She made raising 5 kids look effortless.  As the middle child, I never felt lost or forgotten.  My favorite thing about my Marmy is that our relationship defies all stereotypes....we have never gone for manicures and we both hate the mall.  I will never get sick of making her uncomfortable and laughie when I make self-deprecating jokes about my figure.  My Mom has more friends than me and knows pretty much everyone in good 'ole Floral Park.  She's where I get my big cheekbones, my early gray-hairs and my moody mornings.

And even though I'm almost 30 years old, sometimes life gets me down and I just need my Mommy.

And she's always there :-)



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MARMY!!!!!!  I love you!

I had a spur-of-the-moment shoot tonight with my soon to be cousin Rebecca.  She is a beautiful and talented dancer and I've had the idea for these shots rolling around in my head for quite a while....

Sometimes it's so fun just to relax and shoot for myself, with no pressure and no timelines.

She is FIFTEEN years old.  FIFTEEN.  Say wuutttt?

BEAUTEOUS!

Thanks for modeling Bec!!

Why hello there!  Welcome to another installment of  "miscellaneousness"...where I bring you pointless tidbits from my life...

On this episode, we will talk for a bit about Joe and I's engagement photos...which were taken by the AMAZING Shira Z Photography.  When we first got engaged, people started asking me right away about Joe and I getting engagement photos taken....but truth be told, I was pretty hesitant to do them at all.  

First of all, I HATE seeing myself in pictures.  Like, alot.  Second of all, being all affectionate and what-have-you in public is not really Joe and I's style.  However, I thought about it and thought about it and decided that NOT doing them would be pretty hypocritical so I called up my buddy Shira and away we went!

Long story short?  I ended up loving the pics so much that not only was I SO glad we did it, but I got a whole photo book printed of my favorite shots!

I even made a save-the-date out of my favorite Shira-shots :-)

I think there's a moral here somewhere...something about just getting pictures taken, even if you think you hate getting pictures taken.  I am not so eloquent tonight, but the point is...we will never be "engaged" again and I'm so excited Joe and I have something to show the Grandkiddies!  Thanks again Shira!

I upgraded to the 50mm f/1.4 lens from the f/1.8 a few weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to really play around with it.  Some of these are soft because I'm not used to shooting at f/1.4 but I don't think Gillies minds too much :-)

I am wayyyy glad you can't hear the howl associated with these first few.  If you are planning on getting a beagle, I hope you have ear plugs.

Still going...

f/1.4 doggy nose.

Our handsome pup!  Really looking forward to getting the hang of this lens for my upcoming shoots...and YES, I'm aware that this was the most boring post of all time, OKAY!?

Fun Fact #1:  When I was 362 days old, my brother Jimmy was born.  That makes us, by definition, "Irish twins"...exhibit A:

We were like peas and carrots growing up.  Pretty much what I imagine it's like to be an actual twin...exhibit B:

Fun fact #2:  This Irish twin of mine is also very smart.  Like scored a near-perfect on the SATs, goes to Ivy-League schools smart.  But that doesn't intimidate me, because he can't tell the difference between Bob Dylan and Neil Young...and also because I scored 10 points higher than him on the English/Writing SAT II exam in 2001.  BLAMMO!  It never ceases to amaze me how easy I find it to work that favorite-factoid into ANY conversation :-)

Jimmy is currently getting his MBA at Stanford Business school, if you feel like reading up a bit on how ridiculously competitive it is to get in to the graduate school, knock yourself out!

Due to unexpected developments in my big-girl real career life, I had this week off.  My Brother-in-Law awesomely offered to lend me some of his skymiles and got me last-minute tickets to San Fran to pay Jimbo a visit.   YAY! 

The hideous entrance into the Stanford campus...kidding..the whole place was insanely beautiful.

What a sport!

Big man on campus...

This guy was awesome.  

JAMES-BO-BOY!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 2:  My real motives revealed.  This being my only "full day" there, we packed about 40,000 touristy things into one day.  The most important of which (to me) was to get some awesome pictures of the Golden Gate bridge.  Which happened, but most of them were all or partially obscured by a dense fog which parked it's fat A$$ over the bridge all day and didn't.move.once.  Good ole Jimmy kept driving back to the bridge (3 times, to be exact) so I could "check" and see if the fog had lifted.  Needless to say, my disappointment regarding the fog was a major talking point that day.

MUIR WOODS!  Fun fact #3:  The last time we were here together we were 10 and 9 and on our family's infamous cross country trip.

This picture gives me a headache.  For realz.

Lunch in Sausalito!

Back over the even-foggier bridge to San Fran.

If you were a child of the 90s these next few shots need no introduction.  On our way to the "Full House" houses, I decided that I was Uncle Joey (obviously because I'm quirky and lovable)...Jimmy then declares "Okay, I'll be Uncle Jessie"  Ummmmm, presumptuous much?  What a Danny Tanner.

This reenactment was seriously lacking in enthusiasm...

EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK!!!!

The Pier Building...

STUPID FOG!!!!

We went back that night and it looks like the 3rd times the charm :-)  Even though night-photography isn't really my thing and I didn't have a tripod, I made it work.

No makeup, long flight, EW this picture is gross but I'm posting it anyways :-)  So good seeing you brah!!

Yesterday was:

a)  A crazy blizzard snow day on Long Island
b)  My SIL's (sister in law) surprise 30th bday party
c)  All of the above :-)

If you guessed "C" then yahooo for you!  Here's a few shots of Casey G and my sister playing in the snow.

Love these guys :-)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I ALMOST didn't bring my camera to my parent's house and if I hadn't...these pictures wouldn't exist, and that would just be sad.  Probably the only surprise party I've ever been to that I didn't have to ask the guest of honor "were you surprised?"  hahaha so classic.

Kathy and adorable Ava...

Kathy and her Gram!

Newlyweds <3

Blog, I'm going on an adventure this week!  A BIG and AWESOME adventure!!  Many many many pics to follow :-)

I think the human condition is fascinating.  I spent my whole summer and fall lamenting the "lost" weekends and exhaustion that resulted from my crazy schedule.  Now, I am finally here in the slower winter months with some downtime and I can't. stand. it.  

Yesterday, I spent 7 straight hours on the couch watching the first season of Downton Abbey (which, by the way...is AWESOME!).  This morning I woke up and knew I needed out.  I texted my friend Denise to see if she was up for a drive out east.  Annndd she was.  One of my favorite things about Denise is we never have plans in advance.  We see each other exclusively through spur-of-the-moment text messages.

One of my other favorite things about Denise is she puts up with me making her stand in the freezing cold (in the middle of nowhere) while I yell out "MODEL!  MODEL!  MODEL!"

Did I say "stand' in the freezing cold?  I really meant "sit" ....in the snow :-)  My friends love me!

Verdict?...worth it!  MODEL!  MODEL!  MODEL!

Another favorite thing about Denise?  She is a BEAUTIFUL lady, inside and out.

[ cuts to scene of Cat and Denise singing (screaming) 2003 emo music on the way home ]

We had fun :-)

At some point in the middle of my fall-session madness I remember thinking that I couldn't wait for January.  My shooting schedule is always much lighter in the winter months and I have been anticipating a nice relaxing break, complete with quiet weekends, for quite some time.

Shocker alert!  January is here and I have been literally going through withdrawal.  I miss my camera :-(  So today I decided to snap some shots of our little puppy boy Gillies in the backyard to celebrate the fact that HOCKEY IS BACKKKK!!!!  I hope his namesake team does us proud this year.  As Joe put it:  The Islanders usually go on a 20-30 game losing spiral sometime around November/December so maybe the shortened season will end up being a good thing.  

What would a diehard fan be without some blind optimism?

LETS GO ISLANDERS!

My favorite expression...

Proud pup.

Guilty of something...

The softest ears.

The sweetest face.

Open the door you guys!  Pretty please?

Hope ya'll had a great weekend :-)

It was a p.r.e.t.t.y. good year.  I met some amazing clients (many of whom I'll be seeing in 2013) and photographed a ton of cool people.

I feel really blessed personally and professionally as I reflect on 2012 and I'm super pumped for all things 2013!!!  Happy New Year :-)  Here's a little video collage of some of my favorite images from the last 365 days.

We took our 2nd annual post-Christmas skating trip and this year I brought along my camera.  A lot of these are out of focus, but I had to prioritize not falling on my face before the technical stuff.  SorryI'mNotSorry.

Casey G!!!   Wearing his new Jets suit and looking A LOT like Daddy :-)  Love this kiddo.

Claire with the crazy hair!!!!

Trendsetter.

Claire made it one time around with Daddy before the rink officials booted her off for not wearing any skates.  Fascists!!

So we did the obvious thing and put skates on a 15 month old...

Meanwhile, Casey G was tearing it up on the ice...

Standing tall.

But he needs a little help to reach the wall...

And here comes baby Claire!!!  It was a group effort...

"I can't put my armmsss downnn!"

Casey G and Uncle Danny

Upside down girl!!!