Off to the Fair!!!

Hello Lovelies~

I hope this week finds you all well and settling into Fall if you're in the Northern Hemisphere. The weather up here in Maine has been almost perfect: warm days, cool nights, plenty of days of sunshine. In fact, I took last weekend to make a trip to our Common Ground Fair up here and I have a ton of pictures of that to share with you all!

But first, I shot my annual Halloween card last week and I am very, very excited with how it's coming along! Here is a teaser of things to come. My adorable model Katie is sporting a vintage, 1940's Halco Brand cheetah costume with hood. Cute. And soon, it will be available for sale over at STAG for Halloween buying!

And then, I shot the next piece in my Rein It In Series (#5!!!!). These are going so well and they're such fun. I mean, how often do you get to put a grown man into fake mutton chops and eye makeup just to make him a smarmy sea captain? (Answer: not often.) These are looking terrific. I will post the finished shots very soon.

Okay, so now that we have my project teasers out of the way, I will share the fair shots with you! My good friend Brian and I ventured a couple of hours north to our Common Ground Fair, which is the more "natural" and "organic" (read: hippy) fair in Maine. A ton of great food, an entire section on alternate forms of energy, robust livestock: in short, it's beautiful and quiet. I found the quiet a bit odd given the number of people. I'm used to fairs with rides and 80's rock and yelling, but there was none of that here. It was delightful. We had such fun and so many laughs! And then I wrapped the weekend up at my favorite friends' house which is always full of sweet animals, good food and good humor. A perfect Sunday ritual that ends the weekend on a calm note.

Fall is off to a very good start, my friends.

 

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Crunchy Fall Apples...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope this week finds you all doing well out there. You know the drill: always busy over here with so much to share! To start, I just posted some shots from a recent senior portrait session that was so much fun. These two seniors also happen to be a couple, so I did a combination senior session/couple shoot. Not only were they extremely photogenic, they were also up for anything. So I had them jumping through fountains, climbing up rock walls and laying in the grass. I think it was worth it, don't you? Good stuff. You can see more shots over on my Flickr feed.

What else? Oh! As some of you long-time followers know, I do a Halloween card every year featuring an original photo of mine. (I am shooting this year's image this week as a matter of fact and it will be amazing.) Last year's shot: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime, was just featured on a great art/design website called Splashnology. There were some great photos on there and I was quite flattered to be picked. (I actually didn't submit my piece, they found me, which was amazing.) Take a look:

We had a beautiful fall weekend here in Maine and I used that time to get out there and go apple picking with friends! There's nothing better than getting up early on a beautiful, sunny day and driving out into the country and just slowing down for a day. Well, my friends are delightful people, so there were many laughs and fun to be had (and most importantly: apple donuts... Mmm). Here are some shots from the day. I (obviously) couldn't get enough of that vintage red tractor. Hahaha. And that dog? I wanted to steal him. His name was Oscar and he was a farm boy who loved apples. And also people. And so, when he was in the process of eating that apple and new people walked up to the barn, I could tell he was visibly torn between the two. Apples + Adorable Farm Dogs + Sun? Perfection.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

The Cape in Fall...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all well out there on this fine (and unseasonably warm) Wednesday. As usual, so much to share, so let's hop right in!

To start, I have listed a ton of new items over at STAG that are perfect for that sharp Fall wardrobe, or for decorating your home, or for just being awesome in general (or all three). Among the latest items are: WWII Era canvas and leather spats in mint condition and ready to wear, a beautiful Harris Tweed women's dress coat in an autumnal shade of red, a pair of 60's era men's white leather bowling shoes in great condition and a pair of elastic suspenders that have never even been worn (and suspenders go like hot cakes around here). Stop on by and scope out the amazing.

Speaking of amazing, I plan on doing everything I possibly can to enjoy Fall this year. It's my favorite season and up here in New England, it really is like a storybook: the fall foliage, coastal towns, locals clad in flannel and Bean Boots. Plenty of photo ops and the apple picking, hayrides, haunted houses, pumpkin patches, Oktoberfests are calling. Of course, all of these adventures require the perfect pair of sturdy, cold-weather footwear and I just fell in love with these boy shoes that I found. They're sneakers meet hiking boots and they're comfortable as well. Now, properly outfitted, I will take you along on my adventures through pictures as I usually do here at Stapelia. Fall, here I come!

And speaking of adventures, this past weekend found me down at Cape Cod for a night, visiting with my family. My Stepmom's family has been visiting the Cape her entire life. My parents have been married almost 20 years and every year she's invited me to visit. This is the first time all of the stars have been aligned so that it was possible to go. What a breathtaking place the Cape is. Wow. The house her family rented was feet from a cliff to the ocean, it looked like a scene from Wuthering Heights up in there. I met her entire extended family, we laughed and walked along the beach and even went swimming (until my limbs went numb)! So fun. Here are some shots from the weekend.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Glittery Goblins & Sunny Islands...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all doing well out there! Things here are so good I can barely stand it. To start, exciting news, I recently shot the crew over at Jack Tar 207 (an alternative lifestyle blog and creative team out of Portland), as you all know. (I've actually modeled for them as well.) They're doing great things in photography and fashion and just a whole ton of different things. Well, they were just featured on The Huffington Post! And one of my photos was featured in that article. Very exciting stuff for me personally since I enjoy and respect The Huffington Post immensely. Congrats, Jack Tar!

What else? Oh, I had mentioned a post or so back that I was hired to shoot the Color Rad Color Run up in Brunswick recently. Well, I finally have a couple of shots from that day to share. Because I had more studio experience with lighting etc., I was asked to shoot the photo booth at the end and I was so happy to do it! Great opportunities for those color-covered candids. Take a look! (That baby with the white-blue eyes was my favorite...)

As I mentioned last post, I've really been trying to build the lifestyle portion of my portfolio recently for new client work: people doing everyday things, scenic views, day-in-the-life type shots. Well, I decided to try to grab some Labor Day shots over on Peaks Island this past weekend. What a beautiful island and a perfect time of year: a perfect combination of colorful island flowers, bright boats and also some early fall foliage. I managed to shoot some real winners! Here are a couple and you can see the rest over at my Flickr feed.

So, as some who've followed this blog for a long time know, I used to paint. A lot. Painting was my primary artistic medium and I was fairly prolific. Well, when I fell head over heels for photography, I found I was too busy to produce both, so my painting fell to the wayside. Now, the only time I pick up a brush is if I get a commission (which, I find I actually get those more than when I was trying to get them), or when someone very special has a birthday or other special event. Well, it was the latter that got me to bust out those brushes recently to create my latest piece: Space Goblin. Like my artistic photography, most of my paintings are bright, whimsical and completely twisted. This little murderous goblin is no exception. Oh, and glitter. Lots and lots of glitter... Take a look!

And let's wrap up with this amazing artist with an amazing Etsy shop that I found recently: Derrick Castle is the owner of Straw Castle and he is a crazy good artist. His illustrations style is woodblock meets vector and his subject matter combines Native American imagery with motorcycle gang art and some Colonial America mixed up with skulls and southwestern influence. What? That's right. Take a look:

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...