Stuart Weitzman

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This week we received some great news!- We were listed in AdWeek’s Top 100 Creatives thanks to our Cinemagraphs like the ones you see here created as a digital ad campaign for Stuart Weitzman. It was such an honor to have our new visual story telling style recognized and I hope this leads the way for more experimentation as we continue to evolve the idea of a living moment.

Cinemagraphs began humbly. At first, using simple gifs, we were limited by a file format spec’d in 1989, only a few months before Taylor Swift was born. Now in 2015 we can display them in so many better ways, most notably on mobile apps like Instagram and Facebook, both of which recently rolled out video that loops and auto-plays. Cinemagraphs got a whole new breath of life and we were able to explore that through this campaign with Stuart Weitzman. They came to us with a vision in mind and we in turn made their scenes come alive, showing their shoes in a new way to a whole new audience.

We were so proud at the outcome which you can see here, here, here, and here.

As always, thank you for coming on this journey with us as we turn our cameras on the world to show it breathing and alive and hopefully brings something interesting for you to see.

A Cointreau Summer

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 Recently we shot a cinemagraph series for Cointreau, an orange-flavored liqueur produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d’Anjou, France, which brought in a flurry of butterflies and easy summer cocktail recipes into the studio. Light, simple and delicious I found them to be the perfect charming drink to serve your guests and friends this summer holiday weekend without finding yourself spending too much time crafting a cocktail. 

THE ORIGINAL COINTREAU RICKEY

– 2 oz Cointreau

– 1 oz  fresh lime juice

– 4 oz club soda

Pour Cointreau and fresh lime juice into a glass and add ice. Top with Club soda and stir. Garnish with a lime and orange zest. 

 

{styled by Kelly Framel || model by Karolina Wallce || Hair by Casey Geren || Makeup by Porsche Cooper || Manicure by Angel Williams }

More entertaining ideas and inspiration here

A Cinemagraph Journey

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Today we got some good press… As I woke up to friends tweeting and texting me I hesitantly went to read the article. I’ll be honest, reading about your work from someone else’s perspective is always terrifying. Do they get it? Do they even like it? Are we on the right path, saying the right things? Sometimes, when you are “in it” its hard to see the bigger picture. I read this article and looked back on this crazy cinemagraph journey that started 5 years ago and I have to say, an overwhelming feeling of pride and love came over me. I love my work, I love that I get to do what I love as work, and I feel so, so, very lucky that people like it. That there is a digital audience to even see it and if we do a good enough job at reaching an emotional string- share it with their own networks.

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Last summer I read a book about Edward Weston where he said in 1930:

“If this could happen- a beautifully printed book of my work- it would ‘make’ me. And the wider distribution of my work, -knowing that it was being seen by hundreds or thousands, instead of the handful who come in here, would have a fine, strengthening effect upon me.”

With digital art the internet is our book and the fact that millions of people have seen some of our cinemagraphs from around the world gives me some sort of greater fulfillment even if they don’t know our name. To share images that tell a story of the times, that can take you to a place, that can remind you of the way something feels or even maybe dream a little is a my own dream job. As a photographer, don’t you want as many people as possible to see, share and respond to your work? I know Weston did and I know I do too.

Sometimes people have certain connotations about commercial work or commissioned work by brands with artists. I actually love working with brands. Understanding their message, finding how I fit into their world, what it is about their idea or product that inspires me into resonating a vision in my mind. Telling brand stories is a creative challenge and finding the balance between you-pay-me-to-work and I-make-something-meaningful-as-an-artist is always a struggle, but the one thing I will not sacrifice. That makes it possible when stepping back and looking at 5 years of work to feel proud of what you made because it came from your heart. Of course, not everything we do is commissioned by brands such as the examples in the article, sometimes we catch it blowing by in a moment in time or glimpses into our own life.

So we hope to continue to fill your feeds with beautiful cinemagraphs to the best of our ability. We hope to spend our life giving you something you want to look at for as long as possible.

Thank you for the support.

 

Winter Mornings

It’s Hibernating season. Though I do love to get out and play in the snow from time to time or take a dreamy winter vacation, most of the hours are spent indoors with a good book, magazine (currently obsessed with this for food | this for travel | this for interest), or watching documentaries.

Recently I watched Regarding Susan Sontag and I love her thoughtfulness on photography: “We have a notion about a photograph. You see, we want photographs to tell us the truth, and we value them because they really are records in a sense, let’s say, that a painting isn’t. At the same time we want photographs to lie. We want them to make us look good, that is to say, better than we normally look. Our sense of the world is now ruled and shaped by photographed images.” She goes on to state, “The problem is not that people remember through photographs, but that they remember only the photographs.”

I’ve sense started reading her book On Photography which starts with something I fully believe in, “To collect photographs is to collect the world.”

So this past weekend upstate, I spent every morning in a long hot bath, listening to soft old jazz and reading about that thing I love most of all- photography.

Here is a winter playlist for your own snowy mornings until that spring day comes and we emerge again….

More playlists!

Rainy Days | Summer & Wine | Autumn Days

Hiram Bingham

All my life I have dreamed of taking the Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu. Pulling up to the station in Cusco to board we found the proud historic royal blue train cars waiting for us in pristine fashion. My heart fluttered as I peered in the windows, a foreshadowing of what was to come in glimpses of white linen table tops and sparkling glasses just waiting to be filled with life. Usually when I choose to take a train it’s because I want to be able to work for those few hours of a journey…. but not here. The beauty of the old train cars, the history of luxury travel, the celebration they created demanded all your attention. We sat on red velvet seats and drank pisco sours to the beat of live musicians in the lounge car. We took pictures and smelled the fresh mountain air off the back of the last train car while we wound around and around mountain passes. We dined on classic Peruvian food paired with locally made wines and watched the river  flow by in a happy steam leading us right to the heart of Machu Picchi and the next leg of our adventure found only in south americaHiram_Bingham__01

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The last romantic train trip I took was on this journey….

See more about Peru HERE & all my South America stories HERE

Inkaterra La Casona Hotel

fireplace615Finding a balance between historic and new is a very fine line. I have never stayed in a hotel that has walked that line more perfectly than Inkaterra La Casona.

Tucked away on a quiet square just a few blocks from the main hubbub, this very small 11-suite luxury boutique hotel subscribes to the discrete way of life where luxury exists in pride, quality, history, upkeep and experience. Why I love it: the hotel was originally built as a mansion in the 16th century first occupied by Conquistadores and to this day maintains the design and architecture of the original manor.

So here is how it goes, you step into an antique carved wooden door back in time, the smell of eucalyptus dances around your body. They hand you a cup of the local ‘coca tea’ which comes in handmade pottery crafted by the owner of the hotel. This was my first experience with coca tea which was not unlike a green tea in taste, coffee in effect but most notable made from the same plant used to produce cocaine. So there’s that. On the second floor you find your suite, peacefully facing the inner courtyard dripping in colonial history and begging to be instagrammed (which I did here, and here, and here and here, and here). The room is warm and soft with original textile murals, baroque wood colonial furniture and those beautiful Spanish accents including white adobe walls so thick each room has to have it’s own wifi. The heated tile in the bathroom leads you to one of those perfect bathtubs which can (and if you’re me, will) be filled with a bubble bath infused in local aromatic oils. Biggest surprise… when you get into bed at night to the roaring fire at the foot of your bed, you’ll find a chocolate on your pillow and a hot water bottle under your sheets.

The best part about this hotel aside from the beauty of preserved history is their commitment to the future through conservation and programs such as Carbon Neutral. Beautiful and smart- doesn’t get more perfect than that.

 In sum, TOTAL ROMANCE.

A stay at the luxury botique hotel Inkaterra La Casona Hotel in Cusco, Peru A stay at the luxury botique hotel Inkaterra La Casona Hotel in Cusco, Peru A stay at the luxury botique hotel Inkaterra La Casona Hotel in Cusco, Peru A stay at the luxury botique hotel Inkaterra La Casona Hotel in Cusco, Peru A stay at the luxury botique hotel Inkaterra La Casona Hotel in Cusco, Peru

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Chloe Nørgaard for Hanley Mellon

chloe615This fall here at the studio we photographed digital assets for a new label called Hanley Mellon, created by Nicole Hanley Mellon, a former stylist for Ralph Lauren (and you know how I feel about RL)

The above is a cinemagraph of model Chloe Norgaard which is now live as the landing image on HanleyMellon.com. When we shot this at our studio I was looking at Chloe, so famous for her ever changing hair color, and thought: let’s just make it about her hair! After all… you can’t miss it.

Nicole and I have since become friends which is always the best outcome of something that starts as a job, to both like the people you end up working with, and in this case, to love what they have created. I find Nicole’s personal style incredibly inspiring. During our 2nd shoot together she was discussing heel height with one of her partners, making the point that flats were much chicer to wear out at night because you’re not in pain or walking like a dinosaur.

I totally agree.

But when she does wear heels, she does them so well. I also spent the entire day wearing Hanley Mellon when we went on our New York City ‘choose your own adventure’ together because the clothing is made to be simple and chic and above all comfortable.

Nicole interviewed me recently, one of my favorites of all the interviews I’ve done… which isn’t surprising since I seem to heart everything about Hanley Mellon.

B.Balenciaga

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How does perfume emerge into the world? I recently tried Balenciaga’s newest creation by creative director Alexander Wang, called B.Balenciaga. The frosted bottle reminded me of a block of ice, perhaps a place where all creative ideas are frozen and then as they emerge into fruition begin to melt away, slowly, as ice turns into liquid.

As winter descends upon us I look forward to the spring, the thawing of ideas, the emergence of beautiful florals and that mossiness of the forest damp from the melting snow. But until then, I’ll take this scent made for women like me: romantic and modern, delicate as a flower and as strong as ice.

PS-  peek behind the scenes of this cinemagraph

Killing Time…

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In-between shots, while Jessica was waiting for me to finish setting up, I looked over and there she was, just killing time, running her finger around the ardoise diamond faced IWC Portofino midsize watch and I thought there could not be anything more glamorous than lace, winter light, and a black wool coat so casually and effortless resting against a simple white wall…

See the fashion story here.

CHANEL 4EVER

If you’ve been following along on our instagram you know by now we are in Paris! Some very special things have already been happening, including picking up decorating tips from the oh so iconic Coco Chanel.  Speaking of CHANEL… today is their spring / summer runway show which I am anticipating to be a sparkling spectacular! spectacular! Yet another amazing entity in this already dazzling city of lights…

Cinemagraph by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg // Clothing by CHANEL Couture // Modeled by India Salvor Menuez //Styled by Kelly Framel // Sparkling Chanel crown by Kelly Framel // Makeup by Christine Cherbonnier // Hair by Joseph DiMaggio // Manicure by Angel Williams 

Mademoiselle Suzette

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Mademoiselle Suzette sighs away the long afternoon, daydreaming in bed about what it must be like to fall in love. She wishes she could join the party that evening, to have encounters with gallant men, to dance the night into dawn – but alas, she is too young for the attention she longs for, especially in the shadow of her beautiful older sister PenelopeMy age may be in the way, she thinks, but my dreams have no such limits…twirling her treasured ring around her finger, she closes her eyes, fashioning fantasies of what her life may bring, the places she’ll see, and the loves she’ll meet along the way…

Despite her youth and innocence, Mademoiselle Suzette may indeed have some #ChopardSecrets of her own…even if they are only in her dreams.

 

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Mademoiselle Suzette in her daybed wears Chopard’s Chopardissimo ring in white gold //  Marchesa top & skirt // In the garden of her dreams below, she wears Chopard’s Chopardissimo ring in rose gold // HONOR top & skirt

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Mademoiselle Suzette played by Sage // Shot on location at Old Westbury Gardens by Ann Street Studio // Styled by Kelly Framel // Props by Zio & Sons // Makeup by Ashlee Glazer // Hair by Justin Woods // Manicurist Katie Hughes for Butter London // All watches and high jewelry provided by Chopard

 

Lord Byron Woodring

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Being Lord of the Manor comes with a world of responsibilities…one of which is knowing which secrets to tell and which to keep hidden. He has navigated his business deals by holding his cards close to his chest and keeping his power as strong as the stone columns of the manse. Lord Byron Woodring is a reserved gentleman who appreciates peace and quiet and expects only the highest quality from everything in life, from his choice of wife to his L.U.C. timepiece down to the label of scotch in his drink. No time for play, he strategizes the evening ahead where guests become pieces in his chess game. What does he have in store for tonight’s dealings?

Wise, succinct, and most of all, discreet, there are not many #ChopardSecrets Lord Byron has not heard…but what of his own? We may never know…

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Lord Byron wears Chopard’s L.U.C. Timepiece // Caruso Tux & Shirt // Florsheim Shoes

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Lord Byron Woodring played by Sandor Johnson // Shot on location at Old Westbury Gardens by Ann Street Studio // Styled by Kelly Framel // Props by Zio & Sons // Makeup by Ashlee Glazer // Hair by Justin Woods // Manicurist Katie Hughes for Butter London // All watches and high jewelry provided by Chopard

Lady Argyle

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Lady Argyle, the matriarch of the House, possesses the kind of confident elegance only one of experience may possess…it gives her the ability to glide instead of walk, and glow as vibrantly as the royally violet jewels that cast a spell on those who glance her way. She waits on the terrace for her Lord Byron, sipping champagne, lost in the memories of so many summers ago. She knows the emotions the young ones will be looking for tonight, but at this moment she’s happy living in her memories, or at least, being the gracious host she is, that might be just what she wants us to believe.

No matter what #ChopardSecrets may be whispered across these halls, rest assured…Lady Argyle knows them all…

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 In the Manor & on the Terrace, Lady Argyle wears Chopard’s Imperiale Ring, Pendant and Watch // Zac Posen Gown

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Lady Argyle played by Elodie // Shot on location at Old Westbury Gardens by Ann Street Studio // Styled by Kelly Framel // Props by Zio & Sons // Makeup by Ashlee Glazer // Hair by Justin Woods // Manicurist Katie Hughes for Butter London // All watches and high jewelry provided by Chopard