packages tied up with string

Merry Christmas!

Renegade Craft Fair

In case you happen to be in the Chicago area next weekend...

as promised

Okay, folks, the day has arrived! This might be way more exciting for me than it is for you, but that's alright. Today I am sharing with you my official "store" for prints. For those of you who have had a session with me in the past, you'll be able to find your private gallery (I will be emailing passwords shortly) and have prints made and shipped straight to you. With just a few clicks of the mouse, tangible, glorious prints can be yours! Maybe it's just because I like getting things in the mail, but when I receive my orders via snail mail it's always so thrilling to open the envelope and see the prints inside.

Also, in celebration of this grand opening, I am offering pictures of Italy for sale, for a limited time. If you dreamed about the water of Capri or drooled over Ponte Vecchio, now is your chance! Snatch them up while you can. So without further adieu...

But A Shadow : Online Galleries

| a freshman again

[I debated over writing this post. I wondered if it would be better to not say anything, to make it seem like I had my act together, like it came easily for me. That was until I realized that I'm a horrible liar and the artists (and their blogs) that I respect the most are the ones who are willing to be vulnerable and share.]

{sigh} No, I'm not going back to school. But I feel like a Freshman all over again. Starting out on a new venture will do that to you. There's all the excitement of "the new" combined with the nervous butterflies (and slight urge to hurl) knowing that everywhere you look are people who are doing it better and longer than you.

This past weekend we drove up to Madison, WI to visit with some great friends who we hadn't seen in a while. They're an awesome duo with an even awesomer (totally not a word but I'm using it anyway) kid - she's way cooler than I'll ever be. He does videography and she's a photographer so together they're a one stop shop for documenting that special wedding day. So, of course our conversation often turned towards photography. I tried to glean as much of their professional wisdom as possible in a 48 hour period.

This is where feeling like a Freshman comes into play. I had a 300 level class my freshman year of undergrad that was probably a bit premature, but I did it anyway. I remember feeling so intimidated by the upper class men who understood the material and could ask in depth questions, all while I was still trying to figure out what page we were discussing. But every now and again there would be moments of "I get it!" where something would click and I'd actually feel like maybe just maybe I could hold my own if I was called upon. Welcome to my world. This is how I've been feeling lately. Immensely intimidated most of the time, with short bursts of confidence sprinkled in to keep me going in the right direction.

So... all that to say, the ball is rolling. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but it's rolling. I'm going with it as best I can. There are some important things in the works this week. I hope to share a new online gallery with you, which will allow you to order prints and have them sent straight to your very own door. I'm going to put together a price list for sessions. I need to pull together forms for all the legalese which needs to be signed off on. Basically, the little things that can't be overlooked but often aren't thought about when conjuring up that "big picture" plan.

Stay tuned!

[Shameless plug: if you're in the Madison/Chicago area and have that big day coming, book Primavera Studios. They're great. Seriously. Go, call them, now.]

details of a baby shower

If you didn't pick up on it, it was nautical themed!

Double your fun : twins edition

I promised I'd share more and here they are. I love editing sessions like this because every picture is just so dang cute - it's hard to narrow it down to a few favorites.

A special note of thanks to their mom who was a great assistant, fully equipped with toys and books and blankets. And just props to her in general for raising twins and managing to look great at the same time. I sure couldn't do it. I can barely get out of my pajamas as it is...

She had something to say about it all

Those blue eyes!

Hello, baby feet!

That lower lip is just so sweet.

If only my belly looked this cute.

It was at this point that I considered grabbing one and making a mad dash for home,
but she knows where we live, so it wouldn't have lasted long.

Getting their fiber... couldn't seem to keep them away from the leaves.

babies!!

I still haven't edited this session yet, but these little twins are just too cute not to share. So here's a sneak peak at what's coming up next week...

chicago at dusk : parte duo

Because I just can't get enough of the city lights at night...

halloween cocktails

This is Dhey, playing both hostess (helping someone navigate to the correct party location) and bartender (mixing up a haunting brew) at the same time. Dhey asked me to be the photographer for a Halloween cocktail party she and a few friends were throwing downtown, on a roof top, in Chicago... um, yes!

It should be noted that when she's not moonlighting as a party hostess with the most-est (yes, I did just say that) - she's helping fight for the cure as a Clinical Research RN at Children's Memorial Hospital. Anyone willing to spend their days joining that fight gets extra stars in my book.

chicago at dusk

{more to come...}

a pause in the action.

I was on a roll there for a few days and then... whoops! Sorry, folks. This whole taking pictures every day and posting 5 days a week is harder than it looks. I have plans to make it up to you, but you'll have to wait just a few more days.

| day five of thirty. {lwg}

It's a Friday night. I really should be anywhere but in my office, at the computer, getting lost in Adobe forums. I'm going to post this and walk away. Really, I am. (I think.) There are a bunch of exciting things going on around here, some of which I hope to share with you soon (as in: next week). But for now, you'll just have to trust that I'm trying my hardest to post every (week) day, but if I don't, it's only because my photography/design work is increasing and things are a bit nutty on this side of the computer. Side note to self: be careful what you pray for, He might actually say, "Yes."

Without further adieu, here is installment duo, of {life without glasses}
(and no, I did not misspell the word two, that is Italian, not Spanish)

| day four of thirty. {lwg}

I'm starting a new series in this 30 day assignment. - Life Without Glasses - As I was photographing, I was wondering why I kept being drawn back to blurry, bokeh filled images and then it dawned on me that it might be because without my glasses my vision is very, very poor and therefore, most things I see are a blur of lines and light. So, I'm embarking on a mission to take one picture "without glasses" and one "with glasses" and post them here for you. You can squint and guess all you'd like. The in focus version will be right beside it (or below it!).

[20 points to the person who can identify the restaurant in the last two photos]

| day three of thirty.

[making dinner in the crock pot]

| day two of thirty.

-you can click on it for the bigger version-

| day one of thirty.

Today was day one. I went for a short walk in the middle of a bright day. Not really the time for a lens you want to shoot at an F stop of 1.8. My shutter speed was 4000 at one point. Ha. What was I thinking?

I was thinking I have to do this or else I'll never start. Much like running again. Though I haven't started that yet.



More to follow. Starting out slow. Again, just like running.

| an idea comes to me |

Today I need feedback. Admittedly, I've been a bit out of my groove. My photography groove that is. I had some really awesome sessions over the summer but then things started to get busy, I failed to make it a priority and I wound up here - in 'no new pictures to post' land. So, in an effort to get back at it, I purchased a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 that I have been salivating over for some time now, which should be arriving on my doorstep TODAY!

According to this lovely screen shot of UPS.com's tracking:



Here's where I need your help. Back in college one of my assignments for Photography II was to shoot a roll of film every day for 30 days. It was quite a daunting task when you consider that it was film that needed developed and processed, not just digitals that could easily be uploaded to a computer for processing. That said, doing it again in digital form should make it all that much easier to accomplish, right? This is what I'm thinking... I take a picture (or pictures) every day for the next month. And every morning I post a picture from the previous day. Not only will this provide you with an active blog to follow, it will keep me focused on refining my photography skills. What do you think? I'm open to other suggestions as well. I just need something that will provide content for this blog as well as push me to becoming the kind of photographer I wish I was.

nursery duties

Here is the culprit.



Towards the end of August I took on the position of Nursery Coordinator at church. That means I'm officially in charge of making sure the Infant, Crawler and Toddler rooms are fully stocked with supplies and staff every Sunday, all three services. Getting them full of kids hasn't been a problem.

A few Sundays ago, the toddler room was especially full (think 14 walkers under the age of 2 with only 3 helpers) so I was checking in to make sure everyone was doing alright. One of the workers came to me with a half chewed name tag (we have name tags and pager numbers that get pinned to the back of every child). "I don't know how she got it off, but now I can't find the safety pin." We pinned a fresh one on the little gummer (my word for toddlers that munch on things until they're a gummy paste) and I helped look around the room a bit, but was quickly distracted with another duty and forgot all about it.

Fast forward to the wee hours of Monday morning. All of a sudden I'm wide awake in bed and all I can think is: "Oh no! We never found that pin!" Of course, I feel I'm solely responsible for this as it happened under my watch and immediately start conjuring up worst case scenarios where the gummy child swallowed said pin and is dying slowly somewhere of a punctured something or other. This kept me awake for some time. I eventually drifted back to sleep but when I woke up as M was getting ready for work, I mumbled out something about a pin and should I call the parents, etc. He nicely assured me I shouldn't worry and told me to go back to sleep.

I went about my day, but in the back of my mind I couldn't stop thinking about the safety pin. The buzzer rang on my dryer as I was contemplating what to do. As I opened the door, something fell onto the ground...

YEP, you guessed it! THE SAFETY PIN. I was washing/drying the nursery bibs and the pin must have fallen into one of the pockets on the front of bibs. I have never in my life been so relieved to see a half eaten name tag and safety pin fall out of my dryer. I was now sure that no child from the nursery was dying of a punctured stomach lining and could happily go about my day.

life. got. busy.

Sometimes life gets busy. I look up and all of a sudden it has been a month since I've posted an entry. It's already half way through October and I'm still not sure where September went. I fear it will be December and I'll still be carving pumpkins at the rate I'm going.

Instead of listing the million and one things that crammed themselves onto our calendar and prevented me from having the time or energy to post, I'll simply share with you a few images from our recent trip to Myrtle Beach, SC.

*note: if you want to go to myrtle beach, early october is the perfect time to do it. the water is still reasonably warm and you practically have the ocean all to yourself.

Stoltzfus Farm

During our abbreviated trip to Pennsylvania, we stopped by a farm owned by the Stoltzfus family. (For those of you from Lancaster County - yes, I realize that could mean a number of farms) Maybe I should say "A Stolzfus family." After city living, it was refreshing to pull into an amish farm off a country road and pick out pumpkins at my leisure, look in on the baby cows, peek at the horses, pet the dog, wander around one of the barns. It was just relaxing. Slower paced. Nice.

Side note: cows are easily spooked. I leaned over to pet one and scared three of them into running across to the other side of the pen. whoops. I'll stick with the dog.

Another side note: Yes, I carted pumpkins and indian corn the whole way back to Chicago. They're so much more expensive out here.