Beautiful girls

Mothers of boys, have you SPENT any time with girls recently? I’ve been hanging out with a number of lovely girls of late, and I have to say, I had no idea they were like this. Despite a tired sub-two-year-old young lady, I think we had a winning shot about, oh, 20 seconds after we started. They are so calm and lovely and accommodating and they look you in the eye and they don’t really climb around, and they don’t run away from you. Thank you, ladies, it was a pleasure to have another date in the park with you.

 

Photographing boys? It’s all about strategy—your strategy vs. theirs, how fast can you run, how quickly can you focus and isn’t-that-a-great-shot-of-his-blurry-ear.

Sigh.

Got some blurry ears (my boys) coming up for you next–stay tuned for Halloween!

 

Wedding Row Open House TODAY

Brides, friends—I’ll be photographing this lovely event today at the Red Barn in Clinton, CT from 1-4 p.m. for some of the local wedding industry’s most creative minds and talents.  You are cordially invited to attend as well. Hope to see you there!

Scenes from Halloween (and a 50 mm 1.2)

A trip to the apple orchard this morning and a midday snack (mysteriously delivered to our doorstep by one of our favorite ghouls) made for great subject material while I was experimenting with the Canon 50 mm 1.2 today–the most delicious of all lenses. Yum.

This lens is NUTS. Almost as delicious as the candy I will be eating later.

Thanks to Auntie Melissa for the wardrobe styling and Aunt Diana for the yummy witch hat cookies, complete with an M & M core—have you ever seen such a great idea?

And Halloween is just beginning, more to come! Dragon wings still under construction, and our own Curious George is climbing the walls, as usual!

Everything’s rosy

How can you not love this many red roses, especially on a rainy day?

This gray wedding day by the sea in Stonington, CT turned out to be lovely and bright in all the right ways. We didn’t even need the umbrellas.

Happy love, Vikki & Tim, and thanks for a great day!

Me and Stanley (Cup)

Well, imagine my delight this evening when I opened up my email to find a video clip of me, hard at work, at the Stanley Cup party in Newport, RI this summer. It was sent by the talented and charming Mike Cyr of Buzz Media Company, who was shooting alongside us that hot steamy day in August.

Did I mention it was hot? Like the kind of hot that makes eggs fry on the pavement? I remind you of that because it is the (poorly justified) reason for the short, airy dress I am wearing, and in (much chagrined) hindsight, I realize if there was even one person there who did not see my underwear that day, I’d like them to step forward and be counted. SIGH.

But, I probably kept cooler than most of people there, and for that I was grateful. It was a great summer party (planned by Sarah True of True Event) set to energizing steel drum music, with lots of fun people in a gorgeous location, and you can see, even in this teeny clip, how Mike captures the essence of the day.

If you want the meaningful moments of your life captured in film or video,  you’ll surely want to connect with Buzz Media Company. (And if you enjoy a view of life that is lovely and amazing, check out the delicious style sensibilities of Mike’s wife Erica, who writes the yummy Buzz Blog!)

And remember, when you watch this video, IT WAS REALLY, REALLY HOT OUT! And yes, that is a cameo by the lovely Steph Stevens of Steph Stevens Photo at the end there, for those that are paying attention.

VIDEO CLIP: Anna and the Stanley Cup

In other news, if you’re in the Pittsburgh area and watching the Liberty Sports Network this month, you’ll see some of my photos of the Stanley Cup event on a TV special they are producing on Penguins player Mark Eaton and his day with the Stanley Cup. Let me know if you see it air!

Beach boys

These cute brothers started out high and dry on a grassy lawn at this beautiful stone lighthouse, but as soon as we headed across the street to the beach, well, you can probably guess how dry they stayed.

Good thing they wear nearly the same sizes as my crew at home, so they could proceed with the Reward Dinner Out after a very successful and enjoyable photo session at the point.

Sigh. The lashes.

Dad is headed out on a six-month deployment this fall. So glad they got this beautiful day together before then.

Mom getting her share of the love.

Thanks for a beautiful fall evening at the beach, guys!

Now with twice the thigh rolls

This dynamic duo represents another part of the informal list-serv of moms of multiples that sprang up when my sister was expecting twins this past spring.

I seem to know a number of moms of multiples, and with them came reams of good advice. In fact, so good I’m going to post the nuggets of good advice one of these days, because it should belong to the vast interwebs, not just to this hardy group of moms. I’m slowly making my way through this group, but still have a few more to photograph–Jackson & Wyatt, Alexander & Thomas and Declan, Rowan & Aidan, I’m talking to you!

But today? Just feast your eyes on this staggering amount of deliciousness, and never mind the sage advice and twin talk.

Without further blather….Joseph and Nicholas, six months old.

Thanks for a great visit, E & J! Your boys are BEAUTIFUL!

Katy + Frank: Married in Mystic

It’s a wet, dark morning here on the Connecticut coastline, and am feeling kind of guilty about posting these images of oh, just one of the most glorious days of late summer EVER. Especially since I have a wedding today, and things are definitely looking a little damp. But, that’s what red umbrellas are for, right?

The wedding was the ninth family wedding held in the past 60 years at this lovely seaside family home, and they’ve clearly got it down–hard to imagine a crowd that knows how to enjoy a wedding more. Katy and Frank filled the day with delicious details, from starfish ornaments and red buckets, and the cutest monograms.

They had gorgeous flowers, ridiculously cute flower girls and a fantastic photobooth with amazing guest participation, but the best thing about the day was the LOVE—at the risk of sounding entirely sappy, these two had a tremendous clan of family, wedding party, friends and guests surrounding them with an absolute blanket of joy, and even those of us just there for the day could see it and feel it.

And while anyone who has been to a wedding can tell a story about a bride,  I can top you all—there was a slight concern about the arrival of the cake (which showed up without a hitch and was gorgeous). But for that brief period of time when Katy was faced with the possibility of no cake at all, she simply said, “Oh well–we’ll go to Dunkin Donuts and order 150 donuts!”  THAT is a bride with perspective.

As you can imagine, it was a pleasure to spend the day with someone like that, and Katy and Frank, we wish you a lifetime of love and happiness–thanks for including us in your beautiful day!

The gorgeous veil Katy is wearing has been in her family for 150 years, and passed down to bride after bride. They do tradition well in this family, don’t they!

Starfish—the perfect motif for a seaside wedding.

There’s a whole host of captions just begging to be written here.

I’ll cut to the chase—this group knows what to do with a photobooth, that’s for sure! Amazing photobooth props courtesy of Katy’s mom.

2010 couples, take note. I won’t MAKE you wear a chicken on your head in your photobooth, but it’s something to consider!

******

Want more? Check out Katy and Frank’s slideshow!

******

And special thanks to my amazing team of shooting associates, Steph and Maria, especially for posing with me below. You look mahvelous!

Falling for fall

Fall seems to have arrived, what with the crisp, clear mornings, cool nights and glorious, warm sunny days. I usually have some bittersweet longing for summer right about now, but this year these September days have been so darn seductive with their fruit-laden orchard branches, perfect beach days and deserted beach towns that I can hardly remember my romance with summer. Call me fickle, but I’m ready for an apple pie.

River, all suited up for fall. If you asked him he’d probably say he wants pie, too.

And in a completely unrelated topic (except that these were taken on a glorious September day and one at the beach, even) this is a private sneak peek just for River’s grandmother Donna. Oh, and the rest of you, too. More to come this week, family of River and other friends!

River and mom hanging at the beach.

Hope you all are enjoying this glorious start to fall, too.

Time to Spread the Love

Last winter I kickstarted this whole crazy season of wedding photography with an incredible, thoughful one-day workshop  held by the the talented, savvy and completely endearing CT wedding photography duo, Justin & Mary Marantz. I attended with Sarah True of True Event, and we just wrote pages and pages and pages of notes, nodding our heads and taking it all in. You can see a photo of me wiping tears away if you click here and scroll down to Spread the Love. Yes, it was THAT kind of day!

At this workshop, Justin and Mary instructed, inspired and extolled the value of spreading the love—doing something for others not just because of what it nets you in return. That if you do enough of that, the return will be great overall. The talked about their goal of inspiring loyalty beyond reason in their clients, and how such a simple philosophy directs all that they do.

It was a truly amazing day, and I just can’t say enough about it. It’s a workshop not just for photographers, but for other professionals in the wedding industry, too—as an exploration of working together to be something greater together than just a sum of our individual parts.

Caterers? Planners? Floral designers? Bakers? Owners of cool event-related businesses like Canditto? (You know you want to click it.) I’d call you crazy if you didn’t go to Justin & Mary’s site and vote for them to come to your city this winter on their Spread the Love tour. (Voters get entered in a contest for amazing prizes, too–take a look!)

Hope to see you there!

Meghan + Gregg: Married on Block Island

Gregg and Meghan in the lush green landscape of Block Island.

When I looked at the calendar in advance of this year’s wedding season, I noticed that my birthday, August 22, was a Saturday.  I’m notorious for taking the day off from any kind of paid work on my birthday (wouldn’t you rather be at the beach if your birthday was August 22?), so when I saw it falling on a Saturday at the height of wedding season, I realized a  lifetime of job/birthday karma was about to catch up with me.

I had a few inquiries for the August 22 date this year, and I was lukewarm on the connections I made, thinking, “I really want to be in love with the wedding I take for August 22.”

Enter Meghan. We got together in the spring for a get-to-know-you coffee date that turned into a warm and wonderful multi-hour talk fest, covering life, love, work, travel, family and lots and lots of delicious wedding details. When we finished, we both looked at the time, astonished, and I drove away thinking, “Now THAT is the wedding for me on August 22.”

And it was. With a hurricane looming in the Atlantic and the threat of canceled ferries, Steph Stevens and I zipped over to Block Island, RI, via plane for what turned out to be a glorious day, despite it being perhaps the hottest day ever registered on the island. Hottest. Day. Ever. Did I mention it was hot? When you see how gorgeous this group is, you need to be extra amazed at how they managed to do casual glam in the face of such extreme heat and humidity.

We walked into the room where Meghan and her ladies were getting ready, and the ultra-relaxed, upbeat Meghan was dancing around the room, singing to “Don’t Stop Believing” with a cool glass of champagne in her hand. With a bride like that, you know it is going to be a great day.

I know it’s the photos you’re waiting for, so I’ll wrap it up, but I just want to say what an extraordinary, glorious day in the sun it was—these two have an amazing tribe of friends and family and their  day was positively effervescent with joy.

And now for their slide show!

Full gallery of all your images next week, M & G–happy love!

Sneak peek: Married on Block Island–Meghan & Gregg

I know, I know, when do you ever see two posts in one day from me?

When I’m faced with this much awesomeness, that’s when.

I just love this photo, truly showing the no-fuss,  relaxed nature of this bride and groom. They wanted a happy and fun celebration with their clan, and they definitely got it–their good karma even kept a hurricane away, that’s how much they rock!

More soon, M & G!