Michael + Carrie @ Mackinac Island

Michael and Carrie celebrated their special day on beautiful Mackinac Island. It was a Michigan destination wedding captured by Associate Photographer Theresa Milanowski. Carrie met Theresa at a wedding last year and specifically asked that Theresa photograph her wedding at the Little Stone Church on Mackinac. What a dream day with perfect weather on 8-8-08! From riding around on horse drawn carriages to a great meal at the Harbor View Inn, Michael and Carrie's day went perfectly. After seeing some of these images, I would highly recommend Mackinaw for a wedding!

Photograph Those You Love

I am a big fan of Atlanta based music photographer Zack Arias. He recently wrote the post below and it just about brought me to tears. I just had to post it. Enjoy! -- Russ

Photo by Zack Arias

It is with heavy heart that I have to report that we lost my step father this morning. Craig had been suffering from ALS over the past year and a half. It is a nasty disease that leaves your mind but takes your body. I haven’t lost a lot of close people in my life. My grandfather was the closest person I have ever lost and I regret so much that I never made a portrait of him. I just have these grainy disc camera photos of him to remember him by. Nothing that really says who he was or what he was about.

When I was working at Kinko’s I nearly lost my job twice. Both times for the same reason; enlarging prints for someone’s funeral. I would meet a customer at the counter and with red puffy eyes they would slide a dog eared, scratched 4×6 print across the counter. This person in the photo had just passed away and they wanted a 16×20 made to place by the casket. It wasa always some horrible photo. Never a great portrait. There would be a laundry basket in the corner. The drapes on the windows were stained. Reflections in glasses. Scratches on the print. I would take the job, put everything on hold and start to work on the scan in PhotoShop. This is a soul’s last known image on earth. They deserve better than this. My manager didn’t think this way. Scan and print. That’s it. I revolted and continued working on images for funerals. She wasn’t cold hearted enough to actually fire me for the few hours I would spend on those images but she wasn’t at all happy with me either.

That planted a philosophy I have on every single photoshoot. “I’m shooting for this person’s funeral.” I better make images that people will want to see and remember this person by. Something that shows who they were and what they did and how they were living their life pursuing a dream. I’ve made as many visits as I could over the last year to my Mom and Craig. They live in Elkin, NC. I knew this year I had to get Craig to sit for me. I had to photograph him before I lost him. Craig was a retired homebuilder and was now preaching at a church near Elkin. He was born and raised in Dallas, TX but moved with my Mom to Elkin for a slower change of pace and to be near my Mom’s family there. He loved the community and the church he landed in had him start preaching because they were in need of a new preacher. That dying little church began to thrive.

Knowing that things would escalate quickly I had prints made and shipping arrangement taken care of well in advance. Also knowing how many people loved Craig in his community, I had dozens of 8×10 prints made of this for folks to keep.

Photo by Zack Arias

Photo by Zack Arias

On my last trip up there a month or so ago I photographed Craig watching the kids play in the backyard. Goodbye Craig. My gosh we are going to miss you. You’re home now though. Finally in a place bigger than your home country of Texas. Are you photographing those you love? I’m not. Not like I should be. I have a big long list of people to get started on. You always think you have time. Sometimes you do. Most of the time you don’t. Had I not known that we would be losing Craig this year, I probably would have never gotten around to making the images above. Sad isn’t it? Me. A photographer who can’t turn a camera on to his own family. There’s your challenge for the week. Family portrait time this week.

Cheers,
Zack

Worlds Largest Wedding Cake

I heard about this on the radio, but didn't believe it! Can you imagine a cake this big!

"Today, at the New England Bridal Showcase, Mohegan Sun unveiled what it hopes will be the world's largest wedding cake. Measuring 17-feet tall and weighing 15,032 pounds, the seven-tiered cake is almost three-times the weight of the current record in the Guinness Book of World Records for the world's largest wedding cake.

The Mohegan Sun wedding cake is vanilla flavored and decorated with bows and hearts. Ingredients include: 10,000 pounds of pound cake batter and 4,810 pounds of creamy frosting with a taste of vanilla and almond. Comparatively speaking, the cake weighs more than five Volkswagen Beetles and can feed up to 59,000 people.

Chef Lynn Mansel, Mohegan Sun's Executive Pastry Chef and resident "Michelangelo of batters and buttercream," began creating the cake on Sunday, February 1st in the Uncas Ballroom. Along with his team of 57 chefs and pastry artisans, Chef Mansel baked 700, 18x24 inch vanilla sheet cakes. Then, using frosting as cement, they created 200, five- and six-layered bricks, which were put together to form the tiers of the wedding cake. Steel discs were used as cake separators and two fork-lifts helped raise each tier as the wedding cake took shape.

The current record in the Guiness Book of World Records is 5,334-pounds, and was unveiled at Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2003. The five-tiered cake, which measured 22-feet tall, celebrated the wedding of the animated characters Shrek and Fiona -- who were the main characters in the original Shrek movie -- and the opening of the new Shrek 4-D ride at Universal Studios."

Matt and Laura Talk

This is the first in a new series of blog posts under the category “In their own words.” I got this idea from colleague Marc Climie. He's another wedding photographer with the "Climie" name based in Atlanta (to my knowledge we are not related). We have the client pick their favorite image of the wedding day and expand on why they love it so much, what makes it their favorite, etc. If you’re a client whose wedding we’ve finished and you’d like to participate, please email me for details. We would love to include you in this!

Matt and Laura picked this image. Here is what they said:

Our favorite picture was taken in front of the limo at the church when I am wearing Matt's hat and we are kissing each other. I really enjoy this picture because it shows that Matt and I love to goof around and that we love each other. It's Matt's favorite because he is always saying he thinks I look good in a hat and what better than a cubs hat?! Thank you Russ for finding this great photo opportunity. It is sure to be a fond memory in our family for years to come.
~Laura Abid

Thanks Matt and Laura for being a part of this!

Eric + Kesha @ Rockford Reformed

Eric and Kesha were married on a Friday evening on August 1, 2008 in Rockford, MI. The day was filled with errands and tying up loose ends, but in the end Eric and Kesha did tie the knot! The details were taken care of by wonderfully caring parents and friends that surrounded them on their wedding day. The ceremony included all the nieces and nephews (so be sure to look for them) and the reception consisted of a dessert buffet. From their first dance to Kesha's Dad's heartfelt toast, their day went off just as they had planned! Since their wedding day, they have both moved to California where Eric is a professor and has been for some time.

Thanks for such an amazing day and for choosing me to be a part of it!