Doug Levy is a former professional baseball umpire turned wedding and portrait photographer. Doug attended umpire school after graduating from Syracuse in 2003 and spent six seasons on the field, reaching the AAA level before deciding a lifetime of 7:05 starts wasn't for him. He lives outside Boston with his wife Jessica and miniature schnauzer Bentley.
Jess and I just got back from a weekend in Staatsburg, New York (where? Yeah, that was me last week – but it’s basically south of Albany, 90 min. or so from NYC), where we got to see some of my family and shoot some photos.
Despite the fact that it rained Saturday, getting a chance to spend some real time with cousins I see once a year or so is always a good thing.
That’s Zachary above, and we definitely took advantage of being stuck inside to make a few pictures.
For the next photo I just told him to sit and look at the light (I wish it was always this easy.)
A few minutes later he made the connection between the button on my Pocketwizards and the “big flash into the umbrella.”
Sunday, being the ever-trusting photographer that I am, I let Zachary play with my camera a bit.
Now, this not might have been the brightest idea I’ve ever had…but the good news is when you’re 2.5′ tall, the camera doesn’t exactly have far to fall (but he didn’t drop it).
OK, less talking, more photos.
Zachary and James:
James’ sister’s two-year-old Khylor:
Sunday we even saw the sun, so we got outside for a bit before heading back to Boston.
Zachary and big sister Elizabeth:
Andrea and James:
1…2…3!
The whole family:
For a full gallery from our New York weekend, click here.
Some of ye loyal blog readers may have noticed a recent addition to the “Friends of the blog” on the right side of this page a week back or so. I should have given them a proper introduction earlier, what with all the hangin’ out we’ve been doing of late, so without further adieu (a significantly underused word, btw), meet Mike and Kate. (Not to be confused with James and Kate).
Mike and Kate are the brains behind MKD Photography up in Acton, and earlier this week when Kate said they were having some trouble getting new photos of themselves for their new blog, I jumped at the chance to shoot them. (Apparently the tripod/self timer technique wasn’t really workin’ out for them.)
So if you’re looking for another blog to add to your reader (even if you’re like me and you have, you know 80+ blogs you subscribe to), check out their rockin’ new blog here.
I mean, how can you not love photos of kids with cameras? Emmie just got that pink camera for Christmas, but she’s already booking weddings for 2026, packages start at $10,000 for 8 hours of coverage.
Well I’m off to edit the second of two weddings from this weekend, but stay tuned for a few year ending posts I’ve got planned, as well as some kickin’ photo adventures in Maine next weekend.
(And I know, I know, there are no photos of M or K in the slideshow, but their clogs do make an appearance
Adam, I’m sorry in advance, for the photos above. Wait, no I’m not. If Velvet is my best friend I’ve never met, Adam is my best friend. Put it this way, if I was getting married, he’d probably have to make a toast. Now that I have the best man part out of the way, all I need is a girl. How hard can this be? Don’t answer that.
Moving on…the photos you see are from my 3-day weekend in New York. Rich and I (that’s him on the left on the Brooklyn Bridge from our trip in 2006), braved Thursday night’s downpour to head down for a kickin’ weekend in the city.
Actual conversation while on I-84 around 8 p.m. on Thursday:
Doug: Am I in a lane? Rich: Yeah, I think so. Doug: Yeah? I think we just hydroplaned some. Rich: I didn’t notice. Doug: Sweeeeeet.
During the weekend in NYC, I shot some photos of Adam (outtakes above) for his new business. OK, who am I kidding, those aren’t the outtakes
Moving on…
During out weekend, we also managed to hit up Central Park, hang out with some high school and college friends, catch my first ever viewing of Superbad, spend some time with my sister (who made the trip of from D.C. for the day Sunday), hanging out with my awesome little cousins (that’s them in the slideshow, they rock), and generally freezing our asses off in Brooklyn while Rich hid in the bathroom and write ridiculous run-on sentences. Record grinds to halt. Wait, while Rich, bathroom, whaaaa.
OK, OK, I dragged the poor kid to Brooklyn for sunset on Friday (and got no photos to show for it, at all). Becca had recommended the location and it was great, right on the water and overlooking Manhattan with the Brooklyn Bridge on the right. And 40mph winds resuilting in a probably windchill of, oh, 20 degrees. Well Rich managed to find a dark but heated (he claims 85 degrees) public restroom to take shelter in while I shot for an hour. (Shoot with me! I’ll take you to exotic safe places!) This was the third year Rich has put up with my dragging his ass around the city for photos, and I can’t say thank you enough to him for putting up with me.
Finally, as I’m rambling here, Adam loaned me this book by the author of “Bringing Down the House” (the book the recent movie “21″ was based on). I read it in one day, I literally couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended.
