Through the awesomely random circumstances that be, I came to meet Lawrence. Through Lawrence I met the rest of his crew, Bud, Rich, Darren and Curtis. They make up the band Crunchy Monkey. These guys rock!!!! literally.

They saw my recent post of Nick and Meg and really wanted to shoot down at the ICA. We had a blast. Little chilly….. little windy…… but these guys were troopers. I wanted to give the guys something different, a little badass, so I decided to try some graphic novel inspired images. Diggin it.

I give you…… Crunchy Monkey.         true villains & propa rockers

I’m laying on the ground in the lobby shooting and turn around to a museum tour standing behind me……. I pretended to be an installation piece until they left

evil beware……..

Nick is a fellow photographer and great friend of mine, so when he asked if I would photograph him and his awesome girlfriend Meg, I was flattered and psyched. We had so much fun shooting this. Freezing cold, but high spirited we ran around Boston and the ICA, with pretty much run of the place, I think everyone else opted to stay in because of the weather. We win!

Nick is an amazing photographer & super talented. Meg is also a super talented artist and a rockstar hair stylist. I love working with other creative minds. I love when people give me  good ideas, but then let me run with them. It becomes a collaborative.  There was no event to be captured. They were not marking their engagement. They just wanted photographs from this time in their life.

Nick & Meg loved these photos when I showed them to them a few days after the shoot. I loved that they loved them so much. What I can’t wait to see though, is how much they will love them when they come across them 30 years from now. You tend to remember to capture the big moments in your life……… try not to forget the little ones.

Nick and Meg: Thank you for being down for anything and trusting me fully.

ps. I swear that these guys are not models on the side…… although, I really think they should be!

I have had so many people commenting to both myself and Ann about these photos I thought I would share a few more. I thank everyone who had such nice things so say,  I’m glad you enjoyed getting to share a little bit of our trip.

I have never stood in absolute awe of so many things before in my life. One vista after another laid out the most beautiful and dynamic landscape anyone could hope to come upon. The spirit of this trip was adventure. Go with the flow and see what happens, and when you’re flowin with Ann at the helm, things happen. The experience of just wandering is one of my absolute favorite things. You don’t really know where you are going, you don’t really care. You just take in where you are. You get lost (especially when the navigator that doesn’t speak portuguese is reading the all portuguese map), you stumble on places you would never have sought out, people you never would have found and adventures you never would have had. It’s freeing.

When we landed in Faial and got off the plane, I tied my camera to my hand and didn’t take it off till I got home 6 days later. I loved it. I got to play….. and play I did. Ann, Clinton, Erin and Ann L. are all fun and creative people, down for whatever. You can’t ask for more than that in co adventurers. I really want to thank the four of you for making this the trip it was.

I was on a plane to go snowboarding a few years ago. When we were taking off, I had my head firmly pressed against the glass with a giddy smile on my face. After a few minutes I blinked and looked away from the increasingly shrinking ant sized cars and homes. When I looked through the crack at the seat in front of me there was a young kid, probably five or so, with the same exact look on his face and his forehead pressed firmly against the glass, trying to see down to the wonder below. I’m happy I never grew out of it.

Many of the volcanic rock houses like this one have been abandoned after and pretty big eruption in the 50’s and a more recent earthquake in ‘98.

This is off the back deck of our house. Really. Someone gets to wake up every morning to this. Yes please.

This is one of quite a few panoramic photos I did while we were there. This is 6 photos.

This is one of Manual Brum’s (no relation) gardens. This guy did not mess around with his garden. He had fruit trees with things that were delicious and impossible to pronounce, flowers that looked like they belonged in Jurassic Park, and spiders that had a sportin chance at eating me whole.

Horta, Faial

This is three photos and one of my favorites from the trip.

I love that neither know why I am photographing them.

The thumbs up always translates.

Pico is a different Volcano. It is massive. As I said before we’re gonna get a close up.

Four photos. If you look closely you can see everyone standing at the edge on the right, they get bigger when you print this 5ft long.

What? You thought I wouldn’t find it.

That lighthouse was buried under 50ft of ash after the eruption in the 50’s.  They had to build a new one because there was a newfound landmass that had grown up between it and the ocean it need to warn.

This is the museum they built under it.

A contemplative Ann as the ocean moves around her. I absolutely love this portrait of Ann.

Ann wanted to place her flowers somewhere meaningful as opposed to just absently throwing them out. This seem more than fitting.

You can see the house we stayed in. That is the land mass that blocked the lighthouse. It started as 22 sq. km. It has washed away to just 2 sq. km. and even that will be gone in the next 20 years.

Thats Caldeira where they got married.

Horta

We were actually that close. This is the tip of Pico. I am glad that that was my last fleeting glimpse as the ocean swallowed the view and I removed my forehead from the glass.

Ann and Clinton are two of my absolute best friends in the world.

Guess who has always wanted to get married in the Azores.

Ann called me about four weeks before take off to tell me that it wasn’t a dream anymore……. “We leave in 4 weeks, you in?”      Twenty minutes after I get off the phone I’m at the post office with my passport application.  To be able to share an adventure like this with four friends was the chance of a lifetime. We had our very good friend Erin, who was going to be giving the ceremony. Then we had another, and equally awesome, Ann L., who would be doing some video.  The rest was to be determined. No plan. No worries. We’ll figure it out when we get there.

Well, she did. Ann is a rock star. By the end of day two, she had a cake being made, 4 potential wedding sites, dinner reservations for a reception, flowers being made, and any other potential detail you could think of was already covered….. oh, and did I mention she managed to meet the president of Faial somewhere in their as well….. seriously. Everyone was down for whatever, whenever.

So here I find myself on a beautiful island in the middle of the Atlantic, with a bunch of my very best friends, a volcano and my camera……..

This post is of and for Ann & Clinton. I am honored to have been able to spend this week with you.  Thank You.

This is Manuel Brum’s garden. He was an amazing and hospitable host and was gracious enough to do a lot for us. He has a sick garden.

Who let Clinton drive?

fashion shoot

not one of his better ideas

I think it was pretty much a given that Caldeira was where the ceremony had to be.  To walk up to the edge of such a majestic thing is absolutely breathtaking.  It is impossible not to be affected by it.  We were all like little kids, running to and fro, in total disbelief of where we were. I was absolutely awe inspired.

“Just take one big step back”

I spent half the trip hanging out the window by the waist.

Ann wanted to find where her father had grown up on the island. On the way down from the mountain we saw an older couple walking. Ann stopped and asked them if they might have known her father. Well, they did. They hopped in the van and brought us to the house. It ended up being the house who’s driveway we had just turned around in.. There were a lot of really awesome coincidences on this trip.

The Big Day.

I never get to do getting readies with the girls.

Gorgeous.

He cleans up pretty nice.

what handle?

We couldn’t not go back to Manuel’s garden in the wedding dress.

badass.

The other beautiful Ann on the trip.

Erin and Ann. We did not stop laughing til we had to get on the plane home….. then we began to cry.

Really?! Thank you guys for trusting me, being down for whatever and caring as much about getting the shot as I did.

Horta didn’t know what hit them.

The aisle shot.

When we got to the rim of the volcano the temperature dropped to about 40 and the wind started blowing hard. Ann elected for a short and sweet ceremony and a quick retreat, but determined none the less to have it on the volcano.

The wedding party.

The wedding photographer.

We had a delicious and relaxing meal at an amazing restaurant followed by cake and champagne.

They did their first dance in the abandoned stone house next to where we were staying.

To stand ad the edge of a volcano is simply put….. surreal. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

There was no lava, or deep grumbling warning of an imminent catastrophe. No running for my life and having Pierce Brosnan whisk us away in the nick of time. There was no epic traverse up uncharted routes, but I guess the route must have been a little uncharted cause it took a few tries to get there, but paved none the less. None of this mattered.

It was as majestic as I never could have imagined. To stand amoungst the clouds with four amazing friends and look into the now overgrown mouth that created the island we stood on, is tough to put into words. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in that much awe of a scene before in my life. Had the trip ended there, every minute of it would have been worth it for those few minutes up there, but thankfully……… we were just getting warmed up.

This is the first of many…….. posts and adventures.

We stayed on Faial. This is her neighbor, Pico. We get a lot closer to that on the way home….. a lot.

I could not have asked for better friends to go on this adventure with.

You’re gonna see them get Hitched.

One of the most beautiful places I have ever stood.

by the end of the trip I was taking sick photos without even looking.

I spent a few days in San Francisco earlier in the year. I fell in love. If you have never been, I highly recommend it. If I could have, I would have called home, had a few boxes sent my way and hunkered down as a proper west coaster….. Art everywhere, on walls, in shops, on the ground, on people. Unique, hip, nice, open people everywhere. Great food, easy transportation, and close proximity to some of the most beautiful natural landscapes I have ever seen.

The only down side, is there isn’t one. Everything is uphill. Doesn’t matter which way you are heading or if you are going back to where you just came from, it will in fact be uphill both ways. A land our grandparents have told us about as children and we all thought was an exaggeration.  A place where  school was uphill both ways, often barefoot and in the snow. A place we all thought was a scary story old people told to make us appreciate the bus, or to make us go out and shovel on snow days.  Nope, they just all grew up in SF.

I’ve been pretty uninspired to post photos because every time I do,  I look at the post and think to myself,  I liked it better before I had to size it down to a postage stamp. Those days are over my friends. They may say bigger isn’t better but I don’t think they were  talking about blogs. This is still a work in progress so you will see some changes as we go, but for now……….

big up Frisco!

this dog was awesome.

self portrait

rockin out against prop h8te

no Officer,  I didn’t realize how far out the window I was hanging, I promise I’ll go slower next time.

it’s sunny right behind me, seriously

my partner in crime

Napa

still foggy

I love Pitcher Plants, they eat things alive

an amazing trip.

I rolled around in the leaves with three awesome dogs. Great engagement shoot at Worlds End in Hingham.

See more @ hitchedstudiosblog.com

I love puppies.

Thanks Tara, for taking these!

I got the chance to go out to TX for a workshop this week both given by, and attended by, some of the most amazing photographers I have ever met. It is weeks like this past one that remind me…….. Why I became a photographer. Why I miss critique. How being surrounded by photographers with creative ideas and lots of energy can really be contagious. Be true to you in your photography……. and above all else that I am so happy with this life, honored and privileged to get to do the things I do. To live a dream I never thought possible, to make photography my full time job.

I sat on the two planes home with my headphones on and my eyes fully closed, starting to absorb all of what I learned and what I was inspired by. It’s rare you have an excuse to sit for three hours and do nothing but think. It was a fun, informative, inspirational and emotional three days……… and when I opened my eyes from going back over this amazing weekend and clearing my head this is what I opened my eyes to……… fitting.

One of the most beautiful things in the world is watching the sunset from above the clouds.

I killed an old friend today. My trusty website. It was time.

To honor my fallen friend I’m going to start posting some of my older work as well. A lot of the work was taken while I was in school, so I find it appropriate to call these post Old School.  Photography school was the most fun I have ever had.

Apple picking is one of my fonder childhood memories. I make an effort to still go every year. There was only one day this month that Laura and I could both go and that was this past Sunday. When we left the house we were determined. Full on rain storm, sick as dogs and stubborn as hell. Well, about a mile before we got there that rain turned to snow and thus started an amazing day!!

We won. The prize….. a surreal, snowy, apple orchard with only two people in it….. us.