High School Reunion

The Class of '85 gathered for our 25 year reunion on Saturday, November 27, 2010, thanks in no small part to the relentless efforts of Paul Drummond. We had a fantastic turnout, and there were many very familiar faces and old friends in attendance. It was good to see that the years have been so good to so many of you.

Thanksgiving 2010

Good family, good food, and good laughs. What a wonderful recipe for fantastic holidays. Thank you to all of our family in Los Angeles for such a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration.

Disneyland 2010

Vacation, Family, perfect weather, and a Magic Kingdom filled with all of our favorite characters. You bet we had fun! Images are here.

The Brothers Bodz

When I think of "good" kids, these two gentlemen immediately come to mind.  They are part of a family that is, as a whole and individually, wonderful.  These two young men were in my studio on October 30th for a photo session.  The "serious" photo session lasted about ten seconds, and then all of their crazy, happy, and friendly personalities came out and took over the mood of the entire shoot.  I'm sure all of us had a good time, and I'm also sure that this is apparent in the photos.

Images can be found here.

Ann and Tom

On October 30th, Jen's Mom and Dad came to the studio because their grandsons were coming in for a photo shoot.  I think Tom and Ann were looking forward to having their pictures taken too, but as they said, it had been so long since they had portraits done that they weren't quite sure what to expect.  Within a few minutes, all anxiety that anyone may have had about having their pictures taken disappeared, and the wonderful personalities of this couple came out for the camera.  The pictures can be found here.

Isabella

I love photography.  I enjoy visualizing an image in my mind.  I love making that vision a permanent reality.  I love interacting with people.  That said, there are some shoots that make me love photography even more.  Isabella's shoot was one of those.  When I arrived at her house, she was asleep.  She woke up shortly after I arrived... no tears, no fuss.  Just a pretty little smile and a curious look as she tried to figure out who I was and what I was doing.  As the shoot progressed, she remained a cheerful, happy, observant, and wonderful little subject.  I think her images really captured a bit of who she is, and this shoot is one of my favorites to date for that very reason.  The images can be found here.

Mason's Third Birthday

I'm not really remembering why, but I just didn't take a lot of pictures at this event. I'm guessing the kids had us running in three different directions at once most of the time. None the less, images from Mason's Third Birthday can be found here. He just keeps getting more and more handsome, and now he's a big brother too!

It isn't so often that I get asked to photograph young adults, but on September 26, 2010, I had an opportunity to shoot Brandon, Larry, and Kyle.  These three brothers made excellent subjects, and I am thankful to them for their patience and cooperation during our shoot.  I love the way these images came out... so often I am trying to capture innocence and glee in a toddler's face, but this shoot gave me a chance to pursue a more gritty, harder-edged look of a tough group of young men in their upper teens and lower 20's.  I think this shoot captured these country boys the way I perceived them.  Images can be found here.

Where did the summer go?

I see that my last post from 2010 was Alex's birthday, below.  In the interest of providing easier navigation, here are links to more new content on stephenskoutas.com:

• Zoey's First Birthday (link)
• Daniel's Bar Mitzvah (link)
• New pictures of the kids (link)
• Wayne and Christine's Anniversary (link)
• Paul and Kathy's Anniversary (link)
• Grandparent's Day at school (link), and candids from that same day (link)
• PE Day 2010 (link)
• Illuminations 2010 (link)
• Candids from school (link)
• Several new family shoots (link)
• A few new videos (link)

There are also tons of new pictures placed in too many assorted galleries to list... feel free to look around.

Ava & Rocco

Images from Ava and Rocco's September 25th shoot at the farm are now complete and the gallery is live.

Kid's and Toddler's Track and Field 2010

For the second summer in a row, my family attended the local Kids and Toddler's track & field events. They are getting bigger, so the competition is getting tougher and faster, but everyone certainly seems to enjoy themselves. Pictures can be found here.

JT's Birthday Party

These kids just don't stop growing up, do they? Now that the kids are all old enough that we are attending the same birthday parties annually, it is nice to look back at previous year's pictures and see how far all of these wonderful little people have come in three hundred sixty five short days. Amazing really.

Here are the pictures from JT's birthday, June 27, 2010. Aside from being a great kid, his party was also attended by a group of great kids. I love this group of friends... kind, funny, sweet, and charming.

Happy Birthday, JT. Your pictures are right here.

Peanut's Gymnastics Exhibition

This little girl just makes me more and more proud every day. Saying that I love her is a huge understatement. Here is her gymnastics exhibition from this summer.

Addy's Second Birthday Party

Slip slidin' away! Addison had a huge waterslide and a hot summer day playing in tandem for a recipe that spelled f-u-n for all of the kids at her second birthday party. These kids didn't want to get off of the slide (except maybe to take a dip in the pool). Pictures can be seen here.

Aaron's Birthday Party

These kids are getting so big, so fast that it is truly amazing. Here are pictures from Aaron's birthday this summer, and these little men are turning out to be something amazing. They are a pleasure to be with, and a pleasure to talk to. They are truly gentlemen in the footsteps of their father.

Pictures can be found here.

Ana's Birthday

This was a fabulous get-together. Ana's Mom and Dad are wonderful people and fantastic hosts. Everyone enjoyed some tasty food from the grill thanks to Chris' talents. There was a lot of splashing and diving in the pool, and an long line of happy children's faces accompanied by laughter. I really like this group, the community that makes up Emily's class. Any time spent with them is a pleasure.

Thanks most of all to Vicki and Chris for inviting us. Pictures can be found here.

Peanut's 4th Birthday

Long overdue. That's all I can say about these pictures. Now that the holiday photo shoots are all delivered to everyone, I get to start concentrating on the backlog of personal pictures taken throughout 2010. There are a lot of them. It is going to be fun to get to relive those memories again as I work my way through the thousands of photos I've taken since this summer. No one event stands out more in my memory than the birthday party for our beautiful 4 year old daughter. For family that has been waiting on these, I am truly sorry these took so long, and I hope to catch up over the winter.

The images are here.

Pot Luck Dinner

May 23, 2010.  Emily's classmates and their families gathered for a wonderful combination of great company, wonderful children, perfect weather, and delicious food.  This is a truly fantastic group of children.  Images can be found here.

Andrew's First Communion

In my attempt to get caught up on the thousands of personal images that I've been wanting to process, I've finally landed in the month of May.  And with May came Andrew Jr.'s First Communion.  This handsome man is my God Son, and I'm quite proud of him for his accomplishments, his intelligence, his creativity, and his fortitude.  The pictures can be found here.

Alex is 4!

Happy Birthday to Alex, and thank you so much to Mom and Dad for inviting us to his party.  The pictures from this event are full of happy kids with big, beaming smiles.  Those images can be found here.

Easter Egg Hunt

Thank you to Sawyer and his Mommy and Daddy for inviting us and a bunch of other families to their house for an AWESOME Easter Egg Hunt.  The Sawyer's really outdid themselves with tons of great food, lots of fun games, and about a bajillion Easter eggs per child.  We literally ran out of places to hide them, and just started scattering them around in the open.

Thanks again... it really was a fantastic time.  The images can be found here.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Mackenzie!

Not many two year old's birthday parties last 5 or 6 hours, but when it is a Barrette Party, no one wants to leave.  Kids and adults alike had a great time hanging out, catching up, and eating delicious food with fantastic company.

The pictures from the party can be found here, and if you need the password, email me.

Bev and Joe Celebrate 40 years

Gravity.  That's a word that comes to mind when I think of the Barrette's.  They have this undeniable attraction about them.  Their house is always welcoming.  Their family feels like your own family.  They all have this ability to draw people in and get friends together.  Kind of like gravitational pull.

That attraction... that ability to draw friends together... it was quite evident last night as about 140 people gathered to celebrate the 40th Wedding Anniversary of Bev and Joe.  The collection of people that are proud to call these folks "friend" is amazing, almost as amazing as this family is.

Thank you to Ken and Josh for giving us an invitation to celebrate your wonderful Mom and Dad's marriage, and thank you to Bev and Joe for making us all feel so welcome in your lives.  Here's to 40 more wonderful years.

The images from this special night can be found here.

Molly is two!

Kid's Kastle was the place to celebrate Molly's second birthday.  My favorite part was Molly sneaking off to sample the cake when no one else was looking.  I know Brian and I had a blast playing.  I'm pretty sure the kids did too.  That place is a great place to burn energy, and the kids certainly did.  Great time!  Thank you for having us.

The pictures can be found here.

Half-Pint Prints Winter 2009-2010

Well, where to begin?  For starters, halfpintprints.com is now stephenskoutas.com, and that is the website of the newly launched Stephen Skoutas Photography.  Over the next year, we're going to put more emphasis on building this business, and a concerted effort into bringing the highest quality photography and prints that we can to our family, friends, and clients.  I'd like to thank Jody for the encouragement and support to help me make this decision.  This business will remain a part-time endeavor.

That said, I would appreciate your input, your referrals, and your kind words if you know people that are looking for a photographer, particularly a portrait / event photographer.  The business phone is (401) 227-0123 should you need to share it with someone who might want my services.  I thank you. 

There have been a ton of under-the-hood changes to the website, so if you find anything that doesn't work as it should, please let me know.  I'm still coding parts of the site, but incomplete sections are quite obvious.

This update is long overdue.  Our last password change was summer '09.  Check your email for the new password.  It has been sent out by bulk email today.  If you didn't receive it, send me a message.

Please also remember that you can find me on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/sskoutas) or Twitter? http://twitter.com/sskoutas.

There is a ton of new content on the site.  Here are some of the highlights:

• As always, new images of Emily, Zack, and Zoey continue to be posted with regularity. 
• Speaking of Emily, she has her own Fisher Price digital camera now, and here is a gallery of her work (link)
  
• The Little Gym (link)
  
• Mystic Aquarium with cool Katz (link)
• Haley's 4th (link)
• Becky & Sarah's birthday (link)
• Rachel's 3rd (link)
• Kid's and Toddler's Track & Field (link)
  
• Davis Farmland (link)
• Andrew's Birthday (link)
• Hope's Birthday (link)
• the Trazi Harvest Party (link)
• Lalloween (link)
• Trunk-or-Treat (link)
• Mikie's 4th (link)
• Emmy's 4th (link)
• a bunch of family studio shoots for the Holidays (category link here, select individual galleries within)
• Paul's photo shoot at the park (link)
• A pass-the-camera series of snapshots from Blake's Tavern (many of these images are not taken by me... everyone took pictures.  link)
  
• video - Zack sings about some dude named "Santa." (link)
• video - Zoey learns to crawl (link)
• as always, there are scattered additions thoughout the site, particularly in "the family album"
  

All major content updates are posted at the blog (http://blog.stephenskoutas.com/) and each blog entry contains a link to the related gallery. The easiest way to track the updates is by subscribing to the blog RSS feed at the top of any blog page (the subscribe button) or clicking here.

Lastly, and as always:

• If you don’t want to be on this distribution list, email me and you will be removed.
• If you have pictures up here that you don’t want up here, tell me and they will be removed.
• If you have any password concerns with your images, let me know.
• If you want a gallery password protected that isn’t, let me know.
• If you know someone would want to be added, tell them to email me.
• Feel free to share gallery access with others that might be interested.
• Contributions for “The Old Shoebox” and “Photographs and Memories” nostalgia galleries always welcome.

Take care, and have a happy, healthy, and joyous New Year!