Best of 2007

So its that time of year. I have never done a best of post before, so this is a first for me. Going through all the weddings and moodybaby sessions from last year has been a great trip down memory lane. It was so hard narrowing these photos down, I could have easily doubled each slideshow.

Best of Weddings

I have included a lot of photos that never made it to the blog from weddings I second shot with Laura and Paul Eaton, Sofia Negron, Joe Pulcinella and Heather Fowler. I have had so much fun this year and learned so many new things along the way. I am really looking forward to 2008. With that I give you some of my favorites from this year.

Best of MoodyBabies

Narrowing down the babies was equally as difficult as the weddings. I photographed so many adorable children this year. I also gained many new friendships with all the families that invited me out to their homes and into their lives. I am so excited to see many of these families again in 2008.


Happy New Year everyone!

Baby Dylan and Caleb

Today I visited the adorable Dylan and Caleb, you have seen them before when they were first born and at Thanksgiving. Paul and Steph are good friends of ours and this shoot was my baby shower gift to them. Their hands are more than full with these two boys who are growing like weeds! Dylan is the big boy and Caleb is the little man, they are only six months yet are wearing 12 month clothing! Crazy for twins born almost a month early.

Mom and Dads bed is the typical landing pad, check out Cosmos watching out over they boys.

Isn't Caleb the cutest little thing?

All decked out in moodybaby onesies and being entertained for the first time by bubbles, although Caleb was still more interested in what was in the toy box beside the chair.

Eating is quit the event in this household. Dylan doesn't have any trouble finishing what his brother doesn't eat.

Moodybaby true to form.

A family portrait.

It was great finally getting to take these photos for you guys, enjoy your slideshow.

Christmas recap

We had a lovely Christmas in Connecticut. Don's nephews were very excited for Santa to come and we worked very hard making cookies for him.

We had all kinds of colored icing, Colin was eagerly awaiting me to mix them up.

I think Santa was probably impressed with our offerings.

I think we did a good job on the cookies, Santa was very good to us.A proud dad and his kidos.

Colin and Cameron were very excited that Uncle Don was there to help put together their batman Lego ships.

The kids also got a Wii, and we gave it a good workout or I should say it gave us a good workout. Between boxing, bowling, golf, tennis and baseball there are parts of my body that are still sore! I had a nice relaxing couple of days, hence the lack of photos to post up. We had a white Christmas, but we didn't really go outside. It was nice to be a little lazy for a change.
I hope everyone had a wonderful and happy holiday!

A Christmas Family Portrait

Today I visited Stephanie, Justin and Miles again. When I last saw them I told them I would be around for the holidays and they were so excited because they wanted me to come back and photograph their family that would all be spending the holidays with them. This family photo shoot was part of their gift to their family this year, pretty awesome gift!

I love this family portrait.

Stephanie and Justin, such an adorable couple.

Justin and his brother, you can really see the resemblance.

These are Stephanie's Grandparents, how cute are they?

I couldn't resist adding this one

Miles was really excited to have so much company.

Justin's parents, again too cute!

This is four generations!

Stephanie's Grandpa was really touched that I came out to photograph this special family, I know it meant a lot to him and everyone.

I see a lot of resemblance in Miles and his Grandpa.

When I arrived to their house today I felt like I already knew everyone, the whole family was so excited for this shoot and they welcomed me with no reservations. It was really great and the reason I love doing what I do. I am so happy I was able to create these lasting memories for your whole family to share this holiday season. I will post a sideshow after the holidays, until then I hope you enjoyed your little sneak peek from our session today.

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday. (This is part of our card from this year and a photo from last year, I just found it and we didn't use it last year but I still really like it.)
photo credit goes to Linette
It has been a great year and I thank you so much for everything. Holiday cards and postcards are in the mail, presents are wrapped and now we are just taking care of the last minute things to get ready. We will be spending Christmas up in Connecticut this year with Don's family and I am looking forward to having little 5 and 6 year olds excited for Santa! It has been a long time since I woke up with hyper kids on Christmas morning!

Holiday Crazy Time

Ahh the holidays. The past week has been so super crazy! Not to mention I got sick and have been coping with stuffy head achiness, Zicam is a miracle worker by the way.

It always happens that the holidays just seem to creep up on you, we were so on top of our game at the beginning of the month, then I went away and it has been a whirlwind ever since I got back. Luckily my good friend Marybeth came to visit yesterday and she accompanied me on my various errands and a short shopping spree in Rittenhouse. I have but a few more stops to make and I will be finished shopping.
The other night the polish string band rolled down our street, they do this twice a year. This last spring they were all on foot marching around but this time they were all on the back of a huge truck. I think its great that they continue to do this, Check out the short little video below.

I hope everyone is getting their shopping and holiday errands done.

Pictage PUG Holiday Party!

Last night we had a blast at our PUG (Pictage User Group) holiday party. We all met up at North Bowl in the Northern Liberties neighborhood. Sofia Negron and I are the PUG leaders for our area, Philly and New Jersey. What we usually do at our PUG meetings is help other photographers who use pictage with anything they need help with. We also have speakers and cover topics to benefit everyone in building their business. There are a lot of photographers in this area and instead of considering each other the competition we work to strengthen everyone's business.

Last night was all about having fun and Pictage rewarding us for all the hard work we have done throughout the year. Check it out as we made fools of ourself!

Here I am concentrating hard, straight down the middle! I am not good at bowling.

Heather Fowler showing her stuff

Ryan Estes, master bowler.

Sofia Negron and her sparkley ball.

Chris, who won both games and was very nonchalant about the whole thing. He was good.

Ryan again, a full succession depicting his true form of bowling.

We had a lot of fun and way too many tator tots. We tried to cram five people into the photo booth, but it was an older booth and the lens was not nearly wide enough for us all. I think the first set is dominated by Ryan and then the second set is dominated by me. Sofia has the photos and should be posting them on her blog soon. There were some more people than I am showing but we had the perfect amount for a good game of bowling and great conversation. It was great seeing everyone and I look forward to seeing you at future PUG meetings.

31 years.

Well another year has come and gone. Wow. Today is my birthday and I had a great day. Don and I had awesome massages at Toppers Spa, walked around Rittenhouse Square and had a tasty dinner at our favorite restaurant Ava. I only did a tad bit of work, catching up from my time away in NM.
While on the plane last night I was thinking back to this past year my 30th year. (By the way my flight number was 31; kinda funny.) 30 is a pretty important birthday and I didn't celebrate it at all last year. But the year as a whole is another story. I think I over came many milestones in my thirtieth year and have had many celebrations to make up for the one day.
I give myself goals to make every year and while it seemed to take forever this past year I met my most important goal of all, to work for myself doing something that I absolutely love. I really didn't know at this time last year that taking that step was realistically possible. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a pretty practical person. I am all about taking some risks but there were times that quiting my full time job was not a risk I was ready or willing to take. Lots of things changed for me this last year and while taking that leap was still a risk I could not be happier now that I made that decision.
So as I say adios to 30, you were good to me and I welcome 31 with open arms and possibilities. I am no longer afraid of the fact I am a thirty something, heck a lot of you would probably never even guess it, I embrace my thirties and look forward to all the new possibilities that come with it.

Little side note, Danica had her baby on Sunday the 9th and while Benjamin Brock could not wait two more days to share my birthday I am sending her a little something special anyway. She sent me photos and he is too cute, looks a whole lot like Mama. Congratulations Danica and Ben! I can not wait to meet the little guy.

For fun and giggles check Don and I out, my friend Margie Elfed us!
Click on the photo, you can elf yourself too.
If you do, post a comment with a link to your new elf self.

Cookie Time!

I can't come home with out making my famous chocolate chip cookies. I think I make some of the best cookies out there, not to toot my own horn or anything. I have my little secrets about how to make them crunchy and chewy at the same time. They are highly addictive too I might add.
My secret? Well just a little hint: more vanilla (not imitation crap either, Mexican pure vanilla) and flour. I can't give away the exact science that goes into these scrumptious goodies, but I have perfected it and will surely share a tasty bite. I made a double batch and pretty much all of them are coming home with me tomorrow. So if you might see me next week you may get a special treat!

Arizona

Well here I am in Arizona. Its 76 degrees here and its snowing at home and I am a little sad that I missed the first snow. But it has been beautiful so I know I can't complain. We head back to NM tomorrow. I didn't get out too much but while waiting for my mom to finish up at the Mayo I went on the nature walk. It was very beautiful and I like seeing the speicies of cactus that I am not accustomed to seeing.

Hello from Arizona!

A little detail of the Saguaro cactus, I can not believe how huge they are.
After the monsoon season here a 50 foot Saguaro could weigh 12 tons.

We are taking a more scenic route tomorrow.
I hope to take some rest stops for some photo opps.
Its amazing to see these cactus strewn all over the dessert, its crazy they are like weeds.

I have always loved petrified wood.

Wonderful colors in the dessert.

We have been in Sedona and Fountain Hills everything seems pretty normal except at night. The community here voted not to have street lights, so they could see the stars at night. You can certainly see the stars at night and they are beautiful. But I can not express how strange it is to drive around neighborhoods and busy streets with no street lights. Even the shopping centers. We stopped at Target and the grocery store and I felt like it was midnight and the shops might not be open, the grocery store was the worst. Their sign was black and red and not well lit, at all. We went to dinner last night and we weren't sure the restaurant was even open. So strange. And Phoenix has a ton of smog, I was really surprised. The smog does make for really pretty sunsets, but there is a ton of traffic here I think the traffic might be worse than NYC at rush hour. Weird.
I can say that I would like to come back and spend more time here exploring. It is really beautiful and I can imagine the hiking is awesome.

My walk in Old Mesilla New Mexico

Today while my mom went to an appointment I opted to go down to historic Mesilla and just walk around with my camera. There wasn't too much going on but I did shoot a little.

A lone pecan shell, barely hanging on.

I really liked this I guess it would be considered a barn? It is made out of real true adobe.

I love seeing some of these white houses, they are not a dime a dozen most of the traditional houses are brown.

I am always drawn to photographing the cactus. This photo reminds me of a photo Don took of a sunflower on one of our trips to Santa Fe.

The Zia, the state symbol. Nice how the gate and the Zia resemble the shape of New Mexico, its just missing the little dips and the bottom corner.

Pecan's are a huge agriculture here in New Mexico. These coming out of the shell were reminding me of orchids.

What would a walk through a historic town be with out a yellow slug bug?

Tonights sunset, from my mom's backyard.

We are off to Phoenix tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing more of Arizona, I have only ever stopped at the airport. I can't wait to see the Joshua Trees!

Nothing like a great meal to welcome you home

I feel a little silly posting about a meal, but oh how I miss a New Mexico dinner. In Philadelphia nobody knows the real difference between red and green sauce, most green sauce is really green tomato sauce and not remotely the same. Even when you go into what you think is or I should say "might" be an authentic Mexican restaurant and ask them for "flat" enchiladas they look at you like you have two heads. Most of you are probably thinking that too, flat? Flat enchiladas are pretty much the same thing as the traditional rolled but instead of rolling them everything is laid on on the flat tortilla, corn tortilla. There is not science to it and it doesn't taste any different it's just a preference and maybe a New Mexico thing.

I also miss the choice of sauces they give you with your chips, which you are not charged extra for by the way. This was our chip bowl last night, on the bottom left is a jalapeño sour cream sauce, oh so yummy, top left is the hot green chili sauce, top right is a bean salsa, and bottom right is the traditional salsa. The bean salsa was a new one for me, good but I gravitate to the sour cream and green chili sauce.

My mom's tacos looked oh so yummy.

Enchiladas "flat" my favorite meal ever. You really can not beat the green chilies from New Mexico, Hatch is right next door to us, they are pretty much the main chili supplier for the state, you drive through the tiny town and all you can smell are the chilies.

Also this little rant does not end at the enchiladas, you also get a sopapilla included WITH your meal. It is a wonderful puffed dowey thing for dessert that you put honey on. Are you hungry yet? To top it all off our entire dinner with two dos equis beers was 20 bucks. That would be unheard of for this meal in Philadelphia.

Think I miss the food out here? If you are ever in Las Cruces check out Si Senor's you will not regret it.

(the above photos were all taken with my iphone)