The empty docks at Compo Beach in Westport. In the summer time these docks are full of boats but in the winter everyone vacates. I liked the repetive emptyness/rows of the docks here.

The empty docks at Compo Beach in Westport. In the summer time these docks are full of boats but in the winter everyone vacates. I liked the repetive emptyness/rows of the docks here.

During the war for US Independence the British Invaders arrived at Compo Beach in an attempt to invade New England. Residents of Westport were on patrol as "Minutemen" -- they could wake up and be ready to fight within a minute. When the British landed just off shore the Minutemen were ready and successfully repelled the evil invaders from flooding into New England. This canon statue commemorates the wonderful men who fought for our independence. As a kid I used to love to climb on these canons. We'd always see who would be the adventurous one and climb all the way to the end of them. While at home for Passover we did nothing but eat. Sammi decided we needed to take a walk so I took her to the beach (and brought my trusty camera with me). I liked the way the shadows added some symmetry and a little bit of a new dimension to this. Trying out this photo in a couple ways. This is the sepia version, which I like better because it focuses in on the shape, contrast, and texture of the canons. There wasn't much color in this scene and I didn't think it needed it.

During the war for US Independence the British Invaders arrived at Compo Beach in an attempt to invade New England. Residents of Westport were on patrol as "Minutemen" -- they could wake up and be ready to fight within a minute. When the British landed just off shore the Minutemen were ready and successfully repelled the evil invaders from flooding into New England. This canon statue commemorates the wonderful men who fought for our independence. As a kid I used to love to climb on these canons. We'd always see who would be the adventurous one and climb all the way to the end of them. While at home for Passover we did nothing but eat. Sammi decided we needed to take a walk so I took her to the beach (and brought my trusty camera with me). I liked the way the shadows added some symmetry and a little bit of a new dimension to this. Trying out this photo in a couple ways. This is the colorized version. I think I like the sepia version better as the colors in this are very dull and don't add anything.

While on my walk with Sammi around the beach I noticed this neat looking buoy hanging off someone's fence. I took a couple shots, thinking I'd HDR this, and then realized that this scene was evenly lit and didn't need to be HDR'd.

Mom and Uncle Richy at the start of the Passover Seder.

The seder plate

Aaron and Popop, just before the seder begins.

Steve, Lauren, and Ben look at the home-made seder Hagaddah's

A wonderful photo of Mom and Dad! This gallery is my first attempt at playing with Lightroom 3 (beta 2). One of the new features, that I really like is that if you use the adjustment brush (for local edits) and set the "Sharpness" to a value less than -50 then it adds a "Lens Blur" to the area that you paint. The brushes are stackable and I used this technique to blur the background. I took this photo at too big of a depth of field and wanted to blur the background and leave my parents in focus. Normally I'd have to go into Photoshop to do this but thanks to Lightroom 3 it's now possible without entering Photoshop!

Little Luca was the cutest kid in the world while reading The Four Questions.

Little Luca was the cutest kid in the world while reading The Four Questions.

Litle Luca had special finger puppets to represent each of the 10 plagues!

Jon does a great job of posing as bus boy as he helps clear away all the dirty plates. Too bad he had to close his eyes in this photo!

The Putterman family and Popop!