This blogging thing while fun is almost impossible to keep up with when you're busy. Being busy is always a good thing though - I always say "I'd rather be behind my cameras than my desk". In addition to all the client work we've had, we've shot a number of new promo images which hopefully I will get to post here one of these days. By the way, feel free to drop me an email if you keep coming back and there is nothing new here - give me a hard time about it, that usually works..

In the meantime, here's a look at my personal project documenting our house construction during the months of March and April.

Electrical got started...

We're going to need to label the switches there are so many of them...

New kitchen wall

View through closets into the great room

Playroom ceiling

New entrance area and in the back where we will break through to the house

I got bored inside so I went up on the roof looking for some new angles

Siding.. no more listening to the rustling of Tyvek all night

Most exciting, however, was that the dirt pile I called my entrance for 9 months, finally got completed. Louis Raymond designed this beautiful space and Jaimee from EJ Corona did such an awesome job building it- absolutely beautiful stonework!

Kids, kids and more kids! Shooting with Digitas and Stop & Shop recently and we needed 20 extra's all between the age of 6-11 in the background of a "last day of school" shot. Because it was at a school we had to shoot on a Saturday but I didn't mind partly because it was so much fun and partly because my kids and all their friends were the extra's. As is often the case these days, we had to figure out how to come up with 20 extras without breaking the bank. So we offered them small gift cards and and ice cream party at the end. One email and 3 hours later we had 20 kids lined up!

Because of the time of day and the angle of the school entrance we ended up lighting everyone to fill in all the shadows. We set up a small studio in the back of my truck on the street so we could see the images, as I shot, on a cover overlay. Verne Cordova and Michelle McGrath did such a great job with the kids inside the school lunch room which with 22 models is no easy task. Then it was positioning the kids in the right spot with the right action and then getting them to run at camera over and over and over! They were such troopers!

Setting up

Michelle making Celeste look perfect

a little direction

James and I checking the images in my makeshift sudio

meanwhile in the lunchroom...

a little more direction during a break

waiting for the sun to come back out

ready, set, go!

Verne was very pleased

and then it was time for ice cream!!

with a little help from mom's, dad's and Jessica!

What could be better?

Had a great time shooting with Cindy today. Had to match two of her layouts that involved small pieces of paper and post it notes. How did we do it? Cut, paste, move, repeat... a couple hundred times. We used an overlay of the layout over the image to match it to. It was actually fun and Sara Mills-Broffman did a great job getting it perfect.

As part of our ongoing HR promotions we recently shot another fun image. I've been wanting to make this picture for some time now and it was so satisfying to complete the image that's been living in my head. The crew was spectacular and I couldn't have done it without them. Verne Cordova was our prop and wardrobe stylist and he never ceases to amaze me with his talent. From the powder blue tux to the disco ball, he really made this shot look fantastic. We had Audrey Berman doing the make up and Alyssa Vachon was our hair stylist and everyone looked like they were headed out on prom night. Mike and I had done a lighting test in the studio the week before when we cast this so we had a diagram to work from in setting everything up. The biggest challenge, of course, was the 30ft ceiling... but Mike loves that kind of challenge.

Arrival and set up begins

I love how they packed the disco ball

Love this one, Mike 30ft up and the guy reading the paper below

Alyssa and Emilee

This was too funny

But this was even funnier, what does Jenna think she's going to do if the ladder starts to fall?

The rig on the disco ball wasn't the strongest so Mike did his best McGyver

Audrey working some magic on Ariella

Noah, Emilee and Ariel

I think Mike's brain started to hurt

Verne with some final touches

The parent peanut gallery...

The kids during a break

The whole crew!!

I really have to hand it to Keenan Cochrane and Ariella Darvish they really nailed the expression and moment I was looking for in this final image:

Had a great day with Polly yesterday. There was much seriousness in the morning, I must have only been on my first cup of coffee. But as I moved into my second and third I started to be my normal self....

and look what we had here today...mommies Jenna and Kerry due June and July!