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

My love of L.L.Bean is well documented.  If you have met with me you likely know about my giant L.L.Bean tote collection or how I like to visit the L.L.Bean flagship store just to walk around!  So when the book Guaranteed to Last arrived at my house I was giddy:)  I have been flipping through this book for the past few days and digging in deeper on certain parts.  While reading it became clear to me how my love of L.L.Bean fits in perfectly with my photography business – we are both trying to create the same thing – a product that stands the test of time.

When I photograph a wedding I know that I am not only with this family for the day but a little part of me is going to be with them for much longer.  Years later they will show their kids and grandkids the images I made on that day.  What I want out of my images is for them to stand the test of time.   Timeless but not stodgy, beautifully composed but not staged, true photojournalistic images of your wedding day that is my goal.  Images that are guaranteed to last.  Thank you L.L.Bean for the reminder:)

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

Meet Alison!

Alison came on board last year as my assistant on wedding days.  My focus at your wedding is capturing authentic images of your wedding day.   Alison’s job at your wedding day is to make sure I have what I need to get that done:)  From organizing group formals,  setting up reception lighting or just holding the brides lipstick Alison has become my wedding right-arm.  Alison’s experience in event planning, her SUPER organized nature and her LOVE of weddings has made her an indispensable part of my services.

Last year not only did she take care of my needs but she also took great care of our couples.  Alison has provided day of coordination, plannings services and vendor research for  several of my couples.   She has even played the role of superhero running back to retrieve a forgotten veil – saved the day!

Alison will be with me for the 2012 wedding season – I can’t wait for you to meet her!

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

See the full spread on page 23 of the digital edition of Real Maine Weddings here.

I made sure to include these beautiful work on my Pintrest board on winter weddings.
Are you on Pintrest?  If so you can find me here.

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

It’s hard to believe that last Saturday I was out in the sunshine photographing this sweet family and their latest addition.   It was sweet to see big sister talking and holding hands with her little sister.  As a girl who has 2 sister in her family I think sisters are the best!

Family portraits aren’t just for the kids!  They are a great time to photograph just the two of you as a couple – and these two knocked it out of the park:)

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