Be Creative Photography Blog - Weddings and Portraits by Brooke & Eric Lagstein » Eric & Brooke’s Life

We can’t believe it’s 2012!

Eric — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:32:31 +0000

Happy New Year to all of our blog readers, if there are any of you left!?! It seems that facebook is where most of you hang out so we have become much more active there. Please join our facebook page to keep in touch!

We just cannot believe that it is the year 2012! How did this happen? It seems that our wedding which was in 2005 was only a heartbeat away. Yet during that time so much has happened. We moved out of Hoboken, became suburbanites with the purchase of our first home, added our beloved pup Maggie to the family, traveled to various hot spots around the world, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who is now TWO, and of course we are celebrating our 7th year in the business. So how is it that our wedding seems only a heartbeat away when all of this has happened? It just goes to show you how important and memorable your wedding day is. We are honored to capture these memories for so many people, our wonderful clients! We can’t thank you enough for your ongoing support and love for our photography!

If you haven’t seen it yet, here is our 2011 Holiday Card. I had to share it because I kinda LOOOOOVE IT!!!

And here are some photos of us taken on Christmas Eve! We rarely have pictures of ourselves so I had to post this phenomenon!

Best wishes to you all for an amazing, happy, peaceful, love-filled year!

Sincerely,
Brooke and Eric Lagstein

Be Creative Photography featured in today’s local news!

Eric — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:25:49 +0000

Exciting news! We are thrilled to be featured in our local news, The Patch. Read the article below!

Couple Builds Their Passion For Photography Into Business
By Lynn Bruggemann

For Brooke and Eric Lagstein, film is not the only thing that develops in a darkroom. As undergraduates at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the couple spent hours watching their photography come to life along with their relationship.

The Wyckoff residents took that love of photography — and each other — to launch Be Creative Photography. The couple’s work focuses on capturing life’s joyful events like births, families, engagements, weddings and religious celebrations.

The couple is known for their “celebration of life” style photography. Brooke is responsible for infants, while Eric handles weddings and families.

“We photograph people experiencing true emotions and authentic moments in their lives,” said Brooke.

It was the Lagsteins’ families, in particular their grandfathers, that ignited their interest in photography. Eric told Patch he and Brooke were both given cameras by their grandfathers. The cameras are kept on display in their office for inspiration.

“I grew-up in Mahwah and Eric in Oakland, and we are very family-oriented,” said Brooke.

Be Creative Photography has received national recognition. Eric’s photographs have received awards and accolades from the Wedding Photojournalist Association.

Brooke was hired to photograph Broadway actor and former Wyckoff resident Constantine Maroulis’s newborn daughter Malena. The photos were featured in People magazine’s March 25, 2011 celebrity baby feature.

Brooke recommends Valentine’s Day to parents looking for an excuse to get photos of their children and the Lagsteins offer the following tips for capturing the kids at their best:

1. Choose the time of day that your children are the happiest. Make sure they are well fed and well rested. They will be more likely to play along.

2. Put on your own silly face or get a friend to do something unexpected standing behind you. Kids will really laugh and look directly at the camera. Their smiles will be authentic and real.

3. Capture your children engaged in everyday things like doing their homework, sitting on a swing, playing their instrument, reading a book with their dad. This is a great way to preserve the memories of what your child enjoys and who your child is at that stage of development.

4. If you want to capture your child in a natural landscape like the beach or a field, choose dusk or dawn. This is the most flattering light and it will enhance the mood of the photographs.

5. Fill the frame. You want the subject to take up most of the view finder. Get closer to the subject rather zooming in. Especially with digital photography this will help preserve the quality of the image.

For more details visit www.becreativephotography.com

Marlie Lately

Eric — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:26:56 +0000

It’s been a long time since we have posted photos of Marlie and our Labradoodle Maggie. Marlie is an official toddler. Her trademark characteristic these days is independence. She wants to do everything by herself with little to no help from mom and dad. She likes to feed herself with big girl utensils which results in 3 outfit changes a day. She loves to put on her own clothes even if it means two legs wind up in one pant leg or her arm and head are both through the neck hole. She loves to hold Maggie’s leash and fortunately Maggie has a soft spot for Marlie so she will walk by her side for at least a few minutes. Marlie is amazed by the world around her. She gasps with shock and wonder at fire trucks, trains, birds chirping outside. She also uses her gasp of shock to tattle on herself when she does something wrong. It is an absolute riot. Our days are filled with daily discoveries around the house and yard, singing all the catchy little toddler tunes, and talking with Marlie because she sure has a lot to say (apparently we understand more than the average Joe but it’s crystal clear to us).

Shooting season is in full swing and we are off to an amazing 2011. One wedding was at the Jones Beach theatre which was super unique. Engagement sessions and portrait sessions are filling up our weekly calendars. We are hosting meetings for all of our sessions and soon to be clients during the days and some evenings. It’s amazing we even have time to spend with Marlie. Somehow it all works, with the support of our amazing nanny and the extra help from our parents, we are forever grateful. We count our blessings that our work and life are so fulfilling and everything just seems to fall into place.

Happy Wedding Season!

Marlie won this Dora at the local carnival. She totally expected that she could hold Dora’s hand and Dora would walk next to her. We are still trying to help her understand this one.

She absolutely loved the rides with Daddy. I’m not into spinning so Eric has to step up for this kind of thing.

Marlie on our Anniversary Picnic – West Park Winery

Eric — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:11:45 +0000

Eric and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! We didn’t want to do anything crazy. We just wanted to spend the day appreciating all the little and big things that we have done together over the past 5 years. This year we are especially grateful for our daughter, the cutest, most smiley, gleeful little girl in the world. We woke up feeling very nostalgic. So we jumped in the car and headed up to West Park Winery for a little picnic on the hilltop where we got married. It was blazing hot, much like our wedding day. We both tried so hard to pretend that this was uber romantic and such an amazing moment. Which it was. But there was no hiding the feeling that you walked into a sauna with a snow suit on. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful day to take a drive with the AC on full blast and recap our wedding highlights. We also spent the day watching Marlie TV – which basically means we sat on the floor watching her every move for hours, never getting bored of her entertainment. She’s a hoot – clapping, waving, saying dada, screeching at the highest octave possible, and she does the wounded soldier crawl now too. Marlie’s about 7.5 months in these shots, loving every minute of life, and making our world super special.

Marlie Bea 6 Months Young

Eric — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:10:18 +0000

I wanted to post this on father’s day but I just couldn’t wait any more. We did a mini photo shoot on Marlie’s 6 month birthday and here are a few of our favorites. These pictures of Marlie with Eric make me melt!

A little taste of what’s to come for Maggie’s future. Such a good puppy!Oh my I love them so much!

Bubbles and Giggles

Eric — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:47:09 +0000

I wanted to share these adorable images that Eric captured of our 3 month young baby Marlie. For Marlie the world is so fresh and new. Facial expressions, colors, textures, sounds all have her smiling and create an eye opening revelation of wonderment! Discovering bubbles has rocked her world! For us re-discovering the small joys of life through her has been a blessing that I never expected! Oh happy days!

Maggie + Snow + Frisbee = :)

Eric — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:29:32 +0000

Maggie LOVES the snow! It’s hilarious, she gets crazy and so excited the second she touches snow. First she dunks her whole head in the snow to make sure she has a couple nice icycles on her nose. Then runs wild. Give her a frisbee to chase and she is in heaven!

She attacks the frisbee with such gusto! Only Maggie would enjoy snow up her nose. After playing for half an hour, she was finally ready to pose for me for a second.

Maggie, be patient, baby Marlie will be your best friend in year +.

See tons more of Maggie adventures on our OLD BLOG, click on the category “Eric & Brooke’s Life“

Introducing Our New Daughter Marlie Bea!

Brooke — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 03:25:13 +0000

So where have we been? Oh, just having a baby is all!! Our daughter Marlie Bea Lagstein arrived on November 20, 2009.

It was very surreal bringing a new family member home and realizing that our lives have changed forever. She has filled our home with more love than we could ever have imagined.

We want to thank everyone for your support and outpouring of well wishes. For all the love we have received from friends and family – our hearts are overflowing – and Marlie is soaking it all up.

So what happened? Well, I went into labor at 3:30 am and I was in complete denial. I spent a really long time having contractions all by myself before waking up Eric. By the time I woke him up my contractions were only one minute apart and we had to race to the hospital. Eric was so shocked and in such a slumber he couldn’t remember how to get to the hospital which is only a 5 mile drive. It was a scene for the movies. I was giving him directions in between my contractions and telling him to pass cars and go through red lights. At least we showed up at the hospital laughing. Although he started out a little shaky he quickly got himself together and proved to be the most amazing and supportive husband and labor coach in the world.

I will spare you all of the wonderful details of my labor – I wound up having a c-section. Thank goodness we had such an amazing team of nurses and doctors – I feel I owe my life to them all because they brought our baby into this world safely.

We were in no rush to name her. We spent a few days getting to know her. With 10 names in our pocket, no other name ever came to mind. After about 2 days we knew she was Marlie Bea. Marlie is for my Grandmother Mariel and Bea is for Eric’s Grandmother Beatrice.

After the c-section I had to spend a long time in recovery while Eric was with the baby. The picture above shows the one moment I got to see her before they took her away to check her vitals. Recovery was really tough because all I wanted was to be with her. Eric insisted that they bring her to me. He actually stood up to a line of 5 nurses who were saying that the baby needed to stay under the warmers for another 2 hours before she could come to me. Eric did tons of research before our birth and knew that mom was the best warmer over any stupid machine, he insisted and off he went with her – GO DAD! The photo below is when I really got to meet her. I was in heaven and when I looked up all of our parents had snuck into the room to see this moment. I was so happy to see them all there, all 8 of them and not a dry eye in the house.

The first picture of the new Lagstein family!!!!!!!!!!

Eric took this shot the next morning and it’s one of our favorites. The first of many mornings waking up to these eyes.

Unfortunately when we got home Eric came down with the flu. It was sooooo awful and soooo sad, he had a very high fever and he was banished to “exile island” (a.k.a the guest bedroom upstairs) for 4 full days. It was heartbreaking that he could not be with us in the beginning but he was more sick than he has ever been before. He did not want to pass it on to Marlie. The morning he came back to us Marlie gave him the biggest smile in the world – it was crazy and brought us to tears. She has an amazing connection with Eric. She lights up when he comes in the room, looks at her, talks to her, holds her…

Before we could blink our eyes Marlie was showing us her personality. She is such an expressive little one. She makes little noises all day long (and night too). She stares at you intensely as if she is computing everything that you are. And best of all she has been a smiling fool since day 5.

I’m not going to lie that Maggie is a little sad that she doesn’t get all the attention any more, but she has completely accepted her new rung on the ladder without a fuss. She is so gentle and sweet as can be with Marlie and I’m sure cannot wait until Marlie is big enough to play with her.

And here are two shots from a little creative session we did with Marlie around 2 weeks.

We’ve had a wonderful beginning to parenthood. As we are finding some normalcy in our new lives as a family of three, we realize how blessed we are. Off we go on this new journey. More to come…

Do you want to smile?

Brooke — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:00:32 +0000

Our baby Marlie is so funny. She is such a good baby and doesn’t cry very much. When she is waking up from a nap she lets out a few screams and funny noises so that we will come to get her. The second we get there she is all smiles.

If you are having a bad day, I suggest you watch this short video of our super happy baby! This was at 6 weeks old. LOVE!

What is a moment?

Eric — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:00:29 +0000

I stumbled across this video on youtube. Initially I thought it was for photographers, but clearly it’s about life. Usually I never pass along stuff like this, but this is pretty darn good. Thought I would share (make sure to turn your speaker volume up)