A few weeks ago I met up with Whitney & Kyle to document their lovely soon-to-be new addition to their family. We drove out to Cambridge to go for a walk in the wood behind their good friends home, a peaceful way to capture such a beautiful moment in life. They had their little girl, Mavis a week after our shoot.
Happy Ethiopia Monday! It seems these will sadly end soon since I only have a few more things to write about but today I am very excited to share with you some of my students work! If you weren't aware, while I was in Adama, when I wasn't photographing for Seeds of Africa I was teaching the children photography thanks to a handful of wonderful friends who donated their old digital cameras to me to give the children. So today is all about the UKG (upper kindergarden) class and my favorites of their images. I tried to teach the children some simple composition and maybe you can pick some up in these images but my amharic is, well pretty much nonexistent and they were just starting to learn english - so communicating was a bit challenging and by week two I was just letting the kids go wild with the cameras to I ended up really enjoying the outcome:
Last week I got the opportunity to photograph one of the most promising new movements in youth culture, Girls Rock Camp. Girls Rock Camp Madison is an intense, one week day-camp for girls ages 8-18. Campers of all skill levels learn guitar, drums, keyboards, bass and vocals, form a band, write a song and perform at the end of week for friends, family, and hundreds of screaming fans - Girls Rock Camp is great because it recognizes the potential of every young woman to be a strong, talented, creative and empowered individual while providing a safe space where all girls rock. I have been photographing their showcases for a few years now and I finally have gotten around to write a blog about it. If you would like to learn more, send your child or if you wished this was around while you were young, no worries - they have Ladies Rock Camp as well - visit their website here. 
I enjoy photographing weddings, I enjoy working in fashion but if I am being honest, children are my favorite subject. Children have a way of forgetting about the camera- what I try to get everyone I work with to do, comes so natural to them. So yesterday I took the afternoon off to have lunch over at the Gagnon's - where we picked out lunch from their garden, drank tea and talk about life, Africa and how August in Wisconsin is perfect. After lunch, Nora picked me some flowers and some food to take home -- images below will show you the process of our afternoon together.
As most of you know I have just returned home from just shy of a month long trip to Ethiopia where my boyfriend, Luke and I spent the majority of our time working with Seeds of Africa , teaching at the Take Root Center (See blog about my teaching here). Along with teaching the Seeds I was asked to document the TRC, staff and the community, so I have many photographs and stories to share -so for the next several weeks, Mondays will be 'Ethiopia Day' - I will be posting my photographs and telling my stories from our travels so be sure to check out my blogs on Mondays!
Today the following images are from our time out in the playground with the kids, everyday between classes and after classes were done, Luke and I would get to jumprope, play football and I would usually get my hair done (no photo proof of this).
For more information as to what Seeds of Africa does please visit their website here
Summer time become my busiest time of year and it is hard to stop working when your work is always on your mind. With this year being a bit more packed than normal with my trip to Ethiopia in the middle of the wedding season, I have a lot to finish and a lot to plan all before July 9th. The terrace has become my place to relax by the lake, sip a beer and listen to my friends play beautiful music. Last week at Dietrich Gosser's show, this beautiful boy had his Mother make him a jet pack - oh to be young again, how I long for the days where summer vacation existed and all you did was play with your friends and go to the pool to get summer blonde hair and have your skin smell like chlorine, always.
While I was in San Francisco I was asked to go to Edna Brewer Middle School and take photographs of the wonderful after school programs. My dear friend Meg works here so it was so nice to see what she does everyday and to get a change to meet this kids that she works with. I have never seen an after school program quite like this one, there was skateboarding, arts and crafts, hip hop dance class and a place to get homework done. It was by far my favorite project I did while I was there, it was such a great way to spend an afternoon and the kids were wonderful to hang out with.
Friday I put on my polkadots, red lips and went over to the Gagnon's magical home for a tea party. We decided to do a shoot where we (the adults) had no influence, Nora had her cousin Nan over and they picked out their outfits and we allowed them to decide what to do and I documented the afternoon. Children are so comfortable in front of the camera, so I feel there is no need to pose them - just let them be kids and I'll document them.
