Art is an expression
Art is an expression that needs no explanation
but in its essence demands attention.Sara Bassler-Bucholtz
Art Beat came and went in four and a half hours. I, for one, think that for all the work put into it, the Beat should be a weekend fest or at least a day-long event. Being sandwiched between Labor Day weekend and the Notre Dame football season opener tends to leave, what, 4 1/2 hours open on Thursday? I’ll take it.
Humongous thanks to everyone who helped us get our work planned, coordinated, shot, printed and up on display!
Firstly to Sara for being ever so patient with me. You are wildly imaginative when you let loose with a camera, and a huge part of my inspiration when I’m shooting. I couldn’t do what I do without you taking a moment to make sure that during this incredibly busy Labor Day weekend and Art Beat week that I rested, ate, and had what I needed for each step of the work ahead.
Our friend-turned-dress-model Amanda for sharing your incredible story and the privilege we had to photograph you trashing your dress.
JP and Brandie for helping keep tabs on gear and sharing laughs during night shoots while the occasional slightly inebriated passerbys interviewed us about “the movie we were filming” downtown (?). Thanks for your help in the daytime shoots to keep an eye on our son (photographer in training), helping with posing, lighting, and basic water rescue as needed.
Ma & Pa Bucholtz for the pool location and place to cool off after a very long shoot. (Sorry about the glitter everywhere, our house has it even more than your deck caught it. At least you saw the prints and know WHY there was sparkles everywhere.)
All the folks who struck up conversation! Great to see all my camera wielding college photography classmates throughout the day! Fellow shooters and artists both enjoying the fest and presenting alongside us. Dana at Hooton Holler Studios for the invite and booth space that turned out to be in front of the main stage! Phil Treadway at A-1 Signs for the amazingly fast poster prints and sweet banner to show off to the umpteen hundred people flocking in the Great Hall.
Seriously… was that ONLY 4 1/2 hours long? My thank you list takes almost that long to read. 
Art Beat RELOCATED!
Art Beat is now INSIDE THE CENTURY CENTER at
120 S St Joseph Street
South Bend, IN 46601
Same Art time - 4:00 till 8:30pm
New Art venue!
eB
So beat prepping for Art Beat
For the last two weeks it has felt like the night before final exams getting ideas and prints together for Art Beat. Today didn’t help that one bit. It only added MORE instant favorite shots to choose from before 4pm tomorrow.
We started at hair & makeup around 11am, shot through 6pm, hung out till 9pm and it’s been one rush of a day. Almost 12 hours later and we’ve definitely found our “poster shots” we wanted to get today. It’s almost against my nature to come home from a shoot - let alone TWO great days of shooting - and not post favorite shots immediately. The suspense to share the shots is starting to get to me!
Usually our shoots run 2 hours, but we had TWO AWESOME DAYS getting to hang out with Amanda, JP and Brandi on our shoots. Seriously we couldn’t have made the shoots what they were without your help both in front of the camera and behind the scenes!
I’m so stoked about the shots we did this week that I’ve got to find something to post before we display the poster prints… so here’s a taste:
Photo by the amazing Sara 
Tuesday Thoughts v6
Seven months ago it was really snowy, cold, and one of the most amazing days of my life. Our son Adrian turned seven months old this morning at 2:04am. February 2nd seems years ago already now that he’s crawling, sitting up, and trying to be a lot more grown up than he is.
I love rocking my son to sleep. As he sighs contently and drifts to sleep all the stress, worries, work of the day melts right off of me as an incredible peace and safety replaces it. I could have a rotten day and when I see him smile and giggle it doesn’t matter what happened, it’s a good day because he’s happy. It’s hard to put into words, but I have been immensely blessed over the last seven months of holding, cuddling, feeding, changing, and loving my son face to face.
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In photo news there’s a lot more goodies coming this week as we prepare for Art Beat. There’s a secret shoot happening tonight that I won’t post photos from till Thursday night after the fest is over. I will, however, have prints from it on display at the fest. Up till the actual day I won’t know where in the fest we’ll be on display till we arrive and are assigned a spot but will find a way to announce it once I know.
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NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL SEASON BEGINS this weekend! There’s something about hearing the band march through campus, fans yelling, and the hope of a new (cough, winning) season.
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I absolutely love fall.
COLORFUL landscapes, Sara’s birthday, crunching leaves, warm clothes, bonfires, cold evenings, crisp mornings, pumpkin pie, grilled or baked squash, hiking, chili, apples, farmer’s market, wood stove smoke at night.
I love to experience the change of seasons.
your Art Beat invitation
Here’s as formal as it’s getting for an invitation to this year’s Art Beat festival in downtown South Bend:
You’re invited! Come see us!
We’ll be featured among jewelry designers, graphic artists, handmade fashions, and some of the coolest artists you’ll ever meet.
It’s September 4th, NEXT THURSDAY in downtown South Bend, Indiana. We’ll have our photos on display - you may even see some shots of yourselves in there! (If you wore a bridal gown, tux, or graduated it’s safe to say your face will be there too!)
Come see us - see you there!
Tuesday Thoughts v5
Just heard church bells, it’s 5pm and images are processing - time for some thoughts.
How good is your florist? While working on Angela & Cameron’s wedding photos I ran across a photo from some outdoor portraits Sara took of Angela and the ladies. Seems the bouquets were so vivid and fragrant a bumblebee came along to compliment the bride’s choice in flowers and florist’s arrangement.
The ever-traveling Jonathan of wheresjonathan.com fame has hit the road again. He stopped by to see our new place and growing baby boy before he and I had a nice time out for last-minute errands, dinner, and some coffee talk before departing today. Last I heard he was at O’Hare in Chicago and by now has to be on a flight to Paris. Bon voyage!
And with the another traveler is back in town. Justin just called me from his new cell number to let us know he was on a break from his trucking route and was available for catching up BBQ style like we do here.
I don’t have a lot of details yet but we’ve been invited to set up a display of our work at Art Beat here in Downtown South Bend on September 4th. I walked the Beat last year and enjoyed seeing a handful of artist friends and checking out local artists’ work, We’ve also got a gallery show in the works for October so this fall should have lots of community exposure kicking off.
It was 65˚ this morning, and in spite of chilly toes I am ready for fall weather, colors, and fun.
It’s official - Adrian is a wiggly baby. Today Sara got a phone call, ran downstairs and said “it’s business” but I didn’t realize that Adrian was on our bed or that I needed to go get the baby. Not moments later he crawled across our bed toward the window and landed in the gully of excess pillows between the bed and wall. If you haven’t seen our bed set, it’s pretty high altitude - super comfortable but almost requires stairs to climb into the blankets. Adrian wailed a second and it sounded muffled so I ran in to see what was going on. Didn’t see him so I looked on the side of the bed to see his feet sticking out from under the bed frame. He wiggled his way under the bed!
I dug out all the pillows and spare blankets he burrowed through so he would be on the carpet and able to either crawl out or be lifted out. Problem is that he crawls with his head high up and kept bumping the bed frame rails and couldn’t crawl out on his own. He was smiling and giggling when I got my head down there to see what he was doing (or what stored blankets he had gotten into). Look out world, a very wiggly and handsome baby Adrian is on the loose. You were warned!
This month is feeling pretty artistically inclined. Three weddings for three great couples, a great start to the Class of 2009, and a Trash the Dress session. We’re gearing up for two exhibits within a month to boot. Top it off with our second anniversary and it’s quite a keeper!
And for an anniversary treat, Sara surprised me with THIRD ROW box seat tickets to a Chicago White Sox game last weekend. I’m a Cubs fan myself but a great day out with my wife is always a good time regardless of who’s playing. Sox won in 10 innings and I saw Ken Griffey Jr at the plate 3 times.
Senior Session - Brandi
It’s official - the class of 2009 is here.
Last week we had an awesome Senior Session shoot with Brandi to celebrate the last days of summer at the beach. What a perfect afternoon and evening of fun, photos and great weather!
Nothing like a golden summer sunset!
For the final shots of her session, Brandi brought along her Prom dress for some very classy sunset and dusk photos.
Trash the Dress
First off, serious props to Sara for all her hard work, logistics and brainstorming to put this day together. Couldn’t have done it or had this much fun without you, babe.
On our way up to Lake Michigan I wondered if in fact we wouldn’t also be getting a bit messier than usual at a location shoot. Thunderstorms were in the forecast and we hit a good drizzle as we neared one of my favorite beaches, Weko Beach in Bridgman, Michigan. The rain was gone when we parked but there was lightning in the distance so I opted to keep the light stands and tripod in the car!
We started with some test shots and walked a ways down the shoreline when our brave trashee Danielle noted the rain coming across the Lake. I saw clouds across the Lake and mentioned it would add a nice touch to the sky when I noticed what she was talking about. You could literally see the storm front’s edge as the calm water in front of us was quickly turned to splashing ripples of rain. I got cameras in the bag and threw the top closed as the wave of rainfall swept up the beach and soaked us and everything uncovered. Didn’t quite expect we’d be getting pretty trashed by weather while trashing a dress.
The sudden rain stopped as quickly as it arrived and the rest of the afternoon was dry and the sunset evening’s sky was filled with dramatic clouds.
It wouldn’t be a summer Saturday night if I wasn’t skimming photos and posting a favorite before bedtime! Enjoy! (Many more to come!)
New Nikon D300 - Test Photos
Yep, the Nikon D300 passed the test - it can capture baby cuteness.
Rainy mornings are perfect for baby snuggles and photos.
Why yes, I am this cute in person!
Our little camera ham
He’s not only accustomed to having a camera in front of him but I’m pretty sure he loves being in front of the camera too.
CLASSIC Sara expression!
All cuteness photographed under window light with Nikon D300, MB-D10 vert grip, Nikon 50mm f/1.4D lens, and one amazing son Adrian.
Tuesday Thoughts 4 - Anniversary Edition
Today’s the 2nd Anniversary of my favorite August wedding - MINE! Two years back Sara met me outside an old brick schoolhouse on a cool August afternoon and we kissed for the first time as newlyweds. Sometimes it feels like we’ve always been together, other times like it was only a few weeks ago we married.
(Snap courtesy of family photographer friend Mark Blackford, Zehring Photography)
August 19, 2006 I became a husband to Sara and simultaneously Uncle Eric to more than a dozen nephews and nieces aged from 2 years old upward to 20-somethings.
Yesterday I officially became “Uncle Snapshot” while out at Lake Michigan for our niece Brandi’s senior portraits. That’s right, the uncle that brings way too much camera gear to family gatherings, and, on occasion, gets in the way of hired photographers. (Fortunately I barely go to 1 or 2 weddings a year as a guest so I try and stay out of the way.) But as much as I dreaded realizing I earned the title “Uncle Snapshot” Brandi reminded me that at least Sara and I photograph professionally and don’t tend to put fingers over lenses or leave lens caps on or many other pitfalls of an overzealous camera wielding relative. Our relatives have an Aunt Sara Snapshot too.
Growing up it was Grandpa Bob that was the family shutterbug. Grandma Joyce, his wife, made scrapbooks of photos for all the grand kids for their 13th birthday, a history book of photos and Grandma’s poems from each child’s birth to teenage years. Hard to believe it’s almost been 10 years since they both passed away. Now that I think about it I would love to share the photos, writing, travels and our little family with them. No wonder we, as sentimental people, enjoy photographs to remember those amazing people and moments in our lives.
It’s a sentimental day all around. Wow.
Don’t forget to hug someone you love.
