DIAMONDS (AND PEARLS, AND SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL, AND...) ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

There's something about With Love Bridal that keeps us coming back...

Could it be the beautiful boutique style shop? The fabulous selection of consignment and brand new designer dresses? Or maybe it's the owners, Becky and Dana, who work so hard to ensure your experience at With Love is beyond exceptional?

Of course these are all great reasons why Viva is in love with With Love but let's be honest, it's the jewelry that keeps us coming back for more. Staying true to their goal of offering brides a unique and personalized shopping experience, the jewelry With Love carries is all hand crafted by local Ottawa area artists.

Viva's brides already know and love the talented Sarah Walsh who has been one of our preferred makeup artists for years, but Sarah's talent doesn't stop there. Sarah also designs stunning jewelry using freshwater pearls, swarovski crystal, sterling silver, and gold. Perfect for the bride (and bridal party) on her wedding day!

Another one of our favourites are the city inspired pieces Urbanite Jewelry creates using colours and materials (precious metals, wood, and glass) to help bring out each city's personality. These pieces are so unique. Truly one of a kind.

Along with Something Jeweled by Sarah Walsh and Urbanite Jewelry, you can also find designs created by Frash Femme, Seven15, and Sanddesigns.

The best part about all this jewelry is that you don't have to be a bride to buy it, which I guess is why we keep finding excuses to pop into With Love when ever we can. Whether you're looking for some sparkle to spice up that little black dress you're planning on wearing to an upcoming Christmas/New Year's Eve party or simply on a hunt for something a little more "everyday", there's a piece (or two) for everyone.

And what perfect timing is this? With Love Bridal Boutique is having a jewelry show this Sunday, December 5th from 10am to 2pm. We'll see you there!!

Unbeatable customer service...

This is another one of those unintended posts, but the results from a recent customer service interaction was so outstanding that I just had to share it with you.

We use ProSelect portrait studio software for "in house" presentation of client images (though the software is much more than just that) and you can read my review that was done back in January.

There are a lot of reasons to use studio presentation software in general (sales, sales, sales) and ProSelect specifically (it's the absolute best at what it does), buts that's not why we are here today.

I often us the quote "long after people forget what you did for them, they will remember how you made them feel". If you eat at the best restaurant in town but the service stinks, or have a product you love but can't get support, you won't remember how good the food was or how great the product is, what will linger is the bad taste in your mouth and you will likely share it with others.

So finally, here comes that point of this post, the phenomenal support I just got from ProSelect.

I bought a new laptop and needed to move ProSelect software from the old to the new machine and opened a support ticket asking how best to do it. I kid you not, within 45 minutes received a response with the information I needed along with related links to their knowledge base.

Now one of the things unique about their support system is the client closes the ticket when they are satisfied that the issue resolved.

Well, 48 hours after receiving their initial response I receive another email saying they noticed that my ticket was not yet closed and wanted to make sure I had all the information I needed and asked if I needed any further assistance.

Does it get any better that that? I don't think so.

Before anyone thinks "of course you get good service, you write this blog"... I promise you, there is no way that a person looking at my account info would know I write Weekly Photo Tips. The service I received is the exact same service all of the other ProSelect customers receive.

You will love what their software does for your clients and you'll love what their service does for you.

Tortoise beetle

Photographer: ThomasPhilip

Camera:Nikon Coolpix P80

Location: Calicut ,Kerala

Caught them at the Wrong moment :)Let me tell you something about Tortoise Beetle .You may also like Weird Insect

Please help us share this pic with others.feel free to tweet,or bookmark or share with your friends

Simple, elegant, DIY studio under $4...

I was doing my typical web surfing one day and came across the blog of Sandra Marek "My 365 Days of Reality".

I really liked her images and the thought that was behind them but what I liked even more was they way she talked about family (and other things that are truly important like friends and life in general).

So I took the time to dig deeper into her blog and found a post she did about Isabella's birthday and shooting a bracelet using a hardware store light that cost her under $4, some white cardboard, and a reflector.

Below are two shots from that post but be sure to check out the entire $4 DIY studio post as she shoots the bracelet several different ways, when you are done you will want to look around "My 365 Days of Reality" and Sandra's website as well.

Birds Flying by

Photographer:Anirudh Khusape

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Door Handle (Red Fort)

Photographer: Anirudh Khusape
Camera: Sony DSC-W70

The Red Fort or Lal Quila as it is more popularly known.This is one of the Masterpiece of architecture and hot spot for tourist from both India and Abroad.The Red Fort was built on the western bank of river yamuna using red sandstone.The construction of this massive fort began in the year 1638,it was during the time when he shifted his capital from Agra to Delhi.The fort was completed after Nine long years on 16th of April 1648.This red  Sandstone fort has Grand audience halls,marble palaces embedded with precious stones.

Stuff you just can't make up...

Let me start out making it perfectly clear that this is NOT an attempt at dark humor... it's a weird, freaky, extremely unfortunate event.

This happened in Italy where at a wedding, while the bride and groom were posing with a gun, the wedding photographer (45 year old Calogero Scimeca) was accidently shot dead (full story here).

It's a story a read a few days ago (and had no intention of blogging about) but it just has lingered with me, a little because here's this man kissing his wife and kids goodbye to head off to photograph a wedding (where's the danger in that) but never comes home.

And maybe because I have photographed a few weddings myself that have involved military and law enforcement and these weddings also involved posing with firearms... just makes you think, maybe that's not such a good idea.