Take a peak at the photos below and leave some comments!  To see the full gallery, click here.

Previous to signing with the Giants, Dave spent 6 years with the 49ers.  Those 6 years were full of ups and downs, and mainly from my point of view, a lot of disappointment with an unfixable coaching staff.  Some players will play their entire career on a losing team and never even make the playoffs and leave a career disappointed and defeated. I always wondered how that affected players mentally and I didn’t want to see that with Dave. After another losing season and then end of a contract, Dave was finally a free agent. The 49ers had a chance to resign him but I knew it would be a lowball offer and frankly,  I was really hoping he would get out of SF. When he called to say he was now a New York Giants, that was exciting news to everyone. Lots of uncertainty and lots of high expectations but I knew he would fit in.

His first season with the Giants was no doubt a tough one. A few injuries set him back, learning a new playbook, fitting in with new teammates, criticism of the press all contributed to a tough season.  Once the Giants made the playoffs, after the first game with the Falcons, we all thought… They can really do this!

Ironically, in order to make the Superbowl, the Giants had to beat the 49ers.  This was such a bittersweet moment. We were all happy that the 49ers made it this far with new coaching staff but at the same time, worried that if the Giants lost, how that would affect Dave and his decision to leave the 49ers. Well, we know how that turned out.

So after a lot of cheering, yelling, crying, and jumping after the win, we started thinking of superbowl parties and if we were going to have one, who to invite,  where to have it, etc…. With knowing how the Superbowl can be a circus, the limited amount of tickets players get, prices of tickets, and even availability of tickets, we never expected to go to the game and really never even considered it. After all , the view from the TV screen is much better anyways and don’t have to deal with traffic and security issues.  About a week after that, Dave called and asked us if we wanted to go.  I believe Mary said… Go where?  and Dave replied, do you want to go to the Superbowl?  We were both shocked and excited and in disbelief.

So we made travel arrangements, decided to drive and make a road trip out of it.

When we arrived, Indianapolis welcomed fans in every way.  What a great city to host the Superbowl. Superbowl village was really cool. Seeing how excited everyone was, all the festivities going on, very friendly people, couldn’t have asked for a better place.  The stadium itself was very nice as well. I have to hand it to Indianapolis and the NFL for the way it handled crowds, security and general information.  The TSA really should take a page out of the NFL playbook on how this is done.

The game was incredible and they even let me in with my camera gear.  I got some great endzone shots from the seats we had. Please take a look below and also at the full gallery by clicking on the link.

A big thanks to David Baas for making this once in a lifetime event happen for us. Will never forget it.

See more photos here

We decided to shoot at Hollis Gardens in Lakeland Florida right off Lake Mirror. A beautiful location that is a prime area for photography portrait sessions and weddings as well. There was actually a wedding photoshoot going on while we were setting up which was interesting.  It turned out to be a beautiful day and a perfect photography atmosphere.

Please take a moment and go through the images below and leave comments!

Back to Alexandra… A beautiful model that has pervious modeling experience. Didn’t have to direct her much so that was nice.  Since this was a beach/bikini/holiday theme and props were encouraged, I dug out my old snowboard and boots that I had from living up north. Thought they would go really well with this scene. Alexandra was very accommodating  with putting on the boots and hat and that made the whole scene come together.  I was very happy with the results and look forward to shooting more fashion ideas like this!

Check out the photos and leave some comments!

We shot for about an hour and a half and got some great images! Check some of them out below and leave comments!

The main reason I wanted to go was the Chalk drawing event. They had two classes. One was high school class, and the other was the adult class. Some pretty cool stuff and I give credit to the artist out there creating all this. Check out some of the photos I took of the days events.

Enjoy!

The wedding ceremony took place dockside on Sand Lake, Orlando. For anyone that has been on the lake, you know how big the lake is and that it is mainly surrounded by upperclass homes and celebrities. There are, however, some spots that are not sealed off by armed gate keepers and this place happened to be one of them. What made this place so perfect was the location of the dock and the sun setting directly behind it. Earlier in the day we were worried because it was raining all day. We were preparing for the worst. Then about 5pm, the skies broke and it started to clear up. When the sun started to set, it made for the most beautiful sunset I have seen to date. The sky was fire red and breaking through the clouds which made for an amazing backdrop. The ceremony went off without a hitch!

I wanted to stay all night and shoot that sunset, but they had reservations at Christini’s in Dr. Phillips.  They invited us to join them which we were very gracious for, plus this gave me the opportunity to photograph their first meal together as husband and wife.  I have never eaten at Christini’s before, but this place is top notch!  Amazing service, amazing food and an awesome accordion player that was a walking jukebox. This guy knew every song that was requested and could transpose it to the accordion perfectly.  Being a musician myself, I have a new found respect for the lost art of playing accordions. I highly recommend Christini’s in Dr. Phillips!

Well, enough blabbering, here are some of the photos from the wedding. Hope you enjoy and please leave comments!

So this past Sunday I decided to head on over to St. Petersburg, FL to attend my first event. They themed this event as  strictly off camera flash session with a model and 3-4 photographers rotating at 10 minute intervals. It worked out fairly well and I got some new ideas and met some great people. Having only roughly ten minutes and switching off with other photographers really makes you think on your feet. Have to be quick and move on the fly. A lot of that I was used to because in the wedding world of photography, you have to be able to think on your feet and be quick about it.

Here are a couple of shots from the event.

The model is Gina Marie who was very fun and a pleasure to work with. I look forward to working with her again.

At the time of this blog post, we learned that Jessica had a beautiful baby boy, so we would like to say a big Congratulations to you!

We left our place at 4:00am to make the hour and a half drive over to Kennedy Space Center along with all of the other crazies. Surprisingly no traffic until we hit the security check point. Once through the gate we walked around and scoped out a good vantage point. A lot of people were already packed into the grandstand area and I am sure they arrived there at 2am sharp when the place opened. We found a little place by the Astronaut Walk of Fame and set up camp. Turned out to be a great spot with a clear direct view of the launch. We were the only ones over there until about 2 hours later when others started packing in. We met some nice people and talked about the experience. I thought we were crazy for getting up at 2:30am, some of these people drove across the country to see this. A couple of people from Michigan and others from Texas… That is pushing it for me. Much better view on TV.

The overall day was very overcast and the forecast called for rain. We highly expected the launch to be cancelled. About 10:30am, the clouds started to burn off enough that the launch was given the OK to proceed. Thankfully we didn’t get rained on at all. The actual launch was beautiful for the first 30 seconds then the shuttle disappeared into the clouds and it was all over. About 30 seconds after that the sound wave hit us with the constant roar of the rockets. That is a great feeling.

After the launch we packed up and headed for the door. I had an idea that if we were one of the first ones out, we might beat all the traffic.  Well, we were probably one of the first 100 or so cars out. Not bad I though, until we were stopped at the end of the causeway bridge. So there we sat in our cars.  It was later I found out that they don’t open that bridge until 30 minutes AFTER launch. Just enough time to let all of the other Titusville and Cocoa Beach traffic to catch up and merge all into one. With the help of Google Maps I took a short cut through the airport over to 95 and was home free. A good 3 hour drive home. Overall well worth it, just wish it wasn’t the last time.

Enjoy a few photos of the launch!