Punam Bean Photography (observations)

In what has turned out to be the epic task of bigger and better things to come, my website and all corresponding links seem to be down. They will be up soon though, and your patience is appreciated! Why not take this time to peruse my blog and be my friend!

Hope you found me! In the meantime, a Home made Holga shot of a dog at my local Post Office, processed and scanned from my very own home.

Punam

I found out about a little seminar a couple of days ago that was going on up here in Mystic, CT, so I thought it might be fun to drop everything and make some new photog friends! We started off the day today with a shoot out in the wind and snow, out on the docks in downtown Mystic. To be honest, I always find myself a little overwhelmed during these types of things, where many photographers are shooting one person, because my work in portraiture is very personal and close up. I even like to use wide angle lenses for this type of photography, because I think the most beautiful pictures can be drawn from the connection I can make with the person I am photographing. I stole a few moments away from Stephanie, our gorgeous model, to take this photo. Because I do get so up close and personal, I get a little self consious that I’m in everyone else’s shot. Which I probably was. But look at those eyes…

That’s all for now, folks! I really didn’t take to many pictures because of this notion, but I think I like this new watermark. There is more picture present, and I think it’s very elegant. I’ll post a few more when I have time, but for now I need to wash up and take a nap before dinner! (I’m such a bore, I know.)  

I’ve recieved such a big response from the Free Destination wedding thing, so many of which are on dates in which I am, unfortunately, already booked. So, here’s my schedule!

March 10-20, Las Vegas, NV for WPPI!
March 22, Washington DC
April 19, Long Island, NY
April 26, Washington DC
May 8-12, Ocho Rios, Jamaica
May 16-18, Los Angeles, CA
May 24, Stamford, CT
May 25, Washington DC
June 1, New York, NY
June 7, New York, NY
June, 14, Washington, DC
June 21, Washington, DC
June 26, 28, New York, NY
July 5, Baltimore, MD
July 25, Pearl River, NY
July 26, New York, NY
August 9, Washington DC
August 15th, 16th, Springfield, PA
September 6-8, Buffalo, NY
September 13, New York, NY
September 27, Calverton, NY
October 4, Roslyn, NY
October 11, Long Island, NY
October 12, Long Island, NY
October 18, Washington, DC
November 7-11, Negril, Jamaica
November 15, New York, NY
November 27- December 2nd, Barquisimeto, Venezuela

These are for booked dates. I have a few dates pending at the moment, and the first couple to contact me gets right of first refusal. So, if you think you could squeeze a destination wedding in an interesting or exotic location in there somewhere, sign me up! Once we get all that squared away there will be more fun prizes to come!

And for all this talk of destinations, here is a picture of Mont St Michel, in France, off the coast of Normandy, New Years Eve, 2005, before wedding photography was even a twinkle in my eye… and also, a sign of things to come…

That’s right, FREE destination wedding photography, that is of course, for the cost of travel. Give me a call if you are interested! Hurry up – it’s for a limited time only!

I have a strange phenomenon happening to me. Well, to this blog anyway… I will give $5 to the person who can tell me why I got 512 unique page views at 2pm three days ago, and 350 hits at 2pm yesterday. Now, I have been very fortunate to be currently making a steady climb and gradually acquire new readers, and suddenly I get these huge numbers out of nowhere and in short bursts. Any takers? Seriously. I will mail you a $5 bill if you can answer this question (and prove your theory, of course!) because I’m stumped! and trying to figure out if I’m floating around somewhere I wasn’t aware of!

In the mean time, I would like to announce that I’m only booking 10 more weddings for 2008, so hurry up and call me! That, also, does not count those weddings in which I have contracts pending, but I thought a nice round 30 would be a good place to say, I just want to spend time on the people who’ve hired me, and not wear myself out. It’s a big year! It’s going to be a big year! I’ll even go so far as to post my schedule, I’ll do it as soon as I can clear away any pending inquiries. And then, if I’m in your town, we can go have coffee! And we can chat about getting married, photography, business – you name it! I’m game!

Lots of big changes are coming too. You may perhaps, even observe them around here. And I very much hope, at that time, you let me know what you think!

 And also, let me just say, that i love my clients. I do. each and every one of you. I just feel so blessed to have found such wonderful people to work with, and so excited for this year I can’t stand it. And that’s not just because I am in love with love and that’s what marriage is all about and I’m going to many weddings this year… but I feel blessed that I meet people who are almost as passionate about my work as I am, as excited, and I feel even more passionate and excited because it feeds me. And seriously, if I get anymore passionate or excited my head will fall off, and I will need an assistant to carry it around at weddings.

I shall leave you with Banjo Licks.

Well! I have many new and exciting things in store, as as I sit and brew on those things that I have in store, I thought I would do a little show and tell.

Let’s do something fun! Ok, so for those of you who didn’t know, I was an actress before I was a wedding photographer. I was studying Acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and very tired of the school environment, i opted out of the second year, thinking I’d like to get a headstart… A few weeks out of school I was cast in this show called Floaters (and if you have ever Googled me, it’s very possible that you know all about it.) Floaters was an ok show but a revolutionary idea at the time. TV for the Internet! Who would have thought! (This was a year and a half ago – can you believe it!) Floaters was the first, and at the time, only show out there that almost a full Television season online, no one had ever done this before, which is why our little tiny show got so much press. I’m happy to have it behind me, because I have moved on to new things, but I thought it would be fun to share with you this part of my past because of a message I received from one of my producers…

“I am proud to announce that FLOATERS has been chosen to be showcased at the PGA’s Producers Lab Screening Series at Sundance Wed. January 23 at 9 p.m. at the Stella Artois House, Main Street, Park City.”

Hmm. Interesting. This seems like big news, doesn’t it? I suppose it is. Well, in that case, I guess I’m excited! But it’s wierd, because it’s not really what I want anymore. So now, I guess it’s neat. It’s a neat thing. I get to say i was seen at Sundance! (and to clarify – we are talking about the Sundance Film Festival, as in Robert Redford and his attachment to  his character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.)

So – if anyone is going to Sundance, check me out! Or just enjoy this tiny morsel of a life before wedding photography… from a world frought with Demo Reels and Headshots, Auditions and Living Bicoastally…

**edit: Here’s the webpage for the screening. Enjoy!: PGAlab.