Family Photo Fun

Monday afternoon I received an email from Kristy R. We were scheduled to shoot her family session on Tuesday evening. Kristy was concerned because there was a chance for rain. So, I surfed on over to weather.com to check the hour by hour forecast. It looked like it might sprinkle in the afternoon (30 % chance), but blow through for a partly cloudy evening. I told Kristy not to worry. We should have some cloudy skies that would make for some dramatic photos. She was excited about the idea, and to be honest, I was too.
I woke up Tuesday morning, and made my way to look out the window. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I realized it was sunny with some pretty cool clouds in the sky. It was going to be perfect for taking pictures. Now all I had to do was wait for 7:00pm. So I sat down to my computer for a few hours of photo editing before the big family session. I sat there working away and then I hear a familiar noise in the distance. I thought for a moment that it was my imagination, but then I heard it again. I actually said to myself, “Please, Please, Please let it be, God bowling in heaven???” When I was younger someone told me that thunder was God and the Angels bowling, and to this day that has stuck with me. Hopefully they were only going to bowl a few frames, after all they knew we didn’t need it to rain on our parade… (Figuratively speaking of course) As the photo hour drew near, things kept getting worse and worse. This wasn’t an average game of bowling in the heavens, this was chaos. So I emailed and then called Kristy, here it was nice all day and then the storm blows in. We decided to head to the beach and see if things would blow through.

What a ride to the beach….

The windshield wipers were going 100 miles an hour and still couldn’t wipe the rain away fast enough. Then there were road blocks (trees down in the middle of the road). It looked like a disaster zone. We met at the beach and quickly decided that it just wasn’t going to work. I guess this is one of those situations that helped coin the term “Rain Check”. So Kristy and family opted to cash their “Rain Check” on the very next day. 1 day removed from 5.11” of rain in a 3 hour time frame (our photo session time frame) and the heavens decided to shine on our day. The bowling balls were put away, and we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weather. We had an absolute blast farting around on the beach. Here are a few of my favorites from the day…








































I almost forgot the highlight of the day.....

The little guy decided he wanted to play Leap Frog. It sounded like so much fun that everyone wanted to give it a try. Everyone lined up to start their game of leap frog but before they could get started, one of the frogs spoke!!! Someone was confused... this was leap frog, not Bull Frog croaking to the frog lined up to their rear... :)

Jimmy and Jessica's Majestic Paradise

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of shooting a vow renewal for Jimmy and Jessica. They married quite young and never had a big wedding like they both had hoped and dreamed of. After 5 years of marriage they decided they were finally going to have “Their” wedding. This time they decided to things right. It was amazing to see both his and her families working together to turn a back yard wedding into majestic paradise. They spared no expense or detail. Here are a couple of my favs from Jimmy and Jessica’s special day….

Splish Splash - Macy's 1st Birthday Bash

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a couple asking me about taking photos of their daughters 1st Birthday Party. I thought it sounded like a heck of a good time. The only thing better than capturing weddings and engagements is taking pictures of children. Did I mention it was at a PARTY, not just trying to set a 1 year old in front of a back drop and coaching them into smiling like our friends at Wal-Mart, Sears, etc… This was going to be a heck of a good time. As I corresponded with Jamie and Mike about their daughter’s party I learned a few more cool things. First was the reason for wanting a photographer for a 1st birthday party. They told me they wanted to document the party, but also wanted to enjoy the party with their daughter. I had never really thought of it that way, but it made perfect sense. So many times we have birthday parties, graduations, etc.., and we are too busy trying to take pictures of the event to actually enjoy it. And that is the whole purpose of having party to begin with. So... Jamie and Mike set out to get a photographer. Heck of an idea if you ask me. Then they told me where they were having this extravaganza. It was going to be a pool party!! How cool is that for a 1st Birthday party!! You get cake, ice cream, presents, and a swimming pool all in one day. That is what 1 year old dreams are made of…. Here are a few of my favorites from Macy’s Magnificent Masquerade…..






















If only she could say what she was thinking when she shot this look my way :)

































And a party wouldn't be a party unless some adults lost their inhibitions and found their inner child. Macy is going to have a good time growing up with a Mom and Aunt's like these...

The Independence Day Success

It was about 3:30am the morning of June 30, 2009. I was lying in bed, trying everything possible to fall asleep. It was imperative that I get a few good hours of sleep. After all Sarah and I were going to find out the sex of our first child. Obviously that can weigh on your mind quite a bit. I tried all the common fall asleep fast techniques (a warm shower, followed by warm milk, and even some counting sheep). Low and behold, sleep was a long way from happening. As you could probably imagine it was the night before a very exciting event. Were we going to have a boy that I could play catch with in the back yard, or a girl who would just melt my heart away? Everyone had an opinion; everyone had their reasons, as they always do. Even Sarah thought she had figured out the sex. Wouldn’t you know, most of those people were wrong. Most thought that we were having a boy, and as it turned out it was a girl…… Daddy’s Girl



However, sometime the night before we found out Abby was going to be Abby instead of Aiden. I lay restless tossing and turning in my bed, my mind racing a thousand miles a minute. I was thinking about the baby, about the future, and about the photography business. I was thinking about how I could connect my photos with the masses. How and where I could reach the most people for the least amount of $$ out of pocket? Then one of those silly cartoon light bulbs lit up above my head (heck, I couldn’t sleep so why not have a light bulb above my head). The 4th of July Parade was the following Saturday. There were at least 50,000 people going to be down town, with their full attention on the event. Shoot, why hadn’t I thought of this sooner. I could have made a float and been in the parade tossing candy and handing out business cards. Talk about maximizing the advertising possibilities… Well obviously it was 4 days away so there was no way I could put that kind of operation together. Then that cartoon light bulb got a little bit brighter. I have an oversized tricycle and wagon in the garage. What if I could get someone to ride that through town before the parade began??? That would get some attention. Then of course I could have someone walking with the tricycle rider passing out cards. Now that is advertising on a shoe string budget. Thoughts poured in… I could have shirts made, thousands of cards for passing out, bags of candy to toss to the kids, and some oversized prints printed up to attach to the wagon. How in the world could that happen in 4 days??? I didn’t even have anyone to ride the trike and pass out cards. I could possibly do one or the other, but Sarah couldn’t. Her feet swell up like overcooked hot dogs after a few minutes of standing (due to the pregnancy). Then it hit me, I knew the perfect people for this type of fun. They are the most free spirited, fun loving, adventuresome people I know. They were my brother-in-law Cary and his wife Erin. They were perfect, now I needed to talk them into it. Hmmmm how could I persuade them into this crazy idea of mine. Well it turns out all I had to do was start to mention it and they both lit up like kids at Christmas. They were twice as excited as I could imagine. Then the fun began. I now had 3 days to get enlarged prints, cards, and shirts made up. I placed rush orders with my print shops and had the cards and prints expedited for the event. That just left the shirts. Who in the world could make me custom shirts in multiple sizes with a 3 day turn around??? Then Sarah mentioned her Aunt Mary and Uncle Duke. They happen to run a part time screen printing business. So I called up Mary to see if it were possible. Mary and Duke Brooks of Faith Walkers Screen Printing (219) 879-1900 pulled through in a pinch. They made me 5 different size shirts that turned out perfect, and all with very little notice…


The 4th of July came and Cary and Erin took off down the parade route. They made it completely down one side of the parade route and 1/3 of the way back when the police asked them to exit the route. Overall the event was an absolute success. Not because the phone is ringing off the hook with leads from the parade but, because my friends and family pulled together to help promote my photography business. And they did it because they wanted too, not because they were forced or made to feel guilty. They did it to help me, and that is what family and friends are about. With friends and family like that, ultimately Life is a Success….

A picture is a poem without words....

A few months ago my sister-in-law (Erin) was looking through some of my pictures and volunteered her services as a guinea pig. She offered to do a trash the dress session with her wedding dress. She had been married for a few years and the dress was just hanging in a closet (like most wedding dresses do). She had one stipulation; she had a location picked out where she wanted the photos taken. She told me it was a church in Gary. She said it was really neat. Not thinking too much about it, I nonchalantly agreed. Little did I know, this wasn’t just some random church. This was a photographers dream! A run down church that looked like it was out of a horror film (interestingly enough they are/were filming a few scenes of the new Nightmare on Elm Street at this church). So we planned a day to do the shoot. Erin and her husband Cary came over the night before the shoot, and my wife did her hair. Trashing the dress pictures had to have a just slept on hair do to go with it right???

Day of the shoot:

Cary and Erin picked me up right on time. Off we went to Gary (about an hour drive, give or take a few trips around the block and driving in circles). Talk about nervous energy, all 3 of us were so excited and ready to capture some amazing shots. As we drove by the church Erin shouts, “There are people working there”. She was right, as we drove up there sat a huge crane, a truck full of studio lights, little guys with head sets on, and security everywhere. No way, No way could there be people working at our awesome photo shoot location!! Well there were, there were those stinkin Hollywood movie producing folks. Shooting scenes from a dream sequence in Nightmare on Elm Street. Wouldn’t you know, the weather was absolutely perfect! It wasn’t too hot, wasn’t too cold, the sun was shining, and there were those big cumulous clouds everywhere. Perfect for taking pictures or shooting movies it seems. So we had to reschedule our shoot…

3 days later we returned to the church and this time there was no movie crew. The beauty of this church and a bride (yes she’s still a bride) in a wedding dress, just sent my photographic mind into overload. I probably could have shot for a month and still not captured all of the beauty in the place. There were only so many hours of daylight and usable light, so we just might go back and give it another go… But for now, these are a few of my favorites….























































"Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul."
~ Mark Twain