Wonderfully Wicked!

I have the great honor to photograph the special fund raising event featuring the Broadway show Wicked. Wonderfully Wicked will be held Friday, February 6 at the Performing Arts Center in Appleton, Wisconsin. The event is held to benefit the Fox Cities PAC mission-based performances and activities.

The event will feature Oz-inspired décor, specialty drinks and delicious hors d'oeuvres and desserts, raffle games for wonderfully wicked prizes and a post-show opportunity to mingle with “Wicked” cast members.

Here is a list of the prizes being raffled off:
2008 smart car for two passion coupe (value: $15,610)
Sponsored by Bergstrom Automotive and Community First Credit Union

Fuel for any gas vehicle at Renew stations (value: $2,500)
Sponsored by Renew fuel stations

2 premium Broadway season tickets for 2009/10 season
at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center (value: $800)

Proceeds from the sale of the OZMazing Raffle will support the Center’s subsidized mission-based programs including the Fox Cities P.A.C.’s education series, cultural programming, community engagement activities and community use of the Center.

The Fox Cities PAC is a great place to photograph. I love shooting wedding receptions in the Kimberly Clark Theatre, the Founders Room and in the main lobby. This is going to be another fabulous event!

Featuring the work of Wisconsin Wedding Photographer

Screen graba from Instaproofs newly designed website - two of my images have been selected to be featured!

I am sooooo excited! Check it out!!! Photographers!!! register with Instaproofs it's free, and you'll fall in love with them - tell them I sent 'cha!

Postcards from Florida

The day before we shot the destination wedding in Key West Florida, Rachel and I drove out to Bahia Honda State Park.

Here are some photos from our day at the beach...

All of these images were shot with my new 24mm 1.4L lens. I am so happy with this lens I feel like I could shoot an entire wedding with it!

Images selected for website re-design!

I just love my proofing website. Instaproofs was introduced to me by Dave Jackson last spring. This proofing site is just amazing and has worked so well for me this season. I have tried numerous proofing websites.... but this one has everything I could possibly need and they do it well!

Last week they emailed all of their clients a "call for entry" for the redesign of their corporate website. Each photographer was able to submit 5 images. Only 15 images would be selected overall. My philosophy with contests is "if you don't enter, you can't win". So I submitted 5 shots that I happened to have on my computer. I was in Key West at the time and didn't have access to all of 2008's wedding files.

I checked my email during a break at the wedding I was shooting in Key West. I got confirmation from Instaproofs that they were using not one of my images, but two!

Here is the email that I received:
Congratulations! After a couple of very long image viewing sessions, a couple of your images have been selected as images that we will be using on our re-designed corporate website!

There were 15 images in total that were selected, and the images will be displayed in a rotating basis throughout the site. Since there are only 5 image slots open, each of your images will be displayed somewhere on the site on roughly 1 out of every 3 visits.

We appreciate your participation, and again, we congratulate you on having your images selected!

I am so very honored to have my images appear on the new website! Here are the selected images...

Baby Mae - a teaser...

Baby Mae is the daughter of Theresa and Andy... a 2007 wedding couple of mine. I was invited to spend the morning with Theresa and little Mae and photograph them at their home.

Their home in Neenah was the perfect setting for a baby portrait session. They had great light and great decor. Most of all I was happy to see Theresa and Andy become parents - welcome to the amazing world of raising children!!!



More images to come!!!

New respect for the Aviation industry...

This week I am in Key West shooting a wedding... part of my journey to the Key's included a trip on a very small plane. With the incident that happened today with the US Airlines flight that made an emergency landing in water I feel thankful that God has put his hand in the hands that fly us.

On January 13, my third and final flight of the day and after 15 hours into my trip, I found out we were to be flying a "very small aircraft". Hmmm... They asked us for our weight and weighed our bags. The gate agent mentioned that no carry-ons were allowed - period. I begged her that my camera gear needed to stay with me at all times. She was able to make an exception for me to store my bag in the back of the 10 seat plane. Whew!

The plane arrived and boy it was tiny!!! The controller asked "who wants to sit in the front?" - I quickly raised my hand! I can't believe I did that!!! Last year at this time I was deathly afraid of flying. My imagination gets the best of me... luckily my husband Andy is reassuring in telling me that things are going to be ok. I've flown a lot this past year... although I am still a bit nervous during take-off (and I say a little prayer during lift-off) I am a much better flying passenger.

During the take off of this flight I couldn't help but to smile from ear to ear! It was like taking to the air in a Buick! But what a blast! Luckily they allowed me to take my camera and keep it on my lap. It took every ounce of resistance I had to not move or look around too much. I was too afraid of distracting the captain (who was sitting about 8" away from me to the left) or causing unnecessary movement within the plane.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to fly in the co-pilot seat! And I want to send a big thank you to all of the people who call an aircraft their "office". We as passengers have a tendency to not listen to the safety instructions or look behind us for the nearest exit. Today has been a testimony to the dedication of safety of these workers.

International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers and Modern Photographers

I am proud to announce that I am a member of the following two photographic associations. International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers and Modern Photographers. In order to become a member of these associations you must have certain credentials including having shot over 50 weddings and have been voted in by other professional photographers based on reputation, skill, and artistic ability.

I am also excited about a new project that I am a part of - the Collection. This is an amazing network of wedding photographers in and around the Milwaukee area. We recently launched our website which features the 10 members and their portfolios and were mentioned on the Morning Blend on WTMJ by Jessica Quist. The members of the Collection are a referral and support network of like-minded wedding photographers. We meet monthly and have many fun things planned for the future.

Every Little Moment...

In 2008 I had the great pleasure of meeting for the first time Samantha and Aubrey at WPPI in Las Vegas. We shared a room together and got all dolled up and went to parties. I learned a lot about the two ladies and knew I wanted to someday shoot beside them.

In October I had a double header wedding weekend that required a second shooter. They were available and I flew them out to shoot with me that weekend. They helped shoot the weddings of Lizzie and Mike as well as Kathy and Jeremiah.

Of course they stayed a few extra days and we were able to do some fun photo sessions (and girlie stuff like makeup at the MAC counter and pedicures). Here are two of my favorites of them... and if you look a couple posts down you can see their work on our New Year's Day cards.

Samantha Nicole Johnson

Aubrey Robison

Please check out their blog and website at www.everylittlemomentphotography.com

Lights... Camera... Action!

Tyler is an actor in Hollywood, CA. During his trip to Wisconsin I was able to get him in for a session. It was neat to see him all grown up. I taught him when I was a dance teacher... looks like dance training pays off in acting!!!

These are some of my favorites from the session... all of these shots were done in my home studio.





The goal was to give Tyler a variety of looks. He can be use different looks for different casting calls. I had a blast tying new backgrounds and lighting techniques with Tyler - hope he gives me credit when he makes it big time!