• baseball,  elf on the shelf,  personal,  travel

    baseball trip 2011- day 1 minneapolis

    So after taking “bob’s airline” to get here (Ok, it was actually Sun Country, but who the hell ever heard of that one either?!) and making it in one piece (and being really pissed off in the airport cause it took them over 30 min to check us in which then caused us to be late for the flight & the last ones on the plane and that was after they tried to make me check my carry on bag cause there wasn’t anymore room- but the nebulizers are in there along with all the meds and my camera- and I stood on the ramp to the plane emptying the bag but then they said they were sorry since it was medical equipment…so that wasn’t good! Won’t be flying them again.)

    We landed in the Twin Cities in enough time to make it to the car rental counter, to the hotel and to a late lunch before heading to the game. I love the area we’re staying in- all old warehouses. Photographers dream. Hakka was upset as the restaurant he was dying to go to (Hells’ Kitchen) was closed for cleaning. Bummer.

    Bob the Elf decided to come out of retirement and join us for the trip. I think everyone’s pretty happy to see him!John’s really, really BAD hat.Uh…Bob? You remember what happened last time you thought it was a good idea to drink. There was that whole drunk driving incident with imprisonment (via Lego mini figs) and community service. You might want to rethink the beer.So instead, Bob made friends with the camera man. Good move, Bob!Keeping score. See, told you it was a good move schmoozing the camera man. Thanks, Bob! Yup, that’s me and my camera in the background on the big screen.And even Bob made his big screen debut. Not bad for his first day out of retirement.Patrick modeling the BAD hat. 

    When you are all reading this on Tuesday, the boys will be celebrating their 12th birthday!! Happy Birthday boys! I love you so much and hope you are enjoying your baseball trip. More surprises to come this week for them. And pictures, of course!

     

     

  • beach,  children & families

    the smyt family

    A sister of a friend and previous bsquared client contacted me for her very own shoot and was I ever glad she did! The sheer cuteness of this boy and his freckles (and even the broken arm. From what else? Monkey bars on the 1st day of summer.) was totally fun to photograph. Loved him and his littlebig personality! His aunt came along for some laugh support and was very helpful in that area. The whole family was so nice and so fun to work with. Thanks for making the trek to the beach!

     

     

  • baseball,  bsquared business,  i'm with the band,  personal,  travel

    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.

     

  • babies,  children & families

    jack cooper & family

    After meeting this little guy in the hospital a mere 8 hours after he was born, we did an actual newborn session at his home with his whole family. So much fun and since they are all some of my favorite people, it was automatically one of my favorite shoots! And the pictures came out pretty good, too!

     

  • babies,  children & families

    the pfaf family

    Another new to bsquared family with two cute littles (very littles!) for me to photograph- always a good thing! (sorry for the short narrative today- I’m having crazy vertigo right now and everything is spinning)