The weather was classic New England today. We woke up this morning, in anticipation of our wedding at the Chatham Bars Inn with super sweeties Amy & Ryan, and it started pouring. Then, the rain stopped and the skies cleared….honestly, a little too much for my liking. We ended up doing photos down at the beach with Amy & Ryan’s families and it was ridiculously bright. But, they were troopers and weathered the sun. Then, the haze set in, which provided fabulous lighting for our portraits with Amy & Ryan. And, then what looked like a tornado over the water moved it. It was soooo cool. A little scary, but very cool. This photo really doesn’t do it justice, but thought it would be fun to share anyway.

At this point, it seemed that the storm broke off into 3 spouts, the most visible is on the right…but again, this photo doesn’t really look as good as it did in person.

Oh, and the evening ended with a rainbow over the ocean and seals swimming off in the distance. How lucky are we to live and work here on beautiful Cape Cod? Super luck! Stay tuned for more photos from Amy & Ryan’s fabulous wedding!

The other afternoon, Andy was outside mowing the law when all of a sudden he yelled for me….several times. At first, I thought something was wrong. I’m a worrier, so I imagined the worst….missing toes, a bloody mess. I ran outside and much to my relief, all of Andy’s toes were still attached. Even better, he had the sweetest surprise for me.

While using the strimmer to trim the tall grass along the edge of our backyard fence, Andy uncovered a cotton-tail rabbit’s nest.

I never knew rabbits had nests. I thought they borrowed deep, cavernous holes in the ground, like Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh stories. Turns out that when they have a litter, rabbits hollow out a shallow hole in tall grasses, fill it with bits of their fur and dead grass and that’s where the baby bunnies stay for a few weeks, until they’re old enough to venture out to snack on clover and dandelions.

Andy hadn’t cut the grass in a couple of weeks so the conditions were perfect for a momma rabbit to have her brood. I guess the commotion of the strimmer scattered the litter of baby bunnies from their nest…six of them, in fact. Thank goodness Andy didn’t inadvertently step on them…or worse!

Man, were they cute! Cute with a capital C!

I was suddenly transported to my childhood, when I used to try and save injured or abandoned baby birds. I wanted to be a vet for the longest time. I grew up in a wooded area in a suburb just outside Boston and we were constantly playing outside as kids. I had chickens, several parakeets and a dog. Our neighbor had a horse for a couple of years, which doesn’t sound outrageous unless you saw our neighborhood. We were on a dead end street near lots of woods, but certainly not farm country, where you might expect to find chickens and a horse. They kept the horse in their garage, which they turned into a makeshift barn and their yard became the horse’s running ground.

Oh, those were good times.

I remember I once tried nursing a baby blue jay back to health. I’d found her perched on a low lying branch in a bush, with a hungry cat standing beneath, just waiting for her to fall. I had her for over a week, and she did pretty well. I was teaching her to fly by putting her on my finger and lifting her up and down to make her flap her wings. Whenever she heard me coming she would open her mouth wide and stretch out her tiny neck, anticipating the mix of raw hamburger and baby food I would give her. But, sadly, she didn’t make it. I came home from school to find her lifeless body near the tipped over bowl of water. I was devastated. It was my first real loss. We buried her in the backyard under an old pine tree. I sulked for weeks.

My first instinct upon finding the six bunnies was to put them in a cardboard box lined with old grass clippings, so we could nurse them to adulthood, like I’d tried to do with my sweet blue jay. We collected the baby bunnies and put them in a box, but something held me back. Maybe it was the memory of my blue jay.

Somehow between childhood and adulthood, we lose that wild abandon that lets us believe we can do anything and rational thought takes over. With the bunnies safely in the box and out of harm’s way, I went inside to check the internet and make sure I was doing the right thing.

Turns out my first reaction, although well-intentioned, wasn’t the best thing for the bunnies. They all looked healthy and seemed strong, so chances were good that their momma had just left them for a bit. We found their nest and put them back where they belonged, covered under grass clippings. But, we couldn’t resist snapping one quick photo of the three youngest…

I have freakishly small hands, so that should give you some idea of how tiny they were, especially the one on the far right, which seemed to be the runt of the litter. After we let them go, we did some more research, and turns out I probably shouldn’t have touched them at all. Putting them back in their nest was definitely the right thing to do, even though all I wanted to do was snuggle with them and dress them in tiny clothes, like I used to do with my chickens.  I’m pretty sure there’s a photo of this somewhere. If I can find it, I’ll share. It’s pretty hysterical!

Apparently, it is very hard to rehabilitate wild rabbits and well-meaning people who try often kill them with their kindness. So, I reluctantly left the sweet fluffy balls of bouncing joy to fend for themselves….with a bowl of ice water and some clovers nearby, in case they needed a little help. Sometimes you just can’t take the little girl out of the woman.

A couple of times this week, I’ve seen an adult rabbit hopping through our yard and I like to think it’s the momma. According to my research, mother rabbits leave their babies during the day and come back at night to feed them. We’ve been checking every day since finding the bunnies and after that first day, the runt was the only one to stick around. But, even now, three days later, he too has left the nest. I’m hoping that they are all safe and feel they have a haven here in our yard, where bunnies are always welcome!

It was just before 5PM when the doorbell finally rang. I nearly fell down the stairs in my excitement to get to the door. I knew it could be only one man….Bob, our trusty UPS delivery man. I’d been waiting for Bob all day. In his big brown truck, driving around his Cape Cod route, Bob carried with him my much-anticipated new camera…Nikon’s super fly D3S digital SLR.

Sensing my excitement, Bob asked if the box he was delivering was a new camera. To which I immediately replied, “Yes! I’ve been so excited all day for it to arrive.” “I thought so, since you had to sign for it,” he said. Bob is so cool.

After signing, my hands a little shaky from all the excitement…or perhaps from my sprint down the stairs…I bid farewell to Bob and dashed back up to the office to tear open my treasure box. Taaaa Daaaaa!

Andy is one of those people who likes to take his time opening presents. He slowly removes each piece of tape, one at a time, careful not to rip the wrapping paper. Then, ever so slowly, he unfolds the creases to reveal the contents. Sometimes I wonder if he does this just because he knows it drives me crazy. You see, I am a shredder. I’ve always been one of those people who tackles a present with wild abandon, ripping off paper, popping off bows, and throwing the scraps over my shoulder to see what’s inside.

But, this was different. I found myself taking Andy’s slow approach. I was quick to find a pair of scissors, but that’s where the quick ended. Slowly and precisely, I sliced the brown B&H packaging tape from each side of the box, then sliced along the top center. I sat there for a few seconds, wanting to savor the moment before I peeled the box flaps open. Once opened, all I could see was a pile of white packing popcorn.

“It’s in there,” I thought to myself. My innate tendencies were to dump everything out into the middle of the office floor, until my treasure tumbled out. But, I held back. Instead, I moved a few of the popcorn pieces around, revealing what I thought was the top of the camera box…turns out it was the bottom. There on the golden box, in big black letters, I caught my first glimpse.

The excitement was now growing to a fever pitch, so I dug my hands in and found the bottom of the box, pulling it out, popcorn spilling out all over the couch. But, I didn’t care. My new toy was really here. I opened the box and had to step back to take in the view. So much to go through…

But a lover of instructions I am not. I would rather get right to it. Pressing buttons. Turning dials. I would rather do than read. So, I quickly moved the top layer of stuff to the side.

And, then I found her…quietly waiting for me in the bottom of the box, beckoning me to touch her rugged, yet, precisely constructed, sexy magnesium alloy body. Isn’t she beautiful?

And check out that backside? Wooooo hoooo!

Like my D300, the D3S has a gorgeous 3-inch super-density 921,000-dot LCD monitor. I admit, I was a bit hesitant to move up to this camera model because it’s so big! With the built in vertical grip, the camera is about 6″wx6″hx3.5″d and weighs nearly 3lbs. That may not sound like much, but once you add some of the lenses we use on this puppy, the weight and size add up fast. I was considering getting the new D700 instead. But, as it turned out the weight difference between the two cameras was minimal. And, as soon as I picked her up in the store, I knew this was it. It just felt right. She fit…..we fit. And, so it was meant to be.

But, what really drew me to the D3S is it’s amazing ISO capabilities. The D3S’s standard ISO sensitivity ranges from 100 to a stunning 12,800. As if that wasn’t enough, the D3S has three expanded ISO options that can take the ISO up to a shocking 102,400.

For the non-photographers out there, this basically means I can shoot in very little ambient light without using flash. Yes, it’s super grainy at those mega high levels. But, right now, I rarely take my D300 above 1000 ISO because the noise is too much. Knowing, I can easily shoot at 6400 ISO with less noise than the D300 produces at 1000 ISO makes me giddy. This summer I will find myself with boundless new creative options and I am super stoked!

Like the camera itself, the battery for the D3S is on the large size. But, sometimes bigger is better. This puppy has a battery life of approximately 4,200 shots per charge. Thank you Nikon!

It doesn’t have the pop up flash my D300 has, which was good to use as a trigger for off camera flash set ups. I’m not sure why Nikon eliminated that cool feature in it’s pro level cameras.

That said, there are so many other features that more than make up for the lack of built in flash. Did I mention the dual card slots or the super high flash sync speed? What about the full frame sensor, which now brings all of my lenses back to the 1:1 ratio? That could take some getting used to, but I’m ready. Oh, and the coup de grace of the D3S is the new video feature! And, it produces freaking gorgeous video!Ohhh, the places we will go! I did find a few things I wasn’t sure how it all works. So, it looks like I need to go read the instructions after all.

Chris xo

I freely admit that we have been a tad neglectful of our blog these past few weeks…okay, month and a half. But, we’ve had good reason. In addition to taking a much-needed three-week vacation, (Yes, that’s right, three weeks of doing a whole lotta nothing…hallelujah!) we’ve been working our butts off to get all of the albums for this year’s clients done and out the door before our first wedding of the season in May.

It sounds like it wouldn’t be such a hard thing to do. But, we’re persnickety. Very persnickety. We want our albums to be perfect for our wonderful couples and perfect requires a heavy investment of time. We do enhancements and apply minor, and sometimes major, retouching to every image that goes into our albums to give them our signature look. And, with 35+ albums, each album having 20-42 pages with 20 -100 images and each image edit taking anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes, that adds up to A LOT of time spent in front of the computer.

So, with lots of busy work to do and little time for photographing, we haven’t been very good about our regular blog posts. We were reminded of that today with a very funny e-mail from one of our grooms, Sean, whose wedding we photographed four years ago and with whom we’ve kept in regular contact.

Here’s one of our favorite photos/moments from Sean & Whitney’s wedding at The Dennis Inn. It’s a photo of Sean as he watches Whitney walk down the aisle to become his wife. The excitement on his face in that moment was contagious!

We enjoyed Sean’s message so much, we thought it the perfect post to kick off a series of posts we’re working on uploading very soon…including some photos from our fabulous 3-week Panamanian vacation. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here’s Sean’s e-mail:

Big thanks to Sean and all of our “faithful followers” who have been patiently awaiting a new post. More to follow soon…we promise! Love & hugs, Christine & Andy

With over 8 million views since first being posted on You Tube just two weeks ago, you’ve probably already seen this video. But, we love it so much, we had to share anyway. Who can’t use a little extra joy on Monday, right? Well, this video of Minnesota couple, Jill & Kevin, dancing their way down the aisle oozes love and joy, so sit back and enjoy the ride…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

As our busy season decends, we bid farewell to our Guess Who? Lucky 7s contest, which was, at least for us, a nice distraction from the cold weather. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and thank everyone who took the time to humor us and play along.

As has been the case throughout most of the game, we seem to have stumped you all yet again! Seriously, guys?

We did, however, have a tie for top spot, with Shaleen and Sandee & Matt each correctly identifying 4 out of the 8 images posted. So, we’ll be splitting the pot of scratch tickets and sending you each out your winnings….good luck and happy scratching!

Here are the correct answers: 1. Chris 2. Andy 3. Chris 4. Andy 5. Chris 6. Andy 7. Chris 8. Andy. We’ve also posted the answers next to each image in the original post to make it a little easier for you to see whose photo was whose. Thanks again for playing and we hope you enjoy the new stuff soon to come! We’ve got some fabulous couples getting married this year and we’re looking forward to another stellar year! Much thanks, as always, for your continued support. Keep spreading the love!

With warmest wishes,

Chris & Andy

With April showers come May flowers…and all things wedding-related. Our first wedding of the season is fast approaching and we’re already busy scheduling lots of bello love sessions (aka engagement sessions). But, before we say goodbye to our Guess Who? Contest, we’ve got one more for you.

As a tribute to our fabulously fun 2009 couples, we have made this last Guess Who? all about them and the sessions we’ve done so far…we’ll have a bunch more for you in the coming weeks/months, so stay tuned!

We’ve decided to give you a little hint this time around, since you guys really seem to be having a hard time with this contest. Hint: 4 of the following images were taken by me & 4 by Andy. And, as an added incentive to get more participation, and an actual winner, this week we’re not requiring that ALL of the photos be correctly identified. If would be excellent, exciting, and celebration-worthy if someone does, but we’re not holding our collective breath. Instead, we’ll give all of our remaining scratch tickets to the first person who correctly identifies the most photos. We’re also extending voting a little and will continue taking votes until April 24th. Come on….this should be easy now!!! Right?

Before we start, the answers to last week’s Guess Who? Part 5 are: Andy, Chris, Andy, Chris, Andy. Kristen came the closest with 4 out of 5. Nice job Kristen!!! If you can do that well again this week, something tells me the booty will be yours.

Here goes nothin’….

#1 - Elizabeth & Blake — Chris

#2 - MaryHelen & Kurt — Andy

#3 - Laura & Ben — Chris

#4 - Stefania & Justin — Andy

#5 - Victoria & Mike –Chris

#6 - Jillian & John — Andy

#7 - Ivy & Ben –Chris

And, #8, our most recent addition to the Bello Family…Kirsten & Dennis (The blog post featuring our session with them, done yesterday afternoon in beautiful Cotuit, will follow shortly!) — Andy

Good luck and have fun!!!

xo chris & andy

So, once again, no winners. This little contest of ours is really demonstrating what a good team we are. But, the fact that we can’t seem to give away any prizes is starting to bum us out. And, although we don’t know what we can do to make it any easier, we do know that we have to get another winner. Matt & Sandee can’t be our only winners….we’ll never hear the end of it! So, come on guys, give it your best this week and knock Sandee & Matt off the winner’s block. Ohh a challenge…I’ve thrown down the gauntlet. Watch, they’ll win again this week!

Seriously, though we’d love for anyone to win. We’ve got a stack of scratch tickets looking for a good home.

Before we post this week’s photos, here are last week’s answers: Chris, Chris, Chris, Andy, Andy.

Again, the object is to try and correctly identify whose photos are mine and whose are Andy’s. The first person to correctly identify all 5 images will win 7 lottery tickets, which could net you nothing or possible some serious cash! Either way, we hope you find our little spring quiz a fun way to pass the time!

It might help to go back and look at the past 4 week’s results to see if you can discern our individual styles (Enter Guess Who in the search box to bring up the previous contests). I admit, it’s not easy. We really do feed off of each other and our styles have become pretty seamless. Good luck!

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Would you believe it? We have no winner again….I guess we’re just a well-oiled, seamless shooting machine! But, it’s no fun having a contest and not being able to give away prizes, so what we’re going to do is give the two people who tied and correctly identified 4 out of the 7 images in last week’s Guess Who?  Part 3 contest three lottery tickets each, just to thank them for playing and for getting the most answers right.

The answers to last week’s Guess Who? (Part 3) are: 1. Andy 2. Chris 3. Andy 4. Chris 5. Andy 6. Chris 7. Andy and the top scorers with 4 correct answers were: Kimmy & Laura! Yeahh!!!! The lottery tickets are on their way to you ladies!! Congratulations!! And thank you for playing along!

To make it a bit easier, and hopefully inspire more participation, this week we’ve decided to post just 5 photos, although the first person to correctly identify all five photos will still win 7 lottery tickets. Good luck! And have fun!

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This little contest of ours is proving more challenging than we (and even smarty pants Sandee & Matt) thought. So far, no one has correctly identified whose images are mine and whose are Andy’s in this week’s Guess Who? Lucky 7s. And of those who have guessed, two of you have got 4 correct and one of you has got 2 correct (big hint here…Sandee & Matt….you’re not looking so good this week).

But, we don’t want to punish those who have already guessed, because we just LOVE that you’re humoring us by participating in this silly contest of ours, so we’re going to give you all a slight advantage and let you vote again! Yup, that’s right, you have another chance to review your choices and try again! Remember, there are 14 scratch tickets up for grab this week, since no one correctly identified last week’s photos.

Good luck everyone! This contest is open to everyone, so don’t be afraid to vote, even if this is the first time you’re seeing our work and you have no clue whose images are whose! What have you got to lose? And, who knows, you might just guess correctly!!! (Click on the word “vote” above to go directly to this week’s contest post and leave your vote in the comments’ section.)

We’ll be closing voting once again on Sunday evening and will announce the winner (we remain hopeful) on Monday morning!

Chris & Andy