Maternity On Main Street…

March 6, 2010 – 9:14 pm

Today I had the pleasure of photographing one of the cutest and kindest couples, I have had the pleasure to work with.  As you can see, they are expecting a precious little baby in just a few short weeks. I met this couple a few weeks back at my office, and we just hit it off great.  Touring Main Street Beacon with them today was like hanging out with old friends. And of course momma looks just fantastic.  All us woman all hope to look that good when we are pregnant.  In a couple of weeks, I will have the pleasure of photographing their newborn, when he or she makes their grand entrance into this world.  Stay tuned!

I love the reflection in this picture.

Winding down with a little coffee at a cute coffee shop on Main Street Beacon.  Buy me a sweet coffee with a really long name, you are my friend for life ;)

Thank you!

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Happiest Place On Earth…

March 5, 2010 – 12:59 pm

Now that Brayden is almost 5 and Kieran is 2,  hubby and I thought they were at the perfect age and it to actually enjoy a trip to Disney World.  Next year Brayden will be off to Kindergarten and that means traveling during school vacation breaks, which I am so not a fan of.  Our previous 2 trips to Disney were during the month of February and we were able to pretty much walk onto every ride and didn’t have to deal with large crowds.  We have always dreamed of staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and knew it would be the ideal place for our kids, especially Brayden, who is obsessed with “African animals.”  Not only did our room have a great view of the animals, but the food at all the restaurants on the grounds, was just fantastic.  Note:  if you do not like food with great flavor, do not eat at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Another note, when the Surprise family books a vacation, book the same week. Our last 3 vacations fell during the weeks that NY got pounded on with snow.  Not to brag, but while NY was canceling schools, we were swimming in the resort pool, hehehe.  The mornings started early, the days were very long and there was more than one occasion where my kids literally fell asleep at the dinner table.  But we had a complete blast and look forward to going back in 4-5 years.  Back to Hawaii first.  Maybe I will take my kids next time ;)

The inside of Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the sunrise at 5 am.

Animal Kingdom Park

Being that Keiran is a little to young to go on a lot of the rides, I got to spend a lot of one on one time with him while Brayden and Daddy went on some fun rides.

Mr. Dinosaur loved Aninmal Kingdom Park, especially the Dinoland.  Only my kids would come home with 11 dinosaurs and not one piece of Mickey Mouse paraphernalia.

There was no doubt that Kieran was a character lover. He attacked several of them and could be in several other family photos due to his lack of patience of waiting in line and running right up the the characters.

I love this old camera prop, got to get the kids loving the camera young!

One of our big surprise’s for Brayden was lunch at the TREX Cafe.  We made what was our first and I hope our last trip to Build a Dino, aka Build a Bear.

Our last full day at Disney was spent at Hollywood.  It was a little overcrowed compared to the other parks, but that was  because ESPN was in town.  I can’t believe Curt Schilling was there and I totally missed him. ESPN had a great set up for the fans and kids.

The Surprise Family geared up in our Red Sox apparal.  Red Sox Nation was well represented in Disney!  Kieran on a film slide.  The poor kid will probably never know what film is.   And of coarse, what is a day at Disney without a parade!

Now I know why they call Disney the “Happiest Place on Earth.”  Not only did my family have a blast, but the staff there really seems to enjoy their work too.  One thing that really stuck out to me was when I overheard one of the staff employees at the Animal Kingdom Lodge say, “My job is to make people happy.  What could be better than that?”  I couldn’t agree anymore!

A Little Vacation…

March 2, 2010 – 8:09 am

The time was right for us to take the family on a nice little vacation to Disney.  Was I sad to miss the major snow storm of 2010, NO!   Now we are back and I have a pile of emails to sort out and phone calls to return.  I also have about 1000 vacation photos to sift through but I will be sure to post some up for you.

OneLight…

February 20, 2010 – 2:28 pm

I have been eying this workshop from afar for the longest time. The problem, it always sells out and sells out fast.  So when the new dates for the 2010 workshops were announced, I pounced on it.  Now normally I am a natural light shooter.  I love natural light, I love working with it, however it does have its limitations.  I do use a flash for indoor events and weddings, but I never felt like I was a master of my off camera flash, I admit, somewhat feared it.   I knew if I went to this workshop, I would not only no loss that fear, but  it would also help expand the times in which I shoot but also help me with bad light or low light situations. Senior session outdoors at 7pm, lets go!   And now that I am expanding my wedding photography business, I will have a slew of lighting ideas for reception halls.  Please note, I am not looking into expanding into studio photography. I might consider light studio work in the future, but very limited.   The  OneLight workshop itself is based out of Atlanta, GA hosted by Zack Arais, Atlanta Music Photographer.

(The top left photo is Zack in his studio with one of our models.  Top right, Zack showing us yet another lighting source in a studio setting.  Bottom Left, one of our brave models in the freezing cold, Zack on the ground shooting.  Bottom right, using our hands to meter.  Yes my gloves have no fingers, easier to shoot with. )

Most of these pictures are pretty much straight out of camera.  A slight curves adjustment and sharpened for web.  Talk about a time saver!

Little photog technical talk.  This photo was taken at 200 ISO, f/2.8, shutter speed of 1/4. I never thought I would be able to handhold a photo at 1/4 and have it as crisp as it is.  You can see the lights of the cars driving by in the back ground.  I was pushing limits I didn’t know I could.

Client Gallery…

February 15, 2010 – 3:26 pm

This weekend I had the chance to swing by a clients home to take a peek at the the canvas gallery they picked up last December.  I should hire mom to decorate my home for me, we have similar taste, straight out of the Pottery Barn catalog :)   She took advantage of one of my canvas clusters, but broke them up to go into two rooms.  The living room features (2) 16×20  gallery wrap canvases.  The nursery features, (1) 32×20 and (3)  10×10 gallery wrap canvases.  I love decorating the home with canvases. They are not only fine art, but they are fine art pieces of very special little people.

The living room entrainment system also features a nice table top collection of prints from our recent and past sessions.  There is even a print of their cousin, who I had the pleasure of photographing in the past. (See me in the TV :) )

I would love to feature your gallery on my blog.  Help inspire others in how you decorate your home with your custom art.  pPlease send me a picture of your print or canvas displays to melissa@surprisephotography.com

Who Will She Root For…

February 14, 2010 – 8:50 am

Sweet baby “E” is proof that beautiful things can really happen when a Red Sox  and a Yankee fan come together, fall in love,  get married and start a family.  The question is,  who will baby “E” root for?  Daddy is a Red Sox fan,  Mommy is a Yankee fan, and they are all currently living in Yankee country.  Baby “E” is 6 weeks young and just one well loved little girl, especially by her puppy dog “Daisy,” who gave me the best greeting at the door when I arrived. Baby “E” ran the show while Daisy supervised, they did a wonderful job.

Thank you again to the family for inviting me to come in and photograph you beautiful little girl.  (GO SOX!!!)

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