Monday, December 31, 2007

Katie and Travis

A cold and very snowy December 15 marked the wedding celebration of Katie and Travis. My second shooter, Karen, and I, and lots of family and friends, braved the elements and had a fabulous time spending the day and evening with the happy couple at Royal American Golf Club. I'd not shot there before and, I have to say, the place is beautiful and Judy, the coordinator, was just awesome to work with.

On to the images!

Isn't the snow pretty?



The detail on Katie's dress was just beautiful, as was her engagement ring!




I LOVE this shot!



And this one totally cracks me up.



Katie and Travis decided to see each other before the ceremony and exchange gifts and do some romantic portraits.











Before the ceremony, we hung out some and Katie's brother and his girlfriend lit the luminarias.



I love this shot of Katie!




I'm a sucker for nice, glowy light!



Time to dance and party!






Travis, seranading Katie. A total riot!




Travis, dancing to Soulja Boy. This guy can dance!!

Thanks to Karen for the great fisheye shots shown here!!

Congratulations, Katie and Travis!!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Kim and KC

OK, I am terribly late in wishing a happy anniversary to Kim and KC! It's been slightly zooey around here with the holidays and some exciting new things I'm working on for 2008, so my apologies!!

So, Kim and KC were married a year ago December 16 and were the first wedding I blogged on my brand new blog back in January of this year. I have an aversion to sameness, so of course I'm not going to post the same shots I did back then. I've decided to post a few from my favorite time of their day - our visit to the Corn City Bar. Kim and KC were married in their hometown up north (otherwise known as the "middle of nowhere!") and we stopped in this bar on the way to the reception because of course you can always make very cool pictures in unexpected places.

I'm always up for new things and new places, especially in quaint little one-horse towns I don't usually get to visit. Kim and KC (and her sister and his best man) were up for it too, and we just had a ball. Melissa got the cool shot of the sign and the other two are mine. I love places like this.

So, please please please - if you're into doing something different, we can come up with the most unique stuff - the stuff that makes your wedding different from eveyone else's!

Kim and KC, I hope you had the most wonderful one-year anniversary!!



Sunday, December 23, 2007

Photo Essay

I had some Christmas baking I wanted to do - I'm giving treat bags with oatmeal/cinnamon chip bars, brownies and chocolate chip cookie bars - so I thought, why not make a photo essay out of it just for fun? It was a good time, and definitely not without its challenges! First off, I don't bake. So right there I was starting at a deficit. Then to stop umpteen times to photograph this mixing and baking, well, let's just say it was a little time-consuming and challenging as well!

I was just at the store last night where I picked up some chocolate chips and brownie mix. I made the brownies this morning, to be followed by the oatmeal bars and chocolate chip bars, only to find that I didn't have enough butter and the brown sugar I did have was hard as a rock. So I made a list of the few things I needed for my baking.



I thought, while I was at it, I'd get a couple things ready for the mail tomorrow



Next came socks and shoes and Hildy on the bed being cute






Downstairs, then Hildy in the crate




Out to the mailbox, then on my way to Kroger






Grocery shopping with a festive bent




The store was a madhouse so it was all I could do to navigate my cart and take a few shots here and there




I swear I didn't do this. But I had to shoot it. You never know what you'll find on the way to the butter.




Not to late to buy a wreath



I really wanted to shoot the self checkout process but I thought the people in line behind me would kill me, so it's back on the road to the homestead



And, of course, the dog always wants to know if I bought her something



Time for a bite before digging into the baking



And now for a little Josh Groban Christmas music to set the mood



On to the business of baking. I got all this stuff mixed together, the butter and sugars, and my separate bowl of flour and baking soda, only to realize that the 1 cup measure I THOUGHT I was using was actually 3/4 cup! I had to go back and add 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 flour. This is precisely why I don't bake. I'm just glad I caught it!










This cracks me up. I love how the recipe says to "spread" the mixture in the bottom of a lightly greased pan. This stuff does not spread. It sticks to the spoon. It sticks to the spatula. It sticks to the "spreader". It sticks to everything but the bottom of the lightly greased pan.



Into the oven!




And viola! Smells yummy!



Time now for the chocolate chip cookie bars



Catching these babies in mid-air was tough!



Thick enough to stand a spoon in. I could've eaten a bunch of this batter, for sure, but I was a good girl.



No need to see the spreading struggle again!



And poof it's done!



My little masterpieces.



The end!