anniversary shoot slideshow

A little while back Mike and I shot Bob 2.0 and the lovely Mrs. 2.0 (aka Jen) in some farm country n stuff! Well I made a little slide show for the 2.0's- to a song that I think is only fitting since they are true high school sweethearts!!

AWWWWW, right????

Trying to think of that perfect gift for your honey?? Book an anniversary shoot!! They are super fun!!

bob 2.0 + jen anniversary shoot

Sunday Mike and I had one of the most fun shoots- it was an Anniversary Shoot for Bob 2.0 and his wife Jen in the central western part of the state. One of the only stipulations was that we wanted to shoot near horses so I called my good friend Julia who just happens to own a horse farm in West Granby and she was more than happy to let us come shoot at her place!
So on the way we drove through Simsbury and there is this field that Mike and I LOVE that has this cool old stone barn thingy in it. I have always wanted to stop and shoot someone there but never had anyone...until now!

So we drive up to it and the field turned into WHEAT! I think it was wheat anyway, at least that's what it looks like on TV! It was so beautiful and we were pumped for some trespassing. But. There were no actual 'no trespassing' signs anywhere so were we really breaking the law?

Apparently we were! Those peeps in Simsbury have a block watch in FULL EFFECT! No sooner had we crossed the field (me in freaking flip flops, no less, very very dumb idea) than a guy pulls up, yelling! I was all scared (I am such a scardey cat) so luckily I have Big Mike with me so he volunteers to go investigate... what a nice guy! I kept shooting bc really, I will be DAMNED if I am going to hustle across a wheat field in flip flops almost busting my butt many, many times to have to stop immediately! Turns out he was actually a nice guy but was a little nervous (it wasn't even his land, it's state land) and he tipped us off to other places we could shoot down the road



So rather than us being right in the middle of the field we hung around the perimeter and shot, (which we got approval for) and I had this fabulous idea to lay on my back going down a hill and proceeded to drop my camera on my head (it had my 14-24 on it, which is f n HEAVY) and tried to turn my face real quick bc I KNEW it was going to smart! It clipped my ear and I think I broke the cartilage in my ear or something because it STILL hurts!


I wanted to try some new things and doing some extreme close ups / profiles seemed like something that I don't really do a lot of. I have a series of these where they start off all serious and then progress to them laughing

This is the place our mystery man led us to- it could have been a total trap, it did have all of the makings of a scary movie... some happy go lucky young people, a desolate barn in the middle of no where.....! See why I am so glad Mike comes with me?? No offense Bob, I am sure you would have held your own! :)



So here we are at Julia's awesome horse barn! Her horse Moose was so gentle and pretty he didn't mind us leading him around and just posing with him

Mike was in heaven, he is such an animal lover

Now I knew going into the shoot how much Bob LOVES lens flare. He comments on it all the time, so I felt more than a little pressure to have some sun! And seeing that it was supposed to rain all day kind of bummed me out, I SO wanted Bob to have his proverbial 'day in the sun' if you know what I mean! So we are leaving Starbucks (shocker) and Mike suggests that we just shoot now since it isn't guaranteed that we will be able to rock it anywhere else, there were some clouds...

All I have to say is good call Mr. Mike, we both got some fun shots with some flare, and it was only the beginning of the flare love! We ended up getting a bunch more but I am glad we rocked the parking lot! Yes my feet are super dirty, I was in a wheat field and a horse farm for god's sake! In flip flops! The whole point of this shots was to show you that you can shoot ANYWHERE and get some nice stuff! I shot up on them to get rid of the cars in the background so you would not know where we were

ON our way to a corn field we passed this cool fence and saw the light and were like HALT! So we pulled over and delicately avoided the electric fence



Mike was cracking me up when I shot this- I told him I was getting his calves in the shot and to flex so he did!





We could have shot here all afternoon but at this place we were clearly not supposed to be there, it was private property! But it sure was pretty!



On the way home there was this awesome big red barn across the street from this cool farm stand ice cream hoo ha place. Yes. HALT! We had passed it on the way out and I knew we would be returning because it is so super cool


I love found hearts in places and was pumped to find this rustic cutie

Yeah, a corn field at dusk? Am I TRYING to get killed??? I must be because there were some super scary wild a$$ animals squawking and screaming in the fields while we were shooting- Mike says he thinks it's badgers! Little did I know how vicious badgers really are, so I am hoping it wasn't them- but I googled them just in case and they have been known to chill in corn fields! Yikes!

This is one of my favorite shots from our whole shoot!

And while shooting this I was half in the corn and half out, they are WAY ahead of me, this would have been the prime time for Jason to jump out in his hockey mask and grab me, huh! I like to tempt the scary movie fates and get myself all riled up! It was hilarious as we were walking back Mike threw a stone into the corn to the left of Bob and Jen who were way ahead of us and they freaked out!!!


Bob & Jen we had SO much fun with you guys, thanks for the awesome dinner!!

Check out Mike's killer grabs HERE!!

eric + amber anniversary shoot

OK, here it is, FINALLY!! Sorry for the delay I am just catching my breath (barely) before running off to shoot with Steve Depino at The Branford House this fine Saturday afternoon! Let's see what the weather will do...!

Mike and I photographed the super hot couple that is Eric and Amber Langlois of the fabulous RAW Photo Design last weekend, the third of our Memorial Day Weekend Shooting Craziness. This was an anniversary shoot we did (as they are already married)! What's an anniversary shoot, you say? Well, it's basically an engagement shoot except that you are married! Well what's an engagement shoot, you say?


Well.... it's what Mike and I LOVE to shoot (in addition to the wedding, of course!) We always have SO much fun shooting these as they turn into such the photo adventure safari- sometimes we trespass, sometimes we eat, sometimes we get dirty as heck and we ALWAYS laugh and have a great time!

So we brought Eric and Amber to Mike's super double top secret location (which I will absolutely not go to without Mike, it's a little desolate and scary, to be honest...but I am a city girl and woods kind of freak me out!) But so totally worth the trip and armored guard ;)

Eric and Amber just heated up the place with their obvious chemistry- it was so nice to see two people, married with kids, mind you, be so into each other! So I focused on that, because people that is a beautiful thing!

We had a great time breaking Eric in (he has never been shot like this and was a little squirrely in the beginning, as we all are!) But in the end he warmed right up and I was able to get that intense-ness that is Eric to come out, along with his goofy side! Amber was quite a natural in front of the camera, I am sure it is due to the fact that her husband shoots her a ton!

Thanks for a great shoot, Mike and I had a great time!


There were so many textures and stuff, I felt like a cat in a sparkle factory, I was all distracted!














OK so these shots aren't all steamy, but he sure is cute!!


Interested in booking your own shoot? Give me a shout for pricing and availability, this season is almost booked solid so check for availability asap!

Make sure you check out Mike's killer shots HERE!

eric + amber (sneak peek TOO)

Mike is a jerk for posting a sneak peek before I'm ready to post my ENTIRE peek!! So I am forced to post a sneak too!


This was a super steamy shoot on day three of our shooting craziness! Very sultry, and very fun! We shot Eric from RAW Photo Design and his wife Amber for an anniversary shoot- akin to the engagement shoot but it's for married couples!

I will post more later, but Mike and I are going to New York City for a super duper e shoot- can you say MSG?? :)

And then I am shooting a wedding with Steve Depino on Saturday at the Branford House, I am really pumped I love that place and Steve and I always have a great time!

justin + mary

Yesterday Mike and I had the distinct pleasure of photographing two of my closest friends, Justin & Mary Marantz. This came about not just because we could shoot them, like, ALL the time and get great shots, and why the heck wouldn't we want to do that as often as possible?? But because Mary saw the slide show that Mike put together of me for my workshop with Steve and was so moved by it that she hired us to shoot them and do the slide show of them and their work for their blog! They had some ideas and were willing to just plop it in our laps and let us run with it, which was really fun for us and challenging at the same time since we had really only done this for my studio.

I have known the Marantz's for just over a year and have gotten to see so many sides to them- they are so professional as I like to tell Mary (which makes her laugh, but she totally IS) but it's really a farce- because they are just two very well dressed goof balls who are just crazy about each other and like to not only laugh at me and Mike but at themselves as well... so yes there was a lot of laughing going on because the material was endless!

We started off in new Haven and then made it to Steve DePino's stomping grounds and he showed us one of his favorite fields of Guilford where the light was just ridiculous! We got quite the day for shooting, though it was much colder than it looks.

Thanks for being such troopers for our shoot and being so patient for every aspect of it! I can't wait to see what Mike is going to put together for this!!

mike + kim anniversary shoot

In order for me to shoot even MORE 'engagement shoots' which I absolutely love to shoot... I have decided to now offer an Anniversary Shoot package for current, past or new clients who are already married.

I got the idea to do this after meeting couples who had already gotten married and wished I had done their engagement shoot and felt like they missed out on a new and different photography experience.

During my mentoring session with Miss Laurie Crutchfield last week we photographed my uber talented second shooter Mike Romano and his adorable pregnant wife Kim. They were pretty easy to photograph aside from Mike's blue steel thing he had going on! We are going to do another installment to their shoot- I can't wait!

It was really fun to watch Laurie work with posing a couple (she had said this was something that she wanted to work on) - so we would set them up, stop, do our 'visual sweep' and see what was and was not working in the image. It was great because we ended up saving so many images by stopping and reworking our composition or realizing what was missing, like making them smile or taking something out of the frame that was taking away from the image.

Mostly it was fun shooting in a really awesome location with a couple who were initially nervous in front of the camera (yes, really) and getting some really cool shots.


If you are interested in booking your own Anniversary Shoot with me and Mike shoot me an email or call my studio at 860-906-1993!