pole dancers and cocktails and condoms, oh my!

we had the unique privilege of shooting the afterparty for the 2011 santa monica vday event. vday events raise money and awareness for organizations that seek to end violence against women and girls worldwide. a performance of the play the vagina monologues was followed by an afterparty that featured drinks and music and food and dancing...some of it of the pole variety. it was a fun, festive occasion and we were happy to play our part.

march madness

it was the big playoff day on saturday, and the tar heels and the lions of the KARE youth league went out with a bang. aidan played some tenacious d (at least for a 5-year-old) and tyler hit lights out on some ill-advised but always thrilling 3-pointers. it was a fun season to watch. can't wait to see what baseball season holds in store!

Blog Day Afternoon

Yup, now we've been reduced to blogging about other blogs!

At the end of Janaury we had the honor of shooting the MADE UP Exhibit opening reception for Art Center College of Design. They've bloged about it, so I decided I'd blog about their blog about our photos!

http://blogs.artcenter.edu/dottedline/2011/02/07/making-up-2/

-Catherine

Brand X Files

Head to your local newsstand and pick up a copy of Brand X (Vol 2. No. 40 to be exact). A photo we took waaaaaaaaay back in 2009 ended up smack-dab on the cover!

For the shoot, we'd just expected to do group photos of the whole www.syynlabs.com gang. Little did we know that they'd bring a car trunk load of costumes, rubber chickens, plastic swords, Viking helmets and even a pair of giant green "HULK" fists too. Its great to photograph people who come ready to work hard for the camera, but just to be safe, we were sure to keep the guy with the Hulk fists AWAY from all the expensive camera gear.

hope your holidays...

were insanely fun! we're still in recovery mode, but normal transmissions will resume shortly.

happy 2011!

—4eyes

Michigan Wine Country? Yep!

If asked to list words associated with the fine mitten-shaped state of Michigan, "wine" wouldn't make the top 1,000. That's why I was surprised when I went to Grand Rapids over labor day weekend to visit my husband working there on location. We were told by a local friend to head up to Traverse City. Known as a great vacation spot for boating and wine tasting (no, not at the same time), we were promised the lovely blue waters of Lake Michigan and some decent wine to boot. Having been to Napa a few times, I imagined Michigan's wineries to be little farm stands serving welch's quality wine out of jelly jars. I'm happy to say I was mistaken.

Traverse City is this lovely little gem of a lakeside community with cool little shops, cafes and pubs. The lake waters were almost as blue and clear as the waters in Maui. Who knew?!?!

After winding up a wooded road for a few miles, we turned to our destination, 2 Lads Winery. A gorgeous modern building with floor to ceiling windows set high on a hill overlooking the azure-blue waters of northern Michigan. I must admit, the wine wasn't on par with Napa, but still we had a great time. They were actually serving up glasses of strawberry sangria too and I must admit Don and I guzzled down at least two each. Between the vista and the wine... we had a perfect afternoon.

Before & Alice

Back in May we photographed April & Mark for their pregnancy photos. Flash forward a few months and we finally met their little bundle of joy, Alice.