We are the CHAMPIONS!

My wife Laureen's softball team played for the league championship last week. It had been an amazing season, they played great ball, won a lot of close games, and played real hard to get to the finals.

So the night of the big game, the wheels came off the bus. They were down as many 7 or 8 runs at one point. It was painful to watch after the season they had and how hard they worked. They deserved to win, but they just couldn't seem to get it together. There were a ton of people there too, cheering them on since it was the last game. One thing I have to say about Portland is it is very tight knit. The game was against a Middletown team in Middletown and man did we yell our heads off all night! I lost my voice and at one point and my 8 year old son Roland turned to me and said "Dad, will you PUH-LEEZE stop yelling in my ear!"

So bottom of the last inning, they're down by 4 or 5 (they had been down the entire game), last chance, and they get a little rally going. By the time they had one out they had tied the game. They have a runner on third and the other team intentionally walks 2 of our batters. I guess they figured they would load up the bases and hopefully get a double play to go into extra innings. Not sure what they were thinking to be honest...

The batter they walked 2 batters to get to was my wife Laureen. That's like walking Julio Lugo and Dustin Pedroia to get to Big Papi. She drills one right back at the pitcher, who had no chance getting a handle on it and drives in the winning run! Holy cow, it was bedlam! What a way to win the game!! So now we're calling her Big Mami! (Sorry for all the Sox references, but hey, get yer own blog!! GO SOX!!)

Ladies I just wanted to officially say congratulations!! You made us all so proud that night. You had an awesome season and deserved to win but I think the baseball gods just wanted to make you earn it. They knew you'd pull it together like you did all year and get the job done! And speaking as a parent of two young boys who eat, sleep, and breathe baseball (your biggest fans and practice helpers Roland and Brett) I can honestly say there couldn't be a better team for them to watch and learn from. You guys carried yourselves so well all year, played the game the way it should be played and were role models. Right up to the end when you taught them how never to give up. Thank you for a very memorable night! Can't wait for next year!

-Bruce

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Bailey and Kate. (You might remember Kate from some pics I did last year.)



Portland Dental Lineup, 2007 Middletown Women's League Champions! (DA GIRLZ!!!)



*Photos courtesy Jeremiah Adametz.

Here stop and spend a social hour...

I want to live in a Castle... and I'll have this sign too! :-) (it was actually in St. Clement's Castle in Portland, so cool!!) I'm now finishing the editing the photos from Michelle and Rob's wedding that was there...what a gorgeous place!

Misquamicut Engagement Photos!

I had an awesome engagement shoot down at Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island recently, it was great! We had all of 30 minutes before a huge storm started... complete with thunder and heavy rain. This is Laura and AJ....they are getting married in October, so watch for their wedding photos too!

A quick post!

I had a beautiful wedding last night in Mystic and we are heading out now to shoot in Vernon and New Haven today, I promise to catch up on some of the weddings from the past couple weeks... but for now, this was from last night... the Mystic River. If you want it for your desktop, send me a note and I'll send you the file! :-)

Sharing the love!

I received this email a little while ago from one of our brides from last year and wanted to share it with you....

Hi Val,

I have been meaning to send you an email to thank you again for the beautiful job you did with our wedding photos. Our one year anniversary was not too long ago. I can't believe how fast time has flown by, but whenever I visit your site and see our wedding slide show, it really reminds me of how beautiful our day was. The pictures you took are so beautiful. I can really feel the emotions of the day each time I look at your photos. Thank you so much for helping us to capture the beautiful memories of our wedding.

Best regards,
Erin

This is why we do what we do... and love it!

Thanks, Erin... and Happy Anniversary!

~ Val

Kelly and James, Part 2

More shots from the ceremony. Here's a couple from Laureen:





Here's a great example of why we love shooting weddings with 2 photographers. And why we ask all our brides to at least consider it when they choose a package. The ability to get multiple angles at the same time. Here's my shot:



And this is Laureen's. Gotcha covered!




A toast in the limo after the ceremony. I love how newlyweds can go directly from a serious, tender moment...



...to a total case of the giggles! ;)



We went to Elizabeth Park in Hartford for pictures after the ceremony. A few random shots...





Suddenly humming Rod Stewart's "Hot Legs" to myself for some reason...







Cool tat! A different twist on one of Val's classic ring shots that we do with the bride and groom. I totally warned James I was gonna blog this shot! If you're a Jesse James fan, you get it. If not, well it's still funny right? ;)



Not only were we seated with the guests for dinner, we even had a place card! Cool!



Kelly and James, we want to pass along our sincere thanks for sharing your day with us. You guys were great and we had such a good time! We wish you all the best in your lives together.

-Bruce and Laureen

Dancing with the Stars!

I got to go to a dress rehearsal Friday night for a Ballroom Dance competition that will be held in Worcester, MA in a couple of weeks, it was great!! This is the link for some of the shots done, good luck to everyone and see ya in August! http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?storefront?c=06OZ

Kelly and James, Part 1

On June 30th, my wife Laureen and I shot together at the wedding of Kelly and James. This was such a wonderful wedding and wonderful people that I don't even know where to begin this tale. So I thought I'd share with you a little dialogue that occurred between us and the videographer as we were seated for dinner at the reception. Let's listen in:

Bruce (gobbling down baked stuffed shrimp, to no one in particular): "Can you believe this food? I guess I can go put my PBJ back in the car, eh?"

Laureen: "This is amazing. I'm totally stuffed. Couldn't eat another bite..."

Videographer: "Um, you guys have never been to a Portuguese wedding before have you?"

Bruce: "Well, no I guess we haven't. Why?"

Videographer: "This is only the first course... "

And so it went. What a celebration! Wonderful people, a very close family, delicious food; all the ingredients were there for an incredible wedding!

************************

We started at Kelly's parents house for some getting ready shots. It was a beautiful home with lots and lots of windows for plenty of natural light. We hardly needed flash inside...





Beautiful light, beautiful bridesmaids...



Sometimes, to get shots like this....



You need to do stuff like this ;)



We went to Elizabeth Park in Hartford for some pics (more on that later) but this was right in Kelly's parent's back yard! I think Elizabeth Park has nothing on their gardens!



A smooch from Mom and Dad...



A champagne toast before they left. No brainer, right? Not so fast...it was in Portuguese. Now according to Kelly it went something like "up, down, to the left, to the right..." Anybody following this? No? Me either. Aw, heck, you'll have to ask Kelly. I think they made the whole thing up to pick on me anyway ;)



One more kiss from Dad and off to the church.









The ceremony was held at Our Lady of Fatima church in Hartford. One of the biggest challenges wedding photographers face is the low light conditions typically found in churches. We are always sure to consult with clergy before a ceremony to ensure flash photography is permitted (it isn't always the case). But still, flash units can be annoying. And obtrusive. All those things The Sweetest Days Photography claims NOT to be!

So what did we find at Our Lady of Fatima? A HUGE skylight right over the alter! Just like at Kelly's parent's house, we once again have tons of beautiful natural sunlight streaming in throughout the ceremony. What a treat!





Ok that's the end of Part 1! This was a huge wedding and we really took lots of great pics so I decided to break it up into 2 separate posts...come back for Part 2!

-Bruce

A little Rant... about Integrity!

So normally my blog has my gorgeous brides and their weddings... some personal stuff... some cool engagement shoots (ok, that one is coming up tomorrow!) and I don't think I've ever posted a rant before, but anyone who knows me knows that I can do that pretty good too! lol So here goes... a couple months back, I get a call from a photographer, he's young... says no one will even talk to him because of his age and he'd really like to shoot a wedding with us, would that be possible? So Bruce and I say sure, why not? I think we should give as much as we possibly can.

Then just yesterday I see a business card tacked to a bulletin board, and guess what? It's for his wedding photography business with a couple other photographers. Things that make ya go hmmmmmm? So I check out the website and see they are criticizing the way other photographers do things, although not by name. Interesting, but also upsetting. Was I played for a fool? Not real sure, but it's not a good feeling at all.

So a word of advice.... This is a business where your reputation is everything. Believe it or not, it's not just about the photographs, it's about integrity. This has been a disheartening experience, and in this case, age is no excuse.

On the other hand there are quite a few wonderful people in the business that are giving more than is ever expected to make the day absolutely perfect for everyone involved, especially the bride and groom, our customers, our friends... I would list them all if I could. :-) Hi Sue...and Kristel and Antonella, and Ryan, and Kris and, well, you get the idea!

Thanks for listening... I feel better... well, sorta.... now off to edit out some photographs and credits.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...

Ok, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I'm playing with Windows Live Writer for creating blog posts and so there may be some inadvertent posts here from time to time. I'll try to clean up my mess and delete the junk before you see it but for those of you RSS subscribers out there, you'll have to beer bear with me ;)

-Bruce

(P.S. I know, I know, I'm wayyyyy behind Val on posts...I'll get caught up, I promise...)