Cheese, lots & lots of cheese

So last Monday I, was asked to so something I’ve never done before. I was invited by S. Clyde Weaver to their newest store on Lititz Pike (next to the CVS and the Golden triangle) to photograph the largest wheel of cheese I have ever lad my eyes on. They had given me a heads up that they would have a cheese display set up so they could have a staff photo taken around for some up coming marketing they are doing. For whatever reason all I could picture in my head was a dinky little plastic tray with tiny little blocks of yellow, white and speckled cheese neatly nestled on it. Well, all I’ve got to say is they totally blew my expectations out of the water, they had every kind of cheese known to man on hand, as well as some of the best looking meat cuts I’ve lad my eyes one, and did I mention I’m a huge fan of cheese and they had lots of cheese. But the piece that won my heart was the 200 pound massive block that held centered stage in arrangement. It was beautiful I say, simple beautiful.

After I mastered my appetite we got to work and created some fun images of their staff and leadership, as well as some glorious looking cheese.

I give them two thumbs up, and look forward to moving some of these cheeses from a photograph to my fridge.

Happy Monday!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Rings, warehouses, & parking garages

Hey Guys and Gals, Matt here. I love meeting brides and grooms, I love hearing their stories and finding out what makes them uniquely them. I love hearing how they met, how they feel in love, and how the big question was popped… the art of sharing our lives with each other is a beautiful thing.

I meet Shawn and Lisa a couple of weeks ago here in our studio. He is a web developer, she is a nurse. They fell in love and this summer they will celebrate their love and become Mr. and Mrs. Groupe.

Here’s a couple of images from our short time together. We walked around an old warehouse downtown, then to a couple of their favorite places in the city.

We then wrapped it all up with a nice delightful chai from a local coffee house and some fun conversations about life.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Babies, Engagements, and friends... gotta love all three.

I love my friends, and I guess that’s a good thing if they want to stay friends for long. One thing I love doing is taking pictures of my friends; to celebrate their life with them not only in friendship but with my camera. This past week I had two friends ask me to help capture the unique seasons of life they are now in.

The first was the Atkinson’s. Paul and Whitney are two amazing people who have literally traveled the world over trying to make it a better place. They enter a room with great stories as well as great hearts. They will shortly move from being a family of 2 to a family of 3, and they wanted to remember the excitement and joy of this special moment in life.

James and Kalyn are two friends who live in the city. They have culture and style that I’m secretly envious of, and talents that make most of the world turn their head to notice (James is an unbelievable musician). Well, Kalyn succeeded in what many others tried to do and stole this musician’s heart and this summer will make him her husband. They are both great people and it was simply a blast capturing their engagement photos and we look forward to photographing their wedding this summer.

PS - in case you're wondering about the Jeremy Hess Photographers logo, this is my first blog under the new studio. So just in case you missed the announcement Pearl St Photography merged with Jeremy at the first of the year, and it's been a wonderful experience so far.

Celebrate love party!

So Pearl and I decided this year to host a "celebrate love party". Valentines is one of the days of the years where couples often run away to snuggle together and leave the rest of the world behind. Pearl and I have a very special relationship, a relationship that is celebrated and cherished not just on February 14th, but everyday (or at least we hope everyday) of the year, so Pearl said let's not only celebrate our love, but the love for those we value most. So at the last minute (a day or so in advance) text messages went out and invitations to join us at house for wine, cheese, and the celebration of our friendships. So we celebrated today with those we loved most, and for those who couldn't make it, we understand and still love them. Here's a few pictures of the day.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Blizzard 2010

As most of you know, I love snow. But what most of you might not know is that Pearl and I a couple of years ago started a list of things to do before we die, and yes we started this before the movie "the bucket list" became so popular.

Our list includes: visiting all 50 states, sleeping on all 7 continents (well, maybe not Antarctica, but who knows, we'll just have to wait and see), seeing Victoria falls in Tanzania, adopting a child, roadtrip across the country, summit one of the ten highest mountains in the US, humanitarian aid in Africa, run a marathon, get coffee at the orginal Starbucks, the list continues... as you can tell some of the goals are pretty big, some are simple silly things, like coffee from the orginal startbucks, but hey there things we for what ever reason what to do and celebrate along our journey of life.

Well, one of my life goals as of yesterday was checked off. I had always wanted to live through an 18"+ snow storm. Why 18", that number just seemed big, especially for someone from the south.

I was pleasantly pleased when my tape measure read 18-20" depending on where I was in the yard.

So here's a couple of pictures from the day, and just so everyone knows the picture of Jeff in the snow was where he jumped off our porch into a blanket of white stuff below (only bad part was it didn't catch him as well as he'd hoped, but thankfully the concrete under him wasn't damaged, or should I say he wasn't damaged)

So I now raise my cup of morning joe to all you readers out there, here's a toast to having goals and dreams for our lives, some goals that will hopefully make this world better, some goals that just make this life fun.

to goals... to dreams....

one last thing, a quick question "What's some of your goals and dreams?"

Please do tell!

Jeff and his attempt to stage dive off our porch

Official report is 19"

But my yard read 20" in places

This guy was entertaining his friend while he shoveled, he sounded great, and made the whole block feel alive, but if I was his friend I might have like the sound of his shovel moving snow, but as his neighbor, keep playing that sweet sound.

the roads were empty, so these kids where cutting doughnuts from one end to the other

can we say "reserved parking"

Didn't know these folks, but they seemed to be having fun

The snow brought the whole street out.

I like this guy, can't remember his name, but we helped each other get our cars out

our neighborhood has cute kids, one day Pearl and I will add a couple of more cute ones to it

Home sweet home