Sara and Todd have become some of our favorite people to hang out with. We laugh ourselves silly and yet have always enjoyed meaty conversations about marriage, family and the Lord. We just love them and can’t say enough about the stellar character of this couple.

We knew she was up for a real challenge with our two gems. Bennett can be fairly cooperative with the camera but Chloe is flat out disinterested in anything having to do with photos. It is beyond frustrating to take photos of them. After 2 years of Bennett being around we still never managed to get one photo of the two of them together. I kid you not. You will see Sara’s brilliance literally emerge through these photographs as she worked her magic and broke through their stubborn disinterest and pulled out some amazing candids and some fabulous posed shots. Enjoy the two greatest things we have ever done.

Not the most enthused about photos being done.

The picture of cooperation.

slightly better

Success

One money shot of both looking and BOTH smiling. It is Portnoy history. I was hoping for one and we got it! Sarah and Cookie the dog on her head were a magical team.

We tried to recreate a picture that Ryan’s brother shot almost three years ago. It is blown up in our house and one of my favorites!

Unfortunately, Chloe managed to be a Class A Poophead and not cooperate. Okay, I’ll admit, it is kinda funny and really adorable.

Because we can and it is glorious.

Time to wrangle them into their next outfit change. As if it wasn’t hot enough.

I’m going to break you into the cuteness a little at a time.

Yes, she is 3.5 and her hair is that amazing. This kid is follicley blessed.

A moment of sharing, this is definitely worth documenting.

I’m obviously unaware of the next photo. This is the major inside joke between us and Sara. She used to have a Facebook profile picture that was sorta squatted down like this. When we were taking their pictures in the fall Ryan kept leaning down like this taking shots to make them laugh and poke fun at Sarah. His four foot long legs look like a praying mantis so somehow along the way of joking the move got coined as “The Pantis”. Now Sara and Todd refer to us as the Pantis’s. There, now you are in the loop, don’t you feel special?

Love this one of Bennett

I have to end with these last two because they make me smile and laugh and thank the Lord I got a girl! She is obsessed with wearing my heels and is amazingly coordinated at wearing them around even on brick!

Sara, I could never do what you do and these were my kids. Your patience, humor and encouragement during the hours we spent together were incredible. You are so insanely dear to us. We love you and Todd so much and look forward to the next double date with you guys. This time, don’t get all dramatic and break your foot again :-)

Looking back at these last 3 and a half years of children, I see a woman who has grown in so many ways. You took on a challenge that you didn’t know you could pull off. I know you doubt yourself. I know you have fears. I know you feel inadequate, but I want you to know that I could not have hand-picked a better woman to raise our children. God knew what he was doing and I thank Him for you I admire you. I want to be like you. I love you.

I felt it only fitting to begin our series on our Miami trip with the brilliant lyrical stylings of Will Smith. I mean does it get any more descriptive than that opening? To fully get in the mood, listen here. I had to chuckle when our friend Adam, emailed to see how our trip was and included the video in his email. Oh man…time-warp back to the year I graduated COLLEGE!!! 1998 for you not savvy with Mr. Smith’s hits.

So let’s get to the teaser first before we dive into the Portnoy family album.

We are super duper pumped to share Michele and Kenley’s wedidng with you all. But as traveling for almost a week would have it….there are a million logistical duties requiring our time and attention first. To appease your ravenous appetites for spring loveliness….take a bite out of these gems.

The STUNNING Michele.

There is more where that came from. Check back in a few days for a full report.

On to some highlights from our trip. We built in two extra days to relax and recuperate from traveling. I’m gonna say it. As beautiful as Miami is, it is not a fit for our interests. I know…gasp….we are not “party till the break of dawn” people which is definitely the theme of this city. Although I could laze away my days on the beach reading….Ryan, being all Irish and such…prefers to keep the sun to a minimal. We had some excellent recommendations (Thank you Crystal!) for food and places to site see, so that took up most of our time. It was SOOOOO nice not to have a laptop in our faces or kids tugging on us. We could come and go as we pleased, totally awesome!

After being in the city for about an hour we headed to an amazing Haitian restaurant called Tap Tap. I was very proud of Ryan for spreading his palette wings and trying new things. Both of us were pleased with our dishes. I ate everything but the plate. I also indulged in Zagat’s #1 rated Mojito in Miami….YUM!

Fried Plantains

Deep in thought or filming a Cymbalta commercial…you be the judge.

We did walk on the beach.

Took in the Art Deco district.

Picked up the kids some cheap stuff. We indulged Bennett’s fascination for cars.

Speaking of cars…how was this for a rental upgrade? PEEEEEIMP!

We even snuck in an afternoon matinee of Alice and Wonderland in 3D….MATINEE on a Saturday people…we were living LARGE!!!!

Hit up Anthropologie….deep breath. Scored fuchsia tights on sale and an adorable dish towel. (we were over our weight limit on our luggage. Literally and figuratively could not afford to buy anything). I would love to do a photo shoot in Anthropologie, detail heaven.

Our last night we indulged in some Cuban food.

Empanadas!!! That tasty delight on the right was a steak, avocado, and roasted potato salad. Oh yeah, I had a food baby going after the last bite. Jeans were a bad idea.

So there you have it. A couple snippets into our long weekend in Miami. Nothing earth shattering but good none the less. Adios!

I have been trying so hard to keep the paci tucked away for as much of the day as possible, but there are some days I can’t bear the whining and the begging. Today was one of those days. Unlike a nice, compassionate mother who would heed to his cry for relief and soothing, I pulled the camera out. Join me on the journey will you?

This is Bennett “Shakespeare” Portnoy, what a looker.

This is Bennett happy, putting out the vibe while organizing his cars. So happy, carefree, what could be wrong?

But wait…Bennett just remembered he hasn’t cried in the last five minutes.

But “Curious George” is on and he would have to break away to do his full on tantrum for his paci. Bennett is rocking his “grouper mouth” as Ryan calls it. I am sure you think we are horrible parents for all our nicknames. We do it behind their backs so it is okay. (wink!)

Yup it is worth missing George, my teeth hurt. “PAHHHHHHCI over dere” ( I would like it to be known he was sitting on my legs and I was laying on my back holding the camera up in the air hoping I was in focus….jackpot!)

“PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!”

“PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”

“Over DERE!!!!!”

“MAMA (whimpering begins)”

Wait for it

Wait for it

Wait for it

There it is

and here come the real tears

Before you send hate mail, I did put the camera down and give him his paci…but these gems are priceless to look back on! I mean if you knew how many times a day this little routine played out you would actually feel sorry for me.

On a lighter note I do think I should get an award for creating the most ghetto craft ever! Chloe asked if she could be a unicorn like her favorite stuffed animal. Unicorn…right….okay…..construction paper, tape, scissors, how hard can it be?

Kids will wear ANYTHING!!! I could not stop laughing at them and they loved it! I would also like you to know that the elastic on their heads was cut from the fetal monitor straps I kept after labor thinking “This is good elastic, I should keep this.” I consider it tipping my hat to the earth today and living green. HAHA…man I am the farthest thing from green but I did laugh at my “recycling” today.

At least one kid was in a good mood today.

What a goob…love her!

There you go…that is the art of crying by Bennett! Hope you enjoyed spending the morning with us. If you see Bennett sitting on the curb with a bow on his head, now you know what you are getting in to!

Jeremy is a master of off camera lighting, Photoshop, and truly a photojournalist (I hate how that term is tossed around in the photography industry). His bodies of work are along two distinctively different veins, the “haves” and the “have nots”. Carrie Underwood one day and Africa the next. He has had two books published documenting his travels overseas including my personal favorite, Hope in the Dark.

I will say it, I came on board with Jeremy only because of Ryan. Ryan has been following Jeremy since his graphic and web design days….long before he was the official tour photographer for Brittany Spears. Ryan is a true blue loyal fan of Jeremy’s work.

I am a fan of Jeremy’s heart (and so is Ry). He loves him some Jesus and he has an extreme soft spot for those in the world that are “the least of these”. He is passionate to tell the stories of those who can not do it for themselves, to bring humanitarian relief, medical care, and love. THIS, my friends, is worth taking a moments pause. THIS is what makes my heart race and my pulse quicken. THIS is using gifts to bless others in eternal ways.

So that is Jeremy. He’s pretty radicalmungo!

Back to the workshop. This was Ryan and my first time attending a photography workshop. We were pretty pumped that it was generic in the sense that it wasn’t wedding-focused. Don’t get me wrong, we can talk shop about weddings all day but we know we won’t be doing that forever, let us just learn more about the scope of photography. We sat in a room with 18 other photographers, some just starting, some seasoned in their field. Jeremy’s theme was simple and yet profound, “What is your passion?”

The first night Jeremy walked us through his journey growing up exploring the creative arts. He also took us through his entire website critiquing his own work and telling stories about certain celebrities or breaking down the way he lights things. Apparently, Jeremy and I were surfing the same wavelength because in a room full of 20 people you could hear my nasally chuckle on and off for two hours. Me and ONLY me was laughing at his commentary. What can I say, I am a sucker for dry, self-deprecating humor!

The next day was full of lighting knowledge as we watched Jeremy work with four models lighting things off-camera and with natural lighting. We watched how his direction, posing, and composition come together. Each of us gleaning little nuggets of wisdom from a master. Then it was our turn to work with the models and for his assistant to come around and let us lock into some off-camera lighting. We had an hour and then we had to pick three photos to be projected on a MASSIVE wall and critiqued.

Cue nervous sweat and poo cramps. OH MAN…I don’t care how many comments we receive, how many fans on FB or Twitter followers….you are your own worst critic. We always chuckle when people sing our praises (although very much appreciated!!) If you think we are big fish then you clearly don’t know how big the pond is! To have a little piece of your soul projected 20 feet by 12 feet on a wall is humbling.

******HONESTY ALERT******

I, Kelly Portnoy, have never shot in manual until the Jeremy Cowart workshop. For those of you non-photographers reading you could care less about that statement. For those of you photographers reading you may have gasped a little.

I mean REALLY…and you call yourself a professional? Yup, darn skippy I do.

I remember clearly listening to a photography GIANT, Cliff Mauntner speak on the showroom floor at WPPI last year bagging on photography snobs that say you HAVE to shoot on manual. He confessed he doesn’t shoot manual all the time and he is known as one of the top ten wedding photographers in THE WORLD! It’s the end product we are going for and there are a gazillion ways to achieve that. So what if I shoot aperture value or shudder priority. I achieve what I am going for.

BUT, I confess…I am a parasitical photographer of Ryan’s skills. We joke that Ryan has technology autism. Me, not so much. He can read a manual folks (gag) and digest and retain all that he reads. I am visual ALLLLL the way. Show me, let me see what you are talking about, practice it, (cue lightbulb) AHA! That is how I learn and that is how I have been learning all along the way. Organically! Truthfully, I have felt insecure though not being able to shoot in manual. I wanted to understand the camera more and be able to troubleshoot lighting situations without my little nerd husband (said lovingly) being there to bail me out if I got stuck. It was important to me. I decided for 2010 I was going manual, not that I won’t have a fling or two on the side with AV and TV….but I was going to show my camera who was boss. Own it baby!

So here we go….I am in a group with four other ladies and given a professional model to work with. Lacey was incredible! Sweet as the day is long. I don’t know who I felt more sorry for, her or me. It was 5:1 ratio and her name was being yelled every two seconds to look here or there, act this way or that. It is very hard to grab a shot or frame up a shot when you are literally on top of another photographer doing the same thing. Five vultures on a fresh piece of meat.

Example: I do not lie…this was the reality

I took my time, talking myself through my settings and just went for it on manual. This is what I came up with during my time with Lacey and the vultures (I LOVED the ladies I was with).

This is where I will say my epiphany happened. I really really love photographing women. Figuring out feminine angles and body language. I love pulling the vulnerability and inner beauty out. I love processing with soft, vintage tones, this is ME in photo form. This is where I want to continue to go.

Transitioning outside.

The windows she was just leaning against acted as the most amazing reflector when we brought her further into the courtyard. None of these next photos were shot with a flash.

So then we moved into this very cool restaurant with awesome blue glass walls aptly called Sapphire. This is what the room looked like without any lighting whatsoever.

CONFESSION #2!!! Here is the moment folks, the first time I locked into off-camera lighting. Besides running a sharpening action, these are right out of camera.
Ryan is the only one who uses off-camera when we shoot receptions or portraits. I stick with my external flash. Ignorance is bliss or is it?

Loved using it! It was great practicing with it. I also enjoyed going back to Jeremy’s studio and watching him use these insane octobanks showing us how to balance off camera lighting. He immediately showed us frame by frame what each shot looked like as more lighting was added and moved around. Visual Kelly grabbed on immediately…AHA!

So then came the critique time. Both Ryan and I were fairly unscathed with just minor criticisms of our post processing and composition. Jeremy was gentle.

There is so much more but this post is enormous and I haven’t even addressed what is ahead for Kellan. We learned a lot while we were there, mostly subtle things about our business future. We had 9 hours in the car to discuss what was on our heart about Kellan and our passions. Where were we going and shy and how does this affect our marriage, our children, Ryan’s full-time job.

Most people do not realize that this is not a full-time gig for us and there are no plans for it going full time. Although we have been blown away by what the Lord has done with Kellan in 3.5 years we also learned the hard way in 2008 that pursuing wedding photography full time is not a fit for us. We have such a young family and plan on adding one more freakishly large child to the crew in the near future. We have only been married for 4.5 years and rather enjoy being together at home. Ryan was blessed with an AMAZING day job as a commercial photographer and web designer for a SAHWEET leather design company, Moore and Giles Inc. He gets to use his camera skills almost daily and loves it!

We drastically backed off on bookings in 2009 to just two weddings/month and for 2010 we backed off even more to one wedding/ month (with the exception of Oct and July). Our priority is our marriage and family and because of that we have had to make the choice to conscientiously step back from the wedding industry, get really darn picky about our clients and travel at a rate that fits our family. If you are one of our 2010 clients then pat yourself on the back, you made the cut! HA! I think we are going to get even more stingy about 2011.

We will never regret putting our marriage and children first and walking away from a lot of success that was handed to us so quickly. This is what is right for US, this is our conviction and what we feel clearly the Lord is showing us to do.

We learned we are passionate about making “pretty” photos. That may sound elementary but you have to understand how fickle this industry is. You can literally sell your first born to keep up with equipment. Editing trends come and go like the tide. Lighting options are endless. Finding your voice in an industry that is SATURATED is very difficult to do. The bottom line is we are paid very well by our clients and they should get our best. What will always be timeless and something we are proud of, especially when working with mostly brides is pretty photos. Photos that make you say “OOOOOHHHHHHH”. We want women, brides and couples to see our photos and say, THAT is how I have always dreamed of being photographed. This is what we want to be known for, that is where we feel we are approaching but want to push ourselves even farther.

I hope you have enjoyed a little voyage into my brain and back again. We hope to continue to encourage and inspire those who are fair-weathered voyeurs of our work and to those budding photographers looking for advice or seasoned vets that sharpen us in the industry. Thanks for 3.5 years of love, support and patience as we continually learn to grow in our craft.

In the meantime, please keep up with us through our often witty and sometimes melodramatic twitters at:
kellyportnoy and ryanportnoy (very clever, we know!) Or you can go to the cute little blue bird on the home page, right-hand column and click on our latest tweet.

Also, we have never pushed our Facebook fanpage on our website but if you are a Facebook junkie than please come and get connected to us here. There is a junior higher in all of us waiting to be affirmed in every public forum. Let us sit with you at the lunch table, will you?

Have a very Merry Christmas and New Year. We are so thankful for the incredible brides and grooms we have had the privilege to work with this year. By far, the best year ever! We can’t wait to recap some favorite moments in the Besties. Stay tuned!!

Because Jesus was born,

Kelly, Ryan, Chloe and Bennett!!