ASA Photographic's Blog Page

Real life Spiderman!

2011-04-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

So after the Boston Rock Gym's Heart of Steel competition the other weekend, the boys got to take a picture with one of their real life heroes, Vasya Vorotnikov. Vasya is no doubt one of THE BEST climbers in the United States.

The physical ability he posses is nothing short of superhuman. I have been fortunate enough to photograph him at all of the Heart of Steel comps and I thought it was very nice of him to give the boys a few moments. They have come to watch him every year, so they were ecstatic to finally get a picture with him. Whenever we go ANYPLACE that possesses any kind of vertical element I inevitably hear the “I bet Vasya could climb that Dad!”.

Congrats on yet another Heart of Steel victory!

Congrats to all our Theater Champions!

2011-04-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

So obviously we need to say congratulations to Westford Academy for snagging one of the top three slots at the State Finals in Boston yesterday. However, we are equally proud of all our schools this year for their performances in the METG Festival!

We laughed, we cried, we thank you for your many great performances!!

Be proud...We certainly are!

PPAM Convention 2011

2011-03-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

Gail and I had a ball once again at this past weekend's PPAM Convention for 2011. Great seminars to keep our minds motivated and our business strategies sharp.

We live such crazy and fragmented lives with our business, it is nice to stop and breathe. Getting together with other Photogs living the same kind of crazy is a real comfort. As always, print comp is another highlight for us. Nothing hones your composition, lighting, and photography skills like print competition! Just think of the most critical judges of your work just looking for something to pick apart. And though there is always some discouragement at first when a print you love doesn't "go blue", but once you get past that and get the chance really listen to what was said and then to engage the judges afterward one on one, you can really start to look at your work though a whole new light. Again, this has challenged Gail and I to look at things differently and our work gets better and better. This year I pretty much nailed the order in which my prints would score (lowest to highest) before they were judged.

Here I am am in front of my "Ethereal Twins", Ally and Emma from the Westford Academy Theater Arts Program. It was my highest scoring comp print yet with an 85. It was crazy how well the judges were able read into this. Thanks to the both of you for letting me steal that time with you right before a dress rehearsal!

"Hayley's Hobby" stirred up a lot of talk with the judges. Though getting a few scores above 80 it fell just shy at 79. A little bit of tweaking will get this higher at regional I am sure of it! That said…this landed my second judges choice award in two years! Thanks to Hayley (from Tyngsboro High School's Theater program) for being such a great model (in the middle of her Senior session) and to Chris down at Millworks Hot Rod for once again stopping whatever he is working on at a moment's notice to allow us to use his garage to flavor our work.

At the Trade Show, Gail and I stopped in to see our good friend Kathy at the Ava Art booth. She had two of our prints framed for her display. Unfortunately the one on the left I can not show yet as the customer can not be allowed to see it before the unveiling at her house. Those boys on the right look oddly familiar =).

The Awards night is always fun. It is nice to have the freedom to cut loose just a little every once and a while. This year the theme was “Oscar Night” .

Gail felt that since she did not land any blue ribbons this year in comp that she would be one! This dress was perfect for the occasion and she looked stunning. Big thanks to Tracy for all hooking us up with all the great pictures!

After a couple of drinks, even the stage props weren’t safe! We would never get the chance to go to these events if it wasn’t for our friends and family that watch over our most prized "possessions." A BIG thanks to Nonno and Grandma, Grampy, Maureen, Tina, Laurie and Roland who helped us make it all work!

Seems like the past three years Gail and I have found inspiration from other great couples in the business and this year was no different. On our final day , Gail and I chaired for Sarah and Kent Smith's "Growing a Great Senior Business" which ran all day. They run a very successful photography studio out of Ohio. Thanks to Kent and Sarah for fielding our barrage of questions! = ). Our Senior season is approaching rapidly and we need all the advice we can get.

On to PPANE!

Let them eat CAKE!

2011-02-08T23:30:00.000-08:00

So last night after much anticipation, anticipation since last November, the TLC episode of “Fabulous Cakes” that was filmed at Westford Academy’s first performance of “Phantom of the Opera” finally aired.

Mary Jo Dowling of Elegant Edibles built this amazing cake for the opening night and we were fortunate enough to be there to catch it. I got to sneak backstage, hang with the crew a bit...and get a sneak peak at the cake before it came out!

Though it feed everyone with plenty left over, if left alone with it, I am convinced that I could have done the whole thing myself with a gallon of cold milk! That said, Gail and I were honored to get our hands on a some.

Matthew and Steven even got a slice (they may have snuck another one too.)

So cool!

There you are Gail!

Picasso and Miss Saigon ??

2011-02-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

To all you WATA fans, The "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" pics are up.

Click here

This weekend (and next), "Miss Saigon" at Tyngsboro High School!

Again, for all you WATA fans, one of your very own alumni is onboard helping to work the set. All the more reason for us to see you there!

Playing with the BIG BOYS!

2011-01-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

What would you do if you found yourself in the middle of $55,000 worth of camera optics?

No, I didn’t steal them, but I ran one of the coolest optical comparison tests I have seen ever.
My day at Lenspro was a long one (I was sick as a dog!), but I think it might be one of the first tests that puts a side by side picture on the face of the many questions that many lens consumers ask.

I modified a sharpness target that fits perfectly in the aspect ratio of a Nikon frame and cut into it a custom made depth of field gauge and ran these lenses through the gauntlet.

AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II with TC2

AF-S VR NIKKOR 200mm f/2.0 G AF-S IF-ED Lens

AF-S VR Zoom- NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED

AF VR Zoom NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED

AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II

AF-S VR NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED

AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8G ED VRII

AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4G ED VR II

AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR

Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8

Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 OS

The data will be coming soon on the Photog's Blog.

The ASA Shirts are now up for sale!

2010-09-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

We are running an "at cost" special to help get them out there.

Hurry! Deal ends on 9/20!

Dont forget, the discount code is "ASA"

Spiderwoman!

2010-08-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Heart of Steel Poster has claimed it’s place on the wall at the Boston Rock Gym and Mr. Glassberg has been bumped…Move over Jon!

Last year I ripped out this image of 2009’s Heart of Steel competition at the Boston Rock Gym.

Well again this year the 2010 Heart of Steel comp yielded another image that I knew was going to work great for the wall.

Measuring about 4’x6’ this multi-layered 3D cut out is of Sasha DiGiulian who just edged out Francesca Metcalf for 1st place in the comp last February.

Here a couple of images I took of them from the 2010 comp. I should get them autographed!!
Here too is a link to some cool panoramic images that Willie Van Tassell took...

Unbenounced to me until after I put this together, I found out that Sasha had won the Lead Climbing National title at Pan American Championship down in Ecuador!

Not to be outdone, Francesca Metcalf took the National Bouldering Climbing title at the same event!

Way to show them how we do it here in the States Ladies!

It is truly a privilege to photograph some of these climbers. I have had the honor now of capturing several of the countries BEST.

Zack didn't...

2010-07-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

... get his Theater head shots taken for the final show of the year when everyone else did.

This got more than a few laughs during the final years production of Les Miserable.

This is just so... so... so Zack!

As cool as this was, next year, we'll loan you the ten bucks = ).

Blast from the past

2010-06-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

So since we moved our office, I have been going through some OLD pics and found a few that sent me down memory lane…way down memory lane..like twenty years down memory lane.

Here is some of the first theater work I did probably back in the late 1980’s at the Emerson Majestic Theater. Back then I was shooting 800 ISO pushed to 1600 then having all the film processed special at Unison in Boston. That was like a 1 week turn around once I had proof printed. MAN digital kicks the crap out of that workflow. If needed I can turn a 1500 image show around in a few hours and with far better results, though these look great I must say.

Here is a self portrait I used for my original ASA website back in the early 1990’s. What was then my first office is now Matthews Bedroom! Check out my of Speedgraphics 4x5 …oh and my beloved Pentax 6x7….God I miss that camera. ALL film.

Wow! This picture is from back in my black and white printing days. These two young ladies were called “The Grinning Lizards”. I made a negative photocopy of their log onto velum and burned it into the print before I put into the developer. Gail and I ran into them one cold Valentines day out on Martha’s Vineyard. We were in the Edgartown Harbor parking lot and heard their beautiful music floating in the wind. We followed the sound and low and behold… Lisa and Jess. We became good friends and I did a couple of shoots for them for there albums as well as follow them around where ever they played including the Harp in Bean town. Have not heard from them in well over ten years.

Here is the back of my head = ). One of my first real political gigs, a gymnasium dedication at Malden Catholic got me up close to the Kennedy’s, Bulger, Governor Mannino, Congressman Markey…

Oh man…my first magazine publication (Cape Cod Life 1996)…and first mag cover (Mt. Washington).

I have NO CLASS!

2010-05-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

That is to say, our first basic photography class is complete = ).

So if I could imagine the ideal first photography class, what would it be like...hmmmmm....

How about a small class with very enthusiastic, easy going and patient students that all have the same name, use the same camera make and model and the same lens.

Wait a minute! That actually happened!

Talk about an easy first class from a teacher's perspective!

At first I was nervous to tell the potential students that there was only two signed up for the class and that they would bail becuase of it. I could not have been more wrong. I guess the 2 to 1 student to teacher ratio meant to them that this class was more like a private lesson!

To Mary and Mary, thanks !

As crazy as I was those days, I always left the class with a smile.

Thanks again for being such a great students!

Sweet girl...

2010-05-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

We had a great session earlier today at the studio. Julio and Elizabeth returned to our studio with Arianna...now seven months. I love that we started as their wedding photographer and are now their family photographer...This is what we hope to become for all of our bridal couples. Can't wait to see them all again in a couple of months!

Getting Dynamic!

2010-04-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yet another workshop in the bag.

For the first time since we started hosting training/workshops at our studio, we set-up this one in our actual studio space. I think it went of very well.

As for Dan’s workshop….AWESOME!

Each day started in the studio and we hit it until lunch. Having that much pizza in two days just can’t be good for you though I wish it was. Lets see…pizza for lunch, left over pizza’s for supper…oh, and don’t forget those late night pizza snacks! We did that two days in a row! I am not kidding.

As both Gail and I have loved the work we have seen from Dan, we took turns as much as possible sitting in and trying to soak some of this up. As of right now…our minds are screaming with new ideas on how to light events and portraits.

So both afternoons we got to let Dan loose on our Studio grounds. Our first two models were are our future Bride and Groom, Pam and John. Having never met them before in the back of my head I had to wonder if this was a good idea or not. This could go really well …or… you know. When they showed up I thought to myself “know one is going to believe this”. Pam, a beautiful Bride to be and John, her handsome Groom.

They were sooooo patient the whole time. They looked like stars as the Papa Razzi was chasing them around with spot lights and strobe packs in tow.

A BIG thanks to both of them for being so nice and patient to all of us.

Next up was Dan's assistant Jim. An expert with the battery packs and lights, Jim was also one of Dan's photography subjects. You can't beat versatility like that.

We all again took turns working the lights and also combined light sources like halogens and LEDs.

The second day right after lunch we had Braeden’s one year cake smashing. What a cute boy! We did some existing light work with him.

Then came our “back-up model” (I have to laugh) Katie. We had to "rough it" as you can see!

Daughter of one of our Sunday session students, she put the sauce in saucy.

A HUGE Thanks to Billy and the boys over at Performance Custom Cycle! Our neighbors at the Mill, the let us drop in and take over their shop for a little photo session amongst the bikes.

If that wasn't enough, they rolled out this award winning bike for us to drape our model on.

THANK YOU!

Here is a little video I through together from day 2. (My apologies to the Day 1 attendees. I forgot the camera otherwise I would have done for Sunday as well.)

At the end of it all, we had a great time and many of our students went home with some sweet raffle gifts.
A big thanks to Hunts Photo, Lenspro To Go, Lustre Color, and of Course Dan Doke for providing the raffle gifts.

Ryan drove all the way up from Connecticut for the workshop, so we were happy to have him win one of Dan's DVD's.

Jasmine was one of our "ASA Scholarship" students from Northeaster University that took advantage of one of the complimentary seats.

This proved to us once again how much we love hands on workshops, let alone running them.

Among all the cool things that Dan showed and told us, one thing that I will always remember and take away from this class is what Dan kept saying throughout both sessions, and that is that you have to give the the Bride and Groom something they can not get from there Aunt or Uncle that attended the wedding with their camera.

I heard and understood it at the time, but I guess I really didn’t let it sink in. Sounds silly, but it really didn't hit me until a day or so after.

How embarrassing would it be as a “Professional” photographer to be shown up by a guest?

For Gail and I, that really solidified the need to ALWAYS be pushing the envelope in all the ways possible in any situation. I think that is what makes Dan, Dan. He finds the usual and makes it unusual.

Isn’t that what being a “Professional” is all about really? Or should I say “Passionate Professional”?

Thank you Dan!

ASA is NOT in the House!

2010-04-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

So after many long years of a little bit of construction here.. a little bit there… our new office is now complete! OK, so a few more details to tackle, but it is open for business. Finally some physical separation for our family and our business.

What made it even more special is that Gail was away at NEIPP (The New England Institute of Professional Photography) for a week so I surprised her!

Knowing that she would be away, I went crazy and completed all the finish work in about 5 days so I could surprise her when she got back.

Oh man,I busted my hump all week and by Friday I was a complete wreck, both mentally and physically. I missed Gail something fierce and so did Matthew and Steven.

So while Gail was away working and learning along side some of the best photographers in the industry, I was eating saw dust all week. Yea…..I was jealous. OK…so I was VERY JEALOUS. She also got the honor of modeling for Jenn Husdon and Arthur Rainville. They took some BEAUTIFUL shots of Gail in a dress that Jenn literally built around Gail. I plan to get some prints of the shoot for next to my new desk = ).

As much as it killed me to not go with her, I knew she would benefit from this in so many ways. I also knew what it would mean to her to not have to come back to that awful office set-up. It was so inefficient for oh so many reasons.

To help hold down the fort while she was away (essentially make sure the kids get to school and that they don’t starve on my hands) we flew Nana out for the week. By Thursday night she was helping me stay on a busy construction schedule by staining trim along side me at 1:30 AM. THANKS MOM!

As many of you know we do most of the photography at our Studio, but all the editing, album design, client contacting … was all done at our home office (or shall I say Living room).

Up until the beginning of 2009 our poor Living room served as the entertainment room, the playroom, home bill processing room and ASA’s double office equipped with 2 workstations, a regular printer and a large format printer. YIKES!

A typical night at ASA(above), Gail used to always have to squeeze by me and the Epson 4800 printer to get awya from her desk. Oh man...many a fight started that way!

We finished off the boy's playroom right after X-mas ’08 and that decreased quite a toy burden from the living room almost immediatley, but we knew finishing of the office was going to have an even more profound affect on our situation. It just took a lot of custom work to get it done. As you can see there is barely a square angle in the whole place.

So why do we take on these projects you ask? I don't know!

This is a great arguement for just sucking it up and paying somone else to do it!

Here are some pics from the past few years along the way during the build of both the playroom and the office...

10K from 8K...MS Walk 2010!

2010-04-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

Team Colby had a record breaking year!

For every mile we walked, the team pulled in about $2000! For a GRAND total of about $10,350 as a team.

Our team received an honorable mention as well as earning an "Elite Team" status. No doubt we were all walking tall.

Just before the beginning of the walk Staci was given the mic and asked to give a speech to all the other walkers. There is no question that the walk is meant to be a fun experience for all to come together, but this was the time we all stopped to realize the scary side of this situation. It was the time when I personally stopped and think about how this disease looms over the people that I am walking for and how it profoundly affects their lives and the lives of the loved ones around them. So after that touch of reality, a couple of tears and big group hug, we all rallied our love and strength around our team captain and nailed this walk down with ease.

Gail and I (and the whole team) were honored to wear the official Team Colby shirts.

The team grew significantly since last year...as you can see...

We were blessed once again with great weather that although a bit chilly standing still, it was well suited for walking.

A great time for a good cause.

Lastly, we woudl like to extend a big THANKS to everyone that donated to the walk for Gail and I as well as on the behalf of Team Colby.

THANK YOU!

Congratulations !!

2010-03-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

Gail and I wanted to say congrats to the Chelmsford and Westford Theater Arts programs!

Westford and Chelmsford finished in the top 3 in the Mass High School Drama Guild State Finals this past weekend in Boston.
Luckily Gail and I were able to get back in on Saturday without “incident” (or without stitches shall we say) and catch one of the performances.

Chlemsford will now move onto the New England regional’s.

Gail and I will be cheering for you all from a far.

If we traveled any further to watch you preform, who know what trouble our boys would get into!

From Drama to Trauma!

2010-03-26T21:57:00.001-07:00

So the trips to the hospital for stitches now stands at 3-0.

3 for Steven and 0 for Matthew.

The boy is talented, what can I say!

So…. I took a half day so Gail and I could take a trip into Boston so we could go to the Mass High School Drama fest competitions. Two of the schools we photograph made it to finals this year so we went in to cheer them both on.

We parked the car and walked around Copley place slowly working our way over to the Hancock Center to watch the performance.

We hit the Mac store…(hey, who's that on the left?)

Then the public library. It is so rare that Mom and Dad get some time to just be together.

So we were having a GREAT date.

We made it over to the Theater, tickets in hand literally ready to walk into the show when the phone rings and I catch something to the affect of ….”they were jumping on the bed and….”

This picture shows up next on Gail’s phone….

It took me all of about 1 second looking at it…”Lets go” I said. I turned around and pushed the tickets back over the counter (for my first loss of $30).

5 blocks walk to the parking garage springing the car out for another $20.

Now it is 5 PM on a Friday and we need to drive back up to Billerica (passing the same hospital we are going back to on the way) pick-up the boys and head back to Winchester Hospital.

So on the way in we start hearing details of the incident. Somewhere in the rough housing, Matthew was pushing Steven thinking he would land on the bed and…well… missed. He went over the edge of the bed and slammed into an AC unit or something. We could tell he was feeling bad about it already. He knew we were going to the hospital.

2 hours in the waiting area and another $100 later they let all of us go into the room together which was nice. We hung in there with the TV on until the nurse came in and flushed it.

The Doctor finally came in and confirmed it would need 5-6 stitches. Poor Steven knew what he was in for.

When the doctor started using the needle to administer the numbing medication, Steven was feeling it! Poor Matthew had his head buried into the foot of Steven's bed. Though sad…it was...well...just. He was now truly understanding the consequence of his actions.

Once the numbing/needling was done the stitches were a little touch and go. Gail was right there for Steven and I had Matthew in my arms showing him the craft of skin sewing. He handled it well though watching his brother go through this was hard for him.

Before..............................................................After

When it was finally all done, Steven was VERY happy to be off the gurney. Just then Matthew started pulling on my shirt. He looked up at me, white as a ghost, and says “Daddy..I think I am going to throw up!” I grabbed him, the closets trash barrel, and took off running for the closest bathroom.

He ALMOST honked, but cooled him down just in time. Gail and I were chuckling with the nurses when I said “this was the best punishment we could have implemented". It took a while the color to return to Matthews face.

11PM and we are home finally. Both boys asleep finally.

Server is down...

2010-03-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
we just learned that our server "experienced difficulites" last night and is being "repaired."

Please check back shortly...

Dan Doke at ASA Photographic Studios

2010-03-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

We are excited about this training "Dynamic Lighting for Weddings and Portraits"--Dan's work is outstanding and we are looking forward to training with him. We will be meeting with Dan early this week to firm up details and will get word out by Wednesday. But, for now, the date is April 25, 9am-4pm.

I am posting this info here because we just learned our server had a "problem" last night and is still being "repaired." UGH! So, if you have landed here after not being able to access our site, rest assured, we'll be back on line...shortly...isn't that what they always say?

LOL
Gail

Tyngsboro's Cave Dream ...

2010-03-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

You guys ROCK!!

This was a cool play entered into the Mass High School Drama Guild competition by the Tyngsboro High School.

A group of climbers find themselves trapped in a cave of riddling rocks that push them to the brink of madness!

The killer for Tyngsboro is that a school that they already beat in the quarter finals moved on at the semi's and Tyngsboro didn't. That is just luck of the draw for the performance venues.

I don't care. You guys kicked butt anyway! The costumes were soooo cool. All the rock characters had special eye contacts just to push that edge of creepiness.

Check this out in the foreground! Members of the cast contorted and rolled themselves up into different shapes and they appeared as if they were rocks, yet living parts of this nightmarish cave.

They picked up several awards for set and costume design to mention the few I did see in their display case.

To Laurie, set crew, make-up, set design and construction....GREAT JOB EVERYONE!!

Hey Billerica!

2010-03-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

Okay all you Billerica Theatre People out there!!!! Congratulations on a great performance this past weekend! You had some tough competition but you did a GREAT job and you should be proud of yourselves!!! We are proud of you! Just wanted to let you know that your images are up!!! Follow this link and pass it on! http://www.asaphotographic.com/store/gallery.php?gid=53

Look what I found on Utube...

2010-03-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

So the MGM Grand at Foxwoods has asked to use some of our images from Steve and Carissa's wedding...I was looking to see if they were up yet and came across this link. I couldn't help but share!
Click here (or on image) to watch the video

Since you can see George, I thought you might want to see the corresponding photos:

PPAM 2010 Convention Wrap up...

2010-02-27T21:07:00.001-08:00

Gail and I are still coming down from our last 4 Days at the PPAM (Professional Photographers Association of Massachusetts) convention.

Every year we have certain session that we feel bring the most to use personally for where we are at that point in time. This year I believe we had two direct hits.

The first direct hit for us was Ricky and Bernie’s session on “Teaching how to Teach”. People have been asking Gail and I to run a basic photography course for years. The hurdle for us was to find time in our already crazy life to pull a thorough syllabus together..Yea…Sorry... not happening! Enter Bernie and Ricky. They went over there own courses that they have taught and chiseled out from there personal experience and for what Gail and I agreed was a STEAL, wrapped it all up in a neat and organized package. Having a planned curriculum laid out in front of you is 90% of the battle. We would not have felt right about taking on the responsibility of making that kind of promise to anyone and not feel as if we could deliver. Happy to say thanks to Ricky and Bernie’s material’s we have already picked out some dates and will be announcing our first class to our clients shortly. Thank you boys!

On the last day of the convention, Gail and I were honored to be the Chairpersons for Jenn and Mark Garber. This was our second direct hit. It was kind of fitting as they were also a married couple running a photography studio together. Seeing their interaction was hysterical. Gail and I would laugh every time they jockeyed for the floor from each other. They paralleled the way Gail and I work in our business. Mark started off by filling all the guys in on one of the most important facts about wedding photography that I myself learned years ago… “It’s a women’s worlds”. I have said it a million times myself and is the reason I without hesitation handle the wheel over to Gail years ago. Their presentation was awesome and could have easily been spread out over several more hours. It was vindicating to see what Gail and I had done right so far and even more importantly what were not and where we could improve. Jenn, Mark… A big thanks to the two of you, we had a great time and we learned a lot. SORRY about the roof leak, we could only control so much = ). Remember, buckets and table clothes, buckets and table clothes!

Here is freind Mrs. Swift right on task again this year posting two more blues to her name.

Look at this will ya!...her picture still looks freakin’ awesome even after being taken with our little Canon point and shoot and scaled down!

Look out for the new kid on the block! New to PPAM this year and looking much younger then he really is (another good reason to hate him...just kidding Chris = )Chris Rioux stepped up to the plate with this awesome image appropriately named "Fear".

So when this print spun around during judging, everyone knew we weren't in Kansas anymore! My jaw dropped when I first saw it. It's funny, as wide a variety of work we see at comp, it is great when you see something that breathes yet another new life into the organization. This was futher verified to me when he was presented with the Kodak Gallery Award. Nice job Chris!

Not to be outdone, Mr. Steve Sedman himself showed him how the big boys do it. Look at this guy. If he won anything else he would need another arm!

Gail and I were happy to see are old freind Ted Dillard there. He presented the RAW and Smart Object Workflow session on Sunday. Ted has his own series of "Pipeline" books that can teach you everything there possibley is to know about digital photography and printing. He was the one that was responsible for pulling me into the digital world some 8 years ago. (Check this out, I look like I am pulling a great Deniro impression here..."are you talking to me?")

So here it is, one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend. The Print judging! To the photographer, it is 6 hours of gut wrenching anticipation. Waiting for your print to come around is nerve racking to say the least.

Like being forced by your parents to swallow that awful tasting medicine, you have to listen to what the judges have to say...like it or not. You can choice to listen or ignore it.

As for Gail and me, I think we did a good job listening to the judges advice last year. We went from one Merit worthy print (Blue Ribbon) to three along with a Special Judges Choice Award that I received for my "Heat of the Night" shot. Admittedly, I indeed was glowing as much as the print was = ).

Here is Gail with here first Blue ribbon called "La Ballerina". Nice Work Babes! Special thanks to our favorite dancer Elizabeth. We are very fortunate to her beautiful dancing talents grace our studio!

Gail was additional honored by our friends over at DSI when they asked if they could use her image in their booth. They printed both of our Black and White images this year that both Blue Ribboned. Thank you guy

A PPAM SLAM

2010-02-18T17:35:00.000-08:00

(Prepping for the 2010 Print Competition and Convention)

So once again this year we have managed put oursleves right on the deadline for the PPAM Print competition the following weekend. Deadline of course was the next day. I don't know... we seem to love the heat. We did not get to enter into PPANE because of major computer issues last year a week before the convention, so I did not want to miss a print comp again!

We made a couple of attempts at outsourcing our print work this year. I just really still have an issue with outsourcing my own print work. Always have been a "do-it-yourselfer" which is curse that I would not wish on my worst enemy. We did send out our black and whites to DSI and loved them right out of the box. Thank you Eric and Chris = )

I again called on Nancy Green for guidance and, as she did for us last year, she kept me from jumping. Thanks again Nancy! And a thank you to Steve Stedman as well!

So for our color entries I toiled all night to get my four entries and Gail's one done.

I set-up lights pretty much on spec. The halogen model lamps in our Alien Bees cast a nice smooth light and I was able to meter them right into ISO 100, 1 second @ f16 at a distance of about 4 feet. Even though the lights are not set at the exact distance and spread, I figure this will be close enough for me to ensure that my whites are not over the top.

With that done, the latex gloves were snapping, hard drives were spinning, printer were spooling, test strips were flying, glue was spraying and matt cutters were cutting. Still have glue stuck to my arm hair (curse of the Italian, comes with the territory).

Can't wait to see how they do. I felt like I entered a good a variety of work this year. I like to see how these differnt areas of my style will fair. Gail has only two she is enetring this year and I think she might kick my ass with it...we'll see. Best of luck Babes!

HOS 2010...OMG!!

2010-02-05T18:05:00.001-08:00

Boston Rock Gym's Heart of Steel 2010

The Heart of Steel Bouldering competition was this past weekend.

The Staff at t he BRG did an amazing job setting up again this year bringing on even more excitement than last year. They worked with the folks over at Brewers to fashion what was deemed “The Dark Crystal”. This feature, cooncealed by a tarp, was revealed at the start of the final round. The tarp dropped and there was this spinning diamond that swung freely in the cave. The crowd crazy. Everyones jaw dropped when the tarp did.

Here is some pics from Jon Glassberg’s site "Louder than 11" from earlier in the week when they first hung this beast in the cave. A finalist last year (and my poster boy if you will) he helped out the BRG Staff this year and set some amazing routes. Jon has a pretty cool site. You can check it out here...

Climbing on this was a dynamic task on all axises imaginable. I was fortunate to be able to at least hang on it the week before the finals as it was covered up as soon as it was hung.

They also had this 3’ diameter semi-sphere fashioned just for the comp. This all made for some sweet images as the climbers twisted and contorted themselves in ways I don’t they could have anticipated.

So how do I some up the spirit of the event…well as a fairly avid indoor sport climber myself, I have to say it is about the overcoming of a personal challenge. I would say that even though by the end of a LONG day of climbing for the competitors there are ultimately 3 Guys and 3 Gals competing against each other for the top spot in the finals, the crowd there understands that is about working out the problem and overcoming it. Trying, failing, try again, failing, and trying again until you get it. That to me is truly the spirit of the Heart of Steel.

This was never made more apparent to me then when Rob D. from Phili was up last for the guys on the finals wall. After a couple of minutes I could tell that he was not going to be able to get this route down like the other two finalists had, however he kept hoping back on as the crowd cheered him on. He was going for this HUGE dyno move (essentially a flying leap from one spot to another) that he missed twice. Everyone started cheering for him “COME ON ROB!” “GET IT ROB!” , I was one of them. Eyes focused on his target, he went for again and this time his hands stuck. Feet and body still swinging out wildly from all the momentum, he held it! The crowd went nuts! It did not matter that we had seen the previous two climbers get it on there first attempts. That was Rob’s challenge and he sent it. All the other climbers there know that feeling and at that very moment they were all right there with him. HEART OF STEEL!

I spent the previous week planning some remote camera set-ups and ended up only sticking with one, but what an angle it was. I made what amounts to large smooth stud that screws into there wall which I attached an adjustable stand head to use that as my remote camera mount.

This is one of my favorite shots. Sasha tops out on one of the ladies final routes and plucks a $50 from the wall. Remote camer with a fisheye lens. you can see me on the ground (just to the right of her head in the frame) triggering it.

Here are the finalists and man, can they climb. Worth the mention, Vasya (orange top)and Francesca (blue top)repeated there visit to the finals again this year as they did last.

Check out all the images we took here...

You can can also check out all the videos of the final climbs here on Thomas Sherman's Blog.

Get Lit - Lighting Seminar and Workshop...Check

2010-01-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

Another workshop is in the books and we got our coolest class photo yet thanks in part to a sweet 60" Umbrella that Doug brought along for the workshop.

So, my hats off to Mr. Doug Levy for a well taught workshop. Likewise, Gail and I would also like to thank everyone who came to participate (from as far as Connecticut in one case). Gail and I had a GREAT time!

The day started off with a few hours in the classroom for some review of lighting modifiers as well as some gelling lessons.

As I was the first time I reviewed the class slides with him, I remain very impressed with the hands on knowledge that Doug brings to the table. All self taught, I have not come across someone as young as himself, especially in the digital age, with the hand one knowledge that he possesses. He remind me more of a veteran of film.

At the end of the class we raffled off our Hunt Photo Gift Certificate, the winner of which just happened to be one of our "scholarship students" Kellie. A big thanks to Hunt Photo for again contributing to the excitement of the workshop.

I did a quick demo on the Popper units just before lunch arrived. Thank you again to Radio Popper for sending us the demo units to play with! Several of the demos are not going back and have already found a permanent home at our studio = ). I had the Radio Popper Jrx system set up on a couple of Alien Bees in the conference room to use the model lamps for note taking. This allowed me to be able to adjust the lights up and down from my camera...LOVE IT!

After lunch we reconvened upstairs in the fencing studio for the afternoon workshop.

Up first, the class was broke into groups faced with the assignment of taking head shots of each other.

The group I escorted wanted the roughest looking room in the mill I could muster. I think this one fit the bill.

Here is Andy (right)from the New England Institute of Art up to bat with the assignment that Doug threw his way.As busy aw we were I still managed to get some shots during the class. I dragged the shutter here in hopes of catching some flash activity and...BANG…nailed it!

Tony from LensPro and Mike from MKD Photography showed up to do a little SLR HD video of the class for us. These guys have the coolest gadgets and make the sweetest videos! Thanks for showing up.

Not sure what they were doing here. Some huge clash of SLR Digital HD video and still capture. I was afraid it could possibly rip a hole in the time-space continuum!

Here is Carolyn getting an angle change.

This was our mock "First Dance" assignment that Meg and Krista tackled. I played the roll of the mock DJ = ).

Some of the assignments were intimidating to say the least, but I think everyone can say they fought through it and came out on the other side feeling like they were able to better than they thought.

Seeing how beneficial hands on workshop can be, I definitely think we are going to push for more.

We are definitely cooking up some even cooler variation of this workshop for the spring and we intend to incorporate even more of what our mills have to offer.

A special thanks to all our models Jess, Tony and especially Kenley who was able to get there on a couple hours notice to fill in as another one of our models was stuck with car trouble.

Andy and Kellie were our "scholarship students" for the workshop representing The New England Institute of Art and Boston University.

Thanks to Prise De Fer Fencing yet again for the use of their facility. Seems like they always have a hand in our trainings one way or another! Thanks you!

Another big thanks to Andy, president of The Professional Photographers Association of Massachusetts, for coming to sit in on the morning session and to ell everyone a little more about PPAM.

So what do the students have to say?....

Check out:

Matt's Blog

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2009-12-31T21:07:00.000-08:00

How do you ring in 2010?

Go to First night in Boston?

NO

Go to New York to watch the Ball Drop?

NO

An All Night Wii Family Bowling Pajama Party in Billerica!

2009 ....3....2....1....2010 !!!!
Happy New Year to Everyone!

Star Wars Fever!: from 1977 to 2009

2009-11-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

Talk about full circle…

So here I am (left) some 32 years ago with my first Star Wars Christmas toys…and here are the boys (right) last weekend with some true to life Star Wars personalities.

So about a month ago (when Gail was not home) I splurged for some tickets to “Star Wars in Concert” for this past Saturday. I was editing images when I heard the music on TV advertising the concert that was coming. I was giddy thinking about bringing the boys there.

After the newer star wars movies came out, my boys were NUTS about it. Light Sabers and Star Wars costumes from Nana took over our house. Boy were amazed when I pulled out my 1977 Land Speeder and some of the original figures. They sure did not stack up to the newer figures!

So when we got into the Garden about 1-1/2 hours before the show started, the halls surrounding the garden were filled with Star Wars original exhibits as well as club fanatics with some of the best costumes I have ever seen in person. When we went to sneak down the elevator to the floor level for our seats, a hole group of them came in with us! (left) I really felt like we were taking a ride in the Death Star elevator being brought to Darth Vader himself.

The boys LOVED the show as did we. It was very well done. Live orchestra, choir, top notch lighting, smoke machines, pyrotechnics, lasers and the world’s largest traveling true HD screen….29 feet high by 60 feet wide! The picture was unbelievable. Sir Anthony Daniels (the man behind C3PO) narrated the show and would introduce each video montage that told the story of the all 6 Star Wars movies. Definitely took me back!

I watched Star Wars for the first time with my sister on the on the roof of my fathers Nova in a sleeping bags at the Drive-in move theater.

Now here I am 38 years old married with two boys who are running around the same house I did with cooler Star Wars toys than I ever had!

The Football Finale!

2009-11-02T06:01:00.001-08:00

(photos by ASA Photographic…of course)

So Sunday brought the end of another Pop Warner football season.

Both Matthew and Steven had thier last games of the 2009 season. As we did last year Gail and I photographed all the kids in action at almost all the games. We posted the images online and for $2.50/ea, parents could download and own whatever photo they wanted. All the proceeds are going toward the end of the year festivities for their teams. We shot and edited through about 9000 frames of their games this year and posted around 2000-2500 of them.

We have a great time capturing the all the kids in action and the parents are always very appreciative.

I helped coach Stevens team this year as I had the last 2 for Matthew. I have to say after spending two years helping to coach the kids on Matthew's team, I missed them this year. However, all the new faces on Steven's team kept me more than busy! "Stay in line!", "Keep your hands to yourself!" "Stop ripping up the grass!"

Amazing to think that’s where they all were mentally not two years ago. They have come a long way!

As CRAZY as the schedule always gets, we love that this sport helps brings us all together with the kids and freinds at the field. They boys stay in shape, get stronger and the team ethics our doing a great job carving out our little men.

And now....well... now we get back about 20 hours a week...YIPEE!

We will miss our family at the field though.

Matthew’s team,the Lil’ Indians, went UNDEFEATED! Eight wins and zero losses. I am not sure how many times that has happened before in his league, but I would bet they had the best record in all Billerica Pop Warner…quite possibly the state!

Steven’s first years with Pop Warner was great! Definetly getting my Rookie of the Year vote.

He had at least several QB sacs to his credit and a fumble recovery/return. Not bad for our little defensive lineman.

An Epilogue for Matthew Shepard

2009-10-20T07:34:00.001-07:00

So, it all started with a call from Mike (Artistic Director at Westford Academy) the other week. “I need some head shots” was the gist of it. “No problem” I thought to myself right? Standard pricing bla bla bla. At the time I was frantically trying to tie up some loose ends with all the senior shoots so I could sneak away for a couple of days and fish the Derby down in MV. I guess at that moment I did not realize just how big this was, but I moved my return date up for the trip so that I could be there as I could tell this was very important to him.

It was not until I spoke with Gail later after she checked in with Mike to get the details that I think she made me understand what it was that we were really working on here with Mike. “How do we charge for this?” she asked me. She paused for a second and then answered her own question with …“We can’t”. She was right. I felt pretty stupid at that point when I realized how right she was.

Westford had been selected as one of only two public high school theater departments in the entire country to be used as a performance location. One of only two in the Bay State! One hundred locations for this reading where chosen across the US, and another fifty outside the US.

All One hundred and fifty theaters where to be joined via simulcast to New York city where actress Glen Close would open the evening.

“The Laramie Project 10 years later -- An epilogue” (by Moises Kauffman) focused on the long term effect that the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard had on the town of Laramie, Wyoming and how in my opinion Laramie as a town itself is a microcosm for the country as a whole. It uses dialogue from actual interviews with the towns people of Laramie and Matthews killers themselves.

For those of you who have not heard of Matthew Shepard, back in 1998 two men spotted Matthew in a bar and targeted him because of his sexual orientation, as his killer states in one of his interviews. In fact they pretended to be gay in order to lure Matthew from the bar. They took him to a remote area east of Laramie, Wyoming and tied him to a split-rail fence. Matthew was severely assaulted and tortured then left there to die. He was found the next day by a cyclist who thought at first that Matthew was a scarecrow (if that helps draw a picture of the condition that Matthew was in).

Matthew died 6 days later due to the injuries he sustained.

About a month after the murder The Tectonic Theater Company went to Laramie to interview the towns people about the how this had affected their community and created the play “The Laramie Project”. On the 10th anniversary, Tectonic Theater Project returned once again to Laramie for a second round of interviews which was the basis for “The Laramie Project 10 years later -- An epilogue”. By that time the original “The Laramie Project” had become one of the most frequently produced plays in America.

Personally I started to remember more and more about this the more I read. I remeber all the news coverage.

So when the Sunday finallt came to get the head shots they were missing a few people…..OK, like 6 of 14 were missing. Needless to say they did not happen that day. Instead I grabbed some P&R photos so they could send them off to the press et…

I went back that following Sunday (day before the performance) to finally get those cast head shots. In keeping with the gravity of the reading, I wanted something a bit more serious for these cast photos. Needless to say, smiling just did not seem to be the right fit this time around.

Well, that Monday evening started with the simulcast from NY with Glen Close as the MC after which Matthew Shepard’s mother came out on stage to speak live to all one hundred and fifty theaters.

The simulcast ended with the hand off of the performances to the individual theaters.

Gail and I didn’t know what to expect.

Mike told me not to worry about photographing the reading itself, but we brought the camera gear just in case we felt compelled.

Again, this was just supposed to be as Mike put it “a reading”.

Well from the second the Westford crew took the stage, We knew it was going to be more than that.

They put so much into there every mannerism, stage placements and just their overall presence.

I found myself immediately reaching for my gear and I took off down the theater wing so I could try my best to capture this while remaining out of sight.

I just could not see myself moving around in the aisle at all during this one.

Read more about this at Westford Academy's site, on Boston.com or in the Lowell Sun among a few of the places.

Hats off to Mr. Towers and all the alumni that came together to tell his story.

Fall Fishing......STAG!

2009-10-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday...Day 4 (coming home)

Wokeup this morning and ran over to the "Big Bridge" (Jaws bridge) and fished a bit then ran over to the Tashmoo inlet hoping to maybe pull one more fish in in time for a quick trip to the weigh-in and just make the ferry. No big surpise as I never saw a fish let alone caught one : ).

Stopped in at the gift shop in VH to grap a little somthing for the kids and drove right onto the boat.

Rough ride on the ferry....... pulling into Woods Hole now....well, until next year.

Friday...Day 3

WIND....WIND...WIND!

Well, thanks to a well timed Nor'Easter, my face is thoroughly wind burned. I have been fishing ALL day and the wind was crazy. Started out this morning on the south side of the island down at Lucy Vincent Beach.

Met up with a couple of guys out there that had already been working the beach with no luck. They were nice enough to snag a shot of me which was better than the one I took (right).

Don’t forget, this was the calm side of the island!

After that I went further east to an area near Philbin beach. A nice quiet stretch of beach with no one around.

I was happy to break my skunked spell with this whopper! Hey, it beats no fish at all. Looks like he was snacking on Sand Eels as he spit this one out after I pulled him up on the beach (right).

This one is for the boat!

After that I hit Gay Head and met up with the guys I bumped into earlier. Defeating the fish shut out, I felt good enough to break out the camera and snag a few shots of them fishing.

From there I hit the jetties at Menemsha, South Beach and East Beach. Not even a sign of fish at all. That small blue I caught was the only fish I had seen all day! Lucky me.

Thursday...Day 2

Woke up around 6:30AM and started out at Wasque (the Southeastern most part of the island). Saw a couple small blue fish brought (I again had no luck).

Drove over to the gut after that and tried my luck there. You guessed it...nothing.

With the storm taking hold, Paul and I went over to the breech. Paul was hoping the wind would push all the bait up against the beach putting al the fish in our lap. Again no luck, in fact we had to move our trucks as the beach was being overrun by the surf. The wind was right in our face. The rain felt like ice cystals bouncing off my cheeks. COLD COLD. Would have been worth it if the Bass were there.

Spent a couple more hours bottom fishing at South Beach before heading back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is the last day of the derby, so I will have to try and fish it despite the Nor-Easter.

Wednesday...Day 1

I am here at Woods Hole waiting for the ferry to pull out.

Hoping to catch the last big fish of the derby this year. Weather is looking like it is going to beat the bag out of me, but I am going hit it as hard as possible!

Had to push it back a week (from last Wednesday) due to a wind advisory, but know is looking like I was better off then. At least it was warm wind! Oh well. The derby ends this Saturday, so I have no choice now.

Once I get over there, going to settle in at the hotel and head right out and get ready for the first tide drop out on Menemsha....enter Jaws music here = ) then over to Chappy for a late night tide drop on the east side of the island.

It was a beautiful night at Menemsha (without fish). Had one strike that was undoubtedly a Blue Fish as it left the tell tale bite that left the squid half gone.

Stopped in at the weigh-in station then went out to South Beach and fished there until about 1 AM. Though this was and will be the nicest night while I am out here, still no fish. There wasn't any mood so the stars were brilliantly painted across the sky. It was nice to just lay there and watch the rod tips against the sky. Wish Gail and the boys could have joined me then. Truly beautiful.

Bigger than life at the BRG!

2009-09-18T12:26:00.001-07:00

So last February I spent the day over at the Boston Rock Gym photographing the Heart of Steal bouldering competition.

Through all the images I took, there was one that I felt nailed it for me. I had been toying with the idea of doing something big with it for a while but I could not decide on what.

Gavin, the BRG manager, told me he had the wall space whenever I rolled something out.

So somehow, not sure what made me think of it, I though about creating a multi-layered composite image that was derived from the original. So I must have printed out a dozen different pieces of this image starting from the parts of the subject that were furthest from the camera and matting and cutting out each part and layering it up as it grew physically closer to the camera. Starting with the background as the base panel, I made a cut out for the head and body, arm, then the wrist, hand and hold.

The finishing touch was using a gloss finish sealer on all of the subject and a matte finish on the background.

That combined with the actual depth of the image really made it POP!

After all that work I was dying to show the guys at the gym.

When the day finally came to bring it in, no one was there. I was so bummed! Well, you know what they say; fail to plan, plan to fail.

Here I am at the BIG unveiling (notice the horde of onlookers in the background).

Well anyway, one by one they all got to see it over the next few days and it seemed to be a hit.

The subject, Jon Glassberg got word of it and also posted it on his Blog. I was hoping he would like it = )

I was expecting it to end up in the changing area in the back, but was I pumped when they hung it up right over the front desk!

I have been climbing at the BRG for 2 years now. It has been one of the best things that I have ever done for myself both physically and mentally. I would highly recommend this to anyone. It is far beter than pumping iron at a regular gym! When you are there, you mind flushes of all other thoughts. Climbing demands your attention unlike a regular gym where I always found my mind wandering.

left:Here is Gavin with a little Vanna White action.

I was expecting it to end up in the changing area in the back, but was I pumped when they hung it up right over the front desk!

Plans are in the making for the "Heart of Steal 2010". I will have see what I can pull off this February.

CRASH AND BURN !!!

2009-09-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

(above: me sinking my teeth into a 10,000 RPM Raptor Hard Drive)

This will go down in the history books as ASA Photographics worst week of computing EVER...at least we hope!!

So we come back from Labor Day weekend to find my computer on the blue screen of death.

After a day and a half of trouble shooting, it looks as if one of my hard drives crashed (I have multiple drives in my CPU). Now this would have been all fine and good if the hard drives were set up in a “RAID 1” configuration (where one mirrors the other). Then I could just boot and run off of the secondary drive. This is the way I thought I had set it up when I bought it and is the way I wanted it set up. No, no, no, it was set-up in a “RAID 0” configuration (in short, loose one, loose them both--why would anyone do this? you ask? Well, it is called "Striping" and it is a performance enhancing set-up, not a back-up system.) Won’t ever make that mistake again. We work extensively on our back-up procedures, so we have not lost any client data, (I repeat-WE HAVE NOT LOST ANY CLIENT DATA) but to replace my drives and start from scratch again is a time consuming and stressfull process.

Again, this will be the first and last time "Raid Zero" happens in our office.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, we start transferring work load onto Gail’s system and guess what…VIRUS TIME! Virus time like I have never seen it before. Her system is completely hosed!

We have been on the phone with our tech for days as he is in Florida.

It is now Friday night and we have turned our dining room into a temporary office with our two old laptops. Our desks where our workstations are looks more like a funeral parlor.

We had so much we needed to tackle this week. Among other things, we wanted to pump out a couple of prints to enter at the PPANE (Professional Photographers of New England) convention in Nashua this weekend. That dream died along with our systems this week.

Right now my system is being restored from a drive image I took a little over a month ago. This will put everything (software, e-mail, and all) back the way it was.

This is the EZ-Gig software that I wrote about on our “Photog’s Blog”. See that…I practice what I preach! That will save us a lot of time and aggrevation. God knows we don’t need any more this week!

Other than that the only thing that is making me feel better is this…

A NICE BIG CHOCOLATE MARTINI

Gail hooked me up. It is Friday night after all = ).

2 Boys, One Sport, No Rest!

2009-08-20T07:04:00.001-07:00

So, we are back into the full Football Swing and things are as crazy as ever.

We are looking at a new record in Senior sessions this year and we are really hustling.

I don't know how Gail does it.

She can keep the scheduling book!

Gail's picture is hanging proudly in the Pop Warner club house so we stopped in to see that.

Ramping up again at the studio...

2009-08-19T06:21:00.000-07:00

So we are getting ramped up at the Studio as our busy part of the season is starting to appear on the horizon.

We met up again with Elizabeth and Julio, one of our past brides and grooms, and they brought a little someone along with them--we can't wait to meet her face-to-face. Liz is an absolutely beautiful expectant mom and she has that glow going. Without question, this is a great time in life for both of them as Gail and I both know, but guys, get your sleep while you still can!

Recently we invited Melinda to come in and help us show off some ideas we have for a little "Senior Flair" as we like to call it. Mom and Dad like the smile shots and we do always take those during the shoot, but photos like these are the type that our seniors like to Facebook. Gail and I are rather fond of them as well. Melinda gets to boasts our first Prom dress session. So much fun!

Gabbi also claims another first on this cool Royal Red background. Her yellow shirt accented the goldnon the background perfectly! We've got lots of ideas to work on with on this one.

And finally, Bridget showed off her skates as well as got a shot or two on the graffiti wall. She marked our first Senior Session from Billerica. Looking forward to capturing more!!! Stay tuned...

Monier and Nick's Wedding

2009-08-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

So after our chance meeting at Scituate Light last year, we have been awaiting their wedding day.

Not to get to get all mushy on you here boys, but if you find a beautiful young lady that looks at you like this... marry her = ).

The wedding party was awesome and we all had a little fun getting these Bride-Groom shots.

With yet another first there was a surf board given to the B&G for all the guests to sign. I believe this was given to the Nick from one of his Groomsmen that used to surf with him. Totally cool idea.

The reception was at held at Lake Pearl Lucianos in Wrentham. Nice venue on a lake that provided us with a nice sunset to utilize.

Mike was there spinning the tunes and kept the crowd jumpin for us.

We had a great time and were able to get some great images for them (at least we hope they like them).

Congratulations to the both of you!

From Wedding Guests to Wedding Photographers

2009-08-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

So our freinds Laura and Jess were married last night.

We danced the night away and had a great time. I don't think we left that dance floor more than a couple of times.

Man, it has been a while since we were guests at a wedding.

This particular shot was taken by Michelle Doherty. This is great picture of all the Billerica parents. Gail did put in an order for this picture by the way, so I am not just stealing it off facebook = ).

She did a great job covering the wedding. Nice work Michelle! It is odd for us to see oursleves in the pictures

We had a Monier and Nick's wedding the next day so we had to get all the dancing done that we could. We so often want to be able jump onto the dance floor at the weddings we photograph, but it is not appropriate unless we get the occasional request directly from the Bride herself.

ASA Photographic Unplugged

2009-08-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

Another Summer trip up into the Notch. No Computer, no cell phone service, just us. Grampy joined us agian for the first few days too.

Together we all tackled a beautiful walk through the Flume.

Here are the boys saving me from a near miss = )

Then we hopped over to Canon Mountian and enjoyed a ride up tto the top on the Tram for lunch. After lunch Grammpy took a nap while we ventured around the top of Canon and took in the sites.

Matthew is starting to get some nice shots with his own little point and shoot. He got this one of this moth or butterfly....not sure what it is...it's just cool.

This year the boys set a new hiking record for themselves. 5 miles up through Frankenstein cliffs and down through Arethusa Falls.

We hiked from about 9AM to about 5PM. Not a small task for little legs. At the top of the cliffs, there was an awesome shear drop that had to be at least a couple hundred feet. Being ever so cautious, we let the boys have a peak over the edge.

By mid afternoon, we reached Arethusa Falls.

The boys triumphant at the falls

On the trail straight out from Arethhusa falls we took a side path down the Bemis brook trail. A very steep climb down that hiked along the river through two more falls. Both very cool.

Steven managed not to fall asleep while roasting a marshmallow this year though he almost went out with a 1/2 a Smore in his hand. That would have been a score for me = ). He managed to pull through it though.

Having our new tent helped us get a little bit more sleep.

Last year we met Joe (aka Rabbit) who was hiking the Appalacian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Keeping with tradition, we went to the AT hikers cabin with our extra steak tips and trimings to see who was in town this year. We were lucky to meet Anya and Josh, a nice couple from George who flew up and started in Maine heading South bound back to Georgia. We got to chat with them a bit and we were able to give them a lift back to the trail head. I think Gail and I both agree that this is somthing that we would have done if given our younger years back again. We are both so facinated with the prospect of "trail life".

Best of luck to the two of you and we will be checking you blog from time to time.

So back at our campground and with our fearless hiking guide at the helm, we hiked all the trails around the campground and found more cool types of plants.

We walked the river back to our campsite and got our "family" picture again on what looks like the same log as last year.....

"2008 Trip"
No, but damn, that's pretty close though.

A Spiritual Weekend in VT

2009-07-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

So a mini-vaca that helped kicked off our summer was a special treat presented to us by Zia Lisa and Roseann (Zia is Aunt in Italian).

They were both working up at a Buddhist retreat center up in the mountains of Vermont for the season when Lisa e-mailed me about a special vistor that they were having.

Nawang Kechong (tough one to pronounce), a world renowned flautist (and Grammy nominated I might add) was going to play a very intimate open air concert at the center.

Gail and I first heard Nawang’s music in Colorado when my mother put the CD on for us one night. We loved it so much that we used to go to sleep to it almost every night. When Gail became pregnant with both our boys, they heard it too = ). In fact we had his music on in the delivery room when they were both born. To this day, they still often fall asleep to his CD when they go to bed. So having the opportunity for them to meet him was a treat for them as well as Gail and I.

To be honest, they were even more excited to see there Zia I have to say = ).

So dropped our stuff off at a nearby in and went over to the center for the luncheon. There Lisa introduced us to him personally and I was honor when I was asked that I photograph the concert for him with my camera as well as his.

He was very nice and took us into his performance area and let me snag this shot of him with the boys. Afterward he signed a couple of CD’s for us too.
too.

I had to step back and laugh at this shot! There I was...way up in the mountians of Vermont at a Buddhist retreat center about to listen to world renown Tibetan flautists and there was my oldest son...front row center sitting indian style on a medation pillow with… with… a Tom Brady Patriots jersey on! “Is this OK?” I had to ask myself over and over. I guess there could have been worse shirts to have on when you let your mind wander a bit = ).

The boys enjoyed watching him create the music that they have heard so much of right there in front of them....front row no less!

It was also nice to see how much others enjoyed his music as well.

It was a beautiful day and his sounds seemed to meld with the winds as they rolled over the mountain. It was by all accounts a very spiritual concert.

I would have liked to have zoned out a bit more myself, but to get the opportunity to photography him here in this settings was truly a once in a lifetime chance and I was taking it!

Thank You Zia's!

For Bragging Rights!... THE MGM GRAND!

2009-06-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

So we did it, its official. The first Wedding Reception held inside the MGM Grand Hotel. Up to this point, they were all held over at an adjacent country club.

We were given this cool opportunity by our Bride and Groom, Carissa and Steve.

I doctored up the sign image above to make it look like the Casino was actually running it. Carissa thought it was cool.

They pulled out all the stops for this one. The pre and post ceremony pics were held at the Father of the Bride's house. Partially perched on a stone ledge overlooking a lake, he constructed the stone stairways and walls that lead up from a beautifully landscaped lawn area to the main house. No shortage of areas to shoot formals here folks.

We just had to put the Guys on the ledge for this pic.

After the mass we returned to the Bride's father house again for all the formals.

From there, we headed over to the MGM Grand at Foxwoods.

We hit the lobby first and met with Ella the Event Coordinator who graciously allowed us a few moments to use the main lobby for some wedding party pictures (I could have spent an hour here easily). The decor inside was in fact...well...GRAND! The really cool part was the wedding party became the entertainment. Every time we would turn around we had a crowd of people watching.

We walked the entire wedding entourage (and I do mean entourage...9 ladies, 7 men, 5 children and the Bride and Groom) through the casino and up two escalators to the function room for the cocktail hour (funny, I don’t think I have ever worked a wedding with an escalator in it...huh...)

This presented us with a "D-ice" sculpture if you will, with built in Martini luge.

The reception hall was easily the largest we had ever worked with something like 15000-20000 square feet. I needed a fish eye just to get the whole head table in the shot! Remember it needed to accomodate 18 adults!

And yes, they partied it up.

After all the main reception events were covered, Gail sent me out on a "walk about" to find a nice spot to photograph the bride and groom to close out their album. We wanted to put them on the Casino floor, but you can not even point a camera in the general direction of the casino or it might be confiscated--we didn't test this theory.

So instead, and with a little help from one of the security guards, I found the front lawn that has a great view of the tower. Though a little foggy and rainy, I thought it would work. I made the call and Gail brought Carissa and Steve out to me. We snagged a couple of shots...I think it works...

We hired the two best men (yup, twins)to sport a little advertising ink for us and Carissa joined in.

After the last dance, we all headed over to the Shrine night club (which was right off the Casino floor) for the after party. What was really cool was that our wedding party got us the VIP treatment and we were whisked past the huge line to get in. Thanks guys!

After the club, we did get a little frivolous and gambled away about $5 in nickels at the slots machines = ).

I don't think we went to bed until about 4AM. Don't forget, that casino is jumping 24-7 and we had overnight babysitters! = )

We woke up at 8:30am that same morning to meet the Bride and her Bridesmaids over at the pool for our first "Trash the Dress" shoot. I jumped in first and got set-up with a camera while Gail shot long. By the time they were ready to go we had a crowd gathered around the pool (staff included). 1...2...3! SPLASH!

As we found out later, a lot of people were looking down from hotel tower itself! We spent the day checking out the establishment, ran into a few people we knew (one of which was our LandLord at the Studio!) and then headed home.

What an event!

A big thanks to Carissa and Steve for a lot of great
firsts = ).

Bets Wishes!

Kerry and James - Our Newport Newlyweds

2009-06-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

Another great wedding weekender.

Gail and I decided to stay overnight for this one.

As beautiful as the wedding location was, we were both physically and technically challenged in ways we have not ever been.

The Bride and Groom were married outside on the water with the sun setting behind them and STRONG winds blowing right in our face (you might remember the “Mothers Day” winds). The wind was so persistent that at one point the bride and groom switched places just to keep the veil from beating up the Groom! Never the less it was a great ceremony!

I think we still managed to pull off some nice shots as well.

We were able to play off the sun for some great shadow shots.

The Ocean Cliffs is a beautiful facility with gorgeous woodwork inside.

The band they had rocked the house. What was really cool was when the brass section ventured out to the dance floor!

We were also blessed in the sense that we got to hang out with another past Bride and Groom who now have beautiful twin girls. Man starting to feel OLD! It was great to see them…ALL four of them = ).

Best wishes you two!

So the next day, taking full advantage of Nana (at home wioth the boys) and our location, we did what any married couple would do when the have a chance to get away without the kids for a weekend……WHAT EVER THE HECK WE WANTED! = ).

We went to the cliff walk and saw some of the mansions, then headed out into downtown Newport on foot--with cameras.

We came across this beautiful firehouse. No doubt one of the most unique ones I have seen. The wedged shape of the building meant that only one truck could pull out at a time or they would get stuck in the doorway. Hmmmm....sounds like one expensive game of chicken if you ask me = )

The guys there were cool and let us snap a couple of shots of them. They were pretty used to it being in such a cool station in such a historic city. I would venture to guess that we were not the first cameras to stop in for a visit here.
Thank you guys!

We finshed the day off at an awesome burger joint and enjoyed our first taste of Blueberry Beer! Sounds weird, but it was REALLY good!

That's a Wrap! -Another Theater Season Comes to an End

2009-06-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

Our Theater troops and Schools knocked down some great shows this year. Some of which were even state final contenders. Let's see...."The King Stag", "The Terezin Promise", "Angels in America", "Beauty and the Beast", "Rent", "Aida","Peter Pan", "I Never Saw Another Butterfly", "Jungle Book", "Bugsy", "Aladin", "Honk Jr." and "High School Musical 2".

Just think we saw all these shows at least twice!

I have posted in this blog just SOME of my personal favorites...

Needless to say I have more than one show tune kicking around in the back of my head!

Here I am (left)with our Seniors from Tyngsboro High School for there last performance of Aida. We have been photographing them since middle school! We will miss all of you! Make sure to come back and visit us. You know where we will be.

Gail and I attended Westford Academy Awards and for the first time we showed up at the Tyngsboro Theater Banquet. It was nice to say goodbye to all our seniors. We enjoyed, like the parents did, watching these kids mature into young adults and see how their talents sharpened and matured.

This shot (right, despite the obvious watermarkings) was taken by our good friend Mr. John Schreiber. He has been working with us a bit to learn some of what we have about the theater photo business. "Nice Shootin Tex". Thanks for the help too!

Gail and I would also like to send a special shout out to Anna and Kelly, a couple of very ambitous young ladies, who ran a local independent theater troop called of A&K Enterpises. We have been shooting there plays for a couple of years now. They pretty much did it all, amazingly. Well, they our now headed off to High School. We wish them well and will keeping an eye on them for sure. That kind of drive will yeild them sucess in whatever they do.

Matt and Kate plus 8?

2009-06-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

Kate and Matt were married at my old church. This has to go down as one of the easiest commutes we have had.

Both very popular with all the kids in the family Kate and Matt shared more than one dance with them.

A couple of firsts at this wedding.

During Formals I was almost struck by a stray golfball. It actually then rolled right up under the dress of one of the brides maids as she was lined up for a picture. I can't even begin to post the jokes that came out of that scenario.

They had a photo booth where people could go in, get there own pictures taken, then get a copy to take home. One copy went into the bride and grooms own scrapbook. The wedding guests shattered the record for number of people in the booth at one time. From 19 to 23!

We got to hang out with Curtis and Anna of Curtis Knight Entertainment. Curtis did a great job (as always) in getting the crowd on the floor for this shot and for a little "Sweet Caroline".

The Tewksbury Country club is one of the most unique facilities we have been to in terms or it's architecture. It poses a nice break from the more common rectangular reception halls. It is kind of a octagaonal shape with beautiful open wood beam constuction with a large stone fireplace on one side. This is all made even nicer by the fact that we live like 10 minutes away. Gotta love it when you can shoot a local wedding.

Best Wishes to Kate and Matt!

GOING CRAZY!!!!

2009-06-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have not had an entry in a while.

With the winding down of Theater season, this means everyone is crossing the finish line at once. Throw on top of that three weddings (1 down 2 to go)our regular Studio sessions, bridal meetings, Westford Academy Awards, orders due like 5 shows.... OH! don't forget Soccer and Baseball for my two favorite athletes and June becomes instant INSANITY!

I will have to do a recap e-mail in the near future.

We had a great time down in Newport RI for a beautiful wedding at the Ocean Cliffs. Got some great pics that we will have to share.

We also had or first shot at Harvard's Bromfield school with their production of Peter Pan (with a flying cast!)

We will be down at Foxwoods in two weeks!

We will be the first photographers to shoot a full wedding at the MGM Grand Hotel!

We Can’t Wait!

Later!

ADOBE SMART OBJECTS CLASS - HOO RAW!

2009-05-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

Another great day with one of my favorite teachers/instructors, Ted Dillard. Nobody I know can physically show the importance and advantages of the RAW workflow like he can.

It also show me that Adobe is starting to give Photoshop users the same RAW power that is Lightroom users have. Sweet.

A lot of the Smart Object interfaces are similar to the Lightroom controls.

We raffled off another Hunt Photo and Video card to a lucky winner as well as one of Ted’s RAW Pipeline Smart Object books.

And yet another big thank to JB from PPAM for letting me steal a couple of class pics off of him. He always has his camera at the ready.

As good as the class was I, as a host, got started off with yet another example of good old Murphy’s law in the morning.

This pictures shows both of the projectors I had on hand and that box in the middle is an extra bulb.

The night before I had BOTH working in that very same room with a witnesses. What could go wrong?

Take a guess what happened. The Epson lamp did not turn at all and the extra bulb I had was for the other model.

The other worked on my PC but did not on Ted’s Mac, where all the training material was.

GOTTA LOVE THAT! I was quite literally ready to bite my way through a freaking tree.

My last saving grace was our neighbors upstairs at Prize de Fer fencing club. The lent us there LCD TV.

Another BIG thank you to them for saving the class. A thanks goes out to the class as well for dealing witgh that situation.

Needless to say one of the class surveys asked for “better A/V prep”. Not to disagree from their perspective. I would have wrote the same thing, but damn it! From my perspective I could not have done anymore than I did. Two projector and an extra bulb! What the F&@#!

Once we were up and running it took me an hour and a half just for my blood pressure to return to normal. Another good war story I guess.

Another Theater season starting to wrap up…

2009-05-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

A one-two punch at Tyngsboro…

The Middle School preformed “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” then the High School picked up part two of this story in “The Terezin Promise”.

Back to back shows that depicted the lives of Jewish youth during the Holocaust.

John from John F. Schreiber Photography was there with me to get a taste of the Theater Photog life. He nailed some great shots!

Middlesex Community College's “Cabaret”

Shall we say… a little risqué = )

MCC once again transformed their compact performance area in to a swanky little German night club.

Westford Academy’s “Rent”

Everything is Rent!

The kids at WATA cranked out yet another BIG musical this year with “Rent”. Incredible set and lighting work and some unbelievable vocal performances put this show over the top.

Kudos to all the cast and crew!

Sam’s Back! - Don’t hit me Mr. Chicken!

2009-04-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

Last year after Sandy Puc’s seminar, Gail and I took the big step forward and got into our new studio. Gail especially was affected by, if you will, “Puc Power”..OK, that’s bad.

Gail was also truly moved by Sam’s co-founding of NILMDTS and joined the local chapter shortly there after. NILMDTS is network of photogs that donate there time and work free of charge to parents of newborns that never make it out of the hospital. Very tough work, but extremely important to the parents that need it and ask for it.

Honestly and truly passionate about what she does, Sam is very easy to draw inspiration from, but foremost actual usable techniques and advice. I have been to other seminars that are full of hot air and I am p*&%!d off when I leave. This has never been the case with Sam and that is why Gail and I love her some much.

As for the chicken...to long of a story to type for me right now. Call me, I will tell you about it.

Shooting for the Stars!

2009-04-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

What does an Attorney, a Photographer, and a Pop Star have in common?

Sounds like a Lawsuit doesn’t it!

Lucky for us, this is not the case, because we were the photographers.

We spent all of last Saturday at the Woburn Hilton taking pictures for Pop Star Parties.

This was one big party where kids get to be treated like Pop Stars for a day. They could walk the Red Carpet with Miss Massachusetts & Miss Teen Massachusetts, learn dance moves from Suzanne's Dance Connection of Burlington, Sing with music teachers, get some fun jewelry to wear, perform a music video together as a family and of course get photographed by yours truly.

James Haroutunian (of Haroutunian Law Office’s),his wife Amy, daughter Isabel and son Jack were responsible for bringing this day into reality. A great cause benefiting the Burlington, Billerica, Wilmington, Melrose, Stoneham, and Wakefield public libraries.

We had a GREAT time. Some of the lovely young ladies felt the need to get me involved and adorned me with some lovely accessories.

Go ahead, make your comments…..I had a good time!

Here is one of my favorite shots...

...though second only to OUR OWN COUNTY BOY!

And here is another entry for the “Tales of the Traveling Tattoos”…..very sheik = )

You can read more about the benefit here.

On Guard! - Prise de Fer Fencing Tournament

2009-04-17T11:17:00.001-07:00

Our first First Fencing gig...in the bag!

Prise de Fer Fencing Club, our neighbors upstairs at the studio, recently held an all girls tournament down at Dana Hall in Wellesley. WOW what a beautiful place!

Dave and Ariana gave us full access to the event (and a couple of free goodies at the snack bar too = ). The two of us had a GREAT time watching and shooting creatively.
I am hoping the next one happens to find an open slot in our schedule. I want to experiment with more angles and approaches. You can check the other images out here.

I have to say that Fencing is one of those sports that doesn’t get a lot of primetime coverage, but if you get a chance to see it up close and personal, you must take it! I have seen it only rarely on the Olympics, but standing along side one of the dueling lanes, I got it. It is in an Art form. Fencing is truly a culmination of body, mind, and spirit as well as physical ability, strategy and risk. Combining all these into one activity is about as healthy an activity as you can find out there for body, mind, and soul. Team sports, though fun and have there place, don’t keep you focused like this does. You can’t rely on your team mates to pick-up the slack for you. It is you and you only. You must demand more from yourself.

and Oh Yea....GREAT SOCKS!

You won't find this kind of "girl" flare at an all boys comp!

Fifteen Minutes of Fame?

2009-04-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

Gail and I have been fortunate enough to be featured in the new members' profile of the Professional Photographers Association of New England April 2009 Newsletter.

This is the most accurate bio to date that we have on the two of us...I think???

Go to Pages 13 and 15
Check it out!

Chaulk one up for Gail!

2009-04-07T08:11:00.001-07:00

Every year it has been a Billerica Pop Warner Tradition for the “A” squad (BIG kids) to play a game against the smaller kids. Mind you, the big kids have to play on there knees! It is just a fun night for all and the big kids really are great sports about the whole thing. Every so often they do throw a little guy or two over there shoulder, but they are very gracious to say the least.

So Gail was shooting at last years match up and NAILED this shot. It just so happens to be very own number 30 in the picture.

Truly a perfectly captured moment!

She was insistent on processing this image so I gave her the wheel for this one.

So at the awards banquet this past February, she thought it would be nice to give the parents of the “larger” boy a copy. In doing so the gentlemen from Pop Warner saw it and told her that they wanted a large copy for the club house! Well, she did that and more. She enhanced the presentation and then perfectly named the print “Brotherhood” in big text across the bottom.

When she unveiled the print in the clubhouse during sign ups, she got the reaction every photographer works so hard for! A couple of the ladies were misty eyed and even the guys were set back. “I have goose bumps” one of them said.

Billerica Pop Warner has one of the largest programs Nation wide! The people there work very hard at what they do and are passionate about it, as we are about our craft. I think for them, having an image like this embodies why it is they volunteer so much of there time and is very vindicating. The image is just so powerful on so many levels and at the same time fun. GREAT JOB BABE!

I was very proud of her to say the least and happy for her as well. I just knew it was going to hit a chord or two so I made sure to bring our little camera to take a few pics.

For Staci...

2009-04-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

Together with "Team Colby", we were victorious on our 2009 Walk for MS.

Thank you again to all of you who donated!

Here is our hero, Staci, crossing the finish line.

We did the walk this past Saturday. The Gods were on our side as we had a perfect weather window and we got to enjoy the beautiful Newburyport scenery.

A great cause, a great day, spent with good friends...what else do you need?

Gail got to reminisce a bit as she got to walk around her old stomping grounds. She lived out some of her younger years in a house here on Tyng street with Gram = )

Personally, I did this walk with the best intentions and with all sincerity, yet it is so hard to really identify with someone else's reality. I go home and I am detached and safe in my own little world, but for others who fight this and similar afflictions, they live and fight with it everyday.

For me, the reality was in Staci’s eyes all that day. That is when it hit home for me.

I try and stop as often as possible to think what really matters to me. My boys, my wife, family and good friends…..the rest can just fall away.

To be honest I am sure I still don’t have a clue what it means to have this looming over my everyday life.

We all push around the B.S. every day of our lives and lost in the noise is the important stuff that really matters. Then we are fortunate enough to get these reminders about what really counts.

For this day anyway…..I walk with her.

We love you Staci = )

Help fight Multiple Sclerosis!

2009-04-04T04:08:00.000-07:00

George is right--Billerica's play is definately worth seeing! There is a matinee today at 2pm and a show tonight at 7:30pm.

We have a slide show running in the lobby if you see the show--please stop by and check it out! However, George and I won't be at the matinee today--instead, we will be walking the MS Walk in Newburyport in support of a good friend of ours who is living with Multiple Sclerosis.

If you would like to make a donation to help fight MS--I have attached the link to our donation page...

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Beauty and the Beast - Belle has a Secret!

2009-04-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

JUST KIDDING! JUST KIDDING!

Emily just could not resist a little comic relief here at the dress rehersal.

This could possibly be the “Beauty and the Beast, part II”. Boy is the prince in for a rude awakening!

The students at my High School alma mater (Billerica High) are knocking out a BIG show this weekend. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Bring the kids and enjoy, but HURRY.

They look as if they have sold out the next couple of shows, WAY TO GO!

Check it out

You can view pictures from the show HERE(this link will be live by 4/5/09).

Best wishes Ashley and Jacob!

2009-03-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

Congratulations and Best Wishes to the Saads! They were married in a private ceremony in Billerica this past weekend.

Mark from Curtis Knight Entertainment kept everyone moving and the caterers, Mr.Jack's Catering, kept everyone happy!

Here is one more for the Tale of the Traveling Tattoo! (Don't forget to send us in your photos!)

Keep a look out for Ashley and Jacob's album in the coming weeks!

Our first class is now history!

2009-03-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

The first class at ASA Photographic Studios is now a part of history.

Thanks again to JB of Special Effect Photograhy for his picture contributions.

Gail and I had a wonderful time hosting this first training class and hanging out for the day with other photogs.

During the afternoon break, we took everyone on a walk around the grounds. We also brought people up to the Studio. It was very cool to share it with everyone.

Some things we, as hosts, learned = )
-Ask the furniture shop above us to turn off their air compressor the night before a training = )
-When you make coffee for the afternoon session, don’t leave it in the kitchen. Put it out so people know its there (yes we read your surveys!) We're sorry about that! = )
-Labeling everyone’s lunch orders is an easy way to win points with starving students!
-Tweak lights

How good was our class? Well, so good that Mac and PC users co-existed peacfully!

From student to raffle winner! One Hunt gift card went to a Billerica native.

Overall, it was a great overview of Lightroom. It both enlightened us to a couple of features that we weren’t using and reinforced for us how thoroughly we know and use this program.

From this class we are inspired to pull together follow up power sessions that shows how we use Lightroom to significantly increase the quality, organization and efficiency of our workflow. This will be hands on workshop focusing 80-90% on the Library and Develop modules. This, for us, is where Lightroom shines…..

Let us know if you would be interested in joining us for “Lightroom for Lightspeed”. Date to be determining, but we are considering Monday/Tuesday evenings starting around 6pm.

A big thanks to everyone again for joining us at the beginning of our new venture!

Adobe Lightroom Training - Sunday March 15th

2009-03-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

As most of you should know by now, the first class at ASA Photographic will be a full day of Adobe Certified Lightroom Training on Sunday, March 15th 9AM to 5PM.

Proudly, our first instructor we will be Jeff Shaffer of Shaffer Smith Photography LLC. You can read more about Jeff by clicking the link.

Click here for more information on the class and Jeff Shaffer.

Don't Forget! Register by March 8th to be entered into our classroom raffle to win 1 hour of one-on-one online training with Jeff. More goodies will be raffled off too!

OK, here is where I get to express my opinion without too much filtering from Gail.

George's opinion...
"Adobe Lightroom is hands down the best tool to be put out for photographers since, dare I say it, Photoshop itself! Whether you run high or low picture volumes, if you are not looking at Lightroom, YOU ARE MISSING THE BOAT!"

Yes Lightroom is a slightly different animal at first that you need to adjust to, but once you grasp the power of the workflow, you will NEVER go back. Photoshop is still as great as ever, but Lightroom takes 90% of the "normal" things you would do to an image (or to 1000 of them) and streamlines it beyond belief. I personally edited through 50,000 images last year with relative ease.

Other benefits: Organizing your images in endless ways and making them more accessible then ever. Easily keep you best work in virtual favorite folder without ever having more than the original files to reference. The printing module is a dream!

We’d love to hear your feedback and we hope you will spread the word! If you have any questions please e-mail me at george "at" asaphotographic "dot" com.

PPAM - Always striving to be better!

2009-03-01T08:19:00.000-08:00

WOW! Gail and I had a GREAT time at PPAM last weekend. For those of you who do not know what PPAM is, it is the “Professional Photographers Association of Massachusetts.” The conference was a four day photo fest in that left us inspired, overloaded, educated, entertained, overwhelmed, humbled and broke (just kidding, but you can't help but to buy stuff at these conferences!) We found areas that we need to improve and also had some of our own little victories.

Most of all, we made a lot of new friends...too many to list!

We jump started our first PPAM convention with a great portrait presentation with Master Photographer Don Chick. We made many notes to try and put to use in our own studio set-up. Thanks Don!

Here we are with Rene and Joan Genest. A husband and wife team whom we identified with immediately. They did a live baby/child portrait session--Gail and I could not stop laughing at how their professional relationship paralleled ours. They were truly inspiring to us and we learned a lot of great techniques from them. So thanks to the two of you as well!

We also met Tracey Budabin from Sucessware. Photo courtesy of JB (Thank you JB!)

Poor Tracy--we literally had our own private “husband and wife photographers with kids” counseling session right there at her expo table!

Tracy, I personally want to thank you for giving my wife some hope! We will be starting to work with Successware as soon as we get it!

Dan Doke had us up early on Saturday, though it was worth it. Once again showing us that he can go to any venue we have worked at before and find an even better perspective then we did! Damn you Doke! = ) Keeps us on our toes though.

Mike Fulton from TriCoast Photography had to be one of my personal favorites.
He was the final speaker at PPAM and I did not know he was going to show off the new Radio Poppers! I have been a fan of the poppers from V1 and I think I was the only one in the room who had taken delivery on the newest Px units so it was awesome to be able to talk to Mike about them! I nearly leapt out of my seat with excitement. Gail thought I looked like I was a kid at Disney Land.

I can’t tell you how wireless TTL has changed our workflow and it was the GREATEST thing to have Mike out there talking about it. I am hoping to get Mike into our studio sometime to run some hands on workshop as well.

Gail and I had entered some of our work to be judged. I had no idea what to expect and I was blown away at the spectacle of it all. It was like an Olympic judging panel all lined up in front of a rotating neutral gray cube under calibrated lights each with their own electronic scoring pad! They were allowed to debate each piece too as they felt necessary.
All our entries were scored in the high seventies on a scale of 100. A couple even were seen a second time for possible upgrade to a merit which would be an 80 or better. And, one of my prints actually was considered "Deserving of Merit" with a score of 80. I was so pumped. On the same note, Gail entered two electronic albums for judging and both were seen twice for possible merit! The bummer is she just missed it on BOTH! We learned the difference between client albums and competition albums. The fact that she came so close showing client albums was excellant. She's is going to tighten the albums up for competition and present them at PPANE in September.

We would not have entered at all if it was not for Nancy Green. When we showed up at her studio to drop off our submissions on the final day of entries (classic "George and Gail" I might add), she showed us how a comp print is typically presented.
Horrified at how we had "mounted" ours, I was ready to take my home again and wait until next year! She quickly talked me down and told us to enter them anyway. So quite literally, I owe my first 80 to her, "Thank you Nancy!" Nancy took the creative theme category this year for her depiction of “Security.” Nice job Nancy! A total sweet heart made even better by the fact that she gives GREAT hugs and loves to PARTY!

Here she is in PARTY mode as a matter of fact! She might just kill me for this one = )

Jeff and Karen Baker hung out with us too. Jeff, Gail and I were running around securing seats for each other at all the seminars. We had it down by the end!

After the awards were all gone (thanks to Jennifer Hudson and Paula Swift) and the sessions over, as fried as we were, it was a bummer when the conference came to a close...though it was a relief to have this babysitting NIGHTMARE over with!

As great of a time as we had with our new family at PPAM, nothing can touch cuddling up with ours = )

A VERY VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO CHRISTINE, NONNO AND GRANDMA, JEN AND JAVIER, GRAMPY, CARRIEANNE, RICHARD, AND LAURIE FOR HELPING US TO MAKE THIS CONFERENECE ATTENDABLE! Do you guys have plans for September 12-15th?

This one is for me.....BRAGGING RIGHTS!

2009-01-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

OK, ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING TO DO WITH PHOTOGRAPHY HERE, BUT.......HOW AWWWWWWESOME IS THIS!!!

Eat your heart out Dad!

One 1972 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Ring!!

A co-worker brought this in for me. His Grandfather worked for the Bruins back in the day (Orr, Cheevers, Cashman, Esposito, the original "Garden", no helmets).
He was there when they won their last Stanely Cup...1972.

My dad and I used to watch them faithfully. We would even get to a game every now and then. Good memories = ).

So it was just too cool to slip this ring on during what will be without question their most unbelievable season EVER! If they do it this year, it will make this moment even sweeter.
Thank you Ryan!

Boston Rock Gym's HEART OF STEELBoludering CompetitionWOW....WOW....WOW...

2009-01-26T08:02:00.000-08:00

OH MY MAKER (trying to be P.C. here)
The moves we witnessed this weekend would not be believed unless seen.

Check out this slide show for a peak at the day...

and/or check out the gallery for images.

The comp was a huge success. Our hats off to Gavin, Chris and the whole crew at the Boston Rock Gym in Woburn, MA. The gym was full of vendors and a car from Woburn Scion no less. Life Under Sun, JRA Cycles, REI, Northface, Mantis Collective, Totally Sweet (Vegan cookies ROCK! I can say from personal experience), WFNX, and of course yours truly, were all on hand. Hiking gear, camping gear, climbing gear, etc...and Money! Money! Money! was won and raffled off at the event.

The day ended with the final rounds where 3 male and 3 female climbers had top two routes, having 8 minutes on each. A new twist that the BRG put on this comp was taping money along each route.

One of the female climbers lifted the money up ever so gently with her toes, reached with one hand down to her feet and plucked the cash off the wall--all while hanging by one hand! Another just did a double toe pluck!

On the final men's route, a pole was hung out over the top of the structure with a hundred dollar bill attached (nice tape job Chris).

The final male climber topped this route with the crowd cheering him on. The crowd EXPLODED as he pulled off some absolutely INSANE moves and swung to the top to claim the Heart of Steel 2009 title.

I present to you the comp winners! Make no mistake about it, these climbers are nothing short of Olympic atheletes. What they can do is simply amazing!

For the first time Gail and I modified our wedding display to be a bit more on the hip side as we knew prospective brides were not likely to be looking for us there.

In preparation for this event, I spent more than a few dust hours last week balancing precariously atop the climbing walls (where no one goes normally) vacuuming chalk dust to make my day of crawling around up there and shooting a bit cleaner (and it was). Totally worth my time by the way. The last time I tested out these angles I was a human chalk ball in minutes.

My goal for the day was to try and catch it. When I say "it", I mean that moment...that moment when you think you are about to reach beyond your personal ability...stretching, reaching...RISKING. That moment where failure and falling is a real possibility, but, if you don't reach for it you can never advance. I think I caught a few of those moments and more. I've been a member of the gym for a over a year now and I think that definitely helped me connect visually with the climbers... though I could not keep up with half of them = ).

ASA's Tales of the Traveling Tattoo got some new photo entries for the Facebook account as we had a few climbers sporting them during the day...

How psyched were Gail and I to see one of the female finalists walk up to the wall with and ASA Photographic tattoo right across her chest!

We also got some cool images that were just screaming for an artsy twist. This has to be one of my favorites. I think I will print it out and see if I can hang it in the gym. Sweet wall art!

The great thing about climbing though is that you don't have to be an insane boulderer/climber to feel that risk and payoff. Pushing the bounds of your own skill level is what it is all about. You push, you risk, you fall, and you keep on working the problem until you get it. I have said it before and I will say it again: climbing is one of the best forms of personal training...mentally and physically. Gail and I have been taking the boys and letting them go at their own pace.

In with the New Year.....I need to catch up!

2009-01-06T16:30:00.000-08:00

So at last entry, fall was coming to a close. This meant the end of our oldest boy’s Pop Warner football season. Though we miss watching the kids play, this opened a huge part of our crazy schedule. As an annual tradition, the “A” squad (the oldest boys) play the youngest kids. The big kids are forced to play on there knees in efforts to even the odds a little. It is cool to see how great the older boys are with the young kids. Gail snagged this AWESOME shot of one of the older boys walking with Matthew back to the line.

We had our last wedding of the season with Gerry and Hanna.

So here is a great Wedding story. Gerry and I knew each other back in High School. After graduation,
I would have to say we had not seed each other for 7 or 8 years and then he started popping up at wedding jobs that we were shooting for other clients. It became a running joke between Gerry and I. I used to tell him that one day if he was lucky that I would shoot his wedding. Then it happened. Gail and I were shooting Gina and Geoff’s wedding and there he was again, except…..wait a minute…who is that with him? Hannah was as nice as she was beautiful. I remember telling Gerry specifically “don’t let that one get away”. Fast forward about a year and the call came in. We were excited that they chose us to shoot their wedding.

Hanna was absolutely stunning in a dress that was no doubt made for her. Not to be outdone so easily, Gerry went and topped our “Best Enterance by a Groom” category by landing on the lawn of the Castleton in a helicopter. Once the helicopter left though, it was all Hannah again (sorry Gerry).

They were also officially our first Bride and Groom to sport our new ASA Tattoos. They have officially kicked of our “Tales of the Traveling Tattoo” Tour. There are a few more out currently that we are hoping will come back with a picture.

Our last few Seniors of the year came through the studio. This included our first Billerica Student. We have been able to get more photo props in as well and we have been having a great time getting creative with them.
I feel like it and so much more dimension, style and attitude to a shoot. So when we ask you to bring something like this, please do it! I tell everyone whatever will fit through the door will work if it has some significance to you.

We also saw our first hometown Senior and I was able to try out some of my new image templates to pull together a custom composite.

New couples on the marital countdown…

Soon to join our photo family are two more great couples. As always, we have fun bringing them into the studio for an engagement shoot.

Stock site starting to Ramp up…At LONG LONG last I have been able to start adding images to the Stock site. I am trying to get all the older slide work uploaded first, though some of the newer images have been sneaking in as well. I can not wait to get all of them up. To be able to shoot and upload my images right away will be awesome. Check them out and let me know what you think. You can browse them by content, location, or popular New England location by using the menu tree on the upper left or use the keyword search box. They are available for download. I will most likely get some sort of promo going and send out coupons just to get some site traffic.

These images are from my “White Dress” series. When I was younger and had a little more time, I was able get more creative then time has permitted me in the last 8 years. It will come around again.

Check out some stock images from all over New England...

Another Theater Season off and running…
Kicked off by a King Stag double header, BMHS and Westford academy
Westford

BMHS

Superstar productions Followed with a very cute rendition of the Jungle book at the Harvard Elementary School.

MCC
In another great transformation of a limited performing area, MCC kicked out another great performance with “A Mid-Summer Nights Dream”.

Are into Facebook?
So without me even knowing, Gail has got us rolling on Facebook. You can check us out here. I don’t know the first thing about it, but guess it is the “in” thing now.