Rachael and Chris, a sneak peek

No wedding ever goes according to plan. When you go to plan your wedding, accept that fact and you’ll have the best time of your life. This wedding was no exception. First, we had a week of gorgeous weather only to get snowed on the night before (nearly 3 inches on the ground!). Second, the church was a photographer’s dream with abundant natural light, yet the priest wouldn’t let us in the same time zone as the couple during the ceremony. Third, the church decided to keep their 4:00pm mass instead of switching to the usual 5:00pm mass, leaving us with less time for pictures after the ceremony. Fourth, well, you get the idea, right?

This is how weddings go and you learn to roll with the punches. What I love about Rachael and Chris is that they didn’t let any of these distractions get in the way of having a good time. Sure it was cold outside, but they charged right out there for a great series of pictures.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the crazy series of pictures of the groomsmen reenacting a combination of Fight Club and West Side Story. I laugh every time I look at those pictures, and I think you will too. Scroll down for some pure awesome.

Painting with light

The other day, I was talking with a gal about doing photos for her upcoming album and we got to talking about fun things you can do with lighting at night. So, as a refresher/test of the types of things we might be doing for her album, I headed out to the shores of Lake Monona the other night to try out some light painting. On one hand, it was really cool to be out there by myself trying different things and having fun with my craft, but on the other hand, this kind of thing requires a few more hands to make things easier (and more fun).

I’ll be heading out again soon to try some more things out, shoot me an email/text/tweet/facebook/yada yada yada if you’re interested. For now though, here’s my favorite from the night, the rest are on my Flickr photostream.

A cold kick-off to the 2010 wedding season

Aaron and Melanie are now forever known as Mr. and Mrs. They got married this past Saturday at the Madison Club in Madison, WI. It’s a safe bet that if you book a wedding in Madison in January, it will be cold. Sure enough, the high for the day was 14 degrees. Luckily, though, the sun was out and they were willing to tough it out and take some pictures outside. We didn’t stay outside for too long, but we made the most of every opportunity we had.

This was a great way to kick off the wedding season of 2010. Aaron and Melanie are a great couple and they have wonderful families and friends. I’m blessed for having the opportunity to be a part of their special day.

Random image Friday: Black Friday edition

I’m not a big fan of the hyper-consumerism which is brought out during Black Friday (or the overextended holiday season, for that matter). I prefer to stay home with the family and play board games (and eat leftovers, of course). This year we’ve had a blast playing Carcassonne, Wits and Wagers, and Bootleggers. If you’ve never played these games before, you should check them out, they are quite addictive (in the best kind of way!).

Anyway, on with the imagery. Here’s my submission for this edition of Random Image Friday. Fittingly, it’s a dark mood image. Enjoy!

Random image Friday: the abstraction of black and white

Probably the best thing about black and white images is that by not including any color, you make an image more abstract. You can take a highly noticeable image and make it somewhat abstract by removing color. Take this image for example. In color, you would know right away what it is, but in black and white, it’s a little bit more difficult to figure out (though I’m sure you visual geniuses out there will have not problem figuring out what it is!). That’s it for me today, enjoy this little bit of randomness.

Matt + Morgan = wedded bliss

Matt and Morgan got married this past Saturday and I was on hand to capture their special moment. This is my last wedding for the year and that’s both a good and a bad thing for me. It’s good because I’ve been really busy with weddings as of late and could use a break, but bad because I won’t get to do another wedding until next February when things pick back up again. This was a great wedding season for me and I hope next year’s will be even better. Until then, enjoy the final show.

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