Hello all! I just wanted to make a quick post that I will be taking a few days off to heal an injury before this weekend’s photo session and wedding as the show must go on! I apologize for any inconvenience and any delays during this time. My awesome assistant/second photographer Vicki will be helping me out with some work while I rest up, so hopefully everything will stay on track for the most part. Any galleries that are expected to be up this week may be delayed a few days. I will be slowly returning phone calls and e-mails through the next few days, but I can only sit at the computer a few minutes at a time right now. Thank you so much for your patience!

My friend Shawna (who was one of my bridesmaids!) is getting married next month in Long Island and guess who will be her photographer?! Shawna and Jimmy came up last week to visit and talk about the wedding and then we hung out for a while, went to lunch at my favorite Sushi restaurant - Lilac House in Fairfield… if you haven’t been there, what are you waiting for?! Great food, friendly staff and a cool & cozy atmosphere! Shawna hates rice, so getting her to try sushi was a challenge, but she tried it and loved it! In fact, she called me when they got off the ferry at Port Jeff to tell me that she was already craving more! After sushi Shawna, Jimmy, my daughter Jaedyn and I toured my neighborhood looking at the gorgeous homes and then went for a hike back to the cascades behind Lake Mohegan here in Fairfield. We had a blast and of course, I HAD to get a shot of them by the cascades!I am so happy for the two of them and I cannot wait for their wedding! Jimmy was Shawna’s date at my wedding back in 2002, so it’s about dang time for these two to tie the knot! One of my best friends, Ginger, (who lives in Michigan) will be flying in for the wedding as well (she’s in the bridal party) so I am doubly excited! My fantabulous (I don’t care if it’s not a word, I like it!) second photographer Vicki will be joining me for the weekend down in Long Island so we can get some rockin’ shots for them and she can also provide me with a little relief so I can also be a friend/guest for a portion of the day. I can’t wait!!!

Many have probably noticed that I offer “trash the dress” sessions, but you may not understand what they really are. While they can range from very mild “We did” sessions where the dress is completely unharmed, they can also go the opposite direction. Though you may cringe at the thought of rolling around in the surf with your dress, the reality is that most of the time, these dresses end up cleaner in the end - after wearing them in the water, that is! To me, these sessions are just so much fun and give you the flexibility to get some killer shots that you wouldn’t otherwise get - even if it simply means that we just go somewhere out of the ordinary that you wouldn’t have time for on your wedding day. My favorite thing about these sessions is that you aren’t afraid to get a little dirty or mess up your hair… leaving the door wide open as to the locations and types of photos we can create! Here is an interesting article on “trashing the dress” from the New York Times - Click Here. And don’t forget to check out the one and only: Trash the Dress website! Oh, and ladies, bring your hubby along in his formal wear (or the undone formal!) for some really sweet shots too!

Sessions start at $300 and include multiple locations as well as online proofing and ordering. Now booking sessions for July and August!

Irony, bravery and the worm!

In the last 5 years or so I have heard my Mother-in-Law talk about old times and my husband’s childhood… naturally, I heard quite a bit about their old neighbors, the Kiss Family who had moved “away” about 20 years ago. Imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from Lauren Kiss - my husband’s next door neighbor 20 years ago - needing a wedding photographer! I recognized the name, asked my Mother-in-Law and then confirmed it with Lauren. What a small world!

Lauren & Steve, along with their family and friends, had Vicki and I laughing all day… they both have such beaming smiles that you can’t help but smile too! Lauren & Steve were married at St. Ann’s in Milford and then we took a ride over to the Milford Green for some photos and fun before heading to Union League Cafe in New Haven for the reception. I am still in shock at how brave Lauren was - she volunteered to climb over a railing and then climb up onto some big boulders just so we could get some shots on the rocks right in front of the waterfall!! I told her that after that performance I am going to have to tell everyone that is afraid to do something that would result in better photos “Well, Lauren did it, so can you!” =) Okay, not really, but I wish! These two were just so much fun!

At the reception I quickly learned that Lauren & Steve are great dancers - and Lauren can do the worm! Surely, she would not be doing the worm in her gorgeous white wedding gown… OH YES SHE DID! I don’t know why I ever doubted it! Of course it helped that their DJ, Bob Van Tine, was awesome!

Congratulations again, Lauren & Steve- I hope you’re having an awesome time in Aruba!

CLICK HERE for the slideshow!

Wednesday night was our monthly PUG meeting and this time my friend Jacklyn was the hostess with the mostess! We had a huge turn out of over 30 photographers for fun and photography on the beach! We drew names, split up into teams and had a little shoot out. The rules were tricky - every photographer had to be represented as both a photographer and a subject, we had to do a group photo, we had one hour, we had to stay at one focal length (I stuck myself at 200mm!) and for every photo either the subject or the photographer had to be touching sand. Well, with an awesome private East Haven beach, this was a lot harder than we thought! I had the pleasure of being teamed up with Paul, Steve and 2 Marleens! Oh, I forgot to mention - this IS a competition, so I was totally psyched to have Paul and Steve on my team! We had an awesome time shooting and being wild and crazy - Paul and I went into the water fully clothed - by the time I got in up to my knees I realized what a mistake this Florida girl had made - that water was COLD!!! Paul talked me through sucking it up and smiling for the camera! I have yet to see any of those shots, but I thought I’d share some that I took. I’ll let ya’ll know if my team wins!

Here is one of our group photos - an awesome contribution from Steve that I had to yank off of his blog! (I’m on the picnic table if you couldn’t tell)I was supposed to pick one of each of my teammates for the contest, but I liked two VERY different ones of Paul, so I submitted 5! So the following 5 are my contributions:

Steve

Paul
Different, but I liked it.
Marleen C.
Marleen W.Here are some others I took:
Paul’s workin’ it waist deep in the sound with his blinding shirt!

Notice Steve with THREE cameras in his hand! Now that’s a pro!
This hat really got around!
Okay, so Steve is a great model… he was totally workin’ the cameras! He looks like he should be advertising something - other than “.COM”!

After the shoot out we went up to Jacklyn’s house and her awesome boyfriend Chris grilled up some grub and then we went back to the beach for a bonfire with s’mores, chatting and of course, more photos! It was the night before the blue moon, so we had an awesome view of the (almost) full moon reflecting off of the water. Thanks Jacklyn for hosting such an awesome gathering and opening up your home (and beach) to all of us crazies and thanks to Justin, Mary and Carla for planning the shootout!!

Yes, that is the moon! It was so gorgeous!

Wow! I took me a lot longer than I expected to narrow down which photos I wanted to add to Tanya and Bryan’s slideshow! Tanya and Bryan were married at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville on May 27th. We had beautiful sunny skies, a great group of people and a whole lot of laughs! Jason McGrew joined me for this wedding as well and we had so much fun. Everyone was up and dancing and being silly with the inflatable guitars, hats and other fun props. Bryan even surprised Tanya by serenading her at the reception - he had been secretly taking singing lessons - how romantic!

Congratulations, Tanya & Bryan! Have a fabulous time in Maui!

Click here for the show!