Friday the 13th Wedding

Paula and Joe had their wedding on Friday the 13^th…. because Paula was born on Friday the 13^th. A huge storm ripped through the Midwest on the 12^th; tearing apart lakes, filling rivers and flooding everything else…(turn on the TV and you can’t miss the headlines)…but Friday the 13^th it was clear, dry and sunny. Imagine that.

Strawberry Festival 2008

Sarah and I helped out at the Sun Prairie Strawberry Festival with our church this year. Basically it is a fundraiser for the Colonial Club of Sun Prairie, a non-profit center for seniors. We helped out at a similar event last year where we all discovered the art of face painting and how easy and rewarding it can be. We (Hope Crossing Community Church) sponsored some of the specific events, like a talent show, as well as manned different booths and created the face painting table. It was a lot of fun; my first shift was taking pictures…the next I spent a couple hours setting up bowling pins, just so kids could nock them down.

We were all supper exhausted afterwards…

Technical mumbo jumbo: took everything because I didn’t know what it would be like but new I would just park most of the stuff while I walked around with a little kit, ended up only using a wide angle zoom and a telephoto prime…still love this combo. Most of my good shots came because of patience this time, I would find a potential shot and wait for the right reaction, or look from the subject, I really liked this idea and will probably experiment more with it in this kind of situation. Also kept a really close working distance, which helped kids actually notice me so that they could then forget I was there. Funny concept but it today’s age where everyone takes pictures, I guess kids are used to it.

Tahoe Trip: Part 5

I love taking photos, why? Well I could talk for a while, anything from memories to humor to beauty…but mostly for story telling. A great aspect of this trip was that I could always have a subject to photograph; and honestly, as much as I like taking pictures of pretty scenery, I like taking pictures of people having fun in beautiful scenery more. I challenged myself to do that a lot on this trip, take pictures of family, enjoying Tahoe.

This last photo...Sarah took!

Technical: Style and look dictates lens choice. I am most comfortable interacting with my subject and being in conversation next to them as I take pictures, therefore I need a wide lens. A wide lens in close gives the viewer a feel of being apart of the image, but sometimes I wanted to give the viewer a feel of observing from afar, so then I would walk away, use a long telephoto lens and capture things as they happen. More important that lens choice is always being ready and anticipating moments…it also really helps if the subjects allowing you to photograph them and accept you AND your camera into family moments.

Tahoe Trip: Part 4

To make up for my lack of Tahoe postings I will double post in one day. Here is a set of photos I took of Sarah and her sister Amy on the beach…

Tahoe Trip: Part 3

Sorry, I have been a bad blogger, I have been distracted by other posting opportunities and forgotten my Tahoe series. Hopefully you have not blocked my blog in the process.

Anyway, one of my favorite activities we did at Tahoe was to rent bikes, I totally recommend it wherever you go because you see a different side of the area compared to a car. We all had a blast, especially the ride down the hill, which only took 20 minutes…compared to the 2 hour ride up.

Tech: tried it with a slow shutter speed, kinda worked but a little different than I thought. I guess it would have been better if I was in a car and could look through the viewfinder and hold the camera steady instead of also trying to ride a bike.

First ever S’mores

During Finn’s last weekend we also wanted to fulfill his last item on his “to-do List”…makes s’mores. We originally had a picnic spot reserved out on the lake with access to the water for swimming and fishing, but the impending tornadoes were telling us to stay away. (more on that day here) Instead we headed over to Becky’s place for a little inside bar-b-q and decided to make s’mores over a grill outside when the weather braked for an hour.

How to make Norwegian Pancakes

During Finns last weekend in the States, he decided to show us how to make traditional Norwegian Pancakes. It was a lot of fun and naturally I decided to take a few pictures.

Here are the steps we took to make them

1) Go to American store and try and find Norwegian foods
2) prepare ingredients
3) convert Norwegian units of measure to American using your i-phone
4) invite friends to taste
5) try a small pancake to test
6) once taste is good, impress friends with your mad “flipping” skills
7) distribute, load up with plenty of sugar and your choice of jam

8) repeat and enjoy

Light Painting…in a grave yard…at midnight

Fin and I have said that we would try this Light Painting thing out sometime, last night decided to go to a local grave yard and see what we could come out with. After a lot of running around and almost tripping on grave stones, we were pretty happy for a first try. We also decided to head down to a marina near the lake…had a ton of fun at both places and learned a lot. All light, other than the sky (and lake reflecting the sky) is from a flashlight.






Technical: set up my wide angle lens on a tripod with a 30 second exposure (expose for sky, everything else goes black) and then ran around with a Mag Light trying to light up as much of the detail as I could in 30 seconds…plus lots of trial and error.