The Courses

That's right, now's the time, to sign up for these classes and get to snappin!  The best thing I ever did for myself, my business, and my art was to take courses in photography!  Not only do you get to learn about photography, you also get to interact with other photographers, gain practical experience/knowledge, learn tips from the pros, share your own advice, and have fun while doing it all!  Don't hesitate any longer.  If you're near the La Crosse campus, sign up for these once-a-week classes!  They're packed with great information and they're taught by me! 

I'll be teaching the three series of the Photo Composition course, plus a brand new course that WTC and I developed - Infant Photography.  If you have an infant, will be having an infant, plan to have an infant, know an infant, love infants, etc. then this is the course for you!  It'll teach you everything you need to know about photographing those little ones! 

I'd love to see you in class, so log-on, call in, or mail your registration before the classes fill up!

Sneak Peek - Baby K! | Minneapolis Minnesota Baby Portrait Photographer

This afternoon I had the opportunity to photograph little baby K!  He's the first boy I've photographed in a while (for some odd reason, most of my clients have girls!) and it was quite fun!  I got to set aside the flowers and bows for baseballs and Polos!  But he wasn't too into the shoot!  His parents were wonderfully cooperative (as are most of the parents I work with) so we made it work.  I think he knew what I was thinking before I even put the camera up to my eye, because he'd be perfectly calm until the second my finger hovered over the shutter button; then, he'd break into these adorably sad faces!  But I caught this shot when he least expected it.  I kept a soft focus and a bright black and white to bring out his beautiful eyes.  This little guys going to be a tall one too, he is super long with these tiny, oversized feet (oxymoron alert!).

All in all, I had a blast photographing Baby K and his parents!  Thank you for letting me capture these precious memories for you and your family!

The Project

Here's my latest scrapbooking project!  I figured I'd share it, even though it's not photography, because it's a great decoration to go along side those gorgeous photos!  It includes copy of an old diary that was written in the old cursive form!  I absolutely love writing, nearly as much as photography, so it goes perfectly in my room, where I do most of my writing!  And the colors are my absolute favorite!  All in all, fun, quick, easy project, but I think it looks stunning on my wall (especially in this 100 year old Victorian in which I'm currently residing!)

I seem to find myself with a small addiction to scrapbooking materials. I really love to purchase all the lovely paper and cute little accessories, but I hardly ever do anything with them! I don't know if it's just the idea of having the ability to scrapbook whenever such occassion calls for it or delusional thinking in that I have enough time and will to start and finish a project such as this!  Either way, at least this is proof to myself, and those who have seen my addiction at it's worst, in a scrapbook supply aisle/store, that I DO, indeed, scrapbook (kind of)!

The Landscape

I was hired to photograph some land recently and this is one of my favorite shots of the whole bunch!  The client was pleased with the images as well and the session was a blast.  Photographing land is so different than photographing people (obviously)!  I might actually argue that it's a bit harder.  With people, I'm capturing their personalities as they live, but with land, I'm capturing it's essence, it's history!  It doesn't move for my camera, I have to move to get just what I want from it.  It's huge, never ending, absolutely mystifying.  I've photographed various landscapes before, but when you're limited to a specific area, it can be quite daunting!  Luckily, the weather cooperated beautifully, so the lighting was wonderful!  I shot this at "golden hour", just as the sun was sinking below the bluffs that surround this area.  All in all, I'm happy with my shots, but exhausted in a whole new way!

The Purple Lily

This purple lily bloomed outside my apartment for about two days before succumbing to the heat and humidity.  But what a gorgeous, albeit, short, life!  It was the brightest among all the other flowers and the largest as well.  The bright yellow pollen danced in the breeze, attracting all kinds of bees and butterflies.  It caught my eye the minute it bloomed and I'm glad I photographed it before it's untimely death.  Hopefully, it's later generations will bloom again as soon as the weather cools slightly!

The Eagle

Here's the amazing eagle statue that's perched in Riverside Park, La Crosse, WI.  I've admired the statue for a while and was finally able to get this shot towards the end of last winter.  It was freezing, but the sun was in the perfect position for a gorgeous golden sidelight and the sky was such a beautiful shade of blue!  I used a tripod in order to set a long shutter and capture the lovely light.  I think it's a great icon of the town and made for such a wonderful image!

The Buds

Here's a shot I've really come to like!  It reminds me of something you might see from a LensBaby (which is a specialized focus lens).  I just love the subtle buds that are in focus as the rest of the stem falls out of focus.  There was just such a wonderful backdrop, with the various shades of green meshing beautifully witht he pale purple of the petals.  The overcast day really made for great lighting.  All in all, I think I really like this shot!  I think I might have it turned into a small canvas print - I have the perfect spot to hang it!  I guess it's about time I release another line of greeting cards as well!  I suppose I should get to work on those...

The Shape

I love the shapes of things, especially taking those shapes out of context and really exploring them for what they're worth!  I'm working on doing a whole series of shapes similar to the one above.  If you have an idea of what the above shape might me (I think this one's a rather easy guess) let me know in a comment!  If not, just appreciate it for it's smooth curves, sleek shines, and overall essence...

The New Logo

I've decided to change my logo (again)!  I think this is going to be my logo for a long while.  It includes my two favorite colors - teal and brown - plus some geometric shapes and cursive writing, which I love in design!  So, this is what you'll be seeing from Endless Images Photography from now on!  And I've updated my website design and this blog layout as well!  There's big changes happening with EIP!

The Lily

There is a heat wave headed to through La Crosse today, making it feel like it's at least 100 degrees out!  I'm hoping that this lily and all it's fellow blooms make it through, but I've noticed that they're rather sensitive to the weather!  Good luck to everyone else!  Stay inside in the air conditioning, if you have it, and stay cool!

The Rain

This week has been kind of dry (the mud is a bit harder), but it has been raining (not sprinkling, drizzling, or misting) in Wisconsin for weeks!  I'm wondering if we need to start building an ark or something!  The worst part is, it's not really keeping the area cool.  If anything, it's super humid, then warm when it rains, then back to humid once it's done!  I tell you, I almost - ALMOST - want it to snow again (at least I won't feel like I'm living in a sauna)!

At least everything is nice and green, which makes for beautiful landscapes!

The Shrine

Last weekend (4th of July), a few friends of our family came out to Wisconsin from Minnesota.  We decided it'd be fun to do some things none of us have done (at least in La Crosse) before.  We toured the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, which was absolutely gorgeous!  The photo above of the painted ceiling was in the cathedral and the other shots were from the nature that surrounds the paths leading to all the different areas of the gounds.  It did rain a bit while we were touring, but they have a bunch of umbrellas for patrons to borrow, which, thankfully, protected my camera!  We even ate breakfast there before the unguided tour. 

The next day, we took my dad's ocean kayak out to Lake Neshonoc.  It actually worked out great!  We had a blast!  I even took a turn on the rope swing over one part of the lake (I know, daring)!  All in all, great food, great company, and great weekend!

The Snakes

These two little guys were in my parent's backyard one day while we were visiting and were in danger of getting chopped up by the lawn mower!  My sister and I, being the softies we are (even for the scaly creatures) scooped them up in a container (using a very long stick) and kept them until the grass was short.  It actually worked out great because I was able to get a whole series of shots from them.

There are no snakes in Hawaii so it was quite exciting to see a pair, loose in the wild, right in our yard in Onalaska, Wisconsin!  And they were quite the characters!  I caught a few great shots of them sticking out their purple, forked, little tongues at us and a great one of just their scales.  I even got a few as they slithered away to freedom!  It was all quite exciting!

The Cass Street Bridge

This bridge is such an icon here in La Crosse; I was so happy when the weather cooperated enough for me to get this shot!  I actually shot this from a beach on the Minnesota side of the river.  This is such a different "beach" than I'm used to, but it was fun to visit!  Now that it's so hot around here, I might have to venture a swim in the river!

We did swim in a lake up here the other day and it was so much fun!  I realized I hadn't actually been swimming in two years, since leaving Hawaii!  But my sister and I will be visiting Hawaii again this August, so I'll be soaking up some ocean while I'm there!

We're coming up on the end of the Photo Composition - Beginner class that I've been teaching over at Western Technical College.  We have one session left, next Wednesday, and then it's over until the Fall semester...  I'll have to take advantage of the break and get all the powerpoints prepared for the upcoming courses I'll be teaching:  Photo Composition - Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, as well as Infant Photography!  If you're interested in signing up for one of these courses visit http://www.westerntc.edu/lifelonglearning/!

The Fireworks

Happy 4th of July!!!  (early!)