I'm Mthree. Those are my initials. Always have been. And thanks to a Hubby with a "M" last name, always will be. You can get a glimpse of where I've been, a better look at where I am and a peek at where I'm going right here on my blog.
You'll find easy access to the type of photography posts you are looking for above in the Archive, helpful info in the "You should know" section, as well as how you can connect with me in various ways, and the hookup with all the wedding vendors I love.
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If you are looking for an unforgettable photography experience, please don't hesitate to contact me by clicking on "Contact Mthree" above, or visiting my website.
She stood, gazing out the window of the villa, watching the clouds float slowly by, threatening the picturesque ceremony she had imagined for years. She sighed. She saw her guests taking their seats on the patio, pulling their jackets around their shoulders against the wind. She sighed again and said a little prayer. "Pagette! It's time to go line up!" her maid of honor called from the door. She took one last look outside and grabbed her bouquet. She caught a glance of herself as she passed the mirrors in the hallway and stopped cold. This was it - she was a bride. She was about to become a wife. She closed her eyes again, attempting to cement the feeling and the moment in her memory.
Pagette and Jason were married at one of my favorite Milwaukee venues; Villa Terrace. Weddings at Villa Terrace always have a certain elegance to them, the beautiful setting really just can't be beat. Milwaukee is lucky to have this historic former residence built in the Italian style, right on the lakefront. Rain did threaten on their day, and it was unseasonably cold, but luck was absolutely on their side. Not a raindrop fell until we walked into Coast for their reception.
Pagette's suite at the Pfister Hotel was fantastic. I could live for many days in the bathroom alone.
This could easily be one of my favorite shots of the year. The light in this room was fantastic. I'm so thrilled that Pagette trusted me with the schedule of her day, it allowed us to have time for portraits like this, something couples usually don't plan for.
One of the most wonderful things about Villa Terrace Weddings is that for a brief moment you find yourself believing that you actually aren't in Milwaukee anymore - but that the possibility exists you may have been transported to Italy.
In one of the most unique spins on a cocktail hour I've seen, Pagette and Jason hosted their guests on a one hour tour around the lakefront aboard The Voyager.
Pagette & Jason - from the first time I met you I knew yours was going to be a truly unique day. And it was - from the content of your ceremony, to the cocktail hour on a boat, to the casual atmosphere of your station dinner - truly a joy from start to finish! It was an honor to be there to capture it, thank you for including me in your plans for the day! Your families and your friends were fantastic to work with! All my best in the years to come.
In an effort to keep my weddings eligible for publication, I am now blogging a lot fewer images - please check out the slideshow below for a full retrospective of the day:
She was a wanderer. At the age of four while vacationing in Disneyland, her parents had turned around, counted the heads of their four daughters, only to find they had just three. A few minutes of searching led them to Becky, hanging out without a care in the world, with Winnie the Pooh. She was brave, unafraid and adventurous. She wandered away from her parents and siblings at the store, in the park, at parties. "Where's Becky?" was a family mantra. Once she was out of school the wandering continued. At holiday parties, relatives asked, "Where's Becky?". She went all over Europe. She signed up with the Peace Corps and wandered to Africa. She set her sights on working and living abroad and landed in France. You know where this story is going. All of this wandering, after all, has to stop at some point. Girl met Boy. They fell in love. And suddenly, the wandering stopped. Suddenly, there was something holding her in place.
This wedding was a little special - it is the marriage of one of Hubby's cousins! In all honesty, I was quite worked up heading into shooting this wedding. I wasn't sure how it would be doing my job in and amongst Hubby's family all day. Would I be able to focus? Would they think I was terrible?
It turned out to be one of the most fun weddings I've ever shot, and it was a joy to share my work with my family. Becky is Hubby's cousin, and she married Alex, a lovely guy from France. They live just outside of Paris. A fairly strong contingent of friends and family made the trip over to Wisconsin from France to be part of the celebration. And celebrate, they do! I have never seen partiers like Alex's french friends. They didn't leave the dance floor for a second. Needless to say, if you are looking for a wedding photographer in France, I am happy to volunteer!
Of course, one of the added benefits of shooting this wedding is that Hubby was my assistant for the day. He did a fantastic job. You'll have to watch the slideshow below to catch a few shots of him in action.
Here is what I think is funny - you think Hubby is tall, and then you meet his cousins:
All of this microphone work is the result of the kissing stipulation - sing a song with "love" in it and the couple will oblige. One should really never challenge the Michels to such things, we will take the challenge right over the top:
I have no idea what it must have been like to grow up with three sisters so close in age, but when I imagine it, I hope it was like this:
I overindulged in this slideshow, simply because I knew half the guest list personally, so it was hard to leave them out. Click to see all the crazy antics of the day:
"Okay, I'm ready. You can come in!" he called and so she pushed open the swinging door to their kitchen. Orbs of blue, yellow, red, orange and green bobbed in front of her. She giggled and pushed the door open further, letting a few of the baloons escape. "Where are you? I can't see you!" she called out. He laughed, "You'll find me." She parted the two pale blue balloons in front of her and noticed that they had little notes tied to their ribbons. She paused to read them. 'because you love hot chocolate and so do I', 'because you make me laugh'. She looked around her; all the balloons had notes. "Dustin, what is this?" she asked, and suddenly it was like small fish were swimming up her spine. "You'll see!" he teased. She made her way thru the balloons, reading the little notes along the way. 'because I love your smile', 'because i want to wake up next to you for the rest of my life', the notes and balloons were endless. Her foot hit something. She looked down and saw Dustin's shoe. She knelt down below the balloons to his level. He sat there, in the middle of the kitchen, surrounded by the colorful floating strings and balloons, a mischievious grin on his face. "So?" she asked him. He held out a hand and a sparkling ring. "So, will you marry me?".
Jacie and Dustin have a cool exterior, but if you dig just a millimeter deep, you'll find that they are both filled with fun, mischievous energy. As evidenced by one of the best proposal stories I've ever heard (can't you just picture it?), spending time with these two is super fun. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with the two of them and their friends at their wedding next Spring.
CHeck out more from this fun engagement session in the slideshow:
For part two of my time in Italy - 'I' became a 'We' and Hubby joined me for four wonderful but all too brief days in Rome. (Thanks to my new friend Alicia for riding the train with me!)
Hubby had never been to Italy, but has listened to me go on and on about it for the last <cough> ten years or so since I was a student there. We had only been dating a little less than a year when I went on that trip, but I knew he was missing out and would love it.
Those of you who have heard me tell the story of how m three studio got started know that Hubby and I had originally planned to honeymoon in Italy - a number of factors contributed to that not happening, but one of them was certainly the starting of this company. It was sweet justice then that m three studio was the reason we were able to go now, even if in abbreviated form.
Since we only had four days, we decided not to pack a ton of cities in, but instead we focused on one : Rome. Easily one of my favorite places on the planet, you can't help but love this place. Every turn is full of history, stories, tales, and time long gone by and witnessed. <sigh>
On our first night, we visited the Pantheon, one of my favorite ancient buildings simply for its pure remarkableness. It is a mathematically perfect building with a round interior that is as wide as it is tall - meaning a perfect sphere would fit snuggly inside. It has stood where it is, in use, since 27 B.C. Granted, it burned and was rebuilt a few times - but each time it was duplicated. The physical materials there today are from 110 A.D. It is just an awe-inspiring thing if you can wrap your head around it. In typically Italian fashion, you can sit down at a lovely Italian restaurant right there on the square and eat as you take in the sight.
We got better at these self-portraits later in the trip. At this point, we had each only slept about two hours, so...
After our first stop for Gelato, it was time to show Hubby some of Rome's night life on the Piazza Navona.
Legend has it that this figure on the Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini is recoiling in horror at the sight of the church built by Bernini's competitor Borromini, but in reality the fountain was done long before plans for the church had been conceived. Last time I was here, I saw a wedding couple come out of the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone.
An incredible courtyard we stumbled upon near our hotel. Everything is just this beautiful, everywhere.
Hubby got such incredible joy out of the Smart Cars, which were everywhere. This one is actually parked normally, but most of them would park perpendicular to the street, squeezing in between two slightly larger cars parked normally. All the cars were little, but for some reason, Hubby laughed out loud everytime we saw a Smart Car. He would really like one for Christmas.
We hit up Vatican City on day two, because no trip to Rome is complete without seeing St. Peter's and the most important work of art we have; the Sistine Chapel. Plus, I knew Hubby had maybe one day of museums in him, and even though I had been to this one before, he needed to see it. The Borghese Museum and Gardens sadly, will have to wait for next time.
They don't allow pictures in the Sistine Chapel in an effort to protect the frescoes from flashes. I respected the rules and spent our time craning my neck taking it all in. We also discovered the guy with the worst job in Rome. He is the security guard in the Sistine Chapel who must say over, and over, and over again, all day, "Silencio!" and "No Photo!". The poor man, you can just hear the frustration in his voice.
Hubby determined that the guy with the second worst job in Rome must be this man, who stands like this all day:
Us, in St. Peter's Square (which is really an oval):
I took a quick video with my 5D MarkII (I'm constantly forgetting it can do video) of the interior of the nave of St. Peter's. The immenseness of this Cathedral really hits you if you pay attention to how small the people are compared to the columns next to them:
The Vatican is technically it's own country, so Hubby took an opportunity to stand in two countries at once:
Walking home from the Vatican was quite romantic:
The elevator in our hotel was really small:
Hubby grabbed this shot while I was in a store:
We were in Italy over Halloween. The do celebrate it, but in a very watered down way. We saw a few kiddos dressed up, and several teenagers and young adults out that night dressed up too. Of course, a costume there seems to consist of either a set of devil horns on a headband or a witches hat, with basically your normal clothes. Like I said, watered down. We hit up an Irish Bar (because of course, that is where you go in Rome) to celebrate with what turned out to be a bunch of foreign exchange students from L.A. :
The next day we stepped out of our hotel and found the streets closed down for a marathon:
I think this day was Hubby's favorite, ancient history in the form of the Coliseum and The Roman Forum:
This modern day church had built itself right into the ruins of a temple:
Us at the Forum, walking where Ceasar walked:
Because Hubby loves me, and was willing to ignore the pain in his ankles and feet (walking all day really isn't Hubby's idea of a good time), he agreed to scale the stairs to go up on to the Capitoline Hill, an area of the forum I didn't get to see last time.
We had a great view of the Forum, Coliseum and much of Rome from the Capitoline. The video is a tad blown out, but you'll get the idea:
Apparently I was a bit obsessed with the Coliseum:
Right before sunset, we went up to the top of the Victor Emmanuelle monument for what our guidebook promised was the best view of Rome. Respectfully, I prefer the view from St. Peter's cupola, but I think that is because you have to work for it and scale 342 stairs after an elevator. The Victor Emmanuelle just has the elevator.
The street you see below is the Via Corso, one of Rome's main streets and heart to much of it's shopping. The last day we had in Rome, it was raining buckets. Consequently, there aren't any pictures, as I left my camera at home in favor of holding onto an umbrella. But we spent it in the Spanish Steps neighborhood and on the Via Corso:
There is much we did that there aren't pictures for: watched the Packer game at that same Irish Pub (because that is what kind of fans we are), saw amazing fountains and churches, ate easily one of the best meals of our lives, managed to eat some pretty bad meals (more on that in a minute), ate our weight in Gelato, learned to speak un piccolo of Italian, found European Pepsi in a local grocery store, haggled with street merchants, wandered around lost even with the help of our iPhones and hopskipped our way home via London (where we ate in their verison of a TGI Fridays, quite amusing).
It was amazing to me how much of Italy and my previous travels there I had forgotten, and also how much had changed. Rome is so much more americanized now than it was before. It was fantastic re-discovering so much, most especially with Hubby at my side. A few things we learned, (some I relearned and kicked myself for not remembering) should you find yourself in Rome, or anywhere in Italy for that matter:
-Rick Steve's totally rocks. Seriously, his guidebook was so helpful, even for someone who had stayed in Rome before. We skipped lines, found good restaurants, listened to his free itunes audiotours, etc. We were constantly pulling our book out and consulting - but only to allow us to have a better experience and save time doing it. Highly recommend any trip to Europe being led by reading his books.
-Don't eat next to the tourist attractions. In general, this food sucks. If there are pictures of the food on the menu, walk away - this usually means they are just reheating frozen things and don't have a kitchen. I'm sad to report we made this mistake too often and paid dearly for it with too many Euro.
-Do eat where there are many locals, and at least two blocks off the beaten path - multo bueno!
-Try every gelato shop you come across. Seriously. Even the worst gelato we ate was so good!
-They have no idea what hot chocolate is and will serve you basically melted chocolate in a cup with whipped cream. Contrary to what you might be thinking, it isn't good.
I thought I'd take on the personal account of my/our trip to Italy first. The results of all that shooting to come in future posts.
I took well over 800 images while in Italy - don't worry, I won't be posting them all!
The first half of the trip was just me, in the Chianti Hills of Tuscany for the Italy Workshop hosted by Gene Higa and Jose Villa. This was the real purpose of the trip - to learn, be inspired and get some international shooting experience. For the second half, Hubby and I met up in Rome for a small, 4 day vacation.
The workshop was held at La Selva - a gorgeous 300 year old villa just outside of Montegonzi, and this is where I stayed. If you drew a triangle on a map between Sienna, Florence and Arezzo, La Selva would be right in the middle of that. Since the villa couldn't hold us all, the other half of the workshop attendees stayed at Borgi di Fontebussi, a villa complex just down the road.
Here's a little walk around video I did of the Villa so that Hubby could see where I was staying (two videos actually):
Gene and Jose are quite different in their approaches to wedding photography. Jose shoots film, hangs back and quietly observes. Gene shoots digital, gets involved and creates situations when necessary. This is part of why they wanted to do a workshop together - so that attendees could get two perspectives. I thought this image summed that up nicely - a shootsac full of digital slr lenses laying on the ground next to a Contax film camera.
Here is Gene showing one of the models how he wants her to swish her dress during an engagement session shoot:
The second day we spent the afternoon shooting at Borgi di Fontebussi for a wedding shoot, here's a quick snap of some of the group at work with Gene and two of our models:
The last day of the workshop I woke up early and found beautiful fog surrounding us:
Gene and Jose surprised everyone with a trip to Florence on the last day with one catch - you could only bring one camera and one lens. I took my 5D Mark II with a 50mm 1.2 lens and roamed the city. I shot a ton of more artistic things, and some regular sights. Here is a very small sampling:
These little taxidermied pigs were all dressed up for a Halloween feast in one butcher shop:
The Duomo:
The "living statues" outside of the Uffizi Gallery:
This fountain on the Ponte Vecchio is covered in padlocks. Check out this link to see why.
This crazy sculpture dominated the piazza in front of the Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens. I really wanted to check the Boboli Gardens out, but by the time we found them that day, we had to start heading back towards the train station.
Just before jumping on the train, I saw these vintage cameras in a shop window. If the dollar wasn't so weak against the Euro, I would have certainly brought one home.
Much more to come in Part Two - where Hubby flies to Rome to join me for a few days, and in Parts Three and Four (and maybe Five), which would be the results of all that shooting!
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 4:58PM 
