RING SHOWN IS NOT THE ACTUAL PRIZE

I am proud to announce that Joanne Bartone Photography is one of the sponsors of + will be the exclusive photographer for the Henne Jewelers Diamond Dash coming up this weekend, Saturday May 22, 2010!

If you haven't heard about this exciting event, Henne Jewelers has arranged a high-tech city-wide treasure hunt to find a flawless $15,000 Mark Patterson diamond ring!  There is still time to register, so please click HERE if you'd like to participate.

I couldn't be more excited and honored to be partnering with the Henne Jewelers family who has brought beautiful jewelry, stellar customer service and has been a cornerstone of the Pittsburgh, PA business community since 1887!  Henne Jewelers has been the jeweler of choice for countless couples getting married, or those simply providing special gifts of jewelry to their family for GENERATIONS!  A trusted name and company, Henne Jewelers was where my ring was born!

Look for the winners to be announced following the event on Saturday!  I'll be posting a few images here on the blog by Sunday, since I have a wedding following the event!  :-)  ...busy, busy!

BIG love, Joanne Bartone Photographer  |  www.joannebartone.com  |  tele: 412.418.8075





They came, two-by-two, not onto the Ark, - although the way it rained on Saturday, an ark might have been a great prop for one of the couples to have - but onto the North Shore near Heinz Field to partake in the thrill of the first (of what we hope will be many) Henne Jewelers Diamond Dash to find a flawless $15,000 Mark Patterson diamond ring by way of a high-tech treasure hunt throughout downtown Pittsburgh! 

Hopes were high and despite the torrents of rain, there were no signs of anyone's spirit being dampened!  It was an exciting treasure hunt and many of the participants came for the fun of the adventure, thinking that the win would be nice icing on the cake.  Some were dressed in team attire, and some were dressed in their actual wedding attire!  They ran, biked, bladed and scooted throughout Pittsburgh, from location-to-location and clue-to-clue, reading, icing, dancing and texting as they traveled, and in the end they were fed by Bar Louie.  Then, one couple, married for five years - Leeanne + Bill Stickman - won the grand-prize based on accumulating the highest points.  It was a super fun adventure and simply a GREAT day, and it was powered by the folks at SCVNGR - great work everyone!  A big thank you goes out to John Henne, Meg Henne Gibson and the Henne Family for hosting such a great idea and event, and to Kiss 96.1's Mikey + Big Bob for the entertainment!

Enjoy the show - I thoroughly enjoyed capturing all the FUN of this event!

Here's the really cool scoop (and somewhat sad) on how Holly + Chris found me...

Holly had a friend Amy, who wanted me to be her photographer a year or two ago, but unfortunately, I was booked so I couldn't photograph her wedding.  Even more unfortunate was the fact that Amy was supremely disappointed with the photography by the photographer that she and her husband did hire - I really dislike these types of stories; they make me so sad.  But they are not uncommon, because there are a lot of so called photographers out there who really don't know what they are doing...I digress...  Because of Amy's bad experience, she wanted her good friend Holly to have a photographer who would make her dreams come true on her wedding day; enter me...lucky, lucky me and them too!  Amy referred Holly + Chris to me and they reserved my services sight-unseen.

Although I'm so sad for Amy and her husband that they had such a terrible experience with their wedding photographer, I feel so blessed and grateful when people trust me enough and love my work so much so that they are willing to refer me without even having me as their wedding photographer.  A HUGE "thank you" goes out to Amy, and I'll be photographing her family and baby as a thank you!  I'm so grateful that I'll have the chance to do this for them AND be Holly + Chris' wedding photographer!

Back to Holly + Chris...who are so darned PERFECT for one another...!

They will be getting married at Heinz Chapel, here in Pittsburgh in September of this year, so I thought it would be a nice jumping-off point for me/us to do the engagement photography.  We had a wonderful time together during our shoot, and they are going to make one-heck-of-a beautiful couple on their wedding day!  I can't wait to photograph them again!

Thank you Amy, for referring such a wonderful couple my way, and thank you Holly + Chris, for selecting me as your photographer!  ENJOY THE PHOTOS!