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Sweet Dreams // Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen - Sweet Dreams (Official Video) from Randy Sterling Hunter on Vimeo.

Angel Olsen - Tiniest Seed (Official Video) from Randy Sterling Hunter on Vimeo.

She is my FAVORITE.

Jess // Professional portrait for Ode boutique

I gotta say, I love doing company portraits...something I never thought I would like doing.  Here's to life always being full of things that surprise and delight me!

Thinking of my beautiful cousins

  2011 Holiday/ NYC from Chattman Photography on Vimeo.
 

Dress up with Ode and artist Haley Morgan {glimpse}

 The first of a series of shoots featuring artists dressed in Ode's collections...every artist has their own take on the outfits and how we photograph them.  Check Ode's facebook page and blog for the whole shoot coming out soon! 

Need someone to marry you? { Grace Ceremonies // Rev. Hannah Grace }

 Do you need someone to marry you? 
I remember when I was getting married not knowing  who to turn to for this and picking a local ordained person because he was not traditionally religious and could sing like Willy Nelson... but it would have been nice to have someone with a deeper spiritual quality...and someone who took the time to know us a bit.
Enter my friend lovely and inspiring friend Rev. Hannah Grace. She has officially started her own business as an Interfaith Minister called Grace Ceremonies.   Here's a little bit about her business:

"Ceremonies are a beautiful way to recognize important turning points in your life. They can honor a marriage, vow renewal or commitment. They can celebrate a new baby, home or promotion at work. They can mark a mid-life passage, retirement or the death of a loved one.

Custom ceremonies are individually designed for you - your unique personality, beliefs, relationships and family. They can blend your cultural or religious backgrounds, incorporate your spiritual traditions or draw on a variety of non-traditional elements in creating a personally meaningful ceremony.

As an Interfaith Minister, I am honored to join in marking the significant moments in life, bringing to the process a respect for all people and an understanding of diverse faith traditions. It would be my pleasure to craft a custom ceremony honoring the important moments in your life!"
-Grace Ceremonies

You are sure to LOVE her and I fully endorse her as someone I think will do an amazing job and craft something beautiful, inspiring, and unique just for you .  I only wish I had known her way back when I was getting married!!!

Winter shoot Carla Caruso Jewlery { gold, diamonds ,snow + Daughters of the Curtis House}

Here's a peek of one of the images from the winter Carla Caruso Jewelry shoot at the epically beautiful Curtis House in Ashfield, MA. Our models Mia + Annalise are the family of the manor and were wonderful to work with.  I'm going to do another post about this place soon and let you in on one of what I feel is the best kept secret wedding venue in all of Western Mass....
This year I feel like I should try to share more with you other talents in the wedding industry that might be helpful or useful to you.  Artists that I really love working with and have the best taste.
So my first one of the year to share with you is Carla Caruso Jewelry.  I know I've mentioned her a few times in the past, but she has lots of new sparkly things to offer and we just did a shoot together so I have it fresh in my mind how much I adore her and her line.
Choosing where to find the perfect engagement ring, wedding bands, or gifts for your bridesmaids can be so overwhelming, so I highly suggest going over to Carla's site and taking a gander.  More than a few of my couples have her rings and whenever I see them they always gush about how much they love them and how nice Carla and her team was to work with.  She has really great price points so if you're feeling flush there's super luxe pieces, or if you're working with a budget there's plenty of gorgeous items to choose from as well...like super delicate gold branch rings that you can stack with other rings that have delicate circle diamonds...modern and romantic. You can create really gorgeous textures and designs by stacking the rings, which I find to be one of the coolest things about her jewelery.  
As for bridal party gifts...the necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are PERFECT gifts for your bride maids and family.
It's where I got my wedding band from and I'm looking forward to picking out a little something to layer it with soon! ;)
For this shoot I used one of my new 'film looks' I'm playing with for the upcoming year...polished, classic, and everything a bit more subtle.  A rich depth  and a bit of a creamy glow is what I was going for here.  I've been working on creating custom palettes I can apply to my shoots and I think it worked really well for this shoot..the gold really looks beautiful against her skin!
And for an extra bonus to any photographers out there who like my work here's a retouching tip when working on portraits / jewelery:
Don't go crazy sharpening and lightening the iris's of your model's eyes.  True it makes them pop more, but it doesn't look natural and I've seen many a good portrait ruined by it.  I always back off about 20% from what I initially think is good.   And for jewelry retouching, try sweeping a skin smoothing brush set to a low opacity over the metal to showcase the smoothness + polish!

Below are some pics from our set..Gloria Pacosa, Carla Caruso, and Dre Rawlings (styling)  help put up the carnation flower curtain Gloria made from a recent wedding she did the flowers for as our backdrop.

Grattitude

After this past Friday's horrible tragedy, I am feeling so grateful that my child is still with me.  I can't even bear to think of what those families of the victims are going through.  My son is the same age as those children who died. 

 Even though 9/11 was horrific, I could wrap my head around it and begin to understand it.  This past event I cannot.

This weekend I did no work and I just enjoyed my family.

We went for a walk and enjoyed the pretty dusting of snow that covered the landscape.

Winter fog // Castle on the hill

The Phoenix {mystic forest shoot with Ode}

One of seven great beauties I spent Sunday with.  Glittering waterfalls, a carpet of golden leaves, and a team willing to literally go to the edge of the earth to make a beautiful shot...somebody pinch me.

Natural habitat

Honey of a thousand flowers {flower inspiration}

 

Really in love with how this florist incorporates berries, dark leaves, and fruit into her work.  

http://www.sarahwinward.com/winter-portfolio-1/

Wedding work {recent adventures}

Be a little afraid when I flash you a big smile and start off a sentence with "I have this idea.....", because it usually means you'll be going for a short hike in the weeds, or in this case, up a slightly rocky hill.   People always have the option to say no to me, but I find most of the time my clients really LOVE creating a picture that's different and unique to their day, so they are willing to give my ideas a whirl and are up for the short adventure.  I would never ask anyone to do anything I felt was dangerous or too strenuous.  So here we are at Liz and Dan's wedding starting to quickly arrange the whole bridal party on this hillside for the big group shot.  Everyone was a great sport about it and I really appreciate them helping me create something special for this sweet couple.  These are going to turn out fantastic.
Thanks for this photograph Brent Hale, you are the best.  I like how big my boots are!
Below:
I can't resist these piglets!   I'm convincing the bridesmaids that the mother pig won't attack us.  If there's any chance of getting an animal to participate in a shot, I'm going to try for it.

Luxe Vixens {session one}

I am really proud of this little book...and of my client!  I'm so glad she picked me to work on it with her. We  put together this anniversary present for her husband, who is clearly a VERY lucky man.  She was the first client I've ever done one of these sessions with and the whole thing was an exciting and empowering experience for both of us... from the planning, to her flying out here for her session, and to the challenge of taking images that spoke to BOTH her and her husband.  One thing I find really interesting is trying to figure out the perspective I should approach these shoots from....who is the book for what does that person like?  Soft and pretty shots, or a little more wild ones?  I thought we had an excellent combination of both  in this book.  By the way, there are many shots of her lovely face in the album.
I have always secretly suspected I might be good at this. 

Part One {Valerie} // Valerie + Bradford

Hey Brent Hale, thanks for shooting this with me!