LIFESTYLE HEADSHOTS FOR CINNAMON WOLFE PHOTOGRAPHY

There are so many things that happen in our lives.  I love when I meet new people.  I am a total people person and my husband says that I could talk the doors right off of a garage!!!! That is what I love most about my job.  Dealing with so many things as a photographer, especially wedding photography, brings you to a place where you are always with people.  

I had the privilege of meeting Cinnamon purely by coincidence.  I was selling my shoot sac camera bag and she happened to see my ad.  We realized we did not live that far from each other so we decided to meet.  It was a quick meeting, but afterwards I went and checked out her website.  It was clear that she was a believer in Jesus!  I contacted her and told her that we both share the love of Jesus . She was delighted to find a friend here in New Jersey seeing she is new to the area. We set a date and met for lunch. We spent about 6 hours in the restaurant and chatted the whole time! I thank God for this precious friend.  She has brought so much joy into my life, besides from taking some awesome headshots for me (I never like my photos, but she rocked it!) We have tremendous respect for one another as fellow photographers and we build each other up all the time. She has taught me so much for my business such as blogging (yes, she created a monster) she designed this amazing new website, introduced me to photo mechanic and has saved me so much time that I am singing her praises every time I have to cull my images.  Cinnamon and I are actually going to be working together this May on a wedding in Brooklyn New York.  I cannot wait!

We decided together that we both needed some headshots so we went out in very cold weather and had a blast!  She is funny, smart, full of life and so beautiful inside and out! I am so pleased with these beautiful images I captured of her.  I think they totally show her awesome personality!   I hope you enjoy.  Check out her gorgeous work at www.cinnamonwolfephotography.com.

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Coffee Lover or Coffee Snob

So here is the question? How many times do you hear people say "I am such a coffee snob"? Myself included.  For the longest time, I have been drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee. Now some will say, "How can you be a coffee snob with Dunkin"? Maybe they can understand Starbucks or some of the fancier lines of coffee brands but Dunkin is pretty ordinary.

So this leads me to the conclusion that I just love the taste of coffee, not for the caffeine, (I only can drink decaf, just taste and aroma.  I don't care for Starbucks and most of the supermarket brands I don't like at all. So yes, I am incredibly picky or some would say a coffee snob.

This is the scale that we use and we measure in grams.  If you have any scale around the house that measures in grams it will be fine to use.

Here is the thing, my son, who is a guy who loves coffee to the point of measuring, grinding, and just about everything else you need to do to the beans to make the best cup of coffee ever, has had a very strong influence on me lately. I have seen him buy the expensive beans such as companies like Stumptown, Intelligentsia and a few other awesome companies.  Watching him, measure, boil, grind, and time the rate of how fast the water goes through the carafe, (this is a process called pour over).  I am thinking how could all of this time be worth it? Now I am talking months of observing him doing this! He only drinks regular so I was reluctant to drink the caffeinated coffee to try it out.

So here is a photo of our arsenal! The scale, the scooper to measure out the beans, the grinder is in the background. We actually have a really fast electric one but I just used this one today because it is easier to photograph (this is a hand one which is a little tough to use for me to use). The kettle on the right is awesome to do pour overs with because you can control the amount of water coming out. You really want to pour nice and slow.  The carafe is in the middle and the filter is placed on top.

Months had passed, and my daughter was here visiting and she asked if I would make the coffee for her that her brother raves about.  Mind you, I had to go purely on memory watching him make it everyday thinking I could do this.  I gave it my best shot and I actually was able to produce a great cup of coffee for her from memory. While brewing it myself, the aroma was so aromatic and inviting that I was tempted to try some regardless of the fact that it was caffeinated.    That is all it took! A few sips and I now am hooked and convinced that this is the way to enjoy  a real cup of Joe! So now, I do go and buy myself the expensive beans (around $18.00 a bag) which was a big jump from buying the three pound deal from Dunkin for about $20.00. 

So here we will now grind the beans and then the coffee will be placed in the filter on top of the carafe.

Once the beans are ground, you then will place the coffee in the filter and take the boiled water and pour slowly over the grounds. After the correct amount of water is poured it is complete and ready to enjoy.

Do I still drink the Dunkin and go their every afternoon?  Well maybe not every afternoon, but yes I do still go alot.  As much as I LOVE the pour over method and the expensive beans, I do not indulge regularly.  I also like the morning coffee to be ready to go as soon as I am up for the day. I do enjoy the whole process of preparing the coffee when I have time. I believe this is an art all of its own.  Not one hard to accomplish by any means, but you first have to have the gear like everything else which adds up to quite a bit of money. Being a photographer, I totally need the right gear to get that beautiful end result and it is the same thing with just about everything we do. 

Here I am actually trying to pour the water and take the photo at the same time! Not as easy as I thought.  In the beginning, you just pour a bit to get the grinds to really soak up the water. Also you can download the app from intelligentsia and it will help you follow the directions perfectly as far as the timing of how long and how much water and coffee beans to use. 

So I guess I am coming to the conclusion that I am not a coffee snob ,  but more like a total coffee lover who has acquired a fine taste in coffee. Just like people that like fine wines,  I think they just love wine and enjoy the really great stuff! 

Here is the end result! So pull up a chair and a favorite magazine, add a little biscotti and enjoy!

So there you have it!  What is your opinion on this subject? Would love to hear your thoughts and find out just what you all are drinking in the coffee world! Thanks for stopping by............

Pretty Little Details

Details...........what makes them so special?  Years ago, when I got married, the photographers never even focused on any details.  That was the norm for then. Today, it is always about the pretty little details as I love to refer to them. I  am so excited that as a wedding photographer, I can really spend lots of time capturing the details of the wedding day for my couple.

When I started my wedding business,  I wanted to take beautiful images of the wedding dress, the rings, the shoes etc.  To allow enough time I decided to ask the brides for permission to arrange about an hour several days prior to their wedding day. During that time I would go to their homes to get the detail images that I love.  Of course, this is usually only when the bride lives fairly close to me. I knew if I could have that extra hour without distractions on the actual day,  I would be able to create several different scenarios for each item that I was photographing.  I just love to find an opportunity to be different when I can!  I also love the invitation part of the whole wedding.  I usually receive the invitation when they are sent out to guests. This insures that I can do some fun and creative things with them.

This beautiful image was created from an arrangement of flowers I received from my daughter for Mother's Day.  Once the flowers were just about finished I crumpled them up and used them to frame Kasey and Jamie's lovely invitation. 

My other favorite thing to do is the ring shot.  Here I like to use just things that I have collected from Michael's art supplies, such as sparkly paper, bracelets, little memo pads which is used in the photograph below. I also will use a mirror for some shots, laying the ring flat on the mirror and putting something colorful behind it to catch the colors of anything from a greeting card or to a print of one of my photographs of flowers etc. I love to use sparkly bracelets for this type of shot because of the beautiful bokeh you can create with a shallow depth of field. I place about two crystal bracelets directly behind the ring on the mirror. Just be creative and use your imagination.  Most of the time, I find things that just catch my eye in the case of these little memo pads.

Here are some of my pretty little helpers when creating the image.  The ring is sitting on top of these little memo pads I found in Pier 1 imports!

Here I am using some beautiful natural light and setting up the ring shot, using my Nikon 105mm 2.8 macro lens. 

The finished product!!!!  The settings I used for this particular image was ISO 5000, 1/250, F9.0 with the macro lens of course! Natural window light used.

So now we move on to the DRESS! My favorite I think.  For Kasey's dress, I knew exactly where I wanted to create her special image.  She loves the woods and the outdoors, so when I saw the spot I knew it was perfect. I actually had to leave a business card for  the homeowner and ask permission if I could shoot the dress there.  She gladly responded with a yes! A few days before the wedding, I took the dress with an assistant and very carefully hung the dress and captured this!!  So over time, I have come to be known for my dresses in trees if you will!  Whenever there is a tree close by, there I will be with ladder and hanger ready to hang it.  

This is the finished product and I could not have been more pleased!

So now I hope you can see why I love to go a little out of the way for a wedding!  I truly love to make every wedding unique and different from the others, because lets face it, we are all unique and different.  I want their wedding photographs to tell their story. It gives me great pleasure to know that my brides are completely thrilled when they open their gallery for the first time! 

I hope you enjoyed this little window into capturing all of the details!