When it comes to West Hartford Center, RLMCo are the local experts by far.  Richard Mahoney ran the commercial real estate management company until he passed away in 2011, and this tribute in the Hartford Courant shows how much he helped make West Hartford Center a better, more vibrant place over the past decades.  Today RLMCo is run by Richard’s son Mike, and his other son Dan is the property manager or “Mr. Fix-it” as he described the pitch his dad and brother made to bring him into the family business.  Dan’s  recently put in a thermopaned window to bring lots more light into the space…thanks Dan!  Love your beard by the way!  Dan’s hobbies include woodworking and raising labs (close to our heart…wonderful family dogs!)…you can check out Dan and his wife’s non-profit at labrescuect.com.  RLMCo is located at 10 North Main Street in West Hartford Center.

If it’s Tuesday afternoon then John Bollash is getting his Zen on, wallpapering to the New Age sounds of WWUH (91.3 FM), the University of Hartford’s college station.

We met John a few years back when he wallpapered our dining room and bathroom.  For the new studio, Shelley, our designer, pitched the idea of papering the ceiling with a big patterned Anthropologie wallpaper.  We almost passed on it…but at the last minute went for it, got John on the phone and he got it done.  So here’s reStore #2:  John of John Bollash Wallpapering in Manchester (phone 860.645.9343).  Thanks John, love the wallpaper!

For the past month we’ve been busy getting our new studio ready in West Hartford Center.  I wanted to do a personal photo project on the fixing-up process, so being a people photographer I decided to focus on the people who helped bring it all about.  I’m a big fan of small business so I am thrilled that everyone has been so open to being photographed.  Here’s installment #1 of my reStore project: Seamus.

His name is Paul but his company is Seamus Painting.  Actually his middle name is Seamus and that’s what his family calls him…besides, as he says, Paul’s Painting just doesn’t have the ring that Seamus Painting has.  Paul’s an upbeat, personable guy who’s dad to three boys and lives in West Hartford.  He coaches basketball and baseball, the latter with the West Hartford Little League–where he’s also helped to create the Miracle League baseball field on Trout Brook Drive–the first such field for special needs kids in New England.

Seamus Painting provides power-washing and interior and exterior painting….and his crew did a great job on our studio!  You can reach Paul / Seamus at 860.965.1362 or seamuspainting@comcast.net.  Thanks Paul for a fun shoot!

Great shooting Jayda, Ashley and C. Devone at the L’Oreal Tech Center on 5th Avenue in August for Dark and Lovely, L’Oreal’s black women’s hair line of relaxers, colorants and more.  Dark and Lovely celebrated their 40th anniversary in October and did a special advertorial page published in Essence and used their images for their website.  The three women aren’t models but they were so professional, fun and easy to work with you’d never know!  Jayda is an amazing stylist…see her website here! Ashley is an up and coming actress and C. Devone is a professional DJ.  Also great working with Nicole from Bratskier and Damien of L’Oreal!

Happy 2013!  On a warm October day we were having lunch in West Hartford Center, just up the road from our house.  We ran into our neighbor, Mike Mahoney from RLM Co., who leases much of the commercial space in the Center.  Got to talking about our growing interest in opening a studio, and Mike mentioned that a space was being vacated at 10 LaSalle–in the old Blue Acorn store.  After nine years as a home-based business, we sensed this was the right time, right place, right opportunity so….we’re opening our first photography studio right in West Hartford Center!

It’s around the corner from Lululemon and across the street from Starbucks.  Love the location, it’s a cozy space and we have the tradesmen lined up to overhaul the walls, floors, signage etc. this month.  We’ve already done two shoots there (more about our upcoming personal project soon!) and I’m thrilled to say that the natural light is beautiful so we will have our choice of natural light or strobes!  Planning on a “soft openingâ€� in February followed by a bigger bash later this spring….stay tuned for  progress reports this winter!

We were in Storrs back in September to photograph Geno Auriemma, Chris Dailey and their super-talented team along with the SNY broadcasting team–which now includes our local friend and former UConn bball player Meghan Culmo, along with UConn star Kara Wolters, Andrew Catalon and Kerith Burke.

The players were so fun to photograph…beauty and strength, with a huge playful side to them.  The photos are being used by our client, SportsNet NY (SNY), and UConn for their websites, press photos, billboards, TV and more.

Click Read More for more photographs from the 2012 UConn Women’s Basketball team shoot…go Huskies!!

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We had the opportunity to shoot for Walmart World magazine–Walmart’s in-house magazine–this summer for a photo of Sarah Sloat, a Walmart associate from their Hanover MA store.  Sarah’s the force behind a food pantry at their local church.  Walmart invited her to speak at their annual meeting in Arkansas…and now she’s featured in their magazine!  Well deserved Sarah and great meeting you!

Last month we shot for the London-based agency Beetroot.  Their client, RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) owns Providence-based Citizens Bank and their in-house magazine was doing a story on mentoring between Citizens Bank execs and their business clients. We shot at the MGM Grand casino at Foxwoods and were happy to find this simple background.  Great meeting and photographing Arvin, Lynette and Hugh and hearing their story!

A few months back we had the pleasure to work with the team at Xerox Corporation to photograph Christa Carone, their Chief Marketing Officer.  We were thrilled they were okay to incorporate their new branding into the shoot!  You can read more about Carone and Xerox’s rebranding here.