Punam Bean Photography (observations)

I’m writing this from the back seat of our tour minivan, just as we have crossed the border to North Carolina, where I’ve never been! I find myself steeling away moments on the internet at truck stops, and trying to do as much work as I can intermittently. Strange though, there really isn’t a lot of work to do, I suppose. But despite the fact that I have that strange pounding of heart that comes with a person who runs a business, whose business is their livelihood, I’ve been having a very nice time!

It was a long drive to Richmond, VA from NYC, mostly long trying to get through New Jersey, and when we finally entered Delaware (to which I had also never been until day before yesterday) it was as if we had survived some great and terrible battle. Richmond is beautiful, by the way. To those of you who don’t know, it’s a great old historic town, full of beautiful old houses and hospitable people. We drove straight to the gig at The Jewish Mother, kind of a Jewish Deli/Pub for music time. We started the the night off with the musical stylings of Pokey LaFarge, a slight but earnest and sincere fellow. The Gentlemen followed and Special Ed and the Short Bus capped the night off with great and impressive theatrics! The gentlemen are so often the best dressed fellows in the room, there was a mood of one up man-ship, as Short Bus showed up in suits and Zombie attire, which I though embraced their spirit of eating brains and having a general good time as the undead.

My gentlemen press shot made it into the local paper at Virginia Beach!

Husbone making out with invisible females. The Councilman expresses his enthusiasm. Husbone was very sad to find that his pet name has crossed over through the internet and to the road. I say quietly to myself, he loves it .

Open Mouths. The banjo player there is my new favorite artist. He makes all the posters for Short Bus music shows, and they are wonderfully quirky and slightly dark landscapes of hot dogs and animate instruments with arms and legs, droopy eyeballs, wonderfully detailed with meticulous splendor.

Aaron, the bearded fiddler of Short Bus.

A little tilt shift for lone Pokey at The Camel in Richmond, VA.

I hope all is well for you and your families! Happy New Year!!

Merry Holidays! Happy Christmas! I hope all of you enjoyed (or have in enjoyed in the case of my brother in law who had to return to work this morning) your days off and hopefully have been surrounded by the ones you love. Husbone and I went up to Plymouth Massachusetts to spend Christmas with his family. And off we are to reacquaint ourselves with “The Road” as it is so named in musical tourings of our nation. This time we will be going South East, starting off our venture in Virginia Beach and ending with a live Two Man Gentlemen Band New Year’s Eve Special in West Virginia with Special Ed and The Short Bus. It promises to be a very good time! If you are in the South East, check out the Two Man Gentlemen Band’s MySpace page for tour dates! If you are interested in wedding photography, perhaps we could meet!

 So, in lieu of our travels, I will be a little slow with returning inquiries for the next few days as cell and internet access will be unpredictable. So thanks in advance for your patience! I will be back at home and back to work January 2nd.

 In the meantime, nice pictures. Husbone’s dad flies a small aircraft, and we went up in it this morning on a short air tour of Plymouth. It was so neat! Ive never been up in a small plane before, and today was the perfect day for it! It was a totally smooth ride, and I felt extremely awesome with my headphones on. I’m sure there is a more technical term for it, but it’s not occurring to me at the moment. I took these photos with a Sony Cybershot in 16:9 (you widescreen TV) ratio, so Susan and Mike (my in laws) could check them out in HD on their flat screen. Well, I must say – it did a great job and is a very nice camera!

Husbone, cleaning ice off the wings. 

A peek under the hood! 

Husbone gettin’ in!

An icy heart shaped lake!

Poo looking at the icy heart shaped lake!

And coming in for landing!

Happy Holidays everyone! I should be back before the time comes, but if I’m not have a wonderful happy New Year! 2008 is going to be a wonderful amazing year! 

I recently read this quote from a commencement speech given by Steve Jobs to the students at Stanford, class of 2005:

You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

-Steve Jobs

Saturday is my 26th birthday. Six months ago, I thought I’d be coming to this point in my life having accomplished nothing much. But it turns out that I feel so blessed – this has been such an amazing amazing six months, and I just can’t believe how lucky I am. I really think about it every single day. I found wedding photography, and it felt like when I met my husband. After so many heart breaks, after the cynisism seemed to have made a home in me, he came along, and I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with him, almost instantly (we had to say hello first!). I photographed my first wedding, and I knew that this was what I was supposed to be doing, just like I knew my husband and I were supposed to be together. I am just so excited about the future I can’t stand it sometimes! And I never, NEVER thought such a fate was in the cards for me. I thought I’d go through life always being terrified of the future. Are we going to make enough money? Are we going to live a nice life? Are we going to be happy? Are we going to love what we do? And it seems lately, that the answer is a clear, resounding YES YES YES YES!!!!

And in the meantime, I was suprised to find that one of my photos made it into the Artistic Guild of the WPJA quarterly contest!! As a result I am now a member of the [AG]WPJA, which is directly affiliated with the WPJA, of which I am also a member. Membership to the WPJA is pretty exclusive, but membership to the [AG]WPJA is SUPER exclusive, with only a handful of listings in every state, and you have to place in their contests to even get listed. I am so excited!

That’s me! I’m an International Award Winning Wedding Photographer! It makes me chuckle. A litte Dennis Orchard, a little Jesh de Rox.

This is the image that got 20th place (not bad for an image from my second wedding ever!) in the Getting Ready category:

It was an image I shot as a second shooter with Isaiah, from Studio I Weddings.

And also, a little bit of Husbone, to dress this post up nice.

It turns out, that Husbone and I will be making our way to Indianapolis for a last minute family affair. I’ll be answering my phone, but no more appointments are avaialble this week! In the meantime, I thought I would invite you to Dreamland, as presented by Andy Bean and the Councilman.

Kitty made a giant leap to my surgery area, as I was lying bed. It was all I could do to fight him off. You know how kitties scurry? They use their back legs and push off? We’ll I caught kitty in mid air – which I am NOT supposed to be doing in my current condition – his hind legs fell on my face, and jolted by the force of my catch, reared up on his hind legs and blasted off… from my face. I was in a bit of pain. And Husbone, upon his return from the store, so kindly having cleaned the house for my various meetings and in lieu of my various circumstances, found me in this state.

No, it’s not the most flattering picture. But Husbone does good work, and someone said – it’s like you were in a bar fight! (that may have been me, but for the sake fo the story, let’s say it was him ) Kitty and I have since reconciled.