I Love My Album Company!

Some companies just get it. It's not always about the best price, it's about the best product and the best service. There will always be bottom feeders out there slashing their prices to claw at business, but you usually get what you pay for. My album company is one of those exceptional companies that do it right. The quality is amazing, backed by great service. It comes at a price but I wouldn't settle for anything less with my clients. The albums are so cool, we are expanding our market with them by offering them to our high school senior clients, family portrait clients as well as a few niche markets. We are beginning a concept where we will photograph Harley Davidson owners with their motorcycles, including some close up detail shots of the bike and some action shots on the road. We will then create a custom album for them with the cover being a blend of black and orange leather. We are looking for a few Harley owners to get this going. E-mail me at Steve@cheslerphoto.com if you're interested.

A Family of Sorts

MK and I did the wedding of Jillian and Joe today at Belhurst. Everywhere I turned there was another couple whose wedding I had previously photographed. There were six couples in all at their wedding. Similar to when I photograph siblings weddings, when I photograph the weddings of a group of friends, they become a family as well. We even did a group photo of all my past and present wedding couples. Jillian and Joe were great. They were so cute together.

The Chesler Client Clan minus Jamie Murphy. She had to leave early to tend to the kids.

Believe it or not, no Photoshop was done to this image of MK and myself hard at work.

Finger Lakes Ballet

I was so inspired by the north light studio at Antisdel's Photography in Louisburg, KS, I immediately put the inspiration to use at the Finger Lakes Ballet Academy dance studio. I have been doing photos there this week with nothing but window light and a reflector. The results have been pretty cool.

Love and Fear

After my wedding last night, I came home and packed my bags for my trip to Kansas with Sue. We woke up at 4:00 this morning for our flight to Kansas City. It was odd landing in Kansas City but not knowing what state I was in. Turns out, I was in Missouri. We headed south in to Kansas to our hotel, hoping to get a few extra hours of sleep before meeting up with our group from Senior Portrait Artists (SPA) for dinner. We met them at a restaurant called Pei Wei for some great Japanese food.

Before we headed for the restaurant, I checked the weather and saw that we were under a tornado watch. I love weather, especially the excitement of impending severe weather or a developing snow storm. As we were driving back to the hotel from Pei Wei, we could see lightning flickering in the distance. Upon returning to the hotel, I grabbed my computer to check the weather. The hotel has an indoor court yard surrounded on all sides by two tiers of windows. The lightning was intensifying, as was my heart rate. I love a good thunderstorm, but I would rather not be sucked up in a vortex so far from home. If I'm going to die being vaporized by a tornado, at least I want to be clinging to my own pillow. The wind began picking up outside to the point that the windows were rattling and lightning was striking in all directions now. The thunder was a muffled under the court yard canopy, but I could still feel the thunking in my chest. I'm not sure if it was the thunder or my hearts distress call anticipating my demise. I retreated to the safety of my hotel room which has no exterior windows. After several tense minutes, the storm began to subside, along with my heart rate. I survived my near death experience with a tornado, which was just another day in Kansas.

Elliott and Becky

Our second Belhurst wedding of the weekend went off, but with a hitch; a marriage that is. Elliott and Becky had a spectacular wedding on Saturday on the lawn at Belhurst. They've been together for 10 years and lived up and down the east coast, acquiring a unique accent with a southern, Tennessee twang to it. They were fun to listen to. On the way home, Jess and I were treated to a fireworks finally on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a perfect ending to a great day.

Sharon and Bill

Today was the first of a two wedding weekend at Belhurst Castle. Sharon and Bill not only joined in marriage in a beautiful ceremony overlooking Seneca Lake, they created a family with Bill's 6-year-old daughter Hannah. It was one of the most emotional weddings I've been to. Sharon's Maid of Honor Sarah, sang the song for their first dance. The song was "I Do" by Daniel Ho, which happens to be the song playing on the slideshow I have on Belhurst's website.