Justine & Dan - Rock Star Video!

It's been almost a whole year since I've made my last Rock Star wedding video so I was really excited to make this video for Justine & Dan! This style of video takes SOOO long to make, but it's SOOO fun for me to see the fruit of my labor once it's done! I have been so blessed to shoot weddings for some of the nicest people in the entire world and Justine & Dan and their families were no exception. They were definitely rock stars!

Quick Shoot

After shooting a wedding together in Rochester a couple weeks ago, we headed south to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. As we drove through the countryside of Wisconsin at sunset, we couldn't help but stop for a quick impromptu photo shoot...oh, the joys of traveling with pro photo equipment!

Kelsey is the best wife in the world. She is such a beautiful, industrious, and supportive woman, always striving to put my needs ahead of her own, which I think is the definition of love. I'm challenged every day to love her as well as she loves me!

The Little Creatures Within

I'm taking a quick break from photo and video blogs here to write a bit of a more personal note. For the last few days, I've been living with these little visitors in my body. I began feeling a little something in my throat on Monday night and only 4 hours later, I crashed hard. Kelsey said I slept for 40 out of 48 hours. I tried to do some work in front of my computer but it took everything I had just to answer a couple emails and go back to bed. I felt miserable - fever of 102.3, chills, throbbing neck, head, and throat, and the most disturbing sleep I can remember. Yesterday, I felt well enough to leave home, which I did, figuring I probably needed antibiotics. The doctor confirmed Kelsey and my suspicions, announcing that I had a classic presentation of strep. The point of this note, however is not to talk about how sick I was, but rather, what a blessing it is to be healthy. Whenever I get really knocked out like that, I'm always amazed at how incredible it feels to become well again. It's easy to be grateful for your health when you feel like you have 10 times the strength you had just a day ago. It's also easy to take it for granted when you're blessed with health for an extended period of time. I wanted to put this thought in writing to challenge myself and others. If God has blessed you with good health, he has given you a very beautiful gift. Praise him for that gift by using it! Our bodies are made for movement, activity, and the enjoyment of this world. Maintain this gift and enjoy it to the fullest!

Beth & Jason - 11/15/08

Kelsey and I had a lot of fun shooting Beth & Jason's wedding - they are both great people and theirs was the first wedding that we got to shoot at Calvary Church, which is our own home church! This was actually one of Kelsey's weddings, but because of some post-pregnancy issues, she wasn't able to take the entire burden of being the lead. So we pretty much ended up tag-teaming it all day. These are some of my favorite pictures that I took from the day.

The James J Hill Library in downtown St. Paul. What a great spot for a wedding reception!

Instead of hiring a wedding band or a DJ, Beth and Jason brought this trio in for music during the reception. These guys were great - they actually gave a private serenade for each table in the room!

Naked Baby!

Today was officially naked baby day. It all started late last night when we suddenly realized we were completely out of diapers. But I'll let Kelsey tell you the rest of THAT story! Later on this evening, I decided it was time for the naked baby photo shoot that I've been wanting to do before Avery gets too big!

The milestones keep coming for this cute little girl. Yesterday Kelsey made Avery laugh for the first time. It was a quick awkward laugh, but a laugh nonetheless! And today, she said her first Spanish word! Sometimes when I talk to her, she watches my mouth and repeats what I say and today she said "hola"! Only 2 months old and little Ave is already well on the road to becoming bilingual...

I don't know if she was enjoying being a model or being naked, but whichever it was, she wasn't happy after the photo shoot was done!

Katie & Steve - October 18, 2008

Katie & Steve's wedding was so much fun. All day, I felt like I was a member of the family. All the details were totally classy and beautiful and God blessed them with the most gorgeous fall day you could ask for. I think their video turned out really well!

The Girls

Last weekend, Lauren came up to visit us, in part so she could watch Avery while Kelsey and I shot a wedding together. During her visit, we enjoyed a quick little photo shoot!

This was Avery's second "official" photo shoot. The brisk fall air made it a bit harder for her to cooperate for this one!

Kelsey and I call this face Avery's "old man face". It appears often in two situations: when she's upset and when she's...pushing. This particular time, it was the former!

Thanks again, Lauren, for helping us out! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Go Vote!

It'll make you feel good!

Avery Speaks!

At some point, I plan to take all my footage of Avery and make a really cool video out of it. That might be a little while in coming, so for now, here's a quick little sneak peek! Recently, Avery has been smiling and "talking" quite a bit, which has made her one very fun baby! Here's a little excerpt from our footage:

Christa & Paul's Engagement Shoot

Our friendship with Christa and Paul began at Northwestern College where Christa and Kelsey were fellow art majors. Kelsey is actually going to be a bridesmaid in their wedding in September and they've asked me to be their photographer. I am very excited to take pictures for their big day! A couple weeks ago, the four of us headed down to St. Anthony Main in Minneapolis for an engagement photo/video shoot and we had a lot of fun! During the majority of the shoot, I was actually getting video footage for Christa & Paul's "Love Story" video. Kelsey was taking most of the pictures. But there were a few times when I had a photo idea and she was gracious enough to let me steal her camera for a few quick shots!

During the time that I was NOT stealing Kelsey's camera from her, she captured a lot more shots than this and I thought they turned out really well. Check out her pictures of Christa and Paul here.

Avery Abelle

After nearly 41 weeks of growing in preparation for the world, Avery was ready. On September 9th, Kelsey and I walked to Subway for dinner and then came back and played some Wii. About this time, the contractions started, but we didn't think too much of it, because it was about the gazillionth time Kelsey had experienced contractions. Three hours later, we started taking it a bit more seriously. We left for the hospital around 2:30am, and after Kelsey's epidural, we actually got a short bit of sleep. Around 9:15, Kelsey started pushing and at 9:44am Avery arrived! These first 4 pictures were taken during her first 5 minutes.

Check out that beautiful new mom! After delivery, we all stayed in the hospital for 2 more nights. We enjoyed some postpartum Papa John's delivered right to our room, Kelsey drank about 2 gallons of water per day, and Kevin was so tired that he slept soundly on his pull-out couch. Kelsey was just as tired, but she was more attuned to Avery's cries, so I'm not so sure she slept as well...

Avery is a very energetic girl. She is also very strong and stubborn. She is almost always wriggling around, flailing her limbs in every direction. From Day 1, she was able to hold her head up without any support. She likes to fight sleep, she loves being held, she loves her books, and she loves music - she gets mad when we take either of the latter two away.

Happy baby, angry baby, sleepy baby - Avery rotates quickly between the three personas, and often in that order. Hungry baby also shows up often, scattered among the three!

Avery was about 2 weeks old when we brought her along to Afton Apple Orchard. She liked picking raspberries a lot more than picking apples - probably because the breeze made it feel much cooler around the raspberries.

Our beautiful little girl.