very rarely do I mix and cross over these groups with each other.  So…since I thought it might be interesting to push everyone into one slideshow (read:  laaazzzyy ::laughing::) — so that there’s a record of 2009 visually all together in one place.  It’s pretty cool.

Some images you’ve seen…some you haven’t.  And no, this isn’t EVERYONE who I worked with this year — that slideshow would be about 4000 hours long (not really — but I wanted to fit it into one song – -so this is my best shot)…so I pulled images that appealed to me TODAY.  If I worked on a slideshow tomorrow — it would be completely different.  So…gather what you want about my mood today — here is 2009 in 4 minutes.  Put your seatbelt on please.

Click on the image.  Ra ra ah ah ah….

Busy Week Recap #4,524,216 section 671:

Wedding with Leslie and Victor — was soooo beautiful.  every single thing was beautiful. Victor’s mom was traveling from Latvia for the wedding — so they planned this whole thing in like…a blink.  And did I mention the food?  OMG.  It was amazing.  I also got to work with two of my favorite vendors:  Stacy K Floral and Events by Jen.  Amazing job as usual girls!

Seniors.  This week — let’s see — I climbed a MILLION stairs at a house on a lake, convinced a senior that a piece of cloth wrapped around her head was going to be amazing (her=dubious)…and got to hang out with some of the coolest kids ever.  My seniors are so INTERESTING AND THOUGHTFUL AND DYNAMIC.  I love that they friend me on facebook — because then — I see them getting through their senior year and then going off to college…it’s really really incredible to see.  The weird thing for me is that this year — MY SON is a senior — so it’s much more personal.  Gheesh.  How did that happen??

Headshots.  I LOVE when I get asked to do headshots.  This week my good photographer friend Lou (who tells me he hasn’t actually been photographed since he was 13.  huh?) asked me to “take a couple of pics of him”.  Um…no.  I made him do a whooooolllleeee session with clothing changes and all.  It’s good for photographers to be photographed — it helps us remember that it ain’t so easy being in front of the lens instead of behind it.  It was SO MUCH FUN — and I was honored to be asked.  Thanks Lou!!

Kerry Cannan.  I tell you — when this CD hits the market — this girl is going places.  I MADE her (I’m bossy.  Sorry.) sing in my studio and her voice.  or I should type it like this:  HER VOICE.  ZOMG.  GORGEOUS.  As was she!  We had a huge session creating images for her CD and promo materials for the release.  LOVE!

Other things to note:  A family that is getting married in October — we did a combined engagement and family session with James and Robyn’s daughters that was simply too much fun for me to even TALK about.  Charlie’s Angels?  Super Force 5?  Star Wars?  Yeah.  We went there.  And had a BLAST.

Also — the award for “Most I’ve EVER Laughed During an Engagement Session” goes to Beth and Brian.  I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how funny they are.  Who agrees to cartwheel in the dark?  And one of us ALMOST ended up in the water because we were being so dorky and laughing too hard.  Yeah.  I LOVE my clients.  LOVE.

This weekend I will be in Manhattan and Brooklyn all weekend shooting engagement sessions — so — I’m expecting AMAZING IMAGES to share next week.  ROCK ON!!

I have more to share but frankly, if I don’t start editing the 1.5 million images I have to get done — clients are coming to lynch me.  And then who would write these addicting blog posts?  You would miss me, right?

::silence::

:crickets::

::tammy laughs::

Oh.  And if you were patient enough to actually READ all the blah blah blah above — let me say this — I’m shocked.  ::grin::

PS — I also went to Pirate Weekend with my mother.  Shiver me timbers!

Here we are.  The absolute HEART of busy season.  I don’t know if you know this about me — but I follow over 500 blogs daily.  (I know, right?  Srsly.)  I don’t read them every day — but I do know this — that right now is when you find your favorite bloggers — photographers especially — sort of trail off into silence…or a post begging you to understand how busy they are.  ::grin::

So I am blogging to tell you:  I am busy.  I am blogging.  And I am here.  Crazed.  But here.

This week (okay.  last week.  I am a wee bit behind in most things in my life.  ::grin::).

Here’s all the fun stuff I got to do:

Jess and I re-wrote the FAQ section on the blog.  That sounds boring, doesn’t it?  But truly, it was fun to work with Jess on it and fun to see it all come together so awesomely (is that a word?)!

I put together some FUN AND CRAZY WEDDING SLIDESHOWS for Kelly and Dan,  Brooke and Dave, and Bethany and Patrick.  But only check them out if you’re serious.  My slideshows are long and elaborate and I am in love with every single one of them.  Also – let me know what you think — cuz I’m still working on a format…

A 70th birthday party with a PUPPY and BOYS and LAKE and SAND.  Could the day have been more perfect?  I think not.  It was so much fun!

Seniors.  If you are looking at my photographs and thinking – wow.  I love those  – I need Tammy to take MINE ( or my son/daughter or my neighbor who’s a senior or the girl in Ontario) — my answer:  get.on.the.calendar.  My sessions are booking so fast my head is spinning.  But there’s still some.  Grab one.  that’s all I’m saying.

And for the record:  when did seniors get so sophisticated and beautiful?  I know.  a definite fact.  That I NEVER looked so good.  And my senior pictures?  Big ol’ zit right in the middle of my nose.  The Rudolph Series.  Nice.  ::laughing::

An AMAZING WEDDING with two families that were beyond wonderful.  And a couple of silly fun incidents (hello — the priest almost fell on me!) that made taking photographs EXTRA fun!

A guitarist with dreams of making it big and writing his own music.  Rock on!

A family of girls so beautiful that I could NOT take ONE bad picture.  Not one.

Did I mention the PUPPY yet?  OMG.

I love this time of year.  One of my photo buddies said — you know Tam, you use sun flare A LOT — but somehow…I never get tired of it!  Right?!  I NEVER get tired of it!  So stay OUT SUNSHINE!

Here’s my recap in the VIZZUUUAAALLLL:

As boring as I get.  ::grin::

Here’s a little window into what I am shooting/editing/thinking about this week!  An amazing wedding in Skaneateles NY at the incredible Frog Pond Bed and Breakfast…some crazy cool seniors, Jess Best an Opera Singer from Tampa…some amazing flowers by the ever talented Stacy at Stacy K Floral…the coolest group of teenagers ever…phew!  Busy week!  But how much fun is this?!  Way way way fun!

I couldn’t stop with just Katie and Michael’s pics.  I mean…there’s only ONE of Katie.  That’s just wrong and doesn’t do her justice.

She has the most expressive beautiful face don’t you think?

The coolest of the cool.  I can’t begin to tell you how much I j’adore this photo:

And then Ran.  Let me tell you about Ran.  The sweetest, most inquisitive guy ever.  I mean seriously.  I have never been asked as many questions (and HARD MAKE YOU SWEAT questions) about photography before in my life.  Ran might have a second career as an interviewer.  ::laughing::  But he’s the coolest kid ever and I adore him and this photo…

I had SO much FUN editing these images.  These guys are so much fun to work with — all from the Eastman School of Music — all creative, fun and willing to try on my craziness!  I am so grateful when my peeps trust me enough to be goofy — ultimately it’s the goofy stuff that looks the BEST in images.  Dunno why.  Dunno how — but it works.

Here’s a couple of my favs…

ROCK IT OUT!  I’m in love with the clean lines of this image.  FAV!!

ROCK ME AMADEOUS — Michael is total rock star material!  CHELLO!  (get it?)

Or wait…what about Katie?  This is the yummiest pic  — I LOVE LOVE LOVE Katie’s FACE in this photo!  Angelic!

That’s part one.  Wait.  It keeps getting better and better!

The only glitch?  She’s from Florida, wears open-toed shoes and it was like…SNOWING.  So yeah.  She got a teeny little bit cold.  But she kept assuring me she was fine…shiver shiver.  ::grin::

She loves water — so our quickest shot of the day was next to the Genesee River in downtown Rochester NY — and man…I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how cold it was!  But somehow…we got some really AMAZING images (I really need a new word, I’m starting to use that too much.  ::grin::) and I’m so so happy with them.

Alyssa — here’s your sneak peek!  More soon!

Ran plays the clarinet.  And photographs like he belongs on the cover of GQ Magazine.  I think he doubted whether or not the images we (my friend Gwyn is up from New England and shot with me today.  Fun!) took were going to turn out okay…it’s hard when your photographer(s) ask you to do strange things without really seeing how cool they look — so that’s understandable. 

However, after seeing this sneak peek — all doubts should vanish.  They are stunning.  I am posting one image that I took and one image that Gwyn took (and yes, you have to guess.  hint:  I suggested “superhero”) …just to show you the variety and coolness we ended up getting.

Sometimes two photographers (and this goes for photographing weddings as well) egg each other on in terms of creativity and idea development — so you get a more interesting, varied and richer product.

I had fun today — I hope Ran did too!

We squished ourselves into a tiny practise piano room for photographs — a Tammy challenge!  ::grin::

Seriously — we have some AMAZING photographs that I cannot wait to share.

Here’s one of my early favorites:

We ROCKED out this session.  It was so much fun — Katie has the kind of personality that absolutely SHINES out of the images.  These are going to be so much fun to edit!

Katie — here’s your sneak peek!