Let me begin by saying that it is hard to believe how much junk you can accumulate in almost 28 years of marriage and 12 years in one house!  And, it's hard to fathom why we still have some of this stuff!  Sentimental keepsakes lose their intrinsic value when you can't remember where it came from or who gave it to you!

I have spent the last couple of weeks packing as much as I possibly can to get ready for our move.  Sometime before March 11 it will happen!  All of my books are packed.  Well, almost all!  I left a few out to keep my occupied in the little bit of downtime!  The tablesaw is broken down and ready to go.  Friends are coming over tomorrow to sort through stacks of wood that I am willing to let go of - I'm a serious pack rat when it comes to wood!  I moved two full pickup loads of boards to my parents garage this past week, board by board, out of the basement, up the hill, into the truck.  Too much snow to back up the basement doors.  My arms were so sore that my right bicep would roll up into a ball if I so much as bent my elbow!

Anne and I are spending the weekend packing away everything else that we can while our daughter, Shannon, is traipsing all over Ireland with her friend Hunter and Hunter's Aunt Veronica for winter break.  Wish I was with her!  

i'm itching to go shoot but there is so much to do!  We are driving down to NYC next weekend to pick the girls up at JFK airport so at least I'll get some quality time with my Nikon D3 in Central Park on Friday night!  Can't wait!  I just love New York!  Not as much as Paris, but close!  

Senior portrait season is starting up and my first wedding of the year is in April with Jennifer and Wes!  It's going to be a banner year for me, and I can't wait!  More baby portraits to come from Brooklyn too!  She's such a doll!

So, if your a junior this year, or even a senior that needs portraits still, give my website a look and give me a call to schedule your session!  I'll be the one behind the camera and loving every minute of it!  

Have a great Valentine's Day everyone!

Scott

As most of you know, Anne and I have been in the throws of selling and buying houses for the last few months!  What a pain!

The first house we put an offer in on turned out to be owned by a psycho woman who wanted to make us pay for her new furnace.  That's right!  Our inspector found reason to believe that the furnace was in bad shape.  We wouldn't release our inspection contingency until she had a reputable furnace company do their own inspection.  After saying that she didn't believe our inspector and that there was nothing wrong with the furnace she was red tagged.  After three days with no heat in the middle of a cold snap in December she finally sent a one line email that said that she was putting in a new furnace and wanted the house price to be $3000 higher than our offer!  Needless to say we let that one die on the vine and we have since dissolved the contract.

Then we had to deal with people coming through our house.  Luckily I'm home all day so I could keep everything clean enough!  Of course every time we had to show the house it meant that I had to load the dogs into my car and drive around for an hour or so.  Another painful thing.  Then all we heard was "We love the house and the land but there isn't a garage..."  Twelve years ago when we built the house we took the $10000 that the builder wanted for a garage shell and put it into upgrading the kitchen cabinets, floors, etc.  "We'll build a garage later", we said!  Well, we never really felt the need to build a garage.  There is a 12'x12' shed that holds the John Deere and everything else plus a double door full walkout basement for the rest!  

Long story short - we have a buyer now!  The husband is a woodworker and is happy to have a ready made workshop!  i'll be leaving some presents for him when we leave that I'm sure will make him happy!

We also have a house to move to also!  Can't wait to get there and set up my new studio compete with office, bathroom, and kitchen!  There are still lots of details to work out like how are we going to move all our stuff?!?  But I'm trying hard to contain the excitement!  

Wish us luck!  March 11th, here we come!

Well, spent all this last weekend at Shannon's swim meet!  It was a long weekend for everyone as SEAS was running the meet.  It takes an amazing amount of work and cooperation to put a meet like this together and once again our teams families all pitched in to make it a great success!

I spent the weekend shooting pictures of everyone!  The pool area can get pretty warm!  I posted around 180 images or so to my Facebook page and everyone is busy looking through and tagging everyone!  Thanks so much for all your comments!  

On the home front it's been a stressful time for us.  The good news is that we sold our house and our offer on the house we want was accepted so that's all over except for the paperwork and waiting to move!  Less than 8 weeks and we'll be in our new home!  We are all having mixed feelings about the move.  It's going to be hard leaving the house that we helped to design and build after 12 years here.  But, we kept our goals together and everything worked out!  Shannon will still be in Brockport schools even though out address is in Spencerport, and we are moving pretty close to one of her best friends, Ally!

The business continues to come in and I am busily talking with brides and booking more weddings for this year!  Unfortunately, I have had to turn away three already because I am booked for their dates.  It still amazes me how far in advance the booking has to occur!

Senior portrait season is going to begin in the next few months also so I am starting to think about mailings and facebook ads, etc, to get the word out!  I love shooting seniors - it's a lot of fun to make these images!  Can't wait to dig in!  If you know a senior that might be interested in a chance to make some money and have great senior portraits have them look me up on facebook or just email me!

Have a great day and I'll be seeing you!

Scott

The New Year has arrived and I am starting to work on this years marketing materials!  The first thing on my to do list is to fire up the referral engines.  Those of you who I have had the pleasure of working with now have a chance to help me out!  I'll be sending out referral cards that will include a discount for the person that you give the card to and also a discount to you as a reward for helping me build my business!

I will be getting my referral cards printed by 4colorprint.com along with some other materials!  Look for them to come in the mail soon!

The senior portrait season will be gearing up in a few months and I am looking for senior representatives from this years Junior class!  If you know someone who would be interested from your school please ask them to contact me through email or Facebook!  Thanks and have a Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  

This last year has brought many changes to my life and my lifestyle, all for the better!  My corporate life is over (at least I hope it is!), my photography life is simpler and better than ever, and my home life promises to get even better as a result of the first two!

News from the home front - we had an offer put in on our house and negotiations continue, so stay tuned!  We have had an offer accepted on a new house in Spencerport (still Brockport schools though so Shannon is happy!) that we are looking forward to!  Radiant heat flooring and a ready made studio for me - well almost ready made.  Ideas have been spinning in my mind for weeks about what I want!  This will give me more room and more options and, more importantly, more wall space for big prints!  Not to mention that the new house is closer to a bunch of golf courses - a big plus!

To everyone who helped me to get where I am today I give sincere thanks and a wish for a Happy New Year!  I look forward to making great images for all of you in the coming year!

Scott

It's been a while since I've posted a new blog... Keeping up with photo sessions for families, babies, weddings, and swim teams (and Facebooking!) have kept me pretty busy since leaving Kodak!  I though that it was time for an update though!

So... we have our house up for sale!  It was shown twice today actually - cross your fingers!  We have been looking around the Brockport area now for a few weeks and found a house that we liked and that has some great potential for the business.  We put in an offer and then accepted their counter offer - now it's just coming down to selling our house!  It's frustrating to have people come through after we've spent time cleaning up and not getting offers though!  It'll happen sooner or later, we just wish for sooner!

I continue to shoot photo sessions in my basement studio.  Sounds ominous but it's actually a pretty good setup!  You see, I have a 13 course basement (high ceilings) and a full, double door walkout with windows so it's pretty big and airy for a basement.  I have invested in Pocket Wizard triggers after trying a number of cheaper triggers that proved unreliable at times.  They are pretty expensive but the expense has been worth it so far!  Next is to invest in some different backgrounds so I can offer more variety!

Shannon's high school swim season came to an end with her swimming at sectionals and doing pretty well!  Now the club season is in full swing and we'll be in Buffalo for the weekend to see her swim at STAR.  Unless, of course, they are buried by the snow coming off Lake Erie these last few days!  It's a nice break for us to get away and relax.  Maybe finish up some Christmas shopping, too!

Now, back to the topic at hand!  Things I am grateful for...

1. My family!  My wife, Anne, is putting up with me being home all day while she goes to work.  Hopefully full time photography will keep us solvent enough so that I don't have to go back to the rat race and she is supporting my dream!  And Shannon has been a big help too - being my assistant on a bunch of senior portrait location shoots and posing for me when I need to set lights.  Wendy and Jeff just make me happy when I see how well they are doing in their new home!
2. My friends and customers - in most cases they are one and the same!  And in all cases they become one!  I have enjoyed meeting so many people this year and getting the opportunity to make great images of them to cherish!  Brooklyn in particular has been a lot of fun to take pictures of, but then I'm a sucker for babies!
3. My health!  Since my last spine operation I have been relatively pain free and functional!  After so many years of having to be careful about picking something up or even getting up for fear of a back or neck spasm, I have been in great shape.  My golf handicap is a solid 10 and it's hard to put the clubs away in the fall!

There are many other things that I am thankful for but those three cover quite a bit!

Soon I'll be kicking my referral program into high gear and hopefully I'll be seeing many of you again shortly!  Thanks so much for making my year wonderful and for giving me more reasons to push to make next year even better!  Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year to come!

Scott

I've been remiss in posting lately... We have our house up for sale, put in an offer on another, and I've been running ragged all over the place!  

Finished up the last wedding of the year with Jaclyn and Matt on the 7th - what an affair!  I spent the hours before the wedding with the ladies while they were getting ready.  Jaclyn's niece, Lexi, and I had fun!  She's a little cutie and loves to pose for pictures!  Playing with the kids is one of my favorite things to do at weddings!

The wedding ceremony was at Saint Margaret Mary's in Irondequoit - I've been there before for Andrea and Mike's wedding.  It's a beautiful church for a wedding.  Bright and airy with high timber beams and plenty of room!  Father Tim presided.  He's a wonderful guy and gives a great sermon.  I always feel like a standing ovation is in order when he's done!

Since some of Matt's side are Jewish there was a sprinkling of Jewish tradition added.  A Chuppah (or a partial one, I'm told) was erected for Jaclyn and Matt to stand under and, when the time came, Matt was required to stomp on a glass wrapped in cloth.  I thought for a moment that one of his buddies had played a trick on him and put a metal cup in there but he finally broke it up!  Had Jaclyn in stitches!

After formal portraits at the church we went off to the Monroe County Office Building for some bridal party shots!  Love this building!!  Marble walls and floors, spiral staircases with iron railings, ornate wall carvings - just a great place to shoot!

The reception was a lavish one at The Rochester Plaza with a cocktail hour and receiving line beforehand.  When the ballroom was opened and all the guests were seated it came time for the wedding party introductions.  I stationed myself on the dance floor where everyone would be winding their way to through a number of tables.  This is when the highlight of my night came!  Lexi was introduced by herself and ushered through these big doors into a huge room with 340 people clapping and loud music playing - it would be daunting to an adult!  She walked a few steps and froze.  Didn't know where to go.  Didn't see anyone familiar.  So I ran up and waved to her to show her the way through.  You  should have seen her eyes light up when she saw me!  She was so relieved to see a face she knew!  She followed me out onto the floor and stayed right with me.  She wanted to sit on my lap but I told her that I had to take pictures of everyone so she stood right next to me for a while until one of the family finally came to get here after a few of the couples had been introduced!  I'm hoping that someone captured that on their camera and will send me a copy!

A little later Terri Parthum and I were walking around a corner when I noticed that bright yellow light from sodium vapor street lights was spilling through the windows and onto the walls of the outside hallway.  The windows have this large lattice across them so the whole wall was yellow squares and lattice shadows!  I had to go get Jaclyn and Matt for a quick portrait in that light!  These turned out to be my favorite shots of the night!  Jaclyn had a blast posing and Matt stayed near the windows and we used his shadow - very cool!

The rest of the night was filled with great music and dancing!  At most weddings there comes a time when I start to get a bit tired and bored after shooting a lot of people dancing.  It's always the same group out there on the dance floor and you can only take their pictures so many times!  But this wedding was different - 12:30am came and went and I was still shooting away!  The band packed up and the hotel staff had to shut us down before I was ready to make my way back home!

A terrific end to my wedding season!  Jaclyn and Matt are a great couple and we had a lot of fun!  Thanks so much to all my wedding couples this year!

Here's a few of my favorite images!  Enjoy them!

I love the look you get from some folks when you say, "I had to shoot a baby today!"  I love to take pictures of babies!  They are some of the more difficult subjects to make images of, but the most fun too!  Lots of photographers don't want anything to do with them.  They are the ones running screaming from the shoot!

Me?  I would take pictures of babies all day!  I don't know what it is about them.  I love the baby smell (well most of them), and I love to play with them and make them smile!  Brooklyn was a great subject - immobile - those are the easy ones.  When they get older it's a battle to keep them in one place long enough to get images, but even that's a blast!

Every time that I have seen Brooklyn she just smiles and smiles.  Not at this shoot!  We got her to smile a few times thankfully!  Then, when I'm getting all packed up, she smiles at me again!

Here's a few of the images from our session - she's so cute!  I edited one using a selective color technique.  To do this you need to use Photoshop or some other image editing software that has good selection tools.  In Photoshop, I used the color picker to choose the red from Brooklyn's dress then clicked on Select, Color Range.  Play with the slider to select more or less of the color and use the picker to add or subtract chosen colors.  When the selection is done hit Enter and then Command J (Control J on a PC) to put the selected areas onto their own layer.  Refine your selection - there will be areas that you want to keep and others that you don't.  I used the eraser tool to get rid of some areas that were selected because of the red reflection from her dress onto Brooklyn's cheeks and arms.  Then add a Black and White adjustment layer between the Background layer and the new layer and change the Background to black and white.  The layer with the selected color stays on top and looks pretty cool!

Enjoy the images and let me know what you think!

I spent today with Dana Nordlund and 15 other photographers at Hahn Photographic learning more about light and lighting!  Dana is a very accomplished photographer from Frewsburg, NY, a small town well south of Buffalo and almost in PA!  Great guy - we had a lot of fun today!

Hahn Photographic is located on Dewey Ave in Rochester, NY in an old firehouse which makes for some interesting rooms to shoot in!  Cold, but interesting!  Great brick walls and big windows, a cool basement with low, arched ceilings, and even some interesting surroundings outside!

We had a couple models come in during the morning session and Dana described his normal studio lighting setup - key and fill to the same side of the model - which seemed odd to me but looks nice!  Our models were very pretty of course and not hard to work with at all!  A pleasure, actually!

More models in the afternoon with some shooting indoors with strobes and available light and then more shooting outdoors in a rare 60 degree fall day in Rochester!  The models came to us from US Talent Management.  The girls were all great!  In particular, Marily V, was wonderful!  She has a great look and we had fun!

Back home now, I'm downloading the images to my Drobo and picking the best images to send out to all our models to use for their portfolios!  Can't wait to go through them!  Thanks to Bruce Hahn and Dana for putting on this workshop!!