All signs point to blog

So. Well well well. What have I to blog about? All sorts of random things.

Last weekend i had one and a half shoots. I call the shoot I did for my friend's toddler a half shoot, because it was stricly for fun. No business. The other shoot was again for the magazine I did a photo for-- which so far I have not revealed because I'm a believer in "don't hatch your chickens before the eggs", though I'm not getting paid for the gig, but it is great experience/exposure/advertisement. The first magazine photo isn't out yet, so I'm hush hush about it until it hits the stands. That way you keep coming back to read my nonsense anyway. :)

So back to last weekend, shooting the toddler. Her name is Allie, you've seen her before. Adorable kid.

With a smile like this, who wouldn't giggle in agreement?


We went to Sun Prairie's Sweet Corn Festival. An inexpensive, entertaining event. I unfortunately just got braces & was not able to enjoy any sweet corn, and to tell you the truth, I don't even like corn, so it wasn't a huge dissapointment. What was a huge dissapointment was the fact that cheesecurds cost $SIX DOLLARS. Six dollars? I could get an angus beef burger at Hardees for six bucks. Out of their minds. I starved until I found a Culver's after the event.

My next blog will be about the magazine, it should be coming out next week. I'm probably making too big of a deal out of it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Single white female & night photography

Okay, so I'm not single. But I am female, and I do love night photography.

Here's the thing, when John is out working late, and I have a Friday night with nothing to do, I enjoy going out on my bike scouting locations for night shots. But being a female alone in the dark makes me feel incredibly vulnerable.

I have said in the past that I would go and get myself some mace...One of those things that looks good on paper but I've yet to do. Perhaps I'll tie a string around my finger tonight so I remember to complete that task tomorrow?

None the less, I did go out tonight and indulge myself in a wee bit of night photography. I only shot from three different vantage points.

My favorite from the night:


old cars are just too cool




The last photo brought warm fuzzies to my heart... I was sitting in the median on East Johnson and a truck came to a slow halt by me. My first thought was, "oh great, I'm about to be harassed", and then out pops a 12 year old girl's head, "Hey, do you need any help?"
I was not expecting this and replied a cool, "No...". The driver who was probably the father said, "Oh, well it looked like your bike was broke or something".
Then I realized they were caring Madisonian people. I said, "Thanks for checking, I'm fine!".

Wow, I did not realize that this good natured spirit still existed in the world! Maybe it's a Madison thing, or maybe there's still hope for good in the human kind.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Over the weekend John and I were fortunate enough to have great friends invite us to their campsite though we had zero money to pitch in. They said, "It's all paid for, we have plenty of food, just bring yourself... and a tent".

So we did.

The friends had the luxury of enjoying Kettle Moraine State Park for three nights, we joined them just Saturday night. I'm so glad that we went, because it was so enjoyable to be with good friends and in a beautiful Wisconsin state park.

Of course being there for a limited time did limit my photo taking, and I didn't want to tune out my friends with the camera, so few photos were taken. But the ones that I did get, I'm pretty happy about.


This is the second stairway to an observation tower that overlooks much of the park. Unfortunately photos from the tower were a bit difficult with the thick haze and humidity in the sky. I did manage one my friends though (sans Becky, she was trailing behind).



I went black and white due to the haze in the background.

And lastly, a photo of a road.


"Beauty often seduces us on the road to truth." --David Shore,

August, all moved in.

So I've been putting off blogging, because frankly I've got nothing to blog about. So if you have a busy internet surf planned, you can exit now. :)

But if you really have nothing better to do than read my blabbering blog, then sit back & have a glass of wine... or a bottle of beer... or whatever it is you might enjoy!

My last blog was about how I came to the realization of all the last things I would be doing at my old tiny apartment meant for tiny people. No, not people as in plural. There's enough room for one tiny person who doesn't have many possesions. I on the other hand have a husband who hoards all his things from his childhood on.

Lucky for John (husband), the new place has enough room for all of his crap, plus my hobby equipment that spent the last three years in a coma in the basement. I now have a corner in our DEN (yes, DEN!!) for my full sized keyboard, a music stand, and my saxophone. Having this extra space has even got me jazzed enough to play my instruments. Unlucky for John I'm in desperate need of some practice.

Having all this space also has gotten me the photography bug. I just wanna shoot shoot shoot! We have a spare bedroom that is empty just for photography sake. If I could be any happier about that I might burst. Tonight I did scratch the itch for a photo idea that I got as soon as the livingroom was set up. It is a self portrait, but I would really like to recreate this shot for someone else. Any takers??

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!