This May 16-19 my good friend and very talented Event Planner Candice Dowling-Coppola of Jubilee Events and I will be teaming up to present: Collaborate and Create 2010- a photography and design event!!

To say I am excited is the understatement of the year!! Candice and I have been working together on editorial shoots pretty much every month this past year – in Connecticut to  New Orleans and beyond and  have some crazy ones in the planning stages that we can’t wait to share with everyone.

We get asked a lot how we put together our shoots- and have since decided that we love what we do so much that we want to share with other photographers and planners how we do what we do!

Our workshop will be at the beautifully restored Ocean House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island right as it opens to the public!! This excites me more than I can even say since I have been secretly obsessed with The Ocean House for about 12 years!! This is where Dave and I wanted to get married but couldn’t because it was closing. So I’m excited, to put it mildly.

Many of you may know my monthly photography workshop series- Ten Eyck Tuesdays- which I do because I love teaching photography so much. Collaborate and Create  2010 takes my love of teaching photography and my love of doing these crazy fun shoots and mixes them up to create something even bigger and more fantastic- my brain can barely process it!! 

Add into all of this the whole point- to establish, nurture and maintain amazing vendor relationships with some of the most talented professionals in the wedding industry. 

If you are a photographer and have a planner you love working with and want to take your shoots to the next level then sign up together and create a unique portfolio of amazing work!!

Check out Collaborate and Create HERE and here >(collaborateandcreate.com) for the full disclosure 411 on everything!!

THERE ARE ONLY  TWO PHOTOGRAPHER SPOTS LEFT SO EMAIL ME AT INFO@COLLABORATEANDCREATE.COM TO SIGN UP

I got a little up close and personal here

A MAJOR benchmark for me is seeing how excited everyone in the class gets and the images they pull up for our critique! Here Miss Hildi grabs one of my favorite shots of Max with the mushy 70-200 lens!!

More mushy, right Sidney? I think she scored a major goal with her shot!! Come ON!!!

Miss Kathryn worked her Nikon (did I tell you this was the first ALL Nikon class?) and snagged this amazing profile of our guy

Our new buddy BOB!! Works the woods!

The very energetic Dawn got this one special for me! What an amazing shot!

BIG thanks to our awesome class and our even more awesome model Max!!

XO

If you want to sign up for our next Back to Basics there are a few spots in the May class, go to the Workshop page to check availability and pay on the spot! Gotta love Google Checkout!

Inspire Boston 2010 was amazing. It was beyond amazing, to be perfectly honest. There were so many photographers new to the business and so eager to learn and so many people eager and ready to share. It was great. And! It was at the Colonial Inn in Concord, MA- which was totally HAUNTED!!

My portion of the conference involved a live shoot- I taught a mini version of my posing workshop. Lens Pro To Go- a generous sponsor of Inspire Boston and future Ten Eyck Tuesdays sponsor hosted my shoot at their amazing space!! My models were my close friends the super talented and super busy photographers Jennifer and Jerome Braga of Studio 1923!! Our girl Jennie Boom Boom aka Jennie Fresa came up to work her beauty magic! Accessories care of the awesome White Dress by the Shore!!

Here we go.

Check out my Bragas…!

Jen is so beautiful!! And Jerome is great even out of focus!

So there was this home made ring light, right? And so?  What do you think happened next.

I had to change it up. And so I do.

And the tree was happy.

Check out my dashing friend Mr. Jerome Braga!

What’s better than a Braga sandwich!!??

Being kissed by a Braga sandwich!! Jen was air-kissing me to spare me the lip gloss to cheek transaction that was going to happen – thanks girl!

Check out my class! SWALES! Robert Norman! Kris! They are some tall people

If you missed it this year, don’t miss it next year- Inspire Boston 2011 is going to be even better, if that is even possible!!

I’ll see you there!!

XOXOXO

Rather than freak out and panic, I came up with a system that worked well for me and thought it would be a nice thing to share with my fellow photographers. Turns out I was right- we all had a lot of fun together and really got into the shooting flow-RIDA!

A big thank you to Lorena and Gerry for bucking up and working the elements, Ten Eyck Style!!

******

There are only a few spots left for the newly announced Wedding Wednesday Seminar in March 24, 2010

With a  BFA in Photojournalism from the acclaimed Rochester Institute of Technology and  seven years of business experience  under her camera bag, (because she doesn’t wear a belt) Carla will cover the behind the scenes of how to run a successful Wedding Photography Studio. Contracts, workflow, pricing, backing up, how to run your meetings, marketing, web site critique and more will all be covered to help get you in shape to focus on the most important part of your business:

taking amazing photographs for your clients to have forever and ever amen!

Let Carla share her thoughts on what has worked for her studio- and with close to 100 weddings going through her studio this year- and two small children and a husband and a love of curling her hair- where all Carla does is shoot, teach, blog and look pretty- come see what you can apply to your studio to help you find a better work – life balance!

******

Now, Back at the Hall of Justice…..

And for the record: this is my back yard!!!!! And no, I do not live in Wyoming. But it looks like I could!

This is how this city girl ROLLS, baby!! With the woods! And snow! And my little Mark Twain River!

Amanda from Orchard Cove Photography was yucking it UP with Lorena and Gerry- how could she not? They were all smiles for us

snuggle time WILLIE!!!

Yes. We are SO rocking the modified PROM pose, circa 2010!!

Jill of Heart Print Photography right before she saw me shooting her!

My girl Crista Acosta of Crista Acosta Photography was so much fun to hang with!!

follow me on twitter. come on!

After we warmed up at the studio we headed down the street to the UCONN Law School because it is beautiful there anyway, but with the new fallen snow it was just off the hook

During our shoot I did a timed five minute session to really show everyone how much you can get in a short amount of time… during this five minutes there was an avalanche! And all of this snow came down on Lorena and Gerry and I was like ‘KEEP SMILING! ACT LIKE YOU LOVE IT!’ OK so maybe they don’t love ME as much now, but I LOVE these shots!!!

How beautiful is she???

Hildi Todrin was backing it up with her Shootsac

Miss Crista in action

Andi Walpurgis of Shades of Images gets a little hands on

Yeah. A silhouette Carla Ten Eyck Style! Cuz it’s not a silhouette. See?

YOU lock it up!

Miss Jill with her coordinating hat and Canon

Super snuggle inside…..what a way to end!

Big big BIG thank yous to everyone for getting that we HAD to shoot outside in the snow and for toughing it out!

Can’t wait for the next workshop!!!

XO

New Orleans Shoot | 7D from Vantage Point Films on Vimeo.

It’s here, the full length video from Tom Morlock of Vantage Point Films!! Tom came down to document our trip and shoot and I am so happy with this!!!!

In New Orleans we had:

Sucre with their delectable desserts

and musical stylings by the awesome Dr. Jazz

What a group!

New Orleans Shoot | Teaser from Vantage Point Films on Vimeo.

So when in New Orleans, you do as they do: you try The Famous Hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s

and that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Here Tom and Mark, Beth Chapman’s husband, take in the scene; Katie Slater and Dominique get the beautiful bouquets from Datura photographed

Jennie touches up Rocio, one of our amazing and beautiful models

We jsut love shooting each other shooting! Dominique is on shoe standby in case they fall from the hedge- Sara shoots the image on the right, and Katie Slater shoots Sara shooting me shooting the shoes! You follow?

Dominique is working that reflector while I am working my ABS! This beautiful gown courtesy of Connecticut’s own Modern Trousseau

The Fantastic Cornstalk Fence Hotel right in the Quarter was our home base for the first part of our shoot- big thanks to Louis for letting us set up camp there and for letting us have the run of the property!!

Adrienne, one of our other models, gets some love from Jennie and Nedelyn

Yeah, that’s right. That is indeed a flower hat.

I love how Tony just fits right in the French Quarter walking around with a huge bucket of flowers, like it’s nothing!

Beth works the details, while I work the rain

Binder clips are our best friend

So after our shoot at the Cornstalk Fence Hotel, we headed a few blocks over to Royal Street where the street was very conveniently  blocked off- and so we set our scene

At any given moment during the day we had crowds of people watching what we were up to! Good thing I was in the ZONE or I would have been distracted and intimidated!!

Candice, Me and Katie look pretty happy! Tom just looks bored!

Enter: Dr. Jazz!!! They were the highlight of our shoot, they added such a fun and unique element to everything and well, it certainly was awesome to work with some music going!!

And then came the RAIN!! Now, I have been known to talk some major smack about shooting in the rain, trust me I know many people who were maybe a little happy to hear that it was going to rain for my shoot! ‘That’ll learn HER!’ LMAO.

Well, it learned me all right- how to have FUN!! The timing couldn’t have been better- we were at the tail end of our shoot- everything was running like clock work, I swear!! We had zero problems everything went off without a hitch!

And then the sky just about opened up on us!!

Come on, check out my BFF trying to keep me dry! Gotta love those weather proof Nikons!!

The crew!!

What can I say?? This was so amazing, rewarding and challenging all in the same breath- this whole experience made me a better photographer, and it made me realize that Hurricanes are dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.

The time, talent and creative energy put into this shoot was so incredible to be a part of- thank you everyone for seeing our collective  vision as clearly as I could and for standing by each of us- and bringing your A game!!

Here’s to the next one!!

XXOO

They always left you thinking about the how and not about the who. Well, it left us wondering I guess.

Well I say in honor of my Mom and the life she lived, let’s focus on the who. Us? you say? Who is that?

You know it if you are in it- the dreaded ‘Dead Mom’s Club’

It is a club that you don’t want to be in, but once you are and find other members, there is solace in the comfort that others understand. They won’t feed you bullshit about things getting easier. Yeah, maybe it will. But maybe it won’t. It’s ok if it doesn’t though. It’s ok if you still have grief contractions randomly after four dam years or cry because you can’t tell your Mom about your trip to New Orleans or that Lost is back on tv. They don’t laugh at that, they embrace it. They get it. They understand.

The thing is, if you are not in this club, I don’t want you to be!! But once you’re in. You’re in.

You all know what I’m saying. My fellow DMC members.

So back to the ‘who’ (and I do not mean the Superbowl half time show, I really don’t)

My friend and fellow DMC member, Amy Hammond, actually may be even one of the first people I ever knew whos Mom died way before mine. To be honest, I always saw her differently after knowing that. She made me think about not having my Mom, and it scared me. I am sure I make those of you with your Moms in your lives a little wary- I put it front and center that she may not always be there in your life… I am sorry for that, but also not.

So Amy Hammond told me about a photography project I had to do.

She told me I had to do a portrait study of women who have lost their Moms.

And so I am doing it.

Here we will focus on the who.

Who was your Mom?

My Mom is in me, and even more she is in my daughter Georgie. With her name, for sure but in her sassy attitude even more. I can’t wait for my portrait to be done and to be surrounded by all of my beautiful memories of my Mom.

If you want to be a part of this, please email me and I’ll get you some more info on the idea- and we can start scheduling our shoots- If you haven’t lost your Mom but know someone who has and may be interested in being a part of this project, please pass this post on to them.

(send it to carla@carlateneyck.com)

Another highlight is my involvement in the Thirst Relief Mentor Auction. So many of the biggest names in the photography world offer up their time to be a part of this awesome organization- and I am certainly humbled to be listed among them.

This is my second year of offering up a 90 minute mentoring session to the highest bidder- and the best part is you do NOT have to be attending WPPI to win! Mentoring sessions can cover pretty much anything you want for the time- I am ready and willing to chat about anything- even Lost!! In addition to the mentoring session I am throwing in a spot at any of my upcoming workshops!

You can sign up HERE to be notified when the auction goes live – I believe it is February 16th and 17th

So Connecticut people, who all is going??

XXOO