To Twitter or not?

So it seems like everyone is Twittering these days.

I just don't get it.

Then again, I didn't get MySpace and Facebook or even blogs once upon a time. And I have a hard enough time keeping the status on those things updated too. So, I've been debating whether or not to sign up for Twitter. I mean, do ya'll REALLY want to know the mundane stuff I do day in and day out? Like for instance, right now I'm finishing up the rest of the editing of Tracy and Chris' wedding while eating raw Goji Cherry Truffles because I have been trying to do raw again and I have to have my chocolate fix each day.

LOL, seriously do you want to know that stuff? I still find it fascinating that you even find my life fascinating enough to follow my blog, but should I take it the next level and Twitter too?

What do you think? Convince me why I should sign up? If you have it, why do you love it? Because I just don't get it. :-)

LLCing it.

It's official that I'm official. Well, I've always been official, as a sole proprietor. But now I'm official as a company! With like shares and everything, and my own official company seal. Wow. Cool.

My dad always said "Don't worry, your business will tell you when it's ready to grow." And growing it has been, almost faster than I can keep up with! So it was time to take things to the next level and turn Scarlett Lillian Photography into Scarlett Lillian Photography, LLC.

What does this mean to you? Nothing, really. What does it mean to me? Well, let's just say, I feel like a mom who gave birth and in the blink of an eye, her child is now a teenager. Sniff sniff. SLP is getting so growny.

Next on the agenda, I will be hiring my fabulous friend Rachel soon to be my new Business Manager. She's much more talented with all the numbers and office organization and customer service related tasks behind the scenes, so I'm super super super excited about this new transition coming up to free me up to do what I do best, all things CREATIVE! And teaching... whoops, did I just spill another hint about the big announcement coming up? he he

Like any mother, I couldn't help but take some photos of my baby.





Also last night, Rachel came over to give me another generous goody bag holding inside a soft white robe like we indulged in at the spa when we were Miami! She's so cute and thoughtful!!! I can't wait for everyone to connect with her too once I bring her on board.. you'll love her as much as I do!



Rachel and I at the spa a few weeks ago!


Rachel always puts together such cute bags!!


Modeling my brand new robe!

Alexis & Gerard are Engaged!

As a wedding photographer, you would think I study the wedding magazines for photography ideas. But honestly, I don't. I boycott them.

Instead, I study fashion magazines. I love marrying the beauty of a wedding day with a fashion flair and throwing in a touch of passion. Anyone can take a shot of two people kissing. It's the intensity of what I call the "almost kiss" shot that I love so much. That last second before two lips touch, it's a little bit flirty, a little bit of a tease, and a lot way hot. It's the shot in fashion ads that say "I need it, I want it, I gotta have it now." (I'm referring to the clothes the models are selling, of course. )

Yeah, um, Alexis and Gerard have this shot mastered.

When Alexis and I were first emailing about her wedding, she told me her and Gerard were both former models and attached a bunch of pictures of their old portfolio photos asking if we could get some high fashion style photos for their engagement pictures. I immediately became giddy!!

I went down to Miami, where they live and one of the fashion capitals of the world, to shoot their session. We had so much fun in the hustle and bustle of South Beach and trespassing on protected sand dunes while Alexis and Gerard got their supermodel on.

While shooting the session, I was also being filmed for a new promo video I will be releasing in the next few weeks! I can't wait to debut it very soon with the BIG news!!!

It was so hard to pick favorites from their session, but here they are and their slideshow below!










Gerard reminds me of hottie James Mardsen in this pic:










The "almost kiss." Love it!




An accidental shot but I love how it didn't phase them that a million people were walking by.










Another accidental shot when I was testing lighting. I normally would have deleted this shot because it was waaaay underexposed but playing around, I brought it back in RAW, and I don't know, I kind of like this one. Something about their caught off guard expression intrigues me. I'm not into editing with add-on textures like what is trendy right now in the industry, but if I were to like textures, I would like natural ones like this.


















I love the security guard casually riding by.




This is the part where we were trespassing.










I didn't realize this at the time of shooting, but I love love love the people in the background as Alexis and Gerard just hang out like supermodels.

The happy couple and I and my fabulous assistant, Rachel!

I got a makeover!

Bye bye pink stripes.

I've gone back to my roots.

Hot pink.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the pink and white stripes that branded my blog the past year that you knew me best for. My dining room is still painted that way. But for my blog, and my website, and my branding, I needed some redecorating. Maybe it's the Creative A.D.D. I always say I have. As soon as I create something I love and get it set just perfectly, I'm ready to move on and change it up and give birth to something new. Any business or marketing book would probably tell me I'm crazy to change my branding only after a year, but I couldn't stand it, I needed a change. God was stirring the visions inside my head and I had to get them out or I would burst!

But I feel like more that this branding change is more of an evolution to better represent my photography style as it too evolves.

I heard recently through a friend of a friend that a bride didn't hire me for her wedding because she thought my photos were "too risque." My first reaction? "Awesome! Then I'm accomplishing exactly what I want to be through my photography." I WANT my photography to push boundaries. To be daring. To think outside the box. To be bold. Yes, to be "too risque" in that way that 50 years from now you can look back at the photo, still feel the passion in it, and remember why you fell in love with the one still by your side. And I've been so blessed to shoot for brides who "get" that and want the same out of life and for their photos.

And when I think bold, I think hot pink. It's the color that my first website was when I made the switch from video to photography. It's the color that really best represents how I look at life. Pale pink and white stripes were nice in that Shabby Chic kind of way, but nice is too comfortable. Too normal. Too traditional. Too boring. None of which expresses the heart of my photography and what it has grown to be. Everyone tells me what they love best about my work is how I pop my colors and oversaturate things, so I knew it was time to create a blog that was just as loud.

So here's to a new look!

Also, fellow photog, Jessica Claire, proposed an interesting question recently asking, why do we as photographers have a website AND a blog when really our blogs are what get updated more frequently and show off our recent and best work? She launched a hot new combined blog-site a little while ago, and I thought it was a genius idea because I never have time to update my website either. Not to mention, according to my stats, my blog is what gets the most love from thousands of you everyday anyways. And it's what not only shows my recent work, it's what shows me, being me, the artist behind the camera and my everyday ramblings about life.



I still love Ross and the team at Flosites, who designed my old pink and white stripe website shown above, and I continue to highly recommend them, but I've decided to keep things simple for now and ditch my actual website to just focus on the blog.. oh, I mean, photo journal. I did however design a very cool new opening page, so go check it out at scarlettlillian.com. Otherwise, scarlettlillian.net still remains the homepage for this photo journal! And one cool new feature, everytime you visit this site, or refresh the page, it will display a new favorite photo of mine in the header!

I also have a lot of NEW things to share with you coming up that I'm working on behind the scenes. Ahhhhh, I'm about to burst, it's soooooo killing me not being able to spill the goods yet, but I'm still putting finishing touches on it all in between shooting and editing and now finally finishing the design of this new blog (yes, the ex-graphic designer in me did it myself! Whew... I'm officially burnt out on HTML for a while)...

.......so staaaaaaaaaaay tuned!!!

And definitely check back tomorrow because I will be publishing the rest of Alexis and Gerard's steamy Miami engagement session!

Alexis and Gerard TEASER!

I've decided to start showcasing TEASERS on the blog until I can get a full session or wedding posted. I just can't stand it sometimes and can't wait to show off a glimpse of the upcoming photos!

I just love these images of Alexis and Gerard from my recent engagement session down in Miami! Such supermodels... no, really, they are! More to come soon!

Blogging brides!

It's so fun to see that not only photographers are obsessed with blogging, but that more and more of my brides are getting into blogging too! My new bride Danielle wrote a sweet blog entry about me on her blog!

Her blog design is OH SO CUTE and was designed by a new favorite graphic designer of mine, Poppy Seed Design. She even uses the whole pink and white stripe background too. She's a great example though of how two people can utilize a similar design aspect, yet make it unique to their own branding without copying each other like so many result to doing. If you need something designed for you, definitely hit up Jessica and tell her I sent you her way!

Pretty purses in pink.

Yes, it's a little safe to say, I'm obsessed with pink. Cruise around this blog and my website, and you will see it everywhere. Ever since I was a little girl, it has just always been my happy color. Even my first AOL screenname was GirlyNPink when I was a teen. It's just what makes me, me.

So, yes, I also have pink luggage. Then going to Miami, Rachel brought her pink Vera Bradley luggage. I got such a big laugh out Rachel blurting out in the hotel elevator "Man, between you and I on this trip, we have enough pink to save the world!





On top of that, Rachel also surprised with me a fun new pink stiletto blinged out Sex and the City bag full of goodies for our trip!

Then I got home from Miami and check my mail. I have a huge box waiting from one of my wonderful brides, Amy. She absolutely surprised me with these amazing PINK gifts that she saw and thought of me. One is a Victoria Secret PINK water bottle (which is amazing b/c I'm always trying to chug more water) and this oh so fabulous Dolce & Gabanna hot pink purse she got me while she was in NYC recently!!

Not only did Amy write me the most beautiful email a few days before with encouragement about waiting to hear my dad's results, but to follow up with this surprise package just truly made me jump up and down. I have the BEST brides! I'm excited too because Amy said she switched her upcoming wedding decor to black and white and pink! I so can't wait to see what she puts together! Just seeing how cute the wrapping was, I know her wedding will have a lot of great details to shoot!

THANKS AMY AND RACHEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a collage of all my new pinky gifts!!!




Now my coat wrack in my foyer holds my new favorite bags!

This photo is going to serve as my new inspiration board for my new office. I'm about to redo my loft painting the walls the same color as the D&G purse, with black and white touches. I can't wait to reveal the new look to all of you soon!!

p.s. Check out a slightly new look for the blog also coming SOOOOOOOOON!!!

Miami is nice....

I was so sad to hear the news yesterday that Sophia (aka Estelle Getty) from Golden Girls passed away. Since college, I have been addicted to the TV show reruns on Lifetime, and I've always said it was like Sex and the City in their 80s! On my recent trip to Miami to shoot Alexis and Gerard's engagement session, my friend Rachel (and soon to be Business Manager, woo hoo!) came with me to assist on the photo shoot, and while we were down there, we were recalling the episode that Dorothy and Rose tried to come up with a jingle about Miami to win a contest. The original version went "Miami is nice... so I'll say it thrice... Miami, Miami..." Or at least that was the version that Dorothy and Rose got in a fight about to eventually change it. Here was version that won them the contest.



So on our drive back, Rachel and I came up with our own little corny song about Miami and our experience... here's our lyrics.


Miami is nice... but you'll pay a price.
Miami is bright... yeah, that's right.
Miami has food... that suits your mood.
Miami's not so cool... but you can lay by the pool.
Miami says "Opa!"... do you have eucalyptus soapa?
Miami is sweet... with lots of hot Hispanic boys to meet.
Miami has a spa... where you do not have to wear a bra.
Miami has beds made of clouds... that draw crowds.
Miami has cars... expensive enough to drive on mars.
Miami is slick... the food can make you sick.
Miami has nice palm trees... and a touch of sleaze.
Miami has passion... with lots of crazy fashion.
Miami was fast... too bad we couldn't make it last!


Here's a few fun pics of Rachie and I from my point and shoot camera.


Looking hot!


Self portrait!



And when you are on a trip with one of your best girlfriends, of course silly things will be said. Rachel began recording some funny quotes from the trip on my iPhone. Here's a few of my faves to share:

As Scarlett leaves the car to prepare for the photo shoot, Rachel grabs the camera that Scarlett forgot and says:
"THIS is why you need an assistant!"

Referring to the shower cap on Rachel's head, a polite woman disrobes in the spa locker room next to Rachel. Scarlett blurts out:
"I should take a picture of THAT!"
Rachel blushes and nods to the lady next to her.
"Oops, I mean your shower cap," Scarlett says trying to justify the timing of the comment.

After Scarlett watched her first episode of Seinfield, EVER, and Rachel comes out of the bathroom showing off her new pajamas:
"Those are boyshorts? I thought they were the panties your momma laid out for you!"
(It was a funny line Elaine had just said.)

Walking into the Westin Diplomat Hotel:
"Welcome to... Heaven."

Ordering a hot dog after she just ate lunch, Scarlett exclaims:
"I'm on vacation... I can eat what I want!"
She then later overeats that day and it comes back up later that night after not settling well in her stomach. Lovely, I know.

Trying out a festive Greek restaurant named Opa, Scarlett asks Rachel if they can go somewhere quieter:
"Between the napkins covering the floor and the dancing on the tables, this place is over stimulating."

After receiving "V.I.P." valet parking at dinner, Rachel proclaims:
"V.I.P. Very important Princesses!"

Going 90 on I-95, Rachel points out a cop up ahead to Scarlett:
"I wasn't speeding...." slams on breaks... "a lot."
Surprisingly, the cop didn't try to pull Scarlett over... this time.

Featured on Digital Pro Talk

I started to notice I was getting a lot of new hits to my site from another blog, so I had to check it out.  Turns out, I got a surprise mention on the "fabulous inspiration Friday" notes on the Digital Pro Talk blog by David Ziser.  He mentions how he likes the way I wrote my bio on my website to help brides get to know my personality more than just a stale bio about my photography accomplishments.  Like David mentioned, in getting the girly photos taken of me in my blog photo, I love showing brides the message that I love to have fun in front of the camera, and I want to be the photographer to give them permission to indulge in their inner diva too in front of my camera!

It's always cool to hear positive feedback from another photographer!  Thanks David, I appreciate the thumbs up and the showcase.  Check out the link below to read more. It's also a great resource to learn more about photography for all you photographers who read my blog:

http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/2008/07/fabulous-inspiration-friday.html