Kelsey Senior Session/Loftus Family

Jess and Joey and Peyton came out for a nice little session around the farm. Got some great shots of this little cutie pie again. Joey also brought his new Harley and the whole family donned their "gear" for a couple shots. It was a great time. Cameron loved having someone closer to his own size to wrestle with a bit too. Emmy just laughs at him when he wants to play!!



Kelsey came down from Burnsville this morning for a quick little "second half" session too. We did some shots late in the fall to meet her school's yearbook deadline with the thought of doing some more in the spring when things greened up again. So we finally got to it! Kelsey is one of those lucky people who just always has a great smile on for photos. She looked great and the same in every shot!!

Mangan Girls

\ , .l [[[ ===========\\\\\\]\dssssdfff <---Thank you Cameron for contributing to the blog!! We had a great session with the Mangan Girls today!! Finally after three rainy day postponements, we got it in! It was a bit chilly but the girls were AWESOME!! And so darn cute. Boys watch out in about 10 years!! More photos are in the proof gallery.

::enjoy::

Engagement Session - Jessica & Kyle

Jess and Kyle came down for a little pre, pre, pre wedding engagement session. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. I am really excited to be doing their wedding in 2010. They were one of the first 2010 bookings from way back when. Things are really filling up quickly now.

:: Enjoy ::

FFA State Convention

I have had several people asking "Where are the photos from the State Convention??". Well I posted them on my old website here. I had to get the high resolution versions available for the State Convention newsletter publisher, so I just put them all there. I only upload smaller low res versions to my proof area just to save time/space since people are only viewing from there.

So for all of you FFAers looking around...

HERE THEY ARE!!

47 pages worth!! Enjoy.

ESession - Lindsay & Chad

I got a few photos on earlier, but wanted to add a couple more since the rest of them are in their wedding gallery area now. We had a great time at Como Park, though our plan was to go in the Conservatory. However they wanted $25 for a half hour of shooting and they couldn't use the bathroom!??! Funny.

We went down the road by the lake and got some great shooting in. I am really excited to do their wedding coming up! It's going to be a great day!

Dan+Amanda's Wedding

Had a fabulous day with Dan+Amanda for their wedding in Pine Island and reception in Kasson. It was a perfect day for shooting. Just enough blue sky to be happy, but just enough shade to keep the camera sensor happy!!

Food Plot - Planting 1

I have had the opportunity to get out the past couple evenings and get some seed in the ground on the food plot. What a good feeling to use your hands and hopefully see this growing process happen over the coming months. Cameron and I first went out in Maring's big John Deere tractor with the digger and worked the ground up a little more. We went home and got the four wheeler with the cultipacker and headed back out to roll the ground some. After doing that, I planted about 1/2 acre of Antler King's Red Zone. This was in the northwest corner of the field. Cultipacked again on top of it and rode home.

Yesterday, Cameron and I went out and planted 14 test plots with a variety of Antler King and Whitetail Institute products. This was again about a total of 1/2 acre. We'll see what come of those different seeds and what I might do different next year from the results.

The best part of the planting came at 9:15 last night when I went back out to cultipack that plot and then planted another 1/2 acre of Whitetail Institute's Double Cross. It was just getting dark and it was so quiet out there. It really made me think ahead to this fall and hopefully a lot of quiet evenings will be had sitting on the edge of the plot watching deer.

Sarah & Brian's Wedding

Just had an absolutely great day with Sarah and Brian Saturday. Both of them were former students and was a great reunion of old friends for me especially. There were a lot of kids that I hadn't seen in years and was such a great time to catch up.

The ceremony was at Dale Lutheran east of Kenyon, MN and the reception was at the Northfield Ballroom. We spent a little time in between walking down by the river in Northfield. It was a bluebird day and the sun was warm on our faces all day. A little on the windy side, but great nonetheless.

The ceremony was one with heavy hearts as Brian's brother Matt died only a month or so ago. It was a great tribute to him to hold his spot in the wedding party and many wonderful words were shared about his life. Both Sarah and Brian and their friends and families have endured the pain of losing loved ones unexpectedly. This day was a great celebration of those lives as well...really awesome!

From a technical standpoint, this was one of my more frustrating days shooting. My camera strap got hooked on a pew as I was setting up the large group shots in the church and 40D, 24-70L and Pocketwizard went flying. All in slow motion as $$ signs are flashing in my eyes!! Fortunately it landed on the lens hood and the only damage was a little scuff and a broken base the PW. I can glue that. Then my 10-22EF lens focus ring is a little on the fritz. Sometimes working, sometimes not. Between those two things, I was thinking more about my equipment than usual which was really distracting for me. It made me realize how important good and reliable equipment is and how fortunate I have been. Regardless of my own distraction, we got some great shots.

Food Plot - Lime

In order to raise the pH level a bit on the soil, I had Al Hernke come by today with his lime truck. The pH is about 5.7 currently and ideally it would be around 7 which is perfectly neutral. Al spread about 10 ton on about 3.5 acres for me today.

It was really neat how the grass had started to grow back a bit now after our burn. Still very desolate, but it will grow quickly now with the good rains we've had.

My plan is to disc the field good a couple times in the coming days and then dig it to smooth out the soil a bit before planting. I would like to have some seed in the ground by next weekend.

The Ultimate Baseball Bed

Vision Custom Design is the other little gig I've got going with my partner Kurt Weber and really works hand in hand with so much of my photography stuff. Our Minnesota State Fair experience has really evolved into a partnership with Kurt and we've been doing lots and lots of projects for a wide variety of people.

Our company motto is "Your Dreams, Brought to Life". We kind of pride ourselves on answering yes to the question, "Can you?..." Projects range from wide format printing, wall graphics, furniture, awards & plaques, fine art, and even an outdoor bar. Everything custom to meet the clients dreams!

This was a project Kurt just finished up for Hunter. His daddy plays for the Minnesota Twins. Kurt is an absolute master woodworker and assembled this amazing piece from scratch which includes 15 game-used bats from the Twins as well as official balls from MLB and the World Baseball Classic.

It is accented with a 40" laser engraved design that states, "Where Dreams Begin".

For now there are more photos in my proofing area here. But stay tuned as our new website is about ready to launch...