Ellen and Paul’s Wedding

Paul and I studied Computer Science together at the greatest university in the world (As a member of the Rat Pak, I also rooted Paul on as he played on the National Champion Football team in 2003 — Go Johnnies!).  Ellen went to the sister school of St. John’s, St. Bens – the same school my wife went to.  I knew Ellen would make a fabulously beautiful bride (training for a marathon the week of her wedding – uhm, wow!), and, of course, Paul is cut from marble. 😉

So when I got the chance to photograph their wedding up in St. Joe, MN (home of CSB) and the plans included a jaunt to SJU for some photos – I was more than pumped.  And you already know all about the photo station.

The day was cloudless and sunny, and there were quite a few setbacks (94, the main route from the Twin Cities, got shut down for a bit; the flowers showed up late; there was another wedding at SJU when we arrived for photographs; construction up the wazzoo, etc…) but the day ended up being a complete blast. “Out of Control” doesn’t even begin to describe some of what went on.  And, man, we got some astounding images:



































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Lightning

The strangest lightning shows I’d ever seen going on; I grab my camera and walk to the local park with a tall hill. I’m hoping to get above the crushing streetlights (How’s that for smart?? – go to the highest point in a lightning storm in order to get a photograph…:)) and get some really good photos (being a wedding photographer, you don’t get many chances at lightning…). Focused on the image – I nearly forgot that what was going on was actually quite a unique event.

When I get there, there was already a few other people – just watching. I made half-a-dozen photographs and then, not wanting to disturb the mood of 5 complete strangers watching silent lightning in the complete stillness of the night, just sat and watched for like 30 minutes. It was mesmerizing.

We are always so focused on the goal.  Don’t forget to just look sometimes; the world is a beautiful place if you let yourself see it.

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Joe always makes it to weddings!

… my wife makes sure of it!

I had to miss a friends wedding because I was shooting another friends. Normally Colleen is by my side at weddings, but for this one I got some other great help and she represented us both at Josh and Julie’s wedding.

I come home and see from some photo booth prints that Colleen really did make sure I was in attendance – at least in spirit paper (with a cool little hastily-drawn tounge too!).

I have me a good wifey.

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Congratulations Josh and Julie – I heard the wedding was awesome. I’d have loved to seen it in person..

The Photo Station!!!

2 weeks before their wedding Ellen and Paul wrote me saying they wanted something a little different at their wedding. Not a photobooth – that’s been done; they asked me to come up with something a bit different. I said, “I’d see what I could do”; and then proceeded to do a giddy little happy dance because knew I just got license to do something really cool.

After reading the entire internet (yes, the whole thing), crazy scrambling, lots of time at internet stores, talking to other photographer friends, more internet stores, testing, trips to brick-and-mortar stores after I realized I didn’t buy everything I needed from the web, and even more testing… we came out with a photo station.

Here’s how it works. You walk up, a real life photographer holds a camera (and helps you look your cutest if needed) and clicks off 2-5 frames. Then, before your eyes have even gotten over the flashbulbs, the images quick pop up on a screen (already all cool looking – in this case, Ellen wanted a sepia-old-school type look – they looked just like this on the night-of), we pick one to print, and 8 seconds later you’ve got an actual photographic print in hand (yeah, a physical 4×6 print – how quaint, right?)… later, all the images are online for you look at, grab, share and mock one another with. It’s a lot like heaven in photographic form.

The bar, the photo station, and the dance floor were hoppin’ all night. Paul and Ellen – you’ve got some absolutely insane friends! I’m really glad you guys had me do this for you.

Seriously, how fun is this?!?! Check it out:































… and some of the really crazy stuff isn’t even here (my small effort to help keep the internet “family-friendly”… hehe)..

Ellen and Paul’s Wedding, a teaser

Just wanted to toss up a quick photograph from Ellen and Paul’s amazing wedding this past weekend before they head out on their suprise-location honeymoon.  Their wedding day kept throwing us curve balls… remember though, sometimes curve balls are blessings in disguise.  Case in point:

Not to mention, I set up (and then my assistant ran) my first photo station at this wedding.  What a blast —  Talk about adding fun to a wedding!  Here’s one ‘sweet’ shot … more images from that in an upcoming post in the next week or so.

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Rockband: Wedding Edition

Amanda and Kevin got married this last Sunday; their wedding was at in the Sunken Garden in Como Park and their reception was held just across the way at the Pavilion. That alone made it the best smelling wedding yet (yes, smelling). Add to that: No bridal party; 45-person guest list; no dance; and a video game as the evening’s entertainment.

What came out was a crazy-unique wedding that was a blast to photograph – and (looked like) even more fun to be a guest of. Everyone was having a raucous great time, getting down with their bad selves… a great time for some really great people. I just had to blog it.

Amanda and Kevin were so easy-going, friendly, and laid back, it was awesome. They knew they wanted their wedding to be fun; they knew they weren’t “dancers” – so they rolled their own unique style. Very cool, I love it when people make things their own.
Plus, the fact they were into smoochin’ about every 4 seconds… we’ll, lets just say I captured my share of lip-locks. 😉 I couldn’t be happier for them.

Now, even though I fear breaking the internet, here comes a big’ole’blog’post…. prep yourselves.

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Rockband Wedding

Photographed a really unique wedding yesterday at Como Park  in St. Paul, Minnesota.  This image couldn’t be more appropriate for the evening… it’ll all make sense later.

(plus, “Rock” by the rocks and “band” by the band… cummon!).

The Best Purchase Ever

1 Year ago today I made the best purchase of my life; by far. (Read that blog post from then, before he even had a name!)

I’m planning a uber-Kona year-in-review post… but for now, this one photograph alone tells the story of the day I got him.  

Puppies spend 7-9 weeks with their ‘dog family’ and the breeder before being picked up.  On ‘pick up day’ we were last in line to select (this guy is a responsible breeder who only breeds a litter when he’s got MORE than enough people to take all the pups — and even then limits the number of litters so the female dog gets a normal life too), we only got Kona because he had a herniated umbilical and no one else wanted him for fear of issues.  

So here he is, saying goodbye to the human family that he played with for the first 8 weeks, and saying goodbye to his momma for the last time (note the dog pounding on the fence in the background is the mother… she just lost all her other children in the past 24 hours — and this was on Mother’s Day 2008… I’m so evil!) as he walked to the car for the ride home to his new family.

… where he’s proven to be one of the best dogs EVA!!!.