A few weeks back the whole Jagodzinski family was in Madison for their oldest child was running the Madison Marathon, they thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get some updated family photographs. I had a blast with this hip little family and they really made my job easy since they are all so beautiful. Enjoy.

A few weeks back on a Sunday afternoon I took the beautiful trip out to Monroe Wisconsin, a place everyone must visit, to meet up with a family who I have become friends with to capture some images of their 2 daughters and their 2 nephews as well. I went out in the yard with the 4 kids who all now have hung out in front of my camera a few times now to capture their ridiculousness -- enjoy.

  My last 2013 wedding blog post, and the perfect wedding to end the year on. I met Chloe a few years back when I started to freelance at ShopBop, she works there as a stylist/stylist assistance. Chloe and I have working together on a few projects and when she got engaged to Mike I was so happy when they asked me to document their day. Chloe and Mike had a small guest list (around 50 people) and even though it was pretty chilly they still got married in an adorable park in the Monroe St area- their ceremony was beautiful and the guests were cozy with blankets. After they were pronounced husband & wife the marching band started up and we all walked to the reception space, Crescendo  (a coffee shop on Monroe St that is a wonderful place to rent for small gatherings) where we at dinner and danced.  It really was a perfect way to finish my 2013 wedding season.

A few weeks back I met up with Kate and Jeph to photograph their engagement photographs - hopefully you wont be able to tell in the photographs but this day was freezing and windy - these two rocked it though. Kate & Jeph were engaged the day they closed on a home on the westside and to celebrate they adopted a puppy - these two will be getting married this summer and I hope it is much warmer! Congrats Kate and Jeph - I had a blast being freezing with you two.  

A few weeks ago I got together with an old friend, Lindsay to meet her best friend and take photographs of them being adorable. These two live in Iowa together, they run a farm together and they are marrying each other on February 1st and I get to be there to document that.

My dear friends Alyssa & Justin have been married for a few years now and they got ahold of me to take some updated photographs. I went over to their well decorated, beautiful apartment for some wine and tacos and a mini photo shoot in their backyard.

At least once a year I get to hang out with the Johnson crew with my camera and this time was extra special for they have a new member in the family - meet baby Etta. This time we spent the morning at their home, making coffee, eating breakfast and trying to get Asher to not cry every time I pointed the camera at him. A morning at the Johnson house..

While I was in San Francisco last month, I met up with Kat who makes lovely jewelry (she is wearing her own necklaces in these images) and works for Rue Magazine  and did some new head shots since she cut off all of her hair - and looks fabulous.

Laura, Patrick and I met at the UW Arboretum on a chilly fall afternoon back in October for their engagement photographs. I had so much fun getting to know these two, and I just love how comfortable they were in front of my camera and with each other, they really are the best of friends.

A rainy day for Tess and Brandon, but that didn't change anything for these amazing people (except rain boots instead of heels and indoor ceremony instead of outdoors). These two and their friends and family were the perfect group of people to deal with downpour rain for an entire day and my crazy collection of umbrellas that are in the back of my car always FINALLY came in need.  I loved everything about this day, from trying to beat the rain an move the ceremony 2 hour ahead only for us all to get rained on to the unique location - Eden, Wi on the family mushroom farm. I only had one meeting with Tess and Brandon before the big day, and that was on Skype and by the end of their wedding I had cried about 3 times - their love, the things their friends and family had to say about them as individuals and as a couple and all of the love that surrounds them. It was a beautiful rainy day.

The other week I went into Thorps on Atwood to take some photographs for their website.  

I met up with the Crawford family while I was in San Francisco to work on a fashion project with Janette  - check out her website here . We did a series of  matching without looking to matchy looks with her and her daughter and a few with her husband Jon -  here is the end result:

While I was in San Francisco I stopped in to meet kate and see her soon to be new storefront to take some photographs of her and her Father working together to renovate the place. If you aren't familiar with Kate Ellen and her wonderful Jewelry, please take a look at her website here - I have a pair of her earrings and since getting them, there really hasn't been a day where I didn't wear them. If you live in the Bay Area, come November check out the new store in Old Oakland on 9th and Washington.

As we all know, wedding days can be stressful, especially if rain is in the forecast, but when Katie and I walked into photograph this wedding it was like walking into a day at the spa - we were greeted by the bride herself, Ashley and she walked us around the venue to show us how the day is going to go. We then followed her into the dressing room where Ashley handed us gift bags filled with snacks and water- sweetest thing ever. I often tear up once or twice through out my work day - but during Ashley and Josh's day I think I may have set a record with more like 5 or 6 - everything about this day was so beautiful, the love that there two have for each other is so real and everyone that was there to celebrate were so nice.  I hired Katie on as a second shooter and here is a collection of images that we captured from the day. 

A few weeks back I met up with Alex, Doroteia and their adorable son, Desmond for their first family session.. I loved these three and I had so much fun working with them..

As I sit and enjoy my morning coffee, I daydream about Ethiopia, and the wonderful coffee we had daily while we were there. What I loved most about our trip ( tied with the adorable children I was able to hang out with) were the coffee ceremonies. Everyday after Luke and I were done teaching we would go over to Genet's home for an amazing lunch and after we were done eating we would sit for an hour and drink the freshest coffee you will ever have.  Before you can enjoy a cup of coffee in Ethiopia, you first roast the beans, grind the coffee using the mukecha and zenezena ( which act as a mortar and pestle). By this time the water to brew the coffee is ready in the jebena (decorated traditional coffee pot) - adding the water and recently ground coffee to let boil together and then served. We were able to enjoy this tradition daily, sometimes twice a day and for Ethiopians, the coffee ceremony can happen 3 times a day, it is an important social event to gather the family and community to talk and be together - I find is wonderful and I miss sitting in Genet's compound listening to the ladies talk to each other in Amharic. Here is a series of images that I took of all the wonderful women who invited us to coffee ceremonies.

I have just returned from a week long trip to one of my favorite places in the world - the San Francisco Bay Area. There are many reasons as to why I love this place, weather is one of them, the fact that your backyard can have avocado trees, pomegranates, limes, figs and grapefruits etc. One of the biggest reasons that keeps me traveling West any time I get a chance is the community of people that I have there, and the things they do that inspire me. My friends help me find photography work, they put together dinners to 'celebrate me being there' and they are just wonderful people with great stories and amazing hearts - I hope work continues to pop up there so I am able to spend more weeks in this magical place.

Vanessa & Brad were married at the Neenah Presbyterian Church, a beautiful church that has never done a wedding in their outdoor courtyard until September 21st -  a chilly fall day but a beautiful service. It was a wonderful day to document - enjoy!

I did a shoot with the lovely Sandra the other week - the lighting was perfect and we had a lovely time. Styled by Chloe Helland.

Enjoy.

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: