The Fall Fishing Trip Is Here Again!

This is a picture from one of our previous trips. We NAILED the Bass that year. These fish are all 40" plus! Of course in my confusion to set this picture up in the total blackness out on Wasque, I was the one who holds his fish sandy side to the camera.






Monday 10/13

The Blues Brothers Ride Again!

Much to Gail's dismay, I am off to the Vineyard for a week of fishing with the guys. I am keeping everyone posted just to rub it in a little! We'll be fishing the Martha's Vineyard Stripped Bass and Bluefish derby again this year. We have been going to the Vineyard for this trip since '93.

We missed the Vineyard last year to visit our newest team member Billy on his home turf down in North Carolina. Of course it was the best Derby on record since we were not there!

It was a nice change in pace as I have never been fishing in my bathing suit in the water in October around here.



The report for this year is not looking good as all the bait fish seem to be gone. We can keep our fingers crossed though for a late run.




Tuesday 10/14

We have landed...

What a great house we have this time check out our back yard!




We spent the first couple of hours here snagging fresh scallops from the "back yard" = )



Here are the boys prepping the first dinner.


We spent a little time on the east beach casting but we were just killing time waiting to get into the house.

First fish goes to me again!

Just a small schoolie from the kayak off the back of the house but a fish none the less. Did not have the camera with me in the kayak so, sorry, no pics = (






Wednesday 10/15




Here is Billy hanging out enjoying the view this morning from our back porch.






Dragging an eel this morning from the canoe and WHAM! This thing towed me around like a water skier =)














Thursday 10/16


No fish today. We just hung around the house for the first part of the day and fished then headed out and visited Menemsha and Lucy Vincent Beach









We went out to Cape Poge and rolled the beach all day. Stopped for lunch up toward the lighthouse.

Here is Bri cooking it up.



On our way back we saw some Albies breaking on the inside of the gut, but no luck snagging them.







As it turns out, we would have better luck in our back yard again...

Billy is in!!!

He snagged this one from the shore on a drifting eel. He is pumped. This is a big fish where he comes from.


















Friday 10/17

Last night I went out again to the inlet and fished until 4 AM. Saw some fish being caught, but I could not get one on. I will need to get some sleep or I will fall over.
The kayak trip back to the house was simply beautiful though. Stars, moon, a couple of clouds.....I just laid back and floated there with my MP3 player.

We have been fishing out by our place in the morning and in the evening with no luck.
We pulled up to Squibnocket beach today for lunch and fished the majority of the day with no luck.

Sunny days are always a good time for some cut bait on the bottom (lazy man fishing).
We got a little rest in too. = )
Rick jumped in and went body surfing.
Brian learned some oil painting from a local artist.







On the way back to the house, Billy stopped in to pay his respects to the infamous John Belushi.




















Home finally....Nappy Time






Saturday 10/18

Last day of the Derby

Hi Matthew and Steven !! I finally got to sleep in a little today. Rick started cooking up some pasta sauce for dinner later.


Around lunch time the boys saddled up and headed for Gay Head. I decided to stay local and fish the Tashmoo inlet for the rest of the day. The tide would be going out all afternoon and this would be the last chance that I would have to catch another fish to enter into the derby. Despite my best efforts, I could not land another fish to enter. I wanted to go out trying. According to everything we have been hearing, we have been very lucky to catch what we did. Hey, it was cool to be on a very short list on the Derbies website, Check it out! about half way done the page.


Bri Billy and Rick went out and visited Gay Head Lighthouse and showed Billy the other end of the island.





Later they met up with me at the inlet and along the way the stopped in and visited Diane Saywer's house.

















Sunday 10/19

Another trip (and Derby) for the books...

So last night Rick and I went down for the last hour of the derby weigh-in and watched as they rang the official closing bell for the 2008 Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Blue Fish Derby. It proved to be one of the slowest derbies on record. We did pretty good considering they were recording days with NO fish being caught.
We went to the Awards Ceremony by the MV airport and watch two lucky overall winners out of 8 take home a new truck and a new boat.

We ended the trip as we always do, shopping for gifts for the family.

On the way over to Oak Bluffs we ran into a bunch of kite boarders on the inner bay of East Beach.
The wind was sooooo crazy out of the Northeast, these guys were jumping like 30 feet off the water.
I was really bumming that I did not have my camera bag in the car. If I did, I would have been there for hours.



When we did finally drive into Oak Bluffs, the waves were crashing over the sea wall and flooding the road.Brian was freaking out as the salt water was battering his clean car = )
Luckily, Billy lent me his camera and I was able to grab these shots.

Well, until next year,the rods will rest until spring.

Seniors, Apples, Pumpkins, and Footballs

Seniors, Seniors, Seniors

Man!, we have been busy little photographers lately.




We have been getting some great students in and having a great time! We continue to explore the studio and it's grounds. It was a nice change to have a few young men come through and allow us to work with some "guy" lighting and posing.

Getting caught in the act...

Boy, talk about how to ruin a great picture! Sorry Jackie! (If you like that picture, I will photoshop my ugly mug out for you ) To you as well, Tom--sometimes I just can't help myself. Proof positive that I should stay on the other side of the camera = )

The Mystery Assisants...

Who are they, and where do they come from you ask? Friends, family, boyfriends and girlfeinds often become part of the show here at our Studio.












It never hurts to have an extra set of hands.....even better when they are free = )

It's that time of year again...

Apple picking. It is how we officially acknowledge the end of the summer and look forward to another beautiful Fall here in New England. I think it is required by law = ). Luckily our family enjoys it. Gail always gets a shot of the boys in an Apple tree somehow or another and I am always looking to add to my stock photo collection.













Look at these cute Pumpkins! We just had to take them home with us = )




This year on the way to Smolack Farms, we got a little lost. When we drove buy this barn, I nearly locked up the brakes. I had to nail a couple of shots of it. I will have to go back there at sunrise or sunset and check out the lighting when the leaves pop a little more.
Our other big thing this time of year is to hit the Topsfield Fair. Another annual ritual. I think we will tackle that next week with the kids.

Bringing in the mood…and some attitude.

Whenever time permits, we love to capture an image that we feel is just a little unique for each client. We want our customers to remember that that is why the come to our Studio.

I will let the pictures speak for themsleves.

Ready... Set... HIKE !

So football is officially into high gear. Matthew has been working hard and has started to get some recognition as an Offensive Lineman. I am not sure why, but he seems to be up against some much biggere kids. We had a game against Malden a couple of weeks ago and I would have sworn that the person he was up against was one of the coaches filling in!



Here he is in action against Wilmington. they are 1-2 so far this year. They held Walpole at the 5 yard line at the end of the 4th quarter to take their first win.

The 2008 Shutter Click Count stands at 44,277! (not including our personal camera of course) and yes, I have personally gone through everyone of them.

A Chance meeting at Scituate light…

(with hopefully our next Bride and Groom)

So Gail and I were hanging out on the jetty at Scituate Light with the kids just enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon, when we noticed a couple being followed around by several people with cameras.




















I figured that they must have just announced their engagement. Not being able to help myself (like an personal injury lawyer who happened to be a first-hand witness to a car accident), I asked what they were all doing.


As expected, they were trying to take a picture to announce their engagement. Eventually I was unable to help myself, and I had to ask if we could take some pictures for them. Gail and I sprang into action. We spent only a few minutes with them, but we had a lot of fun.











I could have killed for a diffuser and a bounce disk or two, but I think we did alright considering. Not bad for "roughing it" = )

Continuing to find our niche at the Studio…

So we have yet to find an end to all the spots that we can shoot in at the Studio.



It seems like we find a new area to shoot around every corner.




We really could not have dreamt up a better location for a photo studio.














We also rang in our first "Square it and Share it" shoot. That's: 2 seniors, 2 outfits and 2 hours.








Technically that would be cubing it, but I'm not going to bust Gail's chops with that. It was such a great idea that she came up with, I thought I could let it ride.
(Ya, he is funny isn't he? Gail)

Two more weddings and two more great couples for the books…

We had a great time shooting both. One right on Buzzards Bay near Cape Cod and the other at the Crowne Plaza in Nashua.

We were able to pull together some real fun shots at both.

Gail is hard at work on the albums as we speak.

ASA Photographic - Making Headlines on both sides of the camera…

So we have been crazy busy since we got back from vaca (see last blog entry).To add a little more crazy to the mix, our oldest son started Pop Warner Football again. That adds practice 4 nights a week to the nut farm. And we could not be two normal bystanders, no no no, we have to be the team mom and assistant coach. (Ya think we're trying to compensate for dragging our children out to meetings and shoots? =) Gail) We truly do enjoy it though. This is our second year andbeing part of helping the kids (all thirty-one of them) learn and grow is truly special. (Yes, of course we snap a few shots for the parent too! How can we not--they are so cute! I think their pads weigh more then they do! Gail)

So during one of the first few practices, Matthew and I made the Billerica paper (Thanks Ellen). That was cool, it is not often that I get caught on the other side of the camera!

Just a couple of weeks later, my cousin stayed with us down in Onset so she could run the infamous "Falmouth Road Race." Well, without telling her, I snuck down to Falmouth and was able to make my way right to the finish line (Do you think the cameras and long lenses dangling from my neck may have helped?) and capture her as she crossed the line. FYI-She finished 140th out of 10,000 and she was the 31st woman to finish! WOW!
Not expecting me to be there, I took great pleasure in screaming her name after she finished and scaring the bag out of her. I guess that was not the safest thing to do to someone who just sprinted 7 miles, but it made her laugh so it was cool. I knew she could handle it as she is an established marathon runner. I have lost track of how many Boston Marathons she's run. To top it off, I was also able to get this photo into the local paper which was just too cool.