Regular patrons of the coffeehouse know that a couple of weeks ago I was in NYC to attend my first game at the new Yankee Stadium with my brother Tim. We hadn't been to a game in years decades, and it was Old Timers Day to boot. The weather was abominably hot but we enjoyed ourselves. :)

One of the other things that I did during that trip was have some photos taken for general purposes (like the Blend masthead), and for head shots or pix for print and web use.

I'm asked fairly often to supply hi-res shots, which I didn't have, so when my cousin Julie Atwell (see more of her work at her Facebook page), offered to do a package for me (along with photos of me w/Kate), as a birthday present, I couldn't turn that down.

We are from a large extended family, and we were born only a couple of months apart, and spent many summers in Hollis, Queens, NY, playing together with other cousins (the photo at left was from the mid-60s) -- sorry, cuz, that dates you!

You Pick 'em

I'm obviously nutty for putting these out on the web for commentary (since the haters will surely bring it on), but I thought Blenders could provide feedback about their favorites and why. Not all of them are head shot material of course, just fun shots. And trust me there are the rejects that will never see the light of day on the Intertubes.

So the day before the Yankee game, we headed over to Socrates Sculpture Park, in Long Island City (Queens) for the first set. It was extremely hot, but as we were near the East River, there was a little breeze, but honestly when it's 95 degrees, the hot air wasn't very refreshing. Anyway, since your blogmistress does not have stylists and makeup artists at her disposal, I decided to go nearly makeup-free to avoid a heat meltdown, only using brow pencil, some powder to hold back the shine, and lip gloss.

The slideshows have numbered captions, so you can easily refer to them that way.

We then trekked over to Brooklyn for lunch at the famous Junior's Restaurant, and Julie decided to take a few photos there at the spur of the moment - no fancy lighting or set up, just point and click stuff while I had some tea (of course you all can imagine that it's coffee, lol).

What Julie said on her blog about us was very true. It was a very relaxed shoot in spite of the gawdawful heat.

There is a special fun and joy in shooting pictures of someone you've known your whole life. There is a comfort and familiarity that makes for expressions that I think are difficult to capture otherwise. One of my goals is to make every subject I photograph feel like they've known me their whole lives so they can express themselves fully.

By the way, I just have to say that Pam and Kate are THE most loving and dedicated couple I have ever known. Their passion and admiration for each other are amazing and inspiring!

Julie Atwell Photography
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