The Beach in February

This has quietly become one of my favorite pictures of all time. 

It's not perfect. The frame is just off. Needs more room at the bottom left.

Or a good, sharp angle.

But it insists my affection, and it has it.

And, print.

The Beach. In February.

This former Southerner has found the land she loves...this is some beautiful country. The beach on a 28 degree day in February with the beaches iced in snow? It. Was. Gorgeous. The colors drew me in,  but there wasn't a whole lot of time to stare. I had two kids ready to sled and explore the ices ridges and bergs. I will post more later. But for now, this is what it looked like as I climbed back into the car after a most beautiful photoshoot/ good old-fashioned sled-fest with little kids. Next time it snows, I have it on my calendar to be at the beach at 4pm for pics of undisturbed snow, and then pics of us disturbing it (with lots of joy and laughter, of course). Meet us there?

Amber

This is my fun and beautiful friend, Amber. We made her do all these funny things in order to photograph her. We were playing in a park while one of our best friends finished her bridal portraits and got ready to head to her reception. It was a beautiful day. Amber was a great sport, and this is my favorite shot...

Jackson

One of my favorite days with my son---ever. We had a photo shoot/ game of "throw the ball". It was so fun and I'll never forget it. Plus, we grabbed some great reminders of him at a new 3.

Beach Baby

Kiddos

Step 1. Acquire facial injury the night before a photo shoot.

Step 2. Pull it off anyway.

Alma Mater

You know how you return to your alma mater (where we met) and you take that family standing shot in front of something important and they all look the same except for the increase in family size? Yeah well, I was about done with that shot. I wanted to do something creative. If I tell you what we're really doing, it will gross you out. So I won't. But we look like we're having fun, don't we? And my husband did a great job squatting down at the exact height where I wanted him to snap us. Thanks, honey!

***

Yeah, so there might be an animal to her right that she's wary of. Might be a Canada goose. They were exhausted and should be napping, yet we pulled it off. So much better than the fountain shot.

***

Kathleen & Griffin

I think they're happy to see each other :)

This wedding was gorgeous. I'm not the photographer; I just grabbed a few shots while the photographer was working somewhere else (I asked permission, of course!). I'm married to the guy standing between the bride and groom up front. See his shoulder? He's supposed to hide so he's not in every bride groom pic :)

This was a gorgeous day. They did a lovely job. And the photographer was fab, but I can't seem to link to his website; it's not up. Too bad. He was good.

This is one of my favorite wedding pics ever. I love the emotion in it. You can feel it, can't you? Years of it...

Jackson

Somewhere in the middle of a brutal Wisconsin winter there emerged one day clocking in at 62 degrees and windy. And on that day there were happy playgrounds everywhere,  and children and parents soaking it all in.

Feet

With this photo I am actually much more interested in the feet that go in the shoes than the shot of the shoes themselves. I took this with  my point and shoot. No big deal; I just wanted to highlight the community of the people there. I was there to work and hang out; not to take pictures. So... some shoes on the feet of some beautiful human beings fighting to get out of homelessness. And fighting they are; and beautiful beyond my capacity as a wordsmith. (I wish I could show you their faces.) These feet are feet I quite admire, even if their shoes have seen multiple owners and many, many tumultuous, inhumane miles. Much respect to these shoes. And the people in them.

3

3 of my favorite three people. On my husband's birthday. At the zoo. In January. In Wisconsin. It was some good, cold fun!

Emily's Housewarming Brunch

Mia and Belle

I don't know. I have a thing for this photograph. It feeds my memory. I like it. 

Horses

My son asked me to "take a picture of those horses" as we drove by this roadside farm. My hubby was driving (through Lake Geneva, WI) and I, as often, had my camera conveniently in my lap. And there was traffic. So, yay for road work. Here you go, son. Oh, I had to nicely ask the horses to separate so we could see each one. They complied. 3 different looking horses. Life is prettier when it's not all the same, isn't it?

Doris and Julia

This is my Grandmother. Isn't she beautiful?

I call her Grammie.

and Julia with her Daddy.

Julia is Doris' 3rd great-grandbaby.

Pictures of Grammie and her 3 great grandbabies are coming...

And I decided this all-sepia thing is stressing me out as those photos are getting washed out and their coloring is inconsistent on here, so I'm bagging it. Not letting it get me down. Moving on. Still having fun. 

:)

My Babies (Humor me.)

I pulled a last minute, "we're going outside to take pictures before those flowers pass. Put your oshkosh on, please..." Mother's Day was a few week away.

A little timid at first, but then they started to strategize...

And she insisted on wearing her pink shoes. Not really worth the fight. She loves them, and that's probably more important.

And once they found a dry spot to stand, they had fun.

man, these look bleached out on here...

They were a little reluctant, but had fun in the end. The ground was "whet."

But plentiful with some bright blue flowers that last about a minute before they pass.

***

And there you have it; we got some great pictures intentionally taken for Mother's Day presents for the family. And I almost tossed this picture... 

until I noticed this...

And some sweet little memories like hands held and eyes locked upon eyes.

Baby love.

Kevin, Rachel and Julia

You know when someone special to you marries someone and you couldn't be happier for them? You just kid of want to burst because you're so happy they found this person? That's how we feel about Rachel and Kevin. Rachel is  my dear cousin, and she found Kevin. And we love Kevin. The two of them are just lovely, and I could go on and on about why we're so happy they found each other. Smart, lovely people, and it was a privilege to get to try to grab a few shots of them when we were together in November for a few hours.  Julia has facial expressions I could shoot for hours. One day maybe  I'll post a series of expressions from her fun little self.

Kevin & Rachel Enjoying Julia

I have a hunch they like their baby :)

***

I know this is supposed to be all sepia, but I don't always follow rules, especially when there's a cute baby having a good time...

Okay, so you want to know something funny? Kevin is a professional landscaper and in this shot he is leaning down to get rid of those dying petals you can see in the background. It was driving him crazy. (Sorry, Kevin!) But I snagged this little gem of his daughter while he cleaned up the flowerpot :) Nice work, Julia. (And it's awesome in full color.)

yeah, sorry. not sepia again, but i like those pink flowers in the corner.

And do you like how I'm confusing you with how I tag the photos? Sorry. It's late.

Alright, there's more. But blogger's been giving me trouble for an hour now. I'm making myself stop to fold laundry. unfortunate, too. as there are some good ones...

Belle

I almost tossed this picture. But then I made this with it. I think it's a good example of a shot that doesn't turn out how you want it, but maybe you can find something with a little work (fun!). I'm becoming notorious (around my house) for staying up way too late to salvage otherwise-toss-able photos. I think she's lovely. Who needs sleep anyway?!

Rachel & Julia

          

Well, I can see we're going to have some problems here with blogger's interpretation of color (I've noticed it on my other blog, too.) Oh well, the point of this blog is the story behind the shoot, so I'll look the other way for now. Sigh. 

But how about Rachel and Julia---do you think they love each other? :) Shooting them was a blast. Julia has a very expressive face, (I have some other sweet shots of her cranking out some great faces!)  and Rachel's love for her baby is beautiful. This was not a planned shoot (we did a planned shoot before this that I'll post later), but rather a "hey- the sun is just setting and there's not much light but let's go for it anyway" kind of thing.  I think we caught some sweet mother daughter moments, don't you?

I like these close-ups because these moments---you know those nose-to-nose moments---you never forget what they feel like. And you can always go back to that place when you were nose to forehead with your perfect little person. I love that, and i think we captured it. Maybe the lighting wasn't our best friend that day, but I think we caught something nonetheless.

And then forehead to forehead and nose-just off of-nose...maybe i'm reaching here but i think their two heads look like the top of a heart and Julia's elbow forms a perfect suggestive point at the bottom. I love it! These pictures also looked beautiful in antique, but I'm sticking with sepia for the blog. I like uniform shades of brown, but I'll write about that later.

Coming soon...

Working on getting this up and going... thanks for your patience.