Memorial Day Celebrations

Monday was the West Haven, CT Memorial Day parade. So of course we had to go, I mean its so far away too. We walked and walked and walked some more then about 38 seconds later we were there, come on now it runs past the end of our street, haha.

I know I say it all the time but I am super proud of our troops and all they do for us. So we went to show some love, and decided to brinf along our dog Frankie. Well he lasted about 5 minutes because he has a hatred for bicycles, and of course some kids had to keep riding by and getting him all worked up. Or maybe it was those creepy street vendors selling blow-up spider-men :)

After a brief trip home to let Frankie relax I got back to the parade where Maggie and another friend were all setup in our fold-up chairs watching the festivities. I don't know about you but when I was a kid I loved parades except for when I had to march in them, hehe. So we grabbed a photo of these not so excited kids, come on kids get jumpy about it, yeay, hoot and hollar or something. geeze.

As a supporter and a son and grandson of war veterans I hail to the troops as they pass, God Bless Them All. Thanks for all you do. :)

Here is a little bit of my tax money, um I mean one of West Haven's Finest on a nice little Harley doing some little figure 8's and all for our enjoyment.

Now who's got it better than Hankee the clown? You get to do the craziest, stupidest stuff and most people love it except the ones that have nightmares about Hankee eating you in your sleep, but seriously clowns rock.

These folks actually live up the street from me and walk this giant dog on a leash, I swore it was a horse but who walks a horse on a leash, hahaha. ;)

One of our good friends just got hired on West Haven's Fire Department as a Firefighter/ Paramedic, Congrats to him but 4 days after being out of the academy he gets stuck driving the new Rescue truck in the parade. I thought for a moment he may of needed a medic with all the pressure, but he did a great job. Oh yea that's a little more of my tax money ;)

After the Parade we headed down to Long Island for a Family picnic with Maggie's relatives. It's a bit of a ride but always a good time, here are some shots from the picnic.

Maggie's god daughter was all about working the camera and she had so many cute little faces.

and pose...and pose...and pose

Its always a good way to end the day star-wars style.

I hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Day, and again a big thanks to all the veteran's!

-Jay

Happy Memorial Day

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY to all of our service men and women, current, past, and future. GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

THANKYOU FOR OUR FREEDOM AND ALL YOU DO. If it was not for all of you I may of not been able to write this blog today.

Also remember our Support the Troops Drive that we are donating our Military trailer to fill with goods for the troops over seas. The Drive is sponsored by The VVA will be at the Milford Shoprite June 13th.

John and Kate

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of shooting Kate and her daddy John down at the beach. With Kate growing so much everyday John wanted to make sure that he captured some photos of him with his daughter while she is still little. That's where we came in, one of the things that as photographers Jason and I have learned is that when dealing with little ones it is best to let them do there thing in just capture the moments where they are being themselves. It is during those moments that you can capture some of the biggest smiles, the giggles that make there whole body shake and those little expressions that make a person who they are.

Kate already has John wrapped around her finger...

Okay, look at the little spit bubbles too cute for words!!!

Kate is most definitly one of the SWEETest babies, just look at those rosy cheeks and beautiful eye lashes.

I love this picture... Kate's face is priceless!

John is a huge fan of Ohio State University... So Here Kate is showing us all her Buckeye pride!!!

By the end of the shoot, Kate was definitly ready for a little nap, just look at how she finds that perfect place on Daddy's shoulder.

Thank you so much John and Kate for spending the afternoon with us!!

~M

Steph's Bridal Portraits

Back in the fall we were able to spend some quality time with Steph, her maid of honor and her mother. Her maid of honor actually lives in these awesome apartments and we were fortunate able to use the penthouse and the courtyard for some awesome pictures! What Steph did the day of her bridal portraits is something that I would definitely recommend to any bride, she had scheduled her hair and make up trials the same day as the shoot. Which is great because then she get the chance to have a complete trial run and see what everything will look like on the day of her wedding.

So, now, that Steph's wedding has come and gone I am pleased to bring you all some of her bridal portraits!

Inside the apartments there was a lounge with a beautiful black marble floor that we just had to take advantage of.

We had some fun playing with her veil!

We then moved outside to the rooftop and to the surprise and fear of Steph's mom, Steph climbed in her dress onto the wall that overlooked a 14 story drop.


And even though we were worried that something would happen to the dress, we were able to get some beautiful shots of steph in her dress.

I just loved how happy that Steph looks here!!

I really liked the angle on this portrait!

Thank you Steph, we had so much fun and we are looking forward to your Trash the Dress Session!!!

~M

Kate's Portrait Session

This past Monday, we had the pleasure of shooting Kate. She is a fun and charismatic person that definitly made our job easy when it came to getting a good picture. I definitly find that a lot of people are initially nervous in front of the camera but after a little while they tend to loosen up and have fun! This was definitly the case with Kate, after the first few shots she was much more relaxed and had a great time.

We took these pictures down by the River Walk in Shelton. Now having worked there for several years I never knew that this walkway by the river existed but it made from some amazing pictures.

On the opposite side of the fence there was some awesome stone stairs, so we just had to take advantage of them!!

So everyone knows that I have an obsession with shoes, if you don't believe me just take a look in my closet!! Anyways, Kate had these amazing shoes and of course we just had to take a moment to capture a picture!

After taking some shots on the river walk, it was time for and outfit change and then we headed over to the train tracks to capture a few more shots!! I love the feeling behind this picture. Kate just looks so beautiful looking down the tracks!

If you have ever walked the train tracks you know that they are probably not the easiest thing to do in heels. So after a few shots we ditched the heels and took some fun shots with out them

We did however take advantage of the amazing architecture of the bridge. I really was pleased at how this shot came out!

This is one of my favorite shots from the day, on our way back to the car we were just playing around and trying to walk on the railings and I decided to just take a few shots for fun and I was so pleased when I got home at this shot!! Kate looks amazing and the colors of the sky and grass just make her pop from the picture!


Thanks Kate for such an amazing day! And stay tuned for Jason's pictures from Kate's shoot coming soon!!

~Maggie

1st Annual Shelton Craftfair

Sunday Maggie and I were involved in the Shelton, CT 1st annual craft fair. This was a great event, minus the mini tornado (I'll get to that in a few). The day was perfect awesome weather and a wonderful turnout vendors and the public.

Here's Maggie working on her tan at our booth ;)

We got up bright and early to get the Jeep packed up to go then headed out. Our booth got set up and then I had to put some shorts on since we finally have the right weather for this time of year. AMEN for summer. :)

The scene was really cool, about 70 vendors I think, and since Maggie and I are involved with Shelton's EMS service, Echo Hose Ambulance I got to roll around the whole field on their Segway, Man that was SOOO cool.

Dear Santa the above photo is what I want for Christmas.

The Second Company Horse Guard was even there, they are the only Calvary left in the US well that's what the guys in uniform old me. They had a bunch of stuff on display and a great bit of history about the Calvary, I wish that had some horses with them even though I would of tried to ride them too :)

These were some cool reins that had the state emblem on them.

This saddle was about 100 years old and was donated from a Calvary Veteran.

Ok so I bet you were sitting on the edge of your seat wondering about the mini tornado, well here it goes. My father came down to visit and as we were sitting and chatting we saw this sign flying around about 50 feet up in the air with no sign of it coming down. Then the main walkway is a dirt path and it began to up rise like a mini twister and worked its way down the isle of tents lifting the 3 food vendors tents whipping them around roughly 20 feet in the air. I had my father girlfriend and her granddaughter hold down our tent and flat screen we had going as my father and I went to make sure everyone was ok after the tents came crashing back to earth destroying them. Luckily no one was injured but the pop up tents were mangled like that old paper clip on your desk that you love to play with, yup I do it too. It was quite a site to see and glad everyone was ok.

This was a quick shot of the food vendors with their tents.

Here is one of the tents after the wind.

We had a great time, got some sun, ate some excellent pulled pork sandwiches, had some fresh squeezed lemonade and limeade, and got to see some peoples great talents with all the craft booths. We will keep you updated for when and where we will be next.

Connor's First Communion Shots

This past Sunday, we ventured down to Mineola, New York to take some communion portraits for an awesome little man Connor. He has such a dynamic personality which made photographing him a ton of fun, even though he wanted to be riding his bike instead of wearing his suit, but he still stuck it out and we all had a great time!

We started our adventure at the Church where Connor will be receiving his first communion. When we arrived we thought we were going to be allowed inside for some portraits near some of the amazing statues and have Connor get the Our father on in one of the pews. So we decided to do the right thing and ask the church staff if we could take some pictures inside instead of just barging in, and to our surprise they denied us. Guess not going to Church in a while made the man upstairs unhappy with us, hahaha. I remember the good old days when church doors were left open all the time for anyone to enter anytime. So instead of being bummed out and shooting somewhere else we decided to shoot outside of the Church and then hit up the park.

Although the Church did not have the traditional cathedral arch ways and doors, it did have some fabulous etched doors, and this little man looked so grown up standing in front of them.

Kind of what God would see looking down on him praying, I would assume ;)


It was surprising how straight faced many of these pictures in this portion came out because we were all laughing so hard. Connor has such a great sense of humor and it was hilarious how he would get everyone laughing and then quickly revert into stealth, serious mode.


These are some of the traditional first Communion accessories. Gotta show off the church going bling!!


What a priceless look! What do you think is going through his mind, praying or bike riding? hmmm


It actually looks like he was reading the Bible. It was super funny how once in a while we caught him posing with the little first Bible upside down.


The Our Father kept showing up in a bunch of the images we grabbed.


While we were shooting Connor was the make shift safety coordinator, every time a car would come down the street he would yell CAR like we were back in the day playing kick ball or something, hehehe. Even though he was checking for cars in this shot I still think it came out spectacular.

We had such a good time photographing Connor and we can not wait until May for the Communion party!!!

Relay for Life

"Whether it is a friend, family member, the neighbor down the street, or our own personal experience, we have all been touched by cancer in some way. We all have the power to make a difference in the fight against cancer." That's why Jason and I have chosen to fight back by participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life® in Shelton, CT. For those of you who do not know Jason and I have been proud supporters of the Relay for the past 3 years and with recent developments within our own extended family this years Relay holds even greater meaning. So in addition to simply participating this year we are actually the CO-captains of our team. We are very excited and we will definitly keep all you bloggers updated on the events leading up to and including the Relay!!!

On a side note every year the Relay has a theme last years was Pirates and we just got word that this years theme for the Relay is Super Heroes and with that in mind we decided that our team's theme is going to be Super Friends Fighting for a Cure!!!

To join our team or to make a donation click here!

Relay For Life of Shelton

When: June 06, 2009

Where: Riverwalk, 118 Canal St Shelton, CT

Echo Hose Ambulance 1st Annual Craft Fair

On Sunday, April 26, 2009, Maggie and I will be participating in the Echo Hose Ambulance 1st Annual Craft Fair. At the fair we will have a booth where we will have prints for sale, as well as our current work on display. We hope you will all come out and support us and the craft fair. See you all there!!!!!!!!!

Sunday April 26, 2009

Rain or Shine

10:00 am to 5:00 pm

Shelton River Walk (Canal St)

Shelton, CT

We will also be giving out some super deals..