Cannan

recently I was privileged to hang out w/ this little man and his wonderful family . . .

he is not quite a month old and already he is quite aware of the camera

this little boy LOVES looking over people's sholders

Cannan and his daddy, Matt

this is Cannan and his lovely mommy, Celeste

They are quite adorable. . . don't you think

Some days I simply have to take pictures. . . this was one of those days. . .

For the longest time. . . I have been in love with the Irish Wolf Hound. . . it is a dream of mine to one day be able to own one. . . but living in the city. . . that is not very realistic.

I have since learned to love another breed, one much more reasonable to city living. . . the BOXER! I had never really been around boxers much and had NEVER been responsible for anything other than an XL-sized dog (yeah boxers are on the small side, in my book) . . . that was until the Huse's brought home Hailey . . . and thus my love for Boxers was born.

this is Hailey. she might be the cutest/ugliest dog EVER. . . not sure why her face is so deformed (seriously, the overbite and her gremlin ears are hilarious)

this is Missy. . . she is a recent addition to the Huse household. Her former owners had to move for employment issues, and were unable to take her w/ them. . . sweet dog

This might be one of my favorite pics right now. . .

C &T "the Wedding"

I love this couple. . . in case I have not mentioned it. . . thought I should let you know.

As we all know, wedding days can be quite stressfull, even more so if you get a few last minute surprises. . . the worst of which was that the church did NOT allow flash during the wedding ( because the "ceremony is viewed as a worship service", though I am not sure as to why that should matter, as long as the bride and groom do not care, which they did not) . . . even from the hired wedding photographer . . . so as you can imagine my day went from needing to be inspired/focused to "How do I make use of the limited natural light?" ( it was a 3pm wedding, in Oct. with a large window silhouetting the bride and groom. . . need i say more)

but now that I am done whining. . . lets get to the photos . . .

i am in love w/ shoe photos. . . especially wedding shoes. . .

It really is a lovely venue, but having to shoot w/ a High ISO for a wedding was heart breaking. . . you would think that wedding coordinators (church/venue) would understand that light is a MUST for the photographer. . . I do not know why they insist on darkness for ambiance. . . this is a wedding not a concert. . .

Milli, the Maid of Honor / Sister / former room-mate of the bride

I love this cake. . . it was made by a good friend Jessica Johnson. . . this was here first wedding cake EVER. . . isn't it good (it fits the couple perfectly)

I love me some solar flair. . . it is an acquired love, by seeing the amazing pieces by Lisa Hessel

Looking forward to catching up w/ these two soon. . . because of the scheduling of the day, we were unable to get any shots of just the two of them . . . so we are planning on rectifying that when the weather gets warm again.

Craig and Taylor

I am so very excited to share these pics. Taylor and Craig are getting married in a week, and we had to schedule the engagement shoot LATE, in order to get some of fall in there (though if you live in STL, you know we have missed autumn entirely, winter is upon us)

They came to a general conscientious that neither of them are photogenic. What do you think?

Shout out to Lisa Hessel, who may claim to be my inspiration for all shots with flair. . .

This is the gazebo where Craig proposed.

It was supposed to rain all morning, but we had to brave it, because this was the ONLY time that all of us had. The rain held off, and we had amazing clouds to work with.

Like I said, we had an amazing sky. It opened up about 20 min after we wrapped. . .

Addie

This past Saturday, I was blessed to shoot pics of Addie. She was not a big fan of not being allowed to chew on her dress, but other than that she was quite a trooper.

I love this picture of Addie.

Addie is a "very serious" baby. She will not smile, if she does not have to (or unless her dad is standing their making silly faces)

Like I said, she was all about chewing on her tutu.

Addie and her momma, Georgia.

Last one . . .

Adam and Jessa 09.04.09

As promised nearly a month ago, here are some more pics of Adam and Jessa's wedding.

Jessa getting ready. They had just moved all of their things into the new apartment a couple of days before the wedding, so the night before we hid all of the boxes so they would not be in every picture.

This is one of my favorites of the day. She looks so beautiful.

Jess chose to have bright red lips for the ceremony, which is great until she kissed Adam.

we snuck outside of the church to take some pics, while everyone arrived. It was nice to get outside away from wedding day chaos.

I love a good black and white photo. I have been experimenting with darker photos. It is not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.

The rings.

This wedding was filled with prayer. This is their first prayer as a married couple, and then they chose to take their first communion as a couple together as well.

Both Adam and Jessa are breakfast food junkies, so for their reception, they chose to serve breakfast, and since cake is not acceptable for breakfast . . . they had CINNAMON ROLLS!!!

(Everything about that wedding was dark, yet this shot is not. . . go figure)

Tour of Missouri 2009

I was planning to update when I was done editing, but seeing as it has been a week and I am still not done editing, I have chosen to share some of my favorites from the week.

Jelly Belly handlebars. I love this shot. Do not be surprised to find it hanging on my wall in the near future.

George Hincape at the start of Stage 1 in St. Louis in his new National Champion Jersey

Team Columbia controlling the race as it passes through Lafayette Square.

Yaroslav Popovych making it look easy, as he travels through Soulard

Local police leading the way through downtown St. Louis, past Anheuser Busch brewery.

Mark Cavendish at the end of Stage 1, in yellow and posing on his new motorcycle for the crowd

Cavendish, Hincape, and VandeVelde leaving St. Genevieve. Christian lasted about another 15 be minutes before having to abandon the race with his broken left wrist.

Cavendish after his sprint win in Cape Girardeau, Stage 2

I had a lot of fun this year playing with the reflections in the riders glasses. You can see here how happy fans were to meet and receive autographs from the riders.

Another photo that I am in love with. It is interesting to see the variety between the shoes for a majority of the riders.

Bernhard Eisel at rider sign-in in Farmington, MO.

George Hincape signing autographs before the start of Stage 3 in Farmington

The Mavic service cars. Constantly seemed to travel behind them between finish and start stages.

Cavendish on the podium for the last time of 2009 in Rolla. He did not start stage 4 the next morning in St. James, because of a pulmonary infection. Last I heard he is still recovering . . .

Thor Hushovd enjoying his first win and first yellow jersey at the Tour of Missouri.

The peloton being led into the Stage 4 feedzone, by Marco Pinotti of Team Columbia-HTC

A bunch coming through the Jefferson City circuit. . . this is before the nasty crash that happened just east of the capital building.

David Zabriskie, National Time Trial Champion, showing his stuff at the Stage 5 TT in Sedalia.

Levi Leipheimer coming into the finish in Sedalia.

Thor Hushovd wearing the green during the time trial, having lost the yellow to JJ Haedo.

David Zabriskie signing autographs in the yellow jersey, which he gained by winning the individual time trial.

The peloton, led by a small breakaway, barreling through the streets of Kansas City, MO. What you can not see is that I found one of only 3 Starbucks in their city, and they had closed that day, because of the tour. If they had only known that the race will ALWAYS bring in business (even if the road is closed, just ask Park Ave Coffee)

One of the many future riders hanging out in the crowd in Missouri.

Christian VandeVelde (Garmin-2008 ToMO winner) presenting David Zabriskie (Garmin -2009 ToMO winner) with the yellow jersey and his Norton Wine (to the right is Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who is largely responsible for bringing in another professional sport to St. Louis)

Team Saxo Bank, ended up winning the overall team title taking it from last years winner Columbia HTC.

I want to again thank everyone who was a part of this race, from organizers to fans . . . The work and dedication that goes into making this race is amazing. Many Tours of this caliber are put on by entire countries, yet we (and California) are showing that the US can not only create a grand tour here, but we can have 2, highlighting the diversity of our Nation.

Night for now