Hi Rachel,

You have no idea how hard it was for me to pick a few pictures for an order; it’s been a few weeks since you posted the pictures and every night I would spend time reviewing and deciding which ones to get.

I absolutely love them !!! Even John is excited, he was talking about how I should frame them and where I can hang it in the house last night !!

Thank you soooooo much again, I finally have bridal pictures that I am proud of showing everyone !!!
Talk to you soon,

Xoxo

C

I love using my fisheye lens on these bridal shoots since they’re more art-fashion than documentary-editorial. Here’s a shot from Melissa’s shoot out in West Boylston MA where the vertical orientation, plus the crazy location and space creates the illusion of drama and weirdness. I call this ‘the alien shot.’

We have been incredibly lucky to get into some unique and surprising Boston locations for the JUXTAPOSITION project!  Just in the past week we got to shoot in fancy restaurant L’Espalier near Newbury Street, Canobie Lake Park… and the rumors are true… we were even invited inside Fenway Park right before a game! Those photos won’t be available until after I have processed and posted images from my past two weddings (hi Mike and Sofia, Beth and Dave!) but let’s just say it’s going to be incredible.

Meanwhile, today I am preparing for a shoot with Gwen in the Alewife area of Cambridge. Since she loves bowling, we’ve been invited to shoot inside Lanes and Games. I also hope to do some shots at FACES next door, which is that crazy burned out abandoned-since-the-80s nightclub property. But I don’t want to get busted by the police, so I’ve been trying to get official permission (hi Mary Lou).

Also, girls recently suggested a shoot in an apple orchard (yay!) and a shoot riding a horse. Can’t wait!

Marilyn had the idea to take us on an adventure out to one of Boston’s Harbor Islands. I had been to George’s Island before, so I knew there was a neat area of crumbling rooms and tunnels that would be perfect for the photos (and great to get out of the hot sun!) and did indeed provide some interesting light and darkness to play around with.

It was a bit of drama to actually get out to the Harbor Island since the ferry ended up being booked full with middle schoolers on field trip that morning, so we ended up spending a couple of hours wandering around the Boston Aquarium area and even Fanueil (sp?) Hall – much to the concern of the tourists wanting to make sure Marilyn kept her dress off the ground.

It’s difficult to know how much to explain to the randomly curious passerby. Most are confused about why someone would be getting married on a weekday and then walking around somewhere random, and the others are skeptical and say things like “are you really getting married? are you with a magazine?” And of course there are always the guys who think they’re funny and scream things like “DON’T DO IT!” (meaning – marriage). They obviously do NOT get it.

Location: Fanueil Hall, Aquarium, George’s Island (Boston)
Recent bride: Marilyn
Assisted by: Jimmy Song (and Marilyn’s parents)
More photos: here

Tiffany posted some of her favorites from our bridal session at Boston Sand and Gravel over at weddingbee last night. (hi bees!)

She had previously posted a few from the Chinatown part of our shoot as well.

I already mentioned Carol’s fabulous session in Winchester when I posted the teasers. Our locations ranged from the Fells, which are basically beautiful hiking trails and thick forests… to the commuter rail station in Winchester (pictured below) to the middle of the big rotary that sits in the middle of downtown Winchester. It was fabulously fun, and Carol’s mom brought snacks and helped us carry stuff, while Carol paid a bit extra to have Tricia come along and style on the shoot – which was fantastically helpful as we were able to do a ton of different looks including the crazy ones in the forest with the leaves pinned in Carol’s hair.

I LOVE these three images. Some mellow post-processing and a whole lotta bridal attitude!

[ director's cut here + more images here ]

I made it to the UK and have had two cups of proper tea today in order to adjust to the time difference. There are lots of things about this place that I love already!

But for now I wanted to leave you with two links.

1. Awhile back, Tiffany gave the juxtaposition sessions some great press by blogging about her session over at weddingbee. More to come soon. [link] I love press on this project! I really want a gallery show in November or January.

2. Last week I did a workshop with groundbreaking Las Vegas based photographer John Michael Cooper of Alt-F. Let’s just say he’s the guy who invented the idea of ‘trash the dress’ or what has morphed into my fearless bridals — as in, not limiting the dress to sit in a box forever without being properly commemorated. At the end of the workshop, we watched him do an art bridal shoot…. recreating [in the rain] the image of little red riding hood (look carefully in the right side foreground for the wolf, which was actually his dog). We then watched as he made a composite of about 10 images to bring his final product to life. Intense and stunning. And too much work for me! Also of great note is my backside prominently featured as I was photographing jmc doing the zipline swing halfway through the video at the bottom. [ link to blog post ]

Melissa was my fifth JUXTAPOSITION session. Last week, she took us out to Old Stone Church in West Boylston MA and we also explored a few other places… Jungle Jim’s Garden Center, Vivian’s Café, and this little Best Western that looked like it was stuck wayyyy back in the 40s (in a bad way). Of course we stopped to get ice cream at the end.

Here are a few of my session favorites.

This morning I met up with Brittany at the Franklin Park zoo and did the sixth JUXTAPOSITION session in the butterfly house and on the carousel!! Thanks to Brian the awesome carousel operator for rocking our world!

recent bride: Melissa
photographer: Rachel Hadiashar
assisted by: Meg Belanger, Joyelle Davis
location: Old Stone Church, Jungle Jim’s Garden Center, Vivian’s Café, Best Western (West Boylston, MA)

[ more photos here and here ]

Marilyn took Jimmy and I with her to George’s Island, one of Boston’s Harbor Islands. There’s a crumbling old abandoned military fort out there that is totally open for exploration. So we did. The results are spectacular. By her request, I am posting a few, but won’t have the rest for awhile here. All of these use a special super wide lens known as a ‘fisheye’ that adds funky distortion around the edges.

Thank you SO MUCH to those who I’ve been working with to schedule bridal sessions for the juxtaposition project. I’ve only released two edits out of the four we’ve shot so far, and already everyone seems to love the work. And those of you who have helped on the session, pointed people in my direction, and sent words of feedback and encouragement (you know who you are)… I LOVE YOU.

I have been making the first girls wait a bit while I get things in order, but now I am pleased to announce that the final design is in. I hired James Kershaw to design a graphic to work as a standalone and to layer over the juxtaposition photos… for display and for the BOOK PROJECT… and he did a fantastic job. I look forward to using this beautiful graphic.

Between weddings, travel, bridal shoots, and Boston boudoir photography, I am now completely booked solid until late September. I won’t be taking any new commissions until after I am back in the states and settled back after two weeks in Manchester, England for a wedding in August. September is a month of constant travel (Phoenix, Minneapolis, Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut, Long Island). Of note: it will be my first time in Minnesota.

I’d like to get together a few Phoenix boudoir sessions when I am there (September 21-26). Anyone know anyone out there?

As for the future, let’s just say Hawaii is on the books for December, and I’m already thinking about a very special boudoir project involving naughty santa goods in November. Candy canes and Santa hats, anyone?

And… I’d love to do a gallery installation with images from the juxtaposition project. I am working on a proposal right now.