If you’ve been following my tweets for the past week or two, then you probably already know I recently had to have surgery on my left ankle.  The back story is, I have been having some ankle pain for a several weeks now and recently found out I had floating bits of bone in my ankle joint that were impinging the joint and making mobility darn near impossible and incredibly painful to boot.  While we were in Atlanta shooting Michelle & Ben’s wedding, I moved my ankle wrong somehow and ended up locking it up entirely.  The pain and swelling made it nearly impossible to walk.  I sucked it up and shot the entire wedding on what I considered a dead foot.  You should have seen me dragging this useless limb around, I looked like Brad’s handicapped sidekick Egor as I waddled around on the wedding day getting my shots.  Brad did an amazing job taking charge and letting me have a back seat for the day.  As soon as we got home from Atlanta, we called the doctor and were scheduled for surgery within days.  What was supposed to be pretty minor surgery (get in, get the bone fragments out, and go home) turned into something a bit more extensive while on the operating  table.  There was more damage inside the joint than the MRI had shown an my 90 minute surgery turned into 3 hours complete with bone drilling.  Mmm sounds delightful right?!   Poor Brad was left in the waiting room wondering what was happening as the surgery went into double over time.  Eventually the surgeon came out and explained how cartilage had to be removed due to the extensive damage and they had to drill into my bone to cause scar tissue to grow a cartilage-like mass to buffer impact from here on out.  My one week on crutches “easy recovery” turned into six weeks of crutches with more pain and discomfort than I had initially prepared for.  Thankfully we have been able to reschedule most of our sessions that require lots of walking.  The doctor said everything looks great and I will heal up good as new, but for the next six weeks I’m rocking the mechanical armpit extensions for mobility.  Here is a little glimpse into what my life has looked like for the past week.  I call it livin la vida sofa: (yeah that was cheesy but you know I’m good for some cheese factor every now and then.)

Notice the still stained iodine toes… I think its rather festive since Halloween is just around the corner

My arsenal of tools to get me through the day.  I try to keep everything at arms length so I’m not having to be up and down too much throughout the day.

Thanks so much to my wonderful friends Kara, Star and Faythe for the goodies they left me to help me get better.  I now have enough candy, magazines and organic bath salts to make me think surgery isn’t so bad.  Also, thanks to all my friends, family and clients for the well wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery.  I’m doing great and Brad is manning the fort like a pro.  I will be back up and running full speed ahead in just a few weeks better than I was before.  

When we met Jen and Jared a few months back there must have been something in the air that day.  It was like kismet or destiny or some other crazy term for awesome… I’m not kidding.  We walked into their home and as I was sitting down at their dining room table I saw a plaque above their kitchen that said “La Dolce Vita.”  Oh the sweet life indeed dear friends.  I knew right away the stars had aligned and we were meeting with people that would surely become some of our favorite clients yet.  As the meeting went on, more and more similarities between us came up and there were (I kid you not) several occasions where Brad and Jared finished eachother’s sentences.  I mean come on, if this were a first date, we were knocking it out of the park!  We loved that their puppy would lick our legs under the table, that Jen and Jared shared our rockin sense of humor,  and even more so we loved that they gave us total and complete trust when it came to their pictures.  Not only are they seeing eachother before the cereomony (LOVE!!) but they are also giving us plenty of time to really get some artistic shots on their wedding day.  We met up with them downtown last month to shoot their engagement session and had an absolute blast.  We were honestly a little sad when the session was over and we had to go our separate ways.  Luckily we will be seeing them again in February to shoot their incredible wedding at TPC Sawgrass.

PS: I have to send a special thanks to Sarah, Jen’s maid of honor, for telling Jen about us.  Sarah was a bridesmaid in Bonnie & Jason’s wedding last April and we can’t wait to see her again!!

So Brad’s new Rapid Straps came in today… and while he was playing with them Lucy decided she needed a new toy too.  Apparently laying on all the packaging makes it hers.  Poor girl… I guess we should have gotten her some new toys as well.

PS:  I will have to post some pictures of Brad shooting with the new straps this weekend at Ben & Michelle’s wedding.  Prepare yourself for an onslaught of ultra sexy photographer activity on the blog.

The holidays are just around the corner and its time to sign up for the last boudoir marathon of the year! Knock his socks off… literally… this year with one of our signature Little Black Book albums. Sign up now for our November marathon and give him a gift unlike any he has ever had before! Sign up with a friend and you will both receive $25 off your session.

I just saw this AMAZING clip from the Conan O’Brien Show posted on the Wide Open Spaces blog and HAD to share it with you all.  Seriously I’m still giggling to myself as I type this.  Conan interviews comedian Louis CK and he discusses how incredible life is today and yet no one is happy.  Seriously, this is some of the funniest stuff I have heard in awhile.  Disclaimer:  this has nothing to do with Conan and the fact that I have a ridiculous crush on him… so rest assured this is not a top secret attempt to force you all to swoon over him.  Its super funny I promise.  Now… do yourself a favor and hit play.