Dell's Lemonade

So I photographed this little girl at John & Irene's wedding. Do you think she should be the new poster child for Dell's?

A Great Read

This book is awesome. Caser Millan is a well know tv personaility in the dog training field. I never watch TV, so I haven' seen the show, but I recently got his book. It's so helpful in understanding dogs, and people. Since we've got 2 big Black Labrador Retrievers, I've been a little frustrated with some of their behavior. I read this book in one sitting, and I am already putting stuff to practice. If you've got dogs, you'll love this book.

It's a Wide Wide Wonderful World

One of the things I'm excited about is my new discovery of the beauty and wonder of our diverse humanity. In the past year, I've been blessed with the opportunities to travel and to meet the world here in New England. We've been to Germany, Africa & Central America - and here at home I am meeting more and more people who have roots around the planet. I recently returned from Honduras through a trip organized by our church, it reminded once again of our common bonds with people everywhere. This year we've photographed weddings here in Newport that featured guests from Spain, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Greece & England. Earlier this summer, Sarah & Ackshay had engagement photography. They are getting married in Maine (someone else is photographing their wedding) but next year they are celebrating a wedding festival in India. Hmmmm, I'd love to go. Hint Hint. A portion of their engagement session is below.

Sometimes it all comes together

In July, I photographed Carie & Joe's wedding in newport. While you cannot plan for a beautiful sunset, sometimes it all comes together. As you can see in this image, we had a beautiful sky on a summer July Sunday evening.

We're Back

Como se dice "we're back?

10 Days later and we are back from our most amazing trip to Honduras ever. We lived in the mountain cabin at los tablones outside of the town of Yuscaran. There we worked alongside Julio and Gustavo as we dug the foundation of what will be their new church. We enjoyed great meals prepared for us by Maria. Nancy began training young Honduran girls in quilt making, for what will eventually become a microenterprise business of Honduran quilts, amde by them and shipped here for sale in the US. We made friends, played with kids, enjoyed spanish and most of all discovered something new about ourselves. It was different for everyone, but a common theme is that we all received much much more than we gave.

The slide show below gives you a flavor of the week. Not al the images are mine, as we collected everyones digital cameras and combined them all. After viewing it - you too, might want to go. We are headed back in February - let me know.

Honduras Images

Off to Honduras

OKay. I am now officially incommunicado (did I spell that right?) until August 17th. No email, no phone, no mail. Where we're going, it'll require either a burro or a 4wdrive. I'm off to Yuscaran, Honduras. This will be my third trip down. I'm excited. Not only are we building the foundation to a new church, but we are also helping to establish a micro-enterprise. Women in Honduras, and most of the Third World, don't have a lot of options - so we are developing a small business with them. It'll be a quilting store. The idea is to teach the Hondurans how to make quilts, then they'll ship them up here for distribution and sale in the states. The money they make will go to support their families and the ministry of the church, plus give them some economic power. Eventually, we hope to have these quilts available on a website and the sales can be international. Our goal is to have all the Hondurans running this entirely within several years.

I'll post photos and a slide show when I return. If you are emailing me between Aug 7 and Aug 17 and saying to yourself - wow, he sure is slow to respond. Well, now you know why.

PPA Album Award

I just learned that my album "African Dream" was awarded Loan Collection in the PPA 2006 National competition. This means I'll be going to San Antonio in January to receive my Oscar. You can see the album in it's entirety by click the play arrow in the frame below. (PPA is professional Photographers of America)

Loan Collection is the highest honor, if I understand it correctly, it means the album goes on a national tour with other great award winning photographs. I also received an award for Young Simba, the young lion resting on top of the Elephant hide.

The Africa trip last november was so inspiring and captivating. Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana & South Africa, plus a day trip to Zambia. I fell in love with Africa, and would love to go back. The best part - the people. I've never met such splendid, creative, centered people in all my life.

The trip inspired me to support initiatives like the One campaign to make Poverty history. It also inspired me photographically, and personally, spiritually. Hard to explain.

Megan & Sarah

So earlier this year I did engagement photography for Megan and Dan - they loved the photos, and, oh, the online slide show got them into a Condo. Yup, it's amazing story. In brief, Megan & Dan had to move, and the new place was draggin its feet. Maybe it was their dog, don't know. Megan emails the gal in charge of the association, sends some info, plus a link to the slideshow. Well, the woman calls later and says, you seem like great people - you're in! Ah, the power of photography. Maybe I should open a side business.

As a gift for her wedding, Megan gave her friend Sarah a portrait session. Bridal portraits are really big in the south, but I do maybe one every year here in the northeast. They both came down, and we had a great time. Tough job having to photograph people like this. Not only are they both beautiful women, they are great people with warm hearts and super personalities.

What fun!