Inspiration: Sound of Summer

If you are as fortunate as I am to live in a place where you get to experience every season you'd know that each season not only feels different but it smells different, and even sounds different. The sound of birds chirping is more frequent, the sound of splashing water at the local pool could be heard all summer long. And for me, my musical palette craves a different sound with each new season.

Here are a few songs from my summer playlist.

My favorite songs are almost always acoustically driven, and laid back. Hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

     

Ho hey is definitely on repeat on my ipod these days ... I think I play it about 5 or 6 times a day and I am not yet sick of it.

The Paper Kites are easily making their way to the top of my list of favorite bands.
They genuinely sound like summer.


So so fun to watch and listen, kind of addicting.


This is my happy hammock song ... I love this stripped down version a little more than the original but the original is still super fun and so is the video.

Lastly, For King and Country's 'Fine Fine Life' = my feel good, makes me want to dance, summer jam!!!! I'm insanely hooked to their music.


I love sharing music, how bout you?
What are you all listening to these days?

Inspiration: Featherstone

I have no words for how incredible this music video is, it's one of new all time favorites. 

And this song, well another new favorite. It's been stuck in my head for the last few days.

Happy Sunday Folks!

Personal: More Christmas tunes

How is it already December?

Well, here are more Christmas tunes to fill your December days with!

Personal: Happy Christmas-ing!!

Hi friends!

Hope you all had a spendid thanksgiving and ate till your heart's content! 

Thanksgiving is now over {though there's much to be thankful for each and ever day} and Christmas is  on it's way. I'm the kindda gal who despises Chrismas music before Thanksgiving. {I'm the one-holiday-at-a-time type of girl}. But now it's time to get my Christmasing on, and share some love with you all. Hope you enjoy some of these, they are some of my favorite Christmas/wintery songs ever!

Happy Christmas-ing Folks!

Giveaway: FREE Tunes For Tuesday

Music, I love good music. I also love really good free music, who doesn't?

also ... I really love Me & Mr. Cassidy.

These guys are pretty familiar faces on my blog, and if you've taken a gander at my online portfolio you'd hear their lovely voices set the tone for my work. They are ammazing and their music makes me cry on a good day. Now what's the big deal?

Well Me & Mr. Cassidy is about to be a big deal {fingers crossed}. With a big important show this weekend they will be performing in front of some very important Sony Music Label Reps. Yep, only a year of working together this duo is already doing big things. 

If you haven't heard of them before, or haven't heard their beautiful tunes here's a snippets of their album 

Me & Mr. Cassidy Volume 1.

Between the two of them, Hope & Scott {Mr. Cassidy} have played along side or have shared the stage with some pretty incredible artists like The Makepeace Brother, Bushwalla, Jason Mraz {yeah ... still trying to wrap my head around that one}, Avasa & Matty Love ... the list goes on and on. I can only imagine where they'll in another year or two.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 But before they get too big they still haven't been heard by everyone. So to share the love of great music,  and get their tunes out there,

I want to get Me & Mr. Cassidy's 1st album in your hands *** FOR FREE ***

All you have to do is like them, or tweet them, or blog about this. Simple huh?

1. Like Me & Mr. Cassidy on Facebook & leave a comment on this blog post telling me you did ... or

2.  Like Me & Mr. Cassidy on Facebook & tweet me @icaimages telling me there instead 

{please include @meandmrcassidy in your tweet also}

You will get their entire digital album for free, I've got 10 copies to share with you awesome readers! 

OR Blog about this giveaway & leave a comment on this post with a link and email ..

If you want their actual CD instead, signed cover and all.

I'll be heading to California at the end of the week and can pick up 3 free copies from the duo themselves & send them your way as soon as I get back. 

As for the digital copies, I'll be emailing out the albums as soon as I get them this week.

This giveaway ends Thursday at 12 pm pacific standard time.

Inspiration: The sound of fall

Most every one of my days has a soundtrack playing quitely in the background

For every mood, ever milestone and every season there's always a a new song.
Fall, well Fall is one of my favorites. The world seems to slow down as a single leaf falls from the sky and find it's place amongst those already on the ground. The air is new, and hugs seem to last a little longer to help those you love stay a little bit warmer. Yup, I love fall. Here are a few songs that keep me moving, keep me inspired, or keep me smiling this season. 

Sometimes I forget how good, and how strong God's love is ..  it's good to be reminded.
I'm a romantic at heart, this almost made me cry it's so beautiful. {Angie thanks for introducing me to Mindy Gledhill .. I'm in love}
Ingrid.Michaelson. No need to say more :)

Ellie Goulding, I'm addicted to her voice and this cover is goosebumps-amazing.

Zee Avi is simply one of a kind.

This is a breakup song, I know. But it's so fun and catchy and Sara Bareilles looks ammazing in this video. {One of my favorite tracks from Kaleidoscope Heart}
I hope I'm not the only who wants to now break into song and dance in a leather jacket at the local super market.
 
Me and Tim fell in love with his music the first time we heard him live. <3
His songs mean alot more than sweet melodies to us now.

What are  you listening to this season?
I'm sure you all know some amazing music I've not yet heard.

Inspiration: Summer Tunes

It's summer. {Ok, not technically .. but it feels like summer around here}

Here are some of my new favorite tunes that are on my summer playlist,

not to mention they all have the most beautiful, and simple videos.

If my pictures could sing, I'd want them to sound just like this...

Enjoy and Happy Weekend!!

Portraits: Me & Mr. Cassidy

Ok this is the very last of my California posts, but I've saved the absolute best for last!

Let me introduce to you one dynamic duo,

Me and Mr. Cassidy.

Sit back, relax and before reading on please take a listen at these two song birds melt your heart.

Go on, we're not going any where ....

Amazing huh? You can find there music here, here and here and if you can't help but look for more of their sweet melodies, I won't be man if you left without saying goodbye, they are that good. But if you stick around, get ready for alot of FUN!

My darling friend Hope is no stranger to my blog, but this new musical adventure she's on with the charming Mr. {Scott} Cassidy is. Since her move from DC to LA last fall, she's been doing BIG things in sunny southern California. She and Scott have joined their musical singing/song writing talents to create some of the most beautiful, romantic songs. I could honestly listen to their songs all day long and never tire of hearing each song over and over again.

Southern California is spoiled to have Hope and Scott sing them sweet lullabies each night, but don't fret ... Hope and Scoot just recently recorded their first full length album so the rest of us can take Hope and Scott home with us in the near future.

 

Just this month both Hope and Scott traveled down to North Carolina to record their album and if you've taken a gander at any of their websites and links you'll notice a love story of two people and the journey that their love takes through out their lives.

The way that I get to capture love stories through my lens each and every day, 

Me and Mr. Cassidy did their own writing and seamlessly dreamed up a timeless love story of through each melody and each word of their songs.

 

Happy or sad,

  Serious, or silly, each one of their songs is stand-on-it's-own amazing ... 

but put them all together and you get a knock-you-off-your-feet album!!!

Me and Mr. Cassidy I love you both so much and your music moves me. From step 1 to step 2,034,708,321 I'll be cheering you on the whole way!

Alright, now it's the wait. The wait till their album comes out, and I'll be counting down the days because I'm so excited!

If you've stuck around mosey on over to Me and Mr. Cassidy's website, send some love their way, 

and soak up their sweet tunes and maybe share them with your friends.

Happy Friday Friends!

Teasers: More California Teasers

Last week was definitely more that I could have asked for, 8 days in California felt like a month ... and I've practically got a month's worth of images to blog & share with you all. So keep checking back ... slowly but surely I'll be sharing more and more.

For now here are a few more teasers of the crazy talented folk I got to work with last week.

The Hopes.

The Scott.

The Makepeace Brothers

Their newest album is AMMMAZING go get yourself a copy!

The amazing little Jessie Payo

And of course my loves ....

Hope + Scott = Me and Mr. Cassidy.

Full on blog posts are on their way for all of these shoots... oh how I can't wait to share!!

As for the rest of these photos....

They are alot more personal but I can't help but share them because made my trip that much more memorable. Lots of love and a million thank yous goes out to my dear dear friend, Mike. I could not have gotten through my trip without your generosity, your help and your continuous encouragement. Thank you Mike and I am blessed and honored to call you friend.

Oh this painting!!! I love it sooo much and it's my first ever Jean and Ho painting. My ammmazingly sweet and talented friends drew me up one of their creations and I can't help but share this amazingness with the world. I'm sad I didn't have enough hands to bring it with me on my flight back but I'm making space on my walls for it and can't wait to put it up and look at it all day. Rj and Andrew I love you two!

Lastly the big reveal of my new red hair. *All my love goes out to my dearest Reinnasaurus thank you for being so amazing and so talented and for turned my little head red. I love you! You're simply the worlds hottest assistant/second shooter/model!!

I am now a little cherry-red head {spicy tuna loving} Ica.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day!!!

Personal: California

 Hello Friends.

So, I'm here in southern California 2 days into my trip and I've been completely overwhelmed with fun, sunsets, food, photoshoots, great thrifting, great music, great friends, new friends and lots and lots of laughs. It's been a whirlwind but I've loved every second of it.

As you know I'm out here to shoot basically a whole lot of beautiful people who play beautiful music or who act, I've been spoiled rotten if you ask me and I've still got five more days of this goodness. Here are a few teasers from the shoots I've done, the places I've been, and the fun that's gone down.

I've spent every day here in the company of my friends Hope and Scott other wise known as Me and Mr. Cassidy. 

My dearest Hopie is now a darling red head whom I'll be shooting tomorrow all day...

.. we've had some pretty sweet memories already and lots and lots of yummy food.

Here are a few teasers from my shoots this week, first with new friend Scott {Mr. Cassidy}.

We even got to squeeze in a shoot during the most magical sunset.

And today I got to do headshots for this beautiful blonde bombshell, the lovely Bridget.

Venice beach was so good to us this afternoon, we had ourselves a blast.

Very Bridget Bardot right? Go figure her name just happens to be Bridget too.

Oh Bridget... you're too stinkin cute!

Well that's it for now kids, sorry I'm blogging sans any logos ... my mom let me borrow her laptop for my trip and I don't have my logo on hand. Hope you enjoy zee teasers and Happy Weekend to you friends!

Personal: West Coast Adventuring

I'm taking off for my first adventure of the year, tomorrow.

I'm headed back to California for a week of awesome work. Yes work and I'm extremely excited.

I'll be all over the Santa Monica/Hollywood area to do a week of photography work for my friend, Hope, her talented singer/songwriter friends, and actors...And to simply have a good ole time, how can you not when it's California!

Talk about a new year right? It'll be a complete different experience for me getting to work with musicians all week at live shows, during recordings, backstage, and for promo and album photo shoots. I'm glad to be starting the year off with such a fun challenge. If you're reading this please pray for me! I'm not going to lie, I'm slightly nervous yet 100% thrilled to be taking such a different path with my photography. It's going to be quite a ride.

{I took these photos in Santa Monica last summer}

If you need to get hold of me this week, or want to shoot me some sweet "pre-game" tunes, or if you want some album photo work or something like that done, or want to mozy in to Hollywood with me for some AMMMAZING live music this week ... just email at ica.images@gmail.com k! Have a great week friends! I'll be checking in from time to time over the next week so stay tuned!

PS. It's already been 4 months since my sister's wedding? And it's exactly 2 months till my birthday ... time is surely flying!

Portraits: Hope Makes Music

My dearest Hope is no stranger to this bloggeroo of mine. You might remember her from this or this post or her song from this post and you can follow her own photography adventures here.

This shoot was extra special because my dearest Hope has since moved out to the city of angels, yup LA. She moved a few days after my big sister's wedding and the only other time I saw her was for this wedding I shot in New Jersey in the Fall where she was a guest. And during that weekend's events we squeezed in  a fun little shoot for Hope's musical endeavours.

Hope . Makes.  Music .

In just a few months my lovely Hope has taken LA by storm and has teamed up with another talented musician thus forming: Me and Mr. Cassidy. Their music is amazing and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Not just because I love Hope, but because I love good music. If you are in the LA area please go out to one of their shows, show them some love, and prepare yourselves to be blown away.

No words can express how much my life's been blessed by my dearest Hope.

Over the years our friendship has become well worn in, like a really good vintage dress or two.

Every time we're together we learn something new from each other, or make something new, or try 

something new, or go some where new together ... no two get-togethers have ever been the same.

Our friendship has definitely been the furthest thing from boring, because we thrive off of each other's creative juices, each other's success ...

Even each other's silliness.

I need not tell you how gorgeous she is on the outside ...

But what I must say is that she's just as gorgeous the inside.

I'm sure I've said that a million times, but I mean it.

Where ever the road takes you Hope, I'm there. Always a phone call away, a plane ride away, or a thrift store away. I love you and I'm so proud of you and where this road has taken your music, and your career. There's only up from here love.

Up and down the East Coast,

Or out west with the Pacific sunset ... I'm there for you.

In less than a month I'll be flying out to LA to once again shoot images for Hope, her new band, her talented friends and fellow musicans, and to make even more Ica and Hope {a.k.a "Ice and Ope"} memories. I can hardly wait ... and to my West Coast Family just learning the new .... yes I'm headed your way too. So make some room for me, I wanna play!

 ******* If you're in the L.A. area / Santa Monica area on Jan 5th - 12th and want some pictures please let me know ASAP. I've a handful of shoots to schedule during my week their but If I can squeeze you in I will. Email me at ica.images@gmail.com *************

I love you Hope. And I can't wait to see you baby girl and make some new west coast memories with you!

Happiest Monday to you all!