Here are a few scenics we got on our last day in the city, including a few stop-you-in-your-tracks reminders of 9-11. We actually got married the weekend before the planes hit the towers and sat in horror in front of our televisions as we watched the second plane hit live. It was such a surreal experience there in our living room with family and friends all around watching this unbelievable and pivotal moment in history unfold before our eyes. Crazy!!

We hadn’t been back to the city since, so seeing this really brought the memories of that time flooding back. The Ground Zero shots were all taken from the Millennium Hilton, located right in the heart of the financial district.

This one is actually three shots sewn into one…there are some issues with the overlays, but if you look quick you can’t tell…pretty cool nonetheless:

Here’s a shot of a classic New York style pastrami sandwich from the infamous Katz’s Deli. Now, I love pastrami. I grew up eating it and it’s hard to find a good sliced pastrami like I remember. So, I was very excited to check out the NY pastrami scene. Gotta be honest…the sandwiches made us feel kind of sick afterwards…and even while eating them if we’re being completely honest. I don’t know if it was the slightly old tasting pickled cukes and tomatoes or the seemingly raw and ridiculously thick-cut pastrami…but it wasn’t good. Definitely a downer and certainly not worth $15. Kind of a funky place, definitely a landmark. But, I don’t think we’d go back.

Here are just a few street scenes. Only in New York can you get charged a fine for honking…love that!

Taking a cab ride around town

More cool architecture.

This guy could crank out a pretty funky painting in less than 5 minutes using nothing but spray paint and pieces of paper to help guide where his paint went…very impressive. The best part was that he was playing the Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” speech/song that was really popular in 1999…I loved that song!

Lastly, a shot from one of the top floors at the Hilton Millennium, facing the Brooklyn Bridge. Such a cool city. Let’s hope we don’t wait another 10 years before we go back!

So we are back from our brief, but very enjoyable trip to Las Vegas, where we attended the annual Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) trade show and convention! It is the largest convention in the country, drawing thousands of photographers from across the country and around the globe. We met a couple from Singapore in the elevator the day we arrived. (And we thought we had a long trip.)

This year’s turnout was massive and we had a blast, attending talks by some world-renown photographers, socializing via late-night dinners and Vegas-style Penthouse parties with friends old and new. Oh, and of course, there was a little gambling…okay, penny slots, but still, it was Vegas, baby! The only bummer of the trip was discovering that the slot machines no longer take coins. Instead, they now take bills and you get credits, which if you win…didn’t see too many folks doing that…you hit the “cash out” button and out comes a credit slip that you can redeem at an ATM-like redemption machine. The change-over to credits has made the casinos a lot quieter and not nearly as exciting in our opinion.

If you’ve never been, Las Vegas really is a town like no other. The nightlife is what it’s all about, with all the neon lights and people everywhere. When you are inside the casinos, you have absolutely no idea what time it is, and this is by design. There are no windows or clocks to keep folks gambling at all hours. Inside the Paris Hotel & Casino, there is a mall-like section with restaurants, shops & casinos, and the ceiling is painted bright blue with white fluffy clouds. The lighting gives the impression it’s day time in Paris…very strange, but very cool! Another mall down a little further down the street must have hired the same artists to paint the ceiling, but they took it one step further and had lights and a sound system installed that provided an eerily realistic thunderstorm every hour on the hour. They even had rain that fell from the ceiling into pools in the center of the mall.

We were also introduced to the Fremont Street section of Las Vegas, known as old town. The casinos are smaller and definitely feel older in their architecture and interior details, but in a very cool Rat Pack kind of way. A portion of the street is covered by a ceiling of light panels that at certain times each night display a crazy light show that can only be described as pure Vegas.

Here are a few photos from our trip.

Directions to the convention from inside the hotel Paris. Most of the programs were held at Bally’s Hotel, but the trade show, which was like nothing we’ve ever seen, was held at Paris. We couldn’t resist and bought some new gear that we’ve already started playing with…so fun!

Family fun watching Bellagio’s incredible water dances.

There is new construction right at the heart of the strip. Some of the locals we chatted with said it will be called “City Center.” Even with just the bare bones of construction showing, it promises to be the biggest hotel in Vegas, and organizers plan for it to offer everything visitors could ever need with several hotels surrounding at least two casinos. Estimate cost? Around $12 Billion! Madness!!!!

And of course it would be rude not to photograph Vegas at night! Here’s a few of our hotel, The Flamingo. We just loved this sign welcoming visitors to the casino. That’s Andy’s poker face…..thus, the penny slots for us!

The strip at night. How would you like to pay that electric bill?

Las Vegas Boulevard with Paris’s Eiffel Tower in the background.

And the Eiffel Tower during the day. We’ve never seen the real one to compare, but the Vegas tower is pretty impressive and we definitely weren’t the only ones photographing it.

Chris having a nap in the glorious sunshine outside Bally’s. Our last day it was about 78F…ahhhhh, dreamy.

Advertising Vegas style…

For the second year running, Chris and I escaped to the White Mountains for the Married Wedding Photographers ski retreat in NH hosted by our friends Matt and Enna of Grazier Photograpahy. Joining us this year were Kim & John from Sanderson Images, (check out their blog for some really cool mug shots of us all), Justin & Mary from Justin Marantz Photography, and Larry and Tabitha from Sherrell Photography.

We spent most of the week hanging out, talking shop, and of course skiing/snowboarding. It was so great to share ideas and experiences with other photographers who understand the challenges and rewards of working alongside your partner. Here are just a few images from our time together.

We picked the perfect day for hitting the slopes!

Kim & John Sanderson give the thumbs up to these awesome spring conditions, which we enjoyed almost entirely to ourselves!!! Gotta love mid-week skiing.

Matt shows off his ultimate speed

Justin & Mary have never been on the slopes before but took to it like a fish to water. Check out their blog for a cool video clip of Justin. Here they are blogging back at the ski house!

Back in the ski house we played a little pool. Here’s a little trick shot for you …

Tabitha shows us her talents outside of photography. Larry, Eldon, and little Vera June watch on.

Ollie Grazier looks on – desperate to join the game!

Everyone brought a laptop or computer so we could do a little work. Here Larry checks his morning email, while Eldon Sherrell looks on….don’t you just love the expressions!

Matt & Enna feeling the love!

And of course there was always someone with a camera at the ready. Christine chimping!

And John getting a few action shots.

Then of course there was a little time for just hanging out. Larry reading to Eldon.

Oh … and Ollie says “Hi everyone” or was it “Another photographer … noooo don’t take my picture anymore!!”

And the great thing is we’ll get to see them again next week in Las Vegas at WPPI – the largest international convention for wedding and portrait photographers. We can’t wait!

Just before Christmas, we took a little break from the holiday madness to spend a couple of nights in Boston, soaking up some holiday cheer. We spent two nights in Boston’s swanky new four-star Liberty Hotel, home to the former 19th century Charles Street Jail. We were welcomed to the reservation desk by a very nice young man pouring glasses of yummy pink champagne. The hotel’s gorgeous lobby was filled with lots of holiday makers hanging out near the hotel’s hip and aptly-named Clink restaurant. We considered sticking around the hotel, but decided, after checking in, to walk around the city. We ended up enjoying a quiet dinner at Bombay Cafe, overlooking Harvard Square. Nothing too fancy, but we’re suckers for Indian food, especially if we can watch the world walk by as we’re eating! The food was only fair, but the restaurant has large windows along two of its walls that overlook the square, which made for a really lovely setting.

After a restful night’s sleep, we spent the whole next day walking around Boston, (wish I had a pair of wellies like all the city girls…very cute and definitely a good idea when it’s slushy, which it was that weekend!). It was so fun riding the T again…I know that sounds weird if you’re a regular commuter, but its’ been a while since I did that and so it was an enjoyable novelty.

All day, we kept seeing people with these funky little boxes from a place called Johnny Cupcakes, so I had worked up quite a craving by the time we found the shop on Newbury Street. Needless to say, I was more than disappointed when we discovered that Johnny Cupcakes sold hip t-shirts and NOT cupcakes. Andy & I really didn’t get it and left saying we should open a gourmet cupcake shop across the street. We definitely felt silly wandering around looking at the bakery-style display cases filled with t-shirts and other knick knacks and muttering out loud, “Where are the cupcakes?” but we weren’t the only sad, unhip people scratching our heads. Seriously, I think a gourmet cupcake shop across the street would make a killing!

Anyway, after we got home, I decided to see what all the hubbub was about and it’s actually a pretty cool story. Johnny is this very smart young guy who seems to have a knack for turning a “What if?” idea into something profitable. Check the above link yourself if you’re not already hip to this guy. Go Johnny!!! (I still wish he made cupcakes!)

During our two days in the city, we also bumped into a couple of people from weddings this summer/fall – Mark, the brother of one of our brides, Molly, and Mary Kate, the bridesmaid of another bride, Tracy. So fun to see them both! Our second night concluded with a late dinner at the cozy Somerville restaurant and tapas bar, Dali. Good food; great atmosphere and the sangria is a must!

Our trip to Boston helped check some holiday shopping off of our list and it was definitely good to get away for a bit.

Here’s a couple photos from the Liberty Hotel:

Inside the very cool lobby…you’ll notice they kept a lot of the jailhouse feel to the space, with a large courtyard like lobby and railings that give a feeling of jail bars. And the lighting inside the lobby is very moody and dark.

The rooms don’t actually have bars for doors, but there is a strip of the original cell bars in a section on the first floor. The “cells” are accented with changing colored lights. Does Andy look like he could be an inmate or what? Wouldn’t want to mess with that tough guy…yeah right…tough guy with a middle as soft as a pillow.

A special thanks goes out to our amazing clients and friends, Erin & Patrick, who were incredibly generous and gave Andy & I some very cool gifts as a thank you for loving their wedding photos so much. Andy got a very cool overnight bag that we used on our trip and I got this total gorgeous clutch bag that I use everyday! Thanks guys…we love you! xoxo

It’s been weddings every weekend for us here at Bello Photography since June, but this past weekend we found ourselves with a free weekend so we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went camping. Okay, we didn’t go far, actually, just down the road to Nickerson State Park in Brewster. It wasn’t exactly camping and hiking in the mountains, but it was wonderful just the same.

We arrived Saturday morning, set up our tent, had some lunch and took our bikes out along the Cape Cod Rail Trail down to Dennis and back. It was a perfect September day here on the Cape and the trail was loaded with other bikers out to have some fun. Of course, we stopped for ice cream on the way back at the quaint Pleasant Lake General Store in Harwich and took a five minute business detour to check out flooring options for our new studio space at the Mid Cape Home Center in Dennis. Otherwise, we left all things work related behind. It was a relaxing and relatively uneventful two days. Although, Andy claims to have heard coyotes howling in the early morning hours across the pond in front of our camp site. The following are a few photos of our night out in the great outdoors taken with our little point and shoot camera. (We left the big guns at home.)

Here we are goofing off on the bike trail. Look Ma, no hands! And Andy’s trying to bike, take the picture, and smile all at the same time.

Here’s Chris getting the fire ready to cook dinner. Check out the luxurious digs in the background! Sweet! Oh, and we found a great place down the road from the park that sold cedar firewood. It smelled heavenly burning.

Our camping neighbor for the night decided to try his hand at fishing in Flax Pond. Unfortunately, I don’t think his efforts proved as fruitful as they were nice to watch.

Andy looks out over the lake as the breakfast fire gets roaring.

Anyone have a funny/silly/outrageous camping story to share?