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!

Happy 4th of July

That is the best way to say Happy Independence Day. I wonder how many kids or teenagers would know why we celebrate the 4th of July? I know one thing for sure. When my wife and I took our three-year-old & one-year-old to see the fireworks last night, they had absolutely no clue what those bright, loud sparkles in the sky were

Storm in June

I love thunderstorms. I'm not the only one right? Just like a good snowstorm, I'm waiting for the big one to come this year. Not too long ago, on a peaceful afternoon with my kids, a thunderstorm blew in and I filmed a little bit of it. I then recorded a little music on the keyboard to go with it.

Henry & Ariella.....an eternal love

Hey guys! Ariella here!

This week was a good week. I put a deposit down on a studio, so as long as my application goes through ok, I'll be moving to the city. It's the type of experience I always wanted before I got too old. Life is short, I wanted to take that leap, ya know? I'll be sure to post pictures of my place once I decorate it and everything.

We had a volleyball game at work. In the park across the street is this really cool net with beach sand, so we just randomly played and Jon and I won against Brianna and Lauren like 20 to 1! Right now, we are practicing our skills randomly by bouncing the volleyball against the roof so we can get really good and play more intense games.

So, I wanted to write about Henry and his undying affection for me. Sometimes when I try to work, he stands between me and the computer and gets really close to me, and just stares at me so I'll pay attention to him and not my work. He insists on being like, wayyy too close for comfort! He also likes eating our lunches, so he'll stick his head in potato chip bags and such. For example, I took him home last week and was eating sunchips. I turn away for a second, when I turn back around I see Henry's whole head in my bag, and he comes out with a big chip in his mouth. He also likes to cuddle! Like, I'll lay on my side when I go to sleep, and he'll come up and lay right on my arm and flex his paws while starring at me and purring. aww!! Henryyy!! Pictures: