Last day of August.  Students moving in.  Lacie, one of our favorite dog neighbors is moving out.  Yankees are in town for a critical series. The neighborhood is energized with the promise of a new semester, a possible post season. Perfect summer night.

Potentially categorizing me as a maniac, sometimes I push through two weddings in a 24 hour time period. Not usually, but sometimes I am compelled to do so because lovebirds are charming. As these ladies are. Can I take a moment and say how much I love a day wedding? The excitement of waking up in the early morning to get married.  Oh, and that lovely minx Day Light, of course? And how much I love when clients pick and choose which wedding traditions they are honoring and which ones they will pass over to make the day a true reflection of them? We’ll here it is.  A day wedding luncheon in Harvard Square. A friend officiating. String quartet playing The Cure. Cake and dessert bar. An afternoon thunderstorm passes through and it barely registers.  Blisswork.

Fill in the blank:

I love you more than _______.

Like a wedding vows mad lib,  she said it.  During her wedding vows. I love you more than vodka.  A sentiment which apparently held weight with the guests and with the groom, as they roared with laughter.  The afternoon rain held off for the outdoor ceremony right in Post Office Square, as we stood dwarfed by buildings on this lovely little patch of green.  Later, the city glittered below us from the BC Club’s 36th floor.

Like other photographers out there, I do kind of fall in love a little with my clients when I photograph them.  Like anyone else at a wedding, I get emotionally moved.  To tears sometimes.  Sometimes to laughter.  Emotions can be contagious. Enthusiasm as well.  Living to 1000% is a thrill ride to witness and photograph. I love it. I love it more than gin.

The joyous laughing.  The smitten glances. The nervous excitement. The belly laughs. The dance moves. It’s all there. It’s blisswork.

Loving it up, in Post Office Square.  Happy Friday!

My summer 2011 bucket list is a mix of the reasonably achievable and the pretty ridiculous (the likelihood I get to have a make out dance party with Mayer Hawthorne possibly being the most remote). Having worked all weekend, and moved the studio to it’s new swanky address-impressive location, I decided to give myself Monday off to check one thing off my list: seeing Peddocks Island.

Like every kid funneled through the Boston Public Schools, I toured George’s Island a class field trip.  That memory of elementary school,  Shutter Island and Wickett’s Remedy (a book that uses marginalia written by ghosts!) were about the only things I knew about the Boston Harbor Islands.

Park ranger, islander, and new friend Suzanne, gave me and my parents a fascinatingly detailed history while walking us through most of the island’s five drumlins.  I took a ton of photographs.  Clearly, I’m ever obsessed with the New Topographics landscapes. Some things just don’t change.

Others wilt away.  It was not a little heartbreaking to see so many little cottages silently breaking down in the elements.  Stunning to see the remaining military buildings, batteries and housing camped along the edge of the island. It was the perfect Monday vacation.  We even took a little swim, with a view of the city as a backdrop.  Bliss achieved.

It’s true. At heart, I am an aesthete.  So what could be a lovelier way to spend a Saturday than surrounded by art all day? Well, to be surrounded by art and love. and top that off with the brides’ expectation for me to get all arty with it. I worked with E., years ago, as a gallery educator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla.  Throw back to our epic afternoons teaching fifth graders to make sculptures with gelatin and seaweed – now in this same space to watch her get married to M. under Pleasure Point by Nancy Rubins.  M. made the succulent bouquets, and rocked the black heels with white wedding dress – so chic.  And check out their idea of throwing bouquets of lavender that broke open and scented the room.  Before the ceremony, I walked into the rotunda, the entire color scheme including the wedding party draped around the reception like a Sandy Skoglund piece. I was looking and seeing. That’s blisswork, baby!

Adoration to Brian Koci of Red Tie Photography for keeping me laughing and rockin’ it with me in San Diego!

dramatic light in Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass