Alternative Take On Sushi

If one day you get really hungry at work and there's still a few hours left till lunch break there's a great alternative to chewing on your pen or eating paper. Play around with whatever is on your desk and let your subconscious mind fuel your creativity. Not only will time fly by pretty fast but you also might found out what to order for lunch. In my case it was salmon sushi :)

One of my main goals was to put together the whole image in camera and use Photoshop primarily for brightness/contrast adjustments and slight color tweaking. The most challenging were push-pins which I had to glue together in order to create a rice layer for my sushi. I thought orangey - pink eraser and silver pen/pencil would be ideal for salmon and chopsticks. I cut out the flowers in the background from paper and folded them in a cherry blossoms shape. And not to keep you in suspense, the Japanese signs on the sushi plate translate as "creativity".

Happily Ever After

A few weeks ago, when I was participating in the Art & Wine Walk art show at Stirling Club, I was approached by club's special events director Sharon, who asked me if I'd be interested in photographing her stepson Corey's wedding. Although I don't really photograph weddings on a constant basis I couldn't miss the opportunity to document the excitement and happiness of such an important day.

The wedding took place at St. Joseph Husband of Mary Church located close to the Strip and next to the prestigious residential neighborhoods Canyon Gate Ranch and The Lakes. I checked out the church day before the big event to get a sense of place and see what the lighting might be and was really taken away by a subtle beauty and peacefulness of its inner courtyard architecture which seemed to be influenced by Spanish motifs. Inside the church was defined by prominent stained glass windows beautifully scattering the rays of light across the abstract shaped interior.

While for the beautiful bride Jaime the wedding day started with a trip to Cristophe Salon at MGM, my work day began when she and her friend Andrea were back at their Palms Place suite. There I took a few portraits of Jaime as well as some images of her stunning Vera Wang dress, exquisite Manolo Blahnik shoes and of course bride and groom's gorgeous wedding bands.

Corey and Jaime decided to have their formal pictures taken before the ceremony so I had a little less than an hour to take all kinds of photographs of the happy couple by themselves and with their relatives as well as some candid images of the guests.

Being originally from Orthodox Russia, I've never seen the traditional Roman Catholic wedding ceremony before so it was definitely a wonderful experience to witness all the stages of the Mass which was very spiritual and full of beauty.

Reception took place in the North Lounge of the Stirling Club and was full of laughs, joy and happiness. Although I was just a professional photographer at Corey and Jamie's wedding I had so much fun photographing them that it didn't feel like a job at all. I guess that's what matters most at the end of the day...

Stirling Club | Cigar Bar & Lounge

Not so long ago my husband Ken and I were hired to create a few interior images of the Stirling Club's Cigar Bar & Lounge located at magnificent Turnberry Place.

Stirling Club describes Cigar Bar as a place where "members may enjoy a grand selection of cigars and a variety of pipe tobaccos as well as playing billiards". They also boast the world's finest wines and spirits and offer club's members an option of storing their cigars in the exclusive humidors if they so desire.

Ken and I were very excited about this photographic opportunity and did our best to capture the unique essence and atmosphere of this exquisite after hour gathering spot. We are very happy with the final result and truly believe that our photographs ended up looking as inviting and elegant as Cigar Bar in real life.