THE BRIDE WORE VERA

In the past few months we've seen many high profile weddings in which the brides chose Vera Wang to design their stunning gowns. Chelsea Clinton wore Vera when she married investment banker Marc Mezvinsky on July 31 2010. Alicia Keys married producer/rapper Swizz Beatz (aka Kasseem Dean) that very same weekend and looked stunning in Vera as well. Other famous Vera brides include Avril Lavigne, Alyssa Milano, Kloe Kardashian and Ivanka Trump.

A native New Yorker who spent her career at the forefront of fashion, Vera Wang began a sweeping makeover of the bridal industry in 1990 with the opening of her flagship salon at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. Today the salon continues to showcase her collections known for sophisticated drama, feminine detailing and a modern approach to bridal design.

Hilary Duff is the latest lucky lady to wear Vera on her wedding day. Hilary and former Ottawa Senators hockey player Mike Comrie tied the knot on August 14th 2010 at a private 1920s estate in Santa Barbara California. Surrounded by a canopy of flowers, Hilary and Mike exchanged vows at sunset as the bride's sister, maid of honor Haylie Duff, and 100 of the couple's family members and closest friends watched.

When it came to what to wear for the most important event in her life (so far), Hilary had a clear idea of her dream gown. "I really wanted something that was deconstructed, not perfect and prim and proper." Vera Wang ran with the idea, creating a breathtakingly romantic, blush silk tulle and organza mermaid look, adorned with giant blossoms made specially for her famous client. "This was the perfect dress for Hilary - fragile, youthful, sexy garden party." explains Vera, who worked directly with Hilary on the design.

Dying to learn more about Hilary and Mikes wedding? You should be! With Mindy Weiss as their wedding planner, it isn't anything less than spectacular! Check out the latest issue of OK Magazine on newstands August 30 2010 for all the details and photos of their big day!!

Scott Kelby contest reminder....

Just a reminder that anyone who writes a comment on any blog post by August 31st is in the running to win the Scott Kelby DVD (and workbook) "Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes".

More details can be found on the original post.

Good luck to all.

Slideshow Pro for Lightroom...

Back in 2008 we reviewed Slideshow Pro for Lightroom, we liked it then and like it even more now.

It's inexpensive ($35), easy to use, extremely customizable, and will give you professional looking presentations that will show off your images in their best possible light.

So go check out how you can achieve total image control with Slideshow Pro.

Use this link to see the incredible ways folks have used Slideshow Pro, you will find Loren Hayes and fellow Mainer Charles Adams among these outstanding sites.

I am not including any samples of the things I've done with Slideshow Pro as they'd look like a booger compared to this fine work.

;)

One of my favorites is model Cristina, her gallery is unique and could not be easier to for visitors to use.

One more on free image editing software...

It's called FastStone Image Viewer. Two of the (many) cool features is the ability to batch convert images into PDF files and dual monitor support.

Here are a few more features:

True Full Screen viewer with image zoom support and unique fly-out menu panels

Crystal-clear and customizable one-click image magnifier

Superior Red-Eye effect removal/reduction with completely natural looking end result

Image modification tools: Resize/resample, rotate/flip, crop, sharpen/blur, brightness/contrast, etc.

Eleven resampling algorithms to choose from when resizing images

Image special effects: watermark, annotation, drop shadow, framing, bump map, lens, morph, waves

Draw texts, lines, highlights, rectangles, ovals and callout objects on images

Multi-level Undo/Redo capability

One-touch best fit/actual size image display support

Image management, including tagging capability, with drag-and-drop and Copy To/Move To Folder support

Histogram display with color counter feature

Compare images side-by-side (up to 4 at a time) to easily cull those forgettable shots

Configurable batch processing to convert/rename large or small collections of images

Slideshow creation with 150+ transition effects and music support (MP3, WMA, WAV...)

Print images with full page-layout control

Create fully configurable Contact Sheets

Powerful Save As interface to compare image quality and control generated file size

Run favorite programs with one keystroke from within Image Viewer

Click on the image below and it will open larger (and in a new window) allowing you to view more of the menu options in greater detail.

Remember back in March?...

When I was so happy with the approach of spring, and how pleased I was with my tomato seedlings?

Well, those bad boys are doing some serious producing, I picked a couple dozen fruit this weekend alone.

Is there anything better than a fresh home grown tomato?

Well, maybe winning the lottery, dating Jennifer Aniston, or being Tom Brady would be better than a home grown tomato... but really, it was meant to be a rhetorical question.

(clicking on this image will open it larger in a new window)

It's Saturday, I must be shooting...

I am about to walk out the door to shoot a wedding with my friend Stacey Kane.

This past May we traveled (again) to Long Beach Island (NJ) to photograph a wedding at Bonnet Island Estate.

What a nice place, wonderful couple, and a fun wedding to shoot.

That wedding was recently featured over at Cake & Pictures and you can check it out here.

More free photo editing software...

Sorry for the long delay between posts (I think the longest in the 4 year history of this blog), but sometimes life happens.

Here is installment 2 of free image editing software.

Today we bring you Photobie, an all free, no nags, no "pro" upgrade options, 100% free image/photo editing software.

I could bore you by rambling on and on about the features and the things I like about Photobie but your time would be waaaaaay better spent checking out the software for yourself.

Be sure to read their 43 page feature list (a downlaodable pdf) and you'll see that it's powerful, it's versatile, and it's worth your consideration.

Here is the Photobie tutorial page, their YouTube channel, and their download page.

Below is an "intro" video, it's 10 minutes long and nicely demonstrates the abilities of this powerful program.

(Subscribers know the routine, you'll need to return to the blog because videos don't push through with your subscription).