The Vacation

My sister and I will be flying out to Hawaii tomorrow morning for our 12 day vacation!  Yay!  It'll be a while before I have a chance to post something again, but as soon as I get back, I'll get back to posting more regularly!  Enjoy the rest of your summer!

The Hidden Building

As we walked along this serene path, this little building peeked out from within the forest.  It was rather breath-taking.  In the midst of all the green, this light colored brick building stood, like a beacon of light!  I'm glad I had my camera at that moment!

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...