IRIS Photography -- The Blog

LIVE with Regis and Kelly...and Jen and Jane!!

Speaking of the Mayor's Ball, last year we attended with a group of friends and my friend, Jen and I bid on VIP tickets to see Live with Regis and Kelly in NYC.  Being VIP means you can pick which day you want to go and we went just before the holidays.  Daniel Craig (yes, James Bond) was the guest star and I have to admit, quite charming in person. David Archuleta was the musical guest who we also happened to see the night before in the Virgin store in Times Square:

Well you've got to get up early for this type of thing....

Here we are post-coffee waiting in the line (yes, even with the VIP tickets...although we had a shorter line!)

A big perk of VIP tix was front row...here's Jen waiting for it to start:
 

Kelly was amazing how quickly she could turn on bubbly at 8 a.m. ... there was no warm-up...they just went right into their high energy banter:

 

 

All the talk shows are a great time and I can be talked into an NYC trip for any reason...one of my goals is to get to SNL though...maybe this fall!

 

Family Day Trip to the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst

Our family recently discovered a great day trip going to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts.  It was about an hour from West Hartford and perfect for kids around 5 or 6 years old, although younger and older would really enjoy it too.  They had galleries, an art studio where everyone could paint, a library with story hour and a really well done movie about Eric Carle and how he creates the pictures (we're talking Hungry Caterpillar here in case you aren't in this world right now) - the movie was a little over the head of our 3-year-old but held Seb's interest (and all the adults!).  Two to three hours was about the right amount of time with young kids in tow.  The facility is beautiful...open, light, very modern and spacious.  They also had a lovely, kid-friendly cafe.   I think it's a great museum for introducing kids to art or could be a nice date if you are still a fan of children's books/art and want to take a nice drive too!

 

 

 
 

 

Holiday in the Florida Keys with a $13.99 Underwater Camera

Well we may be too young to be snowbirders yet but we LOVED spending the holidays with my family in Cudjoe Key, which is about 20 minutes north of Key West...12 days of 70-80 degree weather!

As I thought about what camera to take, I just kept thinking water/sand/water/sand...not great for a professional DSLR, so we opted instead to buy two $13.99 underwater disposable cameras...54 pictures total, and we actually found that we loved the picture quality that came out (when we did it right) and the freedom of not worrying about destroying it! 

These are almost all straight out of the camera (except the Dennys and beer goggles photos) and I think they have a dreamy quality and a natural vignette...kind of like the Diana cameras.  As I order our new $2799.00 Canon 5D Mark II (body only...ouch)  this weekend for the 2009 wedding season, I'm wondering if we can just get by with these at the weddings :)...kidding, but actually, maybe we'll bring a few to a wedding this summer....we'll see.

Here are Sebbie and my brother, John, who just moved to London ...it was great that he and his wife, Rei, could make it over!  This was at our closest beach, Bahia Honda, but we call it Portuguese-Man-of-War Beach!

Brothers, Sebbie and Jude...

Mike and I had "date afternoon" with my folks watching the kids, and walked all over Key West. 

We met a few characters...if you can't see it, his glasses say "beer goggles"...if you are interested in photography, I think it's great practice to ask strangers if you can photograph them...when you are not comfortable doing that (and it is still uncomfortable for me!), you miss pictures and think about the ones that got away! 

 

What do you do when your kids get up at 6am in a house full of sleepers...go to Denny's!  This one is right near mile marker zero of Route 1 that runs from Key West to Fort Kent Maine.

We went on the Caribbean Spirit, a huge catamaran for a four hour cruise out to the coral reef for some snorkeling and Sangria.  The water is a little cold this time of year...think CT in early August!  :) so a wetsuit (shorty) made it perfect! 

Jude stayed on board and ate about 15 oreos:

Sebbie braved the swells to try some open ocean snorkeling and crashed immediately after:

We decided to go deep sea fishing on Christmas Eve.  Grandpa Dean had never been and hoped to catch a big sailfish, which was what was running this time of year.  Mike and I have been a number of times and joke that we always catch the most expensive small fish we will ever eat.  I am also notorious for catching things that shouldn't be caught like pretty reef fish, crabs, cuttlefish, etc.  We've been in the English Channel many times, Key Largo, Lake Huron, etc., so this time we were psyched to get a big fish!

Well, Grandpa Dean made the first big catch....yes, that's a seagull.  The seagull dove for his bait and is actually attached to the line in this photo as the 1st mate helps reel it in! 

.

We did get the hook out and he flew away unharmed, but of course I made Dean pose with his first catch! 

Unfortunately, no sailfish today.  In fact, these were the only two keepers and our dinner...the two most expensive Yellowtail ever caught!

Great trip though! 

Here are some tips about using underwater disposable cameras:

1)  Disposable cameras are optimized to focus at about 5-7 feet (my estimation, not fact)...you can see where I was too close for sharpness in several of the shots (although I kind of like them anyway).  So when you are shooting...back up a bit!

2)  With any camera, it's all about enough light for quality...taking the pics in bright sunshine provided the best quality.  However, the Denny's and beer goggles shots still came out it the dark but very faint and grainy.  I improved the pics in Photoshop, but here you can see how it came out of the camera:

3)  Underwater...yeah, my one underwater picture didn't turn out in the turbulent ocean!  They do work better in pools or if there's a ton of light streaming into the ocean.... I did use one of these cameras for Lindsay's (of Sixpence Events) pool maternity shoot and an image is going in her album...so it's really about experimentation!  

Well that was "what I did on my holiday" and we've started our new resolution...to blog more!!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays from Florida!

Just wanted to say happy holidays to all our friends, family and clients this year!  We've had a wonderful year personally and professionally and are looking forward to 2009!  Our New Year's Resolution is to blog more so forgive us if we catch up in January with fall portraits and Halloween!  We're spending the holidays in Florida with family and are only shooting with $13.99 underwater disposable cameras ... side note...it's interesting how approachable people are with that kind of camera...so, maybe we'll have something to share when we get back after we get our Kodak discs back from CVS!  We'll be back the week of 12/29...looking forward to seeing everyone in the new year!

Love: Interpreted-- A Women's Photography Exhibit in Middletown CT

We had a great time Friday night at the opening reception for the women's photography show that I'm participating in called Love: Interpreted.  Thanks to our friends and family who came out!

The display is at the MAC 650 Artspace in downtown Middletown at 650 Main Street thru January 3rd.  It's just across the street from Eli Cannon's, a great pub to check out.

Here's some fun shots from Jo Kaplan Lee of Allegro Photography...with me second from the right...thanks Jo!:

Martha's Vineyard Family Vacation

Well July was a great time with several vacations and turning 40!  I'll try to blog several of the events in between weddings!

I'm not a morning person at all but driving to the ferry at Woods Hole at dawn is really nice:

Four-year-old Sebbie:

Two-year-old Jude:

Grandpa Dean and Jude!

We rented the same house as last year near Menemsha:

We happened to be out there the same time as our friends Liz and David who hosted us all to cocktails and a bonfire on the beach on a beautiful night:

Mike likes his wine...

This was the first time I'd been on the Vineyard for July 4th:

Mike's shot of me and Seb:

Route 66 Vacation

Well there's nothing like driving Route 66 from Arizona to L.A. via the Grand Canyon with our 2- and 4-year olds and my parents!  It was an amazing trip and I really got into the groove of it all and could have added a few months onto our 10-day trip which started in Phoenix, went thru Sedona, Grand Canyon, some places you've never heard of, Palm Springs, Disneyland, and ended up in  a condo on Venice Beach for my brother John's wedding.   Here are  a few highlights and I'll cover the wedding under a separate post:

Sebbie:

Poor Jude!

Here's the Grand Canyon - Seb and Jude were never let out of the stroller - very little in the way of guard rails:

Here are the deer we saw 20-yards before the edge of the Grand Canyon:

I really love Americana so Route 66 was just so cool to me.  This is The Museum Club in Flagstaff, AZ...Willie Nelson played here in the 70's for $600:

 

It's 6am and we're up with kids - the light was beautiful:

...a million windmills as we entered Palm Springs...

middle of nowhere:

 

the ritual of moving every day or two:

My Favorite Things Lytle Including HGTV, Cake, Lost and Idol

Well, I'll just tell you a few fun things about our friends, Kim and Travis Lytle, that are very interesting lately...

First, last weekend I was asked to film their audition tape for "My House is Worth What?" which is a show on the HGTV network that evaluates all the improvements you've done to your home and estimates the selling price.  Now, I don't think I'm ready to video a wedding yet...but they did get chosen for the show and are taping April 4th!!!  Congratulations guys!

Next, I've been meaning to share the recipe for "Kim Lytle's Amaretto Cake".  I like to cook but don't do it much these days, but if you want to bring a dessert to a party that people will RAVE about and ask for the recipe (and it's pretty easy to make), here it is:

Kim Lytle’s Amaretto Cake (she says she got it from somewhere else, so this is my own name for it)

 Cake Ingredients:

1 Box Yellow Cake Mix
1 Pkg. Vanilla Pudding
3 Eggs (for a cakier cake, use 4…this is more dense)
½ C. Amaretto
½ C. Vegetable Oil
¼ C. chopped almonds

Glaze Ingredients:

4T butter
¼ C. Amaretto
½ C. brown sugar 

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2) Grease and flour bundt pan
3) Cover bottom with chopped almonds
4) Stir together cake mix and pudding
5) Beat eggs, oil and Amaretto
6) Stir together until just mixed and pour into pan
7) Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour
8) Boil glaze ingredients for 1 minute on stove top
9) Remove cake from oven, poke holes in, and pour glaze over
10) Cool in pan

While we are on the subject of the Lytle's, I don't want to sound like a Trekkie, but I do love to talk to Travis about LOST theories and I'll just throw mine out -- I'm convinced Jacob is a 12-year old boy...enough said.

And, finally, we're all big American Idol fans (yes, that was Mike and I in the 11th row of the tour in Hartford last August...the only adults who didn't have children with them!).  So for this year, I'm loving Michael Johns and David Cook .  I like Carly and Brooke.  Jason Castro is kind of interesting too in a very mellow way too.

Look out for the West Hartford couple on HGTV!

 

Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford

Just wanted to pass on a great organization in Hartford for anyone who may be looking for something worthwhile to support...The Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford....they teach adults (not kids) to read - about 2/3 are immigrants learning English as a Second Language and about 1/3 are adults who speak English but never learned to read. 

I sat in on a class in December and was really impressed with how professionally run the organization is and also how committed the students were - some hoping to read to their grandkids for the first time, some hoping to start a business, some working to go back and get their GED. 

There are several ways to help:

1)  Become a tutor - this is a commitment of teaching a 1.5 hour class one evening a week or in the late morning (for mom's who find themselves with a break while their kids are at school!).  They ask for a year commitment.  My husband, Mike, is currently doing the training for it.  There are other ways you can volunteer your time too, with less of a commitment.

2)  Buy a seat at the CeleBRAINtion Charity Evening on Tuesday, April 29th at the West Hartford Conference Center in Blueback Square from 5:30 - 9:00.  It's $150 donation to go and should be a great night!  Mike and I will be the photographers at the event!  Drop us an email if you decide to go!

3)  Send in a donation.

I think it's easy to take reading for granted until you visit an organization like this.  It's a great way to get involved in Hartford and I think impacting one adult with the ability to read will have a ripple effect we can't imagine.  Please feel free to contact Mike, me, or the organization if you'd like to hear more about it.

Vote Blake!

Two words for Tuesday ... Vote Blake!

The Martha Show

I've done a couple of  interesting things in the past few months that have a photography angle and are probably blog-worthy, which I want to get posted before wedding season hits hard ...

The first is regarding Martha Stewart...  First, I need to tell you that I took this picture of Martha Stewart at the Time 100 Most Influential People Gala last year.   

Anyway, coincendentally, my friend, Cathleen, and I were at a charity event a few months ago with a silent auction and decided to bid on two tix to The Martha Show in NYC...and we won!  So last month we went and I decided to make a 5x7 of the photo from the Time 100 event and put it in an envelope to try to leave for her there.

So we were in the pre-show room with Martha-style muffins for about an hour and BIG photographs of her and her dogs.  I asked one of the handlers if they could give it to her.  She told me, "Well she takes audience questions at the end and we'll just call on you and you can give it to her!!!"

So that's exactly what happened  and I ended up being able to have a  small conversation with her about the party, she looked at the picture and asked if she could keep it and was extremely gracious.  And, then showed it around to her team!  Here she is taking more questions with my  photo in her hand (small thrills)--sorry for the image quality - this photo was taken with my phone!

Then they gave the audience about $200 worth of goodies including Rick Bayless'  new cookbook (he was a guest).  Nicole Miller was also a guest.  It was just a really fun and different experience and I encourage you to do that sometime!   It would be a great thing to do with a bridal party! 

A side note is Cathleen and I wanted to treat ourselves to a fancy NYC lunch.  I had four restaurants that are all notoriously hard to get into programmed into my phone.  After the show, I called Nobu first at 11:30 and said "you couldn't possibly fit two in for lunch, could you?".  They said "can you be here in 15 minutes?"  We went and stayed for 3 hours!  The food was excellent - it was one of the best meals I've ever had in my life.