THE LAUNDROMAT SHOOT - NAPLES FLORIDA ENGAGEMENT PHOTOGRAPHER
I have had this "dream" of shooting in a laundromat for a very long, long time. I've yearned for the look of beat up old vintage dryers and the rows and rows of washers in the backdrop of one of my shoots forrrrrr-evahhhh! When I moved here to Naples, I couldn't get over how many old and rustic laundromats were around in the off beaten paths - the uncharted areas of town. I began my search several months ago for a laundromat that would allow me to shoot there. Unfortunately, a lot of the owners were all men and had no desire to participate in a having their establishment as the backdrop of a shoot. It wasn't until we stumbled upon an owner who happened to be a female that my luck changed and she approved the shoot. Que Maria, the owner from Suds and Duds here in Naples, Florida. I owe her my right arm for helping me make my dream of shooting in a laundromat come true.
Thankfully, I also had very willing clients. No, they didn't meet in a laundromat. There are actually already married to one another as well. This was just a fun location that was different and unique, out of the box, and totally out of the norm. I was fortunate enough to find such willing participants for this idea. Que Brandon and Angela. They live here in Southwest Florida, in the Ft. Myers area actually. Angela was all for making the trek from Ft. Myers down to Naples for me. We hooked her up with Maray Delgado, a make up artist who worked her magic on Angela for the afternoon. Maray's website can be found HERE. I've lucked out recently on having the men in my shoots be extremely cooperative. Brandon ROCKED this session with Angela as if they had done this all their lives. Like they were professional models or something.
Angela and Brandon were married just this past November. Therefore, they are true Newlyweds. So....when we said "kiss one another," they had no problem tackling that mission. LOL!
Yes, this laundromat even had the old school "rollie carts" as my friend Megan likes to call them. Fun stuff!
Something a lil' steamy... :)
The lighting inside this location was gorgeous - as you can tell by the shot below. There was so much natural light beaming thru the front window of the laundromat that it could have been deemed "criminal."
I absolutely love how Brandon is gazing at Angela in the image below.
And this shot...the shot where she is grabbing his shirt and pulling him closer all while he carries that wonderful grin...priceless! Their laughs throughout this session were sooooooo amazing. Nothing looked forced - they have such great body language - great chemistry together!
This shot above??? Let me explain. I stepped outside the laundromat to check out the lighting from outdoors if I were to shoot from there into the inside. They didn't realize I was still shooting so in turn...I captured this totally off the cuff and candid moment between the two of them. It is one of my favorite shots from the whole session. I love how you can see the inside as well as the reflection of the outdoors on that one window.
They look like something out of a magazine in the shot above.
ABOVE: There is that chemistry again. :)
Such a HOT couple! My girlfriend said the image below looks like an ad for Sunglass hut. :) We broke out the alien bee light kit for those shots and totally canceled out that harsh sun on their faces. Amazing!
And this next picture below, I was standing inside the laundromat, they were outside. I took the shot from in between the "Suds and Duds" lettering on the windows.
At one point I walked around back and found an old bike with vintage handlebars. I knew right then that we had to find the owner and put her on the handlebars for a photo. Thankfully the owner was inside the laundromat and agreed to let us borrow his bike for the shoot.
I snapped this one thru the foggy dryer door...
And this last one...well it was taken outside as well. The sun was beating down and I was trying desperately to find a spot on the wall of the building which would show both of their shadows together. Thankfully with Brandon's help, we found a large enough light spot and pulled it off. How cute is this???
I loved everything about this shoot. The location, the clients, the final images. It all was pure RADNESS as I commonly like to say. Thank you to the laundromat owner, Maria, to the make-up artist, Maray and to the clients who helped make this happen. Good times! Good times!
Do you have a party or event approaching that you would like to have documented in photographs? Don't have time to travel the party and take photos yourself because you're the host? Do you prefer to enjoy yourself and relax during the party or event instead of having to snap pictures the whole time? If so, then you need Angie Seaman Photography.
Angie will travel to your location and photograph any and all respectable parties, events, fundraisers, charity functions, etc. For details, availability, and pricing, please visit Angie's website by clicking HERE. A huge thanks to my clients Elise and her husband Dave for these images that I took at his 50th surprise party recently. Great couple, great party, great fun! It was a real pleasure working with you guys as well as your friends and family in attendance.
I haven't done a "Thru Gods Lens" post in a long time. Therefore, I'm making up for that today. Every now and again, I love to just take my camera out and about with me to capture what we'd normally consider the mundane yet they are Gods greatest beauties. Lately, since trying to stay on my health kick, Kross and I have been hitting the pavement - getting outside and walking. This morning I went to the beach access which is just straight down the street from our house. This particular beach access has a walking trail - a long one - that winds back in and around into the brush on your way out to the beach. I love it there. It's so serene and peaceful. The shot above was one I took as I walked thru the trail. The sun was trying to peek thru the thick brush and reach us. I had to stop and capture its power. :) And the shots below...they are what the walking/jogging trail looks like as you make your way out to the beach...
It takes about 15 minutes to walk this trail until you reach the beach. And then of course another 15 minutes to walk back. They actually have golf carts that run back and forth on the trail - taking you to the beach and back to your car should you not want to run or walk the path. Kross and I need the exercise though so we walk.
I noticed the sap or whatever this was on the tree below as I walking by on the trail...
Then, off in the distance, I noticed the small cob web on the tree below. The top image shows it from my view and the bottom image shows it as I saw it when I used my lens to zoom in on it. I love all the bokeh in both shots. Some small and some large...
The tree below just caught my eye because of the hole in it...
As you walk the path/trail, you cross over a bridge that spans across the back bay area. You can see some of the big high rise hotels and condos off in the distance as well as observe people kayaking in the bay itself. You couldn't pay me enough to kayak in that area but hey...some people love it.
And after you make the trek thru the trail, it opens up into this paradise. Pure white sand. Blue sea waters. Pelicans lingering among the vast ocean. And brilliant blue skies with the prettiest of pretty white puffy swirly clouds strewn here and there.
I took these last two shots below with my iphone so that I could post them to facebook on the spot. (Thus the small size) Love the leading lines of the boardwalk straight into the shoreline. GAW-JUS!!!
There is a tiki hut here - next to the beach. They have an area where you can sit down to eat and drink and just enjoy the sounds of the waves rolling in. It's a beautiful sight.
Needless to say, this is just another one of the perks to living in Naples. They not only have gorgeous beaches but they have stunning walking/running trails too. The only down fall is having to pray the whole way thru them that a snake doesn't drop out of one of those trees onto my head. LOL! I've got issues, I know. ;0)
CHRIS & ROCHELLE - NAPLES, FLORIDA ENGAGEMENT PHOTOGRAPHER
I typically don't share many photography session of mine here on my personal blog much anymore. Most times I only share the sessions on my photography blog now. However, this session was too fun to not share here as well. I had a boat load of fun photographing fellow photographer and friend, Rochelle and her fiance, Chris for their engagement session recently. They had me cracking up the entire time. And the best part, her soon to be husband ROCKED this session like a real pro. If there is one thing I detest, it's when I photograph men and they whine like babies during our session together. Ninety percent of the men I work with hate getting family portraits taken. You generally have to beg them to smile or at least fake it as best they can. It's extremely frustrating! However, with this shoot, Chris and Rochelle laughed together and genuinely had a great time with one another. It was so refreshing compared to the normal mans reaction. So...big kudos to Chris and his superb attitude during the shoot. :)
The location where we shot the session was crazy busy. There were people all over the place. People walking, people driving past us, people looking out the windows in restaurants, etc. We didn't have any privacy whatsoever. You can imagine the onlookers when the shot below played out in the grass. We gave them something to talk about - fo' sho'!
The awesome thing about the southern tip of Florida is that it is warm and colorful here year round. Case in point with the flowers behind them below...GAW-JUS!
Living in a tropical climate and being able to shoot year round AND have your clients lay in green grass any month of the year is da' bomb!
We were loosing light fast here in the shot below but it still made for a cozy image...
This corridor with the lights at this particular location just ROCKS!
Oooohhhhhh the smooches! :)
I'm known for never leaving a photo shoot without at least one shot of the shoes. These red mama jammas were no different. They were begging for "their" moment. As my friend Megan said, I owed it to the shoes to photograph them. LOL!
Love that her Rock and Republic jeans were stitched in red to match the shoes. Can someone say total RADNESS???
A little dippity doo and some more laughin' too! One of our photographer friends coined this laugh below the "JC Penny ad laugh." When we are trying to get someone to smile, we tell them to do the JC Penny laugh. Once we explain it to them, it eventually works like a charm. Ha ha!
Rochelle and Chris are a gorgeous couple. Stunning is more like it. I couldn't have taken a bad photo of them had I tried. Not possible. Totally adorable!
Thank you Chris and Rochelle for being such troopers during our time together. I know without a shadow of a doubt that your wedding is going to be beautiful! :)
If any of the rest of you out there have a need for a photography session, call or email me now. My schedule is booked out like crazy and continues to keep filling up like a spreading wild fire. Spring break dates are going, going, .....
I took this image Saturday morning as my three kiddo's were all huddled in my bed. It was a very impromptu moment which left me with not enough time to focus my camera, set my custom white balance, or arrange my settings in general. I saw it happening and just shot it. Needless to say when I tried to make them re-inact it, it didn't even come close to the original. So...I accepted that this was one of those photography moments when you kick yourself over and over for not being "ready." Moments within this life do not repeat themselves. Hard fact to swallow but so very true. This couple of seconds in time was a perfect example.
Sorry I have been so incredibly MIA here on the blog lately. I promise I haven't forgotten about all of you. My business has picked up so much here in Florida since coming off maternity leave and I'm just trying to keep my head above water while taking on as much as I can. Along with normal photography sessions, the magazine shoots each week as well as the current beginner photography class I'm in the middle of teaching again, I also have another private one on one mentor workshop that I'm preparing for coming up this Monday. Busy is not the word. I'm thanking God though for every second that I'm running like a chicken with my head cut off. I'm so thankful for the business and how the Naples community has taken me under its wing and helped me "fly" when it comes to my business here. On top of the community that has welcomed me so much, I'm also thankful for the photography friends I've met here. We learn so much from one another and laugh like there is no tomorrow when together.
These friends share my same passion and therefore photography runs thru our veins from our head to our toes. We live it, breathe it, sleep it, eat it and so on.
The girls of the group and myself met for dinner the other night. It was a night full of jaw busting laughter to the point that my face still ached the next day from our time together. (We missed you Rochelle!)
And during the once a month "creative shoots" that the 8 of us get together and do, boy do we get creative...LOL! You know...like...Charlie's Angels creative. :)
Goofy is more like it. Hee hee!
You get the drift. Two words sum it all up. "Good times!"
And aside from this crazy hectic schedule, I've also spent most of my time diving into a new healthy way of life in the past few weeks. As many of you know, I don't eat read meat. However, in the past 3 weeks, I've taken the challenge to go full fledged "vegan" too. For those who get confused by the two "Vegetarian/Vegan" words like I used to, Vegetarian means you don't eat meat of any kind. Vegan means that you don't eat anything at all from any kind of animal. No butter, no cheese, no milk/dairy, no eggs, etc. So on top of my vegetarian lifestyle, I've added becoming vegan to that line up. Although tough initially, it's becoming easier and easier to stomach as the weeks pass. I've hooked up with an adorable dietitian here in Naples who lives and breathes the healthy way of life herself and she has helped teach me a ton in regards to this new way of living. I'm discovering incredible foods I never thought to taste before. I'm finding that I have a ton more energy and that my body feels lighter in general. I have a very long way to go but I'm exciting about the good start. As a heart patient, this type lifestyle just makes sense for me. I've also slowly but surely incorporated this new way of life into the plates of my kids too. I realize I can't force this on them but I'm hoping with time it will rub off on them too. And any chance I get to feed them or Brent Vegan food, I'm going to do it. :) I'm excited about what lies ahead and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I'm doing the best thing for my body. Not only is it healthier but just reliving the shows I've seen recently in regard to how the meat/dairy/eggs gets from the slaughter houses to our plates is enough to cause me to never eat that way again. To say I've had a life altering shift in my ideas surrounding food and health would be an understatement. I've had my face plastered in the pages of these books and more...
It is truly amazing the alternatives we have to the foods we eat everyday when going full fledged vegan. I've found amazing blogs with incredible recipes. I have visited multiple health food stores and found things in there, with the help of my dietitian, that I never knew existed yet they are delectable. Thankfully, we have a little VEGAN restaurant down the way from us here in Naples. They too have incredible food for lunch and dinner. The shift has been a total positive all the way around. In less than two years since becoming vegetarian, my cholesterol went from 194 down to 162. I'm stoked to see the additional changes that will take place now that I've gone VEGAN. So...lot's happening around here lately. Tons. I'm signing off now to prepare for my Mother in law who arrives here in town tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night we have dinner downtown off 3rd with good friends/neighbors, and Sunday I have an engagement shoot yet to prepare for as well. I love staying busy. Stay tuned for lots of new photos to come. I'm wwaayyyyy behind and slacking in that department. However, they are coming. I promise! :)
