The Masks | Des Moines Photographers

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

Although Halloween wasn’t a thing in Croatia for Dado’s childhood, he has not let time, age, stage in life, decency, modesty, maturity, self-respect, pride, judgement, money, or anything else get in his way of Halloween. Dado is really cool like that, but I should probably tell him that more often. Anyhow, one year we threw a Halloween party with our friend Martha at our place. Well the party was turning out to be quite an ordeal, but so entirely, fabulously worth it. Martha and I Googled across what seemed like vast highways of decor ideas and put together a party we were proud of. Well Dado, bless him, wasn’t much help with the party. I think at one point he walked the dog. It turned out that actually was an indirect huge help since Martha and I were wrapped in about 6 yards of cheese cloth to be used for our scary ghost heads. Point is, that Martha and I were really caught up in the decor and prep, and Dado wasn’t. He was caught up in costumes. What started off as my romantic mummy idea…me and him, wrapped in endless gauze and chiffon, turned out to be my one-man-show and Dado’s firm stance on, “I don’t want to be a mummy. I want to be The Hulk.” A little taken by his direct disrespect for my awesome idea, I glared at him with a triple scoop of love-surprise-irritation. Sure enough, Dado bought himself The Hulk costume. Much to my surprise, it came in an adult size. And Dado was a very happy man, with two set of eyebrows. This was 2011.

2012 brought out tiki/war dancer/south beach/samba Dado. Last year he didn’t want to dress up. Nope. But he did want to wear a fancy mask. We shopped and shopped and the night before its debut, he found it and all of its glory. The thing was legit. The next day he wore it and he wore it with pride and there’s a little piece of me that loves him just a little more for it. Little did Dado know that a week later he would have to go with me to find masks for a salsa masquerade ball Courtney and I planned to attend. Halloween over, we searched high and low for some masks. After endless shopping and a whole lot of chubby face rejection (my face is apparently too wide for the standard mask…sad) we found Venetian masks at Pier 1, of all places. And so, Dado and I enjoyed our moments of mask victory and within a week our masks went from hot commodities, to retired has-beens.

Or were they. Enter Mary and Ricky. We were all up for anything at one winter shoot and as we reached into our car trunk to grab a lens, there they were. Feathers and sparkles with gaping eye-holes blankly looking at us as if saying “Give us one more run.”

Here they are in action, on a run, but hopefully not their last!

2013-05-14_030 2013-05-14_029 2013-05-14_028I’ll let you figure out which one was Dado’s.

xo,

Steph.

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Our FOTOSTRAPs Are Here!

Posted on May 6, 2013 by

Weeeeeee! A special package came today. Dado picked up the mail and carried it upstairs. He said, “Steph, I think they’re here.” Absolutely THRILLED, I bounced around in excitement. Dado got into the box and pulled out the two beautiful leather belts. A little trumpet sounded as we unwrapped them and slung them around our necks. Gor-ge-ous. We had ordered a Fotostrap for each of us this year at WPPI this year. We sent over our logo to them when we got back to DSM and they put our order together and sent them our way! Let me tell you, they’re even more beautiful when they’re yours and in-hand! We both got the James, named after the first Fotolanthropy story. Let’s take a second to talk about why Fotostrap is so special.

Fotostrap, the gorgeous camera strap that beautifully adorns your camera. Fotostrap came to be as a result of Fotolanthropy. Here’s the story, right from their site:

“Fotolanthropy began as a passion in the heart of Katie Norris, professional photographer and owner of Katie Norris Portrait Arts based in Dallas, Texas. Fotolanthropy started in 2011 as founder Katie Norris desired to find a way to give back to others with her gifts of photography and to focus on what photography is really all about, preserving memories of a life and to create a tangible product that can be passed on for generations. Katie also has a love for true stories and the feeling of inspiration she gains from the lives they are about. She knew these were the stories she wanted to document and to share. To be able to create the full affect she then dreamed up the idea of pairing photography with film to bring each story to life while achieving the highest levels of creative excellence. The word “fotolanthropy” seemed to sum it all up.”

For a look at the stories of the amazing people Fotolanthropy has honored, click here.

For a look at the Fotostrap in action, click here.

And here, my friends, are our beautiful Fotostraps.

Here is the photo session we had with the straps this evening! :0)

Steph & Dado.

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Your Wedding Day Timeline | International Wedding Photographers

Posted on April 25, 2013 by

Steph and I have the same discussion with the majority of our clients and we thought it could be helpful to all current brides, ours or not, to have a general idea of what a wedding timeline looks like. The last thing any bride wants is a stress filled day. Given that a lot of brides invest a good 9-16 months of heart and soul into their wedding day, any place you can shave off stress is a must. So let’s look at some of the components to help you establish your timeline…don’t forget travel time between locations, and precious moments to just enjoy your day. The more time you can carve away for yourself, the better.

There are basic pieces to every wedding as a majority of weddings involve a ceremony, family formals, and a celebration. In addition, there are several other components that couples need to consider for their wedding day timeline. Take a look at the sketches below and start doing your calculations. We always tell our clients to start at the ceremony and work the times out backwards and forwards from there.

1 of 4 2 of 4 3 of 4 4 of 4In the end you should have a timeline that looks something like this:

8-10:30 – bridal hair and make-up
10:30 – 10:45 – travel from salon to hotel for prep
10:45 – 11:45 – bridal prep/groom prep
11:45-12:45 – food delivery and lunch
12:45-1:00 – travel to ceremony location
1:00 – 1:15 – final prep
1:15-1:30 – first look
1:30 – 2:00 – family formals
2:00-2:30 – couple portraits around ceremony grounds
2:30 – 3:00 – bride tucked away
3:00 – 4:00 – ceremony
4:00 – 4:30 – receiving line/rice throwing
4:30 – 4:40 – drive to shoot location (with bridal party)
(5:00 – 6:00 – cocktail hour at reception for guests)
4:40-5:45 – photos with bridal party, stop off at lounge for photos and cocktail
5:45 – 6:00 – travel to reception
6:00 – 6:10 – couple is announced and enters reception
6:10 – 6:20 – cake is cut
6:20 – 7:30 – dinner is served/dessert station is unveiled
(6:40-7:00 – toasts are held)
7:30 – 7:45 – first dances
7:45 – 8:45 bouquet toss
8:45 – 00:00… – open dancing

A couple of things to always keep in mind:

* the travel time
* the set up time for any formal group photos
* the more guests you have the longer most portions of the day take
* the receiving line is a really nice gesture but some couples prefer to skip it for time’s sake. An alternative is doing a rice throw, dove release, or bubbles where all the guests can participate by lining the stairs or outdoor aisles of the ceremony location while the couple walks through the crowd and cheers at the end. It also makes for a great photo!

Good luck putting together the most perfect timeline ever! You can do it, just think strategically and always be generous rather than stingy with your time…that way you always have a minute to take in all the beauty of your wedding day.

Steph & Dado.

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Ashley & Colin’s Waterfront Engagement

Posted on April 19, 2013 by

 

The winter broke for a day, just long enough for us all to take our shoes off and play in the sand. When Ashley called us to tell us that the engagement would be nautical I quickly covered the mouth piece on the phone and inaudibly screamed to Dado in of excitement. Confused, Dado went about making dinner and I sat, stood, twirled, sat, stood, paced, and skipped the duration of the phone call. The funniest part was that Ashley was concerned that she didn’t know if she could piece together a good set and wardrobe. Is anyone else seeing the perfection of her planning? Dear Ashley, you were absolutely, unnecessarily worried! This is is arguably one of the best set and wardrobes we’ve had the pleasure of capturing on camera.

I didn’t realize that this shoot would be incredibly eye-opening for me. Dado always says he’d love to have a place on the water, looking out into the sea…a little piece of the homeland Croatia, us standing on the seashore waving across the Adriatic to the Italians you can’t actually see on the other side. Much to his dislike, I always look at him a little appalled at the idea. The conversation never really goes much further than that, except I always wonder to myself why I actually don’t love the idea of living on the water. And it was at this shoot that it dawned on me that it’s not the water! It’s the the other side! My love (or lack of) is directly proportional to the amount of land I can see on the other side of the water! Dado!! I want to live on the water too! But, I want to see the neighbors on the other side. I would like to yell, “Buongiorno Guido!” to the neighbor on the other side of the sea, but the neighbor isn’t there. I can’t see him! So we need something closer. And now that we’ve identified the problem, we can look for a beautiful place on an inlet (plentyful in Croatia) along the sands of the Adriatic!

Colin and Ashley are 100% awesome. In addition to their personal awesomeness they strikingly resemble to celebrities: a bearded Jerry O’Connell and Candace Cameron! Under no circumstances is anyone allowed to disagree with me on this one.

Have a wonderful day. :0)

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