Battles Wedding

I photographed the wedding of Jeff and Lisa with MK today. We started the day at the Geneva Ramada and then headed down Seneca Lake to Fox Run Vineyards ahead of a ferocious thunderstorm. The ceremony was at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Geneva with a Belhurst Castle reception. The skies cleared just in time to get some great shots on Seneca Lake. Jeff and Lisa were so layed back,just soaking in the day and their love for each other.

Happy Birthday Caren!

Today is my sister Caren's Birthday. I don't remember how old she is, I keep losing count with all those candles since the smoke alarm keeps going off before their all lit.

Fischer Wedding

Last weekend Rich and I shot the wedding of Melissa and Steve at the Riverview in Hudson, Massachusetts. It's been a crazy week with high school seniors so I'm a little slow posting. Hurricane Bill was lurking off the New England coast, pumping up hot and insanely humid air, with torrential downpours that flooded the roads. After the rains stopped, we had a beautiful, sunny afternoon to take photos with Melissa's dad's motorcycle in Hudson. Melissa and Steve were great and so much fun to work with. Their sense of humor was awesome. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more weddings in New England with Rich. We'll be doing a bridal show in Marlborough, Massachusetts on September 13th.

Painted Lady

We packed the minivan on Tuesday and drove down to the Jersey Shore to stay at my sister's house in Ocean Grove. I posted a while back on my Top 10 Favorite Places, with Ocean Grove being one of them, and this trip it didn't disappoint. We spent the day yesterday in Atlantic City for the free airshow on the beach, which included the USAF Thunderbirds. There must have been 500,000 people on the beach. To avoid the traffic after the show, we spent some time swimming in the ocean and exploring Atlantic City. It's definitely worth coming back to and exploring more when we have more time. It's like a cross between Vegas and Coney Island.

Today we spent the day in Ocean Grove enjoying the restaurants, ice cream and of course, the beach. The surf was huge today, but so was the rip current so we had to be really careful not to get sucked out to sea with nothing but a boogie board. Both Cade and Sarah had their share of being steamrolled by some of the bigger waves. When we got back to the house, I found a half pound of sand in each of Cades swim suit pockets.

Ocean Grove is amazing. Every street is lined with uniquely painted and decorated houses that remind me of ginger bread houses. Caren's is shown below and is named The Painted Lady by the Sea. I had the pleasure of laying on a small love seat out on her front porch as the sun was setting, what my sister Ellen calls "The Fillet of the Day." The heat and humidity was being replaced by a nice on shore breeze as the Cicadas sang their late summer song. The sounds of the distant commuter train horn echoed in the distance. One by one, each of the houses on her block began to cast an amber glow as the interior lights came on at dusk. Seagulls flew by over head looking for a place to rest for the night. It was one of those rare moments where you don't have to think, you just have to "be" and soak in the richness of everything happening around you. It was delicious.

Michelle and Asif

Summer finally arrived with a vengeance yesterday for Michelle and Asif's wedding at Bristol Harbour. Jess and I started the day with Michelle and Asif at their home before heading down to the Bristol Hills to do some scenic photos above and along Canandaigua Lake. We then headed to Bristol Harbour for an outdoor ceremony and a reception in their new Great Room. It was a great wedding, not only joining two families together, but bringing two cultures together with some Pakistani customs during the ceremony. This was the first "hot" wedding of the summer. So many people have been complaining that this summer has been bad, but as a wedding photographer, I appreciate the cooler days.

Sonny and Deanna

On Friday, Jess and I shot the wedding of Sonny and Deanna at The Fox and The Grapes B&B in Lodi. It was a small, intimate wedding with 5 guests and beautiful ceremony overlooking the east shoreline of Seneca Lake. Sonny and Deanna came to the Finger Lakes from Ohio for their destination wedding. We had a few hours with them prior to the ceremony, so we traveled around Lodi and Ovid finding a mixed bag of scenery, from rural and lakeside to an urban look in Ovid. If you know Ovid, you know there is nothing urban about this rural farming community in the heart of the Finger Lakes wine region, but it's all perspective in a photograph.