We photographed Steve Wood–a man whose mission is to visit all 600 museums in the state of Connecticut–for the February issue of Connecticut Magazine, which dubbed him “Mr. Connecticut.”

Steve’s well written website www.ctmuseumquest.com chronicles the 100+ visits he’s already made to CT museums.  Wood is not even from Connecticut (he was born in an even smaller state, Delaware) but he’s putting native Nutmeggers to shame with his encyclopedic knowledge of what there is to see in our state.

Steve also writes at length about CT food, restaurants, hiking trails, and his beautiful son, Damian. Check out his website!

What photos do you love most?

Probably those that capture the essence of your subject or some distinctive aspect of their personality.

Yet we’re often guilty (us too with our own kids) of asking our children to flash a smile when they pose for the camera…with mixed results.

Here are some tips on how to get more than smiley snapshots of your kids (works with adults as well!)

* Go for no smile: tell kids in a soft voice “no smile”, then take a photo.  That’s how I got the shot above.

* Get them talking:  ask them to talk about anything that might be of interest (favorite ice cream flavors, Harry Potter, etc.) and listen with the camera to your eye. The range of emotion passing over kids’ faces is amazing.

What a beautiful evening getting to know Megan and Bret during their engagement session at Hammonasset Beach!  It was so nice having time to hear about their lives, especially about their upcoming wedding on Martha’s Vineyard…a favorite place for our family vacations!  It was such a warm night in April and the beach setting for their shoot seemed perfect!

View more photos…

Great seeing Katie and Michael again after shooting their wedding in 2008…and wonderful meeting 5 month old Elizabeth!  You can see from the photos she was quick with a smile and lovely!  Thank you guys…exciting to see how your family has grown!

To view the pics, click on a thumbnail and use your arrow keys to cycle through them!

The Mets won a 20 inning, nearly 7 hour game against the Cardinals last night!!  And we posted the photos from our shoot in Port St. Lucie of the 2010 NY Mets–take a look at the gallery.

Last weekend we were just up the road shooting in West Hartford center for Lane and Lenge Florists and Camille Bridal to showcase their beautiful flowers and wedding dresses.

Very fun working with Bob Dinucci, owner of Lane and Lenge, and Irene Zalevsky, owner of Camille Bridal and her staff Rachael and Erica as well as our great model, Ashley.

Lane and Lenge has been voted The Best Florist of Hartford for 10 years running by the Hartford Advocate, and Camille Bridal has been selected as The Knot’s Best of Weddings.

Great folks…really nice flowers and dresses….if you’re getting married definitely check them out.  Lane and Lenge is at 214 Park Road in West Hartford and Camille Bridal is at 30 LaSalle Road in West Hartford Center.

One of the greatest things about being photographers is getting to know so many interesting people on a personal level.  When we heard that our client, Marla Byrnes, West Hartford realtor — and huge movie fan — was off to the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah for the ultimate girls movie week, we had to learn more!

“Fantasy camp for movie lovers” is how Marla characterized her trip in which she and two girlfriends took in 25 movies (wow!)

Sundance is the world’s largest independent film festival, although many films feature big name stars and directors.  These industry folk are very accessible–audience members and  actors and directors engage in “Talk Backs”
after each movie, and movie goers cast votes from their seats.  Marla got a chance to chat with Mark Ruffalo about his directorial debut in Sympathy for Delicious while he was walking the streets of Park City.

Park City, unlike Hollywood, is more like the real West…where jeans, boots and parkas predominate.  There’s great skiiing right in town.  But who has time for that….we have to see some more movies : }

OK, here are Marla’s Picks:  Happythankyoumoreplease (People’s Choice Award winner), Winter’s Bone (the overall Sundance winner), Get Low with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray, Teenage Paparazzo with Adrian Grenier from Entourage, and Company Men with Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Kevin Costner.

Thanks Marla for sharing your cinematic story–Jane has already proposed a trip to Sundance to her high school girlfriends!

Just saw that Nicole and Tony’s wedding at the Webb Barn was featured in today’s Style Me Pretty blog!  Nicole and Tony are really nice folks and their wedding last May was perfect…cherry blossoms and barn board, outdoor wedding in the sunshine!

The other wedding vendors include:  Venue: Webb Barn in Wethersfield CT; Caterer: Emily’s Catering in Bristol CT; Hair and makeup: Naomi Martinez, West Hartford CT; Custom chair sash: Madame Monogram; Ring bearer bowl: Paloma’s Nest; Bridal party clothing: J. Crew; Tony’s shoes: Vans.

Happy (almost) first anniversary Nicole and Tony!!!

It feels like July out there today with temps in the 90s, so here’s a summery orange-themed inspiration board to stimulate your wedding planning!

Lets go Mets!!

A few hours ago former Mets slugger Darryl Strawberry threw out the first pitch as NY Mets opened their season today against the Florida Marlins at Citi Field.

Johan Santana is pitching for the Mets, with David Wright, Jason Bay, Angel Pagan, Alex Cora and Jeff Francoeur in the starting roster (Reyes, Beltran and Murphy are out for opening day with injuries).  Let’s stay healthy Mets and have a great season!!

Check out our photojournalistic shots we took on assignment for SportsNet NY (SNY) in our locker room “studio” at Spring Training in February.

Just checked…the Mets won!! 2 run homer by Wright, 6 strong innings for Santana!

Angel Pagan, 2010 New York Mets