I finally got around to posting just a few photos from Becky & Mike’s wedding in September!
Inspired November 18, 2009
I was looking through the Sally Jane Vintage blog (which I would highly recommend for lovers of vintage & fashion) and she had made a post with photos from Waldemar and Max. I love these photos! It got me thinking that it would be so much fun to do a photo shoot like this since I have pigeons and some friends that would like to participate? This would be so much fun if it wasn’t so cold out.
This Past Eventful Weekend September 14, 2009
This past weekend was actually pretty eventful. On Friday I drove over to Chaska to shoot a wedding for an awesome couple and I think that went really well! I do hope that I grow out of feeling panicky and sick on days that I do photo shoots though. I’m okay once I get there and start shooting but the time before that is pure hell for me. Hopefully I’ll get more work from that past wedding because one of their friends just got engaged and one of them is a music producer that took my card so maybe I’ll be doing some artist portraits too? One thing that I’m worried about with that is I don’t have a studio or portable lighting because it’s so expensive and I haven’t even earned back the money that it cost to buy the equipment I currently have so hopefully natural light/outdoor portraits will be okay. The bride & groom also told me that they’ll be calling me in eight months because they just found out she’s preggers. So Jessie will have to give me some tips on photographing babies because I haven’t even ever held one (out of my own will) before.
Also on the morning of the wedding I was woken up by at&t calling me about a job and had me answer some questions. I’m just afraid that I might have messed up because I was literally half asleep and can’t even remember the conversation. I just know that I froze up on one of the questions and that she said she was forwarding my application to a hiring manager and I might get a call within a few days. So maybe I won’t be so unemployed and poor for much longer?
On Saturday the whole family (Craig came home for the weekend) went out for a movie & dinner. We ended up seeing Inglorious Basterds because my brothers and I are Tarantino fans and the previews looked so good. It didn’t end up being what I expected but it was still okay since I’m also a fan of Tarantino’s dialogue (there’s a lot of that) but I do wish there was more action. I thought that since he loved the original Inglorious Bastards film so much and was making this movie because of that one that it would be more like the original but wasn’t at all. Oh, and I would highly recommend the origional if you like campy and fun war films from the 70′s. After the movie we decided to try Baja Sol which was pretty darn good. They have their own salsa bar for unlimited chips and salsa (yum yum!) and the menu was pretty awesome too (lots of vegetarian options). We also had a very upbeat waiter that let me have a Dos Equis although I didn’t have my ID with me.
Yesterday Craig ventured back up north for school and I ended up taking a few last minute photos of Eric since he had to leave today to go to school in Birmingham, England for nine months. He says that he will keep a blog over there so he better uphold his word especially since he won’t be back home until May and he gets something like two months off to travel around Europe. So his blog for that is here: http://ericintheoldcountry.blogspot.com/ Now here’s a few of those awesome (I’m allowed to like my own work) photos from yesterday:
Eric in his cowboy/outback hat that he bought during our South Dakota Trip.
Of course I had to shoot some funny face pics:
Yup, I really love these photos and I think it would be fun to do a collection of friends and family in the same style. Too bad Craig didn’t want his photo taken too 
Jaspar is my hero! August 22, 2009
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting my beautiful and talented cousin Jaspar at Lake Nokomis to take some photos for her upcoming CD. There were so many beautiful wildflowers, most of them being yellow which was perfect because that’s her favorite color and because they match her sunny disposition. We found this one beautiful location in the shade by a tree and lots of beautiful flowers and of course I don’t keep my big clunky camera bag on me while snapping away so I set it on the ground about 50 feet away. When we were done taking photos I turned back to my bag and there was a swarm of angry bees all over it! Now some of you know that I hate bees! I’m sure this goes hand in hand with my fear of needles. I had only been stung twice before by paper wasps on two separate occasions and would never want to be stung by one of those again! (Very painful! Burns for about 8 hours and I break out in hives.) So I was pretty weary about going over there to save my camera bag. I kept my distance but that didn’t help much because one flew over and stung me and then of course 3 others attacked me after that because when they sting you they release some sort of scent marking you as the threat/enemy. Since I was already marked and stung a few times I for sure didn’t want to walk up to the bag swarming in those little evil buggers and was thinking about calling some sort of pest control. Jaspar had never been stung before and wasn’t the least bit afraid. She was actually looking at it as a challenge. She put on a long sleeved shirt and wrapped a bandanna around her hand and pulled the bag away by the strap. Of course I also had the bag open which made it a little worse because they were inside of it. After all of this I walked away with 4 stings and Jaspar didn’t even get stung once! I guess next time I’m taking photos outside I’ll pay more attention to where I’m setting my bag so I don’t set it on top of another ground bee nest and make sure that it’s closed. Now today those darn bee stings are the size of ping pong balls and are driving me crazy like I want to tear them open and drain them!
Thank you Jaspar, for saving my camera bag!
Isn’t she beautiful!
Wedding with Ashley July 26, 2009
Today (technically yesterday) I shot a wedding with Ashley as her secondary photographer. Wow, it was a long day! I had to wake up at 7am which is almost impossible for me because I’m used to going asleep around 5am. I tried going to bed at 11pm but then got an email from an etsy customer so I was online for a bit and then started worrying about Luke because he was still outside barking at something and it was past midnight. So I wandered outside in my pajamas with a flashlight calling and looking for him but no luck. A little later my mom woke up off the couch and let him in but I didn’t know he was let in so I was still in bed worrying about him. Finally I got up and listened outside and didn’t hear him barking so I searched the house for him and gladly found the little bugger curled up on the giant pillow downstairs. A word of advice, if you want a crazy little dog get a patterdale terrier because they are insane, fearless , love to run, and aren’t easily obedience trained. Of course I love him though 
So anyways, long story short I didn’t sleep a wink.
Despite being super nervous about today I ended up being fine and even had some fun once I got there and met Ray and Angie (the bride & groom). They are such nice people! It is also much less stressful to be the secondary photographer and also not be on your own. One first of mine today was riding in a limo which I had never done before. After the ceremony I rode around with some of the wedding party and bride & groom to a few different bars before the reception. At the first bar the groom insisted on buying me a drink which at first I refused but then accepted after he insisted. Shortly after getting the beer everyone decides it’s time to head to the next bar but I still have a full glass so let’s just say that baby had to go down quick and they now have a photo of me chugging one to always remember me by (their idea). At the next bar they offered to buy me another a few times but I refused trying to stay professional. One cool thing about the reception is they had one of those photobooths set up for their guests to take photos in and then put in the guest book with a little note. Of course Ashley and I took one and left a little note for them. :
Yeah the quality isn’t the best, I should maybe try taking a picture of it instead of scanning it. (and yes, I know I look like a dork.)
I’ll have to post photos later after I’ve gone through them but I don’t have any energy to even glance at them right now.
So yup, yup, yup, pretty good night. One funny thing, all night Ashley kept going on about how “yummy” Angie’s cousin is and kept staring at him. Of course I had noticed too because he was quite good looking. So later on he ended up coming over to us and talked for a while and ended up inviting us to a bar after the reception but we didn’t really know where it was (one that I was at earlier). Oh well, when we were saying goodbye to Angie she said that he mentioned that he wanted our number so it does lift your self confidence a little to be hit on by a “yummy” guy Well, hopefully off to sleep now and time for my achy feet to heal and my sunburn to feel worse in the morning.
Dan’s Initiation January 20, 2009
I thought that I should make this post before going on with the rest of the Hawaii photos because while we were away my cousin Dan stayed at our place and took care of all the animals. We had some free time the night before we left so I thought it was time to “initiate” Dan into my crazy world of bathroom photos (my favorite kind). No, they’re not dirty, it’s just that I don’t have a studio and the lighting in the bathroom happens to be ok. He seemed wary when I came out with my camera and asked him if he wanted some photos. All four of us (Eric, Craig, Dan, & I) shoved ourselves into the bathroom. I told them to move over so I could close the door, that must have really freaked him out but I need the door closed for the bare wall behind it. We found out that Dan hasn’t ever taken “funny face” photos before. Poor guy. During the mini shoot my brothers ended up pinching his nipples and he kept them protected for the rest of the shoot. So anywho here’s Dan’s first bathroom funny photos:
St. Croix Day 2 – Jessie & Max’s Wedding December 6, 2008
Ahh, my first day on the beautiful island of St. Croix. It started out very early because I didn’t sleep the night before so I laid in bed waiting for the clock to hit 5:30am before deciding to get up and take a look around. I took a little walk down to the beach where I sat and waited for the sun to rise and brighten up the sky. Of course I didn’t know what direction east was so the sun rose behind me and I didn’t get the sunrise over the ocean like I was hoping for. I still had a bunch of time to kill because the restaurant doesn’t open until 8:am for breakfast so I decided to videotape a little walking tour of the resort to take up some time. As soon as it got to be 8:am I sat down for my breakfast which was fantastic! I loved being able to sit outside overlooking the beach while enjoying the delicious food.
The breakfast I ate each morning, mmmmmmm
My view while eating
After breakfast I decided to take a long walk along the beach and then decided to head back to see if anyone was awake yet. We had some time to chill out since the wedding wasn’t until 4:30pm so we hung out around the pool and I decided to try out my dicapac (waterproof bag for my compact camera).
Then it was time for the wedding (which was beautiful of course). It did rain but that’s supposed to be good luck. I’m not alowed to show any of the wedding photos yet so that will come later.
The new Mr. & Mrs. Arco!
