Andy & I had a blast photographing Osterville wedding planner Desiree Spinner this past Sunday. When Desiree first asked us about doing a session together, she said she was a little nervous because she doesn’t like the way she looks in photos. We think she is completely bananas! And, if you saw yesterday’s photos, you know what I’m talking about.

After having some fun getting photos of Desiree with the lemonade stand, as styled by the talented Jillian Clark of 100 Layer Cake, we decided to take the party to the railroad tracks.

Last year, Andy & I found this super cute loveseat at an estate sale. It’s been sitting in our office just begging to be used. We’ve got big ideas for it. But, for now, we thought it would fit in nicely with the vintage feel of Jillian’s vision for Desiree’s session. And, it did.

We decided to put the love-seat on the railroad tracks…fortunately, the tracks here on the Cape don’t exactly get London-like traffic.

Come on… Is that cute or what? And, how serendipitous that the love-seat fit perfectly between the tracks!

With a new, more subtle, sultry look by make up artist Katrina Hess, Desiree looked stunning!!!

Ga ga gorgeous!

Lovin’ the warm late afternoon sun….Desiree is completely glowing…

Hello Miss Thang!!!

Just love her beaming expression in this next one! Can you tell we were having a blast?

This could be my favorite portrait of the session. I love the more candid shot of Desiree with the cupcakes from yesterday’s post, because more natural photos are what we love most. But, Desiree just looks so serene, confident and so totally beautiful in this next shot. I’m crazy about it! And that light…..perfection!

Add a little sun flare and a smokin’ hot expression and……voila…..Supah-staaah!

Continuing on, our last stop in the day was this super cute farm stand. It made for the perfect backdrop to once again tie in the lemonade stand theme.

I keep saying “gorgeous” a lot….but come on….not photogenic, seriously? Desiree, you’re cuckoo!

Lemon-rific!

When she laughs it’s hard not to join her!! Love this next one of Desiree…who wouldn’t want this fun little bundle of energy as their wedding planner?

Adding a little bam-factor in this next one. Hola senorita! Que guapa!

Simply beautiful….

I’ll say it again, Desiree, you are wonderful and working with you is not only super fun and super easy, it’s a total pleasure! You’ve got great style and merged with Jillian’s fantastic aesthetic, you two gave us so much good stuff to work with, Andy & I didn’t want the day to end! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Big love, Christine & Andy xoxo

This past weekend we had the pleasure of photographing Cape Cod’s newest sensation…wedding planner Desiree Spinner of Desiree Spinner Events. We first met up with Desiree and the fabulous team she assembled for dinner on Saturday night at Five Bays Bistro in Osterville. Joining us were Desiree’s super sweet hubby, Craig, and fabulous assistants, Sara & Kaleigh and Kaleigh’s adorable hubby-to-be, Josh. Also joining us for dinner was with the uber stylish Jillian Clark of 100 Layer Cake, who’d come up from NY with her husband & photographer, Scott, to help bring Desiree’s vision for her shoot to life.

After a wonderful night of yummy food, good wine and excellent conversation, we met up with the team the following afternoon for the shoot. It was an all day affair and Andy & I had a blast. The first part of the shoot involved setting up a deliciously sweet lemonade stand.

Some details….you know how we looove the details!

I just loved all the vintage touches Jillian brought with her, namely the super cute mutli-colored tin and these adorable yellow glasses. And, can we talk about the hot pink striped straws?

Lemonade never looked so good.

Love the blue Ball jars!

And these super cute straw tags Jillian made…

Wearing a foxy white dress and too-cute-for-words apron from Anthropologie, with make up by the talented Katrina Hess, Desiree was delightful. We all kept joking about how if hers was a real lemonade stand she would have sold out instantly looking as good as she did. Check her out…

Seriously adorable…

If life hands you lemons, make lemonade!

A cheeky little look…

Gorgeous…

The light in this next one makes me giddy! I just love the natural hair light being provided by the sun poking through the trees. And, that expression…..momma mia!

Jillian brought along some clippings from the super sweet banner she made for the table and Desiree had a little fun with them. I love this series.

Is that a lemonade stand you’d want to visit, or what?

Some more details, including lemon cupcakes by Delicious Desserts…

Stay tuned as we’ll be posting the next two parts of our session with Desiree tomorrow. Till then, big BIG thanks to Desiree for trusting us to capture portraits for your new website. Stay tuned people, it’s due to launch very soon and should be amazing! We have loved working with you, Des, and can’t wait to do it again very soon! Thank you too Jillian & Scott for making our job not only a cinch, but a total pleasure! Jillian, we love your style and hope we get to work with you again on another project! Sara & Kaleigh…we wish we could clone you and bring you to Team Bello! Love and hugs all around! Chris & Andy xo

Last weekend, Andy & I left Cape Cod for a weekend in the Berkshires. It was partly a celebration of the 15th Anniversary of our first meeting. But, it was also a chance to steal away for some inspiration before the rush of the wedding season descends upon us.

We stayed at this super cute boutique hotel called The Porches, which is leading a revitalization movement in the quaint town of North Adams, home to MOCA (the Museum of Contemporary Art) and one of the reasons we chose to visit the Berkshires.

MOCA…

The museum is exhibiting works by Sol Lewitt, whose approach to art very much reminds me of my super talented husband. Why? Well, Andy is one of those ridiculously gifted people who somehow maximizes the use of his brain by using both sides equally well. You probably didn’t know this about him, but Andy has a Master’s degree in statistics. What? I know; it’s crazy, but true.

Andy at his very core is a left-brain person…aka logical, smarty pants. Yet, and I hate to admit this seeing as though I am more right-brained by nature, but when it comes to thinking creatively and outside the box, I think Andy is the truly gifted one in our team. In the past 10 years, he has tapped into his right brain and well, there’s just no stopping him.

Although I never met him, I have no doubt Sol Lewitt was also one of those left-brain/right-brain geniuses. His artwork takes really simple, logical math-based ideas and pushes the limits to produce some really cool artwork. His work is definitely worth a look. And, if you go to MOCA to see the exhibit, take the tour. Just seeing the work, without some of the background on who Sol Lewitt was won’t allow you to appreciate the exhibit in quite the same way.

Here a woman studies one of the pieces in the exhibit.

Me checking out Sol’s work. Photography actually uses a lot of math principals as well…you might not think so, but it does, and seeing math principals spelled out in a different medium in Sol’s drawings was really inspiring.

The museum was also hosting an exhibit called Material World, which features work by seven artists who created site-specific installations for the museum’s large open spaces in the second and third floor galleries. My favorite was a piece by Tobias Putrih, which was inspired in part by the nearby Hoosac Tunnel. Tobias used what looked like clear fishing wire and pointed spot lights to create a reflective sculpture that invited the spectator to walk down a sort of tunnel of light. As photographers, we’re always looking for the best light and with my new D3S….it was a blast photographing this exhibit. I wasn’t the only one trying to capture the light…

Here a visitor to the museum walks down the virtual tunnel…

Check out my honey and what my new camera can do in low light….loving this camera!

These images were all shot at ISO 1250 (hallelujah!!) F2.8 at 1/60sec. using my D3S and my 28-70 lens.

I love this perspective…

Here’s what Andy was capturing…

A man and his mother experience the tunnel effect. I don’t know why I love this next one so much. I think it’s the opposing energy of the man, his body facing the strings of light as he’s about to move back into the center of it, and the light itself, being forced in the opposite direction by the strings.

Equally as interesting and as cool a use of light was Alyson Shotz’s exhibit which had tiny cylindrical glass beads strung on wire, with hand-cut magnifying glass. Very cool! Andy & my styles are very similar, but subtly different. See for yourself…the first two photographs are my perspective and the second two are Andy’s.

Andy’s perspective…

This next exhibit was a joint collaboration created by Wade Kavanaugh & Stephen B. Nguyen. Again, the piece was created specifically for MOCA’s space. Using thousands of feet of paper, which they variously stack, roll, twist, and drape, they re-created a decaying, old forest. It was like a trip to wonderland that began even in the staircase on the way up to the exhibit…

So cool, right? I just hope they used recycled paper!

Our hotel…

Tulips lined the walkways around the hotel…there is no greater inspiration than that provided by Mother Nature!

The next day we headed into the super cute college town, Williamstown, for a visit to the Clark Art Institute, which is and of itself a work of art.

Here is an oil painting by American John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) called Smoke of Ambergris, which struck us as a beautiful utilization of light and shadow.

This next painting by the Italian artist, Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931), entitled, The Return of the Fishing Boats, was about 4″h x 7″w and the detail was incredible!

It was a great weekend of art & inspiration. I think Andy & I preferred MOCA’s art over Clark’s, which was mainly just oil paintings. Do you have a preference?

This weekend, we hope to take some of the inspiration we garnered from our trip to the Berkshires and put it to good use as we photograph Cape Cod wedding planner extraordinaire, Desiree Spinner, of DSE events. Stay tuned! And, as always, thank you for keeping tabs on us! xo Chris & Andy

To wrap up our final post on our 3-week trip to Panama, we thought we’d end with a little slideshow highlighting some of our favorite moments. A couple of weeks ago, I watched the season finale of Ugly Betty, which I love, and the song that capped off the show and the series was Macy Gray’s new single. I’ve been listening to it non-stop since the show and it seemed the perfect soundtrack to our trip.

Enjoy! Click to see our first, second or most recent posts on Panama. And, as always, thank you for your love and support! If you like what you see here on our blog, we hope you leave us some love. Your comments always bring such joy to our hearts.  Peace! Chris & Andy xo

After exploring Panama’s cities and mountains, Andy & I were ready for some beach time. The guide books talked about Bocas del Toro, a group of six densely forested islands, as being Panama’s principal tourist draw card. This made us a little trepidatious about going there, since we prefer to visit less visited places. But, we ventured to Bocas anyway.

There are some gorgeous places to stay on the less inhabited of the six islands, but we were saving our splurge for San Blas, so we stayed on the main island, Isla Colon, where accommodations were more reasonable, but still overpriced for what they offered.

And, while Bocas wasn’t really our scene, we had a couple of fabulously languorous beach days both on Colon and on the smaller, less inhabited Isla Bastimento, a five minute boat ride away. This next photo was taken at Red Frog Beach, on Bastimento, which has one of the nicer beaches in the archipelago. The beach had tons of tourists later in the day…we got there early to soak in the natural beauty…

We visited Playa Estrellas, Starfish Beach, on our second day in Bocas. It wasn’t a particularly fabulous beach. It was good for children, since it was shallow and very calm, with tons of starfish everywhere. But, there wasn’t much of a shore line for parking your butt. It didn’t really make sense to spend too much time at this beach as there wasn’t much to do or see, so visitors came and left relatively quickly. The woman in the photo had biked all the way from town, which took her 4 hours over muddy, unpaved roads. I’d guess she was in her 60s…a total rockstar in my book!

We made the most of our time at Starfish beach, then walked back about a mile to where the bus dropped us off to do some more chillin’. There by a beach-side restaurant, we spent the rest of the day, playing cards and swinging in hammocks till the last bus of the day came to pick us up. In this next photo a bunch of sea birds sun themselves on pilings just off shore. We tried taking the photo from shore, but it was a much better perspective wading in up to our waist. We’ll do anything for a good photo.

Our visit to Panama ended with 4 heavenly days in San Blas, an archipelago of some 365 islands off the north coast of the Isthmus, east of the Panama Canal. Home to the Kuna Indians, the islands, some of which are no bigger than 30 feet in diameter, are part of the comarca Kuna Yala, along the Caribbean coast of Panama. Most of the Kuna island dwellers live on just a few of the islands, though several, like Isla Pelicano seen below, have one house made from bamboo and palms, that is inhabited by a single Kuna family. Like many visitors to San Blas, we flew from Panama City to the Kuna Yala captial of El Porvenir on the mainland, then took a short boat ride to the island of Whichub Wala, the most densely populated of the islands. Home to some 400 Kuna, you can easily walk from one end of the island to the other in less than three minutes. The Kuna rely heavily on tourism, fishing and the exportation of coconuts, lobsters and plantains to survive. Being so densely populated and having plumbing only in the hotels for tourists (although the piping goes directly into the ocean), the water around the island is too polluted for visitors to swim. So, our hotel guide, Orlando, took us and other hotel guests on daily boat trips to visit some of the less or not at all inhabited islands in the Kuna Yala. Isla Pelicano was our favorite island (seen below) so we spent a couple of days here, chillin’ under palm trees, snorkeling, reading and just enjoying the incredible views and the crazy aqua-colored water.

Below a Kuna woman looks out her window. Most of the houses not directly over the water were made entirely out of bamboo and palm. But, the hotels and those houses that were over the water, like the one below, used wooden frames and corrugated steel for the roof.

San Blas is an absolutely stunning region of the world, with pristine uninhabited islands and water like none we’ve seen before. But, with a growing reliance on tourism, there are new problems, namely with waste disposal. It was hard to see discarded plastic, aluminum beer cans, and other waste used as a sort of erosion control on the perimeter of the more inhabited islands, especially for a people who, at least from what we could understand, have a faith/culture that seem to feel a real connection with Mother Earth.

The few hotels on the island of Wichub Wala did have toilets that flushed, but they flushed right out into the ocean and locals use these outhouses, which were nothing more than a hole in the floor surrounded by four walls.

Fishing is a big activity for the men. And, many of the boats they use are made from hollowed out trees. The boats are simultaneously beautiful and perfectly functional.

The Kuna used to wear few clothes and decorated their bodies with colorful designs. When encouraged to wear clothing by missionaries who visited the islands, they followed their body painting designs in their Molas, which are worn by traditional women in their clothing and are a big item to sell to tourists. The good ones, like these below, are hand made and feature more traditional designs. They’re gorgeous and incredibly intricate.

In addition to wearing molas sewn into their tops, the more traditional Kuna women, like this woman below,  also wear rows of beads tied together in patterns on their legs. The bright colors are beautiful and pop against the blue background that constantly surrounds the islands. Below a Kuna woman and her granddaughter watch, with a puppy at their feet, as a boat of young men cast their nets for fish. I love this photo, even with the contrast of the expensive catamaran anchored in the background. The islands, with their natural beauty and the protection they provide from the open ocean, attract hundreds of boaters who drop anchor for weeks, months and sometimes years.

The contrast of old and new in the Kuna Yala is at once arresting and beautiful. Below western clothes hang on a clothesline as the evening sun warms the bamboo house.

This was the smallest island we saw, big enough for just one house. The truly amazing thing about this scene is the woman, who is the cousin of our guide, Orlando, came out of her palm and corrugated steel house carrying a purse and wearing modern clothes. Orlando picked her up to take her to the mainland, about a 45 minute boat ride away, to do some shopping. Can you imagine living here?

The Kuna Yala was exactly the break from modern day reality we needed and the perfect ending to a fabulous vacation. We absolutely loved Panama and will be posting a slideshow highlighting more picture perfect moments from our super fun trip tomorrow. Stay tuned! Chris & Andy xo