Trick or Treat?

Here is a shot of our kitchen table at the moment. I am, of course, knee deep in a crazy halloween photography project. It involves a white pumpkin, hubby's drill ( I promise I will clean all the pumpkin juice off!) and some battery operated christmas lights.

If the photo I take later today with this pumpkin turns out like I hope, I'll be entering it in a contest to win a scholarship to attend the Anti-Workshop, which is a kick-ass photography workshop in Vegas next year.

I promise to post the results of my endeavors later today.

For now, it is on to the top three client projects that are screaming for some attention... Shelli, MacKenzie and Monica - your stuff is coming very soon!

Happy Halloween!!

Gearing Up

I know the posts have been light this week, but I hope the quality has made up for it. I'm gearing up for a busy weekend today on top of work. Devon & Chris's wedding is Saturday and the Trash the Dress shoot is Sunday! Whoo HOo!
I can't wait to hit the cornfields with the two brides that volunteered, keep your fingers crossed that the rain holds off!

I took this picture about a week ago of our Sumac trees in the backyard. I just think it is incredible how they are changing color very precisely - one leaf at a time. There can be two leaves right next to each other and one will be bright green while the other is bright red. No transition. Gotta love fall.

Picture of the Day - Thursday

I'm a little behind on the picture a day posts - but I have actually been shooting just about every day this week, so I'm backed up on the editing.

However, yesterday I was sitting in the office editing and it started to rain. No big surprise. Then it got really loud - I looked out the window and it was Hailing! Actual balls of ice, on September 27th, oh yes, and it was a good 70 degrees out. This is why they say that when you are in Wisconsin if you don't like the weather - wait five minutes it will change. And it did, about five minutes later it was as if it never happened.
It also remained sunny throughout the thunder and hailstorm. I grabbed the camera to capture the phenomenon for all of you out of staters who wouldn't believe it unless you saw it.

Picture a Day - Tow Trucks

So when you are the photographer in the family you get a few odd photography jobs. Case in point - on Saturday I took a break from yard work and went over to the in-laws house and took pictures of my husband's second cousin's (I think I got that right)tow trucks. They had parked them in the back 40 (the in-laws don't have a back 40 - maybe a back 10, but I have always loved that term) and gotten them all clean and shiny for their big photo shoot. And admittedly, these are some pretty snazzy tow trucks. It was a gorgeous weekend too - I hope you all got to appreciate it!

The family garage (which the tow trucks are part of) has always been very good to me even when Hubby and I were just dating, always fixing my car when needed, so it was nice to return the favor in some way. I'm confident my debt is not repaid with this single job though - I used to drive a real clunker!


That's me reflected in the wheel hub - I always love an opportunity to catch myself "in the act".

For the love of a new lawnmower...

My father-in-law has the uncanny ability to find and repair just about any small machine - usually lawnmowers and snowblowers. He owns several lawnmowers himself (all John Deere) and is constantly fixing, updating, improving and changing them. This is a man who truly enjoys mowing the lawn - it is a leisurely, fun hobby. He has passed this love for mowing the lawn on to his son, my husband. Hubby loves to mow the lawn - when he has the time to. And when we bought our house, he insisted we needed a riding lawnmower (growing up on several acres, he didn't know any different. I, of course, thought a push mower would do the trick. Cutting the grass is hubby's job though so he won). My father-in-law found us a cute, small riding lawnmower, perfectly suitable to our yard size. And it worked great all spring and summer.
Well, he found a better one for us this last week. It even has a bagger. Let me tell you, this man was so excited about this find! So, on Saturday morning he came over and swapped out the old lawnmower for a shiny new John Deere with a bagger. You could smell the testosterone in the air as hubby and father-in-law tried it out on our lower yard. It is a large machine, but works great. And it has a cute mini-John Deere hood ornament to boot.

Here are some pics of hubby on his new toy. Thanks Father-in-law!!!

Picture a Day

Just a little eye candy. Random picture that I took for fun while exploring at Jackie and Jeff's wedding reception.

Picture a Day - Irony

Driving home from Jackie and Jeff's wedding in GreenBay last night my assistant spotted this billboard. (Good eye Jamie!) Since we were just leaving a wedding - totally hilarious!

I am not an english major - but I'm pretty sure this would be categorized as ironic. Or maybe it is just a coincidence, which makes this the Alanis Morisette version of ironic. Either way - very funny.

Chinese Lanterns

Chinese Lanterns (also called Balloon flowers) showed up in our front yard today.
Have a great weekend!

Wierd and Fantastic Green (and Pink!) Sky!

So I'm sitting at my desk, designing away and suddenly the light in my office changes. I look outside, and I tell you the light outside was green. The sky was this odd green-grey color and the light everywhere was this eerie green tone. I grabbed my camera and braved our swamp/jungle yard (did I mention it has been raining buckets for days?).

I've left all of these photos un-retouched so you could see how weird it really looked.






And then, the light changed again - to pink! I swear to you, the sky was pink, and suddenly my skin looked great.
This phenomenon makes me seriously consider scheduling engagement sessions inbetween thunderstorms. (Of course
my grandpa used to say green and pink skies like this usually meant a tornado was coming...ah, what great shot isn't
worth a little wind?)




That last pic was a pleasant surprise to find in the backyard. So innocently pretty.

Picture a Day - Optimus

I'm a few days behind on my picture a day promise. Number one, it has been raining buckets here for days so going outside for pics has been well - a dreary experience. And not much has been happening here at the studio lately. I'm super busy, but not on anything blog worthy yet - it is all prep work. I did briefly consider shots of my computer screen, but thought better of it. Leave it to our friends Craig and Jamie to bring me out of the picture slump. We had our usual Wednesday night dinner and they brought their puppy, Optimus Prime over and we tried in vain to get him to stand still long enough to get a clear pic of him. Well, Jamie and I tried. Craig played video games. So, I'm making up for my abstenteeism with several pictures today. Oh, and if there is such a thing as a puppy photographer out there, you have my respect.

Picture a Day - BREWERS WIN!

I took my dad to the Brewers vs. Reds game Saturday night (it is technically Sunday morning as I post this - I also went to a Bachelorette party). It was fun, despite the rain and abnormally cold temperatures. (Thank goodness for that roof!) Trying to live up to my "picture a day" promise, I toted the camera along.



Only in wisconsin do they show preseason football scores in the middle of a baseball game:



The Brewers won! Take that cubbies!


Incidentally, so did the Choirizo. I was pretty excited about that because he is my favorite, and he hasn't won a sausage race yet when I have been there.

A Picture a Day

So, I've decided to challenge myself and carry my camera with me as much as possible, wherever I go. Everyone can always improve their skills, and I'm always telling my animation students that their artistic ability is a muscle they have to train, like an athlete would. While I sit here for several days editing and don't shoot anything, my photography muscle is getting atrophied! So, I'm going to post a picture a day on the blog. I'm sure I'll miss a day here or there, but hopefully setting up this little challenge for myself will force me to get up and go see something, even if it is only my backyard.

Today's picture was taken last weekend. It's a fairly accurate depiction of what hubby thinks of this idea.

Just kidding, he is very supportive. :0)