Melissa at Fenz Restaurant, where we shouldn’t have ordered fried pickles as an appetizer, but did anyway. Really nice restaurant.

Melissa and the Pathfinder at a Wawa.

In the steamy Longwood Gardens observatory.

Treehouse or massive bird feeder?

By the meadow in Longwood Gardens

Christmas magic.

At Frankford Hall under the heat lamps.

Melissa on 7th Street in Philly.

More Christmas magic.

Tooch performing IT duties at my desk.

View from Marriott Hotel in Lancaster City.

Laundry…Exciting!

I created a GMAIL account and had Sebastian contact me in the hopes of discussing a new web site for Front & Palmer (a site I personally thought needed a boost anyway). Located in Fishtown near our house, Front & Palmer would be a dream client for me. Through a series of GMAIL conversations, I had Sebastian find out that Melissa was a photographer, and that if he needed some professional photos taken, she would be perfect.

Of course, Sebastian was not so responsive. He was a typical busy yet ultra savvy marketing genius that barely had time to email back. But when he expressed interest in Melissa as well, I soon was on the way to setting up the meeting of 7:15 pm, Saturday, July 3rd at Top Hat.

Turns out that Sebastian’s office was located in Old City, and we made sketchy plans to meeting him “sometime at the end of June”. As the end of June approached, Sebastian turned festive and wanted us to meet him for a drink instead. I figured Gigi Lounge, right next to Top Hat, would be ideal. We had a few date changes, but July 3rd got nailed down.

On meeting day / surprise party day, Melissa insisted we walk from Fishtown to Old City. I thought this was odd, since it was so hot, but I made sure we had plenty of time. We decided to cut through the Piazza in Northern Liberties, but a massive concert event slowed us down immensely, and we had to jog around a lot of crowds.

In Old City, amazingly, I realized that we had gotten there too early. Melissa’s friends were still inside Top Hat setting up decorations. So, I faked a semi nervous breakdown and sat on a bench a block away, saying that I needed to get a breather. Finally, I was able to text my buddy Rich the words “5 min” and we headed to Top Hat.

I had explained to Melissa that we weren’t going to Gigi Lounge anymore, and that Sebastian had changed the destination to some other place near Gigi, but I couldn’t remember which one. I walked up the steps of Top Hat and Melissa reluctantly followed. She questioned if we were at the right place. I don’t know, I said. She seemed really agitated with me at this point and I eventually got her to the top doorway where she was afraid to walk through. With both hands at her back, I pushed her in.

Paulette, Melissa, and Allyson

Jonathan of Slingluff Gallery and my Dad.

Dave, Brandi, Alison, Jen, and Jenn

Marc, Brian, and Missy

View more photos!

A few drinks and the photo booth is always fun.

Their “sign-in book” was a surfboard. Dope.

Celebrity Kids Reunion…

Melissa and Faith jump by the ocean.

Nice-sized bonfire, ready to torch your S’mores.

Not sure who this band was, but they rocked the beach with covers — Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Sublime.

Melissa and Ryann try to figure out what to do with a fallen and crumbling wooden sign.

Melissa strikes a pose while Ryann lines up the sign for the eventual huge job the trash men will have.

Mike and Alison dig into the litter that was mostly intertwined with weeds.

Ryann and his Charlie shirt, Charlie looking at the litter in disgust. Melissa and Alison slack off in the background! ; )

Ryann gets interviewed by Action News…

Action News Video…And We Made It In!

Upon buying the app, you get:

3 Lenses

• John S
• Jimmy
• Kaimal Mark II

2 Flashes

• Standard
• Dreampop

4 Film Types

• BlacKeys B+W
• Kodak Verichrome
• Ina’s 1969
• Blanko

Buy Even More Options

With all of those options, there’s loads of shot variations to enjoy. There’s also extra lenses, gels, flashes, and film to that you can buy from the Hipstamatic store to power up your camera even more. The “in-app” store allows you to purchase new items without even leaving the app.

What Does The App Look Like?

Check out this video showing how the Hipstamatic works:

Send Photos

Also within the app, you can send the photos directly to your Facebook and Flickr accounts.

Here are some shots initial shots that I took playing around with the camera. Depending on the lens that you chose, a unique frame border is added to the final result.

Our kitchen with a washed out 70s orange look.

Pensive Santucci wondering what the hell I am doing on my knees holding my iPhone.

Backyard ceramic sun decoration.

Miss Piggy has seen the light!

Groggy pre-coffee me on a Saturday morning.

Who the heck doesn’t have a gnome?

Santucci moments from biting my ankles.

Backyard sky…I know…You’re jealous of the view.

Alley way to heaven?

Someone was throwing out this poor ole plastic Santa, leaving him face down in the litter, awaiting the hands of the trash men.

OK, I know…My photos suck!

Check out these way better examples:

Below is a photos of us, partying it up at the Oreland Inn, in good ole Oreland, PA — home of Holy Martyrs as well as two homes that I lived in as a child. I’m looking forward to exploring my old digs there this spring.

Photo by: Tim Thornton