Little Helper

As is true every year, this year's Wallflower/Schoeggl Christmas card features our golden retriever Bailey. She graciously agreed to share the spotlight this year with Caleb, who is now seven and a half months old!

We shot this photo in front of Caleb's closet, and getting our two subjects to perform together, on cue, was a fruitless endeavor. Yes, even photographers can fail to have a perfect family photo! Reviewing our shots afterwards, we found that every photo had some flaw — so we broke out the advanced Photoshop skills to synthesize a "perfect" shot.

The base photo that we chose had Caleb tucked perfectly into Bailey, who moved just a second or two after the shot was taken. But in that photo, Bailey wasn't smiling and Caleb's left elf-ear was drooping.

We ended up using a total of four photos to make the one you see above. In addition to the base photo, we borrowed Bailey's smile from one, a perky left elf-ear from another, and a section of Bailey's leg from a third to patch the part of her leg that had been blocked by the droopy elf-ear. Voila!

We use this technique for our clients, too. For example, big group photos at weddings often have someone blinking, frowning, or otherwise not looking their best, but we can borrow open eyes, smiles, or even whole faces from other photos to create our final image. Our clients never know, and that's how we like it.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We wish you all the best in 2010.

Alums Tie the Knot

It was a lot of fun for us this summer to return to our alma mater for the wedding of Helen and Patrick, two fellow University of Puget Sound alums who selected Kilworth Chapel on campus for their wedding. (You can see their engagement pics here.)

Before arriving at the Tacoma chapel, Helen got ready with her girls at a friend's home nearby. Is it a sign of the times? Helen, months before, had programmed a "get married" reminder into her iPhone, which went off just before she wiggled into her dress.

Back at the chapel, bright colors were out in full force, thanks to some absolutely stunning wedding floral arrangements by Fiore Blossoms. Against the backdrop of Kilworth Chapel's signature organ pipes, the couple exchanged their vows, rings, and first kiss, then exited through the church doors in a flurry of rose petals thrown by guests.

We toured some of our favorite spots on campus for portraits with Helen and Pat while their guests headed over to the reception at Tacoma's classic Union Station. Here are a handful of our favorites showing off the ivy-draped brick walls and archways of our beloved campus.

This wedding was one of the most visually lush that we attended all year, with well-thought-out and well-done details from start to finish. It was a treat for us photographers! Check out Helen and Pat's creative approach to table seating cards, which recognized Union Station's history as a train depot.

After a great dinner, a round of toasts, and cake by Celebrity Cake Studio, the dancing and party began! Guests were energized by the musical stylings of cover band Daryl and the Diptones. Pat even took a competent turn on the drums!

Helen and Pat left Union Station under the glow of our favorite nighttime traditions — sparklers!

A double congrats to Helen and Pat, who not only tied the knot this summer but are expecting the arrival of their first child soon. We're so excited for you!

Two Gorgeous Albums

Wow, it has been a really long time since our last post! Even though the "wedding season" ends in October and we only average about a wedding a month until spring, we're still very busy fulfilling print and album orders through Christmas. Plus, we've been working on some exciting new developments that we look forward to announcing soon!

We'll catch our blog up to our last two months of weddings and portrait sessions soon. In the meantime, we wanted to share a few photos of two amazingly gorgeous albums that arrived this week and are awaiting pickup. Both albums are metal-covered 11x14 Pictobooks, which is our main album line and what we believe to be the best albums on the market.

First is the album of Helen and Chris, a Museum of Glass wedding you can read about here. They chose the brushed aluminum cover with black leather binding and 3x7 cameo. This cover shimmers beautifully as light catches the fine scratches from different angles.

Here's one of the portrait session spreads, with the couple and their young daughter in front of the Hotshop Cone. One of the great features of these Pictobook albums is the ability to run a single photo from left edge to right, resulting in a 14x22 image. That's a HUGE size to be in an album. For comparison, our traditional wedding albums max out at 8x10.

Next is the album of Mikaely and Pat at Union Station, which you can read about here. They chose the gunmetal gray cover with chocolate black leather binding and 3x7 cameo. This cover just begs to be touched! The wavy-ribbed metal has a very soft feel that is so appealing.

This photo shows the album opened to the front spread, which we used as a title page featuring a lovely silhouette of the bride and groom in front of Union Station's Monarch Window, featuring Chihuly glass attached to the historic window lead.

Both albums come with a glossy cherry storage box, and we just started paying a little extra to have the Wallflower logo etched onto it, in place of the Pictobooks logo. The box is velvet-lined to protect the albums when they aren't being enjoyed.

These books, and the photos inside them, are real family heirlooms, and we love thinking about how they will be enjoyed not only by our clients, but by their future generations as well.