So, I've added to my playlist with a few good songs I've added to my favorites on Youtube. Youtube is the best! I love music videos, especially the old ones with cheesy 1980's special effects. I also love that smooth early 1990's sound.

I love how much emotion and passion is put into a music video. Some are better than others, and to be a music video director, you have to be at your creative peak all the time. Get out the wide angle shots and get in tight, shoot long, shoot up, shoot down, crane, steadycam, filter this, backlight that, kill the focus, whatever!!! It's exciting! If you want to get good at photography, mimic the shots in a music video for a great challenge. (it might get expensive so don't overdo it!)

I'm also a big fan of the cinema as well. Maybe not so much the experimental film, although some of it is cool (some of it will give you siezures). If you're ever on the UNH campus and you're interested in films as well, check out Film Underground. They are wonderful, and they show all sorts of films on a weekly basis. Some are cult films, others are foriegn films, classic films, and incredibly notoriously bad films (Troll 2 anyone?).

I'm going hiking on Friday, and a Jethro Tull concert on Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes. :D cheers!

A funny thing struck me today; A sudden interest in political affairs hit me like a brick to the jaw. I know it can be hard to satisfy a unique culture of 300 million Americans with legislation and policy. Think about the Chinese government!

I was watching Bill Moyer's Journal on PBS this afternoon for a quick break. A great former Senator told it like it was. Senators spend so much time fund raising and bowing to lobbyist that there cannot be smart unbiased legislation going through the system. You know the golden rule right? Well Sometimes the golden rule doesn't rule for everyone. Freddie and Fanny anyone?

Now I thought that we were supposed to support good businesses and punish bad ones. The Government didn't bail out Enron, or Worldcom, did they? And a lot of honest americans lost money from those scandles. I guess Enron didn't slap down over 200million dollars for lobbying did they?

Former Senator Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings tells it like it is. Take a look at his new book, here. I plan on picking it up this weekend for a good read. I'll tell you more about it when I do. Cheers for now!

It all happened less than 3 weeks ago. Raechel and Ryan Got Married. We got there early around noon to set up. Ben and Paul set up the sound and projector equipment, while I made sure all of my photo gear was ready to go. I had my 2 canon bodies and my flash all set up with long and short lenses.

Also when we arrived the cake was having it's finishing touches applied to it! The cake maker is Carrie Fields. Not only did it look good but it tasted like a dream. Not too sweet, but just the right moisture and texture. Here's her website. Beautiful isn't it? She's in Brunswick Maine if you want a damn good tasting (and looking) cake. Oh yeah, and it was peanut butter and chocolate. Smooth, and not too sweet! Can you imagine??

Everyone was working hard on the preparations. The bride arrived in the other parking lot, but I caught her in the bar with her maids and grandfather right before the ceremony.


And then the Ceremony progressed. It was really cool. I was blessed to have a little space in back of the Pastor for this ceremony. Normally i would have shot with a long lens down the aisle. I did have my tripod set up there just in case. It was hard not to cry myself during the ceremony.After that I went outside to the back of the club and took the formals. This was one of the harder parts of the day (not that it was ever hard). I worked it out all last night to get as many people finished as possible first so they could go inside to the reception. Then it was just the two of them all to myself (or themselves). This is the easy part. They just got married so they are already looking thier best, and really into each other. I just had to stand back and watch the fireworks.

There was wonderful food and dancing all night. We were really blessed to have so many supportive people working to make the day very special. At the end of the night everyone gathered like a gantlet with sparklers. I had no clue what was going on, so I had to get my butt outside to get the shot. It was dark by then. The lighting was beautiful but hard to capture with the bright sparklers, and the ambient light to the dark sky. I had a hard time metering, but I pulled it off. I got the shot, and they got into the car and took off! I wish I had gotten more but the Auto focus had too much to choose from, and manual was not fast enough.

Labels: Wedding Day

Today was storming like craaazy! I just saw the new batman movie! It was wicked awesome, but also a bit sad to know that this is Heath Ledger's last movie!!! What a crummy time to die. I really liked him too, ever since I saw him in "10 Things I Hate About You" he's been one of my favorite "teen" actors. I loved "A Night's Tale" as well. The acting was incredible in "The Dark Knight", and It's a shame he died.

I felt a little embarrassed to find out that Keith Ledger hadn't died at all. I thought it was Keith and shrugged it off. I thought that the Rolling Stones Guitarist had had a good life of sex drugs and rock and roll, and it was his time to go... wait...

"You mean Keith Ledger is not a real person?... Keith Richards? Isn't that the guy who plays Kramer? ... Well It just goes to show I don't watch Entertainment Tonight much... Please tell me that's still on the air!!!... What happened to John Tesh!!??"

Okay, so all in the world isn't as it used to be. It's not the 90's anymore is it? Waking up is hard to do. But when you do wake up it can be very beautiful.

Although it happened on July 5th, I thought I'd share right now about their story from my view. So, Raechel was involved heavily with the swing club at UNH during my junior year. She taught lessons here and there as well. During my second semester, I got an email about some people going down to Boston and dancing at Swing City. There was me, her, and two other friends, Steve and Justin. So we go down to this kid's apartment to meet up with.

This is where I met Ryan Lambert. He seemed to be a very enthusiastic and uppity guy. "I'm going to Wentworth for engineering." We also met up with some of his flatmates, of whom went dancing with us, Derek. We went to this great place for dinner, I think we had pizza, but they might have been a subshop or both. (It was more than a year ago)
Then we went to Open mic night at a huge house where lots of college kids stayed. I can't remember the exact name of the house, but I think a lot of the kids at the open mic night belonged to a college christian group, which was pretty cool. Ryan played some mean guitar when he went up to perform. I played 2 songs by U2 called "With or Without You" and "In God's Country". I was a bit nervous, and there are always heckler's but I loved it. I almost wasn't going to go up, but I'm glad I did. It was fun. So then, we headed out dancing!

Dancing was great. There were even more kids with us that came from the house. I was pretty psyched, cuz I could dance with some of the girls that didn't know how to dance much, as well as dance with more experienced women.

So, Ryan came to our April 14th dance as well. It was good to see him there. He seemed a bit more nervous, interestingly enough. But I believe it's because he was on foriegn ground. :D That was a wonderful night in and of itself, but I won't bore you with my experience, this is about Raechel and Ryan. Raechel did however coordinate a dance routine that I took part in called "Truckin'", which was really cool. Thanks Raechel!

I didn't see Raechel or Ryan after that, because I was studying abroad in Budapest, Hungary during my first semester of Senior year. And Raechel didn't go back to UNH during my senior year. But I did see them at the Valentines' Swing Dance.

I was very blessed to be apart of Raechel and Ryan's wedding day. I was also very blessed to be there when Ryan proposed at the Valentines' Swing Danceto capture this:



This is the couple's favorite photo I took that night. And, I personally like the two below also.

Let's face it. I procrastinate when there are things I don't want to do. A lot of people have this problem. Even CEOs of top tier firms procrastinate, and avoid doing what's right and what they have to do.

Instead of persistence we find failure and silence, because we pity ourselves and avoid what's important and what is right. A man is lying ill on the street as we pass him by and do nothing, because we feel ashamed that we don't help him, and we pity ourselves and feel a fear of doing what is right.

Today I was reading a book called "Complete Confidence: A Handbook" by Sheenah Hankin. Sheenah describes our confidence as being inhibited by immature emotions that we hold onto from childhood about ourselves, and she teaches how to manage our emotions and to clear away the shame and self-pity we feel so we can become more confident. It's pretty cool. I think she's one of the smartest women in the field, and I was really blessed to see her book at a shop in Boston's South Station.

Remember, we're all in this together here on earth. If you've been kicking yourself lately over a few things, or feel anxious about the "Forebodeing Economy" then take a look at her site here
http://sheenahhankin.com/site/ .

I hope you can make the commitment toward a path of confidence.

Today, I've decided to start up a blog to share my insights and trails in life, business and photography. I've come to this decision because in life, I want to become more genuine and open and to share with others.

I'll admit this will be a hard step for me. Right now, I'm fresh out of college with a B.S. in Economics from UNH. I'm still recovering from the shock. I'll be getting ready to start my wedding photography business soon. My camera is still back at the shop for repairs.

I shot a wedding of some great friends of mine, and I feel really blessed to be able to come into their lives and make something that they will cherish and share with their children to come. I'm going to be redoing the web album/slide show tomorrow, so I'll post a link to it then.

There are a ton of things going on in my life right now, and I figure now is as good a time as any to share. If you haven't been to my website you can at www.zachsarette.com and www.zachsarettephoto.com .

It's time to start sharing, so there will me more content to come. The next few weeks will be very eventfull, as well so stay tuned.

Labels: Business, Life, sharing, Wedding photography