A HUGE Congratulations to the UConn Women’s Basketball team for winning the National Championship! A fantastic team effort….hats off to Geno, Chris and the whole team!! Come join the parade and celebration tomorrow, Sunday April 14th with their parade starting at the State Capitol in Hartford at 4pm. Here’s Kelly Faris and her teammates from SNY / UConn shoot back in Storrs in September 2012.
Man und Machine–that’s Jim Burns next to his German LÄGLER wood floor sander, the Mercedes of sanders, which he used to transform our studio floor. Jim took that floor from old carpet to new oak and really helped to finish the look of our studio, working on the floors at all hours of the night (Jim’s a night owl for sure). In former days Jim was a motocross racer, and today he lives in Granby CT. You can reach Jim at 860.209.7326.
When it comes to West Hartford Center, RLMCo are the local experts by far. Richard Mahoney ran the commercial real estate management company until he passed away in 2011, and this tribute in the Hartford Courant shows how much he helped make West Hartford Center a better, more vibrant place over the past decades. Today RLMCo is run by Richard’s son Mike, and his other son Dan is the property manager or “Mr. Fix-it” as he described the pitch his dad and brother made to bring him into the family business. Dan’s recently put in a thermopaned window to bring lots more light into the space…thanks Dan! Love your beard by the way! Dan’s hobbies include woodworking and raising labs (close to our heart…wonderful family dogs!)…you can check out Dan and his wife’s non-profit at labrescuect.com. RLMCo is located at 10 North Main Street in West Hartford Center.
I’m thrilled to be in and help organize an art show combining photographers and illustrators throughout CT! Please join us this Thursday, March 7th in Chester, CT for a night of music, art, food and moonshine!
Join us for a lively get-together of art, music and creative camaraderie! AIGA Connecticut and the Connecticut Chapter of ASMP are coming together to showcase their members’ work. Come see the work of Connecticut’s creative professionals, meet future collaborators and make new friends.
Please click here to RSVP for this FREE showcase event
Thursday March 7th, 2013
6:30–10:00pm
Leif Nilsson Spring Street Studio & Gallery
One Spring Street, Chester, CT 06412
(directions to the gallery)
PARKING: No parking on Spring Street but there is plenty of street parking near the gallery.
Live Music by The Side Doors – band will start at 7:00pm
Cocktail samples by Onyx Moonshine.
Wine and light appetizers will be served.
If it’s Tuesday afternoon then John Bollash is getting his Zen on, wallpapering to the New Age sounds of WWUH (91.3 FM), the University of Hartford’s college station.
We met John a few years back when he wallpapered our dining room and bathroom. For the new studio, Shelley, our designer, pitched the idea of papering the ceiling with a big patterned Anthropologie wallpaper. We almost passed on it…but at the last minute went for it, got John on the phone and he got it done. So here’s reStore #2: John of John Bollash Wallpapering in Manchester (phone 860.645.9343). Thanks John, love the wallpaper!
For the past month we’ve been busy getting our new studio ready in West Hartford Center. I wanted to do a personal photo project on the fixing-up process, so being a people photographer I decided to focus on the people who helped bring it all about. Here’s installment #1 of my reStore project: Seamus.
His name is Paul but his company is Seamus Painting. Actually his middle name is Seamus and that’s what his family calls him…besides, as he says, Paul’s Painting just doesn’t have the ring that Seamus Painting has. Paul’s an upbeat, personable guy (see photos below) who’s dad to three boys and lives in West Hartford. He coaches basketball and baseball, the latter with the West Hartford Little League–where he’s also helped to create the Miracle League baseball field on Trout Brook Drive–the first such field for special needs kids in New England.
Seamus Painting provides power-washing and interior and exterior painting….and his crew did a great job on our studio! You can reach Paul / Seamus at 860.965.1362 or seamuspainting@comcast.net. Thanks Paul for a fun shoot!
We wanted to chronicle the build-out of the studio, but not really by shooting pictures of the space alone in every stage. Instead, we wanted to photograph the people that go into transforming the space. Having moved from the corporate world to the entrepreneurial one, we are both huge fans of small business…so we’re thrilled that everyone we’ve asked so far has agreed to be part of my (Jane) “reStore” personal project where I photograph all the people who are involved in helping us make this place a reality! That said, we thought it would still be a good idea to show a “before” and stay tuned for some close-ups of the fun people we get to work with!
Happy 2013 to everyone! On a warm October day Jane and I were having lunch in West Hartford Center, just up the road from our house. We ran into our neighbor, Mike Mahoney from RLM Co., who leases much of the commercial space in the Center. Got to talking about our growing interest in opening a studio, and Mike mentioned that a space was being vacated at 10 LaSalle–in the old Blue Acorn store. After nine years as a home-based business, we sensed this was the right time, right place, right opportunity so….we’re opening our first photography studio right in West Hartford Center!
It’s around the corner from Lululemon and across the street from Starbucks….look for our son Sebbie’s photo is on the window. Love the location, it’s a cozy space and we have the tradesmen lined up to overhaul the walls, floors, signage etc. this month. Planning on a “soft opening” in February….stay tuned for progress reports this winter! Here’s the neighborhood…
As the saying goes, if you can read this…thank a teacher. Well, we want to help those teachers in the Hartford area help their students to read and write better. So we created a fundraiser to benefit participating West Hartford schools (Bugbee, Norfeldt, Lollipop Tree Preschool and more) and Hartford’s Grace Academy, an independent school dedicated to providing a quality, tuition-free education to girls from low-income families residing in Hartford’s inner city neighborhoods.
Jane’s an avid book reader (and book club member) and for the past five years I’ve tutored adults at Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford. And with two grade school boys we see firsthand the importance of a strong start in literacy. We tend to take our literacy for granted but for many children it can be a big challenge to bring all the skills together to read and write proficiently–your help is most appreciated!
You can see all the details below…if you haven’t had a professional portrait taken of your family lately, please contact us at info@photoiris.com or 860.803.2401 to schedule an October session today! Many thanks!!
Looking for a great story this summer…check out the new book, Just Cate, which as co-authors Angela Martin and Noelle Alix note, “is a dual memoir and story of lifelong friendship, of being there for each other through it all. When Noelle’s daughter Cate was born with Down Syndrome, we unknowingly began our second stage of growing up. Discovering little by little that it’s the simple things that matter most. And so life continues, the road behind us and the road ahead of us. Forever friends, forever changed.”
Last year I photographed Cate in her blue robe holding her favorite fruit for the cover shot of Just Cate and it’s been great getting to know their families! I love how the cover came out with it’s beautiful design from Liz Panke. I recently spent a day traveling with Noelle and Angela to Angela’s parents’ home in the Hudson Valley to be videotaped and interviewed about the project. In fact, that videotape was for B.I.G., an organization of women who are working on the next stage of the careers, going back to work after kids, completely changing what they want to do in life, growing their businesses…or like Angela and Noelle, driving a 10-year writing project to completion.
A huge congratulations to Noelle and Angela and Cate!! You can order Just Cate at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble or direct from their website: justcate.com.
We are Mike and Jane from IRIS Photography. We photograph weddings, portraits, advertising and editorial work and are based in West Hartford, Connecticut. We strive to capture our clients' personalities in true and beautiful ways. Thanks for visiting!
