Day 1 at NEIPP

New England Institute for Professional Photography for those who don't know what NEIPP stands for. I'm in the "New York Style Weddings" taught by celebrity photographer, Charles Maring. He is an excellent teacher and I've already absorbed so much information. It's been quite an exciting day! I can't wait to have the chance to sit down and go over my chicken scratch notes and make a bit of sense of them.
I'm learning so much about lighting and working almost exclusively without a flash. I can't wait to start to try out everything I've learned. He's also done a lot with video which makes me think I have to upgrade one of these days to a camera that also includes video function.
I've also learned a lot from fellow students. I've been switching up and sitting with different people each meal. It's a great way to get to absorb even more information, everyone here is always happy to share. This evening I sat with a photographer who did a 1 year tour in Iraq as a photographer. His stories were amazing and I would love to see the images he took while there.
Well it's off to the evening seminar now... 4 Key Points to Success. I had dinner last night with the speaker, Ed Pedi, I have a feeling he has way more to share than just 4 points.
Exciting news for Tuesday: We will be taking some of our new lighting knowledge and putting it to use at the same church that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver were married.
Can't wait to tell you all about it.

Brittany Rae Photography is getting around

Just wanted to share with everyone a quick note. About a month ago I submitted a couple of images from a wedding formal session I did to the Offbeat Bride Flickr pool. The Flickr pool is just where people can view other offbeat wedding images to get ideas for their weddings and just all around enjoy looking at other peoples wedding photos. Offbeat Bride isn't just a Flickr pool it's also a book and website created by Ariel Meadow Stallings to help other not so traditional brides with advice and ideas and help them to feel like they're not alone in their non-traditional ways. Although I was married last September I still like to check the site every so often. Well I went on there last night and was completely shocked to find a picture I took front and center on their website! So exciting!

It's a blog so the entry with my photo was on March 18th. Also, I've had to explain to a few people, the website calls all pictures of weddings "wedding porn" it's a good thing.

http://www.offbeatbride.com/

Happy Day After St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable St. Patrick's Day! I know we had a great time. 

Dean and I started celebrating over the weekend with the O'Hartford 5k race in Hartford, CT. It was our first official race and we'll be doing another one soon I'm sure. We also spent the weekend with Deans parents in Portland, CT and they have three adorable golden retrievers. I got to spend a little time outside with the boys taking their pictures. Bailey and Ty are such little hams and were quite interested in the camera, Cody, on the other hand, was very camera shy and it took some coaxing with treats & sticks to get him interested in the camera. I tried to get them to sit still for the fisheye lens but they move way too fast! You can really see their personalities shine through in these photos, it's great.

Below is a snapshot from the O'Hartford 5k. We did pretty well. Dean finished in the 300's and I finished in the 700's out of 1800 people.

Just a quick note

I just had to share this really funny "Kids Say The Darndest Thing" moment I had Tuesday evening.
Running is my new obession. I don't run fast and I don't run long distances, I just like to get out and run a couple miles every other day or so. Tuesday evening Dean and I are out for our 5k practice run (We'll be in CT this weekend to run the O'Hartford 5k).
We started out for the run a little later than normal for me and we have just over 1k left and I get a wicked cramp in my side and slow down to a speed walk for a few and Dean kept on running. Well we came across a kid out playing in the snow with a shovel and as I go by he yells "Are you two taking a running class?" While not technically a class but I say "Yes!" anyway. He stands there for a second looking at Dean and looking at me and then says "Looks like he's doing all the running."
That was it. Just a funny little moment that I thought I'd share.

Weekend of Snowboarding & Spontaneity

This weekend was rather action packed. We started on Sunday at about 8am and headed out to Shawnee Peak for a ski fundraiser for Deans work and we didn't leave there until about 6pm. It took us a little over an hour to get home and then we promptly got ready again to head out and meet some friends out at Bull Feeney's downtown. For those of you not familiar with Portland's Old Port, Bull Feeney's is a great irish bar and Saturday night they had Dave Rowe playing downstairs. He does a bunch of irish sing-a-long type songs. He sung "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" as a gag for the bartenders who immediately started throwing lemons and olives at him from across the bar. It was quite a scene.

On Sunday we woke up, what I thought was relatively early, but with the time change it turned out to be a lot later than Dean and I thought. After debating what to do for the day I jokingly said "Lets go to Ikea" well Dean was game, we jumped in the car and headed down to Massachusetts for the afternoon. I was excited. I got to enjoy some delicious Swedish Meatballs! Here's a few pictures from this weekends ski event

Here's Dean taking off from a few of the jumps

The Off-Mission Blues Band caps of the days festivities with a great set in the Blizzard Pub

Getting started

Wow, okay. Hi!
I've decided to change up my blogging a bit and create an account on here. I have been viewing a lot of blogs and decided I really liked this format better than what I was using before. It enables me to add lots of nice photos right in the text block. You'll have to let me know what you think. My html coding isn't all that spectacular so I'm hoping all worked out well and this window ended up opening in a new window for you so you can still swing back to my site without too much trouble. If there are any glitches, click your ruby slippers together three times (and then click that link) www.BrittanyRaePhotography.com

So I'm trying a bunch of new things this week. I'm excited as I'm gearing up for the wedding season. I'm doing a few trial runs of photo order sites that will allow clients and guest to view & order images from their events. I have a 14 day trial right now with Zenfolio. Let me know what you think of the user-friendliness of the whole thing. www.BrittanyRaePhotography.Zenfolio.com

Well it's Friday and I can officially zone out for just a little bit. Dean and I are off tomorrow to Shawnee Peak for a fundraiser. I'll hopefully come back with some great shots.