Halloween

As I promised another blog... 


Well on Halloween before we went out to the Platinum Ent. Party at the Ivy Lounge in New Haven, Sofie came over with her Nemo costume on to go out to trick or treat with her future boyfriend Jalen. As you can see, she has developed this new love of sticking her tongue out when I am ready to take a picture... I think this is her version of a smile for me. She also started to play a little DJ Hero and actually wasn't too bad at it. Well above are just a few shots from the night, stay tuned for the next blog...

TJ's 6 month Photo Shoot

OK, I know I have been really bad with blogs lately, but its because I have been busy and I have a few blogs all lined up for you! I am going to space them out to keep you coming back to check in. 


Well the first in this series of blogs is our Godson/Nephew turned 6 months old, not like that is a huge age or anything but we got together and did a photo shoot of him. He was made for the camera! He even had wardrobe changes and all, he was great! You can already see who his baseball team is, sorry Sox fans, he routes for the Yankees even though he is chewing on the helmut... Well here are a few of the shots we took that day, enjoy and check back soon for the next entry....


To Be Continued....

Honoring and Remembering a Lost Friend on His Birthday...

Well as most of you that follow the blog now know the Story behind G2C Designs, if you don't check back a few blogs ago, I wanted to just remember Gabe today as it would have been his 29th birthday. It seems so long ago that we lost him to cancer but it has already been 2 years so if you follow the blog, maybe you knew Gabe or knew of him, either way please keep him in your thoughts today. We all miss you Gabe and wish you a Happy Birthday today!


As a way to keep Gabe and anyone you may have lost to cancer in our memories there will be a Benefit Art Show to raise money for the new Cancer Research Hospital at Yale, the Smilow Hospital. There will be a lot of great art with drink specials and complimentary appetizers by The Ivy Lounge' w/ featured Manhattan chef Craig Martel. The event will be next week, Saturday October 24th from 6-9pm at the Ivy Lounge in New Haven. Please click here for more information .


After the art show there will be an after party to kick off the opening of Platinum Entertainment, this event will run right after the art show until 2am, or however long you can last! This will be a great time so I suggest you get there early, preferably for the Art Show and just stay for the entire night, you wont regret it!  Please click here for more information on the Strawberries and Champagne Party. 


G2C Designs will be there for both events, so please if you are around clear your plans for next Saturday and head down to the Ivy Lounge for a great time and honor Gabe and everyone else you may know that is or has battled cancer, its a great event for a great cause!


And please keep Gabe in your thoughts today, without him there would be no G2C Designs... 

Twitter...

I had said for a long time, I would NEVER get sucked into the whole Twitter thing... the name of it alone drove me nuts... well 1200 "tweets" later and Im addicted to it! It really is a great place for networking, meeting people and you get to connect with a celeb or sports star, you name it.... the world is tweeting! I have been doing a lot of twitter page backgrounds for NBA players and others as well, I have made so many I am actually debating on adding a section of it to the fan page on Facebook.


Well for now this is why I am slacking with blog updates, its no excuse but hey, follow us on twitter! @g2cdesigns or twitter.com/g2cdesigns for you new twits!

Kaetie and Jordan

On Saturday, September 12th Kaetie and Jordan exchanged vows at Amarante's Sea Cliff in New Haven Connecticut. We were very familiar with Amarante's because almost exactly 1 year ago we were married there, so that was great for us because we were very familiar with everything. I know we were all worried about the weather but the rain held off and the ceremony was still outside. There was no beautiful sunset for the photos but we didn't need it, Kaetie and Jordan were great to work with and are naturals in front of the camera. Above are just a few samples of the shots that our swat team of cameras were able to take. Congratulations again Kaetie and Jordan, it is very easy to see that you two were meant for each other and will live happily ever after! Thank you for letting us be a part of your special day!

Senior Photos

Well it has been a little while since I have blogged and I will have some more updates coming soon so stay tuned! It is that time of year where all of the High School Seniors need their Yearbook shots so Felicia obviously needed some new photos. We took the long trip to the backyard for the photo shoot and Antoinette helped out with these as well. Above are a few of the shots we took from the day, I believe the top image is the one that made the cut for the yearbook. 
So if you need any Senior Portraits please contact us and we can take care of it for you. 
I hope this blog will hold over all the fans and followers for a little while, I have some wedding shots I am still working on and will be posting those for you to see as well... Check back soon!

Been a little while...

Well I can't deny I have been really slacking with the blog updates lately, not that I haven't been busy, just slacking on blogging. It also doesn't help that I have been sucked into the whole twitter world. I have been creating backgrounds and images for fellow twits (if thats what you choose to call them). I have created my own background, Rashard Lewis' background, CJ Watson's background, Dean "HB" Vitale's background and a few others around... and there will be more to come, so be sure if you are on twitter to follow along for the updates @g2cdesigns in twitter talk, or twitter.com/g2cdesigns. 


Also for all you Facebookers please be sure to become a fan of G2C Designs, there is the little app on the side of the blog.


I will try to get some more blogs in to make up for the slacking, but please stay tuned, I have some exciting stuff in the works and plenty more to add to the blog!

Facebook Fan Page

Well everyone is doing it now.... so I gave in to the peer pressure and created a fan page on facebook, I am still working on it and trying to figure out the point of it but if you are on facebook and reading this become a fan! I really can't give you a good reason why, but just do it, everyone is! There is even a little "Facebook badge" located on the side of the blog, you can't miss it so just click it, all your friends are doing it...


Alright well thats all for now, Ill be watching for you to become a fan!

Weekend Show in Philly

Ok, so I finally got the photos from the weekend done, well for the most part. So as you may have known, last weekend we took a trip down to Philly for the Nicetown Gives Back Festival and Concert where Dean, or should I say HB, was opening up for Jazmine Sullivan. We took the 3.5 hour trip down with a few rest stops along the way and got there around 2pm Saturday, we walked around met some of the other performers and enjoyed the festivities as we waited for Dean to take the stage. Around 4-4:30 it was time for Dean to go up there with his dancers (Alora, Crissy, Jamie, Jasmine and Meaghan) and do his thing... they were great! Dean picked a girl out of the crowd sang his song and the crowd loved it! After Dean was done, he went over to the tents and was signing autographs, this was something strange for me to see because I have known him forever and never expected to see this (unless he grew a foot and made it into the NBA). Once Dean was done signing the arms of fans and taking photos with them we stayed for a little while longer and then it was back to the hotel to relax.

The next day we had to make the drive home while Dean and a few others had to head to New York for another show that night. We ended up getting home Sunday night around 5, and we were beat... and this is why I am late with the blog and still catching up. So above are a few of the pics from the event, more are up on g2cphotos.com. Be sure to check out Dean on Myspace, Itunes and CDBaby!

Crazy Weekend, getting caught up!

Well, I had a long weekend with a lot of driving involved! I have a new level of respect for any/ all of you out there coming up in the entertainment industry. We took a trip down to Philly for Dean's show at the Nicetown CDC Give Back Festival, Dean and his dancers did a GREAT job and of course I have a lot of photos I am working on now. After the long drive, dealing with the NY/NJ traffic and those aggressive drivers I am not used to, I am beat... so stay tuned as always, I will be getting caught up on everything and of course pics will be coming soon! For now, be sure to check out Dean on Myspace and grab his new songs on CDBaby and Itunes... to be continued...

Dean aka HB heading to Philly

Well this is a rare event, 2 blogs in 1 day! Anyways, yesterday we had to take a few shots of Dean "HB" Vitale for a few of his upcoming events. We did the standard head shots and as always with Dean, we took some of him doing his poses as you can see from the pics above. This weekend is a big weekend for Dean, he is opening up for Jazmine Sullivan in Philly  this weekend, so if you are in or around the area come and check out the show! We are heading down to meet up with him tomorrow morning so check back next week for an update on how it all went. For now check out a few of the pics above, check out Dean on Myspace and be sure to go to itunes or CDbaby and grab his new single! 

DeAndre Head Shots

This is a late blog, but I figured better late than never. A few weeks ago DeAndre aka DreRhymez needed some quick head shots for some upcoming shows so we got together and ended up with some great shots, you never would have known that this was a quick job from the results. Check out a few above and be sure to check out his music on his Myspace page. Watch out for him and Dean, they are both doing big things!

Surprise Birthday Party

As promised I am blogging more now! So over the weekend we attended Mario's surprise 30th Birthday party. Sarah, Mario's wife, planned it so Mario would be out golfing and when he got home (blindfolded) all of the guests would be there to celebrate his 30th birthday. As always I brought my camera, I wasn't as active with the photos this time but you can get an idea of the day from the pics above... it seems like the Yankee hulk hands and the sword that Katie had were the big attraction. Enjoy the pics of the arrival and a few shots from the party and if you know Mario wish him a Happy Birthday today, he is officially 30 now.... luckily I still have another year until I make it there...

Remembering a Lost Friend

Well I am trying to keep up with the blog more now and I wanted to take some time to remember a friend who was lost 2 years ago Sunday. For those who don't know the whole story behind the name G2C Designs, I will give you a quick rundown...

My friend Gabe, who I had gone to college with and he had helped me get my first job out of school, was battling cancer in the hospital and he had mentioned to me how he always wanted to start his own agency/ business. We had always joked about it in school and work but never really took it too seriously because as I am learning it is a lot of hard work and commitment. He was talking about when he got out of the hospital he was planning on taking some business classes and he had some clients lined up and he was all for it now. By now things had started to get worse and as strong as he was he didn't have a lot of fight left in him... but he had a LOT of fight in him! He arrived home and things started to take a turn for the worse and I never really got to see him too much to talk about the business or even plan on it, this was the same time we were planning a benefit art show for him with the help of Paier College of Art to help with medical expenses and to hopefully keep him fighting and to keep his spirits up. He was unable to keep fighting to plan the business out, name it or even make it to the Art Show but the show was a huge success and we know he was looking down at us with a big smile from the huge turnout from the show. Gabe had lost his battle on 7-26-07 a little after 5pm.

So after the Art Show I started to think about the business again, for some reason it just popped into my head, G2C, and of course as Gabe would have it, the G was first. So I went through the whole process of getting the LLC in 2008 and I am slowly but surely trying to build this to be the great business he would only allow! In April of 2008 G2C Designs, LLC was born, the abbreviation of Gabe 2 Chris, and I always look at it as he left it to me to make it successful.

Even though it has now been 2 years since he was lost there isn't a day I do not think about him and what we would be doing now (I am sure with his smooth talking we would probably be  a top agency by now, but I have to do my best on my own). 

There will probably never be a time that you will not see me with my "Everlasting Strength" bracelet on, its not a livestrong bracelet but is similar... This bracelet has a modified version of a logo Gabe was working on for his own website and the phrase Everlasting Strength on it to remember how strong he was during his battle, his life and just how he was as a person... those who knew him, know what I am talking about!

So if you are reading this blog for the first time you now have a little inside view of what is behind G2C Designs, for those of you who know the story or knew Gabe, please take this time and just remember him and how great he truly was.

R.I.P Gabe, we will always remember you!

G2C Wear, New Stuff!

I am trying to be more active with the blogs now so I wanted to just remind everyone to check out the shirts available on g2cwear.com. I am always adding new stuff so if you dont see anything you like now, check back in a week or a month... whenever, who knows, you might just find something you really like!

We just added a few new designs as a tribute to the late Michael Jackson for all you MJ fans out there, go check it out now!

Dean AKA HB

Well I figured I would help promote my nephew Dean a little and let you all know what he has been up to since the photo shoot... I know I am missing a few things, but you will get the idea, he has been busy! Anyways above is the final version of his promotional poster that I created from the photoshoot I had blogged about earlier... There will be more to come I am sure this is just the beginning!

Well this Friday Dean will be on the radio show Big Cal from 11 pm-12 midnight so feel free to call in at 631-888-8811 or 631-888-8812, the website is Here

You can also check out Dean on his MySpace page (there is even some footage of me working on the photos...) and please check out his Cd and Buy or Download it Here.

There is more to come as this is only the beginning, and I would also like to congratulate Dean's Friend DeAndre aka DreRhymez as he is starting his career as well, check out his MySpace page too. I am sure there will be more to post on both of them as they are just in the beginning stages so stay tuned and be sure to check out the links!

The Show Team Orlando Performances

Well as promised I am adding some more blogs and spacing them out, well a little... but anyways here are a few pics from the main reason for our trip to Orlando, The Show Team performance group. The Show Team had performance set-up in downtown Disney as well as Universal Studios City walk. Both shows were slightly different, but they all did a great job and had a huge turnout in Downtown Disney, Universal had a good turnout but probably would have been a lot larger if it was at a later time, either way it was a great time for everyone!

If you can't tell the top photo is from the Universal show, which included a Men in Black number and the bottom photo is from the Disney Show which started off with a number inspired by the movie Enchanted. All of the photos are online now and can be viewed at g2cphotos.com so please check them out when you have some time and see how great everything turned out.

Vacation

Well we have been back from vacation and I have been getting caught up with everything so the blogs have been slow. I have a few things to blog right now but I will space them out for you and keep you all in suspense, well both of you at least... So anyways we went down to my second home in Orlando (well at least it seems that way!) and of course we went to the usual places. This visit was a little different from the usual Orlando vacation, we were down there for the performances of The Show Team in Downtown Disney and Universal Citywalk (blog of that to follow). 

This trip was great for us because we were able to bring a few people to Disney for their first visit... You can see one of the most excited first timers above, Sofie, she had her postcard pose ready for the camera in Epcot and she had a blast with all her new friends (and learned that she loves french fries with ketchup!). I also had to get Sofie a matching Dwight Howard Jersey for our day in Magic Kingdom...

We had been chosen to be a part of a few shows in the parks, thanks to Antoinette and Maria and their outgoing personalities, you can see one of the shows above when the girls were chosen to dance with the African Dancers in Animal Kingdom.

Well above are just a few of the hundreds of photos we took from the trip, everyone had a great time and of course no one can wait to go back! Stay tuned for more on The Show Team Performances...

Catching Up!

Well I have been slacking with the blogs lately, just a little backed up with a lot of finalizing the photos from Florida and a few other projects in the works... Ironic thing, my battery light came up on my laptop now so time to plug in...work, work, work... but stay tuned there we be a few great updates from Florida, some updates on my Nephew and how he is doing and Im sure more to come... catching up for now, but stay tuned!

Follow along on twitter now too

Well battery almost done, got to get to the plug, check back in a few days!

Jordan & Kaetie E-Session

Well On Sunday the 14th we met up with Jordan, Kaetie and lets not forget about Maddie for their engagement session. There was rain predicted for the day but we got extremely lucky and the weather was perfect! They chose to take the shots at Hubbard Park which I had been to briefly to scout out the area but I had no idea the amount of potential the park had for great shots (other photographers take note)! Antoinette came along to help with posing and is also responsible for some of the great shots as well, so I have to thank her and give credit where it is due. 

Jordan and Kaetie were extremely easy to work with and because of that we ended up with a LOT of photos, it was very hard to narrow down the selection. They also brought along another family member for the pics, Maddie, she was great too and worked out nicely in the photos... she had a few run-ins with some ducks but they knew not to mess with Maddie! 

Well above are just a few pics from the day, we enjoyed the shoot and look forward to the big day in September!

Finals, Game 3

Well, back from Game 3 of the NBA finals, what an experience! I have been and Orlando Magic fan for a long time and always said if they ever made it I would find a way there... mission accomplished! They may be down 3-1 right now in the series but at least that 1 win was the game we were there for. Of course there were plenty of celebrities in the building, Tiger Woods, Spike Lee, Lil Wayne and Ludacris to name a few. I have high hopes that the Magic will make a comeback and take home the Championship, but right now they are not in a good situation... they have overcome a lot of bad games this post season so lets just hope they keep it up... Superman needs a ring!

Above are a few pics from the game, Amway Arena instituted the new "no lense larger than a dollar bill" rule so I was not allowed to bring in my normal game time 70-200mm 2.8 lense, had to use the smaller 17-70 sigma for this one and almost got turned down for that one... oh well... Go Magic!

Dean's 16th

On Saturday my nephew Dean had his 16th Birthday party, there was a variety of food, good turnout, slideshow, a show put on by Dean (aka HB) and DeAndre (aka DreRhymze) and too many kids with squirt guns... so I had to be extremely aware of my surroundings with the camera... I made it out of there with my camera safe and sound! It was a good time, the slideshow was great (although it made me feel very old!) and I think everyone else enjoyed the party as well. Here are a few pics from the day including Dean's reaction to the slideshow.

Officially Godparents!

On Sunday we were officially made godparents of Tristan. After the Christening there was a little family gathering where, as always, I had the camera along with me to snap some shots. I have to give some thanks to Crissy for taking the shots of us when I couldn't, and she did alright considering she just learned how to use the camera! Here are a few pics from the day including the man of the day, I also had to include at least 1 shot of the kids with the bubbles, just look at Sofie's face and you can understand why I needed to share it with everyone.

CT event with portOpong

Well it was a busy weekend and I am finally getting around to the blog... On Saturday I went out to Naugatuck for the 15th Annual Connecticut Craft Brewers Beer Festival to help out portOpong and take some shots for their site. I had a good time and met some interesting people... Sal was busy handing out pizza from Mendanos (if you haven't been there, I can now say first hand the pizza is great!) while promoting portOpong. If you haven't seen it, head over and check out Jerry and Sal's invention at www.portopong.com. Here are a few shots from the day.

Another G2CWear.com Shirt sample

Ok, so I have been a little bad with keeping up with the blog, but I will do better from now on! Anyways, got another G2C Wear shirt sample in so I wanted to snap a few quick pics for everyone to see the quality of the darker printed shirts, great quality as you can see so head over to g2cwear.com and check out all the designs, there will be new designs added all the time so check back frequently!

First G2Cwear.com shirt is here!

Well I have been attempting to promote the g2cwear.com shirts lately and people have been asking me the quality of the shirts, well the first one came in and I wanted to post a few quick photos to give an idea of the print quality. I have a few more coming and will continue to add new ideas and designs to the site. Go to G2Cwear.com now and check out all the designs!

Dean's Photo Shoot

My nephew Dean is starting his entertainment career, so on Saturday we took him out for his first real photo shoot (we have taken plenty of pictures in the past, but nothing to be used for anything other than his myspace page). The weather was great, we went to a few different locations to shoot along with his manager. Here is 1 shot from the day and I have to watermark it as requested by management. I am sure there will be more to come as this is just the beginning!

New Lights!

Well on Friday the new lights came in, I never thought I would be excited to get lights when I was growing up, wow times have changed... but I was able to test them out and here are just a few sample shots, nothing too crazy but I had time to experiment with them and was very happy with the results, more to come as I use them more!

T-Shirt Store

Well after playing around with some ideas and designs and some motivation from Tom Ryan (Make sure to click on the Link and check out his work!), I have finally set up the online T-Shirt store, right now there are a lot of G2C Shirts and I am slowly uploading some humorous shirts, so If you aren't a huge fan of the logo check out the other shirts... you might just like them!

The site for the store is G2Cwear.com and while you are at it, check out Tom's shirts as well by clicking here! 

I will have more updates coming soon, have been busy working on a lot of stuff, stay tuned!

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?

I found this and can't take credit for it, but a good read for anyone following our blog...

Originally posted here

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?

(This article has been very well received by the photography community, and is now referred to by countless Photography websites, blogs and forums (such as LDPT, ILP and DWF)around the world).

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here's why.
Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:
- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting

- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.

- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)

- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive

- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs

- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.

- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:
- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise.
Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.

And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?
Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion
We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Tristan is born

Well it is official, we are now Godparents! On Saturday at 2:51pm Jaimie and Mike welcomed Tristan into the world. Although Tristan's soon to be favorite college basketball team was losing, everyone was all smiles when it came to meeting the little guy. I brought my camera with me to the hospital to snap a few shots, I am hoping to get some more later on of Tristan with his big brother when they are home together. 

NYC Trip

On Saturday we went into the city, a friend wanted to tryout for America's Top Model... and of course, they were in the middle of everything when the chaos began. While they were in line for 6+ hours, I decided to wonder around the city with my camera and just enjoy my day, had a happy meal in times square (they wouldn't give me my spiderman toy either), took a walk around central park, checked out a few stores and got back just in time to meet up with them after all injuries and arrests were made from the auditions, I snapped a few pics but not a lot, I started to feel like the paparazzi. Overall I had a great time even though most of the day I was by myself, and I have to say, the homeless (or hustlers) are getting more and more creative, this guys signs earned him a dollar!

Studio Shots and portOpong

Well last Sunday I had a busy day in a short amount of time. We had to take some head  shots and others for the upcoming Disney/ Universal performance. Also, had to get some shots of the new portopong colors and the brand new portopongx energy drink, ran into some issues but got it done! Here are a few pics.

Mike's Birthday

This is the first "Official" blog that isn't dealing with the website...

Well on Saturday we celebrated my new brother-in-law Mike's 35th Birthday, of course when the camera is around, Jalen steals the shot, although my wife Antoinette and Crissy seem to enjoy their time together in front of the camera as well. When it was to blow out the candles there was a mysterious wind that came out of nowhere... well enjoy the pics!

It's Snowing but the site is working!

Well after email being down, the roads being messy and the freezing weather I finally have some good news! The website is up, everything appears to be working perfectly, including email!

Feel free to contact us with any comments, questions or if you need anything!

Email Down, but site is up!

Well you can never have all positive news at once for some reason... but the new site is up and almost completely functioning, there are a few minor glitches we are working out now, hopefully it doesn't take too long! Now the problem is email is down, something with the new web hosting, waiting to get that up soon, really soon! So if you need to contact us or are trying, I apologize now, I am doing everything I can to get it working right away.


But hey, check out the site anyways, it is a major improvement from the last version!

New Website Almost Done!

Well, this is the first post on here and I am sure there will be very few readers to start but hopefully people will soon be following!

Right now the new website is almost done, cant wait! It is basically all set and just waiting for all the technical stuff to get finished so be on the watch for it soon!

Also the online photo store has been set up, so if we are at an event or game you will be able to get photos printed and shipped right to your door!

Stay tuned, more to come, 2009 is the beginning of something great!