If you want to see images from some of the best photographers in the world – check out Fearless Photographers.  I am honored and ecstatic to be a part of such a talented group of photographers who see light, color, contrast, emotion, moments and beauty that is both simplistic and breathtaking at the same time.  Gone are the days of just taking pretty pictures with which to remember the wedding day.  It’s been kicked up quite a few notches, folks.

Here is my image that placed in the Round 5 competition.  Yes, I won an award for taking a photo of a few butts!

While you’re at it, you should peruse the entire gallery of winning images from this round – Fearless Photographers Round 5 – and be sure to click LIKE for the ones you like as they narrow it down for a best in show!!!

It’s been a while and I am feeling in the contest hosting type of mood.  Details are being worked out so just stay tuned for the big announcement.  And I mean BIG this time!!!  This contest will call for creativity and use various social media so add this blog to your RSS feed, follow Metimages on Twitter and become a fan of Metimages on Facebook!

Lisa & Todd, July 4, 2009 of the Metropolitan Imageworks Best Wedding Image of 2009 contest.  A huge thank-you to all the couples who participated and to everyone who took the time to vote. We received an incredible 149 total votes! Lisa and Todd’s wedding image won with 59 of those votes!

The winning image will be made into a 16×20 Canvas Gallery Wrap and presented to Lisa and Todd!

Congratulations!!!

The Metimages Best Wedding Image of 2009 contest is open until midnight central time on March 1st so you have 5 more days to vote!

Go to the contest blog post, look at all the images and register and leave a comment for your favorite image. Please include your name in your registration!

Best Wedding Image of 2009 Blog Post

I’m proud to announce that one of my images received 8th place in the Venue/Location category of the ISPWP, International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, Winter Contest for 2009. It’s such an honor to be recognized with the incredible amount of talent in the membership of the ISPWP. This is my fourth winning image so I am ecstatic.

Check out the full gallery of winning images.

This image was taken on the rooftop of the Madison Museum of Modern Art in Madison, Wisconsin during one of my July 2009 weddings.

2009 marked another fantastic year for the team at Metropolitan Imageworks and I wanted to celebrate. We’re having a contest for the Best Image of 2009 and it will be decided by a public vote!  I asked all of our wedding clients to share their favorite image from their wedding and tell me why. The consensus was that it was very hard to decide and pick just one, that’s the best response I could hope for. Fortunately, each participating couple was finally able to narrow it down.

Everyone’s invited to vote!  You can simply place your vote by leaving your name & email address and a comment at the end of the post below (one per person please). We will be verifying email addresses and IP addresses.  The image with the most votes will be made into a 16×20 canvas wrap and given to the winning couple.  Voting will be open from now until March 1st.

(Hint: Click on the image to enlarge if you need a bigger view.)

Ready? Set? Vote!

#1 – Niki & Peter – 04.25.09 – This one is my favorite because it captures the time of month that we got married, late April where the leaves still have not started coming back on the trees. Also, I like the moment it captures of just Peter and I with nature and no one else.

#2 – Eileen & James – 08.08.09 – It was 95+ degrees on the day of my wedding, and my father had been joking that he was going to wear shorts.  I kept saying that it was fine by me, but my mother told him he had to wear a full suit.  When he went to get ready at the hotel he realized that the dry cleaner had not included his pants with his suit jacket!  He would be forced to wear his shorts! I loved the AC/DC feel of the look, and his pants did show up in time for the ceremony, but heck, the man is 70 years old.  If he wants to wear his shorts he can. Since I was wearing a less traditional short dress, I loved that my father had his less traditional sport coat and shorts combo. It makes me laugh every time I look at it.  So while I adore all the pictures of my wonderful husband and me…  that’s the one that stands out.

#3 – Katie & Tom – 06.27.09 – I love it because it really shows everyone’s personality, and the spirit of the day, which was joyous and excited and ready to party!!

#4 – Natalie & Anthony – 11.07.09 – To me, this image shows a fun, happy, casual couple who are saying to the camera “we can take on the world together”.  This pose is not a standard pose and I love it for that.

#5 – Nora & Russell – 08.01.09 – Something about being in nature and the wind blowing that day, remember?  The black and white gives it an old feel and the church in the background looks great. We are not the only focus in the picture, its like nature and us are one.

#6 – Emily & Michael – 09.12.09 – This was taken right as the ceremony ended, and we turned to walk back down the aisle.  The two of us are so intimate and seemingly unaware of anyone else in the room.

#7 – Michelle & Don 02.15.09 – I like a couple of the cake pics due to the comedy factor. I think this time I’ll choose the one where I’m holding my nose as Don gets ready to feed me the cake. It’s my favorite because you can almost hear everyone laughing as I anticipate the worst. I just knew he was going to be coaxed into shoving it up my nose and I didn’t want to walk around the rest of the night with icing in my nose, and everyone thinking it was “something else”! The next pic almost goes with it because then it ended up down my dress!

#8 – Kristi & Jake – 12.12.09 – The picture captures all of the emotions from our special day. It was magical, romantic, and absolutely perfect to us. We truly felt like we were part of a fairytale, and this photo shows just that.

#9 – Jenny & Christian – 06.26.09 – This is our favorite picture because after all the planning from the flowers to the invitations to the photographer (yay Rachael!), this is what it is all really about: both of us saying our vows in front of our family and friends.

#10 – Kate & Josh – 03.21.09 – It was taken in Daley Plaza in front of the Picasso as were dancing, enjoying ourselves (and the unseasonably warm weather for March). The one word to describe this photo is “whimsical”.  Having such a beautiful photo in front of the Picasso, a Chicago icon, is icing on the (wedding) cake.

#11 – Linda & Roger – 05.24.09 – The reason we love this photo is because it captures the whole day for us and every time we see it, it brings us right back.  The light wind picking up my veil, the sunshine, having Mango there and our happiness as we look forward to walking down the aisle.

#12 – Erin & John – 10.11.09 – Our favorite wedding picture is the black and white picture where John and I are kissing on the railroad tracks at the train station. We are walking and our backs are toward the camera.  We love this picture because it has the gorgeous clock tower in the background.  It also is like we are starting out a wonderful journey together.

#13 – Dusty & D.J. – 07.11.09 – This image is my favorite because it is a piece of artwork. The colors, composition and feeling of the image are absolutely beautiful. It also portrays the tone of the day so well; complete joy!

#14 – Christina & Jon – 07.25.09 – We loved how this picture captured the action and emotion of the moment… The looks on out faces are priceless!

#15 – Rebecca & Ryan – 09.19.09 – We love this picture because there is something intimate about it, even with neither of us looking at each other or the camera.  We also like the design of the architecture behind us.  The composition is perfect and the color is soft.

#16 – Lisa & Todd – 07.04.09 – Among so many of our amazing photos, this one became one of our personal favorites.  It caught a quiet moment between the two of us that captured everything we are:  happy, joyous, casual, silly, giggly and absolutely in love.  The softness of the photo also portrays so well of who we are and the beautiful setting of our day.

#17 – Mandy & Anton – 05.09.09 – There were many favorites to pick from, but I love this one because it captures the water-front yet laid-back setting and our complete joy at our wedding!

#18 – Nikki & Scott – 07.12.09 – We really liked this black and white picture because it not only included the whole bridal party, but it captured everyone’s excitement on our special day!

#19 – Lauren & Jeffrey – 08.01.09 – It captures the pure bliss I was feeling on the most wonderful day of my life – so far!

#20 – Nicole & Don – 06.05.09 – Seeing that Don was up to his usual shenanigans, Nicole selected the perfect “Teacher Look” to let him know that Rachael wanted us to pose BY the Kangaroo, not IN the kangaroo.

#21 – Ashlea & Cody – 06.20.09 – This is my favorite picture because I think that it shows off walking off into our new lives together and the lighting and my dress look amazing!

Thanks for participating!

Rachael & the Metimages Team – Victor, Elizabeth, Kira & Ariel

This photo, taken at my December 31, 2008 wedding in Arizona, placed 9th in the Venue or Location category of the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers Spring 2009 contest.

www.ispwp.com

Congratulations goes out to Susan and Scott of Phoenix, AZ as the winners of the Metropolitan Imageworks Unique Proposal contest!!!

“Christmas truly is a magical time for me, and always has been. I make a fuss over hanging lights, decorating trees, listening to Christmas tunes (especially Elvis), and adhering to the advent calendar. Growing up in Pennsylvania, Christmas was ever present between the snow storms, cutting down your own tree in the woods, and the crisp cold weather. Since moving to Arizona, I have sometimes felt the lack of the Christmas spirit due in large part to the warm weather and it just not feeling like Christmas without the cold weather, snow and my family. Because of this, I had created a journal to document one thing daily throughout the month of December that made it feel like Christmas. Whether it be the first time the weather got cold enough to turn on the heat in the car in the morning on my way to work, putting up the Christmas tree, or even just a fun Christmas movie I watched that day, I was documenting “My Christmas 2008.”

Scott and I have a tradition every year of exchanging Christmas gifts alone on Christmas Eve and watching It’s A Wonderful Life. It is our own private celebration of the magic of Christmas, knowing that Christmas day is spent traveling from one relative’s house to another to enjoy the day with family. On Christmas Eve, after eating dinner and enjoying a nice bottle of wine we sat on the dining room floor with the glow from our Christmas tree as our only source of light and turned on some festive music. I gave Scott his gifts: a shirt and a DVD of his favorite HBO series. Then it was my turn. I opened them all until there was only one small box left. Before opening the box, Scott said to me “Where is your December journal?” When I asked why he said “because I think you might want it for this next one.” I was confused, but I smiled and got my journal and then sat back down and placed it on my lap. He then said “go ahead and open it to today” When I opened the journal to the 24th, the page was already complete. The page was decorated with a black and pink glittery letters that spelled out “will you marry me?” and completed with a smiling Santa staring back at me.

Scott later told me that he and his mother had gone to the local arts and crafts store stayed up all night on the 23rd laughing, talking, and decorating the “will you marry me” page of my journal.

I began to cry uncontrollably. After several minutes of holding each other and sobbing, he reminded me there was one last gift for me to open. The box was small…..I was sure it was a ring.  As I slowly unwrapped the package, Scott explained to me that there was no ring in there but that we would have to pick it out together. Inside the box was a beautiful crystal ring holder. As I opened the last package, Santa Baby was playing throughout the house and the part when she says “forgot to mention one little thing, a ring” played as I opened the box which contained the glass ring dish. I told you he always remembers the details.

Not too much later in the evening, Scott reminded me that we had not yet opened our advent calendars for the day.  He brought my calendar over to me as I still sat by the tree. I opened day 24 on the calendar and the ring fell out. I began to cry once again and hugged Scott so hard and he began to cry as well.  Scott purchased my ring from Bailey, Banks, and Biddle which is the same jeweler that my paternal grandmother and aunts in Philadelphia have purchased all of their jewelry from since the early 1900’s. With everything Scott does, he continues to amaze me on how well he knows me, how much thought and purpose he puts behind all he does for me and quietly reminds me that I will always be his number one. It was the perfect proposal for someone like me who absolutely loves the Holiday season and all the hope and joy that it brings. ”

This proposal story gave all of the judges chills and a few tears as well!!!  We’ll highlight images from Susan and Scott’s wedding on April 10, 2010.

I’m excited to see what Scott comes up with THIS Christmas to top this one!