Jenna and Keith got married at one of the most beautiful venues in Columbus, the Franklin Park Conservatory. With a ceremony on the West Terrace and a reception in the Palm House, the entire day was just absolutely beautiful. The conservatory recently finished their renovations and it looks fantastic. If you haven’t been to the conservatory before, make sure to put it on your list soon!

Here are some of my favorites from Friday’s wedding.

Enjoy!
-T

After Friday’s wedding, I packed up the gear and headed up north to Mooreland Mansion in Kirtland, Ohio for Melanie and Scott’s wedding. We all had such a good time when I photographed their E-session so I had been looking forward to their wedding ever since. And despite some inclement weather that rolled through during the reception, I had a great time and got some beautiful photographs of these two on their special day. Check out some of my favorites below!

-T

Sean and Michelle got married at The Vineyard Church of Columbus last Friday and all I can say is, wow, what a wedding! We were blessed with some amazing weather and everyone was so much fun to work with. Follow that up with a reception at the fantastic Villa Milano with the best lasagna I’ve ever had (hands down, no kidding, the best!)

Here some of my favorites from Sean and Michelle’s wedding, enjoy!

-T

I met Libby and Brett through Art netWork last year when Meredith and I joined the group and we’ve been friends ever since! The cool thing about building a relationship with a bride and groom before the wedding is that they end up being very comfortable being in front of the camera the day of their wedding because they already know me personally. It’s one of the reasons I love doing E-sessions before the wedding because it gives the BG a chance to get a feel for what taking pictures will be like the day of.

Here are some of my favorites from Saturday’s wedding, enjoy!

-T

Amy and Andy got married yesterday at the Cultural Center for the Arts in Canton, Ohio yesterday, and even though it was really hot outside, it was such a cool wedding. The recital hall where the got married was perfect, and the reception at Chenoweth Country Club was fantastic. Here are some of my favorites…

Enjoy!
-T

This was the second time I’ve gone to Pittsburgh to photograph a wedding, and I got some great shots of these two. Giovanna wanted a 1920’s themed wedding, complete with a smashing reception on the 17th floor of the Omni William Penn Hotel.

Steve wrote her a song and performed it for her during the middle of the reception. It was a moving moment for everyone. Here are some of my favorites from their wedding.

Enjoy!
-T

Well, it’s been something we’ve wanted to do for a while now, and a lot of you have heard me talk about it, but today it is finally here! We’ve officially launched New Age Foto’s Lifestyle Photography!

What is it you ask? It’s free-style portraiture for you, your kids, high school seniors, pets and more. If you like my wedding photography, you’ll love our Lifestyle work as well. Check it out at http://www.newagefoto.com/lifestyle/

Scheduling a session is easy, just give us a call at 614.839.1218 for the Columbus area and 330.294.0944 for the Akron, Cleveland, and Canton area.

-T

Had a chance to tag along on this session, and I’m glad I did! Mellisa and Jimmy were a lot of fun to photograph. Aside from being ridiculously good looking, the whole session was very carefree and fun. Thanks you two for being such good sports and letting us experiment with some new ideas! =)

Check it out below.

-T

Had a great time photographing Samantha and Adam’s wedding. We had some great weather and the bride and groom were all about my creative vision and trusted me to create some stunning images from their wedding. Here are some of my favorites from their wedding.

-T

Had a lot of fun at this one. Jamie and I go back quite a few years to our days at Kent State. They had an amazing wedding/reception at the Terrace club at The Jake (I know it’s Progressive Field, but it will always be The Jake to me!)

I just couldn’t help myself with the song selection… =)

Click Here to access their complete gallery.

Enjoy!
-T

Last night I went with Meredith to her quarterly awards here in Columbus. If you’ve never been to a Mary Kay event, there’s lots of laughs, lots of energy and a a ton of recognition for some very hard working women. What’s better is that they have so much fun! I decided on a whim to grab my D3 and snap some shots during the evening. And even I got some recognition too! =)

Sherry Alexander, a National Sales Director, flew up for the event and it was a pleasure to meet her in person.

Watch the slide show below to see some shots from last night!

-Cheers!
T

If you don’t already know (which would be hard because we talk about him all the time!), Meredith and I have a wonderful 11 month old, pure bred American Bulldog named Jackson. He’s a big guy. Even at only 11 months, he’s around 80 lbs. with room to grow. But, he’s a joy to have in our lives and always a favorite at the Westerville dog park we take him to. Take a look at some pictures of him I took on my blog HERE.

Unfortunately, Jackson’s life is being threatened. We, and hundreds of other families in Ohio, need your support and help.

You may or may not have heard about a recent amendment to Ohio’s House Bill 568 proposed by Representative Yates (District 33) that would effectively ban the ownership of any dog that belongs to a breed that is commonly known as a pit bull dog (the term pit bull is vague, but as Franklin County lists it as an American Pit Bull Terrier, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, an American Staffordshire Terrier, an American Bulldog, Any other pure bred or mixed breed dog whose appearance and physical characteristics is predominately those of any of the dogs listed above, or is a combination of any of the dogs listed above.)The amended section of the bill would require that within 90 days of the effective date, owners will be forced to surrender their dogs to the dog warden for authorization.

This would mean the killing of thousands of innocent dogs across our state, most likely including our dog, Jackson.

Singling out a specific breed and labeling them as vicious is discriminatory and fundamentally wrong. Not only is it unfair, but it’s not even close to being true. According to the American Temperament Test Society, out of the 586 American Pit Bull Terriers tested, 84.3% passed the temperament test, better than other common breeds like the Basenji, Shih Tzu, and even the Chihuahua (only 70.3% passed!)

Some other interesting data to consider…

According to the National Canine Research Council from 1965 through 2007 there were a total of 17 fatal dog attacks in Ohio. 5 of the instances involved a child attempting to interact with a chained or penned dog.Three others were infants left unsupervised with unfamiliar dogs. 4 of the attacks were from dogs who were actively encouraged to attack someone (those people were criminally charged) That means 70% of the attacks were caused by people. More importantly, ELEVEN different breeds of dogs have been identified as participating in the attacks.

Put the number of fatalities in comparison to some other threats to our community. At a glance in 2001, Ohio had:
Fatal dog attacks: 1
Struck by lightning : 3
Farm animal-related deaths: 4
Bicycle-related fatalities: 18
Child (<10 yrs.) drowned: 21
ATV-related deaths: 30
Automobile accident fatalities: 1,379

So in 2001, you had a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than be killed by a dog attack.

In 2005, 83 children died from maltreatment in Ohio. That's almost 500% more in one year compared to fatal dog attacks over 43 years in the State of Ohio!

Any dog can become dangerous if provoked or trained to be. It is not something that is breed specific. Are some cities having trouble with stray dogs and attacks? Yes. Is there enough evidence to suggest that any dog commonly referred to as a pit bull dog poses a large enough threat to the community to mandate the genocide of an entire breed? Absolutely not. While we agree that a solution to some inner cities' problems with dog attacks needs to be found, this proposed bill is certainly not it.

The good news.

The bill was assigned to the State Government and Elections Committee to discuss whether or not the bill merits a hearing before the general assembly, so it hasn't gotten very far yet. From calling around to various representatives the general consensus is against the bill, including Representative David T. Daniels (Committee Chair). However, with Congress not in session, a lot can happen between now and September. While I've been told that the bill will most likely not make it to the general assembly, the very thought of it even having a remote chance of being passed is sickening.

What you can do to help
Spread the word, talk about it with your family and neighbors. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE and tell them you’re against the pit bull ban. Contact members of the Government and Elections Committee and voice your opinion to them. It’s easy to get involved, all you have to do is pick up the phone or write an email. With you’re help we can ensure that this bill never even gets a hearing. Help save the lives of thousands of innocent and loving dogs, including our own.

Help us put an end to breed specific legislation!

Please feel free to forward this email!

With love and gratitude,
Tom, Meredith, and Jackson

Some of my picks from Nikki and Justin’s wedding. Friends and Family can view Nikki and Justin’s wedding gallery by going here http://www.newagefotoshop.com/RedCart/

Enjoy!
-T =)

Meredith and I finally got around to finishing our screened porch yesterday and we thought it only fitting to invite a couple friends over to help break in the bar. Sammy and Jared were more than happy to oblige!

Sam had the idea of setting up my D3 on a tripod and do set it to do some time lapse photography of our night. We had quite a bit of fun with it! Check out the video below, and thanks to Sammy for putting it together for us all!

Cheers!

I had heard the reviews and all the buzz surrounding this movie, but even after all of that I had low expectations for this film. I’m skeptical every time they turn a Marvel character into a movie star, there are hundreds of ways to screw it all up (for reference take a look at the original Hulk movie made in 2003), but they really did a nice job with this one. =)

The action scenes at times were a little over the top, but for the most part believable for this kind of flick. The acting was also fairly decent (myself not being a huge fan of RD Jr. was surprised how well he played this role) The story line was a good introduction to the character without getting too personally in depth (which is good because otherwise the movie would’ve been a half hour too long and I would’ve hated it!)

There wasn’t any one particular aspect of the movie that was amazing, but rather one good scene after another all piled high on some toasted bread with a deli pickle on the side. MMM mmm GOOD!

All in all I give 4 out 5 stars on the new TL-MYMS (Tom’s List of Movies You Must See)

BTW, don’t wait for this one to come out on DVD, which most likely will be around this year’s holiday season, it is definitely worth seeing on the largest screen you can find. And stay through the ending credits for an extra scene…

-T