I think it's catching!!

Ok so I'm sure a bunch of you have seen DJ's hummingbird video by now and if you haven't you should definitely get yourself over to his blog and check it out HERE. It's amazing!! And, well...I think it's catching!

The craziest thing EVER just happened! We were literally *just* driving back from going food shopping and Mary was looking out the window when she shouted "OMIGOSH!! It's a lizard!!" Looking in the rear view mirror, sure enough there was THE. BIGGEST. LIZARD. I have ever seen in my entire life... second only maybe to Godzilla. It was close to four feet long head to tail and it was crawling its way right into the middle of traffic. So I popped a U-ey worthy of The Italian Job and we raced back to stop traffic. Another guy had also seen it and he was blocking traffic the other way. He called his girlfriend who works for a vet and the four of us proceeded to try to figure out how to get this spike-covered beast into one of our cars. It was right about then that "Spike" decided to make a run for it. You should've seen the four of us chasing him through the parking lot and in and out from under cars. Unfortunately, it looked like he was pretty dehydrated so we followed him around the parking lot with one of Cooper's water bowls and some ice cold Poland Spring. By this time there were 5 other cars that had stopped to see what was happening and everyone was getting in on the action. One lady went to grab a box, another a towel. Mary ended up giving up her jacket so the vet could wrap him in that to pick him up. Once he was out of harms way, we ran back to the car to get the video camera... and "AHHHhh!" The battery was dead! Sorry guys. It was a sight we SO wish you could've seen! I seriously do not know what is going on with all these crazy animals...but, if you happen to be missing a green 4 foot iguana, please leave a message!!

Stylin'

We're off to do another Portrait House shoot this morning sporting our fun new PH shirts. As you can see, Mary is Phabulous...and well, there is no one single word that can define me! :) So just Phill in the Blank!

Thankful

Life is nothing short of crazy for us lately. Y'know, crazy in the most amazing ways possible...but crazy nonetheless! Yesterday in the car, with a million things running through my head, somewhere in the background I heard Justin say, "ok, what's up?" Blinking back to reality, I looked down to see the white knuckles of my hands clasped ever-so-tightly together and very quickly became aware that I hadn't taken a breath in quite some while. In classic bride style...that's been happening a lot lately. :)

That's why I'm so, so grateful for the shoot we did yesterday and the times in life that make us just stop and smell the roses...or sunflowers as the case may be. Jill had emailed us to do a Portrait House shoot of her family after she saw the shoot for Savannah here on the blog, and last night we got to meet up with them & the kids and hang out for a bit. What a breath of fresh air. Honestly, you could not ask for a sweeter, funnier, or kinder family. We had the best time hanging out with them on the beach and then headed over to Buttonwood Farm to check out the sunflower fields right at sunset. It was amazing! Seriously one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen... and after that, we got ice cream! I live for days like this!!

Jill grabbed this shot of us with the sunflowers. She actually got another one that was tack sharp...but we thought the blur one was too much fun!!

And this was the line for the ice cream. Crazy! But oh so worth the wait!

If I hadn't already gotten the message loud & clear...the world has a funny way of making sure we get it!

I am so thankful for the amazing places this life of ours takes us, and even more so for the amazing people we come across because of the journey. We are so blessed.

The Party's This Way...

We're about to head off to shoot Alana & Dan's rockin' wedding at the Florence Griswold with the amazing Amanda Harris...but I just wanted to drop off a little of the fun we had last night from their rehearsal party at their family's cabana in Watch Hill, RI.

First, I love the emotion in this shot from the rehearsal when Alana's dad watches her walk down the rest of the aisle

We finished up a super quick rehearsal...and then it was party time! Alana & Dan had a killer spread with beach blankets, personalized towels, and plenty of Corona....and the most perfect, crystal blue day you've ever seen (at least until today that is). The guys chillin' on the beach...

And the ladies....

Gotta love days like this!

Lon & Melissa

Last weekend we got to hang out with the very cool Lon & Melissa. They are planning an absolutely incredible wedding at the Essex Yacht Club for this September that we are super excited for. So we got together with them to hear about all the plans and do a really fun shoot around town. These first few are from the old train yard, which rocks! There are so many awesome textures everywhere you look!

This one is actually from a dance floor that was being set up down by the marina for someone else's wedding, but we snuck in to grab a few shots anyway!! I love how willy wonka it is! :)

Opposites Attract

She's a little bit country, he's all rock n' roll. She's sweet caroline, he's a Bronx Bomber (while Justin's still singing the Baltimore blues). She roots for the Pats, he's Giants all the way. But these opposites have found the perfect fit.

Kim & John are such an awesome, laid back couple who love nothing more than chilling out watching a game...and cheering against each other, of course! So for their engagement shoot, we started up with some rivalry fun. We were *supposed* to be headed off to a park, but the directions took us to a cemetery instead. Since we were all up for the challenge, we decided to go with it!

Kim & John met when their company had a bowling night, so we just KNEW we had to finish off the night with some king pin fun! When Kim heard about our plan she said, "Oh that'll be so embarrassing...FOR JOHN!" hahah love it! See who won!

We had such an awesome time hanging out you guys and Xander the wonder pup! We can't WAIT to see what's in store for the wedding!!

We live to Rock, We rock to live...

For my birthday, Jus surprised me with tickets to one of my all time favorite bands: Rascal Flatts!! I've been waiting ever so impatiently for the date to get here and last night it finally did! So we cruised on over to the Mohegan Sun arena to catch the VERY first night of their "Still Feels Good" tour with special guest Jason Aldean opening for them! It was AMAZING!! They seriously rocked the house! Jason kicked things off with a KILLER version of Amarillo Sky, which I LOOOOVE! That song is so awesome! It reminds me of my dad. Then when Rascal Flatts took the stage they had the most unbelievable light show I've ever seen with thunderstorms and fire and stuff. AWE-SOME! Both acts just blew us away and we seriously can't wait for their new albums to come out. RF has a new one out Sept 25th...so make sure to mark your calendars! :P

Check out all the fun! (LOL we only had our 2MP point and shoot from about 5 years ago with us, so you can imagine how rockin the quality is!)

Speaking at PartnerCon LA!!!

oh my gosh!! We are SO excited! Justin and I found out a few days ago that we've been chosen to speak at the 3rd Annual Pictage PartnerCon in LA this September!!

PartnerCon has had such a HUGE impact on us. I can't even tell you how different our business and our lives looked before going to LA last year (and then again in Chicago this May). There were so many awesome, giving photographers who shared with us and we can't wait to give some of that back. We're going to be talking about "Spread the Love: The Power of PUG" and it's all about building community and being open & sharing with everyone around you. The conference is Sept 12-13 and we hope we can see all of you there!! You can go HERE to get yourself registered.

UPDATE: Check out the conference schedule. We'll be speaking on the first day at 4:30!

Spread the Word!!

We've been getting a TON of emails from people all over wanting to get involved with The Portrait House, and there are so many things we need your help with! The biggest thing would definitely have to be helping us get the word out about the project. So, we just made these cool badges that you can put on your blogs and they link back to the PH blog. These are the three basic badges, BUT if you have a personalized one in mind (and you're super nice to us! :P) we'll send you one made just for you! Just drop us an email at justin@theportraithouse.org to get yours!

Cool New Blog!

We're working with Dawn of the hot hot haute Anna Bella Stationery out of Orlando, FL to design the book we're doing for Traci...and we *just* realized she has a blog! So we cruised on over to check it out and it's AWESOME! She's so super funny and her illustrations are the best! Check it out if you're looking to be entertained...or happen to be in the market for some awesome stationery!! :)

You can also see us and Anna Bella in the new issue of Martha as part of Traci's new full page ad.

Lucky 7's

I hope everyone had an awesome 7/7/07 yesterday, and that you're taking today to rest & recover!! We're off to commune with nature....well y'know, nature and Starbucks! :)

He Works Hard for the Money....

I'm just working away on an album design and I ran across this picture. Don't try this at home!

Happy 4th!!

Hope everyone had a ROCKIN' good 4th of July! We're pretty beat from all the excitement lately, so we're just relaxing at home with some late night waffles (as you can see, it was Justin's first time working the iron :)

Temple (Street) of Doom

So we had gotten a call from the lovely Jacklyn telling us about a cool 1950s film set that was in downtown New Haven, and we were super-bummed that we couldn't go check it out with her because we had so much work piling up (blech!). But then when we went downtown to do Savannah's shoot, we stumbled upon the movie trailers! Then we were walking around and Scott found a bunch of cool old cars lining Temple Street. Turns out it was for the NEW Indiana Jones movie(!!) and they had turned a whole block of New Haven into a flashback to the early 50s!! All of our favorite shops had been transformed into their old school equivalents. It was perhaps one of the coolest things I've ever seen! Check out a few of our favorite details from the shop windows.

Doesn't this bride look demonic?!

Savannah Smiles

First off, does anyone remember that rockin' movie from wayyy back called Savannah Smiles? It was one of my absolute *favorites* growing up! That and Adventures in Babysitting.

Tonight we had the incredible privilege of photographing a beautiful young lady by the name of Savannah. Her parents (who live in Alaska!) had heard about The Portrait House through Alana & Dan and they jumped right on board by booking a senior shoot for Savannah (try saying THAT three times fast!). We had the BEST time hanging out and grabbing some super fun shots. We even snagged a few in an old timey car that was on a really cool film set downtown (more on that tomorrow!) Check out the good times!

Raspberry Beret

We've been really busy the past few days helping our best friends Joey & Brian make the big move up here to CT from WV. Joey and I have been best friends since 7th grade (oh lordy, when did we get so old?! :) and this October he will stand up with me as my "Man of Honor" and Brian will stand up on Justin's side. I can't even begin to tell you how happy we are that they are finally up here!! We have so many cool things planned!

They drove 18 hours straight on Wednesday night to get here Thursday morning, and as soon as they pulled in we got right to work on unloading their TWENTY SIX foot Penske truck. We worked right through the blistering heat and into the night to finally finish around midnight, when the guys could *finally* get some sleep after being awake for over 40 hrs!

Things are really starting to come together with their new apartment so we decided to take yesterday off to celebrate with some raspberry picking and photo fun! Check it out!

Follow the yellow brick road...