Albuquerque’s Hotel Andaluz is the oldest hotel in the city. Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the hotel recently underwent a 34-million dollar renovation that included much more than a property’s standard updates. WriteShot’s book will detail the history of the hotel and the story of the entrepreneur with a vision who breathed life back  into it, transforming the property into the only USGBC silver-level LEED certified building on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Commencing with the hotel’s creation by Conrad Hilton in 1939 and ending in the present day with Gary Goodman’s vision of a sustainable luxury property, WriteShot’s book will tell the building’s entire story.

Due to the disturbing trend in the overuse of sunbleached filters for that ’70s vintage film look, and chopping off people’s heads in wedding photos, I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon as a self-styled photographic executioner.

“Off with their heads!” I say. “Let’s bleach ‘em down and soak them in a urine-colored hue, too.”

What bride and groom wouldn’t want to look through their treasured wedding album, five, 10, 50 years later, and see headless bridesmaids, best men, and, of course, the (assumed to be) happy headless couple?

It will require some work, not to frame my photos, but to lop off what has always been the most essential part of a image – someone’s face.

I bet I’ll get more clients. Maybe the trend-happy brides will think I’m really cool and book my services.  I can probably justify an increase in rates, too, since I’ll be doing an overabundance of cropping and that takes time. I’ll also have to purchase all those actions I’ve despised these many years, as a photography purist hell bent on retaining any sort of image resembling real life.

In fact, when I’m shooting boxing, i’m going to cut off heads, as well. I bet ESPN or Ring Magazine will love to see that! They’ll talk about how innovative I am. I’m going to chop off my dog’s head as well. My dogs will think I’m pretty nifty, too.

Want four more reasons to help fight cancer? Look to the right.

This week, we were fortunate enough to help out Flashes of Hope for the Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation.

Flashes of Hope is a nonprofit organization that changes the way children with cancer and other life threatening illnesses see themselves through the gift of photography and raises money for pediatric cancer research.

Anyone interested in donating, can visit Flashes of Hope here.

Sometimes the things I am upset about or frustrated with or just plain old don’t understand are trivial to others. But they’re important to me. They loom big in my landscape. Then larger issues appear, like this past week’s earthquake and tsunami. Or this week’s children I met when Chris and I shot Flashes of Hope for the Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation.

Perspective.

WriteShot owner/photographer Chris Cozzone had one of his recent boxing images featured in a two-page spread in the current issue of ESPN Magazine, now on newsstands. In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, the shot shows Irish heavyweight Mike Lee, former Notre Dame football star, knocking out the mouthpiece of his opponent in what was the knockout shot.

Chris and I are honored to shoot for Flashes of Hope, tomorrow.

You can’t dispute the fact that Toy Poodles continue to inspire couture bridal design year after year.
This year, it’s Maggie Sottero’s Yasmin ballgown with a sweetheart neckline and corset closure that’s gone to the dogs.

None of the seven Toy Poodles entered in this year’s Westminster Kennel Club Toy Group competition could beat out GCH Palacegarden Malachy, the Pekingese who resembled a mother-of-the-bride disapproving of both, her daughter’s taste in decor, and men.

Photos courtesy www.maggiesottero.com and www.westminsterkennelclub.org

“It really was love at first sight,” Naomi, owner of TipsyCake, says about her husband John. “I first noticed him sitting on a milk crate, waiting to get to work. He was perfect, just like that. I didn’t care that he smashed the ice sculpture at Tipsy’s grand-opening.”

“I just didn’t have enough room,” John explains. “Naomi had ordered a three-tiered cake ice-sculpture that commanded everyone’s attention. So much so, that as the crowd around it swelled with admirers, it became almost impossible to navigate amongst the party-goers. That’s when ‘it’ happened.”

It?

“Trying to balance a glassware rack above my head or in front of me or even a little off to the side, I just didn’t have enough room,” recalls John. “In an effort to not knock the head off a guest with the corner of the rack, a quick move resulted in me swerving the rack away from the person’s head and into the top tier of the ice cake. With a thwack, the rack hit the ice and the top of the sculpture slid to the floor. Nobody moved. You could hear a pin drop. I thought I ruined her big day.”

Naomi was too busy staring at John to notice the demolition of her ice sculpture.

“I wanted to be with this man,” was what kept creeping into her mind.

“I thought I knew her,” John recalls. “But when she opened her mouth and I heard the Aussie accent, I realized I was wrong. I knew I needed to know her. But I was there to tend bar. It was her grand opening and I had a job to do, even if I ruined the sculpture. When the end of the night came, I was reluctant to ask for payment, but she insisted I speak with her. I walked over and to my surprise, she planted a big kiss on me.”

“I couldn’t wait for our first date,” says Naomi. “And that was Valentine’s Day. We dined at Maiz in Humbolt Park. I was totally relaxed. For the first time ever in my life, I felt ‘I had arrived.’ When it came to love, I never felt this way before. No nerves. No butterflies. There was no rubbish. No malarkey. I remember thinking, ‘This is how it should be.’”

“Naomi is sensitive, captivating and intense.”

“John is passionate, intelligent and fiery.”

Incredible, amazing and delicious are just a few of the words TipsyCake clients use to describe the work of “The Cake Aussie,” Naomi Levine. Naomi, her husband John and their son Michael live, work, play, bake and decorate cakes in Chicago, home of TipsyCake.

Check out TipsyCake‘s cool creations here.

Photo courtesy of Naomi and John.

Meant to be is the place for WriteShot friends to share the he said/she said of their own love stories. If you have a great story and a favorite snapshot contact WriteShot to arrange an interview.

Somewhere between the Antipasto and Filet Vesuvio, the crowd sang “Happy Birthday,” a violin played effortlessly, and I received a kiss on each cheek, in addition to a bear hug, from the Chicago Cubs famed number 14, Ernie Banks. Banks, who turned 80, celebrated his birthday at Chicago’s Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse this past Saturday.

Photo by WriteShot.

Reprint of 1956 Cubs Card courtesy of 30-Year Old Cardboard Box Blog.

Patience Smith and Sam Bloom

By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI

Patience Smith and Sam W. Bloom are to be married Sunday at the Yale Club in New York. Mary Louise Liberty, a minister of the Universal Life Church, is to officiate.

The bride, 42, will take her husband’s name. She is a senior editor at Harlequin Books in New York. She graduated from Oberlin College and received a master’s in French literature from the University of New Mexico.

She is the daughter of Bonnie G. Smith of New Brunswick, N.J., and Robert J. Smith of Guilford, Conn. Her father retired as a professor of history at the State University of New York, Brockport. Her mother is a professor of history at Rutgers.

The bridegroom, 44, is an adjunct professor of French language and literature at Barnard College and Fordham University. He graduated from Columbia, where he also received a master’s and a Ph.D. in French literature.

He is a son of William S. Bloom of Miami, and the late Charlotte S. Bloom. His father works in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a financial consultant with AXA Advisors, a subsidiary of the AXA Group, the French insurance company.

His first marriage ended in divorce.

The couple met in September 1983 at the Taft School, a boarding school in Watertown, Conn., that both were attending.

“We were acquaintances,” Ms. Smith said. “He was very popular, and I was a wallflower. We weren’t really friends.”

Mr. Bloom graduated in 1984, and for the next quarter-century, he and Ms. Smith were out of touch.

Then one August day in 2009, they reconnected on Facebook. At the time, Ms. Smith was living and working in New York and Mr. Bloom, then divorced, was teaching French literature in Haifa, Israel.

“I recognized her right away, it’s hard to forget a name like Patience,” Mr. Bloom said. “I always had a secret little crush on her. In fact, she had gone to my senior formal with someone else, and I pulled her into one of my photos because I thought we would look good together.”

They corresponded for four months, and then that December, when the school semester ended, Mr. Bloom left Israel for New York, where “they were pretty much an item immediately,” according to Ms. Smith.

Mr. Bloom said he had plenty of good reasons to leave Israel for Ms. Smith. “She’s very earnest, very transparent and has exceptional character,” he said. “All of these things shine through.”

And in terms of waiting for Mr. Right, Ms. Smith was true to her (first) name. “He’s funny and kind and has an amazing way of looking at life,” she said. “He was certainly worth waiting for.” VINCENT M. MALLOZZI

This article reprinted from the New York Times, January 15, 2011. Photograph by WriteShot.

Watch their video here.