With all the cheesecake baking, homemade garlic & curry hummus, and tonight’s seared salmon dinner I have to brag on Sara’s culinary creativity. I mentioned turning our back deck into a neighborhood cafe tonight, especially as the spring weather brings grilling back to the dinner deck. I loved eating outside in the back yard as a kid when my dad grilled anything and everything (even lasagna once, only took once to learn that a microwave reheats better). This summer marks two years at our townhouse, and two years grilling around the back deck.

If Sara and I had a computer program that combined my image editing skills and her cooking creativity it would be Adobe Photoshop CS3 Cook Extended as demonstrated below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re seeing an RSS feed and the video above doesn’t show up check the original post here.

On second thought…

I wasn’t going to post the first outtake shot until I saw the same thing on the very next shoot. The very first frame of the next shoot. You guys crack me up. This is what keeps photo “work” from feeling like work. I needed the laughs after the long busy weekend.

Whoa. A shoot like Sunday’s 1940s themed Engagement Session with Caroline and Josh was the perfect way to wrap up a busy weekend. I’m digging through the 1500+ photos we shot of prep and all around the bluffs and beach at Silver Beach in Saint Joseph, Michigan.

Yep, 1500 photos, and in less than 2 hours of daylight. It’s easy to get trigger happy when your subjects are having a blast, creativity gets bouncing around, and I get to work barefoot. (Ok for me anyway, I love shooting barefoot or in flip flops.)

Sara snapped this photo of me dancing on an incline while shooting the Soonlyweds on the pier – all in Candidvision™

More behind the scenes and the results are in albums on our Facebook page. Enjoy!

Adrian & Papa play "remotes" - as soon as Papa had one Adrian ran to find one and jumped on the couch too.

Adrian & Papa driving the boat - little kid and big kid

Adrian & Mama Sara

Adrian & Nana Sue

I don't want vacation to be over!

Finally some blue skies and a sunset!

This one’s for you blog stalkers who ask how my family and my folks are doing, you know who you are.

Got talking to some friends outside, and started snapping photos. The result is that of not having a game plan, not a whole lot of food, not much sleep, and lots of great laughs. Plus friends who are game for fun ideas can’t hurt.

Chris & Matt DFX band

Get jumped - 4 kids get air

Gravity is calling. Jump photo falling down.

Found a flashlight one of the bands left behind and used it for some painting with light portraits. Don’t leave shiny things that light up where I can find them. The bright light worked perfectly to paint this quick portrait. 6 second exposure, f/5.6-ish.

Ashley's paint with light portrait

Switched it up for Mark’s last photo of being 20 years old. Just hours before his 21st birthday I fired up the “flashlight” app for my iPhone and found a green color to match his shirt. Nothing too fancy on this rather low-key photo. Not bad for 6 second exposures lit by a phone and distant street light. Not bad at all.

Mark's iPhone paint with light portrait

Lesson learned: try something new. Also keeping a tripod in the car and a flashlight nearby isn’t a bad idea.

Jenny & Pat brought Hemi, their 9 month old Chocolate Lab puppy for a run around Notre Dame Campus and their engagement session. I think he had about much fun as Jenny & Pat did!

Here’s a couple sneak peeks from this evening’s engagement portraits around Notre Dame University campus. More posted soon!

The “we both know I’m getting away with this once I smile” look – adorable and dangerous

Good till the last drop

Adrian loves Mama Sara’s home cooking. Daddy agrees!

Who made this mess? Wasn’t me…

14 months and into everything – everything fun! We love our Adrian!

Well this is my new band. We even have our debut album ready to pawn off on everyone sell at shows.

I’m so metal.

To Do This

1 – Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 – Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 – Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 – Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together. (You can use paint as well!)

5 – Optional Entertainment – Spam out all your FaceBook or Mysapce friends with this text in the “caption” or “comment” and TAG the friends you want to join in.

If I was in a band, and not their road tech, I’d be found under a pile of percussion: a djembe, congas, bongos and things that go thump. I’d be cool as a road tech too, for the record.

Go have fun.

eB

After the last few weeks finalizing prints, framing, preparing and all around brainstorming at high speed, it all came down to one great night of celebration with friends last Saturday!

Highlights of the night – and all were simply amazing:

• We have the coolest friends and clients out there. Sara said it best that each of you have helped us live our dream and do what we get to do – tell your amazing story with our photographs.
• Bucholtz family was among the first guests there! As a reward for their promptness they claimed the couches throughout the night.
• Two of my camera store coworker friends were there, one I hadn’t seen since he moved to New Jersey 3+ years ago. I knew he was looking to stop by but it till floored me when he walked in.
• THREE people drove up from Indianapolis in the rainy weather, and all 3 totally surprised us! Our friend JP and his family moved to Indy a week ago and we had a going away party and everything. Then BAM, he walks into the coffee shop. Awesome to see you again man!
• Our other 2 guests from Indianapolis take the cake for catching me most by surprise. I haven’t seen Natalia and Jeff since Sara and I photographed their wedding in 2006, back in my engaged days. Great idea to make a date night of it while you guys were in town!
• Friends I’ve known since elementary school and a friend I hadn’t seen since I graduated high school were all there. Way to represent CCS in its best years – our classes’ years!

I managed to pick up a camera later in the evening and snap a couple of photos of the fun. Enjoy!

Guests chilling as the Rendition plays.

The E Team reunites! Erik and Eric! Never so much fun since a slow Sunday shift at the camera store inspired pegboard Plinko and making Halloween decor out of photo lab scraps. Superb to see you again man!

The Rendition rocking, so proud of their artistry in music

Surprise guests from Indianapolis!

If they look familiar it’s because we’ve shown off their Wedding Album and Sara’s signature portrait of Natalia ever since it was taken. No portfolio of our wedding day photography would be complete without showing this favorite image from this great couple’s wedding day!

Thanks again everyone who braved the rainstorm and came out to celebrate our 5th year reliving Wedding Day Stories with photography. We’re richly blessed to have you as friends!

- Eric, Sara and Adrian

Click the photo above or CLICK HERE for the event page and full info!

See you there!