The holidays are already here.  What happened to the first 10 months of this year?  Feels like we skipped at least a month in there somewhere.  In any case, the Christmas music playlist is already starting to get a few reps on my iPhone as all the holiday card orders are flying through here... I can't help but get my jingle on. A couple days ago we met up with the Whitakers for a mini-session to capture this years edition of the family holiday card.  It had been just over a year since we first photographed their family of three, and if you take a peek below, your Sherlock Holmes slueth skills will tell you something looks different about the family this year.... big brother Chase now has a partner in crime... or at least someone to blame for all the mischief.  Yep, this past year marked the introduction of little Cole, and his eyes + smile will make anyone say "Awww...".  Don't believe me?  Just check out a few of the close-ups of him further down below. Don't they look straight out of a magazine?

Love this image of Stephanie with the sun backlighting her.

Chase's path to handsome good looks seems to be coming along nicely.

Look at those eyes.

C'mon... tell me you're not saying "Awww!" here.  I dare you.

I wanted to give props to Kylie and say thanks for the help on all the photo sessions recently.  I know she's helping because she wants to see the photography business succeed, but I think she also wants to see me come home with all my camera gear.  I have a tendency to leave a trail of lens caps, reflectors, light meters, and occasionally even cameras behind as I go and get into a session, so she keeps me and my gear organized while I'm on the job.  Thanks, sweetie. Here's a quick one from after we finished up our session tonight.  I'm pretty sure there were no less than 17 mosquitos on my when I took this.  Seriously.  Not kidding.

Wanted to give a shout out to my buddy, Brandon, and his shiny new fianceé, Stacey.  If you follow the blog, you may remember Brandon from earlier this summer when he got his GQ on for a little photo shoot.  Sorry ladies, this one's taken.  Stacey is such a sweetheart, and I couldn't be happier for these two.  Last night after blindfolding her, carrying her through some muddy terrain at the park they had their first date at (see shoes below), reciting a poem to her and getting down on one knee, Brandon asked for Stacey's hand in marriage.  Apparently feeling pretty confident she would say yes [grin], Brandon planned a little engagement party at my friend Jeff's house last night for after the big moment.  We didn't get their 'til late becasue of a photo shoot and a dinner we had to go to earlier in the evening, but I had my camera in the car from the earlier session and cranked it up to ISO 4000 to fire off a few quick images of the soon-to-be husband and wife. Congratualtions, Brandon & Stacey!

Exhale... ahhh.  I've been excited for Maureen and JC to come in and see their images since we met two Saturdays ago on a perfect fall day at the Frito Lay corporate campus in Frisco, TX. We had a lot of fun - and a lot of Kylie's homemade chocolate chip cookies - as we soaked in their memoirs and reminisced about the day, and now I can finally share their images with the blogosphere. Here are some of my favorites of Maureen, JC, RJ and little Cassidy.

Cassidy is so stinkin' adorable.  This image is timeless.

There's something about this image that I just can't get enough of.  Oh, that's right... Cassidy's big blue eyes and her over-the-shoulder vintage 1940 pose.

Umm, hello?  GAP ad?

And finally, here's a couple of fun 20x20 canvas storyboards of Cassidy and RJ... too fun.

At least once a year I try to get back 'home' to Marion, Ohio.  While I haven't lived there in over 12 years now, it will always be that place for me that feels unexplicably familiar, peaceful and comforting.  Just driving through town and along the back county roads in the amazing fall weather makes the world feel just a little more right... at least for a few days a year. I had big plans during this recent trip to get out with my camera and just wander through the old downtown and out in the country for several hours and see what I could find, but between the napping, eating, Xboxing, flat tire changing, Ohio State gaming, Shark Tank watching (that show rocks!), Reaganing, Rudying, family reunioning, Styering, Tubby's Pizza'ing, searching for my wedding ring'ing, etcetera'ing... it never really materialized like I envisioned. I did manage to get out a little bit, though, and fire off a few images. I'll start off with an image that has a little personal significance for me.  This is my grandpa & grandma Nicolosi's old house where my dad and his 5 brothers/sisters grew up and my grandparents lived for - I think - nearly 50 years.  While both of my grandparents are still dearly missed, I have a lot of fond memories in this house... sitting with my grandma while she would draw what must've seemed to her like endless requests for birds & dinosaurs - I truly believe she instilled the desire in me to be creative and as a result has had a huge impact on the direction my life has taken.  I also vividly recall years and years of big family gatherings at Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve... some of my most endearing childhood memories.  Every year grandpa would cook his homemade spaghetti and meatballs from scratch on Christmas Eve, and every year I'd scoot it all on to half my plate to make it look like I ate, well, half of it because as a kid, my still-unrefined taste buds preferred the sophisticated blend of preservatives and empty calories made by my buddy Chef Boyardee.  Today, I miss grandpa's homemade sauce.  I remember spending the night and grandma letting us stay up to watch Chiller on Friday night which was basically a series of low-budget B movies that tried to be scary with occasional breaks where some guy in cooky owl-shaped glasses played host and interjected his own lame commentary.  Good stuff as a kiddo, though.  I could go on and on, and I might in a future post some day.

Somewhere in the country between the airport and Delaware, Ohio.

Looking down the main drag in Waldo.

Don't remember where this was, but it's not important... it's yellow leaves, and that's what matters here.

Found these original wooden doors on an old, decaying house under an overpass in downtown Marion.

It's sad how much of down town Marion has been neglected since it's hay day many years ago, but man, this place is a photographer's dream.  Are you kiddin' me?  I'd have a field day down here with seniors.

A little infrared post-processing action on a barn out in the country side.

Near Schrode's house...

A little self-portrait cheese in an old storefront window in downtown Delaware.

More downtown Delaware.

Peaking through a window into an auditorium in an old building on the Ohio Weslyan campus in Delaware.

Along the roadside off state route 23 across from the entrance to Delaware State Park.  BTW, for those of you non-Ohioans that may be a bit confused at this point, Delaware is a city in Ohio in addition to being a state somewhere near the eastern border of the US (don't ask me to pick it out on a map... I'm sure I'll get it confused with New Hampshire or Vermont).

There's nothing better in the world than fall colors in the Midwest.