You know the drill. Please help decide. Choose which one you like better and if you’re feeling it, tell us why.

You can check out other Which One’s here.

Holy lens flair, Batman. This is what happens when you don’t use Google Earth to map your location and cross-reference the precise time of day to get the choicest position of the sun for your photo shoot. Architectural Photography 101 goes out the window when you are in the car with Dug and Diana (driver [...]]]>

Holy lens flair, Batman. This is what happens when you don’t use Google Earth to map your location and cross-reference the precise time of day to get the choicest position of the sun for your photo shoot. Architectural Photography 101 goes out the window when you are in the car with Dug and Diana (driver and shotgun respectively) and Dug shouts, “What IS that?!”

Me (all knees mangled in the back): What is what?! I can’t see! (failed attempt to reorganize limbs)

Dug: That! That tree?!

Me: What tree?! There are plenty of tre… Ohhhhh. That tree!

Diana: Pull over. Pull over.

Dug: Whoa…

Me: ohmygosh… Do you think it’s decorated for Easter?! (more reorganizing of limbs)

Dug: Whoa…

Me: Do you think the neighbors are pissed?! (now there’s a cramped neck situation)

Dug: I don’t know but I’m pretty sure you need to take pictures of this for the blog.

Me: Pictures? Really?!…

Me: Someone might see me… (minor panic attack)

Dug: Get the eff out of this car and get over yourself.

Truly, I have no idea what Dug actually said at this point that gave me the courage to get out of the car and start taking pictures of some stranger’s house like a total creeper, and I am 100% certain he wasn’t mean, and did not use foul language, especially given that were were with Diana and he is clearly still beating me in the most good-natured offspring award because, well, have you met me? But he must have said something because the next thing I know I am standing by myself in the middle of the street in a total anxiety haze, unsuccessfully working the manual setting dials and taking pictures of some stranger’s house like a total creeper.

So Diana and Dug are squinting at me through the car windshield as I try to 1.) ignore the people on the block and pretend this is all totally normal 2.) stand in the middle of the street paying very little attention to traffic while hopefully not getting hit by a car (I decide to rely on my hearing) 3.) figure out if there is a place for me to stand where the sun is not shining into my lens at the complete wrong angle (there is not) 4.) find the settings on my camera that might actually allow me take a photo that is not completely white or black (what the hell was I shooting last? oh, pussy willows, indoors, in low lighting) and lastly 5.) not melt into a pool of anxiety on the floor because this is somebody’s house, probably some mean person’s house who wants to eat me like in Hansel and Gretel.

You’d think I’d be used to this since I take pictures of people’s homes for a living, but I pretty much always have written consent and a government or religious pardon and assurances that all monsters, mythological or otherwise, have been removed from the premises prior to my arrival. What?! You think I’m overreacting? A flair for the dramatics you say? Let’s be real here, People. Someone who obsessively ties stuffed animals into trees by their necks with rope may or may not be off his meds. I’m just sayin’ there’s not quite enough information to judge my safety at this point.

Enter Eugene. He walks right up to me and says with a huge grin that immediately won my heart, “Guess whose house this is?!” And the most interesting guy I have met in a while, puts me totally at ease and proceeds to give me a tour of his incredibly awesome Plushie tree.

I caught him approaching in one photo, but when I asked to get a close up with his creation he was reticent to comply. That didn’t temper his enthusiasm though. We talked about the care that goes into selecting each stuffie’s location. The balance of the whole thing is pretty incredible, with the tiny guys all together creating there own little party closest to the ground and the very biggest of guys, enormous really, at the forks and center. And every single one seems to be staring down at pedestrians, all with their own personalities shining through.

It’s incredible how much is going on up in there. The more you look, the more there is to see. I guarantee you can find all your favorites, old and new.

There’s Taz on a snowboard.

Check out the fork of tinies on the left with one of Gru’s Minion looming overhead. Of course you can’t miss Garfield, but did you see the smurf and pirate Elmo?

That dolphin to Dora’s right is the only guy that fell during Hurricane Irene. And he fell again when Eugene was pointing him out. And there’s one of my personal nostalgic favorites, Clifford el gran perro colorado, because I read all the Clifford book en Español as a child through RIF.

There’s Chuckie ominously high up on the left. And look at the balance Eugene created when you view the tree from afar. It’s a pretty amazing piece of living contemporary art.

This experience would never have happened if I didn’t have a blog. Or Dug. I wouldn’t have gotten out of the car to look at the tree. I wouldn’t have met and talked to Eugene. He wouldn’t have told me about the blossoms and invited me back to photograph the tree in bloom. How cool is that? Maybe we’ll follow Eugene’s Brooklyn Plushie Tree throughout the seasons. He said he’d look out for us when we came by next time, and now that I’ve calmed down a bit and he made me feel so welcome, I have tons more questions for him. First and foremost, what made him hang his first stuffie? How does he get so high up? And what do his neighbors say?

So if I get the chance to speak to Eugene again, is there anything you’d like me to ask him?

This post is a recurring feature I call ‘Which One?’ where I ask you to help me decide which is the stronger, more compelling image. Usually my ‘Which One?’ helps me determine which image to present to a client. Today it’s just my own interest. (This is also the shot in the [...]]]>

This post is a recurring feature I call ‘Which One?’ where I ask you to help me decide which is the stronger, more compelling image. Usually my ‘Which One?’ helps me determine which image to present to a client. Today it’s just my own interest. (This is also the shot in the opposite direction of the fog in my last post.)

So it’s also the beginning of a potentially new feature here, which I haven’t quite named yet. The concept is simple: it’s my favorite image from a shoot, and I’m certain the client is never going to use it. Basically, if I don’t post it here, no one’s ever going to see it, and it will live, alone and forgotten, in the cobwebs of my memory. If I remember it at all. How sad… This one, in particular will not see the light of day because Architects like blue sky. Period. And I took these same shots 5 hours later with an incredible blue sky, but I’m crazy about these comparatively so I’m not even gonna show you the blue sky.

I love these shots because, for me, they really capture New England in March. And I can see that charm without it being cloyingly sweet.

Which one would you choose? I’d love to hear.

{Update: I was totally wrong. The client chose both of these photos yesterday!}

Here are some previous ‘Which One?’ posts in case you are new here and would like to explore…

We’ve been super fortunate over here at Sequined Asphault Studio, and some exciting news almost got lost in the shuffle.  While we were on our honeymoon, Beinfield Architecture received a 2011 AIA Connecticut Design Award for their new House in Ridgefield!

Congrats to Andrew Bartolotta AIA, Bruce Beinfield FAIA and the rest of the Project [...]]]>

We’ve been super fortunate over here at Sequined Asphault Studio, and some exciting news almost got lost in the shuffle.  While we were on our honeymoon, Beinfield Architecture received a 2011 AIA Connecticut Design Award for their new House in Ridgefield!

Congrats to Andrew Bartolotta AIA, Bruce Beinfield FAIA and the rest of the Project Team.  I was thrilled for the opportunity to photograph the project and had a great time working with the Client.  There is tons of inspiration and creative genius, attributable to both Architect and Client, throughout this deceptively simple barn with something modern and surprising at every turn.

Here’s a bit of what I was doing last week. Sometimes drinks with Andrew are more productive than other times…

I couldn’t be any farther behind in my blogging and keeping up with social media in general. If we’re friends on Facebook then you’ve already heard me complain that my lists have lists [...]]]>

Here’s a bit of what I was doing last week. Sometimes drinks with Andrew are more productive than other times…

I couldn’t be any farther behind in my blogging and keeping up with social media in general. If we’re friends on Facebook then you’ve already heard me complain that my lists have lists and that my wonderful, fantastic, even magical iPhone4 was stolen and I’m basically interweb and point-and-shoot crippled with my original iPhone rebooted.

It’s not that I need sympathy. I don’t. I’m doing great. And I’ve never been more productive in my life. (Now I’m just bragging, apparently.) But, seriously, big things are happening over here and life and work are just blurred which, turns out, is how I like them. I’m getting married in less than 2 months; we’re looking for some new architecture to call our own, redesign and decorate; babies are being conceived and born right and left (not center, thank you very much); parties are being planned, thrown and attended; businesses are getting run; photo shoots are happening all over the place… oh, and we were published in another one of those glossy magazines! I hope you’re having as great a summer as we are over here at Sequined Asphault Studio. We’re gonna try to stay in better touch…