Beautiful Hipster Neighborhood

Today it hit me, this is/was our last weekend living on Jenifer Street. Yes, Jenifer with ONE "n". Yesterday morning when we rolled out of bed to ride our bikes to the farmer's market for a danish from Stellas, I was oblivious of this fact. Hmph!

Though I didn't acknowlege that it would be our last weekend in this beautiful hipster neighborhood, we did make the most of it. After the farmer's market we headed over to the Atwood Summer Festival. We got there in time to catch the last half of VO5, a funk-disco-dance band. I was enjoying the music so much that I didn't think to get a funky band shot, which could have easily been done! I did get this candid of two of the band members after the set:



Atwood Summer Festival did manage to tucker me out though, after a perfect summer day I was in bed by 10 PM (On a Saturday night, this is madness!).

Today was spent doing last minute packing, cleaning, and putting the couch on the curb (it was picked up in less than 15 minutes, it was a sweet looking couch). With all the packing came the realization that this perfect neighborhood I currently live in won't be my neighborhood. I'm not moving far, it's a hop and a skip away. Sans the jump, it's that close.

High Heeled gals

Maxwell Street Days in Madison was a blast even through the chilly-for-this-time-of-year-weather! It's especially a blast when you get four girls together from different cities that just need to break free from everyday stresses.

I had a friend in from Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Deforest (yes, I realize that Deforest isn't that far of a travel, but the Deforest gal drove from Wausau that morning, so give her credit!).

We started the morning with a treat from the farmer's market, then made our way through the crowd on state street. Things weren't marked low enough for any frivelous spending, but we did manage to find some margaritas to loosen those wallets.

Just when we were tired of digging through boxes & bins, a girl on a ladder screamed into her megaphone that all shoes are one dollar for the next ten minutes. We scrambled like a startled flock of geese to find our shoe sizes. Ten mniutes later we each left with some one dollar high heels.

What's better than a bargain? Trying to walk in high heels!
(And nothing beats a good time with long time friends.)




Thank you to my friends for an enjoyable weekend, hope to see you all soon! <3<3

EDIT-- hmmm, it appears half of my friends photo was chopped...
full size here: View On White

Summer. Things. Fun.

Since the wedding I've had one shoot. I don't want to (or maybe even can't) upload any photos just yet. It was a portrait of a girl...for a magazine!!!! When it is published I will upload it and blog for sure. But out of respect I want to wait until it's available to the public first. By the way, learning about this shoot I was jumping for joy and am very excited about it. I can't wait to go buy 10 copies of the magazine!

And speaking of the wedding, the newly weds liked their photos! You know you've done well when the bride asks if she can upload some to her facebook! :)

Other than the little photography I've been doing this summer, I recently gained a ton of inspiration, and I'm about to burst if I don't do some creative shooting soon! Last weekend was the Art Fair on the Square in Madison. It's probabaly my favorite event in Madison. I go and walk around for hours staring at other artists work in awe. I leave with an itch to get shooting!

This weekend is an all girls weekend for me. I've invited my close girlfriends into town for Maxwell Street Days . So no serious photography this weekend, just goofy girl photos. But keeping that bit of youth is a good thing.

Happy summer & stay goofy!

Our first wedding -- slideshow!

It took us a week to finish editing, but we're finally done! I believe there are over 100 photos that we are including on the CD that the newly weds will get, but I chose my 22 favorite from the photos to put into a slideshow.

View the slideshow here.

I did not include any of the formal portraits except for 2 of the newly wed ones because I wanted the slideshow to feature the "Ooohh... Ahhh..." photos that are unexpected. There are a lot of formal portrait ones that I'm thankful of the 5:00 afternoon light for.

The ceremony was the most difficult to shoot as the sun was behind them, but with John being mobile and me shooting directly down the isle we were able to get a nice mix of photos. I could write a blog of "10 things I learned from my first wedding" from this experience. I'm so happy we got this opportunity, and I hope it opens more windows for us.

The newly weds have not seen the slideshow or the entire collection of photos themselves yet, but I'm sure they will be pleased. They were really great to work with, and I hope that all future clients will be just as great.

It was fabulous, fantastic, incredible, beautiful & hot!

Incase you were sitting on the edge of your seat, the wedding was great. Just as I predicted; perfect first wedding shoot.



Just one sneak peak for now. Will have a slideshow to share at some point during this coming week.

We're taking a leap (a big one!!)

This Friday, June 26th 2009, John and I are doing our first wedding!!

Are we nervous? Are we excited? Are we ready? Yes, yes, and yes!!

The couple that is getting married are our perfect match for a first wedding. They are very laid back, casual and cool. We met a week ago to talk through things and get an idea for portrait locations. I think it's going to turn out wonderfully.

One tiny part that makes me nervous is that the sun will be behind them during the ceremony, at 5:00. During the ceremony lighting could be tricky, but we've got our Alien Bees and flash units. We're preparred for it!

This weekend I will be busy editing photos. A follow up blog with the results will happen at some point next week. I can not wait to share my first wedding experience!

Rupa and the April Fishes

Over the weekend the Marquette Waterfront Festival provided entertainment for myself and hundreds of other Madisonians.

It's rare that I like a band that I'm seeing/hearing for the first time enough to buy their album. That is exactly what happened after I saw Rupa and the April Fishes perform.



The band is based out of San Francisco. Their music is not easy to define; it's a mixed influence of French chanson, Argentinean tango, Gypsy swing, American folk, Latin cumbias, and Indian ragas. But let me tell you, it's quite the experience to dance to this music. In a single song it can go from a tempo that has you jumping like there's no tomorrow, to a slow staggering sway back and forth.

They are definately worth a listen: