I didn’t choose this highly historic week to launch our official, new website on purpose, who could possibly compete with yesterday’s emotionally charged events?  We enthusiastically welcome the new President, we were glued to the television yesterday afternoon as he took office.

And yet, in the evening hours, I finally, FINALLY completed a project that has been underway since last June so it feels pretty monumental.  If you haven’t visited recently, there are now more images to view in each gallery, a gallery for each album option, a completed Wee Ones component as well as updated proofing and testimonial sections.

Just to give you a recap on the drama, our former website was deleted last May by our webhost during routine maintenance: a very unexpected business crisis.  Given that we are religious about backing up our professional work, we’re surprised that we never thought to backup something as crucial as our website (photographers, take heed!).  While we still had our blog online, we had no way of offering the kind of information prospective clients wanted to see about our services once our website vanished.  Those were some very dark and stressful days and we were in very desperate need of creative help.

Enter the amazing Ben Markowitz, man of the hour:

We got to know Ben and his lovely wife Carrie when they hired us to shoot their July ‘07 wedding and we’ve stayed friends ever since.  Here’s a “nice” picture:

While we had been tossing around some ideas for a new website with Ben prior to the crash, the initial plan was to take our time and work over the course of a year.  But when we told him what happened to our site he stepped up to the plate and developed the backbone of a brand new site from scratch for us in the span of one short month.  In no uncertain terms, this guy saved our bacon.

The amazing thing about working with Ben is that he doesn’t start with visuals so much as concepts: he wanted to know how we felt about our business and how we wanted to be seen.  With a recent degree in design from JMU in hand he understands visual literacy, the psychology of Internet research and the most contemporary trends in functional multimedia communication.  He managed to turn a conversation about our business into a visual storefront that genuinely represents “us” in every way.  He also developed this blog to have similar visual cues and functions as our website.  We love them both.  

In addition to building a fully customized site, he also hooked us up with a backend database so that we can easily make changes and updates without bugging him.  His site has given us all the conveniences of a template based site without the restrictions of a standardized frame and best of all: the clear advantage of a unique and visually distinguished site.  If this sounds like a plug for Ben, you bet it is: this site was worth every penny.  We appreciate the many long nights Ben spent talking me through the inner workings and implementation, all his lighting fast responses and fixes despite the fact that he works another full time job, his flexibility as the site evolved, his honest opinions on design choices, his patience with my lack of availability through the fall and of course his dedication to the cause.  In no uncertain terms, Ben is the bomb.

As for some features of our site to check out, the wedding galleries are kind of fun.  Each gallery is meant to progress from one image to the next as “a day in the life of a wedding” using photos from a variety of different events.  We’re also excited about the album galleries and will continue to develop them: with so many long distance clients, we’re hoping to provide better insight on the finished product.  And the Wee Ones component is a new feature fully dedicated to my documentary portrait work with babies and families.

Speaking of albums, we have lots of album posts to share and I promise to get back to Japan pics too.  Thanks for checking out our new site! 

Posted by Mel @ 5:50 pm, in News | No comments | Permalink

Disclaimers:

1) These are just tourist pictures, the cheesy ones that everyone takes on vacation, and are not meant to be viewed as professional photography.  We took only one camera, a couple of zoom lenses and no lights: we were on vacation afterall!  We’re definitely not seeking employment with National Geographic here.  

2) We’re not experts on Japan, Japanese culture or religion so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Estimate that I’ll have my facts right about 54% of the time.

3.) To see our pro work (like weddings and portraits) and skip vacation pics, feel free to browse our blog by category!

Many Americans are fascinated by trains, probably because we are the only industrialized country that no longer utilizes trains as efficient, economical means of human transportation over long distances.  Beyond the local destinations of our subway cars, travel by train is fairly uncommon here. 

Japan, as you might have guessed, is opposite world.  Trains were part of every single day: on one particularly exhausting day of travel we realized we had boarded nine different trains between sun up and sun down.  Before coming to Japan we bought an all inclusive rail pass through the JR (Japan Railway) system and were able to use it to go just about anywhere.  

We were particularly amazed by the shinkansen or bullet trains which went to several major cities – we took one to Kyoto and another to Nagano.  Taking the shinkansen was a lot like being on a plane… traveling at speeds upwards of 200 mph, you could get to far away places in just an hour or two while watching the world go by through the window.  Check out these futuristic bad boys:

Dough Boy (aka Poppin Fresh) definitely thought the shinkansen went fast.

We saw Mount Fuji through the window on our way to Kyoto and this was a big deal:  while Fuji-san is a massive volcano apparently visible from Tokyo some 200 km away on a clear day, its called a shy mountain because it hides in atmospheric haze most of the year.  This means that its possible to go to Mt. Fuji and never even see it!  I wish I had a picture to share but, much like the geisha, we were way too consumed with gawking at this rarity to find a camera.

Here’s a few train and train station pictures.  Next stop: Yokohama and Chinatown…

Posted by Mel @ 5:33 pm, in Personal | 1 comment | Permalink

Disclaimers:

1) These are just tourist pictures, the cheesy ones that everyone takes on vacation, and are not meant to be viewed as professional photography.  We took only one camera, a couple of zoom lenses and no lights: we were on vacation afterall!  We’re definitely not seeking employment with National Geographic here.  

2) We’re not experts on Japan, Japanese culture or religion so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Estimate that I’ll have my facts right about 54% of the time.

3.) To see our pro work (like weddings and portraits) and skip vacation pics, feel free to browse our blog by category!

This may have been our favorite part of the trip and yet we have the fewest pictures!  We were in Kinosaki, just off the Sea of Japan, for only one night and it poured… so we don’t have many visuals.  We also spent much of our time there in our birthday suits, another good reason for a lack of pictures, but before you think I’m getting kinky on this blog allow me to explain…

As it turns out, Japan is in hot water.  A lot of it.  Natural hot springs called onsen are everywhere throughout the islands and the Japanese take relaxation via bathing very seriously.  So when someone suggested we visit an onsen resort town for a night we dropped our plans to stay in a mountain temple like a hot potato (sorry, Buddha, we were just a little templed-out).  It was every bit as dreamy as it sounds…

Set in the mountains, a koi filled stream runs right through the middle of willow lined streets with foot bridges every 50 feet or so, totally reminiscent of Old Japan.  

In addition to the smaller, private onsen housed within each of the many ryokan serving tourists in the area, the 7 public bathhouses are the town’s main attraction.  Staying the night in a local ryokan earns you free admission to the public bath houses, some of which are historic while others are modern.  Some of the exteriors of these bath house were as elaborate as temples:

Each ryokan provided its guests with towels, a bath cady, bathrobes called yukata and wooden sandals called geta (think of your bath flip flops from the college dorm but much more awkward to walk in).  Our favorite thing about this town is that guests walk from one bathhouse to another wearing only their yukata and geta.  Which meant we could walk around town in our bathrobe and no one would assume we escaped from the looney bin!  We were not alone, as the sun went down you could hear the clicking of all the geta on the pavement as groups of people set out for their pre-dinner, evening spa time.  Here’s Sam and I in our yukata – this one has three pieces – an under coat (visible near our feet), a top robe and a jacket on top.

Luckily I was too nervous walking around in geta to feel the cold… I kept seeing myself taking a dive half naked while walking down the street.  Here’s what geta look like, they’re kind of like platform shoes with those two wooden stilts:

Once inside the bath house, you grab a locker and Sam and I had to split up – the gals get one bathing area while the gents get another.   As far as the rest of the protocol, the most important part is to wash yourself before entering any of the hot tubs.  As cool as the indoor hot tubs were, Sam and I preferred the rotembos or outdoor tubs.  The gardens outside were lit up so that you could view maple leaves, reflection pools and persimmon trees ripe with fruit.  It was very relaxing.

Kinosaki is also quite famous for its crabs.  Yes, you are doing your yen to dollar conversions correctly here, some of these crabs are priced between $60-$120 give or take:

In case Sam never told you, I call him the “fish whisperer” because any time we’re near a body of water a fish jumps out to get his attention.  Maybe its his super powers or maybe its just the hopes of a snack but these koi seemed to recognize an orange brother and make a bee line towards Sam on the bridge:

Thanks for tuning in, the next Japan post will be all about trains… 

Posted by Mel @ 8:37 pm, in Personal | 1 comment | Permalink

Baby Caroline has gotten so big since the last time I saw her, her wide blue eyes are the window to a beautiful old soul.  She has a great “shy” smile…

We spent time playing downstairs as well as in Caroline’s nursery.  She can already prop herself up while on her tummy, she’s a strong kid!

I love her embroidered bloomers, too cute…

Here’s a slideshow with my favs from the shoot and if you would like to view the online gallery for this session, click here.  It won’t be long until she is sitting up and ready for our next shoot!

Posted by Mel @ 10:16 pm, in Portraits, Wee Ones | 6 Comments | Permalink