Lost & Not Found

Living with young children you sort of accept that important items will turn up missing. As long as you know your children did not take anything out of the house they shouldn't I can rest assured that what's missing is some where in the house. Finding it is another story.

Several weeks ago, I spent an hour looking for a stuffed dog Mathew lost. He was quite upset by his lose and told me he put the dogs out. Sheryl was convinced either Baloo or Kane (the real dogs) found the stuffed dogs on the porch and took them into the back yard.

So there's Howard, criss crossing the backyard at 9:30 PM with a flash light looking for the lost puppies. After the yard had been checked twice, stepping very carefully to avoid the real poop, I gave up. As I walked into the house, lo and behold, there was the stuffed dogs sitting on a desk!

Another time, Thomas and Duncan two of Mathew's trains were awol for weeks. We searched the house high and low. I checked cabinets and behind TVs, in couches and even in the microwave oven. Still nothing. Then one day -- poof they reappeared!

I expect this from the kids. What I don't expect is having my wife misplace the remote control for the DVD player. Once again, we've turned this house upside down looking for the lost item. Now I know it has to be somewhere in the house. But darned if I can find it. In the meantime, I'm cursing the designer of the DVD player who decided to put a limited number of the controls on the DVD player itself. To really work it, you need the remote!

Then there's man's best friend. You would think that a retriever could find things. No he just lays there and sleeps while the rest of us run around looking for the lost items. By the way, did you know the Labrador Retriever is once again the most popular dog in the US? Here's the list according to the American Kennel Club with the number of dogs registered in 2005:

1. Labrador retrievers 137,967
2. Golden retrievers 48,509
3. Yorkshire terriers 47,238
4. German shepherds 45,014
5. Beagles 42,592
6. Dachshunds 38,566
7. Boxers 37,268
8. Poodles 31,638
9. Shih Tzus 28,087
10. Miniature Schnauzer 24,144

Lot's of hard work

I just completed the initial album design for Cara and Michael. This means my album design backlog is now less than a month. Currently, I have one initial design to complete and three album redesigns which were requested. Hopefully, I can knock these projects out in another couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I've got several office projects to complete. Including cleaning the office, completing my business plan for the upcoming year and writing some articles for the state professional photographer's magazine.

Furthermore, I'm thinking about creating a special line of parent albums which will be orderable via my website. The parents will select a predefined number of photos and they will be placed one to a page. However, that means making some changes to my website's on-line ordering system. The work never ends.

Finally, I also need to create a couple of new sample albums. I've been selected as a preferred vendor at Starved Rock and Pheasant Run resorts. I'd like to create sample albums specifically for those venues. In addition, my current samples are getting just a touch out of date. I really think that Cara and Michael's album will make a nice sample with some minor adjustments. You can view their album
By Clicking Here

Anyway, here are two of my favorite spreads from their album

Our New Jersey Visitors

Last Sunday, Sheryl's cousin Mitch and his family arrived from New Jersey for a week long visit to the Chicago area. We started the visit by celebrating my father-in-law's and Carolyn's (Mitch's daughter) birthdays by having a family get together. All of the in-laws from Milwaukee drove down (3 adults and 2 kids). Then there was Mitch, his wife Laura and their 3 kids, Carolyn, Tracy and Sara. In total we had 7 adults trying to control 7 children and 2 dogs.

Somehow a couple of the neighborhood children also joined the party. There was so much chaos that it took a couple of minutes before we realized we had party crashers! I grilled Brats, Dogs and Burgers for dinner. Then we had cake and ice cream. All too soon it was time for the Milwaukee folks to go home. Plans were made to join the Millers on Wednesday.

Today, Wednesday, Sheryl and I took Meghan and Mathew into the loop to see their New Jersey cousins. We were supposed to have taken the fire truck tour. The tour runs by appointment only and they never called Laura back to confirm an appointment. We decided to visit Water Tower Center for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. Just before our meal arrived, Mathew realized the Thomas store was in sight. There was no getting him to eat after that.

When our late lunch was finished, we visited the Thomas store. Mathew was in heaven. They even had a Thomas train he could ride! Next we went back to the Doubletree hotel to swim. The kids had a great afternoon. Suddenly, it was 6:00 and time to change to go home. We were having so much fun, I really didn't take too many photos.


Here are the 5 kids taking a 2 second break. From left to right, Carolyn, Tracy, Sara, Meghan and Mathew.


Another shot of the kids posing. After just a couple of hours they were the best of friends.


Everywhere you look in the loop, there are blooming tulips. There are so many I almost thought I was in Holland.


I just liked this tree with its lavender blossoms.

Kim and Mark's Wedding

Late last week, my friend Michael Fisher from Studio West called. He unexpectedly found himself short a photographer for his studio's Saturday wedding schedule and wondered if I could help them out. After making sure my schedule was clear, I said "of coarse!" Even though other studios/photographers are competitors, I try to help them out when I can. I do it for the couple and I never know when I'll need a favor returned.

Anyway, our bride and groom were Kim and Mark. They were a really nice couple. The wedding was held at the Kemper Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The reception was at the Eagle's Club, also in Kenosha. What a beautiful day for a wedding. Not too hot, not too cold and just the right amount of sun. Kim and Mark were great to work with. With the permission of Michael at Studio West, here are 4 of my favorite photos I took at their wedding.


Sometimes, I get lucky and I'm in the right place at the right time.


We were by Lake Michigan which brought back memories of my own wedding.


Notice Kim's reflection in Mark's sunglasses!


Even the sunset cooperated with us. All in all an absolutly perfect day for a wedding!

Jenna and Chris' Engagement Photo

Jenna e-mailed me and said:

Chris and I love all the engagment photos you took! We decided to pick number nine as our engagment picture.

Jenna and Chris had scheduled their engagement session in late March. Somehow, we managed to get one of the first really nice days of the year. We had a real fun session at a local Lombard area park. The photo they picked(and shown above) is actually one of the first ones I took and it was in Jenna's back yard! Don't these guys make a lovely couple? I can't wait for their wedding June 3rd!

As a reminder to my current clients, if you have not yet scheduled your engagement session, the spring time with all of the blooming flowers is a great time of year for engagement photos. Please call to schedule your complimentary engagement session today.

Certified Professional Wedding Photographer

It arrived! I'm now a certified professional wedding photographer. Just like accountants can become certified, so can professional photographers. In this day and age of fly by night wedding photographers and people who just decide to become a wedding photographer without any training, it is one way for the consumer to know they are hiring a properly trained professional.

Last year at the national Professional Photographers of America of convention, I took a certification test. This test is administered by the same folks who give the bar exam and the CPA exam, among others. For me, passing the test was the easy part. The tough part is submitting photos from 20 events over the last two years to be judged by a group of photography experts. After all of that, I became a Certified Professional Photographer.

The Wedding endorsement is like a doctor specializing in a specific branch of medicine such as heart surgery or internal medicine. To earn the Wedding endorsement, I needed to submit photos from another 10 events over the last year to be judged by the photography jury. I understand a higher standard is used. Finally, unlike a college degree that once it is earned you keep it forever, the Certified Professional Wedding Photographer must take continuing education classes each year to maintain the certification/endorsement status. Most importantly the Certification commission is an independent body where consumers can verify the status of the certified photographer.

Open Dates

I just received word from one of my clients that unfortunately the wedding is off. I'd like to be the nice guy. So even though my agreement says "no refunds", should I manage to rebook a wedding for that weekend for the same or more expensive package than had previously been booked, I'll provide a refund minus the administrative costs. Therefore, if you or anybody you know is still looking for a wedding photographer for Memorial Day weekend (May 26-29), please contact me.

Other upcoming 2006 weekends which I still have available are:

May 12-14
June 9-11
June 16-18
July 21-23

As these dates are fast approaching, a special gift will be given to the people who book those dates.

Keeping Busy

There's never a dull moment when you run your own business. Today, I received a phone call from Steve, another photographer who lives in California. We have conversed many times on various forums but have never met let alone spoken on the phone. Imagine my surprise when I received a call from him. He was having some problems with some software and called for help. I try to make the time to help others. So after spending an hour on the phone with Steve, we got his problem fixed.

He also was helping me put off a task I've not only been dreading but putting off for months, inventory. Over the last couple of years, I've bought, sold and upgraded much of the equipement I use. My current inventory list, includes film cameras I sold 2 years ago. So it was time to bite the bullet and inventory everything. OK not everything but everything of significant value I wanted to make sure I had insured. Sheryl helped me with it and it took us just over an hour to finish the first part of the job. Now I have to enter it all into the computer and gather the rest of the information the insurance companies need(ie. purchase date, purchase price, replacement cost etc...).

Yesterday the creative juices were flowing! I not only started but finished Shelia dn Ricks album design. It was 52 pages with 170 images in a little over 5 hours. Here are two of my favorite 2 page spreads from the design:





A current version of their wedding album can be seen at
Click here

Once the show title appears, click on it to start the show.

Tax Day

Here it is Sunday, Tax Day 2006. Well actually because today is Sunday, most folks get another day to pay their taxes. Sheryl, Meghan and Mathew spent Thursday night through late Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee at Sheryl's parent's house. No, I didn't have any wild parties. I spent the time trying to catch up on the backlog of work which needed to be done. It is amazing how much you can get done without the constant interuptions from the kids. I managed to complete some small repairs around the house, assemble a couple of traditional albums, update my web site and many other small tasks which piled up.

Today I had thought we would take the kids to the zoo. However, it the zoo trip was rained out. Instead, Meghan and I started our garden indoors. We planted some of the seeds in peat pellets which we'll transplant in a couple of weeks. For some strange reason, Mathew thinks the peat pellets are cookies! If any turn up missing, he's the first one I'll suspect!

Mixed Emotions

Delivering a wedding album to a client is full of mixed emotions for me. On one hand it is fun to see the look on the clients faces for the first time as they explore each page and relive their wedding day as they turn the pages. Meanwhile, I'm a little sad because, I grow close to my clients during the time we're working together. Now with the delivery of the wedding album, my clients will be on their way. If I'm lucky, I get to see my past clients when I've been referred to photograph one of their friends or family member's weddings. It is always nice to see previous clients.

Anyway, today I delivered albums to two clients. Deanna/Jim and Beth/Mike. Two sets of very different clients. Deanna and Jim both have children of their own who are about marrying age. Meanwhile Beth and Mike are just starting lives apart from their parents. However, I enjoyed seeing the looks of their faces as they saw their wedding albums for the first time. Beth practically cried all over again when she saw this page in her album:



So now it is time to archive all of the computer files from both weddings. Then the paper files get packed away. Time to look forward to this year's clients and the new friends I'll make.

Hump Day

Well here it is Wednesday evening, hump day is over and I don't know where the week is going. Monday and Tuesday, I spent working on catching up on somethings around the house and studio. I also managed to finish Jennifer and Stephen's preliminary album design. Click here to see a slide show of the initial design. Click on the title panel once it appears to start the show. When the show is over, you can click your browser's back button to return to this page.

Monday evening I had an initial consulation with Christie and Brian. They are planning a June '07 wedding. The are a neat couple and the three of us hit it off really well. After some thought they realized they didn't want to take a chance on loosing me to somebody else, so they booked me as their wedding photographer. It is a good thing they did because the next day, somebody else called and wanted to book me for the same day. They are going to have a great wedding and I'm honored they selected me as their photographer.

Today, I went to the monthly meeting of one of the local professional photography associations I belong to. This is a combination networking, tradeshow and most importantly, continuing education. The speaker, and I kid you not, was named Fuzzy Deunkle. He photographs high school seniors in West Bend Wi. Even though he doesn't photograph weddings, there is always a new idea or perspective I get from seeing how other photographers work in other segments of the industry. Today's speaker was no different. Now I can't wait for my next wedding or engagement session!

Suddenly humpday is over and now we are already looking forward to another weekend.

A Busy Weekend

As many of you can imagine, a wedding photographer's weekend can be a busy time. While most folks get a day or two to relax or run errands, weekends are my busiest days. This weekend was no different. Knowing that it would be busy, I spent Friday evening with my family. We took the kids to the McDonald's playland to eat and then burn off some energy. However, we couldn't stay too late as I had a wedding the next day.

Actually, I was joining another photographer at his wedding to see how he does things and as a chance to experiment. When you are the primary photographer, a wedding is no place to take risks. However, this was my chance to try an idea, photograph a wedding completely in black and white. It was a lot of fun working with another accomplished photographer. We bounced a lot of ideas off of one another and in the long run it will make both of us better. I learned a lot from my experiment. I hope to be able to post a couple of photos from this wedding in a couple of days. But my paying clients come first.

Which brings us to today's engagement session. Actually it was earlier this evening. Lauren and Joel are getting married over Labor Day weekend at Starved Rock. They live out of town and came in to visit her parents for Passover. The only time we could schedule their engagement session was this evening (Sunday) at about 7:30. It was around sunset when we started the session at the Schaumburg Town Center. I had been here before for engagement sessions. But like Disney World, the center takes on a whole new look at night. We had an incredible engagement session! See for yourself:







This spot is not easily seen from the road. And they wondered why I wanted to meet them at the Oberweis Dairy (it is next door to the town center).

Sunset

"Daddy come here! Look at the sunset!" is often heard in the early evening hours. There are times when I'm returning from a shoot, a client meeting or a family errand, notice an exceptional sunset and call home to have Meghan share it with me. I'm not sure how this tradition began but we've been doing it for years.

This is a special time I share with my daughter, Meghan. When she yells the sun is setting, I try to drop whatever I'm doing and spend a couple of minutes with her watching the sunset. I really enjoy the couple of minutes we spend together. It is a chance to see the wonder of the world through the eyes of a child. Here is a photo of tonight's sunset from Meghan's bedroom window.


One of my favorite sunsets I spent with Meghan was a couple of years ago. I think Meghan was almost 4 and Mathew was about 10 months old. Our family along with my in-laws had gone to Door County for a long weekend. There was one evening we were along the shores of the lake. It might have been at Sister Bay. It was quite peaceful, Meghan was exploring the shore under the watchful eye of her parents. Mathew was too young to get into trouble. Anyway there was a perfect sunset to cap off a perfect evening. That's Meghan's silhouette. She ran into my picture just as I snapped the shutter. I loved this picture so much, I used it as my desktop image. A couple of minutes later it was time to leave and put the kids to bed.

Addison Bridal Show

Today was the last bridal show of the spring season for me. I never know what to expect at a bridal show. Some shows are so busy you can't even take a breath and questions are being thrown at you from every direction. Other shows are a bit slower and I actually have a chance to talk to the brides and hear about their wedding plans. Today's show was one of the slower shows.

While some of the other vendors don't like the slow shows, I think it gives me time to give each visitor to my booth a little bit more personal attention. Part way through the show, I realized the folks at the formalwear booth across the aisle were sending the brides my way. At the end of the show we got to talking and Vince told me he could tell I really cared about my clients and paid attention to the details. I'm happy my way of business is visible to others. Now I just have to wait and see if anybody decides to book me as a result of this show.

After the show, I visited Debbie and Bob, Melissa's parents (my January 27th wedding) to design their parent album. Just before Melissa's wedding, I knew I needed a new sample album. Her wedding was so beautiful that I decided to use hers. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could design an album in the week following a wedding. After the sample album design was completed I let the happy couple view my new sample design. However, they wanted to see the book before going any further.

6 weeks after the wedding my new sample album arrived. This proves to me that I can deliver a client's album within 3-4 months of their wedding! So now, while my client's friends are just getting their proofs three months after the wedding, my clients will be getting a finished album!

When I arrived at Debbie and Bob's house, I showed them the sample album. Debbie and Bob were so thrilled with it, they wanted to use it as the basis for their parent album. Several times Debbie mentioned that she never would have thought to have included some of the background images and used them as I did. They gave me a list of about a dozen changes to the sample album to further personalize it for themselves. I can't wait myself to see how the finished parent's album comes out.

April Fools Day

How can April 1st pass without a prank or two? This year my target(s) were my follow photographers on Gary Fongs Digital Photogapher's Net, DPN. I figured out how create a userid that looked like Gary Fong's but I controlled it. I used the userid to post a thread in which Gary purportedly announced his marriage. I watched the thread all day long as first the mayhem started and then some folks realized the game was a foot! At the end of the day, I let everybody know it was a joke and signed my name.

After brunch on Saturday, my family gathered to give me my birthday cards and gifts. My wife got me the new Harry Potter movie "...Goblet of Fire." Not sure when I will be able to sit down and watch the movie but at least I have it. Both kids had made cards and were chomping at the bit to blow out my birthday candles. To them if you can't open the presents then next best thing is eating the cake.

Later that afternoon, Meghan and I actually got out to the garden and put down the weed barrier. I guess I should say, I put it down and she "helped" by digging up a mud pie factory. Part way through, we had to run to Wal-Mart to get more barrier. We were quite a sight, covered in mud/dirt as we walked through the store. Finally we got the job done. She wanted to start planting the seeds but we have to wait a couple of weeks until the threat of frost is gone.

Then I went to the side of the house to trim the grapevines. This is my annual attempt to kill them off. We'll see how well they survive this year. While I was working on the side of the house, Meghan was riding her bike. She is finally getting the hang of it. She wanted me to remove the training wheels. I'll raise them and see how she does.

All to soon, it was time to clean up and get ready for dinner. Sheryl took me out to Shaw's Crab House for my birthday dinner. The food was scrumptious. We started with the Shrimp Cocktail and ate our way through several courses to finish with the Banana's Foster and Creme Brule. Next we took in Ice Age 2.

The movie was entertaining and funny. It was so fast paced, I never looked at my watch to see what time it was. After the movie, Sheryl and I took a walk around the Streets of Woodfield. It is so rare for us to get some time to ourselves and talk that the walk was a real treat. Finally, it was time to head home and off to bed. A very busy birthday indeed.