My new favorite shooting spot: Allaire State Park, New Jersey

I had a great opportunity to shoot in Historic Allaire State Park in NJ last weekend. I have to say that it is just about the most perfect place to shoot! I was there doing a mini-portrait session with my wonderful niece (that's a whole separate post!) and snapped a few shots in between portraits. The buildings are great for backgrounds here - such great details with the old brick and weathered woods. There is also a lovely pond and great sprawling lawns. I could not have had more fun!

If you are in the area and have a camera burning a hole in your hand, definitely check it out!

Just a few of my favorites -

Fitting for Memorial Day. Love the brick here and the flag just pops off the screen!




I'm digging the contrast between the iron work on the doors and the weathering on the bricks. I love the green peeking out as well:

I don't know why, but the tree branches here really grabbed me:

More branches. I like the lines here - the roof line, the bricks and the window.

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did taking them!

Trains, trains, trains! A visit to The Railway Museum of Pennsylvania!

We had a last-minute getaway this weekend and had the chance to visit the Railway Museum of Pennsylvania. Wow - if you love trains, this is the place for you. Aisle after aisle of locomotives, boxcars and of course a caboose or two. We had such fun!

Just a few of the many I snapped during our vist:

The outdoor trainyard:



Love the color in this one and the rust lines - so cool!

Shiny and blue! I'm digging the angle on this one:

A classic:

If you are really into trains or love someone who is, this is certainly worth the trip. One can easily spend a half day browsing and taking in all these classic trains!

Ahh...the beach!

We had a very warm weekend this past weekend and took full advantage yesterday by taking a late afternoon trip to the beach. The water was cold, but the views were beautiful. I hope I did them justice:

View from the pier:


And another - can you see the two chairs on the dock? I imagine many hours will be spent there by their owners this summer:

Ah, and the waves:

I'm so excited for the warm weather and all the outdoor shooting to be done along with it!

Its all in the details....

It's not that I haven't been shooting, it's that I haven't had a heck of a lot of time to post lately. I swear, I'm working on that and I hope to post more regularly again!

Anyway -

Getting back in the swing, I had the pleasure of taking some pictures for a friend's twin girls this weekend. They are just the cutest, most adorable girls and they will be making their First Holy Communion soon, so naturally we wanted to capture them in their gowns!

I've never really tried 'shooting down' before but I experimented with this technique for this shoot. I have to say I'm a fan. It really gives a great perspective, and lights up the face of the subject. Of course, I had beautiful subjects, too!

Love the windblown hair here and the light in her eyes!

The pink of the flowers here really sets off the glow of her cheeks and lights her whole face.

I practiced on the details a bit, too -

Who could resist the contrast between the formal dress and the bare feet? I love the reflection on the floor here and the shadows:

I'm using my new Canon 50mm prime here. This lens is great! I cannot recommend it enough. check out what a great job it did capturing the light on the hands, and the details of the gown behind them:

And a slightly different angle here. I love the drape of the rosary beads:

I had so much fun during this session! I'm looking forward to another session on the girls' big day in a few weeks!

Practicing bokeh

Bokeh sounds like it would be an easy thing to accomplish, no? Have a clear subject in the foreground and a nice, blurry but interesting background. Simple? Um. Not really.

I did get a new Tamron 28 - 75 f 2.8 lens recently and it does make bokeh a teeny tiny bit easier.

I've been practicing a lot lately on my Christmas tree.

I have a lot more practicing to do.

They liked me, they really liked me! Schmap included my photo!

A while back, I received an email to my Flickr account saying the sender had come across a photo I'd taken at the Philadelphia Zoo and that they'd short-listed it for inclusion on their site. As if that wasn't fun enough, I got another email shortly after stating they'd actually chosen to include it! Hey, it's only 150 pixels, but it's still exciting, no?

Check it out here:

http://www.schmap.com/philadelphia/sights_zoos/#p=53317&i=53317_160.jpg

Fall leaves and a new lens!

Ah, well. I have a new toy to play with! And I must say so far, it's love at first shot. I was lucky and fortunate enough to receive the Tamron 28 - 75mm lens I've been looking at as a gift for my birthday. I can get a 2.8 aperture on this baby and that makes for some nice blurred backgrounds. I'm practicing, but here are two from this week I really like:

It does take some getting used to. The focus is a bit slower than I'm used to, and it is a tiny bit noisier than my Canon lens, but...wow. I really think my shots are more vibrant, more sharp and I really couldn't be happier with this lens!