Think warm thoughts.

I’m wrapping up a stack of summer wedding albums, and this photo Sara took of Zach and Jacqueline making an exit from their wedding at Holy Cross Church has a great warm summer day feel.

Enjoy.

Our snow baby all bundled up with Mama, ready for his first play in the snow!

Wait a minute, this stuff is on the ground, is great to eat when I’m teething, I can eat it and Mom and Dad aren’t telling me no? I LOVE SNOW!

He jumped right into the fresh snow!

For as much as he didn’t want to be born during a snowstorm, almost 10 months later he sure loves the white wonder.

Wait this snow stuff stays around how much longer? DO NOT WANT!

Ok I still like it. Few more cute pictures and we go warm up, ok?

On that note… Whether you love it or hate it, snow does make for a fun Christmas card background. Drop us a line or a call to set up a wintry shoot and make the best of the wintry white wonder out there!

Check out his workshop post HERE

Instead of “light modifiers” I will probably start to refer to our lighting kit as the photon force field.

Keep the creativity cookin!

One photographer replied that the buffet is her favorite Chinese Restaurant. It didn’t occur to me till I began a reply that my favorite Chinese restaurant is directly across the parking lot. So how, then do two similar restaurants stay in business? Here’s my reply that got ME thinking while I wrote it.

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Should you get the chance, drive, walk or take a rickshaw across the New China parking lot north toward Ireland Road and walk downstairs to China Garden. Same great fried goodness, less sitting-in-a-buffet-bin texture. Order your food, not scoop it.

Disclaimer: Sara and I frequent China Garden. Probably 25% of the time that we have their food we order it carry out. We’re hooked. I won’t pass up a buffet meal with friends or family, but given the choice between these two Chinese restaurants within a fortune cookie’s throw of each other, I’ll be found at China Garden.

Small business lesson here? Two restaurants, pretty much same ingredients. Two different approaches to serving similar* foods.

Differences?

New China / Buffet: (Been there at least since 1998)

• U-Scoop - eat as much as your digestive system allows.
• One price and you get everything in the bins
• Great to try different dishes that at your leisure, good for picky eaters too.
• Staff takes payment and takes away dirty plates
• Conversation: Hi how many?” and “Are you done with that plate?”

China Garden / Sit-down: (25+ years in business including restarting after a building fire)

• A greeting where, if followed by “How many?” is to determine your party size not your order total upon entry
• Meal courses (appetizer, entree, dessert) served individually and not all available simultaneously. Timed delivery keeps the food coming a portion at a time.
• Portions are generous and I often take home leftovers
• Servers take your order at table, bring food, and in most of my experiences there, conversation.
• Did I mention an experience?

My first time eating at China Garden with Sara was not long after her mother had passed away, not two months into my dating days with Sara. When we arrived the staff asked how Sara was and how her family was doing. When Sara told our waitress that her mother had recently passed, the waitress broke into tears. I didn’t realize how long Sara’s family had been visiting the Garden and how they had gotten to know the staff.

Their chef, Jimmy, has come out to our table to see how our meal was (always tasty!). The exact date escapes me but within the last year or so he lost his wife. More than once he’s had conversations with us and with Sara’s dad about lost loved ones.

Once the fried goodness digests and tiredness subsides, what are you left with? A rumbling stomach, perhaps. Smelling like deep fried Chinese food, most certainly. What’s the experience that will get you talking?

What’s your business’ experience that will get your customers talking?

* Foods similar to American tastebuds and relatively safe to assume isn’t intestines, dog, or anything too “weird” for Americans to eat. Fellow China travelers can you agree?

PS This is certainly my most introspective and cohesive Tuesday Thoughts post yet. Thanks for reading.

Today you beat a branch of the Armed Services in football. Thank goodness too, you were really getting beat up by those college teams you have to play and could finally get out of that losing streak. At least for three Saturdays a year you can take a break from college scholarship sponsored football and play cadets from the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

I regret to inform you that for these three weekends I will be cheering for your opponents. You see, I have had more family and friends in these three institutions of learning than those I know who have graced your classrooms. They get recruited to their academies as you do to your campus. However, in addition to sports training, they will go through boot camp and be put into active service. All have enlisted willingly and none had parents paying for them to attend. In fact I’m sure it cost the parents more in sleepless nights and prayers when the troops are called to duty.

When you have a few bad seasons your coach’s contract gets bought out or he’s fired. When the service men and women have bad seasons loved ones don’t return home alive. I’m sure they have better things to concentrate on than defending a goal line when they are preparing to be sent to defend our country.

The door of the Basilica on your campus sums up the order of loyalties in a four-word stone inscription: God, Country, Notre Dame.

My loyalties and respect for the first two will always come before your football schedule.

I’m all for recreation, so I’m glad your team gets to go up against our troops. I hope it is an honor to look into the faces of your opponents knowing they will be responsible for defending your freedom. In the spirit of recreation I can’t wait till you get to play more branches of the Federal Government in order to pad your win record and inflate your egos a little more. Who knows, maybe the Postal Service will scrimmage you soon. I hear the IRS is looking to put together a team too.

Looking forward to all your glorious wins ahead,

Signed,

American citizen, South Bend, Indiana native, and ND fan

A duet of the photographers found in Stacie & Bryan’s gallery. Stacie’s daughter Lexi asked if she could take a picture with Sara’s camera, so while Sara instructed her I photographed the lesson. Voila - photographer double shot.

Believe it or not, I (Eric) love shooting salon photos. Lots of color, shapes, fun with the bride and her friends, time to test out ideas, coffee… and today, numbers. The numbered containers of Redken styling products at Ken’s Studio Hair sparked an idea. Guesses?

(Answer: it’s the wedding date)

My compliments to Nicole ans Scott for the all the forethought and planning that went into your wedding day timeline. Everything moved along perfectly without feeling rushed and there was never a dull moment in between all the fun! They had planned to photograph nearly all portraits before the ceremony, and when I heard Sara snapping in the balcony above me I looked up to see Nicole catch a glimpse of Scott in his tux.

Sara created this dramatic image as Nicole descended the balcony stairs to meet her groom.

Scott’s reaction when Nicole walked the aisle to meet him? All smiles!

Today brought a first for us - celebrating a Latin wedding mass. The traditional Latin ceremony was wonderfully beautiful. From the balcony the acapella voices of five men singing resonated through the sanctuary in serene worship. A thundering organ played out notes that superceded all but the voices that joined it in song. Two lives joined to become one.

Click a photo above or CLICK HERE to see the Newlyweds’ Instant Album Slideshow where you can relive the celebration, get a reminder when the photos are ready, and even pick up a copy of the slideshow.

Enjoy!

Click the photo or CLICK HERE to see their slide show. Be sure to request a reminder too so you’ll know when the full wedding day gallery is ready to see.

Congrats Nicole and Scott!

Enjoy!

This week was all topsy-turvy. Hard to describe the feeling. Lots of changing weather, lots happening at home, lots of work to do for all the cool couples working with us to wrap up their super cool wedding albums. It never slowed for a second.

Thursday Sara was out of town for an overnight business trip and I got to watch Adrian for most of two days. Yes, I can change a diaper, and fast when you’re up against a wiggly baby boy. My sis Genna stopped by and helped so I could catch up some house work and eventually some photo work. Later Adrian went to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa so Daddy could get more office work done when Aunt Genna left.

Today was just me with my baby boy. Last weekend marked his 9 months birthday and he’s sprouted so much lately. I’ve gotta brag on him! He’s got 8 little teeth now, loves to speed crawl across pretty much anything to get into pretty much anything. He loves TV remotes, so many buttons and all the grown ups seem to always play with them. Toys are great, but he loves putting a DVD box on the floor and putting his hands on it and crawling with his new found glider to slide across the floor. He’s definitely got “Dada” and “Mama” down and is working on so many more little words.

Today he was doing great with eating, sleeping, and playing schedules. Yesterday he was awake from 8am breakfast to 4pm when he finally passed out after fighting sleep for most of an hour. 8 hours awake is like a college final exam all-nighter session for a 9 month old! Today, however, he had a nice long nap after lunch. I went to wake him up so he wouldn’t be too awake late tonight and he was snuggling his favorite monkey stuffed animal “Munkus.” I grabbed a camera to freeze this peaceful nap before I got him out of bed. I had to wake him up but wanted to be sure and hold onto this adorable, calm moment before he gets too big too fast. Sometimes you just need to slow down a sec and enjoy little moments.

Daylight savings time really messed with my brain. Sunset happening at 5:30pm all of a sudden really threw me for a loop. Personally I would rather enjoy a longer day than an earlier morning, I’m sure it says something about my personality, priorities, and preferences.

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ELECTION DAY. Wow, pretty monumental day. I have to admit I went to the polls very undecided and filled in the president choice last. It probably says something when you vote for a county coroner (they’re elected?!) before choosing the persons you would want to run your country. I didn’t agree with a good handful of major issues from the Democratic party and honestly, couldn’t take the Republicans seriously. I know there are more than 2 choices on the ballot but let’s be real… TV has everyone’s brains baked to think there are just 2 choices. I really enjoyed all the parodies of the GOP candidates and have got to share this favorite campaign poster:

King of the Hill? You betcha.

President-elect Obama clearly cleaned up the votes, and I think we could hear the celebration in Chicago Tuesday night. Pretty wild to imagine it started just down the road from us Indiana folks.

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Adrian’s 9 months, crawling even faster, working on some words, and showing lots of personality. Ornery personality! Adorable too, of course, as he gets into everything within reach.

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This Saturday’s the big day for Nicole & Scott, wrapping up an amazing year of wedding celebrations with our awesome couples. We’ve been immensely blessed to work for and work with such fun clients. The album design wheels are spinning and we’re cooking up a batch of beautiful books!

Also it’s been pretty crazy busy - the good kind - around here. Note the “Tuesday” post on Friday…