The Family

The fact that our family portrait that hangs above our sofa is of our feet may indicate that we are not a normal family. I am not sure though because I'd have to find someone normal to ask for their opinion. What I can tell you is that our house is a lively place. All three of our kids keep us moving nonstop.


Our 2010 Christmas card above, says it all...


In general I tend to be a creative, passionate person who works with steady inspiration. Melissa gracefully rolls with the inertia of my long-terms goals, short-term projects and spur of the moment adventures with the kids.


Once in a while we get a chance to get away together, like when we went honored to attend the Modern Bride's Trendsetter awards. Or maybe helping me film a beach wedding. Okay, maybe she was not helping, but she was standing there drinking a beer while I worked. Tough gig huh :)

The Kids

My all time favorite thing to photograph is my children!



Meet Ava, she is 9-years-old, has a good sense of humor, she is intuitive, creative and and has a knack for negotiating. I think she is 50% scientist and 50% artist.




And Trevor is my 4-year-old, winsome son. He was obsessed with Frosty the snowman from Christmas of 2009 until Christmas of 2010. Then he moved on to batman. I have to mention that there was a brief infatuation with Frankenstein for a few months surrounding Halloween.


Last, but not least, is Ruby. She is our 3-year-old little woman. She is 100% girl, with a delicate sense of fashion, affinity for jewelry and makeup, and currently is a princess ballerina.



These are some of my favorite photos of the kids so far. Stay tunes for more to come!

Ruby in the field at sunset

On Sunday morning I drove the kids to get breakfast at a diner while my wife slept. On the way back I saw a foggy sunrise over this pasture of wildflowers. I suggested to my wife that we all go there later that night to take photos of the kids.



As it turned out, I was unsuccessful in recruiting the entire family, but my little buddy Ruby was happy to go pick flowers.



Thanks "little R" :)

Old Barn

I love old barns. When I'm driving with my wife, I gawk when I see one even though the enthusiasm is not reciprocated. I suppose not too many people would share with me in this indulgence though. There is an old barn a couple of miles away from the studio. It is pretty epic.



The old brown door looks like a Led Zeppelin album cover to me for some reason. Anyway, any where you look, the textures of old stone, paint and wood are perfect. In my future trip to Italy, I hope to get many more photos that will rival this old barn. Still love it though!

Photos of the sky

I have a habit of grabbing the camera, a cup of coffee and full winter garb in an instants notice at absurdly early hours of the morning to snap shots of the sunrise. I have found that there is a very small window of opportunity to get the "golden" shot. This applies to sunsets as well.

I'm not a guru photographer, so I can't say much about the camera settings. I do play with various ISO ranges while experimenting with shutter speed vs. aperture. I like to find the balance where the image appears slightly dark and then lightly treat it in Lightroom. I try not to augment the image into an artificially saturated state, however I do prefer rich hues and contrasts.

The overall craft however is to work within the camera as much as possibly to produce an image that does not need post work. This applies in motion pictures as well. When taking an image of a stunning sunrise or sunset, it can be like shooting fish in a bucket though. The major difference of course is that the sky is much more majestic and goes dissolves away quickly without leaving a fishy smell (unless you are watching the sunset on a fishing boat). Next time the sky grabs your attention, be sure to take a moment out of your busy day to breath it in!

Antique Market

My daughter Ava and I went to one of our favorite places this past Sunday. It's a great open-air antique market in Lambertville New jersey called the Golden Nugget Market.

Ava's big find was this bull skull with horns. She has quite an eclectic streak in science & generally unusual curiosities. I wonder where she gets it from?

I found a few gems as well.
The first was some additions to my bottle collection. This all started when there was an old barn that was unfortunately torn down about one mile from our house. Ava and went to dig through the rubble one morning as a mini archeology trip (another one of Ava's passions). We found a small medicine bottle which, to my best estimate, dates around the 1850s. This bottle is the clear, oval-shaped one in the front center. After this finding, it seemed that every garage sale or flea market I went to, there was inevitably an old medicine bottle or two. So, I added to my bottle collection.

The next find was this small green lantern. As far as lanterns go, it's pretty cool, right? And finally, we found the gold frame (pictured at the top) which is utterly decadent. Now, I just need to find the right photo to insert before hanging on the wall.

Lucky - the studio dog

I know that Ariella has written a lot about her little friend, Henry, in the office and I wanted to do the same.

Here is Lucky Frosty.

He is a cockapoo puppy that loves to play with all of us as we are working. Just a few weeks ago Jon and his family went on a vacation and guess what!!! Lucky got to stay with me and my husband!! Isn't it fun to have a puppy in your house!! He was so good.... which is surprising because Jon and his family just got Lucky a few months before our special event! We love having Lucky around since he always gives us so many laughs around the office and always wants to give us as much love as his little body can give!