mallory + chris e-shoot

Mallory & Chris capped off my four day shooting intensive (I will post about the other 2 weddings soon!) with a really fun engagement shoot in their hometown of Stratford, CT. One of my favorite parts of my job is learning about new places right here in Connecticut. Stratford, you say? I say STRATFORD!! What a cute place! We met up at Short Beach which offered the best of it all, a nice beach, baseball diamonds, and a golf green! Plus I love the drives, gives me time to think and strategize about my shoot- like trying some new things I've wanted to do but haven't yet, or figuring out a new way to shoot the ring, one of my favorite things, some of you will agree. Oh and feet, can I not get enough? No!! Especially when Mallory wears cowboy boots! You guys just keep feeding my foot & shoe shot addiction! I guess there could be worse things in life. Mallory & Chris were so natural and tender and caring with each other, it made photographing them a piece of cake. Seriously, every time I would think 'oh- I wish Chris would just look up' BAM! He would. Mallory would tilt her head just so, right when I was thinking it or they would just completely change it up as I was thinking it! They had ESP- Engagement Shoot Perception. I told them that if there was an Engagement Shoot Olympics they would totally medal. Can I get an AMEN??

*on an aside, not sure how to weave this in- but thank you so much Mickie for the referral! I have to give a shout out to all of my loyal supporters who plug me relentlessly- like Renee and Jen and Susannah and Jaime and all of my past clients and current clients and friends. It means so much to know I have all of your love and support for my business!

So Steve DePino is not only a terrific photographer but has quickly grown to become one of my dearest friends these past few months. One of the reasons I love this guy so much is not only for his totally ridiculous humor but because he is learning to really value the importance of networking and lending a professional helping hand, as we are all learning this. In the not-too-distant past we all used to hoard our 'secrets' whatever the hell those are, really! Now, we have this incredible open network of photographers in Connecticut! Case in point: Steve was asked to do a seminar for up and coming photographers in Vienna in April. Very cool! What a wonderful opportunity to show people what's what and impart everything you have learned. I am so excited and proud of Steve!!

oh but it gets better!

He has asked me to join him in running the seminar with him!! I am SO excited (can you tell?) In the olden days Steve may have taken this opportunity and kept it close to himself and not shared. Not only is Steve NOT doing that but he is giving me, another photographer, an opportunity to shine as well as he knows how much I enjoy talking about photography and teaching others. We've already got our tickets and are both super excited to share in this amazing experience together! Thanks SO much Steve for this incredible opportunity!

Had to do a little add-on for my selfish and totally unfunny boy, Jeff Reilly.

jennifer + geoff e-shoot

Last Thursday began what was a whirl wind of four straight intense days of shooting for me, all of which I LOVED!! It all started with an engagement shoot with Jen & Geoff who are getting married next year at one of the coolest new places in Hartford, The Gershon Fox room in the old G. Fox building right on Main street. This place is SO cool and art deco and I love it! If you are still shopping around for a venue you must check it out! So when we were planning our shoot they decided on doing a mini tour / pub crawl of downtown Hartford! Since I have been working so much lately I have been completely out of the downtown loop and was so excited to just walk around and check out all of the new places (and there are TONS) that are popping up all over Hartford! We started off, or tried to, at The Half Door, right around the corner from my studio, but it was closed for renovations- should be open now, don't worry!! We then moved on to Vaughn's on Pratt street for a pint (as Shrek says 'Can't we just settle this over a pint?') and some shots at one of their tables by the window. After that we popped in to Joe Black's, another really cool reception venue in Hartford- they let us look around and take a few shots in their space. Then we checked out the Gershon Fox room, and stumbled upon a new restaurant called Rosco's Big Dog right behind City Steam. It also turned out to be their first day open! Geoff was pumped as he is a big hot dog fan. Though he likes them plain, which is just totally weird!! So the owner made them a Big Dog on the house and they ate it Lady & the Tramp style! How cute are they? Had to do a ring shot with the mustard. Right?
Then it got crazy- we went to Tapas on Ann, the tiniest cutest place that makes the BEST pumpkin martini's; over to Agave for their killer Margaritas and guacamole and empanadas! Discovered a few new places, Dishes and The Tavern on Something right next door to Agave- it looked really swanky but in an approachable way swanky. Then we had to check out The Arch Street Tavern, my old haunt- this is where I met my husband Dave! Here we ran into some people from the Real World cast, Jen has an eagle eye for reality tv stars, what can we say? Don't ask me which season, I don't know- but one of them was Paula? And lastly, yes we hit one more place, we had to cap the night off at Mayor Mike's!! We had so much fun- I can't wait for the slide show as I have some special Carla Ten Eyck stop motion tricks up my sleeve from our shoot!! Thanks Jen & G Man for a super fun night!

liora + michael wedding at the mattatuck museum

Liora and Michael had their ceremony and reception at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury on one of the warmest nights in October. Both families were so welcoming and kind, it was such a pleasure to spend the day with them and then get to call that work! Amy Ross Jacob shot this with me and brought her years of experience and wit to the day, we got some awesome shots because of it! She also had great make up tips and other useful things like how to sit in the car with your dress on with out wrinkling it! I know Liora appreciated all of her counsel, for sure!

larissa + garret

Last week brought a beautiful fall afternoon spent at Chamard vineyards in Clinton- and this is my JOB!! I am so lucky! The woman at Chamard was so nice and accomodating, thanks to the amazing Jay Fleming for the recommendation. I had heard that other vineyards are not always nice about letting you shoot, so being able to work at a vineyard as beautiful as Chamard was a treat.
Larissa and Garret are two of the cutest people ever, they instantly became comfortable in front of me and my camera, and just laughed the whole time. We had easy conversation and even saw a partial rainbow. Larissa apparently has a knack for spotting them, a talent of which I am super envious of! Who doesn't like spotting a rainbow? We started off our shoot with an actual tasting, which I had only done once before, like 14 years ago. So this was fun. A few of the wines they were selling had been harvested during Hurricane Floyd in '99, which was RIGHT before my very own 'special day,' my wedding! Of course I bought a couple bottles for me and Dave to enjoy and reflect fondly on our almost crazy wedding. We had our rehersal on the beach (since this is where we were getting married) and the waves were SO loud and the wind was just howling so badly that we couldn't even hear anyone! Good thing it passed and we had a beautiful 70 degree day with no humidity, vast blue skies and tons of butterflies. We had no back up plan! I digress... Larissa and Garret, thanks for a wonderful afternoon and thanks for leading me down memory lane!