A New Level

Freja advanced to a new belt level last night. We're very proud of her, and more importantly, she seems proud of her accomplishment as well. You can read a little more about it, and see a few shots by clicking the photo below.

Octobaby

Yesterday someone reminded me about back when Freja was always drawing octopi, and then telling stories about them. I remembered this video I'd shot of her when she was three, and imagined our home was being invaded by a GIANT OCTOPUS!



You can see the clip here.

Mommy & Daddy Time!

A combination of being stuck in the house for weeks, and Teri having been gone for a week, illnesses in both girls, and not getting out to shoot anything has made me sort of GRUMPY! We've come up with a solution though! We've planned a "Daddy & Mommy Date!" It's amazing how having an excursion with your wife planned, sans-kid, can improve your outlook!

SO thankful we found a sitter! I can't wait to go!

Frew Mill Fireball

In 2009 I had a chance to work with an amazing fire-performer. We traveled to a rock formation I've played around since I was a kid. There's a small waterfall feature where a tiny, spring fed stream trickles off the rocks. On rainier days it also gets some drainage from the hemlock forest that surrounds it.

There, he blasted fireballs up at the rocks, and the tiny trickle of water for a while. In the pitch darkness it was a bit of challenge to find the right exposure settings, but doing so was still a LOT easier than what he was doing. Precariously perched up in the rocks, blasting fireballs into the underbelly of an overhang, I thought his face would melt.

Now Offering a Free 2hr Engagement Session!

I'm now offering a free, two hour long, engagement portrait session with all new wedding bookings! This will give us a chance to get to know one another. While we work, we'll talk about your wedding, and I can get a feel for what's going to be important to you as a couple. I'll travel to the location of your choosing on my dime, and will shoot for two hours for free. If you want to have a longer session we can do so for only $50/extra hour. There are no other costs to this. You'll get a small gallery online, images uploaded to Facebook if you want, and the digital print files at no extra charge.

• Click Here to See More Info

Tionesta Trip from 2009

I just reprocessed photos from a canoe trip I took with Teri in May of 2009. I've been working on a way to put images into some sort of context. Galleries of nice images are OK, but without that context they really don't mean anything.

I've been working on a way to present them using the new tools available on Smugmug, my site provider. In the past I would create blog posts here, with embedded images from there. There I'd place links to here. That seemed to work, but I want more of the content here to actually be there.

I've been working this out, designing pages, and a structure to do just that. This blog is now going to be used to point to new pages on my site. Blog posts will be a lot simpler, with maybe an image or two, a blurb that illustrates what the page is about, and a link directly to the page.

• Click Here to Read the Story

Big Bay Adventure

Traditionally we've taken fall trips to the scenic North-Central region of Pennsylvania. We love the fall colors, plus it's my birthday, and also around our wedding anniversary. Unfortunately driving for fourteen hours in a jeep loaded with gear, the family, and a canoe seemed like a little much.



Instead we drove to the northern most part of Wisconsin in order to take a ferry to Madeline Island. There we camped out in Big Bay State Park. The weather turned out to be rather windy, and it rained every night, but it all worked out. Our campsite was nestled in a thick patch of woods that protected us from the winds, and the rain helped lull us to sleep. Also, we had the entire section to ourselves which made the experience a little more special.



Freja loved to "adventure" on her own on the animal trails that surrounded us. She'd often try to sneak out, and then slip back, trying to surprise us. Of course, we'd act all frightened when we heard her "Cheetah" snarls and growls. An owl also paid us a visit as it hunted prey among the ferns. It wasn't bothered by us at all, and Freja followed it along as it moved from perch to perch. The sound of the nearby waves hitting the beach also helped mask sound, allowing us to view deer up close.



During the days we'd explore some of the more natural areas. There's a nice boardwalk that runs along the natural bay. To one side there's a beach with grass covered dunes. To the other a boreal forest extends away from the lake with a large lagoon. We'd hoped to do some canoeing but the winds were just too strong. There're also some great rocky shores which were being pounded by large waves coming off of Lake Superior. You could feel the impacts through the soles of your feet!





We did take the ferry back to the mainland for one day. We coincidentally planned our trip when Bayfield was having it's 52nd Annual Apple Festival. The highlights for Freja were getting to ride the tilt-a-whirl, and playing with the traditional Indian dancers she made friends with. For Teri & I it was the hot lunch with the draft beers. Although the place we had lunch at tried to pull a fast one attempting to charge us for 3x the beer that we actually ordered. Always check those receipts!



The ferry trip back from the festival was especially exciting as gale force winds came howling across the bay, causing over four foot swells. One of the three ferries apparently was damaged by said waves! Naturally, Freja enjoyed the very choppy ride whilst both Teri & I had our brains shaken up.




While we'd planned on staying through Sunday, due to impending storms we left early Saturday. It's a good thing too as really heavy rains hit us almost the entire eight hour drive south. We're thinking we'll return to the island, though we may try a little earlier in the season.