Elm Bank Horticultural Society Wedding Photos

Several months ago I got the itch. I wanted to do something creative, experiment and just PLAY. Often I get so caught up in the day to day tasks of running a small business that I don't take enough time to just enjoy being a photographer. I knew that if I didn't make the time to spend a day just shooting that I never would. And I knew that if I felt this way, that there had to be others who did too. So I put something out there expecting that maybe one or two people would want to join me for an afternoon of fun. Instead over 40 people responded saying they wanted in too! Wow, I was blow away. One thing led to another and a few days later I was putting together a styled shoot, organizing vendors, locations and what the day would look like. We all pooled our resources, connected with other vendors and worked together to create something really special. When Monday finally came, I couldn't believe what we had accomplished together!

That afternoon, we had FUN. There was no expectations, no right or wrong, just a time for us to get behind the camera and work. And that's exactly what we did. We enjoyed an afternoon focusing on what we're passionate about: making beautiful images.

I have to thank the amazing people who worked diligently behind scenes to give us amazing details to photograph. I'm so grateful to each person who lent their time, talent and creativity for this shoot! (Their information is listed below if you are looking for some fabulous vendors for your wedding!)

Finally a HUGE thank you goes out to Jenn and the crew at the Elm Bank Horticultural Society who graciously allowed us access to the Elm Bank event facilities and property. They let us take over for the afternoon and gave us the space to host the event. Without them there would be no shoot! They were amazing and I'd HIGHLY recommend Elm Bank if you are looking for a beautiful and romantic venue around the Boston area!

If you're feeling discouraged or that you're just going through the motions as a photographer, get out there and work! Make some time just for you. Block it out on your calendar. No distractions, just you and your camera. As artists it's so important for us to do this, to reconnect with what we love about photography. It could be as simple as photographing your dog. Whatever it is, that time spent shooting for FUN will take you leaps and bounds in your craft. So get out there and shoot!

Without further adieu here is our labor of love, a styled shoot at Elm Bank!

The fab group of photographers who helped pull together an amazing event!!

deborah zoe photography new england wedding photographer elm bank wedding garden wedding spring wedding pink details0038

Bride and Groom | Stacie & Tim

Bride’s Shoes | Franco Sarto & BCBG

Bride’s Bouquet and Boutonniere|  Valley Flower Company

Bridesmaid Bouquet |French Bouquet Florist, Inc.

Make-up Artist | Amanda McCarthy Beauty

Hair Stylist | meghan.jones5@yahoo.com

Table Settings |  Counting Sheep Antiques

Gowns | Chantilly Place

Invitations & Place cards| Requesting Your Presence

The Bookworm List 2011

What a year of reading it has been!! To be quite honest, I'd forgotten just how much I've read this year. It's actually been surprising to me the amount of information that I've consumed! Having this series has been a great way to go back to the books I've read and loved. I hope that you've enjoyed this series as much as I have!

Starting in the New Year this series will look a little different. I wanted to have a way for you to be more involved in this reading series. After all, being able to participate and voice your opinion is what makes this exciting for me and hopefully for you! I have decided to focus on one book a month. Instead of it being random to you, after each review I will be announcing what book I will be reading next, in the hopes that you will read along with me and participate in the review the following month!:) While I've truly enjoyed sharing some of my more leisurely reads with you here, I felt like the series was a little disjointed. In effort to make it more cohesive and informative I am keep the series focused to Business and Photography. This doesn't mean that I won't be sharing my beach reads with you in the future, it just won't be in this format. I am still keeping the giveaway aspect as well. I am passionate about sharing knowledge and reading and love being able to pass that along to you! (provided it's a good read;)) I'm really excited for how this will all take shape and I hope you are too!

Because I am still in the middle of finishing Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey (I devoured the first half and have been trying to find time to dive into the second) I'm going to save that review to kick off the series starting in January. If you're interested grab yourself a copy and read along! I'm loving it so far and I'm really excited to review it here!

Below is the Bookworm list for 2010 and 2011. I thought I'd share what I read last year before I started this series because I read some good books too! Here's to another year of reading!!

2010 Reading List Red Hot Monogamy

The Secret Life of Bees

The Overnight Socialite

The Poisonwood Bible

The Help

Water For Elephants

Memoirs of a Geisha

Eat Pray Love

The E-Myth Revisited

2011 Reading List

The Paris Wife (I've read but haven't reviewed the book yet)

The Purple Cow (I've read but haven't reviewed the book yet)

Entreleadership (I've read but haven't reviewed the book yet)

The Hunger Games

What Client's Love

Pour Your Heart Into It

Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands

Love is The Killer App

Unbroken

Bossypants

How To Become A Rainmaker

It's Not How Good You Are It's How Good You Want To Be

Who Moved My Cheese

The Four Hour Work Week

Evidence Not Seen

Sacred Marriage

Freckleface Strawberry

All Marketers Are Liars

**And of course what would a Bookworm post be without a little giveaway! One lucky reader will win a $20 gift certificate to Amazon to pick out their own book! Just leave a comment below with your favorite book from this series and why. The winner will be announced tomorrow. Happy Reading everyone!**

Ask Anything: Visual Supply Company Presets

VSCO (Visual Supply Company) has been a huge buzzword on Twitter over that last few months or so. I first heard about this company from seeing a tweet from Nate of Image is Found. I was so intrigued about these "film" presets that I decided to take advantage of their "sale" price last month and clicked buy.

I really didn't know what to expect. I don't shoot in film and my editing style is more clean than the grainy look of film. But I had heard so many great things about the presets that I thought I'd take a chance and try them out.

After playing for a few weeks now, I can tell you that these are some powerful presets! Customized for Canon and Nikon shooters they work with your file specifically to create the best looking image! Wow. They are highly stylized however, so if the film look is not for your, neither are these presets.

As a former film shooter, the idea of being able to create the look of film with a digital image is really exciting. I can get the look of Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, all with a digital file and all with the power of Lightroom. With one click I can transform my image and still have the ability to fine tune the photo and make adjustments where needed. The presets are consistent and reliable and make editing a true breeze! Of course keeping in mind that your exposures are correct. These presets are made to create a look and feel, they are not for correcting exposures.

Within the presets there are also adjustment presets to further customize. Darken skies, add a fade, decrease/increase saturation, add grain and more. You can take the preset and really make an image that is truly your own. It's been really fun playing and creating something outside of my normal editing!

Hands down I think that these presets are definitely worth their price tag and are quite the steal. Definitely check VSCO out if you are looking for that film look without the work of using film! And while this is isn't my typical editing style, I am looking forward to having these for personal projects. And maybe an image or two in my editing;) Super powerful, customizable and consistent, these are the best Lightroom presets I have ever purchased. With simply one click I can create an image that I am proud to show my clients, family or friends. Anything that can help make editing faster, easier and more efficient makes me happy:)

I used Mike and Monica's engagement session to demonstrate the different looks you can create with VSCO. If you'd like to see what their engagement session looked like without the presets, take a look here. The below images are SOOC and the presets have been directly applied to the RAW image. I've indicated my adjustments and tweaks below as well as what preset I used on each image:)

Kodak Porta 160 (my favorite out of the color film presets)

Darken Skies +

Kodak Porta 160

Darken Skies +

Fill Light

Local adjustment brush

Saturation - 100% (you do not need to desaturate your images before using the presets)

Tri-X 400

Contrast +

Fuji 800z -

Fuji 160C

Vignette +

Ilford HP5

Fuji 160C

Fuji 800z +

Local adjustment brush

Kodak Porta 160C

Fuji 800z+

Cropping

Kodak T-Max 3200

Cropping

Blacks +3

Fuji 160C

Fill Light

Kodak Tri-X 400 +

Vignette +

Cropping

If you've been on the fence about whether or not these presets are for you, I hope I've given you a glimpse at what you can do with them and how the various film looks effect your images. If you have any further questions, please feel free to leave a comment below or email me at deborahzparker@mac.com. I'd love to hear your thoughts!