Destination wedding photography in Venice, Italy

I recently had the honor of traveling to Venice, Italy to photograph Talia & Kris’ destination wedding.  When I first met with this couple they were only considering hiring me for their Denver wedding, but after lots of meeting, talking, and negotiating they realized the importance of having the same photographer cover both events, as well as having an English speaking photographer that they could easily communicate with and trust to not only document their day, but provide them with quality images & albums after the wedding day.  I fell in love with Italy and the Italian culture after my first trip backpacking through the country many years ago.  So when I booked this job it truly was a dream come true for me to not only have the opportunity to go back, but to photograph a wedding there as well.  It was a spectacular wedding day, and I was so glad my husband was also able come along to assist.  I promised to wait till their Colorado wedding last night to post any pictures online, so that she could keep her dress a surprise to all of her Denver wedding guests.  However, with the extra time I was able to put together this spectacular mini-music video/slideshow below.  We displayed it for the very first time at their wedding reception last night at Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant, which was really neat to see the family’s reaction…full of lots of hugs, awes, and even tears.  For a glimpse into their amazing Italian destination wedding watch the video below and please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

scenes around the French Quarter

On Friday I had an early morning meeting with a client in the beautiful courtyard of her hotel in the French Quarter. The weather was so warm & the air so inviting, that I decided to do some wandering around the French Market. I bought a handmade hair piece from an artist, then the breeze of the river enticed me for a walk along its levee.

Musicians on the Mississippi River

From there the smells of chicory coffee & the smiles of the giddy tourists guided me to the corner of Cafe du Monde.

Cafe du Monde

I then followed my ears to the beats of Young Fellaz Brass Band playing on Decauter St.. I danced a little, smiled a lot, took some shots (the camera type), tipped of course, and then went on my way to see what other surprises & entertainment awaited me in the French Quarter.

Young Fellaz Brass Band

I stopped at a Community Coffee for a cafe au lait & to spend a couple hours catching up on business.  An oyster po-boy for lunch, with a mocha almond ice cream daiquiri for dessert, mmm…yummy! Then time to walk it off with some window shopping on Royal St., where I found Tanner’s amazing paintings that are now added to my fine art wish list.  Below is a picture I took through the gallery’s window, be sure to check out their website to see some of his work.

New Orleans artist - Tanner

From there I headed to my favorite spot in the Quarter, Jackson Square.  I chatted with a few street artists in the square, particularly Sher Stewart, who greatly enjoyed talking to me about Denver. She doesn’t have a website or email, but was very happy to know that her picture would be shown on my blog on the internet, as she hopes it will bring more people to find & purchase from her in person.

New Orleans street artist in Jackson Square

Spring is a popular time of year for tourists & festivals in New Orleans.   The street artists, musicians, and horse buggy drivers take full advantage of the increase of people in town.  Musicians could be found on every street corner, including the unique sounds of The Jaded Optimists below.

Locals decorate their doors & homes in sometimes some quite unusual & unexpected ways.  And everywhere you turn in the French Quarter music is celebrated.  Below is the monthly line up at Balcony Music Club & one resident’s uniquely decorated doorway.

photography of the French Quarter

Pictures around the French Quarter in New Orleans

I finally headed back to my car, but not before one last detour. I walked past the R Bar & saw that they were hosting a free crawfish boil! So I decided I could hang around for another hour or so to take advantage of that. I took one more cafe break to catch up with some photo editing, then headed to the R Bar for a plate of hot boiled crawfish & an Abita beer. I don’t know if anything could have made this work day in the Quarter any better. Life is good.
To see more pictures of this stroll through the French Quarter, go to Nicole Nichols Photography Facebook Page.
Signed limited edition prints of my New Orleans fine art photography can also be purchased online.

streetcar on Canal St. in New Orleans

Last weekend I celebrated my 30th birthday in my hometown and favorite city of New Orleans.   I was originally planning on shooting a wedding Friday night, but to my dismay the groom  called it off.  With my flight already booked & less then a month to go I decided to just make the most of it & add another day of fun to my birthday weekend.  My birthday week didn’t start off well, I caught my nephew’s nasty cold and you know I must be feeling really bad when I even turn down a chance to see my fave New Orleans band, The Rebirth Brass Band, play their Tuesday night gig at the Maple Leaf.   But the week of resting was worth it as thankfully I finally started feeling good enough by Friday night to make it out to see the classic jazz performers at Preservation Hall, have a mojito at Pat O’Brien’s, and then take in some random events around the French Quarter.  It was the first time my associate photographer, Ashley, had been to New Orleans so I also had to take her by a few must-see spots such as Cafe du Monde, where instead of beignets we caught a glimpse of Mars (see slideshow).  Saturday was my big night out on Frenchmen St. with friends, and I was very thankful Ashley was willing to document the night for me & let me leave my camera home. Sunday started with a Bloody Mary & a Saints win, relaxing in Lafayette Square with musician Jon Cleary at the Blues & BBQ festival, and finished off with a sunset view of the city from on top one of New Orleans many hidden rooftop patios, and a  sloppy spicy dinner from Coops. It was definitely a great way to spend my 30th!  Check out some of my fave fun shots of NOLA below.  A few of these pictures will be available soon for sale, or check out some of my other fine art photography of New Orleans for sale online.

Last week I was dragged kicking and screaming to Vegas…OK I’m lying.   Who wouldn’t want to go to WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International)?   It is the biggest annual convention and trade show for photographers in the US, and with the amount of international photographers I met, possibly even worldwide!   All the big celebrity photographers were there from Dennis Reggie to Gary Fong, as well as just about every photography vendor from Adorama to Zookbooks.   I’m so excited about all the new ideas and lessons I came home with which will really expand my offerings to my clients.  One concept widely talked about was the integration of video into DSLR cameras.  As soon as I found out a few months ago that Nikon’s new D300s had a video mode I started saving up for one.  And while myself and the other video inspired photographers I talked to do not really have any desire to switch over to videography, its just a new cool feature that we can implement into our creative offerings.   Currently the audio and video capabilities with DSLR cameras are really poor compared to what a pro video camera can do.  You also can not capture both video and photos simultaneously, so please don’t ask me to shoot your wedding video too, but once I get the hang of this I can’t wait to see what I can come up with.  If you’re curious to see what these cameras can do so far, scroll down to watch my first attempt at shooting a video…it will get better I promise.

Above – An intriguing Boudoir photography workshop.

Below – The WPPI convention had me up before sunrise every morning with meetings and workshops that went late into the night…but the last night in town was celebrated by a party hosted by Pictage at Studio 54.   That’s me at the bottom with 2 of my favorite Denver photographers, Happy & Tricia.

Check out my first attempt to create a video with with my new camera.

On Tuesday, the first day of autumn, I took a photo road trip with my friend Stephanie who was in town from New Orleans and our friend Kendall who was our fabulous tour guide. We drove out to Kenosha Pass which is recommended as the best spot for fall pictures in Colorado. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and just being silly girls with no agenda. We had to take a fisheye self-portrait at every stop and the sun even came out for 30 seconds, just long enough to get a fun shadow portrait. And just as we were on our way back commenting how great it would be to find somewhere to grab a bite…low and behold we come across a huge hot dog off the highway! A Coney Island hot dog stand that is. Don’t ask me how that got there, but it was a perfect ending to a perfect drive. Oh, and if there is a Max & Jim out there contact me for a free photo shoot, my tree carving picture would make a great addition to a couples photo!