Senior Portraits...Any time of the day!

With some of the newer advanced lighting techniques that I have developed over the past couple of years, I can proudly say that I can create portraits virtually anywhere at anytime of the day. :) Here are a few examples from recent senior portrait sessions for Megan and Emily. Megan's session was outside at 1 p.m. on a brilliantly sunny day. Great for waterskiing, but not necessarily the best light for photographing portraits. All I did was mix up some of my secret Flash Fu with some strategic location picking and posing, and voila! Some nice portraits. I took the same approach for Emily's session that was later in the day, although hers started out sunny and ended just before some serious weather hit.

So fear not, fellow citizens. Feel free to schedule portrait sessions anytime, anywhere (except on Sundays...LOL).

Bauj & Daniel -- Sizzlin' hot in the studio

Bauj and Daniel lit up my studio for their engagement session last week. Can't wait for their August wedding! They were also kind enough to let me test out some new lighting equipment and techniques. I'd have to say that all came through with flying colors. (For photogs: I will be sharing some of this tech info on my pro photog blog and Facebook group...check it out.)

Rockin' at the House on the Rock Resort

The weather report called for rain all day again on Saturday. What?? Come on! We had another outdoor wedding in a beautiful location. This time, it was Adam & Kerry's wedding at the House on the Rock Resort in Spring Green. So we did our anti-rain dance and made some voodoo sacrifices to hold off the rain. Guess what...it worked! We even had partially blue sky for a couple of minutes. Crazy, I know.

The temp was nice, the ceremony was beautiful, as was the bride, and the groom was...tall. Ha ha...just kidding, Adam. I should have said the groom was handsome and happy because the US at least tied England in the World Cup match that morning. :)

We finished off the evening with an enthusiastic hora -- well, everyone but Kerry was enthusiastic at least...I think "terrified" would be apropos in her case. :)

Here are several of my favorite images as well as a highlight video from their day...enjoy!

Making Lemonade at New Glarus Brewing Company

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? So what if life gives you torrential downpours and high winds on the day of your beautifully planned and decorated OUTDOOR wedding at a fabulous location? You do what Nicole and Colin did: keep your sense of humor, go with the flow, and say "it is what it is." Wow...I am so impressed with how they held up under an onslaught of last minute weather-mandated changes and met each challenge with grace and aplomb. Bravo!

As for Krystal and me, we got to see how waterproof our shoes are (they're not, especially in 3 - 4 inches of standing water) and just how weather-sealed the Canon 5D MKII is (no problems whatsoever). And, just how well we handled the chaos throughout the day (pretty well, thank you). Got ominous clouds? Use them to make a cool image. Wedding ceremony moved into a tightly packed white tent? Bounce flash off the ceiling and the walls to create open and dimensional lighting. Yucky, flat ambient lighting outside when it wasn't raining? Use creative Flash Fu techniques to punch up the scene and make it awesome.

Here are some of my initial favorite images as well as a quick highlight video from the day. Enjoy!

Talya and Andy: Extended Play Engagement

Last Friday Rachel and I survived a little heat, a lot of sun, and these big clouds of little flies that seemed to be EVERYWHERE. But, damn, we got some great shots with Talya and Andy. We worked the Lake Mendota shoreline, mixed it up with a little Flash Fu, and finished up with a few of my favorite gritty urban locations. Talya and Andy were game for anything and are hands down the best "kiss tag" players I've ever had. :)

Check out their session vid here...some of their tricked out images (I decided to go a little edgy with a few of them) are below, too.