So I was faced with a dilemma about 2011.

How to talk about it.  How to show you my work.  How to make you happy to see it.  (I’m still working on that one!  ::grin:: )

Do I talk about the new studio?

Or how we’ve grown in leaps and bounds?

Or my team?

Or the cool projects I’ve gotten to do this year?

Or the traveling?

Or what I’ve learned?

Or what’s new?

…. I could.  But then the blog entry would be 156 pages long and you’d be here until Sunday morning reading this.  And I’m frankly, not that interesting. 

Then I thought,  well, maybe I can post a lot of photographs and talk about each one…but I want you to watch all the way to the end, right? (Yes Tam, all the way to the end.  Gheesh!)   I don’t want you to get overwhelmed, or bored, and stop mid-story.  Fail.

So my dilemma was (and always is, btw) — how can I present images in a way that pushes a little bit?  …in a way that draws you in, makes you think and engages you from start to end?

This is the result.  It was a huge CHALLENGE to put together because (and you’ll see this if and when you watch) it had to flow — so we had to edit down brutally.  That infuriated me — but sometimes…less is more, eh?  Tell me less is more.  So I have forced myself to stop fretting over how much I COULDN’T show you.  Or this would be 4 hours and 37 minutes instead of just a couple.  I am exercising restraint.  Someone had to!

So I am disproportionately proud of the final result.  It’s EXACTLY what I had in mind when I was scribble-scrabbling for the right way to present 2011.

Be prepared.  It made ME cry — and I TOOK the images.

Also — I just had this headshot done by the RIDICULOUS Carla Ten Eyck — and I LOVE. So I’m debuting it just because I think it’s perfectly ME.

So in order to see the review you have to click on my head.  ::laughing::

Or…if you absolutely don’t WANT to click on my head (we can discuss the implications of this later… )  – then click here.

(And please do not judge the fact that I cannot figure out how to embed a video on this blog to SAVE MY LIFE. )   Now on to 2012.  BRING. IT.

My son is either the luckiest boy in the world to have a mother like me — or the most long-suffering.  Some days I think he wouldn’t be able to tell you either — but the best part about our relationship is that we ARE.  We are close.  We are friends.  We support and love each other.

We took a trip together recently and my son shook his head “no” at a man who was, in my son’s opinion, “checking me out”.  ::laughing::  How can you NOT love this kid?  This is the look I imagine he gave:

Matt has wanted to be in Emergency Services since he was two years old.  And has never waivered.  Yesterday he found out he was accepted into the Paramedic Program — something he’s been planning for and working towards for years. He’s volunteered as a firefighter and worked as an EMT — long hours and helping people over and over again.

I took this photo of him at Family Day during his firefighter training program (and my heart gives a little thump when I look at this…):

Yesterday he got the call.  Accepted!

He called me, his voice was shaking.  He said.  Mom, I’m freaking out!  I couldn’t figure out who to tell first!

I said:  Well, OBviously you call ME first.

He said:  Mom, I’m talking to you first — even BEFORE I posted it on Facebook!!

::laughing and shaking head::

Later that night he was sitting next to me on the couch both of us on computers (yeah, dorks, I know) and this popped up on facebook (yes, he occaissionally calls me “Swales” and I think it’s funny!):

Dear Swales,

You are awesome.

Sincerely,

Your Son (who is achieving his dreams with the help of your awesomeness [aka your parenting!])

This is what I typed back (sitting next to him on the couch):

Dear Metzler… I am so very very proud of you. YOU deserve happiness and much success. And I am so inspired by watching you setting your mind to do something and then DOING IT. YOU ROCK. Sincerely, Your Mom (who is always behind you no matter what)

I know this is probably too much information — but my heart is full today.  You see, my son lost his dad, suddenly, three months ago, and it’s been hard on everyone.  I watched my son handle it with grace and sadness and respect — surrounded by his friends, co-workers and family.  He is SO amazing.  He is just one of those guys who will help you no matter what.  He’s a great listener, and has this crazy sense of humor!  So watching him, despite EVERYTHING going on, go after something, figure out how to do it and the ACHIEVE it.

Well.  I don’t know what the right words are to tell you how I feel about it.

I just wanted to talk about him.

Today it’s the hard stuff.  I debated whether or not to even write this entry — I mean…how can I even come CLOSE to sharing something so personal and so hard with all of you…but I came to the conclusion that if your even here reading this — then you either…like me…know me…or want to know more about me.  And Lulu is a very very big part of my life.  For eleven years.

I lost my best friend yesterday.  It was quick and unexpected — even though I could see age taking it’s toll — I still clung to the belief that she would be part of my life forever.  Those of you who have pets or anyone or anything super important in your world know exactly what I am saying.   You know it’s coming — but you’ll willingly cling to the last scrap of time together no matter how hard or how much effort it takes.

I used to be (haha.  that’s a joke.  I still am.) afraid of relationships.  Of commitment.  Of making a CHOICE and having to stick to it forever.  I didn’t want to be tied down with a pet…I felt like it was not the greatest decision I made…

But then I met Lulu.

Those of you who met her will know that Lulu has (forgive.  I still cannot speak in past tense.  not yet) the most amazing personality.  She was happy to see me no matter how long I was gone…5 minutes or 5 days.  She missed me.  And I missed her.

Losing her is so terribly painful.

But I also want to tell you that the pain I am feeling is small compared to the amount of joy that dog has given me over the years.  She’s listened to me.  She’s snuggled me when I was upset and growled at me when I wanted to play.  She made me laugh every.single.damn.day.  And I am going to miss her so much.

So…here are just a few of the amazing things that I love about my dog.

1.  Her aversion to peanut butter.  She never could understand:  was it a liquid?  was it a solid?  She made the funniest “peanut butter face”.  OMG.

2.  Floppy Tongue.  Floppy tongue came out when she was happiest.  When the people who loved her were around her and paying attention to how fabulous she was and rubbed her belly.  This is a RARE photograph my son snapped of my puppy and me and floppy tongue.

3.  Swimming Dog.  She’s a lab right?  She loves loves water.  And swimming.  And shaking it all off on whomever is closest.

4. Her smile.  Lulu always smiled.  Unless I was going somewhere and not taking her.  Her smile sometimes got me through the day.

5.  She loved me no matter what.  If I was grumpy, unshowered, weird, tired, sad, happy.  Her devotion never waivered.  Nor did mine.

I know she’s not in pain anymore.  I know she loves me.  And I know that in knowing her — I am a completely better, calmer and happier person than I would have been.  And…it really really hit home to me how incredibly important photographs are today.  These photographs…some of them are OLD.  All of them are PRECIOUS.  Because I can’t get her back again.  But I can carry her in my heart and remember.

So … I don’t want you to be sad for me.  I’m soooo lucky to have had such an amazing dog in my life.  I just wanted you to know I’m sad.  And I miss my puppy.

Love you Luleelu.  You’re SUCH a good girl.

xo Tam

A lot of times those ideas kind of fade away because they are impractical for whatever reason, or I notice that someone else has done something kind of along the same lines, or…I get bored with it…or it’s too hard to REALLY do.  Since I generate a LOT of ideas all the time (who knew this was unusual?) this happens quite often.

Once in a while though, I have a “BIG” one.  And this time, not only was it big — but it turned out to exceed my wildest imagination and expectations — and I could NOT have achieved it without the diligent work and dedication of my team, my friends, my clients and my colleagues.

It started with Vanity Fair.

You know how they have that issue with the actors on it?  I remember thinking…I’d love to do something like that.  How can I do something like that?

And then…in the middle of the night…I woke up with this idea perfectly formed in my head:  my clients.

I wonder if my clients would do something like that?  And so…an idea was born.  The most humbling thing for me, by FAR, is that every single one of my clients we talked to said yes.  No hesitation…no maybe’s — just…yep.  Tam.  That sounds sooo fun!  Let’s do it!  Tell me when and we’ll be there!

I think I might have cried I was so overwhelmed by that.

As an afterthought i said — hey.  let’s videotape it and see if we can’t put a little behind the scenes thingy (yes, I said thingy, it’s the technical term!  ::grin::) together.  Which turned into:  let’s interview each person and ASK (innovative concept, right?  ASK our clients to tell us about their experience) — and we maybe might have forgot to mention this to our clients — so when they came in to be photographed, they were surprised and a little nervous to sit in front of a camera.  I’m telling you this so you can see what follows was completely unscripted — even when I talk (and it’s SO HARD to hear yourself…ugh.  do I REALLY sound like that?  OMG) I had things I wanted to say, but I just talked unscripted.  I sounded a little strange and disconnected and sometimes I’d have to say it a couple of times — but I wanted it to be more gritty and real — then a perfect beautiful video.  Because we want to have fun and play and take photographs — we don’t want to be perfect.  It’s too much pressure, right?

Here’s the Vanity Fair cover that inspired me:

Cool ,right?  So…what I love about what our final image is that it’s a TOTAL Swales interpretation.  I wanted several things — I wanted to show how DIVERSE my clientele is…I wanted to show how COOL they are…and I wanted to be PLAYFUL.

Here’s mine (and clicking it will take you to an online version — that if you click it will make it REALLY BIG.  Try it — it’s totally cool!)

Can you BELIEVE this?!  I LOVE it sooo much!!!

Finally — we worked on the COOL VIDEO.

I don’t know what to say about it other than it’s the coolest thing I think we’ve done up until this point.  I love everything and everyone in it.  Thank you Thank you Thank you to everyone involved — my amazing clients, Rock Paper Scissors Salon who styled, Bruce Hahn for advising me on lighting, My amazing team, and my family for supporting me through all the madness.  I love you all.

So…watch it will ya?  And tell me if you like it.  really.  Cuz it was a LOT of work.  And I really wanted you to know how important it is to me that my clients take center stage…because, ultimately, that’s WHY I do what I do.  For you.  xoxo

It makes me want to blog — I’ve been working and working and working and realized that I’m posting a lot of recent work on facebook — but the blog is getting a little sparse of recent cool work.  Some stuff I have to wait to share, some stuff I can’t share (yet) and some stuff I haven’t — so…I have a rich opportunity here!

One of my favorite things is to be plopped down into a location that I’ve never been before and forced to “figure it out”.  Kim and Matt gave me this opportunity by taking me out into the middle of god knows where — Apulia anyone?  — where we saw a YAK (I swear).  I was totally like…WHERE.  AM.  I?!  ::laughing::

One of the things that I love about engagement sessions is that they are about things that are important to my couples.  I don’t have a set of locations I always go to — that’s boring!  I want my couples to look at their pictures when they are 80 and remember that location and story and the love that is in it.

Kim and Matt took me to their favorite hiking place where they can climb under the falls, rock climb and really get away from the hustle and bustle of urban living.  It was GORGEOUS.  We got there late — the light was fading, it was kinda sorta raining…in other words — PERFECT!

I so love the images we took together.  We climbed, we slid, we challenged ourselves…Kim even climbed into a very ridiculous place in HIGH HEELS.  YOU GO GIRL!!

Kim and Matt — you did AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!  xoxoxo T

These little clips are not new — there are some AMAZING artists who are creating some absolutely INSANE stop motion clips.

Check this out.

And this.

Cool, eh?

How could I NOT want to make one?

All I needed was some victims…erm…willing and wonderful clients who wanted to try something completely different.

Enter:  Melanie and Mark.

Lesson:  Stop Motion takes A LOT LONGER than you will ever expect it too.  Plus, since we hadn’t tried this before — we faced a lot of “unexpected” challenges…nothing a good roll of duct tape couldn’t fix — but still — we were problem solving ON THE SPOT all day long.  ::laughing and shaking head::

Here’s our final product.  To put it into context — Melanie and Mark watched fireworks on their first date…and our challenge was to incorporate that experience with the theme of their wedding “Van Gogh’s Starry Night”.  Yeah, right?  FUN!!

Hope you LOVE this.  It was AMAZING to put together and thank goodness I have an amazing team working with me!!

I did my best to embed the link here — but being less proficient that I thought and VERY IMPATIENT — you have to click the picture.  But then it will be awesome.  I promise.

Stop Motion Save the Date

Seriously, this project was a  fun and innovative collaboration between the amazing people at the EJ Del Monte Corporation, Stacy K of Stacy K Floral who’s responsible for the coolest of styling and floral, and of course me and my team at Tammy Swales Photography Inc.

You know what happens when creative minds think together?

MAGIC.

Thanks to all who were involved in this project, including the Delmonte crew, Stacy K, Ashley and Gil Durfee, Amy Nachtrieb Bell, Calico, and of course my team of hotties who helped late into many nights pulling this all together.

I was SO honored to be part of this project!  Go Check it Out!!

Ashley and Gil got married at the end of July at the Genesee Valley Club — an amazing and beautiful venue.  It was a perfect day and I was ready to go with my cracker jack team of support in the form of uber talented Jessica Weiser who came in from Maine a couple of times this summer to help me — and Erich Camping who tagged along to do some video and playful shots.

When all that mixes together – how can you have anything BUT the most amazing wedding?  Ashley worked super hard to pull ALL of the details together, Stacy K Floral put together GORGEOUS yellow center pieces and bouquets.

Because the venue was the location for both the ceremony and the reception, Ashley and Gil opted to have a first look — to see each other ahead of time and do most of the portraits before the wedding.  It was an amazing choice.  When a couple builds in enough time to REALLY get photographs — that’s when we can all play.  And oh my goodness, play we did.  Ashley was a champ — despite a deep fear of bees (farm on a hot day in July = bees) she and Gil ROCKED out the photographs — and that was before the real action of the day began.

A note about the wellies.  Ashley early on mentioned that she grew up on a horse farm — can you imagine me NOT getting excited?  So I SUGGESTED that having pics in a barn with wellies would be an absolute DREAM — and Ashley LISTENED!  She got these for a bridal shower gift — and I about cried when I saw them.  Truly — trusting your photographer and being willing to try things because of that trust = amazing.

Grey Likes Weddings Blog agreed when they published this wedding as an amazing use of grey and yellow — see more about it here.  We couldn’t agree more!!

We were off to the most gorgeous wedding at the aforementioned Genesee Valley Club.  Now I am a complete nerd when it comes to emotion.  If you see me photographing a wedding – -don’t LOOK.  Most likely I will be crying my eyes out.  This one – I really needed some kleenex.  ::grin::  Happiness + Loving Family and Friends + Wedding = Complete Bliss.  An excellent ceremony delivered by Pastor Jack (as usual!)!

The reception was beautiful and I had so much fun with everyone.  Truly an amazing blending of two totally cool families.

And the waiting part?  We knew that this wedding was going to be published — so we couldn’t share on the internets until it showed up — which it did on Friday!  We couldn’t be happier.  Ashley did an amazing job pulling everything together and we all had a TOTAL blast working with everyone!  A special shout out to Jessica and Erich for helping me document this PERFECT day!

Finally — I HAVE to share this.  (Sorry Ash).  Best Cake Moment. EVER.  Watch it and tell me you can’t just hear Ashley tell Gil — “please don’t put cake on my face”…and then the consequences which are hilarious. I was laughing so hard I could barely hold the camera still!

Take an extra 10 seconds.  It’s totally worth it.    Link:  The Cake Boss.

Thanks to everyone who made this an amazing experience:  and remember I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

I can tell you what I think — and my opinion is based not on the fact that taking these photographs are part of what I do for a living — but more of a life-long observation about how our society functions.

(yeah.  I’m about to go serious.  brace yourselves!  ::grin::)

So.  Many of us have had the experience of being thin and beautiful and then maybe not so much.  Have you noticed how differently you are treated simply based on appearances?  Or…what if you leave the house looking ratty vs. all amazing and cute.  Difference?

And yeah.  I can also see that looking good impacts your attitude and the way you carry yourself and all that inner beauty stuff.  But I am simply observing that appearances have impact.  On everyone.

So do I think headshots are important?  Yup.  With the economy being what it is, with people competing for jobs in ever greater numbers…with judgment about your business being made in an instant on the internet…have you looked at your bounce rate lately?  That tells you something.  Important.

Images are CRITICAL.  CRITICAL.

They tell someone a lot about you in a glance…things like…do you look approachable?  likeable?  happy?  intelligent?

Are the images professional (nods to self ::grin::)?  And within that word professional there are many many different levels.  If you are presenting yourself to the world…why in heaven’s name would you put up blah images?  What does that say to others about how you view yourself?

And I am not by any stretch giving you a Tammy Swales “hire me” plug.  All I’m doing is expressing what I think about the importance of images.  We are a visual society.  We’re impatient.  We don’t wait or ponder or get wishy washy much anymore.  We’re decisive and make snap decisions.

Trust me.  If an interviewer or recruiter or Broadway show director is faced with a pile of 500 resumes with images attached…do you think they’re going to read every single one?  Nope.  Betcha that they flip through the images first.  Is it right?  Nope.  Is it real?  Yup.

A good photographer, an experienced photographer both understands this dynamic — but works with the client to make sure they are being presented in the best possible … um if you’ll pardon the pun… light.  Your personality and self are what’s important.  Getting that into a photograph is a major MAJOR skill.  It’s not the camera people.  Trust me.

So I ask you…how do you want the world to see yourself?!

But that’s not the important part of the story.  The most important part was the ENTHUSIASM Colleen and Mark displayed for Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe (on Alexandar St).  They insisted it was amazing and could not believe I hadn’t been there.  Colleen even went so far to post today’s special cupcake on my facebook!

So I had to go.

I brought my mother.

And guess who was sitting on the porch eating cupcakes?!  Yup.  Sugar Mountain’s BIGGEST FANS IN THE WORLD! ::laughing::  Here’s what they look like without cupcakes:

So.  Then I had to try them myself.  One of the owners approached us with a sample of their vanilla cupcake…

Oh.  Em.  Geee.

So…SIX cupcakes were purchased.  And they are so beautiful I had to drive straight home and document them for all time…

Say hello to today’s dessert:    Rootbeer Float.  Very Vanilla.  Caramel Apple.  Lemon Raspberry.  Pink Lemonade.

They are sweet.  yummy and Colleen and Mark were absolutely right.  They are DELISH.

Here is my unbiased foody review:  They.  Are.  Yummy.

(My mother likes them too.  Her opinion is worth more than mine.  She cooks.  I don’t.)

Also — I didn’t tell anyone I was writing this.  I wasn’t paid to promote Sugar Mountain.  I just liked them.

Now I have to go walk around the block 158 times.  Cuz.  That’s. a lot. of.  sugar.