Meet Carol and Barry!

Although not our kids… these are a few of my favs from the shoot!

About a month ago… I was asked by our neighbor, Rob (who happens to own his own video company, Provideo Group) if I could do some promo shots for a high key event that he was contracted to provide video services. The event was “Maryland’s Olympic Heroes Homecoming Celebration held at Fort McHenry on October 4, 2008. The participants included Olympians, Michael Phelps, Katie Hoff, and Jessica Long. Billy Bush of Access Hollywood hosted the event with guest appearances of Governor Martin O’Malley and other Maryland government officials. I was a great opportunity to be able to photograph with all access and to talk with alot of the press photographers covering the event. Following the event were a fireworks show and a Star Spangled Salute to the Olympians.

Anyway…Just Before I lost all available light.. I snapped off a few images of the kids and their Halloween costumes… just before we took the kiddos trick-or-treating! Surprisingly, the kids lasted longer than expected… at least until they were getting tired of carrying their buckets around.

Also, I don’t normally post the typical wedding images like the bouquet toss, garter toss, ect. However, Erin and Kenny’s cake cutting and the removing of the garter were priceless. The expressions on their face’s just crack me up! Scroll down.. and you’ll see what I mean. Erin… if you’re reading this… I hate to say it… you got owned with the cake. If I were Kenny… I’d be watching my back! =]

Erin and Kenny… Congrats to you both!!!

Their expressions are hilarious!

Before and After:

This is a bit embarrassing… but I must share! Mostly to clear my conscience. =] When we took Gizzy to his first vet appointment… we were warned that Shi tzu’s were very prone to their fur knotting up if you didn’t periodically brush their coat. This is especially true, if you allow their coat to grow to any sizable length. Well, I thought I was doing a decent job in the beginning… but over time… I gradually became less and less disciplined in keeping his coat brushed. So… the last bath I gave him, I was washing under his chin and behind his ears and found these huge lumps. At first I thought they were some sort of cyst or tumor (which kind of freaked me out a bit) but quickly found them to be knotty balls of fur. I tried to brush them out, but the brush just became entangled within the ball. Now… in doing this, I found out the the skin under the chin of a shi tzu is rather sensitive. All it took was one pull on the brush to de-tangle the knots.. and one LOUD “YELP”… to quickly figure out that this was going to require professional assistance. So off to the dog groomers for help only to find out that the only way to rid Gizzy of the knots.. was to cut them out. Lesson learned!

Corinne and Nikolay are always pretty easy to shoot. With the exception of the occasional, “Dad… enough already”, they are pretty good sports. Evan is a different story. Trying to get him still enough and act natural (he’s a true goof-ball, by nature) takes a true Act of God. Every now and then, I get lucky and get a decent shot of him!

Just a reminder for all that are interested… Occasionally, I get questions on what my camera settings are for each image. All of this info is available by clicking on the image (this takes you to my flickr page), then scrolling down and clicking on the “more properties” link (located on the right column).

Hope you all have a great week!

I think they are conspiring to break my camera! =]