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7 for Sunday
1. So we embark on our annual baseball trip tomorrow. And this is all I have to say about that.
We will be visiting Minneapolis, Chicago and Milwaukee. Expect to see me on Facebook ALOT. Hope all of my friends have their phones charged up cause I’ll be texting everyone non stop. I have the Kindle loaded and charged. I’ll be posting from the road both about our ‘adventures’ and also portrait sessions while I’m gone so the blog will be way busy. Come and visit and leave me comments to read, ok?!
2. So not only do I have to pack 4 people for the trip but I have to pack up the house today as we’re getting all of the hardwood floors sanded and re-urathaned while we are gone. Good times. I’m just hoping they are done by the time we get back and that house can air out from the stink quickly.
3. One of my Canon 5d classics died this weekend. When taking a picture horizontally, I would get a big black block the entire width of the bottom 1/4-1/2 of the photo. Not good. Looks like a loose mirror, shutter and/or focusing screen. And after my friend Kate borrowed my 70-200 lens (I never liked that lens and hardly use it ever) I found out why I never liked it. I think I got a bad copy- all the images are soft. I didn’t realize since I never shot with that lens before buying it- I just figured it was a little softer than the prime lenses). So into CPS (canon professional services) went the broken 5d and very soft focus 70-200. They shipped out from East Hampton (so fancy- but only because I had shoots out there yesterday afternoon) and I’m hoping they will be ready by the time I’m back from the baseball tour. And a big huge thank you to Kate and Shira who both offered the use of their cameras yesterday so I would have a backup. It’s so nice to have photografriends who are generous with their time and equipment!!
4. I’m happy to announce that I have become a member of OpLove (Operation Love Reunited), photographing full sessions for military members leaving or returning from deployment on a voluntary basis. I’ve had this project in my head forever and couldn’t make a go of it on my own since the military presence in this area isn’t so accessible. I’m hoping that this will send some my way for sessions. If you know of any local to Long Island soldiers heading out or returning from deployment, please feel free to pass on my info. You can find more about OpLove here: http://www.oplove.org/index2a.php
And if you are the praying type, please think of the 31 service members who gave their lives this weekend in Afghanistan. So sad for all of us but especially for their families left behind. I can’t even imagine.
5. Went to Ikea this week with another photografriend Lori and went a little crazy on the blankets for newborn sessions. Well, they already proved their worth this week on a fantastic newborn shoot. Pictures on that soon.
6. This week had the weirdest weather I think I have ever seen. Green skies, hail, torrential rain, rainbows, bible skies… all within a few hours of eachother. Some from the ‘real’ camera, some from the iphone. Oh, and by the way- I’m pretty sure the hail was all my fault. I was in the ocean 3 separate times in the last week which never happens. I think I set off some kind of ‘end of the world’ thing. Sorry about that.
7. Some iphone shots from the Paul McCartney and U2 concerts we went to in July. Just realized I never posted them.Went with the Healys and the Nevills to Paul McCartney and ended the night in some bar in the Bronx with Rosanna doing the electric slide at 1am. It was so fun!!!
Paul looked and sounded great. At 69 years old he still puts on an awesome show!! 
We took the big boys to U2 at the Meadowlands. They loved it!!
Ok, well I’m off to pack. Joy. -
the boys last baseball game
Well, not forever or anything. Just for the Spring season on their DJ Hannon team, which was a great team by the way. Lots of super nice kids on the team, and of course some great coaches too (I may be a little partial to the coaches since the Manager was my brother in law Tom (also known as Uncle That Guy) and my husband (also known as John)! They were so supportive of eachother and just a good bunch of kids. They made it pretty far into the playoffs (further than before) and even though this was the last game, they played it with heart!
Lots of pictures which aren’t the best- at least not as close up as I had wanted. I only brought one lens as it is sooooooooo dusty up at the field, I wasn’t about to go swapping out lenses and getting my nicely cleaned cameras full of dirt dust. And the lens I brought is more all-purpose (24-70 2.8/f) than sports (70-200 2.8/f) cause I wanted to be able to get some shots in the dugout too. With the big guns lens, the dugout wouldn’t have happened.
Jack had a good game. He made a bunch of good plays at first, had a hit and a walk. In the games the previous weekend, he also played first in both games and did a great job! (Two weeks ago, the boys were called up to a National League game as that team was short players and then had a playoff game for their team immediately following at the same field. So it was baseball from 4:30pm-9:30pm, with dinner at almost 10pm for all of us! They were sooooo happy to be playing non-stop baseball for 5 hours!)
A nice hit!!
Joe B.- love his expression here. 
My nephew Brendan.
Patrick pitched a 1-2-3 inning, walked once. In the games the previous weekend he got two hits, an amazing catch of a line drive at first and came in to pitch the final 2 outs of the last inning and got the last two batters out, won the game 7-6 with the bases loaded. Even I was at the edge of my seat. Waaaaaay too pressurey for me, but so happy he did so well!!
The infamous J-Mac. 
This kid is speedy! Like really, really speedy.
And has the best team spirit!
One more of Patrick at bat. 
The opposing team, but caught a few shots for friends.
Timmy spent most games in the dugout, playing the ipad or the DS. He was the team mascot. 
Doritos and smiles with Joe B.
And with J-Mac.
End of game pep talk from the Coach.
And that’s that. Until summer baseball starts. 
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memorial day weekend- the mets & the movies
It was a crazy fun weekend. Until….
Just kidding. Sorta.
Friday night I took Timmy to a sushi dinner date and to see Kung Fu Panda 2 while Jack & Patrick went to the Mets game with John. We met Jen, Jack & Michael there too. A few snaps from the iphone.
Saturday was an all day beach day and Saturday night was dinner at Churchill’s (aka Uncle Nelson’s). Sunday was the beach again followed by a redo of Kung Fu Panda 2 with the big boys, their two friends Robert and Johnny and Timmy and I. The big boys were bummed they missed it the first time, so I was nice and took them all. Again. Monday was an all day beach day, too. When making Monday’s plans with Christine, John told me to ask them to the Mets game as we had 8 tickets. I tried plying Christine with staying on the beach and dinner out but she decided on the Mets game so I had to go, too. The boys were thrilled that I was having my first visit to Citifiield!!!!!! I was not. But I sucked it up and did it and now they cannot ask me to go again until at least next year. At least.
TimTom (thanks Inez for the 3rd cousin clarification!) who could actually be fraternal twins. They stand the same, run the same, have the same build, etc. For 3rd cousins, the resembelence is a little scary!! 
They totally look like twins here. 
I’m not touching you….I’m not touching you…
Carvel in a pink hat. Other than the fact that it was at a baseball game, that part was really good!
Photographic proof that I was actually there. We stayed until the very, very end too. 
Sorry for the delay on today’s post. The blog was down for a while this morning. The boys have their 3rd round baseball playoff game tonight- hope they play as well as they did on Saturday!! More details on that coming soon.
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the lasts of May
Still in the middle of editing about 1000 communions so I have nothing new to post insofar as client shoots today. So I thought I’d throw in the last bunch of May’s pictures today. Well, the lasts of May other than the Memorial Day weekend photos which are also residing in the ‘to be edited’ pile with the 1000 communion photos.
John and Timmy went to a Mets game just the two of them.
The two of them and John’s hideous sneakers. They are so ugly they almost count as a whole other person.
I think Timmy was pretty excited. 
Fake sleeping. Maybe she’ll stop taking pictures.
And then, I got the hand. 
They had a great time. Just the three of them. -
more baseball
I have a feeling there will be more of the above titled posts throughout this year. Finally took the camera to the big boys game last weekend (my last weekend game I’ll be seeing for a while due to shoots/communions). Their team won and I got some great pictures too!
Jack got a great hit and was pretty happy about it!
And then Jack pitched an inning. 
Patrick’s game…
2 innings as catcher.
Cousin Brendan getting a little coaching from Coach Thomas/Dad.
Uncle That Guy doing his coaching thing.
Timmy’s always around to cheer a brother up after a tough inning. 
Assistant Coach JohnnyB looking on. 
This weekend’s game didn’t go as well, but I did get in to see about 30 minutes between shoots. No doubt there will be lots more pictures of baseball before the season’s over…