it's been easy to avoid them.

Had I been paying more attention on Sunday I probably should have read the menu:


Or actually looked at what I was eating. Silly Leah.

The above picture was taken by Julia who was an absolute superstar on Sunday. As soon as I'd confirmed with the chef that there were pistachios in the food, Julia hopped in my car returning in minutes with Benadryl from CVS. I took just one as I didn't want to get drowsy and off we went to shoot the toasts, cake cutting and parent dances (they'll follow later in the week).

Around 9:30pm Julia was scheduled to finish, she was planning on jumping on the train back to Cambridge, MA. It was around that time that I started having some trouble swallowing so took another Benadryl and Julia refused to leave.

I really can't say how amazing Julia was when she agreed to stay until I also finished and we came up with another contingency plan. If I held up both hands at her, it meant I was in serious trouble and she was to call 911 and explain about the pistachios. I explained where my extra memory cards were so she would stay to shoot last hour of dancing and then drive my car home. It's all in the planning :)

Luckily we didn't need to activate the contingency plan but as I drove back home around 11:30pm after dropping Julia home, it was getting harder to swallow and I could barely talk. I called my primary care doctor to ask if I should just take another Benadryl and go to sleep or if my airways would close over as I slept causing me to die in my sleep (hypochondriac alert again!), and he advised me to go straight to the ER.

So embarrassingly I was back in the ER just 24 hours after being discharged for the first time. Steroids and anti-histamines calmed all of the swelling and inflammation down and I now have epipens on hand, a prescription for 5 more days of steroids and an appointment scheduled with an allergist:


I won't be eating pistachio nuts again you'll be relieved to hear. I've been advised that the steroids might make me somewhat "wired" so I plan on some speedy editing so I can share with you the beautiful pictures of the wedding. And that's it for today. How was your weekend?