who:  Jennie and her new little guy Enzo! (age 11 days)

when:  Thurs 8/25/11 around 7pm

where:  various areas of BP/Champlin

what:  Jennie and I were trying to scope out some new locations, so of course we had to bring sweet little Enzo along!  What a little cutie pie!

where:  Edinbrook Church, BP, MN

when:  Sunday August 14, 2011 at 10pm

what:  Claire’s first real concert! She was SO excited! I also picked up her friends Bailey & Nick and they all had a blast. She is a little infatuated with Erik (the drummer) right now so she was thrilled to have her photo taken with him!

It was SUPER hot in there – like it had to be over 90 degrees – and it was very dark and LOUD (ha!  I’m too old for this!) but it was fun to see them in action! I would have loved to see Slaves to Righteousness too but I had to work and we didn’t make it in time for them. Maybe next time!

Anyway, they are very talented, super fun, and love their fashion sense! My neighbor Nichole & I photographed them for this event and we also teamed up last fall to shoot them in the field.

Check them out on facebook if you’d like to book them for your event and here is one of their videos (scroll down to the bottom and turn off the music)

and here’s Claire’s favorite drum cover from Erik:

p.s. for the photogs out there, I only brought 2 lenses – my 85mm f/1.4 and my 24-70 f/2.8. I shot wide open for the most part with an ISO of around 2000+ – shutter speeds all over but mostly 100ish or so. It was SUPER dark. Most images were edited normally, then run through ToyCamera AnalogColor – see this post for more info on that.

I’m so proud of you Claire! You are a trooper!  :-)  (btw…all products from www.heatheranndesigns.com)

Here’s Jacob’s by the way – I tried to duplicate the same photos with Claire.  :-)

btw I used the 8mm app on my ipod touch for the video!!  I used it on “70′s” and LOVE the dimension it adds to the slideshow.  I definitely want to do a lot more of that in the future!

when:  Sunday 6/26 and Tuesday 6/28 – around 7pm

where:  my favorite field in BP

what:  more to come.  I took so many that I really like a lot!  So as I have time I’ll add more here.  Working on a slideshow too!  I was excited because she actually cooperated pretty well!  OK and yes, it cost me another $20 and a lunch at Culver’s, but I’d say it was worth it.  :-)

We did go out of town for a couple days for my sister-in-law Kristy’s 40th birthday party (more to come on that!) and we stayed with my parents on their little farm.  Here’s Sugar!  My dad said that he and Sugar were having a talk the other week and she was saying how much she’d like to have a boyfriend.  So he put an ad on Craig’s List asking for a boyfriend for her and in no time at all, they had Willie over for a “date”!  It was apparently successful and Sugar should be a mama in about a year from now.  My dad doesn’t like keeping boy donkeys around (they try to ‘get with’ almost everything that is female and has four legs), so Willie was out of there as soon as he served his purpose.  ;-)Then Shadow had a talk with my dad and said that it wasn’t fair that Sugar got a boyfriend, but he didn’t get a girlfriend!?!  So they went and bought a girlfriend for him (also from Craig’s List!) Meet “Sunshine!”  She’s soooo adorable!  She looks like a mini palamino!So in about 11 months or so, these two will most likely be parents!  :-)btw….this was Shadow almost three years ago when they first got him – he had been so badly neglected/abused.  He’s changed so much!  Lost all his fuzz too!

So my dad’s “hobby” is the animals and taking care of them….that and fixing up old cars, etc. So what does my mom do when he’s busy with that?  She’s a Master Gardener and bee keeper of course!  Here are some of her beautiful flowers that happened to be in bloom (or almost in bloom!) when we were there.

{her current FAV!} btw….all the animal photos were taken with my 24-70 f/2.8.  The flower ones/mom were with my 60mm f/2.8 macro – all on manual focus.  :-)

It’s actually my parent’s 45th Wedding Anniversary today so Happy Anniversary mom & dad! I love you both very much!

where:  Tater Daze – Brooklyn Park

when:  Friday 6/17 – around 7pm

what:  I’ve been wanting to do a shoot at the fair for a LONG time now!  In fact, I’d LOVE to have our family photos taken there, but it didn’t work out for several reasons this year so I was feeling pretty bummed Friday night… But then Elle came over looking so pretty and I said, “Heeey!  How would you like some photos taken?” and she was totally game, but Jacob was NOT (plus he really needs a haircut!) but we sorta forced him into it and he was a good sport once we got there.  :-)

For the photogs that care, I used my Nikon D700, my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens primarily and my 85 f/1.4 lens on a few.  Used florabella’s ‘vintage summer’ on almost all of these – at varying opacities and added some totally rad ‘flare up golden’ here and there.  Also used some textures on some.

where:  my favorite areas of Brooklyn Park.  :-)

when:  Thursday 6/2/11 around 7pm

what it cost me:  $20 – so she could buy a yearbook and an Oreo Blizzard.

where:  Brooklyn Park, MN

when:  5/26/11 – mini session – 9am

what:  Logan was also supposed to come to my minis on 5/19, but he had a little accident and got a bruise on his face right under his eye – so I was glad to see he was pretty much healed up a week later!  He was so good for his photos!  What a cute family, huh?  Thanks for coming again guys – it’s been great working with you the last year +!

Thank you to all the men and women that have fought and are still fighting for our freedom! We remember you today and always!