Just got back from Florida where for the second year Jane photographed the NY Mets at Spring Training at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie for Media Day 2010 for SportsNet NY. 

Starting at 7am the Mets roster rolled through our locker room studio.  David Wright, Jose Reyes, Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana, Daniel Murphy, Alex Cora, Jason Bay...a great bunch of guys.  And Jane and Julie from SportsNet NY have perfected their tag team approach to getting great responses from the players that result in intimate, fun and cool photos.

This is the second year that we've shot the Mets...check out the 2009 Mets Spring Training photos blogpost for last year's shots.

We were also featured in the local West Hartford Life newspaper for the SportsNet NY and the NY Mets photography.....see the article in West Hartford Life.

Lastly, this is funny: driving south on I-95 into Port St. Lucie, Jane noticed the billboard touting the NY Mets at Tradition Field...and saw they used her black and white studio photo of the Mets hat.  Hey, our first billboard! 

We'll show lots of the Mets photos on our blog after opening day in April.  Let's Go Mets!!!!

Thank you Lindsay for going on the street with me...at night, in the snow, barefoot and pregnant!  I had this image in my mind as soon as we started planning the shoot.  Thank you Talia from Sixpence Events for your costumery!  :)

I love that Lindsay was up for something different for her maternity shoot, so we decided to do a studio and a night shoot too.  This makes me want to do a whole flora/fauna series of different people as I love playing with studio light as much as I love natural light!  Thank you Naomi Martinez Salon in West Hartford for such a beautiful make-up job!

I'm so excited to shoot our 1st Year of Life program with Lindsay for her second baby...this time it's a girl!  When recommending Lindsay and Talia's wedding planning company, Sixpence for your Shoe, I always let people know what great style Lindsay has and I think you can see this from the new baby's room - from the pink striped walls to the fun couch pillows.  Congratulations Lindsay, Stephen and Landon!

Jane and I love living in West Hartford, and we're certainly not alone. For the second year in a row we photographed the festivities at the West Hartford Mayor's Charity Ball at the Hartford Golf Club.  The ball benefits two West Hartford community organizations: The Grounds (a great place for teens to hang in Bishops Corner) and HopeWorks Inc. (a counseling and community outreach organization). 

Events included a silent auction, live auction (featuring the local celebrities from Hell's Kitchen reality show) and much more.  Todd Rose from Cuvee, the cool winebar in Blue Back Square, was pouring the bubbly as guests signed up for their favorite silent auction items. 

Brad Drazen, the NBC Connecticut Anchor was emcee, and continuing in the theme of "hometown sons who've succeeded in Hollywood" (last year John O'Hurley of Seinfeld and Dancing with the Stars fame was the host) David Steinberg was this year's special guest speaker.  Steinberg is the writer of the 2002 comedy movie Slackers, and came to be a Hollywood writer by way of Yale and Duke Law School.  Both were extremely funny, with Steinberg riffing on the two West Hartford pet peeves....no overnight parking on the street and that dang leaf collection. 

Mayor Scott Slifka spoke to the audience then quickly changed into costume for a killer Blues Brothers homage with the song "The Mayor, Man" along with former WH mayors Jonathan Harris and Catherine Reynolds...well done, especially Harris's mean Belushi imitation.

Later in the night Attorney General Richard Blumenthal stepped to the mic to speak to the crowd of 350 and add his support to these West Hartford Charities.  Great speakers all around.

You may remember our first maternity shoot with Lindsay from Sixpence for Your Shoe wedding planning...it was summer...swimming pools and polka dot bikinis...here's a sneak peek at what we came up with on a cold, February night...more to follow...

Since we are in the wedding planning season....here are a couple of wedding ideas from Nicole and Tony's lush and preppy wedding at the Webb Barn in Wethersfield CT back in June of 2009. 

The first is the Ring Bearer Bowl from Paloma's Nest which is a ceramic dish used in place of the ring pillow.  The bowls have become quite popular in the last two years--I've seen Style Me Pretty rave about them--for couples looking for a distinctive handmade heirloom from their wedding. 

The second tip from their wedding is from Madame Monogram, where owner Kristen Enlow makes custom ribbons for wedding banquet chairs--very cool...and they look great in photographs.  Side comment: if you attend many weddings you will notice again and again the same classic chairs--which, after Googling, I discovered are called Chiavari chairs...who knew?  Thanks Nicole and Tony for your great wedding ideas!  To see more of IRIS Photography's wedding photos please visit our website and click on "enter weddings".

.

It was so nice photographing Joy and Peter's beautiful blue-eyed 8-month old baby girl named Summer.  Joy and Peter are former wedding clients and now good friends and it's great to see them as parents...welcome to the club!

It was all West End girls...and guys at Hartford's sixth annual West End Civic Association's (WECA) "Dine Around The West End" last Saturday.  Mike photographed the cocktail party at the beautiful home on Scarborough Street where over 200 West Enders gathered for some winter cheer before heading to their various progressive dinner parties in the neighborhood.

Among those attending were Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, Channel 3 morning anchor Eileen O'Connor and her husband Matt Fleury, President & CEO of the Connecticut Science Center, and our friends, Sally and Ken Lerman.

The West End is a beautiful part of Hartford and the WECA members demonstrate lots of camaraderie along with pride in their neighborhood.

Here's our little four year old Jude.  In the mood for shooting a portrait...a shower stall can make a cool background...