Post by Lucy

As I am sitting here watching snow fall outside my window, I'm reminded that this winter has thwarted three out of four of my vacation plans due to All. The. Snow. Two of those were just weekend trips up to the North Shore, but the most recent happened out of state. My husband, Jay, and I were planning to go to Smoky Mountains National Park, but *of course*, the day we were going to fly into Atlanta and drive the 4+ hours to the park, there was a winter storm dumping 10+ inches of snow on the region. Driving on mountain roads in a blizzard sounded like the absolute last thing I wanted to do, so, we ended up rerouting our trip and driving south instead.We spent about 45 minutes quickly making new plans for our four days away, and I think we threw together a pretty good itinerary! We toured around Savannah, stayed at a beach resort on Hilton Head Island for a couple of nights, headed to Charleston for a day, visited a few nature preserves, and stopped by Congaree National Park to hike around a bit.I am still going through the many, many photos I took, but below are a few of my favorites so far! Although it was vastly different than the Smoky Mountains trip I had hoped for, it was still a wonderful little getaway.  

Post by Lucy

As you may know, I work with City Pages quite a bit, and some of my absolute favorite assignments are taking images for restaurant reviews (food photography in general is always a favorite of mine). This past week I stopped by Octo Fishbar in St. Paul - a new venture by restauranteur Tim Mckee - and let me tell you, or actually show you, how amazingly beautiful these dishes are. Each time the chef brought out a new plate, it seemed to be more beautiful than the last stunning dish. The red caviar that tops the lobster roll? Take a look at the way the light shines through creating such a gorgeous splash of red! I think I took a hundred different pictures of it.Anyway, I will leave it to the food critic herself, Hannah Sayle, to describe the food - you can read her review here!And you can see my full slideshow here (condensed version below).  

Post by Lucy

Hello and happy Friday!! It has been a busy, busy week here at Shuttersmack. We've had a couple of big days with our newish client Creative Memories - both in our studio and out on location at a *gorgeous* house, you'll see a bit of the kitchen in photos below. I've had a whole lot of fun styling and propping the sets. Maybe this lovely spring weather influenced my shopping, but both sets ended up incorporating LOTS of beautiful flowers - it just felt like the perfect springtime vibe. And, while Leslie has the photographer role on these shoots, I can't help but bring my camera along and capture a couple details whenever we have a bit of downtime - these flowers are just too stunning.I hope everyone is able to get out and enjoy a bit of sunshine this weekend.Fingers crossed we have some, but I've not been checking the weather -- too afraid we'll get snow again and I just can’t handle that.

Post by Lucy

I was asked to style and shoot this week's City Pages food feature, which I was thrilled about since the story covers local chocolatiers, and, um, shooting food, *especially* beautiful artisan sweets is one of my favorite things to do. Here is the article, and you can also find it in print on racks around town this week!I was unaware of all the local chocolatiers we have in the Twin Cities! The article obviously ran before Valentine's day to give people some shopping ideas, and I can tell you, these chocolates taste as delicious as they look, so they would be the perfect sweet for your special someone!Above are chocolates from Madmeoisell Miel (the broken chocolate on the left, and the bon bons with gold leaf), and the others are from Ku'l Chocolate. Below are some beautiful truffles from Chocolate Céleste.

Whew, what a week!Leslie and I have an amazing new client we're working with (we'll reveal more details about them later), and have three big shoots for them this month. I am doing the styling for each, which has been a ton of fun, and has gotten me back into some of my favorite thrift and vintage stores around town.The shoot I am shopping for now has a vintage/antique/collector theme, so, as one of my first stops, I of course darted over to the always amazing Hunt & Gather to browse the multi-level treasure trove that is their store. I was thrilled to find these really cool old film reels and slides - they will be a perfect addition to the set I'm working on! If you have never been to H&G, it's worth it just for the spectacle even if you're not in the market for anything at all. Here is a grainy/blurry cell phone photo of a corner of the space, just to give you glimpse: H&G is filled with items from several different vintage dealers, so there is a huge, and well curated, variety of themes/styles/etc. There are also always extremely bizarre items that will keep you wondering what will be around the next corner.So, it's a treat to get to go browse spots like this for *work*, and a bit dangerous because it's hard not to walk away with something for myself :)If you're like me and enjoy strolling through vintage shops, below are a few of my favorite in south Minneapolis that I visited today - maybe an activity for you this weekend?-Hunt & Gather-Victory-Valentine Wood-Clarabel 

Has the last month flown by or what?! I (Lucy), had such a wonderful, busy and exciting October. I got to travel to both Ely, MN and Toronto for a couple of different clients (and I *adore* traveling for work!), I shot my last wedding of the season, took a lovely vacation to the North Shore, and had a bunch of wonderful family and portrait sessions! I wanted to share a few shots from a particularly great one.Mandi was a model at a shoot that Leslie and I did for Juut Salon a few months ago, and I was thrilled when she reached out to schedule a portrait session. She also picked a wonderful location in St. Paul that had such great backdrops, the evening light was absolutely perfect, and she is just such a natural in front of the camera! So, without further ado:

Happy Friday! Lucy here again - I can't believe a month has flown by already. I just got back into town after working for a new restaurant client in Ely, Minnesota. I was beyond thrilled when they reached out. Not only is food photography one of my favorite subjects (I'll share pictures from that shoot later!), but I adore working with passionate small business owners, and I *absolutely* adore Ely and the surrounding Northwoods area. It's a dream to finish up a day of work and then head just outside of town and hike in the woods. The shoot lasted a couple of days, and then I went to the family cabin which is on a lake nearby. It was cloudy, windy and rainy most of the time, but that didn't stop me from getting out and taking pictures! I was really happy to have a chance to be out in the woods during near-peak fall color. The clouds finally cleared on my last night there and it was spectacular sunset, and even more beautiful night sky.Have a wonderful weekend!!

Hi again! Lucy here - if you missed my first post last month, just a quick note again that I'll be posting once in a while on Shuttersmack!Several weeks ago I visited my friend Mike's farm. It's an *actual* farm, with goats, chickens, fields of crops, barn cats, tractors, etc. -- my city self is continually amazed! I took some photos for fun, and ones he could use for marketing purposes. Mike’s website launched today, so I'm really excited to share some images from my visit!The farm, named Great River Produce, is located near Maiden Rock, tucked away in the beautifully bluffy region of southwestern Wisconsin, and it’s a dream. I had such a wonderful time touring the farm and snapping pictures of crops, animals, and the gorgeous property.Check out some of my favorite images below, and if you're interested, keep up with farm updates by visiting the website! He'll be offering a CSA starting next summer (you better believe I'm signing on), *plus* he's renting out a building on the property as a rental - a farm view that overlooks Lake Pepin? I'm there.