Morski Wedding

It's been crazy busy the past month. I'm still playing catch up with posting the recent weddings. On October 16, I photographed the engagement session of Carrie and Jason, followed by their wedding the next day. It was a spectacular fall wedding at Belhurst Castle and White Springs Manor in Geneva. I know I've said it before, but I have the best job in the world to be able to work week after week with such amazing couples. Congratulations Carrie and Jason. You guys were awesome.

Gratitude

Staying positive is something I try to live by. I honestly feel that positive thinking leads to positive things in life. For those of you that read "The Secret", it's the ultimate philosophy of the Law of Attraction. What you set your mind to, whether positive or negative will ultimately manifest itself. One of the strongest factors in focusing on the positive things you want in your life is gratitude. Being thankful for the things you have as well as the things you strive for puts you in the mind set to attain your goals. I found a new app for the iPhone called Gratitude Rock, which is a gratitude notebook to help me focus on the things I am grateful to have in my life. I write down five things I'm grateful for each day, plus one thing that I visualize being grateful for that I want, acting as if I already have it. This is not strictly a selfish monetary thing. I'm writing about all the things that touch my life, my wife and kids, friends and family, as well as many other things I discover as I explore keeping this type of journal. I'm excited to see where this takes me.

PhotoPro Magazine UK Feature

In the November Issue of PhotoPro Magazine in the UK, we were featured for our extensive work with winter weddings. I received a PDF copy of the article today which I converted to a jpg for the blog. If it's too small, click on the link below to see the larger PDF version of it. http://www.cheslerphoto.com/images/winterweddingsuk.pdf





We were interviewed for the feature after the magazine Editor, Terry Hope, came across our winter wedding website at http://www.winterweddingphotography.com. I also sent out a Constant Contact e-mail today to brides having winter weddings. If you're not on our Constant Contact list, here is a copy of the e-mail. You can sign up for our Constant Contact e-mail list at the bottom of this page.

Back to Normal?

It's hard to believe it's been two years since Sandi's death. She still feels like such an everyday part of my life. Not a day goes by that she is not in my thoughts in some way or another. It's usually in a comforting way, like what would Sandi do in this situation? The haunting visions of November 7, 2007 are no longer a daily part of my life. Their presence is few and far between, allowing the magic of Sandi's memory to fill my heart with love and peace.

It's hard to say that things are back to normal because since her death normal has changed form. A new "normal" has emerged with the guidance of Sandi's memory helping lead the way.

The second anniversary of her death passed on Saturday with frequent thoughts of her as we went about our busy day. I had a wedding and both kids had hockey games. I'm planning on stopping at the cemetery tomorrow to reflect on my own.

I had a dream a while back that I had the opportunity to sit down with Todd and talk very openly about how his actions effected everyone. It was a very calm conversation, which is not what I would have expected if given the opportunity. I woke up before we ever got to the part of the dream where he either apologized or I forgave him. I don't know if I could, but I feel like a door was opened to allow some healing to take place.

Santa's Back

With the success of our Santa photos year after year, we are once again having Santa come to the studio for individual appointments. We are doing the photos on November 21st and deciding on November 22nd if we have a full schedule Saturday. We will be doing multiple different set ups to add variety. We will have our traditional sleigh scene, a fireplace scene, an all white winter scene and a Victorian doorway scene.

We will also be doing appointments in 15 minute increments with a set package of 25 4x5 Christmas cards with envelopes, 2 5x7s and an 8x10 for $75. Prepay your session when you book your time slot and you'll also receive a gift certificate for an additional half hour studio session.

For those not interested in a full 15 minutes session, we will have a limited amount of time for a walk-in visit with Santa and our a-la-carte pricing.

The schedule will be:
Saturday, November 21st from 10:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 22nd is still undecided, so call now to reserve your spot so we can get an accurate count of how many slots we'll need.

For more information, call the studio at 585-393-9242. Here are a few of our favorite images from past years with the best Santa ever.

For those of you who want more time than our Santa sessions are, or have kids that are just not into sitting on someone's lap, we are running a promotion through Christmas.

30 Minute session with 25 4x5.5 folded Holiday Cards, 1 8x10 and 2 5x7s for $125.
or
1 Hour session with 25 5x7 folded Holiday Cards, 1 8x10 and 4 5x7s for $199.

These can be on one of our holiday themed sets, a traditional set or a rustic setting in the attic. Location sessions are available for an additional charge.

Call the studio at 585-393-9242 to book your session early to insure you have enough time to get your cards out to family in friends.

Yankees at Chelsea Grill

I'm sitting here watching the Yankees play game six of the World Series. I figure if I do a blog post I won't bite my finger nails off. Game five was certainly a nail biter. I happened to be down in New York City Sunday and Monday for the Wedding Salon Bridal Show. That will be a different post altogether. After the show ended, I went to dinner with my brother Rich and my sister Caren to the Chelsea Grill on 9th Ave. We sat at the bar and watched the Yankees make a strong come back before falling just short of clinching the World Series. The atmosphere of being in a NYC bar during a Yankee game that could win them the World Series was electrifying. I'm almost glad they lost though. I think they should win it in front of their home fans so they can all celebrate together. Yes, I'm being an optimist. We'll find out in a hour or two...

App-etizers

Since I got my iPhone a few weeks ago, I have become addicted to searching for cool apps to load on to it. For those of you who don't know what an app is, it's a third party program that you load on to the iPhone. It's just like loading a program on to your computer, such as a game or accounting software. There are over 85,000 apps available for download, many of which are free or cost just a few dollars. Unfortunately, many of the apps I've come across are either useless or cheesey. There are a few though that really make the iPhone a lot of fun. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Star Walk - This app is a virtual night sky that you hold up over your head at night. It takes your location and calculates where things are in space and points them out to you as you pan the night sky.

2. MotionX Drive and MotionX Sport - Both of these are GPS maps for the road or off-road respectively. Why spend hundreds on a GPS when for $2.99 you can get turn-by-turn directions right on your iPhone. The catch seems to be you need a strong 3G signal or the app lags behind your actual location, not great when it tells you to turn 2 miles ago.

3. The Weather Channel - Finally an app with a looping radar. It's primitive but it works.

4. eBay - Now I can bid on items no matter where I am and not be outbid.

5. 13WHAM - Rochester's channel 13 has an app to connect you to local news and sports.

6. Thunder N Lightning - A simple program that calculates how far away lightning is by timing the gap between the lightning and thunder. Simply tap the start button when you see the lightning and tap it again when you hear the thunder and the program does the calculations for you. You can fine tune it by entering the ambient temperature which effects the speed of sound. Great for weather geeks like me.

7. Facebook - We're all slaves to it, now we be slaves 24/7.

8. Fly Cast - This app has nothing to do with fishing. It is a like having satellite radio in the palm of your hands with streaming audio of hundreds of stations and dozens of genres.

9. Sportacular - Almost real time stats and scores from most major sports except NASCAR. Now I can see Yankees beat the Red Sox from anywhere.

10. iHandy Level - This cool program turns the iPhone into a bubble level.

I'm sure I'll find more but these are my favorites for now. If you have any cool ones post them here.

Thank You Hudson Valley

I had the opportunity to be the guest speaker for the Hudson Valley Professional Photographers group last night in Newburgh. Not only is it an honor to be asked to speak for them, but also to get to know such a great group of photographers. The meeting was at the Hilton Garden Inn near Stewart Airport. I had the pleasure of staying in one of the rooms last night. Compared to some of the other places I have stayed recently, this hotel is awesome. If you're travels take you through Newburgh and you need a place to stay, this is it. It's also right next to the new headquarters of Orange County Choppers, which I thought was a motorcycle museum when I pulled up. The place is amazing. Now it's time for the 4 hour drive back home.

Wedding Catsup

October has been a very busy month for weddings so I'm a little behind on my blogging. On October 10th, Ellen and I photographed the wedding of Meghan and Pat. I haven't had much of a chance to shoot with Ellen this year. We had so much fun, especially with Meghan's sense of humor. She tried to make clouds disappear with waving hands and a magic spell that had something to do with peanut butter sandwiches. She had us laughing all day. A marriage based on laughter is a sure bet in my book.

iBlog

This is my first official post sent from my iPhone. It's amazing how accessible the world has become. I now carry my connection to it in my pocket. I'm going to have to get used to the new formatting issues with the phone when doing blog posts.

I have a new phone number with the phone. I wanted to overlap with the old phone while I get used to this instead of just switching over the number. It's amazing how attached I have become to the old number. It's almost as much a part of my identity as my social security number. It will be a sad day when I turn it off. I feel like I should have some sort of memorial service for it or a candle light vigil. Perhaps I will retire the number on a banner and hang it from the rafters of the house. The thought of someone else having my number after I cancel verizon feels like a violation of my identity. If only verizon had agreed to work with apple in the beginning.