Living in Love...

Here's to you Jeffrey Gaines. Another incredible performance last night in NYC!

Empty The Trash

I've been deleting old archived jobs from my Buffalo TeraStation since I am completely out of space when I realized that I wasn't freeing up any memory.  Then I saw there was a trashbox.  So, after reading the manual and deleting the 23,000 items in the trashbox I now have over 150 gigs of storage!   Yahoooo!   I feel like I just won the lottery!

Five Simple Rules For Happiness

Saw This...

on an Elementary School bulletin board!

A Beautiful Fall Afternoon

Here are the most recent photos of Olivia. She is such a character in front of the camera!

Play With Your Food

I was reminded of one of my favorite books at a wedding recently when I discovered this couple sitting at the bar.

I think every creative professional (or anyone with kids!) should own this book "Play With Your Food" by Joost Elffers. It's so much fun and really makes shopping for produce interesting!

Elvis in the House

17 years of photographing weddings and I never had Elvis make an appearance at a Reception. Last month he showed up at 2 weddings in a row! Only in different forms...

So, Gavin DeGraw has a brother...

and he is one hell of a singer - songwriter! Check out this Slideshow of Joey DeGraw rocking out at The Bitter End!

No Princesses Here

Yes, it's horrible...but we scare the pants off of trick or treaters (AND their parents!) on Halloween. We look forward to this every year and laugh our butts off all night as the unexpected run away screaming...sometimes without even getting candy! People must really like it because they keep coming back and we get more and more trick or treaters every year. This year we even had tons of people getting their picture taken in our front yard.
Take a looksy...

Locks of Love

My College Roommate, Bethany, has such a big heart! For YEARS she has talked about growing her hair long enough to donate to Locks of Love. That time has finally come and I was so excited to be able to document this emotional experience for her. 13 inches of her beautiful golden blonde hair was donated to make a hair piece for a child suffering from long term medical hair loss. Bethany's sister-in-law, Chris, wielded the clippers with a whole lot of skill and a great big grin. Here are a few shots from the day...

Travelling on the Backroads of CT

On my way from 1 shoot to another today, I decided to take all back roads on this most beautiful fall day. From New Canaan to Bethel the leaves have finally started to change color and there is nothing better than driving with the sunroof open listening to the most amazing cruising music. Michael Connolly's CD "Room 116" has arrived and it's wonderful and mellow and perfect for taking a moment to chill and enjoy life. Michael's CD is available on his website or if you're lucky enough to see him at one of his live shows. Enjoy!

Water Filters!

This is so disturbing I had to blog about it right away! Clean water...we take it for granted. But just how clean is our water???? We have a water filter attached to our kitchen sink that has a separate spout for drinking water. We are supposed to change the filter once a year. Today was the day and this is what we witnessed. (In case you're wondering, the bright white one is the new one and yes, the brown one was white when we put it in.) As Steve would say "If you don't use a filter, you are the filter". That's part of the reason we contribute to Thirst Relief International. It's hard to believe that "1.1 million people lack access to clean drinking water." This is just one more thing to be thankful for.

Food Network Challenge: Extreme Cakes!

Tune in tonight at 10pm to the Food Network Challenge: Extreme Cakes to see Stephen Maronian
Chef/Co-Owner of Sweet Lisa's Exquisite Cakes in Greenwich and his Assistant: John Ewen!
We photographed John's wedding in January 2006 and LOVE working with Sweet Lisa's. Good luck you guys and we're excited to see how it all turns out!

The P to the U to the G!

For those photographers out there that are members of the PUG (Pictage Users Group for you non-photographers), this months meeting will be held at our place in Danbury! Steve and I are excited to have all of you here! Hope to see you next Wednesday. To RSVP for the meeting go here.

Day 10

Our last leg of the trip. We explored a bit of San Francisco today. Went through the Japanese Tea Garden. Olivia saw this umbrella and just had to have it. She carried it around the gardens and it was well worth the price we paid just to watch people's expressions at the site of an almost 3 year old shading herself from the sun!
We went to say good-bye to the Golden Gate Bridge since we didn't drive over it this trip and this was the site we saw....Just call this the Fog Blog!
We fly home in the morning but check back as I'll post some recaps and funny things that happened on the road.

The Biggest Tree in the Whole World!

There it is. The General Sherman in Sequoia National Park. I didn't bring my extra wide angle lens on this trip and I was kicking myself because this monstrosity could not be photographed from top to bottom without it! Here we are just in front of the base of it.

Day 9

Happy 4th of July from Pier 39 in San Francisco! Hope you all had a great day!

Day 6, 7 & 8

3 days in Yosemite...
I sat by this river and felt such a feeling of peace and serenity. Soaking up all that God has put on this earth to help us through life. To rejuvenate and refresh the spirit. We are so lucky to be here.
Half Dome from Glacier Point...

Commercial Break

I interrrupt this Road Trip Blog because we just got word that National Recording Artist LUCINDA & special guest, MICHAEL CONNOLLY will be opening for KC & the Sunshine Band at the Ives Concert Park in Danbury, CT
on July 11, 2007 at 7:00pm
Tickets are available at Ives Concert Park

Hope to see you there!

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Day 5

We took it easy this morning and ventured out to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose for some exploration with Olivia. She's been a trooper riding in the car for hours at a time so she really enjoyed herself! This afternoon we visited with Steve's family in Fremont for Aunt Jean's 80th Birthday! A special THANKS to John & Tien for all the awesome food and family fun!
We're off to Yosemite tomorrow so I probably won't be able to post until we get to San Francisco on Tuesday. I can't image I will have wireless access in my tent cabin in the park.

Enjoy a few shots of some friends we've made along the way...

Day 4

Wowie Wow Wow WOW!! That's what I have to say about the dramatic coastline from the quaint little town of Carmel down to Big Sur and along the "17 mile drive" near Monterey and Carmel.

Day 3

Today brought us on a tour of Sterling Vineyards where we took a gondola ride to their winery and tasting room high up on a mountain. Here are a few shots from there...

We then drove along the Silverado trail and down to Carmel. We've met a few characters along the way...

Day 2

Ok, so maybe taking pictures from the car window is not a good idea when Steve is driving on roads with signs like this...
But then again, that's the type of road you have to travel on to get a view like this...

This is a shot from one of our favorite roads we've ever traveled on. Coleman Valley Road in Occidental. Steve and I found this road 8 years ago when we rented a motorcycle in San Francisco and went exploring. We're glad we got a chance to drive on it again. The hills gracefully sweep down to meet the ocean, where the water looks as though it falls off the edge of the earth. If anyone would like to make a donation so we can buy this place, feel free to send a paypal payment! :)
Our afternoon was an absolute delight filled with beautiful scenery, lots of smiles, a sense of well being and a picnic in the Sebastiani Vineyard.
Stay tuned!

Road Trip!

We've gone to California! We arrived yesterday by plane, hopped into our Prius and hit the Road.
We drove all through Napa. Passed all the vineyards and wineries, Simply Spectacular! I have a feeling I'll be shooting a lot from the car window or else I'll have to ask Steve to pull over every 5 minutes to take pictures. We'll never get to where we are going! We also went to the Petrified Forest and saw trees that were 3 million years old.
We'll be travelling to Napa, Sonoma, Calistoga, Down the coast to Monterey, Carmel & Big Sur, off to Yosemite Park and then to San Francisco for July 4th. Check back as we'll be blogging along the way!

Michael Connolly's New Release!

I want to introduce you to the music of Michael Connolly. He delivers a pop/rock sound with a guitar driven heartbeat. I am so happy to announce that Michael Connolly's newest fully produced CD will be released this August! To find out where Michael will be playing live in the NorthEast, check out his brand new website at www.MichaelConnollyMusic.com