Christmas at our place

Since all of my family is overseas, Christmas is really easy for Laura and I, we spend it with her family. Since we don't have to split the day up running to each others family we just relax at her moms and enjoy a quiet dinner, and play with our nieces.

This year we wanted to try something different. We have a few friends that had told us they were going to be alone so we decided to start a new tradition. We'd throw a party on Christmas night for everyone that wanted something to do. It was a blast! We got to see a bunch of friends and even one of my best friends from Florida stopped by. Thanks for coming guys.. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

New Blog - Just launched - MiniPix!

Ok, ok, I know. I probably don't have the right to start a new blog considering my husband had to take over this one (due to my lack, of, um... you know... posting) - but I PROMISE to better with this one!

MINIPIX

This blog is basically a rundown of what Paul and I talk about (via IM) all day long - cool photo stuff, deals on CF cards, things like that. Since I'm sitting here clicking this links all day long - adding them to the blog is pretty quick and painless, so I should be able to keep this one up to date!

Let me know what you think!

Laura (aka "FORMERLY-bad-blogger-girl")

Speaking of Cats

We're lame.. our new Christmas tree is still in it's box, but we are doing something about that right this moment. In fact Laura has just finished putting the lights on it. But I did promise a pic of Moggy "the evil one" so here she is sneaking up on Steve (Mr. dog in a cats body) as he guards the tree.














I borrowed a Macro lens from my friend Gennaro and took these of the evil one. I really like Macro photography and might start investing in it. All kinds of cool stuff you can do with such a narrow depth of field.













And this last one is her typical self.. she looks all cute and then gets a good bite in if you go to touch her.

Cats outta the bag

Well almost.. I'm not very good with surprises, when I have something to give to someone I get really excited and usually cannot wait till the time I'm supost to.

So here's the big news!

Our main photography site is brand new!

It should be live either tonight or tomorrow according to our new host so if you see the old one (none flash and no music) give it a day or two. I'm so excited to see what everyone thinks. We looked at our options and after much deliberation and recomendations from friends we decided to go with a Bludomain interface. I cannot say enough good things about them. It was so easy to integrate our pictures and info, I can't ever go back to HTML. I've been working on this site everynight this week till way past my normal bedtime but I'm so happy with how it came out.

One of the hardest things to do was get some great music that isn't gonna bring us the wrath of a copyright attorney. Luckily for us I have a very talented friend out in LA that provided us with some great songs. If I can only convince her to get over her shyness she'd be famous. I'll have to ask her if I can post her picture, in the meantime send us an email if you like her work and I'll pass it on.. maybe we can convince her to actually sing in public!

Griswolds house

Anyone ever see Christmas Vacation? Laura and I pass by this house when we goto visit a friend. They do this every year but we either don't have a camera in the car or it's too cold out to bother. Well last night we made a point to go get some shots of this house, but I wanted to take my car and of course forgot to get a tripod out of hers. So I tried my best with the roof of the car as a makeshift tripod.

It's really funny.. they have a present on their front lawn tagged to them from the local electric company. I let the shutter linger a bit on the 1st one to show you just how bright this really is.. probably can see it from space.

Christmas came early

So this happened back on November 22nd so ignore the dates, I'm so far behind and still pretty new to this blogging that I've no idea how to go back and set the proper date.

On to the blogging....

Since I've started working with Laura she has been really great to me. Anytime I mention I could use a piece of equipment or her help she has done what she can. So when I said I would like a 70-200 lens she not only agreed.. she got me the best one out there.

My oldest friend Gennaro has been what our circle of friends like to call, our own personal paparazzi. He seriously brings a camera with him everywhere. If I've done something, he has it documented. So he had a 70-200 and raved about it, so after playing with his I was almost convinced it was worth getting. But.. I was still on the fence after seeing the hefty price tag.

Then Laura and I went to Photoplus expo and we got the chance to meet Me Ra Koh and her husband Brian. Now I'm sure some of you in the photog circles know of Me Ra, but the person who I actually learned a thing or two from was Brian. We all had a nice dinner in NYC courtesy of Pictage and Brian and I got to talking. We soon realized we have a lot in common besides being the fortunate spouses of amazingly talented photographers. He shoots 2nd for his wife and I just started doing so for Laura. Guess what lens he uses? I think Canon owes Brian a commission.

So here's Laura's stab at making me look like a little kid on Christmas :)

The Judge

Sorry I'm so behind on all this stuff, been struggling to keep up and post things that have happened lately. I had nearly forgotten Laura's Judging debut. The night after we got back from our Puerto Rico trip she was asked to be a judge in our local PCA chapter's digital slide night. Larry Schmidt their program director asked Laura if she could step in when a Nikon rep was unavailable to them. Even though she was exhausted and still sick from our trip she did an excellent job and picked some great shots as the winners. Here's a shot of her in action.. well she didnt move much, but I'm sure the brain was hard at work.

Winter Wedding

If you live in the NJ-NY-PA area you know it has gotten brutally cold in the last few days. Add the cold with the short ammount of daylight we have and you get cold, shivering, cranky people in dark pictures. However the wedding we did on Saturday the 2nd had anything but. Tina and Erik we're more than we could have asked for in a couple. They braved the cold at the Philly Art Museum to get these cool shots and believe it or not, we asked many times if they were cold and they were fine! I know this sounds a bit tacky but they were so excited they probably couldn't feel anything else.

Ever get those little things in your life where you find a small item, or an event happens that you don't give much thought to. Like finding a screw and not knowing what it goes to, yet you hang onto it anyway. Then without any forewarning you need something, be it that screw or some knowledge that you learned from that event that you never thought about. Well this stuff happens to me all the time. Like the night I was playing with the camera and took some long exposures. Who would have thought it would come in handy this night getting Boat House row into the picture with Tina and Erik. Having a gigantic torch didn't hurt either :)

Seems like night photography is becoming our speciality, 3 shoots in the last month have been in the dark.