The Wii is amazing!

I can't remember the last time I've had a free weekend over the last several months to be able to actually enjoy it and relax. This weekend has been awesome, and since we purposely decided to not schedule anything so that we could enjoy it, we decided to go out and get one of our Christmas presents early, by getting the new Nintendo Wii! It's been years since I've played a Nintendo game, and the Wii completely re-defines gaming with it's interactive & realistic, wireless controllers and games. (Bowling, Baseball, Golf, Boxing, etc are insane, and a real workout believe it or not to play) You'd think I was advertising for Nintendo, but it's seriously one of those things that even adults will go nuts over...... they are pretty hard to find right now, but I highly recommend it for an awesome Xmas present (or other) if you can find one.

By the way, in case some of you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can watch the video below to see how cool it is - Ok, back to my game, more later! :)



I also found this new story on how people are actually getting workouts on their wii's.... pretty cool if you ask mii!

Couple receives wedding photos after 27 years!

A family member forwarded this recent MSNBC article to me and thought I would share since I have nothing better to talk/report about today :) Depending on your situation, this will either make you laugh or scare you to death, but thought it was definitely an interesting read - enjoy!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21443041/

October......

Before I forget, I wanted to post a few Fall photos I was able to get over the last 2 days while the leaves are at their peak here, in Upstate, NY. We had an engagement session today (blog entry coming soon on that too), and I cheated a little bit by shooting some of this stuff when I wasn't supposed to.... enjoy :)

Engagements with Bob & Thomaura!

We've been doing a lot of engagement sessions lately, and now that the 2007 season is officially over, I'm really enjoying getting to know the next batch of 2008 clients we'll be working with next year. There are a lot of really cool couples that I know I'm going to have a lot of fun being a part of the weddng at, and Bob & Thomaura are definitely one of those couples! We drove out to..... (come to think of it, I have no idea where I was today, haha) Canojoharie I think? to hang out with Bob & Thomaura this afternoon and got to not only do some engagement photos with them, but see the church and reception site, which are going to be absolutely insane in terms of photos! (You can see their church in my last post) - and Beardsly Castle looks to be an amazng place for their reception.

What I love most about these two, are their senses of humor - we seem to find ways to make fun of everything while shooting, which is great. I think they will end up being great friends, and we had a blast hanging out with them.... thanks for a fun shoot today, and for showing us around!

P.S. TOWEL, TOWEL, TOWEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations, Megan & Justin!!!

At the beginning of the year I wondered how we would manage to get through so many weddings, stay creative, stay rested, not get sick, keep up with the pace, and basically keep my sanity..... We offically wrapped up the end of our 2007 wedding season last night (other than one straggler wedding in November left), and I feel like the weight of the world is finally off of my shoulders. It is my own assumption that a wedding photographer is probably one of the most under estimated jobs out there in terms of stress, and it's such an amazing feeling to look back on all the amazing weddings of this past year and all the new clients and close friendships we have made with our couples - thank you, everyone!

After driving to West Orange, New Jersey for a corporate shoot, we headed west out towards Binghamton for our final wedding of the "season" with good friends, Megan & Justin. I've known Megan for years now and it seems like forever ago they booked their wedding with us (way before we were even that popular really) - it was great to not only be a part of, but see two fantastic people have such an incredible wedding - they certainly deserved it. Despite the stress of a huge bridal party, everyone was so cool to work with and we certainly want to thank Megan, Justin, their bridal party and families for allowing us to document and spend the day with them!

We have so many incredible photos from the day/evening that we look foward to showing off, and will hope to have everything available for online viewing/ordering within about 3 weeks or so. For those intersted, you can pre-register your email at the link below to receive notification of when images from this wedding go live:

http://mattramosphotography.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=32720

Thanks for everything guys and we hope you have fun on the honeymoon and look foward to hearing all about it when you get back!

Since we had a roughly 2.5 hour ride back home, Megan and Justin were kind enough to put us up in a hotel last night (THANK YOU!)..... we had to get up pretty early this morning to get home in time for a client meeting and engagement session, and this was the view as I got into my truck as well as a couple from the ride home..... it pretty much sums up this event for me.... beautiful.

P.S. 2 More blog entries coming, so don't go anywhere!

Baker Public Relations.....

Most know Megan Baker as the weekday evening news anchor from Channel News 9 or from her previous job with WXXA Fox 23. Megan has had great success thus far and recently made an exciting move to open her very own PR firm (Baker Public Relations), located downtown Albany. Megan and her staff are working on the launch of their new website (http://www.bakerpublicrelations.com/), and we've been excited to work with her on this project for the last couple of days with some new photos for the website, etc. (by the way, these are just a few samples from today... not sure if these will be used or some of the others).... also, the site won't be up unitl November 1st, so be sure to check back then if interested.

Leaving a full-time job or position to run your own business is probably one of the scariest, yet most exciting decisions a person can make... I'll never forget that feeling of waking up the day after I left my job after 8 years at the same corporation the next day, and wondering both, "what the hell did I just do," and more importantly..... "what should I have for breakfast now that I don't have a job?" In all seriousness, it's an amazing feeling and I'm sure Megan's new firm is going to sky-rocket in the very near future. It was awesome to work with you Megan, and best of luck in your new business venture!

On a completely side note that has nothing to do with anything.... we were driving down Central Ave today and saw something I can't say I've ever seen before..... somoene driving a semi truck with a "student driver" sign. I have seen the high school kids with the student driver thing going before, but who student drives a semi??? Maybe it's my twisted humor, but thought it was pretty funny.... it's like seeing an airline pilot with a "pilot in training" shirt on or something. I know everyone has to start somewhere, but it's one of those things you just don't expect or hope to see - lol.

Tomorrow, we are off to West Orange, NJ to shoot a corporate event, followed by an overnight trip to Binghamton for a wedding.... lots of stuff coming up, so be sure to check back for the latest (does anyone really read this stuff anyway? :)

Who's that Girl!??

I woke up this morning coughing, sneezing, and pretty much feeling horrible..... and definitely not looking forward to shooting a model session. I put a lot of pressure on myself sometimes, and it's important for me to produce great results even at times when I'm not at my best.

I've been working a lot with Angela Lanuto, who is an amazing and talented manager for aspiring and upcoming models in the area, and know she's going to create huge success for her clients (if anyone needs a manager let me know!). Anyway, I had an absolute blast working with her again today and her new client and model, Maria! If Molly Ringwald had a twin sister it would definitely be Maria (you should see the resemblance in some of the other photos!) Anyway, here's a few of my favorite shots from the day with Maria, and as you can see she has a lot going for her! (and was super cool to work with I might add).

We hope to to have the opportunity to work with her again in the future, and this is definitely a face to remember. Thanks again for a fun shoot today guys, and for putting up with my sniffing, etc!

Congratulations, Kevin & Rebekah!!!

Yesterday was a tough day for me as I woke up sick, and knew I needed to somehow get it together to pull off another incredible wedding documentary..... shooting a wedding when you're sick is the last thing on earth you want to do when you feel horrible, but I managed to put on my happy face anyway! Despite my whining, we ended up having an awesome day with Kevin & Rebekah, and yet again, another insane lineup of beautiful images to share (again, some of the best images of 2007 in my opinion).

Kev & Becca were an absolute blast to work with and even with their huge bridal party, while stressful, were also a lot of fun as they were a bit of a rowdy bunch - we definitely had a lot of fun with this one all together! As usual, we are very excited to share all the images of the day, and are hoping to have everything done and ready for online viewing/ordering within 2-3 weeks. For those interested, you can click the link below to pre-register your email for notification of when images are live and available!

http://mattramosphotography.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=31956

I'm really excited as we only have one more wedding (next weekend) before we officially end the 2007 wedding season (and then we have one last wedding for the year at the end of November). It feels like I've been going non-stop for the past 5 months with 7 day work-weeks, and 18 hour days..... I'm really looking forward to having a couple months to relax :)

Anyway..... as you can see it's 3:45 in the morning, so I'm off to bed so I can try and get healthy - thanks again to Kevin & Rebekah and for allowing us to take part in such a special day!

Engagements with Kevin & Sarah.......

To say our engagement session with Kevin & Sarah was interesting would be an understatement, I think. Not only did we have fun getting some cool shots for their engagement session, but got wet in a pond to get my "tunnel shot," and even witnessed some sort of an event I'm not even sure how to explain!

While shooting, some guy in a car pulled up with flat tires and a smoking car and continued to rev the engine as high as it would go..... let later took off, with an out of control car, riding on rims with sparks and smoke flying everywhere, only to crash at the end of the street, take out a fire hydrant and then take off.... I was able to snap a series of shots since I happened to be in the right place at the right time, which may end up serving as evidence if needed (I'm now a detective).... anyway, 4 police cars later showed up only to arrest our driver here. An interesting day, and certainly an engagement session, I'll never forget!

On a more serious note however, we had a lot of fun working with Kevin & Sarah, and really look forward to working with them at their wedding next year - they have great senses of humor, which is always fun to work with. Thanks again guys, and hope you enjoy the photos! (They are still loading, but just a few of the ones that caught my eye)

And a quick shot to go along with the story, as well as my evidence.... I won't do it here, but you can zoom in quite nicely on the license plate fairly easily, which is pretty cool :)