CT PUG retreat

The last few days I have had the pleasure of hanging out with some awesome photographers up in Connecticut, well we were actually in Massachusetts just over the CT border. Amanda Harris was our gracious host and I am in love with her cabin. Over the past year I have developed some wonderful friendships with the Connecticut Pictage base of photographers and whenever I can I try to make it up to events that they hold. It was really awesome getting to spend a few days with everyone and make many new connections along the way. I didn't go picture crazy, besides my obsession with the flowers.... But I did put together a few that sum up the visit.

Here is the cabin, the view of the club house from the doc, Mr. Justin Marantz paddlin in the lake and the reflection of an awesome sunset in the water. Oh so peaceful.

Love my bumble bee. I might make a large canvas print of this one.

Jo recreating an Australian shampoo commercial. Lovely water swirl.

More flowers, what can I say I like colorful pretty things.

Its been so nice these past few weeks just taking off to visit friends and travel. Its always good to have some inspirational time with photographer peers as well. I am still working on some goal setting, my 101 in 1001. Its harder than you might think. I need visits like these to keep me on my toes.

I am getting back in motion today, I am super tired though. A nap might be in order.

Come up with a caption for this one.

I know you can come up with some fun captions, lets hear em!

The above couple are the lovely Melissa and Mike who are getting married in September. We went out last weekend for another engagement shoot, our first one included their adorable daughter Ellena. We thought it would be fun to get some of just the two of them and it was good hanging out time for all of us. I am still a tad backed up from being away last week and that will continue since I will be away again most of this week!

You guys should have some fun with this one until I return on Thursday. I just crack up every time I look at that image.

Have a great week!

Lydia & Pat's engagement Session

Lydia and Pat are such a fun couple. We met up last Friday to roam around Rittenhouse. We found a bunch of cool little spots and they even got in the fountain for me. I got in too, it was actually refreshing. They both went to school in Philadelphia but didn't meet until they were working in Baltimore. They just moved back here so its an exciting time for them to get to know the city together again.

Lydia can totally work the camera! She kept cracking me up she was soo good, which then made her crack up. I loved it because she has such an expressive laugh.

I LOVED this mural. Oh I can't resist those colors.

The owner to this house happened to be arriving home when we were on his stoop. At first we just thought he was watching us but he was flattered and patiently waited while we took a few more shots. I really enjoyed this stoop.

I think this is one of my favorites from the evening. Just something about it.

They are getting married coming up in August at the Pearl S. Buckhouse and will begin my marathon of weddings into the fall.
Totally excited, I have had a nice break and will be ready to jump right in.

Check out their slideshow

Visiting Jilly

Earlier this week I went up to NYC to visit my good friend Jill who is very pregnant. We had been going back and forth trying to figure out a good time to visit for the past few months. I called her on Friday because I had been thinking about her a lot and just so happens that she took 2 days off of work to get stuff done around her apartment in preparation for this baby. I rearranged some things in my calendar and headed up on Monday to lend a helping hand.

Jilly is due 8-8-08

She has the typical small apartment in New York, well a tad larger since she is actually in Yonkers but you get the drift. She had a ton of box's and bags of gifts from her shower that didn't have homes yet. I helped to organize a little, never thought I would be helping someone else organize! We made plenty of trips to return and exchange things as well. I think we made a good dent in things and I can rest a little easier knowing I was able to help with something that would have taken her ages to do.

We did do a belly shoot, of course! Jilly has been around since I started doing this and its not everyday when good friend is pregnant. I haven't had a chance to take the film in so it will be a few weeks until we see anything from her shoot. We did a few fun ones with the digital but most of the visit thats exactly what we did, visited.

It was really fun to see her pregnant. Her belly is super cute, so round and compact! You would never know she was pregnant from behind, aside from the little waddle, or when she lays on her side. Its crazy! OOh we did get pedicures too, which was wonderful on our sore feet and especially Jilly's poor feet. Its crazy to think that the next time I see her she will have a new person in her life. This kid is going to have the best mom and such a fun filled childhood. Jill is the program director for the Central Park day camp, and has been doing camps since I can remember. I would go to visit her in Delaware when she worked on the boyscouts camp during the summers. So you can imagine what a fun and adventurous person she already is and the kids all already love her, just add her own child to that mix and watch out! Oh boy!

Jill, so excited for you and so proud of all you do!

I am continuing to get caught up today. I will be out of town again this week! I am going up to Connecticut to hang out with some photographers for a little retreat, really looking forward to it. Then I get to hang out for a day with my fun couple and friends Jess and Chris. I love that I can do this sort of stuff! I have an awesome job.

Baby Titus, session 1

It has been a crazy week for me. I am pretty tardy on my slideshows at the moment. Sorry about that! I am catching up now though and watch out! As you can see I have fixed our internet problem. One apple extreme station later and we are up and uploading!
Last Friday I got to meet baby Titus for the first time. I am very excited that I get to see him three more times over the course of the year. I am doing babies first year coverage for Maygan and Dan. Its going to be very exciting watching Titus grow up as well as everyone as a family.

Titus, which is such an awesome strong name, is always hungry.
He is going to grow up to be a big boy!

For scale, it will be fun to watch him grow.

He is very alert.

One happy family, minus a scardie cat dog. :)

I really enjoy this little moment.

Maygan and Dan's mothers were visiting as well. This is a pretty special grandchild. It was wonderful to meet them and I am so happy they were there for Titus's first photo session.

Your slideshow

Internet problems over here.

Between house showings and our home network being down we are a bit swamped!  Just wanted to let everyone who is waiting for their blog posts and slideshows know that we are without internet.  I think the storm the other night fried my wireless router, drats!  Its seriously killing me.

Thank goodness for the iphone in these time of desperate measure!

House for Sale!

Our house is for Sale!

We have been hard at work getting this house ready for market. It officially went up on Friday. Know of anyone who is interested in a great house, tons of charm, updated and close to the city?
Here is a little description:
Move right in to this fabulous home with classic details and modern conveniences. Plus, there’s a giant 800 sqft detached garage for contractors, car collectors or hobbyist! Architectural details – 9’6” ceilings, tall windows, orig. woodwork, random width h/w floors, door knobs, and more – have been preserved. Spacious L/R opens to the D/R, making one large bright and airy living space. Newly installed kitchen with retro charm. Abundant storage & new appliances make this kitchen a luxury to use. French doors access a sunny laundry rm with storage, greenhouse window & new half bath. The 200 sqft backyard is also accessed by a breezeway allowing light and a cooling breeze into the house. The master bedroom is open and bright and has abundant closet space. Full bsmt has lots of storage. New 200 amp electrical service, outlets and wiring. Convenient location off the main road, but close to shopping, Hinge Café, and the famous Tacconelli’s Pizza. Enjoy neighborhood living with easy access to I-95 and Center City.

We have put a ton of work into this place. Don has done such a fantastic job preserving the architectural integrity. We have used a lot of rescued materials to bring this place back to life and into the modern age. I will certainly miss it, but we are hoping to find ourselves a home with some land. We need to feel some grass between our feet, and so does our pooch. We most likely be moving about 45 minutes out of the city. I will update when we find our new home. Here's hoping our house will be a hot ticket for someone in this unstable market.

Take a tour of our house!

Living room looking to the back of the house.

Dining room

Dining room looking to the front of the house.

The kitchen.
This is the gem of the house. Rescued 1950's cabinets, 1922 cast iron double basin sink, restored Gaffers & Sattler oven, NOS kitchenaid dishwasher, and 1920's subway tile. The floor and counter tops are round penny tile. Notice our custom wine rack? There is also a custom spice rack and a pot filler over the stove. I will miss this kitchen tremendously.

Another view of the kitchen looking towards the back of the house and the laundry room.

Master Bedroom

Master bedroom, different angle. You can see my office through the door on the left.

My office.

New downstairs bathroom.

Upstairs bathroom

So there ya go. Pass along the information to anyone you think may be interested. I will provide updates as they happen. We have our first showing tomorrow!

Fox Philly's HOT list voting time again!

Last year I was very surprised and excited to place 3rd in the Fox Philly Hotlist! It is now starting all over again for 2008. Lets see if I can do it again this year!

Vote for me!

Julie Pete & Logan Family Engagement

Friday evening I spent some time with Pete, Julie and Logan. Pete and Julie are getting married in August and instead of doing a more traditional engagement session we decided to make it a family affair. Logan pretty much called the shots on this shoot, we followed him and did what he wanted to do. He moves quick too! We went on a walk through the neighborhood and then down to love park. The light Friday night was a dream.

This is one good looking family don't ya think?

Mr. Logan all grown up in his little car just chillin.

I always enjoy letting the kids loose and seeing what they do, you had to keep a close eye on this guy though. I like that you can see Pete making sure the little man was ok.

Amazing light like I said. I think this is my favorite color family photo of the day.

I had to include this one because I can't tell you how excited I am to see these guys on their wedding day. Julie is amazingly gorgeous. I love this image, she didn't even know I took it.

It was great spending time with you guys.
We are going to have a great time on the wedding day.

Slideshow

Stretch

I am sorry I have been a bad blogger. I actually don't even like saying the word blogger, anyway... I have been busy. We have a ton of things on our plate at the house at the moment, which I will reveal soon enough.

Today I started a yoga class. It is high time I get myself back in a routine of activity. I have really let myself go over the past year and I am really not comfortable in my own body. An under active thyroid does not help matters in the slightest and it tends to leave me feeling very sluggish. But excuses excuses la-di-da. The class today was very good. I have never taken yoga on a regular basis but I think its exactly what I need right now to wake my body up. I also need the group activity. I can not be trusted to go to the gym alone, I think thats my other problem. I got too bored with my routine and could not bump myself out of it. I need motivation. I miss the good ole days of meeting Christina to go to the gym before work at Drexel.

In thinking about yoga I am actually quite sore from being out shooting with Miss Jackie Bayne this weekend and I also came across this image Ryan sent to me a few months back. I was out shooting Carina and Ron's wedding with him and he grabbed this oh so flattering photo of me. Kinda looks like one of the yoga poses I did today. I will have to pay extra attention in class to apply more poses to my shooting technique.
Here's hoping I can find my center again and get back on the active track of life.

Don't be stupid like me.

If you have an iphone and want to update it to the new software don't do it today. I should totally know better, what did I learn supporting Mac software all those years? Never update software on the first day in case of glitches. I was excited and as a result I am sitting with an unusable iphone right now until Apples servers can catch up.

find out all you need to know here:
iPhone 2.0 update problems

So if you are trying to contact me, I have no phone right now and won't until I can finish the update on my iphone. Who knows when that will be.

Learn from my mistakes. WAIT to UPDATE!

**EDIT**
After 4 hours I am finally back up. ahhh.

ID8 Scooter Rally wrap up.

We have been in scooter rally mode since Thursday. Every year the Philadelphia scooter community Hostile City hosts their Independence day rally. People from all over come here to participate. It is quite the site to see dozens and dozens of scooters out on the road. Maybe some of you saw us this weekend?
I took it easy this year as far a photos were concerned, last year I went a little crazy. This year I visited with people a little more and my camera straps are packed away so the camera stayed in the bag for the group rides. If you are curious to see more photos from the day everybody posts their images on scoot.net. I hope that next year I will be riding my own scooter, actually I hope that by next month I will be riding my scooter! It is almost ready for the road.

You always see some pretty crazy bikes out at these rallies. This is Sole Runner Steve's bike, the Sole Runners are known for taking their bikes down to the bone.

A family from New York brought their two children with them. They had the cutest little side car attached to their bike and the kiddos could not have been any cuter.
Here is a future scooter girl, she reminds me of a mini Bjork!

Another Sole Runner, Quincy. They are too damn cool.

I like the little details

Not every scooter has to be shinny and new to be gorgeous.

The last day was very emotional as everyone said goodbye. This was particularly sad because Jamie and Nick are moving back to Denver and will be missed by all.

Remember to check out scoot.net if you want to see more from the weekends events.
I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday.

quick video of people heading out on the long ride Saturday.

Baby Ari

Tuesday I finally got to meet baby Ari. His mom and I have been in contact since October about it was finally time to schedule a shoot for him. This little man is a riot. It took him a few minutes to figure me out, we woke him up from a nap and he was very skeptical of me at first. He warmed up pretty quick though and we got down to some good ole playing.

Meet baby Ari

Hanging with mom in the rocker but cracking up at dad off to the side.

There are some fun sequences in the slideshow of mom and dad giving Ari a ride.

I particularly enjoy this image all by itself.

Ari has one of the most animated smiles I have seen.

I loved this bed.

This is my favorite family shot of the day.

So much fun you guys. It was great to meet you!
Have a wonderful 4th of July.