My wife's grandmother was raised in Ardee, a small town about 45 minutes north of Dublin, Ireland. We thought it was high time that our kids met some of their Irish relatives, so we're spending the week there between Christmas and New Year's Eve this year.

A cousin owns Tenanty & Sons, a wonderful pub in the center of town, which is where most of these pictures are taken. This place is a load of fun and  I love it, even more so with a camera. People are friendly and easy to talk to, and almost all are fine with me taking a few photos while we chat.

You can check out a gallery of these photos here.

This was a neighbor's holiday party. I noticed a small Christmas tree decorated with little white lights out on their porch. It just seemed like great, soft, multi-source portrait light, so I grabbed the occasional guest and asked them to come out for an impromptu headshot. Happy with the results. 

Check out the shoot here. 

Shooting our family Thanksgiving accomplished a number of things for me:

-It gave me an enjoyable activity to turn to any time I felt like it throughout the day. It's great to see the family, but a break here and there is welcome.

-It gave me a way to connect with some of the little kids. Having them do jumps or swing on our rope swing was way better than my asking them about school.

-It gave me a different connectivity with adults, including my parents. I wanted to get photos of them, not photos of them having their picture taken. That involved some trust, some drawing out, and making it clear that I wasn't looking to necessarily make them look pretty in a "smile for the camera" photo. It worked. 

I hope you'll check it out.

Novel Night, a local library fundraiser,  occurs every other year in Pelham, NY and attendees dress in costumes inspired by different book titles. I was asked to donate my services for the good cause, which I was happy to do. The dance floor was fairly insane, particularly because the different costumes made for all sorts of crazy pairings. I was shooting a slow shutter speed and using flash to capture the movement and the general hysteria. I also used a very wide lens; the distortion of the lens amplified the whole reality distortion of the evening and the super wide angle allowed me to get very close to my subjects. It's the most time I've ever spent on a dance floor.

Have a look!