Happy Birthday Erica!  I love you!

xo,

audra

Wedding season goes by in a blur so the winter is a time to deeply recharge my photography batteries not only in sleep but also in skills and creativity.  Part of this is being spent on my personal project with kids and their toys,  part of it is an upcoming series on handmade weddings and a big part was last weeks trip to WPPI! I headed out with my friends at emilie inc to Las Vegas for a 48 hour marathon of learning, socializing and inspiration.   I attended a session on refining your engagement images that I can’t  wait to share with my 2012 couples and a session on the ever important balance between small business owner and having a personal life – it was all fabulous!

Once the learning was over it was time to head to the trade show floor and see what new and what would be a perfect fit for my couples.  There were two products that stood out to me as I strolled the tradeshow floor.
WoodSnap – I walked by this booth and thought “How perfectly Maine!”  Think photo canvas printed on a beautiful piece of maple, delivered ready to hang in your home.  You may not know this but Maine is the most heavily forested state in the United States – how perfectly perfect to display your wedding images on a maple canvas.  I am anxiously waiting my first delivery from them, I can’t wait to share some images when it arrives!

Pinhole Press – As my previous clients can attest I like to make sure you have not only a disc of digital negatives but also prints of those images.   We spend time chatting post-wedding about how you will use your images and what ways you can get that done.    Lots of my couples are of the handmade variety – they do lots of the wedding design and creation with their own two hands and I like to make sure I help them do that after the wedding as well.

Enter Pinhole Press! An online boutique created for hands-on, DIY couples who want to create beautiful prints and gifts from their wedding images on their own!  Pinhole Press offers everything from albums to thank you cards to create gifts like day planners and wine labels.  A perfect fit for my couples and anyone who wants to share their images in print.

It was a great inspirational 48 hours  and I can’t wait for the 2012 wedding season in Maine!

xo,

audra

1. My dog Minion, her fiestyness keeps us on our toes.

2. My nieces and their love of arts and crafts.  The picture below is one of them during our Valentine making sprint on Sunday.  She is one part cute one part Valentine’s day monster.

3. My two sisters and my parents and the fact that we all live close and are close.

4. My husband and his eternal patience with my need to change things:)

I hope your day is full of love and sweet treats from your sweeties:)

xo,

audra

Many thanks to my friend Erin and my friends at Mercy Street Studio for use of your space:)

I will be doing another round of these in a few weeks so if you are interested in participating drop me an email audra [at] audrabayette.com – I would love to see your kids favorite toys!  Kids under the age of 8 only please:)

xo,

audra

How adorable are these!  They tasted as good as they looked!

The sweet treats were by Vikki Sciuto at Sweet Ideas by Vikki

Dad is a big Star Wars fan:)

xo,

audra

I also think its important to take care of your back:)  My camera, fully loaded with my favorite lens weighs in around 4lbs, not exactly the lightest thing to carry in your bag.  It’s similar to carrying a 1/2 gallon of milk all the time:)

Despite its heft I have tried to have it with me all the time.  How can I document my life without my camera!   What I found was I would have my camera with me but I wouldn’t use it.  It was too big to use in stealth mode or while I was also trying to participate in the life I was documenting.    Taking the time to get out the “big” camera interrupted the flow of conversation or action and I didn’t want to do that.

So in the mid-point of last year I abandoned the idea of having my camera with me all the time and committed to documenting the day to day on my iPhone.  It helped that at this same time the new iPhone came out and the in-phone camera is super great for this type of thing.

Do you know what I found?  I actually started taking more pictures of my own life!  It was easier to make an image of my nieces playing Rummikub with me if I could do it between turns!

At the end of the year I had a great collection of images of my day to day.  Then it was time to figure out what to do with them.  Given some of the news I am reading in the film industry lately about digital files having some long-term storage issues (see article here: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048861)  I do what I did in the days of film – I printed them:)

Blurb has a great partnership with Instagram that allows you to create a photobook from your Instagram images.  I made my first one with my images from 2011.  It now sits on my coffee table and I can share the images with friends and family who come to visit – which is exactly what you should do with your images – share them!

xo,

audra

This past weekend Matt and I escaped to a house on a mountain top to celebrate my birthday.  We had been here once before, right after we had starting dating and we loved it so much I can’t figure out why it took us four years to get back there! The house is remote, you have hike 1 mile into the woods with all of your supplies to get to it during the winter!  It is also remote in a non-physical sense because there is not TV or Wi-Fi and iPhone reception is quite spotty.  There is nothing more to do there then snuggle up in front of the fire and read, talk and relax!  I brought with me a quilt project I am working on and we listened to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything during our time there.  If you are looking for an audio book chock full of interesting tidbits about history get this one ASAP – this will be the 4th time I have listened to it!

The picture above was taking with my iPhone and processed through Instagram It is the view of the ocean from the deck.   There are paths so you can hike down to the ocean but we were so snuggly inside all weekend we didn’t see the point in venturing out:)

xo,

audra

There is no better present for the studio than a few images to document the big day!

The studio is a cozy 190 sq feet.  Everything fits perfectly in this little space.

Sewing supplies live right next to my camera’s.

Couples who come visit me snuggle up on the couch to look at images and albums and fill me in on their wedding day details:)

This is where the magic happens:)  Flanked by bookcases full of supplies, images and client treats I get all of the post-processing done.

Having Minion with me all day is a perk to the  job!

So come visit and let talk weddings or DIY projects or both:)

xo,

audra

Here’s to another year of weddings, love and fun!

xo,

audra

Riley is our Christmas baby and we celebrate her birthday on Christmas eve.  She sees this as a win-win since she gets to open presents both days:)

You do not need to adjust the color on your monitor, this cake is supposed to be lime green!  Riley requested a psychedelic peace-sign birthday theme this year.  I found the cake mold and did my best to make the colors as crazy as possible.  I even filled the bottom layer of the peace sign with candy so when she cut a piece candy came tumbling out.  Sugar overload:)

It’s tradition in our family that we give the other sister a gift at the party.  This year we gave Hailey a set of oil pastels.   I love that she gets so excited about art supplies.

Christmas day started at my in-law’s where we found our very own Santa Claus.

Matt was given a set of tools all wrapped up in his Bumpa’s tool box. We are both lovers of history and family heirlooms so this gift was especially meaningful for Matt.

The girls get one BIG gift every year from their Aunt Jen.  This year they received Kindle Fire’s  – do they seem excited? We encouraged them to download books but Angry Birds took priority.



Thanks to Matt for the picture below.  I think it best sums up how we all felt, tired and content.

Hope your Christmas was all you wanted it to be!
xo,

audra