When I was 16 years old, my Mom made a surprise announcement at the dinner table one night.  A few months later, Michael was born!  Fast forward 18 years, and my youngest brother has just graduated from High School, and is on his way to Parris Island, where he will serve our country as a US Marine.  In between, however, he took a trip up here to spend a week with us.  He also brought his girlfriend, Monica.

Knowing how fit my “little” brother is, I had one goal for his visit: to get him in front of the camera!  Luckily, Monica was just as onboard with the idea (she’s been modeling for years).  And I had just the perfect location in mind.  Just down the road from my house in Grafton, is Purgatory Chasm.  Most folks that have grown up in MA have made it to Purgatory Chasm at least once in their lifetimes, but the location I had in mind was off a lesser known trail on the other side of the road from the main chasm.  It was perfect!

And since it was a Wednesday morning, I had a couple of assistants along…

As I may have mentioned once or twice before, my younger brother, Stephen, is a club and event DJ in Central Florida. In fact he’s a far more talented DJ than I am a photographer…nudge, nudge to all of you readers from Florida who want a great DJ for your wedding, or you New Englanders who want to import one :). Whenever he visits, we usually try to find a couple hours to break away for a promo shoot. This weekend we found a couple of free hours, and an old, abandoned, drive-in movie theatre. It was very cool, and super creepy at the same time. My favorite kind of location!

With all of the orders that made it in prior to the holiday deadline done…the prints shipped, the albums shipped, the weddings processed…I finally have a moment to relax and thank all of my 2008 clients for my most successful year ever! Now I’m going to take it easy for a few days, before looking forward to a 2009 that is already poised to blow this year out of the water. Stay tuned for exciting news.

But in the meantime, best holiday wishes from my family to yours:

Sarah and Arik made me feel more like family than any other wedding I’ve photographed this year. Of course, that might be because a large portion of the guests at the wedding are related to me (including my cousin, the groom)! Arik is currently serving in the Air Force, at Langley AFB in VA, so that’s where we traveled for the celebration.I began the day by meeting my new cousin-to-be at the beautiful Embassy Suites in Hampton, VA. As soon as we all arrived, we hit the ground running, with Sarah getting dressed and touched up in record time. After taking a few minutes for photos at the hotel, it was off to the Langley Chapel for the ceremony.

Once Sarah was officially made a Wexler, we stepped outside the chapel for a few photos, then headed over to the Enlisted Club to finish the photo session. Then we moved inside where dinner was hot and ready to go. After dinner, the DJ kept the evening moving along with loads of dancing and fun until, before we know it, the evening was done, and Sarah and Arik escaped through a gauntlet of sparklers to their waiting car. Congratulations to the happy couple, and welcome to the family, Sarah!

Click here to see a few more: http://www.pbase.com/jamisonwexlerphoto/saraharik

With this being my busiest season for wedding photos, I am so behind posting (and taking) photos of my own beautiful family. So, with apologies to my friends and families for the lateness of this posting, here are a few of Ben and Luke a couple of weeks ago. Of course, Ben is now twice as old as he was in these photos!

Please join us in welcoming the newest member of our family!

Benjamin (Ben) Clifford Wexler
Born June 25, 2008, 5:57 PM
8lbs, 12oz, 21in

Melanie & Ben are recovering nicely at Framingham Union Hospital.

He did it! My 17 year old brother, Michael, put in all of the hard work and dedication necessary to earn his Eagle Scout badge.

So I loaded up Luke and Melanie, along with Wexler baby 1 3/4 (who seems to go with us everywhere now), and flew the friendly JetBlue skies down to my native town: the redneck paradise of Ocala, Florida.

It was great to see all of my family again. In addition to my Mom and Michael, my middle brother, Stephen, and his wife, Lisa, still live in Ocala as well. Joining us from MA was my Aunt Susan.

What a cool thing the Eagle Scout award is. I’ve heard of it, but I never realized what a big achievement it really is. Seems like everyone in the local, state, and national government was lining up to congratulate Michael. He received letters and certificates from the current and past Presidents’ Bush, congressman, and government agencies like the FBI and USDA, the armed forces, etc. There was a full album of them by the time I arrived. At the official ceremony, which took place at Grace Presbyterian Church, there were representatives from the city government, city police, sherrif’s department, fire department, school board and a few local civic clubs, all of whom spoke their congratulations and give Michael more plaques, certificates, proclamations, and awards. By the end of all of the celebration, I’ll bet he could cover every wall in his room with all of the items he was awarded. It was a very cool experience.

Then we vegged.

~Jamie Wexler
www.jamisonwexler.com

One of the great things about the off season is being able to spend weekends with my family doing fun things like trying out a new playground. This one was at Green Hill Park in Worcester. At first Luke wasn’t sure about the swinging bridge, but with a little reassurance from Mom, he was on his way!

Click here for a few more from the playground: http://www.pbase.com/jamisonwexlerphoto/luke0308

–Jamie Wexler
www.jamisonwexler.com

In an attempt to beat my family to their cries of “you don’t post enough photos of Luke”, here are a few from a conversation I had with him at the dinner table this evening. If I remember correctly, we were discusing the merits of the apple he was munching. The crunching coming from his mouth was too loud, so he had to block his ears…

–JAMIE
www.jamisonwexler.com

–JAMIE
www.jamisonwexler.com