Happy Valentines Day

Yes the famous kiss with ponies shot appears again. The couple are Gerald and Airika Pope, who I met out in Idaho. They are a great photographer team based in Seattle.

I got turned onto these photo embellishments by reading the Open Source Photo forum. This is a fantastic photographers forum to learn and share what's going on in the business, and to get tips from other photographers. I apologize for not remembering whose work I saw that intrigued me enough to check out these designs. The forums are so extensive. The company that makes these high quality digital designs is Little Dreamer Designs. Have a sweet Valentines Day everybody! BTW, my email is now up and running. The problem actually might have been me, still figuring out how to access my mail. Thanks to some technical support we are fully functional now, well at least our mail is-lol.

Email on web site contact form is down!

Sorry for the inconvenience, we are working to get our email back up and running. If you have sent in an inquiry recently, please don't think that we've ignored you. We are simply not getting all of our mail yet. I hope to have the issue rectified by Monday morning. In the meantime, give me a call! I prefer talking to people rather than emails any day. Thanks for your patience.

Update-2008 Annual Photo Show

I wrote last week about submitting two pieces of art work for the 2008 Annual Photo Show, taking place at "The Carriage Barn Arts Center".

This years' show was juried by Paul Fusco, a Photojournalist and member of Magnum Photos. You can see some of his work here.
As a photojournalist, he has tackled some very serious topics, including the Chernobyl disaster, and has had seven books published.

My photo titled "The Wedding Night" was not only accepted but I got an honorable mention as well. I was so excited to hear the news, especially since it is a "wedding photo" which I view as fine art and I'm so glad that others do too. By the way, this is a photograph of David & Kassandra Beckstead that was done while attending one of his workshops in Coeur D'alene Idaho. David has this amazing eye and created some fantastic photo opportunities for us at the workshop.

The opening reception of this show is Sunday, February 10th from 4-6pm at the Carriage Barn in New Canaan. Stop in and say hi if you're in the neighborhood.

New Site is Finally Live!

It's been almost a month of working at editing, image resizing, and figuring out how I wanted my web page to look, but with just a few changes still to be made I went live. I am thrilled but exhausted since I seem to do my best work late at night when it's quiet. The only problem with staying up until 3:00 AM is that I have to get up at 7:00 to get my son ready for school. I must say that I do love the feeling of accomplishment after working on something that I'm so committed to. So check it out people. Cynthia Brown Weddings .

Here's a screen capture from one of my galleries. More to come, but for now I'm off to get some much needed rest.

Our Pug Gang Celebrates One Year Anniversary

When I first joined "Pictage" (my online proofing/photolab), I attended one of their conferences in Chicago. I knew that they were huge and offered some fantastic services to wedding and portrait photographers. What I didn't know, was that I would become part of a photographers network that is unbelievable! Our Connecticut Pug is comprised of some seriously talented photographers, all working together to better our industry. Last week marked the one year anniversary of our group. Although I've only been involved for about half that time, I've gotten to know some of my peers and have learned so much from everyone. I am so grateful to have this group to bounce ideas off of and I hope that I in turn can give back as well. Nicki Nicole hosted the very first PUG meeting and so it was great to have our anniversary birthday party at her studio, where the whole thing started. Our PUG leaders Mary & Justin are awesome! From freely giving advice to coordinating some fabulous speakers or simply throwing a wild party, they are incredibly committed. The theme at this gathering was "Cheesy Prom Night". It was great to see all the tuxedos and dresses from the 80's. I swiped some images off their blog to show you the gang.

Mary and Justin looking like the Prom King and Queen, also known as the most recently married couple.

Me looking extremely cheesy with fake flowers and all.

And the whole gang. This is actually only a small group of us.

2008 Annual Photo Show

The New Canaan Society for the Arts has a photography exhibit each year. It is a juried exhibition, and has become a large, well respected venue. Last year two thirds of the entrants were turned away, and I saw some really inspiring artwork that did not make the cut. This will be my third year entering this show. The first year that I participated, Harvey Stein was the juror. He has a long list of credentials and is widely collected and published. Much to my thrill, I won first prize in the professional color photography category that year. Today was drop off day for artwork and we have to wait until Friday before we know if we made the cut. Anticipation is high and frankly out of the two pieces that I submitted, I'd be thrilled just to get one in.

Here are the pieces that I chose.

"Casey's Hairdo"

"The Wedding Night"

And one that I decided not to submit.

I guess the outcome will come soon enough, I'll keep you posted.

Catherine & Anthony Engagement

Catherine and Anthony are native to South Africa. Catherine has been living here in the states for the past two years, being Au Pair extrordinare to my sister and her two little girls. We've spent many family vacations together and she is at every holiday gathering. In short, she feels like a permanent fixture around here but she is returning to South Africa at the end of next week.

Her boyfriend came to visit the states over Christmas, and did he have a surprise for Catherine! An engagement ring! They are over the top excited to be starting a new journey in life together. I have to selfishly admit that we will miss Catherine terribly. She has become a trusted friend, Mommy mentor (she doesn't even have kids yet) and regular hang for me because we always get the kids together. Luckily we all feel as great about Anthony as her biological parents do. He actually asked for their blessing before coming.

So, we had to do their engagement shoot ASAP! It was a chilly day and these guys were willing to hang out and just shoot like crazy. Anthony knows a thing or two about photography and Catherine has a future in Art Direction (or anything else she fancies for that matter). They were a blast to work with and it was a nice way to get to know Anthony and to spend what little time we have left together before Catherine departs.

They have not set the date for their wedding yet, but a trip to South Africa in the future is not out of the question. I was born with the travel bug.

I'm sending blessings and all my love to both these guys. I know that they will be very happy together. I'm just not looking forward to the final goodbye, I'm not great with that, but how lucky am I to have met new friends from the other side of the world that sincerely touched my life.

Here are a few images from our day!