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Our family recently discovered a great day trip going to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts.  It was about an hour from West Hartford and perfect for kids around 5 or 6 years old, although younger and older would really enjoy it too.  They had galleries, an art studio where everyone could paint, a library with story hour and a really well done movie about Eric Carle and how he creates the pictures (we're talking Hungry Caterpillar here in case you aren't in this world right now) – the movie was a little over the head of our 3-year-old but held Seb's interest (and all the adults!).  Two to three hours was about the right amount of time with young kids in tow.  The facility is beautiful…open, light, very modern and spacious.  They also had a lovely, kid-friendly cafe.   I think it's a great museum for introducing kids to art or could be a nice date if you are still a fan of children's books/art and want to take a nice drive too!

 

 

 
 

 

Well we may be too young to be snowbirders yet but we LOVED spending the holidays with my family in Cudjoe Key, which is about 20 minutes north of Key West…12 days of 70-80 degree weather!

As I thought about what camera to take, I just kept thinking water/sand/water/sand…not great for a professional DSLR, so we opted instead to buy two $13.99 underwater disposable cameras…54 pictures total, and we actually found that we loved the picture quality that came out (when we did it right) and the freedom of not worrying about destroying it! 

These are almost all straight out of the camera (except the Dennys and beer goggles photos) and I think they have a dreamy quality and a natural vignette…kind of like the Diana cameras.  As I order our new $2799.00 Canon 5D Mark II (body only…ouch)  this weekend for the 2009 wedding season, I'm wondering if we can just get by with these at the weddings :)…kidding, but actually, maybe we'll bring a few to a wedding this summer….we'll see.

Here are Sebbie and my brother, John, who just moved to London …it was great that he and his wife, Rei, could make it over!  This was at our closest beach, Bahia Honda, but we call it Portuguese-Man-of-War Beach!

Brothers, Sebbie and Jude…

Mike and I had "date afternoon" with my folks watching the kids, and walked all over Key West. 

We met a few characters…if you can't see it, his glasses say "beer goggles"…if you are interested in photography, I think it's great practice to ask strangers if you can photograph them…when you are not comfortable doing that (and it is still uncomfortable for me!), you miss pictures and think about the ones that got away! 

 

What do you do when your kids get up at 6am in a house full of
sleepers…go to Denny's!  This one is right near mile marker zero of
Route 1 that runs from Key West to Fort Kent Maine.

We went on the Caribbean Spirit, a huge catamaran for a four hour cruise out to the coral reef for some snorkeling and Sangria.  The water is a little cold this time of year…think CT in early August!  🙂 so a wetsuit (shorty) made it perfect! 

Jude stayed on board and ate about 15 oreos:

Sebbie braved the swells to try some open ocean snorkeling and crashed immediately after:

We decided to go deep sea fishing on Christmas Eve.  Grandpa Dean had never been and hoped to catch a big sailfish, which was what was running this time of year.  Mike and I have been a number of times and joke that we always catch the most expensive small fish we will ever eat.  I am also notorious for catching things that shouldn't be caught like pretty reef fish, crabs, cuttlefish, etc.  We've been in the English Channel many times, Key Largo, Lake Huron, etc., so this time we were psyched to get a big fish!

Well, Grandpa Dean made the first big catch….yes, that's a seagull.  The seagull dove for his bait and is actually attached to the line in this photo as the 1st mate helps reel it in! 

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We did get the hook out and he flew away unharmed, but of course I made Dean pose with his first catch! 

Unfortunately, no sailfish today.  In fact, these were the only two keepers and our dinner…the two most expensive Yellowtail ever caught!

Great trip though! 

Here are some tips about using underwater disposable cameras:

1)  Disposable cameras are optimized to focus at about 5-7 feet (my estimation, not fact)…you can see where I was too close for sharpness in several of the shots (although I kind of like them anyway).  So when you are shooting…back up a bit!

2)  With any camera, it's all about enough light for quality…taking the pics in bright sunshine provided the best quality.  However, the Denny's and beer goggles shots still came out it the dark but very faint and grainy.  I improved the pics in Photoshop, but here you can see how it came out of the camera:

3)  Underwater…yeah, my one underwater picture didn't turn out in the turbulent ocean!  They do work better in pools or if there's a ton of light streaming into the ocean…. I did use one of these cameras for Lindsay's (of Sixpence Events) pool maternity shoot and an image is going in her album…so it's really about experimentation!  

Well that was "what I did on my holiday" and we've started our new resolution…to blog more!!!!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to say happy holidays to all our friends, family and clients this year!  We've had a wonderful year personally and professionally and are looking forward to 2009!  Our New Year's Resolution is to blog more so forgive us if we catch up in January with fall portraits and Halloween!  We're spending the holidays in Florida with family and are only shooting with $13.99 underwater disposable cameras … side note…it's interesting how approachable people are with that kind of camera…so, maybe we'll have something to share when we get back after we get our Kodak discs back from CVS!  We'll be back the week of 12/29…looking forward to seeing everyone in the new year!