The annual PGA Merchandise Show brings most of the golf industry to Orlando each January. This year, we spent two days documenting teenage LPGA rookie Lexi Thompson for a Golf World profile by Tim Rosaforte. Lexi won the Navistar LPGA Classic in September to become the youngest LPGA winner ever, at 16. She has endorsement deals with Red Bull, Rolex and Cobra-Puma. We met Lexi and her entourage at the PGA Show’s Demo Day, where club manufacturers are on hand showing off their newest goods. Lexi spent the day doing interviews, signing autographs, playing Baggo, and hitting 300 yard drives on the TrackMan analyzer. The next day brought us to the show floor at the Orange County Convention Center. Cobra-Puma’s “booth” had a second story bar with a DJ and a slide. Lexi was a model in the Cobra-Puma fashion show that afternoon, complete with VIP after party. It’s not really what most people have in mind when you ask them to picture the PGA Merchandise Show, but it certainly made for a great assignment. The images ran in the February 20 issue of Golf World with a 6 page story and in a slideshow on golfdigest.com.

Laura and Mike’s Pebble Beach wedding was effortless and graceful thanks to the careful planning done by everyone involved. The couple chose to wed at the home church of the bride, the Church in the Forest. With it’s lattice, huge exposed wood beams, and giant forest view windows, it was easy to see why. We were thrilled when we found Laura had submitted the photos to our favorite wedding blog, Style Me Pretty, and they decided to feature the wedding. We have posted some of our favorite images from this exquisite event here on our  blog. Follow this link to see the entry in full and read the bride, Laura’s, description of her planning process. It was a pleasure working with event planner Amy Byrd for the first time. The Monterey Peninsula Country Club provided a fantastic backdrop for the reception. We really enjoyed getting to know this warm couple and their wonderful families. Congratulations to all!

We love getting calls from designer William Bainbridge Steele. He always has something beautiful up his sleeve. This call was particularly interesting. He needed us to play along in a ruse for a surprise birthday party he was coordinating. The birthday girl, Jan, thought it would be nice to have a portrait of her children and grandchildren who were flying to Vero Beach to spend the weekend with her. William referred  us to Jan, who we spoke to about travelling to Vero Beach to make some family portraits. What Jan didn’t know is that her husband had hired William to orchestrate an event filled weekend, with guests flying in from all over and a 10-piece band from Atlanta, GA handling the entertainment. Jan was overwhelmed by the amazing party William put together, and true to our prior discussions with Jan, we made these portraits of their beautiful family the following day. Luscious Verde did a great job taking prints of the above image and quickly turning around exquisite Christmas cards in time for the holidays.

We were in the middle of a week long shoot in California when Golf Digest asked us to photograph a travel piece on Bermuda written by Ron Kaspriske. Though we’d been on the road for a while and needed to prepare for other shoots in the works, who can say no to Bermuda? We made moves on travel and found ourselves in one of the most beautiful spots on earth.

The most important pre-arrival reservation for a trip to Bermuda is a driver. Tourists are only allowed to rent mopeds, they drive on the left, and the national drink, the Dark ‘N’ Stormy, is delicious. So, we reached out to Ernie McCreight, who turned us on to Irving Raynor, who is a hospitality professor at the local college and a cab driver. He assured us that “The left side is the right side and the right side is suicide.” Mr. Raynor not only kept us on the left, but knew what time of day to hit the spots on our list and made the job of covering a diverse island in just two days much easier.

We were based at the Fairmont Southampton on the south shore of the island which is central to the courses we needed to photograph. The Port Royal Golf Course was closed while we were there as they prepared the property for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. We managed to get a beautiful morning of light before crews moved in to erect TV towers and miles of rope for the annual event. The highlights of this Robert Trent Jones design include the iconic 16th hole and the remnants of a British fort on the back nine.

It may be a toss up with the turquoise water, but pink is the color of Bermuda. The sand of the beaches, Warwick Long Bay in particular, has tiny reddish particles from the coral reefs. The long exposures we made brought out the pink even more.

The natural beauty of Bermuda isn’t all that is there. We were impressed with St. Peter’s church, built in 1609, with its beautiful wood beams. We were also taken with the Bermudians themselves, warm with a British edge and those awesome shorts. Why hasn’t that formal wear taken off everywhere with warm temps?

It’s not often that the story you are working on partially burns to the ground. That’s exactly what happened while we were photographing the last caddie camp in the USA on the charming island of Nantucket. We were documenting the last few days of the annual summer camp, which dates back to 1930, when a fire broke out in the mess hall, destroying it and one of the three bunkhouses that sit off the 10th fairway at Sankaty Head GC.

Most of the campers were out on their morning loop when the fire broke out. About a dozen campers escaped from their bunks without injury, joining their brothers at the cart barn to watch the massive flames and wonder what would be left of the camp and the few possessions they had brought to Nantucket for the summer. We kept shooting through it all, but we were really glad that Golf World ran Jeff Silverman’s story without focusing on the fire. They ran 17 of our images across a cover and 9 pages. Those are impressive numbers for a weekly magazine in the year 2011! We transmitted some images for a breaking news story on golfdigest.com, but the camp is so much more than just a spot news story.

Many of the campers come back every summer, and the bond that they all share was remarkable to document. There was once dozens of these summer camps all over the US, where kids could come learn how to caddie, earn some good money, and play some golf. The membership at Sankaty Head, which includes Jack Welch and John Akers, continues this tradition. They have a unique perspective on the importance of mentoring and the broader impact golf can make in the community. The members fund $120,000 in annual scholarships for the campers and they have already started rebuilding the camp for next summer. It was fascinating to see former camper and current director, Peter Montesano, lead these young men during an incredibly emotional few days. No one went home, no one quit. They helped one another out and turned the rec room into a temporary bunk house. Their camaraderie should be a lesson for us all.

We were very happy to see this story get so much positive feedback from the readers of Golf World, as well as a shout out from Geoff Shackelford!

Valerie McCarty with Herschend Family Entertainment commissioned us for a two-day advertising shoot on the Showboat Branson Belle in Branson, Missouri. We faced some adversity with the weather and flooding in the area, but thanks to Valerie and her local team, we were able to create a great custom image library for the brand. The work is being used in their new brochures and will be incorporated into an updated website.

When we found out we’d be working at Pebble Beach we decided we’d be crazy not to add on a few days to explore and photograph the area of Big Sur.  We were right and completely floored by the beauty of Point Lobos in particular which we visited on the recommendation of a friend. It’s an absolutely magical spot and we are endlessly jealous of people who own the homes we drove by to get there. Here are some of our favorite images, mostly long exposures, from the trip.

Ashley and John of New York City, elected to wed overlooking the Atlantic at John’s mother’s fabulous home in Vero Beach, Florida. The event was followed with a swanky reception next door at the Orchid Island Golf and Beach Club. Small-thought out details like the groom’s turtle cuff links and the necklace the bride borrowed from John’s mother contributed to the overall elegant and yet understated feeling of the event. The waterfront location of the ceremony combined with the ease of celebrating next door made the event an impressive and seamless success. Congratulations to the couple and their families!

Golf Digest sent another fun travel piece our way, this time at the Kiawah Island Resort and Spa near Charleston, South Carolina. The most memorable moment for me was standing on a trashcan, trying to get a better angle on the swimming pool with the ocean behind it. A member of the staff was worriedly watching me. Then Eric flew by shooting out of a helicopter that looked like it was once a Monster Energy Drink promotion. I said to the guy watching me like I was a liability lawsuit in progress, “That’s my husband!” As usual working as a team was seriously clutch as the spa/pool photography and the aerial photography needed to happen simultaneously.   -Jen

We were pumped to join the crew of Say Yes to the Dress in documenting Carli and Ralph’s Fort Lauderdale wedding. This wedding was fun and unconventional in so many ways and traditionally romantic in others. The bridesmaids’ multi-colorful and sexy dresses, the amazing entrance of the bride in her incredible gown at the pre-wedding cocktail hour and the lovely and intricate seating tree all helped to make the wedding surprising and memorable. The traditional ceremony performed by the groom’s father  took place at sunset in the Hyatt Hotel’s revolving, roof-top restaurant Pier 66. Did we mention the bride putting a cream pie in the groom’s face during the cake cutting? Congratulations to Carli and Ralph and thank you to our colleague and good friend, John Loomis, for introducing us.