As you can see in the photos below, the gorgeous venue, decor, and couple made this a beautiful day to photograph.

Venue: Chesapeake Inn
Cakes: Liz Marden Bakery

See more of their photos in the Facebook Album.

Frances & Daniel’s Chesapeake City, Maryland Wedding

Photos Taken in Chesapeake City, Maryland, United States.

Since her daughters were on a break from school, I had the opportunity photograph all three and turned the baby portrait session into an all female family session.

Delaware Family and Newborn Photographs

Please vote for me by going here and clicking on the Christmas red rectangular video. The title is “Green… say Go!” My video is a completely hand drawn animation of a traffic light morphing into a rainbow, then heart and eventually a BMW:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BMWUSA

Please, please, please, (I’m begging here) Pleeeeeease vote for me once a day! You can cast only one vote per video (mine, please!) each day until April 9, 2012. Anything more than one vote per computer will be excluded by BMW. Also, it would be *wonderful* if you would share this information/post with your friends… I could use every single vote!

Thank you!!

A friend of mine told me about the BMW Desir3 contest, which presented participants with the opportunity to win a BMW 328i. The task was to show your “Desir3″ for a BMW with 5.9 second video – the amount of time it takes BMW’s new 328i to go from 0-60.

The judging criteria:
• Creativity (how creative was the expression of desire)
• Innovation (how innovative; what innovative techniques were used to create the video)
• Passion (is the desire clearly expressed)
• Epic Quality (how big is the idea – is there a wow factor.)

I created my 5.9 second video using Adobe Photoshop CS5, iMovie and Garage Band. I drew/manipulated every single scene using Photoshop CS5, imported the drawings into iMovie to create a stop motion-type video and used Garage Band to combine/manipulate a few sound-clips and create the background music.

The competition is going to be tough, but with your help, maybe I’ll be posting photos of myself in a new BMW! The voting period is from March 27 – April 9. You can vote once per day. So please — share this video with your friends and help me win!!!

On March 30th, Facebook’s Timeline will automatically go live for everyone whether they have prepared by switching over their pages ahead of time, or not. For my personal page, I switched long ago and have gotten quite used to Timeline. I actually kind of -like- it, but the opinions I’ve seen among my friends are very mixed.

The new customizable banner image is one of the most obvious and prominent features of Timeline and one that I really love. Yes, yes, it could possibly have the tendency to look a little gaudy and Myspace-ish but if we all keep that in mind and make tasteful/beautiful banners for our pages, we can do our own little part to prevent this from happening.

For my personal page, I simply used a photo from my albums, but for my business page, I wanted to do something a little special. Some of my favorite Facebook banners managed to make the icon appear to be a seamless element within the main banner image, so I decided to do a little work in Photoshop and make something similar for myself. My banner/icon integration is very subtle, but with the right selection of photos the look can be even more obvious.

You can view it live on my Facebook Page. Be sure to “like” me while you’re there!

I also designed one of these banners for a friend, Neil van Niekerk, who runs a very popular photography tutorial website and he received a lot of positive feedback. Since there seemed to be quite a bit of interest on how I created the banner, I thought it’d be nice if I created a Photoshop template to share. This template and the following instructions should help you create your own Facebook banner with a seamless appearance between the user icon and the Facebook banner itself.

You can view Neil’s banner on his Facebook Page as well.

I can also customize one of these for a personal page if anyone is interested.

If you’re interested in doing this yourself, here is a link to download the banner. (Right-click and save the file “FB-banner-template.zip”) This zip file contains the Photoshop template I’ve created (PSD format) along with a PDF file, which includes all of the instructions within in this post.

Or, If you’d prefer to just have someone else do this for you because you’re in a rush/overwhelmed, not quite familiar enough with Photoshop, or would like specific embellishments/collages done — I’m available! Send me your images and for $75, I will create a custom Facebook banner using the seamless method I’ve detailed below. As you can see with Neil’s Facebook banner, I used several of his fantastic images to make a collage before creating the banner, and also used some additional design elements to make it stand out a bit. Keep in mind that fan page dimensions are different from personal page dimensions, so the seamless aspect will not work for personal pages using this template.

Step 1.) Select the layer: “Place Banner Image”

Goto: File –> Place
Select the image you would like to use and drag the corners to make the image the appropriate size. (Tip: Hold shift while dragging to maintain the correct aspect ratio of the photo.)

You can also move the photo around with the mouse to put it exactly where you’d like. Make sure enough of the image will extend below, into the layer where the icon is placed. This section will eventually become your icon, so pay close attention to the square/icon area as well.

When you’re done arranging the photo, push enter/return.

Step 2.) Now you need to create a clipping mask, which can be done several ways. The layer with your image should still be selected. The easiest way to create a clipping mask is to push:

command+option+G (Mac)
or
control+alt+G (PC)

Step 3.) Next, while holding alt (PC) or option (Mac) click and drag the layer with your image underneath the layer titled: "Drag Image for Icon Below This Layer".

You may notice that the layer opacity is reduced. This was done so you could view exactly where your image would extend into the icon area. Now we need to increase the opacity so the full image can be viewed. Do this by selecting the ‘IconImageHolder’ layer and drag the layer opacity slider to 100%.

Step 4.) Now – save for Facebook

Hide all images except for the layer with your image, "FacebookBannerHolder" and the "Background" layer. Do this by clicking on the little eye to the left of the layer name. When the eye is not visible, the layer is hidden. (Tip: Complete your normal sharpening process here on the layer with your image. I prefer to use: Filter –> Sharpen –> Smart Sharpen, but as with everything in Photoshop, there are a million ways to do everything.)

Goto: File –> Save for Web & Devices – Quality 90%.

This will be your full banner to use on the cover photo.

Step 5.) To get the icon image, hide all images except for "IconImageHolder" and the layer with your actual icon image (which should be right above "Icon Image Holder.")

Select the layer named "IconImageHolder", use the magic wand selection tool (tolerance should be set to ’0′) and select the blank area of the image.
Goto: Select –> Inverse
then
Goto: Image –> Crop

Step 6.) Now – save for Facebook. Again – complete your normal sharpening process here before saving.
Goto: File –> Save for Web & Devices – Quality 90%.

If you would like to keep a copy of the PSD file with all of your layers in tact and no cropping, simply goto Edit –> Step Backward and then save the PSD file. You could also unhide the layers again if you’d like to see it all pretty and perfect like your new banner will appear.

Voila!

Photos Taken in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States.

I photographed this beautiful bride at The Palace in Somerset New Jersey. Doesn’t she remind you of Charlize Theron? What an exceptionally gorgeous famous look-a-like to have.

I felt like I was photographing the wedding of a movie star, and what better place for such a glamorous couple to get married than the auspicious Palace, in Somerset, New Jersey. I photographed this stunning couple alongside one of the best New Jersey wedding photographers, Neil van Niekerk.

Wedding in Somerset, New Jersey at The Palace

Photos Taken in Franklin Township, New Jersey, United States.

This offbeat wedding took place in a backyard in Maryland facing the gorgeous Chesapeake Bay.

I hung out with the groom and his family as the bride was preparing and being photographed by Rob, of Rob Korb Photography. While she was busy being pampered and treated like a queen on her wedding day, her loving groom was cutting flowers and preparing the backyard for their beautiful one-of-a-kind wedding. There were so many do it yourself aspects to this wedding that really made it unique and one of a kind. I love weddings like this! You can really see the personality of the couple shine through in every little detail.

Offbeat Backyard Wedding in Maryland

Photos Taken in Cambridge, Maryland, United States.

It took me quite a while to make friends in Delaware after moving here from Maryland. Our daughters attended school together in Wilmington and almost an entire school year passed before we finally spoke more than a smiley hello to one another. However, soon after one of our first conversations, we quickly realized that we just… cliqued! I am very lucky to call her a “friend”.

I can’t wait to meet her beautiful new baby girl who has two big sisters excitedly waiting for her arrival.

Liz’s Delaware Maternity Photos

Photos Taken in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States.

Below are a few of my favorite photos from the day, which were taken at the gorgeous Shadowbrook wedding venue in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.

Shadowbrook in Shrewsbury, New Jersey Wedding

Photos Taken in Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey, United States.

Baywood Greens Delaware Wedding

Photos Taken in Millsboro, Delaware, United States.

In October I had the opportunity to take Neil’s photography lighting workshop in NYC. Listening to Neil speak and explain things in real time, really made his books come alive for me. Bells were going off left and right. I finally felt like I was “getting it.”

Neil taught us the bare basics up to more advanced techniques and along the way he made sure each and every participant reached a firm understanding before we moved on to the next lighting concept. He makes sure the foundation is solid before building and adding more, so nothing was ever confusing or overwhelming – just enlightening.

We learned how he uses his famous black foamie thing to create studio quality lighting with only on camera flash, off camera flash, gels, video lights and how to balance flash photography with natural lighting.

My only regret is that I didn’t take this workshop years ago when I first started photographing weddings and taking photographs of my daughter inside my house, where the black foamie thing has been a particularly useful concept.

Below are a few of my favorite photos from the workshop. Thank you so much to Neil and the beautiful models — I had a great time and learned a lot!

Flash Photography Workshop