Lisa and Josh are married! April 19th, 2008

I just got back from Lisa & Josh's wedding!

Lisa and Josh were married today at St. Augustine's Church in Newport. I can literally see St. Augustine's from the studio, so it seems a little funny to drive 1 block to photograph their wedding today! Today was the first really nice Saturday we've had in awhile--it was a great day for a wedding. The reception was at the Hotel Viking and the ballroom looked fabulous!


Here are the pictures from today:




The dogwood trees were in bloom!






Here's Josh, dancing with his niece:

Adorable!

New Portrait Website- LAUNCHED!

I just launched my new portrait website! One of my many winter projects was to split up wedding and portrait and give them their own unique websites. This will be much easier for both wedding couples and portrait clients to get information for their own photographic needs. I'm so excited! I still have a little bit of work to do on the site, but it's ready for now! This site features my work with babies, children, families, seniors and engagement portrait sessions.

Rachel & Andrew's Album

Here's Rachel and Andrew's album design. They had a beautiful and fun wedding at the Eisenhower House last September. My favorite spread is the series when Rachel and Andrew saw each other for the first time before the ceremony.

Publications in Newport Wedding & Bride's Choice Magazines

Winter means new wedding magazines are out on newsstands!! The ladies of Newport Wedding magazine did an beautiful job with the issue. The magazine is changing press times, and it will actually be coming out again in October of this year! So keep your eye out for it this fall. I put up a Press & Publications gallery on www.duganphotography.com if you'd like to see all of the recent press.



Nora & Ray's wedding at the Easton's Beach Ballroom was featured!



Rachel & Andrew at the Eisenhower House were also featured!


Newport Wedding invited me to photograph their editorial spread on bridal hair trials. This was at Ki-Ra salon in Newport.


And they also featured Trash The Dress!!! What a great article!! I have a few quotes in the copy too!


Here's a tuna hor d'oeuvres from Glorious Affairs. Barbara is a JOY to work with! I love her!!


A full page published in Bride's Choice


Mum's Flowers at OceanCliff


Dessert from Fine Catering by Russell Morin

Food Photography-Why I have the best job ever.

I've been dying to photograph some commercial work. I used to live in the commercial studio when I was a photo student and I miss it. I got to try out my new Macro lens!

This winter, the Hotel Viking invited to me to photograph their new menu. They had me over last year around this time, too, so I might start calling this my annual Viking Food Shoot! The best part is hanging out with all the fun people at the hotel, and then eating all the dishes!!

Now, usually for big national packaging jobs, most shoots have fake food made of plastic or a mixture of real food with things that aren't edible. But when you work with small businesses like me, we use real product. It can be a bit more of a challenge, but the reward is that you get to eat it when you're done!!

Here's Chef Kevin, the executive chef at the hotel:



In photo school, people used to call me the "Pour Queen" because I used to always shoot wine pours or martini pours. Chef Kevin knew he wanted more then just lobster bisque in a bowl and I was so excited to do a pour picture again!! Can I tell you that this is the BEST lobster bisque hands down that I have ever eaten. There is a whole piece of claw meat in the middle and creme of fraiche in the bowl. Seriously, best bisque ever.



This is Deconstructed Beef Wellington:


Seared tuna:


Scallops!

petitequahog.com

I'd like to introduce you to Petite Quahog! A line of hip Newport t-shirts! My friend, Sierra started the company recently and asked me to photograph her line for their website. You can visit by clicking HERE.



I love this portrait of Sierra:



Here's some product photos:

NEW WEBSITE-LAUNCHED!

My January project was a new website. (Well 1 of 3 new websites actually)

Last night, I launched the new wedding Flash site for people with hi-speed internet. Very soon, the wedding HTML site will launch for people who have slower DSL or Dial Up connections.

The site is still a bit of a work in progress-- Here's the link: New duganphotography.com

Also, since I've moved my website from the old server to the new one, none of the slideshows will be working until I move those over. When you scroll through this blog, you will see some "PAGE NOT FOUND" error messages. I'm hoping to have those corrected shortly.

Beth & David's Engagement Book!

Here's the preview for Beth & David's E-session book. I loved, loved, loved this session from July...so much fun! It was wonderful to revisit these photos and put together a beautiful book; it's such a joy to work on Beth & David's photos! I'm making a copy for the studio as well, so anyone interested in one of these for themselves can see the book in person.

When the book comes in, I'll snap some product photos to show you all the construction of the book!! =)

It's coming...

....My new website!!! I'm hoping to be launched by early next week. I'll blog about the launch when the site is live!!

The End of an Era

So I was a little sad this week. On Tuesday, I shipped out my Mamiya 645 AFD medium format film camera. This was the camera I used in photography school (www.hallmark.edu). Since I'm 100% digital, and have been for 4 years now, the Mamiya has been spending most of it days in a dark closet. I finally found a buyer, also Hallmark alumni. The camera is going to a good new home in Kansas to a photographer who will actually use it. I'm still a little sad to it see go; I took a lot of great images with this camera. I get really bonded to equipment. It's like when people get bonded with their cars!

Ashley & Trent's E-Session

Ashley and Trent came in for a winter e-session! We had so much fun shooting around in what I'm going to call my "Art Walk" session. (Like my "Signature Urban" session, but in a new area)

I get to photograph Ashley & Trent's wedding this October! (Can you believe it's already 2008??)

Here's the slideshow. Click the triangle in the bottom right corner.

Beth & David's Album!

Now you know why I haven't been blogging! Albums are hours and hours of work, but I believe in a professional finished products, so I love doing them! This will be a 9.5x13 vertical book. The first three photos are their options for a full cover photo.

Trash The Dress! The Book is here!

Yay!!!! I was soooo excited to get this into the studio today! I can't wait to show it all to you! I truly love working on books and albums. I believe in a beautiful, one of a kind, professional product that is going to last. Professional products have a longer shelf life then books that come from Shutterfly or MyPublisher. Your professional photos deserve a professional final product!

PS- I discovered a new way to make the blog images BIG! =)

Beautiful Jewelry!

These are some beautiful 18 carat Italian cuffs from Kimberly Pucci-Distinctive Italian Jewelry on Bowen's Wharf in Newport. (kimberlypucci.com) Gorgeous!

Parent Albums!

Happy Holidays! =)

I didn't mean to abandon the blog for a week and a half! I've been slaving over holiday orders, sessions and ALLLLBBBUUUMSSS! I am SUCH an album junkie! I really believe in professional books.

Here's some photos of Beth & David's beaaauutiful parent albums! (The red book is a studio sample for me. But I threw it in there because I was also photographing product shots for *MY NEW WEBSITE!* You heard right! NEW WEBSITE! Coming early 2008!)

These are the leather matted parent albums in ebony ostrich leather. I love these because when I open the box, the smell of fine, rich leather hits you in the face! It's great. The padded leather covers feel so nice.

Jane, Chris, Katie & Ellie-Family Portraits

So today, I got to spend some time with a really fun family! Chris is in the Army and was home for two weeks from serving in the Middle East. He goes back on Tuesday, so I wanted to rush the editing on this session so they could share this slideshow together.

Now originally, when Jane called me, she told me she was hoping the weather would hold up so that we could go to the beach. (Remember December 2004 when it was 58 degrees a few days before New Year's Eve?) Unfortunately, we got that snow storm on Thursday, so I called my great friends at the Hotel Viking, and they allowed us to use their hotel! We did brave the cold for a few outside. We'd actually said 'goodbye' and were walking to the cars, and then I spotted these great doors and I just had to do a couple in this new spot. (Which I will totally be using again with brides, couples and senior pictures!! You all know I'm constantly on the lookout for great new spots!) So watch for those at the end of the show.

Click the little triangle play button to start the show!

Daniel, Charlie & Madelyn

Here's a session I did back in October. (Little late, I know) Anyway, we had a fun time playing in the leaves and running around. These guys were great to photograph!! Their holiday cards are adorable!!

Wedding Photography Visits

This weekend was dedicated to meeting with brides & grooms to talk about the possibility of me photographing their wedding. I met with tons and tons of awesome couples!! I had a great time with each and every one of you! I consider it an honor to be invited to photograph a wedding day! Thanks to all that stopped by.

Since it was ::brrrr:: so cold this weekend, I had hot apple cider and cookies ready for everyone, and a hot fire burning in the stove! So let's set a date to talk about your wedding and you can come over for all the cider and cookies you can handle!





Look at allllll those albums!

Beth & David's Holiday Cards!

Here are Beth and David's gorgeous greeting card style holiday cards! Beth, I ordered you the silver envelope lining to match your wedding thank-you cards!