Amsterdam

Greetings from Koln, Germany! Lee and I are here in Europe for two weeks. Laura has been gracious enough to house sit and watch Ray while we are gone.

I am going to try my very best to post every couple days. With internet connections and crazy schedules, I am not sure if it will always be possible. I will try though!

Mel and Shannon are two of our very closest friends. They recently moved to Koln Germany. I shot their wedding, and refused to take any money (seriously, they are some of our very best friends...) Well, they didn't like taking no for an answer - so they bought us two tickets to Germany. And now we are here.

We arrived Saturday at 8am Germany time (2 am EST). I slept (in between doing about 1,000 toe/heel taps for my stupid legs). Lee was up the entire time. We toured Koln, which has a huge beautiful cathedral. I didn't have my wide angle lens with me, so I couldn't get a picture. Thus, I am grabbing this from the internet so you can see how big it is... It is HUGE - and absolutely gorgeous.


But in front of this huge, ornate beautiful cathedral, here is what Lee and Mel found:


Now there are probably no two men in the world who like steak more than Lee and Mel. Regardless of your (or my) opinion on the subject, the fact that they found this demonstration was pretty ironic. Of all the pictures of the Dom I expected him to come back with, this did not make my list.

So, then we learn that Amsterdam is only two hours away from Koln by train. So we opt for a day trip. We find it to be both beautiful and insane. This is a typical street in Amsterdam. Notice all the hooks hanging over the tops of the houses. This is how they move in. Grab a couch, hoist it up and through the windows! Also, notice the bikes. There are bikes everywhere. Literally tens of thousands parked everywhere.

Then we get to this part of Amsterdam... pretty, huh? This would be the infamous Red Light district.
Now, I debated whether or not to post this on the blog, (I try to keep this a "family show"), but the picture shows exactly what happens in the Red Light district. These women literally hang out in the windows and ask to talk to the gentlemen walking up and down the street. There are literally hundreds of them. I could have had my camera taken away for taking this picture, but I was able to sneak one.

I am not advocating this in anyway (in fact, I was super sad when I first saw all these women.) I had to post this for the "wow" factor. Crazy, huh?

So, then we get to the other 'feature' of the red light district and Amsterdam: Coffee Shops. Well, let's just say their specialty is not coffee. When you walk by, it makes you wonder if a mini Grateful Dead concert is going on inside. Very smoky. And not the Marlboro kind of smoke.

So, Shannon, Lee, Mel and I wondered upon a graden outside of a building. The boys went nuts. "They have a marijuana plant in their garden!" They seriously went nuts - completely convinced. Until Shannon and I saw what they were looking at and almost fell down laughing. I will leave you with this picture:

(As I am sure you can tell, this is a Maple Tree of some sort.)

Okay, well we are off for now. Time to rent the car and begin our drive. We'll let you know where we wind up.

Have a great day!

Beth

Baby Model Needed!

Hi Everyone!

This is Laura, Beth's Office Manager, and this is officially my first blog post!

A client of ours is looking for a baby model for a Commercial style shoot.

We are looking for babies that are between 3 and 6 months that are good natured and have LOTS of personality.

If you or anyone you know are interested, please email a photo of your baby to info@bethmerritt.com . Close-up pictures are preferred (i.e. head and shoulders). All pictures we receive will be forwarded to our client to review. The shoot will be during the week of May 11th 2009. For participating, the family will receive a free sitting fee for a shoot with Beth.

Thank you for your help! Keep an eye out for more of my blog posts during the next few weeks!

Laura

Blog Update

I have definitely been slacking on the blog front. We haven't been bored here though!

Outdoor shoots have returned with a vengence. (In this economy, I am flattered to be busy!) One problem exisits though: mother nature is not playin' fair. Someone needs to remind her that it is APRIL. I just saw "Winter Storm Warning" on the TV. You have to be kidding me!???

This weekend was c-c-c-o-l-d, and despite the weather we shot outdoors for five hours! This was the beginning of the Urban Sessions, and moms - you did a FABULOUS job getting your kids dressed. I was so thrilled with the outfits. All the kids did wonderful, and my husband Lee saved me by coming to the shoot to give me a pair of gloves and an extra coat so I didn't completely freeze.

We do have a couple of openings left for our Urban Mini Sessions (we had some canellations). As I said in my newsletter, these sessions are perfect for those 5-15 year olds that are less than thrilled with the studio and get that cheesy nervous grin. If you want more information, contact Laura at 248.250.6085 - or e-mail us at info@bethmerritt.com.

Last but not least, we have a new online gallery tool that can save favorites, change images to black& white or sepia, etc, etc... We did a ton of research to try to find a tool that would fit our clients needs. (In the last three years of this business, I think finding a online gallery /ordering tool has proven one of the more challenging things! I finally think we are there though.)

Here are some of my {pretty random} favorites from the last few sessions I have done. (There are a bunch...) I just wanted to make sure I got the blog update in sooner than later, because I've had some folks asking about it.

Sorry for the delay guys...Enjoy!

Beth

PS: Urban Moms from this week, your galleries are up! Laura will be contacting you on Monday with the password.

Cool tidbit about this photo... Grandpa is Robert I and this little boy is Robert III. The goal of the shoot was to celebrate the three generations. I love assignments like this...