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Beautiful spring weekend spent outdoors

Wanna know how a photographer spends her weekends when she’s not out shooting a wedding, event, or portrait session? Taking pictures, of course! :) I just can’t help it! I’ve always been sort of obsessed with documenting my life. And I’m always out and about doing things and exploring NYC, so of course I’ve got my camera with me almost all the time.

This past weekend, we were graced with the most incredible weather – sunshine & 70′s – does it get any better? When the weather is good, I make an effort to be outdoors as much as possible. On Saturday, Lauren and I wandered around the East Village and got a wee bit distracted by all the gorgeous fencing on St. Marks Place. I get so entranced by all the swirls and texture. Isn’t it just gorgeous?

brooklyn wedding photographer

brooklyn wedding photographer

brooklyn wedding photographer

brooklyn photographer

brooklyn photographer

 
Then on Sunday, I got on my bike and rode down to Prospect Park, where I just layed on a hill with the sun shining on me, dozing off to the occasional shouts from the six baseball games taking place all around me. No pictures, just pure enjoyment and relaxation :) Later, I ended up on 5th Ave in Park Slope where the annual 5th Ave Street Fair was happening. Unlike most NYC street fairs that all have the same repetitive vendors, this one had much more variation to it. So I wandered the street with my big lens, shooting candid shots of strangers and ogling all the kittens that were up for adoption at one booth. I am officially on the hunt for a kitty to call my own!… but it’s not a decision to be taken lightly, so I did not give in to temptation and adopt one on the spot there. Soon enough!

But man, I love NYC. I say it all the time, yet somehow it’s not enough.

brooklyn photographer

brooklyn photographer

nyc wedding photographers

nyc wedding photographers

nyc wedding photographers

Winter Flowers at the Community Gardens

There’s this community garden in the East Village that I’ve been to many times in my NYC wanderings ever since moving here 2+ years ago. It’s La Plaza Cultural on 9th St and Avenue C. What initially drew me to it was the fence surrounding it, decorated the whole way around with flowers made out of recycled items. Beautiful AND eco-friendly, not to mention super-creative and durable (they’ve been there for 10 years!). Love it!

This past weekend, on the Vernal Equinox and 10th Anniversary of these Winter Flowers, there was an assembly line setup where passers-by could help in constructing 300 new flowers for the garden. It involved cutting up old soda/beer cans into flower petals, layering these cans and threading them onto a pipe cleaner, adding a bottle top as the center of the flower, and finishing the flower off. They had us wear robes, hats, and gloves while participating in this special process. Lauren got to cut the cans into petals, and I had the task of assembling the cans and putting the flower together. And oh, this was not a task to be taken lightly! I took my sweet time with it, even though it backed the assembly line up a bit. But it was incredibly gratifying to be a part of it and finally see how the flowers came to form. I’m so glad we stopped by!

Winter Flowers at La Plaza Cultural community garden | brooklyn wedding photographer

Winter Flowers at La Plaza Cultural community garden | brooklyn photographer

Winter Flowers at La Plaza Cultural community garden | nyc wedding photographers

Lauren took the photo of me here (on the left), which I just LOVE because it’s so natural :) By the way, that hat barely fit on my big head!
Winter Flowers at La Plaza Cultural community garden | brooklyn photographer   Winter Flowers at La Plaza Cultural community garden | nyc wedding photographers

These are the flowers we made:
Winter Flowers at La Plaza Cultural community garden | brooklyn wedding photographer

East Village with the 24L

I wandered around the East Village while there was good afternoon light, mainly to try out my new 24L lens and 5d2. I’m telling you, the 24L is seriously my new walkaround lens – it’s wide AND it’s bokeh-friendly… what more could I want?!

Fenced sidewalk

East Village living

Scoot scoot

Who knew Shaw's sold coffee?

All shot with the 5d2 & 24L.