applause!

i love that fleeting feeling . . .

that yes!

this could be!

yes could be . . .

this could be it!

that waves over in the 1/30th of a second as THIS appears in the viewfinder

[oh my oh my]

sometimes, we open the image file back in the studio and cringe b/c what we thought we saw and thought we captured isn't quite there.....there's always so much luck involved in making pictures.....too often the image in our head is merely an "almost"

BUT one thing i'd so hoped to do during daniel and jenny's wedding was to really get low with the full frame and utilize the wide angle . . . and capture how these beckett brothers (they've ALL served in the marine corps) feel about each other and oh i'm happy!

HERE'S part of what's happening:

daniel has 3 brothers -- his youngest, andrew, in uniform, was his best man.

right behind the applauding marine: matt, who's the father of daniel's only neice (the flower girl) and nephews (sitting beside her) -- and it's perhaps matt's wife suzanne that is the most animated of all in this image.

AND we can even see a wee bit of adam, the oldest of the beckett boys.

AND (like icing on the cake) that's daniel's grandma sitting beside suzanne.

i'm going to boldy put all humility aside for a moment.

ok, this image is NOT perfect . . . there are a few minor details that if time would stand still rather than pass by in a fraction of a second i'd tweak but overall . . .

WHOOT! WHOOOOOOT!!!!

oh let's dance, jump and sing!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for indulging me here, guys.....

~amy

ok ONE more shot with wonderful new lens . . .

goodmorning!

couldn't resist . . . this was pre-cheesecake tray ;)

~amy

Macro lens fun! PLUS a new light source!

you know how when we get home and it's almost 1AM and even though you started shooting 10 or 12 hours ago, you just CAN'T settle down + go to bed, NOT YET b/c these images are just too exciting and you've gotta see 'em?

what a wedding!

can't wait to tell you all about jenny + daniel's celebration....

not only was it breathtakingly beautiful, it was a like a SilverBox reunion i tell ya:

amanda + brennan were there! and amy + grady came in from new york! oh, and stacy + bobby, too!!

and even kelly (o'toole) howe who's wedding i documented (gasp!) 5 years ago this summer -- she are chris are expecting their 2nd baby soon and we talked about doing tummy shots with big brother westin (isn't that a GREAT name!) in may....oh THAT will be so fun!...and i haven't even started telling you about the gobs and gobs of bridesmaids + groomsmen from past SilverBox weddings in attendance;

ok, so SOON i'm going to tell you more, but for now; just two images to share....

kim and i lOVE photographry research and new photography finds and we've just this week added to the SilverBox armory with:

a. our first true MACRO lens; and LOOK what it can do with your rings (these are mini cheesecake bikes holding 'em up ~ hee-hee!)

AND

b. a new little light -- see the soft warm light on jenny + her mom's faces? 

we (along with annika) CREATED that......oh la la!

can't wait to share more!

amy

Easter Riddles; OSP Indy and love = making pictures

more pics than words;

see above, clockwise:
a. the Bunny found us!

b. i made a very cool breakfast!!
and
c. paul found a few devilishly good egg hiding places :)

At our house, E.B. is a Riddler;

and a rhyming riddler at that!

to figure out the COLOR of eggs you need to go out and look for and even the NUMBER of eggs that await you, you've gotta work through the CLUES!

above, Zoe, 3rd grader is learning multiplication tables; so that seemed essential; 

Avery, on the other hand, is taking both Art and Geometry (her note from the Bunny read

 "no primary colors for you, secondary will have to do, but with each prime, just add blue" 

(Know the color of HER eggs?)
.....it's a pinky-swear: our kids love this "uncovering" part as much as the chocolate:)

tycho's note follows;
crazy that the Bunny knows so much about his NFL feelings, don't you think ;) -- his BEST shoes are "like dad's" -- nike huaraches ....wanna figure out what color they are based on the REST of the info??

*Tycho, your very best shoes are your key to the 2 colors that this year YOUR eggs will be.
Having trouble? Thank "snowman nose" or the only good thing about those Broncos!

also note, it was ME the non-cook who made (from scratch, thank you very much) Eggs Benedict yet

Zoe said, "you know, i think this is better at the Upper Crust" (hmmmmmpft, it's a good thing i love Upper Crust Downtown owner adam guy so much!) ok...i'm ALMOST over it.....

then easter night, kim packed her stuff and i grabbed things here b/c we pulled out of town first thing Monday....

with the first thing we packed being our DAUGHTERS...

OSP-INDY was a good time!

when the girls were asked to model for the difficult-venue-lighting session, zoe was determined go out and find matching outfits; and LOOK, these were within a few block of the hotel (the OMNI SEVERIN in downtown Indianapolis and boy was our service top notch!)

OSP stands for Open Source Photography and is made up of a great group of photographers who believe that sharing and giving is good, ultimately, for everyone....and wow! the gifts of time + talent by OSP-Indy organizers (including two of our fa----a---a-a-a--v-orite photographers ever: see Turtle Pond and feel the fun and goodness just seeping through) is inspiring.

Here's an image from night skyline lighting session led by Anne Ruthman.
It's of 2 very cool photographers who braved bone chilling temps while the rest of us collaborated, talking of things such as how much ambient vs. off camera flash we'd prefer.

Model Photographers (in so many ways!!), Brandy + Sticky were such fun to meet. And our girls are STILL having such fun with Sticky's name. ("Sticky like covered with sap or rolled in syrup?" asked little Sophie Bones)

and here's somethiing zoe and sophie loved even more than the Indy Children's Museum:
coming to OSP from Chattanooga, TN, lil miss Graycen Nudd:
whose inspiring parents, BTW, may have about the greatest christmas card series EVER (you've gotta see these!)

*click here

sheesh, what a segue . . .

perhaps my most beloved photographer's x-mas card of ALL TIME is from a photographer who was SURE ENOUGH able to make it out one night in Indy....we met Bobbi (of Bobbi + Mike) and so many of these wonderful Indy-area people last year at the Zack Aras ONE-LIGHT workshop (held AT Turtle Pond headquarters) and anyway, could I make this any more confusing??

final note (a silly excuse personally; a great OSP-raises-the-bar in so many ways example) : its probably THIS CARD:
that i saw on Bobbi+Mike's blog that set such a high standard that I never got around to sending our own holiday wishes this year; we just weren't up to being quite this cute...
ridiculous, yes....and wow does that add the pressure for next year.....

hmmm, what would The Bunny do??
~amy

PS all kidding aside; open-source get-togethers; open-source sharing, yep it raises the standards, the outputs, the abilities of us ALL....plus, whew; fun crew!

Jamie + Omar (and family!) at Goshen Historic Church

we're packing up equipment (and our daughters -- yeah, we'll see how that goes) and heading out at dawn (ok, BEFORE dawn) for a photography workshop in Indianapolis.

it's a bit of experiment really . . . not the workshop, the daughters-in-tow part....how will zoe and sophie do?

hmmmm......stay tuned.

but first....

oh take a look at this: jamie + omar's wedding slideshow.

what fun people!

Jamie's kids were such a joy to be around all day . . . her youngest daughter was their flower girl;

her oldest daughter was the maid of honor
(this is at David the Salon; Abbie -- the wedding stylist -- was AMAZING!)
and omar asked jamie's son to be his best man.

how cool is that!
and no kidding, his toast was one of the best i'd ever heard.
not only was it well written (and he's TEN!); his TIMING rocked the house.
my intentions were to grab a copy to post here but THESE GUYS: dan + susan simon (who's wedding i documented that very first year i was shooting and who this winter introduced me to jamie . . .) anywho
dan + susan got to it first and are having it framed.
it was THAT good!
one partial line went something like:

"my sisters and i are happy to see our mom so happy and excited for you to be part of our lives, but just remember, my mom wears the pants in the family and I'M the man of the house"

this picture is from seconds later:

a few more jpgs from the day starting with Goshen Church . . . one of the oldest in Missouri. omar's parents and grandparents and even great grandparents if i recall correctly, were all married here.
can you see his grandma's expression (2nd row back, red blazer) as jamie and her dad walk in....oh i LOVE it!

when kim and i get back from indy later this week, my hope is to track it down that toast...check back; this is just too good to miss....

and speaking of things too good to miss....

we're down to the final

win our hearts | win your wedding week.

we've got some great applications in from coast-to-coast (and continents beyond!) but there's still time.
we are SO EXCITED ABOUT GIVING AWAY THIS WEDDING PACKAGE. April 1st (no foolin') is the deadline....we'll introduce you to some of the applicants at that point....but in the meantime; get those stories and jpgs in

back in the office Thursday!
have a great week!

~amy

PS sorry to sound like a broken record, but wowza Kent's Floral Gallery does incredible work!

Jamie's dress was sort of light blue/lavender ("the gig is up" she laughed as she explained her choice for an alternative to white) and Kent was able to match the color EXACTLY . . . so beautiful!:

What's not to love about the City Museum

oh the mixed blessing of a "no-school-day" ~
here's our recent st. louis excursion to dive into the sights, sounds and adventure of the City Museum.
each of my kids got to invite a friend and tycho was delighted that elliot (kim + david's 8 year-old) said "yes!"

ah, the city museum, fun for kids of all ages:

(kim, oh I LOVE these city museum images you made for maureen + aaron ~ which reminds me, whew, what an amazing album!

hey, have i told you lately you're surely the BEST business partner EVER . . . thanks for being my friend, a constant source of inspiration . . . and for having such cool kids! ~ amy)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

hope yours is super sweet!

Rangefinder * Magazine features SilverBox

* THE premier photographers' magazine ( whoa, we feel so lucky! ~ photographers from so many different parts of the world read Rangefinder. . . )


SilverBox is featured in the March issue of Rangefinder Magazine! We are THRILLED! ("excited, e-c-s-t-a-t-i-c-!, ELATED, yes, deliriously delighted" adds amy.) So thrilled (& all of the above!) in fact, that I haven't even told my husband, David, yet 'cause I can't wait to hand him the hard copy version of the magazine and say something like: "hey, there's a story in here you might want to check out :')! (Now we'll see if he peeks at the blog before the issue arrives in our mailbox!)

Take a look at the article below (click on each page & it will pop up large and legible on your screen) or, if you'd like to see it in another format, you can download a pdf of the article by clicking here.

Rangefinder is billed as "the premier monthly magazine for the professional photographers." We'd have to agree! We read it cover-to-cover each month and pass along copies to our photo assistants. Both the magazine and the website are STUFFED full of resources & information.

And Ronnie Garrett, thanks for telling the SilverBox story so well! By the way, Ronnie is a photographer AND a freelance writer. This was her first article in Rangefinder, and she's already been asked to do another one. So if you've got a writing assignment you'd like her to take on, go ahead and contact her . . . she says "I'm always looking for photographers who are doing really great work, be it portraits, street photography, landscapes, wildlife, black and white etc. They can contact me at rl_garrett7@yahoo.com or call me at 920-650-7875 (if I don't answer, they can leave a message)..."

~ kim wade

PS for any photographers out there ~ if you aren't currently receiving Rangefinder; you can subcribe now for FREE just follow this link. We learn something and feel inspired with each issue

~ amy enderle

learning from friends (or i.e. how to make a head shot)

"LeapFrog Learning" is what kim calls it.

will you think us even bigger geeks if we admit how much we [both] love LOVED...ALWAYS l0VeD!! school ~ well, okay, to clarify: we loved the Best of School ~ the learning something new part!

one of the dozens upon dozens of things i love about having a cool + talented + engaging business partner is that when i have a photography a-ha!, i have someone to TELL.

PLUS, kim is always so excited to HEAR . . . even if my idea turns out to be well, not that earth-shattering, she still dives right in and explores it, too.

it's very happy that way.

and of course the vice versa: kim calls (or emails, or knocks) with her new photography insights ~ oh how her ideas + images inspire me!  and then <'cause see it gets even better> she says:

"hey, let me show you how . . ."

when kim got back from Lyndsay + Ryan's wedding in The Bahamas last winter, i was like, "ok, you gotta teach me. you are NAILING those bridal headshots" so we had a little workshop, involved some of our (amazing!) SilverBox Assistants and dove deeper....

over the next few months, kim kept hitting these out of the park...as well, i kept getting closer;

some of our '07 favs:

and some slight variations on the theme:

where am i going with all this?

yesterday, fun friend and fellow columbia photographer stacie pottinger called me after photographing a birth (that's one of her photographic specialties and whew, her work is AMAZINGLY beautiful.)

so stacie says: "where are you RIGHT now? and if i come hand you my camera, will you take a headshot?"

and we did THIS . . .
. . . on the school playground while tycho + friends tossed the football. stacie emailed the image last night saying '"thank you so much" and i realized you know what, it's really thanks to KIM WADE! she nailed this look, then she taught me....

LeapFrog Learning . . . it's fun! it's friend-friendly, and hey; it EVEN works commercially:

be it a salon full of beautiful women --

or heck, even blueberry waffles ;)

it's BEAUTIFUL!! get out there!

big hug, amy enderle

WPJA 1st PLACE WINNER ~ Amy Enderle!

"AMY!!!! HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR EMAIL?!" . . . I think I might have even yelled it . . . in a late night ecstatic phone call to my business partner EXTRAORDINAIRE ~ Amy Enderle ~ whom we discovered had just won FIRST PLACE in the "emotion" category of WPJA's 4th Quarter photo contest.

This is A BIG DEAL!

First, the contest is only open to members of WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association), and membership is NOT automatic. Photographers must apply for admittance because WPJA wants to ensure its members truly take a photojournalistic approach to weddings. Then each award category receives hundreds of entries from photographers all over the world. To even PLACE in a category is an honor. To actually get FIRST PLACE?! INCREDIBLE!

And so well-deserved . . . here's the image on WPJA's website:
But as ecstatic as we are over Amy's recognition, making the picture was really secondary to making the moment possible. So here's the back story: Andy's grandmother had never missed a single one of her grandchildren's weddings. When she was admitted to the hospital just before Andy & Rachael's wedding, they told Amy: "We really want to see her on our wedding day." So Amy said, "Let's make it work while you're in your wedding clothes." They made last minute changes to the itinerary. Amy drove Rachael to the hospital where Rachael and Andy had a private moment with each other before stepping into his grandmother's room. The hospital requested that only family be in the room, and so Amy documented this moment, along with their smiles and laughter, from the doorway.

Check out what the judges had to say:

JUDGES COMMENTS: I wish there was a caption on this image especially. Very touching. Nicely done.

Straight forward approach with lens and light made it work. This picture was very moving and brought an instant emotion of sadness to me. It is not necessarily the hardest picture to capture but the moment, the emotions, and the scene is what separates this photo from the rest.

Beautifully composed photo with sensitivity of an unexpected moment where the bride and groom visit what appears to be an ailing grandmother in the hospital.

This is a very powerful picture, very moving, this is the reason people want photojournalist style wedding pictures. I think an emotion picture should make you feel something and this nails it. What an amazing opportunity the photographer had to witness something so profound.

The photographer took it one step further and followed the bride and groom to the hospital to visit someone close to them. There is joy and sadness in this photo. It stood out from all the rest.

Amy, you DO stand out from all the rest. I'm so proud of you!

~kim

the world view of a 7 year old . . .

tomorrow is a Friday . . . but a Friday without school here in columbia, SO the kids and i are headed to the übercool CITY MUSEUM and each kid gets to invite one friend. [a mom trick that always serves us well . . . though it doubles our numbers, it is significantly easier and happier to parent my own kids when they each are partnered with a friend instead of a s-i-b-l-i-n-g]

but what ONE friend to invite?

tycho: 'i know! i think i'll invite uncle parker'

me: well, uncle parker [note to readers: bald-ish bass player in video at this link] probably can't come since he's a teacher and in kansas city they probably DO have school tomorrow.

tycho's reply: ok, then . . . i'll invite uncle jim!

mom, again: well, since uncle jim is in kansas city but the city museum is in st. louis, that might be a little far for him to come [note to readers: 4+ hours]

tycho: but, mom, duh, uncle jim has a CAR!

mom: yes, he has a car, but it's kind of a long way AND we're going on a friday, so uncle jim is probably working

tycho: uncle jim has a JOB? what kind of job?

mom: uncle jim is an artist, but an artist who uses a computer

tycho: a computer??. . . <aarg> that is SO CHEATING!

[next note to readers: jim is a Graphic Artist with Lagom Design; tycho is 7 so "artist-who-uses-a-computer" seemed like an off-the-top-of-my-head decent way to explain things . . . .]

LOVE that in the world view of a 7 year old:

* uncles are the best kinds of friends

* uncles work???

* of course! adult uncles would of course! want to come play at the st. louis city museum even though they would be in the car 8 hours roundtrip to make it happen ~ becuase duh, they have a CAR

and my most favorite

* using a computer to make art; well THAT must be against the rules, right?

fun times!

~amy

*hear + download Sometimes Three [aka Parker's Band] songs on my space music here or cd baby, here

*see just how cool Uncle Jim is, even to adults, by taking a look at Lagom Design it's "just right"

the proof is in the ORIGINALS BOX SET

We gotta rave about our unique and oh-so-very-lovely proofing product: SilverBox's very own Originals Box Set. Until the OBS, we'd tried several proofing strategies (loose prints in boxes . . . prints in standard proof albums), but we hadn't yet found the product of our dreams.

The dilemma: How to present couples with their 400 or so 4x6 wedding proofs in a way that keeps the prints safe, protected, in sequence AND is a lovely keepsake in itself? Something that would fit our boutique-like commitment to above-and-beyond quality.

The solution: The Originals Box Set. Each and every SilverBox couple now gets an OBS that holds 400 original prints, takes 10 hours to build by hand, is made of acid-free archival paper, and is available only if SilverBox Photographers documents your wedding.

We are indebted to fiber artists extraordinaire ~ Brooke & Allen of Originals Paper Art ~ for designing the OBS to suit our [aaahemmm] somewhat particular tastes. And we've been so curious about how Brooke & Allen actually handcraft our Original Box Sets, that Amy and I traveled to Kirksville to see OBS assembly in action.

And of course, we had to document the assembly process with . . . photos! So here's a photo tour of the creation of an Originals Box Set:

Our first step is to hand Brooke and Allen a set of 4x6 (color-corrected and optimized) first edition proof prints that we've organized into chapters unique to the flow of each wedding:Allen then builds the chapter covers using toothy archival paper:


He drills holes into each chapter:
and binds the chapter together with ribbon:

Next, Allen builds a custom-fit box (because a 3-hour "reception only" event might have 250 images while a wedding may end up at 421 prints . . . the slipcase box is made specifically for the exact images and exact chapters it houses):

while Brooke titles each chapter by hand:
And the final step is to encircle the box with a narrow sleeve and ribbon:

complete with the Originals Box Set label:
and voila!
This last image features an OBS that contains only two chapters. That's because our clients can also order a special OBS containing their favorite images as a gift for a parent or friends.

Thanks, Brooke and Allen, for giving us a sneak peek and for creating a proofing product that is unique AND beautiful AND functional! It's the best proofing product we can imagine!

And now that you have a glimpse into how creative, artistic and precise the Originals Paper Art dynamic duo is, you've gotta check out:

snapshots! brooke's design blog 

to see the images, the concepts, the Originality, the sheer diversity of Brooke's creativity. absolutely, without a doubt:

u n p a r a l l e l e d !