All About Eve

An excerpt from a recent private boudoir session in Philadelphia, PA. The session had a hint of an earlier time period which included  vintage accessories and jewelry from a  collection of pieces I’ve acquired over the years..   The entire session will be published in a fine art book as surprise gift her husband on their wedding night.    He is one lucky guy!

Michael Rizzo is an actor and model who lives  in NY City.  I wasn’t able to get up to him in the time frame we needed to shoot this so, he took the train down and we shot this right in 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.   Here’s a selection of images that I grabbed prior to him hopping back on the train to make it back to New York.  I still haven’t finished going through all the images, but its going to be tough to cull it down me thinks.

I’d like to personally thank whoever decided to make the phones yellow in the otherwise vacant phone booths.

Many thanks to Wendy Weinstein for her hair styling and assistance. You rock!

I have no doubt in my mind that Michael is going to be wildly successful in both the American and European markets. He has a wonderfully versatile look that we just love capturing here.   Best wishes and good luck, Mike (although we don’t think you’ll need it!)

During a recent commercial session, I had the distinct honor of working with the beautiful and  talented  Kelly Louise.  She is the principal jewelry designer at K. Louise Designs.  My job was to do a spread for one of her collections to use as advertising collateral. Because so much of  this collection  is African  inspired she picked the beautiful Robyn Welsh as one of her models to show just how well it would work on fairer skinned women.  I’ll post up some more images from the session once we have all the releases we need.  You know… we’ll actually show the jewelry in that one. 

In the meantime, I just really liked this image and thought I’d post it up.  Believe it or not, those black feathers are actually a necklace.  A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Necklace by K.Louise Designs

Hair and Makeup by Wendy Weinstein of Ground Zero Salon

Model, Robyn Welsh

Caroline contacted me about doing a special session for her soon-to-be husband while he’s deployed overseas and I was more than happy to oblige her.  Hold onto your hat, Soldier, we’re about to show a whole new side to Sweet Caroline.

Here’s a quick peek at one…

Kate, Andrew and I met on the campus of TCNJ; the place they first met one another.  And the place they fell in love.   Not too many people carry their college loves through their adult lives but not only did they do that,  they also took school with them. Well, sort of. They are both teachers now working and living in the Princeton, NJ Area.  After spending an afternoon with them, I’m going to guess they are very much liked teachers too.  I enjoyed the entire session and well OK, it didn’t hurt that they are both absolutely gorgeous.

During my initial consult I usually recommend we do their engagement session in a place that is meaningful to them.  It can be a place they met, fell in love or where they spend a good deal of their time now building new memories.  For some people, this is not so easy.  I’ll be introducing you to such a couple in a coming post. This couple, though, it was easy.

In fact everything about them is easy going.  Maybe it’s the teacher in them.  I don’t know… But I will tell you Kate is on the ball and because of her attention to detail it’s truly a wedding I’m really looking forward to.  And yet, she makes it all look easy and stress free.  Yes, it must be the teacher thing.

They’ll be getting married next June at St Paul’s Catholic Church and their reception will be held at The Nassau Inn, both in Princeton, NJ.  It’s going to be an amazing affair with Kristin Rockhill of Details of I Do planning the affair.

For those who know me, you’ll know I get excited about things like dresses and shoes and stationary and well any other meaningful details.  Kate’s ideas get me excited for June 2011!

So, without further adieu… Meet Kate and Andrew…

Love completely and great love is yours.

To say I adore this couple is an understatement.

From the moment I met them on that freezing cold day last winter, I knew I would.  You get to learn a lot about people when you spend a few hours in that kind of climate. #1- Their lips turn blue when they are cold.  #2- They are not complainers and #2 – Marc can make anyone, even me,  laugh with just one look and #3 – They are both  genuinely kind, gracious and just plain fun to be around. I feel incredibly honored to have been included in their wedding day and touched by how warm their friends and family were.  From the Ever-Enjoyable Father of the Bride to the little boy who danced dangling from my leg, I honestly enjoyed every minute of it.

They were married at high noon at the beautiful Tavistock Country Club in Haddonfield, NJ.    Reverend (Dr) Marks  did the honors and it’s always so meaningful when the officiant has known one of them their whole life. That was the case with Brittany.  He  was good for a few laughs and tender moments too.  I asked Brittany which things were most meaningful for her when I was preparing to shoot her wedding and she said, “Our family, especially  those who we don’t often see in one place together.” It was amazing for me too.    There is no doubt where Brittany gets her good looks and amazingly infectious smile.

To Marc and Brittany,  Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your beautiful love story.    I was truly touched by watching your grand parents together at your wedding and was left hopeful that one day you two will be dancing at your own grand daughter’s wedding.  They remind me of something I heard once about great love and how it never grows old.  Such a beautiful thing to see!

Wishing you great love….

Mike Disney is one of those wonderfully charming and funny guys that you love to have around.  He’s exploring the possibilities of taking on a career in modeling and I was very happy to oblige him.  He participated in a workshop we had in Philadelphia about 6 weeks ago and everyone loved him on the set.  He has spectacular eyes!

In coming blog posts I’ll share more of other folks who joined us, but for now… Meet Mike.

Young Men model Mike Disney

Last month I had this crazy idea to put together a group of extremely talented hair and makeup artists, about 9 models and some vintage couture loaned to us by the amazing Charyl Burly of Art Deco and here’s a handful of images from that day.  I’m hanging onto some of the images for a magazine spread that I’m hoping to be able to share with you by the end of May.

Despite three feet of snow falling in Philadelphia 2 days before and a Wardrobe Stylist stricken with the stomach flu we managed to have a really great day and produced hundreds of images.  Many thanks to The Sofitel Hotel and all the staff members for graciously allowing us to us use of their hotel and greeting us with their wonderful hospitality.

In my next blog post I’ll share some images of their newly remodeled ballroom.  It’s really beautiful!  Oh and food… glorious food!

I cannot thank enough the people who donated their time and talent or garments to this project.  I love every one of them for trusting me with this crazy idea.

Lead Makeup Artist: Andrea Martini

Hair Stylists:

Wendy Weinstein

Bethany Bell

Wardrobe on Loan from Charyl Burly and Alicia DiBlasio