Jenny & Al expecting

Here are a few from my session with Jenny & Al's maternity session. I had the good fortune of shooting their wedding last year and they will bringing in their baby girl Alana in next week for a session. I am really looking forward to meeting little Alana, and it is so wonderful to have the opportunity to document these special moments in people's lives.

"The Urban Edge" session

Here are a few images from an "Urban Edge" senior session I did with Amanda. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for being such a great model Amanda!

Back to da blog!

Well, it's been about 4 months since I posted anything..mainly because I've been so busy..but also because I didn't think anyone actually read this stuff! I have had a few people comment on the blog so I am back to posting! Ok, since my last post, I have have had the good fortune of winning a couple of more awards! First, in April, I won "Best in Show" at CPPA's print competition with my print titled "Sophie's Smile" (below). Then, I won "Best in Show" again in June with my print titled "Midnight Rendevous". Totally unbelievable... and these 2 wins puts me a very strong position to win "Photographer of the Year" again this year...which would be very awesome.
In other news, the new studio is open for business and I am plannning to have a Grand Opening party so that everyone can come on down to check it out. I have been having fun doing some high school seniors, babies, maternity, etc. and will post some images from those sessions for you to check out. So stay tuned!

WPD

The Wedding Photography Directory continues to be very good to me. As I posted a while ago, they selected one of my images for March's "Photo of the Month", which can be viewed on the home page here. But I also got word that out of 1600 entries in the Annual Photo Contest, the 3 images I entered all made the top 100. A few of my fellow CT wedding hotographers made the cut as well. They were Steve Depino, Tommy Martin, Robert Trenske, The Troys & Richard Esposito. CT Wedding photographers ROCK!! Great going gang!! Keep up the GREAT work.
Voting is now OPEN TO THE PUBLIC so if any of you would like to vote for any of my/our images...it would be MUCH appreciated. Here is the voting link. My images are below:

Best of Weddings Contest

Some of you may remember that I was fortunate to win the Best of Weddings Contest last year which is sponsored by WPPI & Eventpix. Well..it appears I got lucky again!! Out of 469 entries...I just found out that I placed 3 out of the top 10 finalist in the Romance category in this year's competition!! (Last year I placed 4 so I better pick it up a notch.) Anyways, I already win a few things for just being a finalist like WPPI tickets, lab credits, etc., but here are the prizes for category and grand prize:

Grand Prize:

- Fujifilm S5 camera
- Asukabook 10x10 80-side Hard Cover Book-Bound EX-Laminate album
- $500 lab credit with H&H Color Lab
- Six months free online hosting service from Eventpix.com
- Complete Set of Kubota Image Tools Photoshop® Actions
- Complete Doug Gordon Workshops DVD set (8 DVD's) and Flow Posing Guide

Best of Category Prizes:
- Asukabook 10x10 40-side Hard Cover Book-Bound Varnish album
- Complete Set of Kubota Image Tools Photoshop® Actions
- $150.00 lab credit with H&H Color Lab
- Three months free online hosting service from Eventpix.com
- One Doug Gordon Workshops DVD (1 DVD) and Flow Posing Guide

WISH ME LUCK!!! Uncle Sam could REALLY use another S5!!

A shot of my ugly mug...

Here is a shot of my ugly mug accepting the CT Photographer of the Year Award from CPPA President Grace Cribbins...what a dork! I USED to be kinda cool at one time in my life...really. BTW Grace...thanks for making me look taller!! lol

Blue, Blue, Blue

Well, I just got back from the CT Photographers Association's annual convention and discovered (to my extreme surprise & delight) that 3 of my prints were awarded Blue ribbons and another a Red Ribbon in the print competition!! The Blue's were a total surprise to me because I basically entered all the prints that didn't score well during the quarterly competition. I only entered them because I didn't have anything else ready! Thank you to Julia Gerace for talking me into entering...thanks Jules!!! My good friend and collegue Charleen Larkin "one upped" me and took home 4 Blue Ribbbons!! Way to go Charleen! Anyways, here are a few of mine...titles: "Flying High Again", "Towering Inferno" and "Where Art Thou?".

Kerri & Paul

Here are a couple from Kerri & Paul's wedding in October. It was an intimate ceremony with only a few family & friends. I call this first one "Marilyn Moment". It was incredibly windy that day..as you can see! Congrats again guys!

Stephanie & Stephen

Man am I am on a blog roll today! Get it? Blog roll? Man I am too much! Here a few little diddies from Stephanie & Stephen's wedding on January 5th. Thanks for braving the cold temps guys! Ceremony at Providence College and reception at The Biltmore Hotel.

Gina & Chris images

I was just going through Gina & Chris' gallery to find a few images and found some that I thought I'd share. The wedding was June 29th at The Waterview in Monroe, CT. Hope you enjoy...

CPPA Trade show this weekend

FYI for anyone interested. The CPPA convention is this weekend at The Crowne Plaza in Cromwell...and there is a free trade show on Sunday. It's nothing huge but feel free to stop by and check out all the latest whatchamacallits and doohickies if you're in the area!

Latest Studio Pics

Well..it is FINALLY ready for me! Get the keys on Wednesday which is good since I will be at seminars today through Tuesday. The only thing left is lighting fixtures.
Here are a couple of images of the workroom and the lobby. (The camera room, my office and projection room aren't much different.)
Can't wait to bring in some furniture and put up some prints. Will hopefully transform the place. Will post more as it progresses!

How about them Giants?

Let me preface this by saying that I am a Cowboys fan, but just wanted to say congrats to our rival Giants fans! Way to represent the NFC East! I knew you could do it!

Nature or nurture?

While at the Mystic 3 convention on Monday, one of the speakers posed a question to the group titled "what is talent" or something like that. I don't know if the question was truly ever answered (or if it can be) but I replied that I felt that passion for something was what drove someone to become talented or to reach their true potential.
So I pose this question to all of you out there.."what is talent and where does it come from"?
I DO believe that everyone was born to be great at something, but only a few lucky ones discover what that is. And then, there are people who are not born with the most natural ability, yet their passion or desire to do well at something takes them to another level. For example, Larry Bird was not born with wonderful athletic ability, but he worked harder than everyone else to overcome his shortcomings and still excel at the highest level.
All of this is not to say that some don't have a "God given" gift to do something well...because some obviously do. But when someone tells me that I am gifted (which is very rare, trust me!)..my response is that the true "gift" is that God allowed me to discover my passion...and that I work very hard to be the best that I can.
So what do you think? Are great musicians born with the natural ability..or did they just work harder at it than most? Maybe it's a combination? Does it go back to the "nature vs. nurture" thing. I am curious to hear your thoughts out there.