Bad Bad Blogger!!!

I am so sorry I have been delinquent with my blogging! The good news is that I have been busy ALL summer long making new great photos to show you! I was hesitant to write until I made some updates to the website but I felt the need to check in and say hello to Fall and the busy holiday season about to begin for me. Now that my wonderful web-dude is back from his vacation, I hope to have some new samples put up and a few other updates as soon as possible. Did you hear that, web-dude?? wink wink

It was a fabulous summer season of photos! We did have some rain to contend with, a few rescheduled sessions, but lots of beautiful days and studio sessions indoors too! There were weddings, births, birthdays, big blue eyes, graduations, silly kids, models, dancers, tweens and high school seniors! I am happy to be so busy! This month I plan on cleaning out the studio to make room for more furniture and unique backgrounds. And lately I have felt like Indiana Jones on a quest for the Holy Grail of lenses! I will have it in my hands soon!! So with that said, I must say that I look forward to the next season of photos! Things get booked up quickly so I hope to hear from you soon! www.ImagesByNicki.com

Pennies From Heaven

The year I was born, my grandfather started a very BIG piggy bank for me. I believe it is "Porky the Piggy Bank" to be exact! Over the last 36 years, my grandparents have put penny after penny in this bank for me for "when I grew up". My grandmom must have thought I finally grew up because she gave me the bank the other day! So funny!
My family and I decided to crack old Porky open and see what treasures he held. Well, after all those years, 75 POUNDS of coins and almost disabling the coin the counter at the bank, I am the proud "grown up" with $130.00 whole dollars to spend! LOL!! It was so much fun to spend that time sorting through old coins with my daughter. When I held every penny in my hand, I knew one of my amazing grandparents had also touched that penny! I just wanted to say thank you and I miss you to my grandfather, Nicholas, who thought the world of his grandchildren.

Avery and Aaron

Ahhhh yes, Avery and Aaron, my niece and nephew. Two beautiful little kids. Two very funny little kids! So many days go by in our busy lives and we don't realize how many special little moments we are forgetting about as we move on to the next day. So I drove to my sister's house, camera in hand to prove just that. I just watched with my lens as we spent the day playing with the kids, braiding hair, swinging on the swings and picking flowers. It was great but through my photos you can really see how great it was! My sister has this day forever now. And someday she's going to love these photos soooo much!

Kristy and Justin

I very rarely get to be the one with privileged information, but this story is about how I was one of two people who knew about a great surprise about to happen.

Kristy's friends and family decided that they wanted to surprise her with a 40th birthday party and "somehow" Kristy found out. Well she wasn't about to let them get one over on her, so she decided to surprise her friends and family right back by marrying her fiance Justin during the party!! Only the minister and I knew the event that was about to unfold. We anxiously awaited her arrival to the restaurant, looking around at the faces that thought they were surprising her. I smiled as she walked over to the microphone to spring the good news on the crowd. I was all too ready to capture their looks of double surprise! It was so neat to be "in" on this little secret!
The wedding turned out to be wonderful! Great music, delicious food, and fun fun times had by all! I only wish I had more time to photograph the bride and groom in the wondrous late day light that fleeted away much faster than our memories will.

Another Wedding!

I had a great time yesterday working with Cliff http://www.cmphotography.com/ at the wedding of Danielle and Micheal. The Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia http://www.fourseasons.com/philadelphia/ always does such a nice job. And take it from me, when The Eddie Bruce Band http://www.eddiebruce.com/ plays, the dance floor is NEVER empty!! Wow, what a band!

The bride Danielle was absolutely beautiful despite her battle with rheumatoid arthritis, she glowed like any bride should on her wedding day. It was cool outside for a summer in day in July but the entire wedding had to take place completely indoors. That is always a challenge for any photographer. But Cliff and his amazing "window light" made it happen! Of course I was there with a boom flash to fill in what we couldn't find naturally.

After shooting with Cliff's lenses last night, it was clear that I am going to forgo my shoe fetish and start saving up for some new Nikor lenses! Oh I love my shoes, but Nikon, you have my heart completely! :)

Images by Nicki - My First Blog

Hello first blog! OK so I feel like Carrie Bradshaw. But that isn't such a bad thing at all. In fact Sex And The City is one of my favorite shows. Instead of writing about those wonderful creatures we call men, I thought I'd write about the fish eye lens. I know I know, you'd rather hear about men. Well, maybe next time. ;)

The thing I love about any wide angle lens is the way it forces you to get right into the scene, and I mean INTO the scene!! It's hardly as much fun standing aloof and zooming in with our big fancy zoom lenses. When you switch gears and put on a wide angle things get tiny unless you move in. That my friends, is the funnest part of taking pictures!! Unless of course you are in a patch of poison ivy as I had the unfortunate experience of doing a couple weeks ago. OK but lets say you are driving around the back roads of small town and you find a dilapidated old diner. Hello! Get your butt out of the car and walk right on up to that magnificent piece of Americana and shoot it UP CLOSE!! Trust me, it's so fun. Any one up for a Nicki road trip?? Visit me at my new website at www.imagesbynicki.com