Winter Wonderland

Sometimes I question my decision to close up shop in the wintertime. When a bride-to-be calls or e-mails with her plans for a lovely winter wedding, I hate to say no. But there's so much more to photography than simply capturing the moment -- I need this time to design albums from last summer's weddings, meet with next summer's brides, fulfill print orders in time for holiday gift-giving, and think about scheduling and pricing for the coming year.

But more importantly, I also need to take a break from the hectic photo season and make time for family fun... here's a video my husband and I took during the massive "snow day" we had yesterday :-)



We hope you're enjoying your own winter wonderland!

Kristin and Camden

What a fantastic session today... Kristin and Camden are so in love and so excited about their wedding next summer -- we had a great time and we lucked out with the gorgeous weather! Here are a few faves...

We met in downtown Fort Atkinson and went for a walk along the river (and my daughter just looked over my shoulder and said this is one of her favorite photos ever)...

Then we went to the covered bridge on the bike trail south of town.

Here's one of my favorite shots from inside the covered bridge:

Then we went to Lake Koshkonong...


And we found a bit of fall color for their "formal" engagement picture.


Kristin and Camden, I really enjoyed our session and I can't wait for your wedding next summer! Keep in touch :-)

Thank yous!

We've been on a family vacation in Washington, DC, so I'm catching up -- but I wanted to quickly pass along this sweet note I received last week from Claire, a bride whose wedding I photographed last month.

You'll see some references to orange juice in the note below -- that's because orange juice got spilled all over Claire's dress while she was getting dressed! It came out with club soda -- so from now on club soda is in my "wedding emergency kit!" And you'll also see references to the cold -- we could see our breath in the chapel! But it was a beautiful wedding, as you can see from Claire and Sam's slideshow/video here. (Please note that some people find the first few bars of their chosen song a little jarring -- sorry about that but it calms down after a few photos and it's really a lovely song!)

So now I yield the floor to Claire...

"Hi Lori,

I know you are on your way to a fun (and educational :) family vacation...but I just had to tell you again how truly grateful we are for your beautiful work. As artists, we are just floored by your and Eric's combined attention to detail and your ability to capture what we believe no other photographer would have been able to: us.

We will never be able to thank you for giving us the ability to remember our wedding day just like it was. I knew from the moment we met you that we were on the same wavelength and it really showed in your work...so thanks for being yourself! It was so wonderful that in the midst of coordinating an out of town wedding, cleaning orange juice, frigid temperatures, and overwhelming emotion we never once worried that something would be missed.

Side note: I love how you found our first dance song and somehow managed to get 86 pictures into it!!! That video really is the perfect example of why we got married. It is warm, fun, quirky, and beautiful.

So, LATE last night (after we watched it about 900 times) Sam and I emailed it to 6 people (Moms and sisters) and I have somehow received 20 something responses to that email this morning. I just wanted to share with you some of the things other people who are not us have said about your work:

My mother called me crying at 7am : "That woman was seriously a blessing Claire. She has given you two the greatest gift you could ever have been given and she helped us get the orange juice out!"

Karen (Sam's Mom): OMG .... CLAIRE, I absolutely LOVE the video. The photos all turned out so awesome, and with the music, it totally captured the beauty and joy of the event. I can hardly wait to see the rest.

Annie (Maid of Honor): I was not expecting this at all. I haven't ever seen wedding pictures that look like this. They look like magazine pictures. How did they do that? ....I am so glad there are pictures of the orange juice drama!!! The whole thing is just perfect!

Joe (our "Rev"): SISTER!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG Those pictures are AMAZING!!! I cried a little lot! My favorite one is...ok that is a lie. I have watched this thing 30 times and I keep switching my favorite. Damn it!! They are just too wonderful!

Nora (my sister): That woman is a magician like she belongs in Hogwarts. OH AND I totally love how I don't look completely wasted in these!!! WHOOT! But seriously I have watched this thing on repeat like 400 times. Is that creepy?

Maggie (my close friend who missed it): I feel like I was there. Can you please thank this photographer for me, please?! I can't get over how Claire and Sam that video was! Oh, I am so glad these aren't cheesy wedding pictures like I usually see...that would have been more depressing than the fact I missed it.

Taylor (the teenage junior bridesmaid): It doesn't even really look that cold. How did she do that?

Safe travels to you and your family,
Claire and Sam"

Maureen and David: Engaged!

What a delightful engagement session with Maureen and Dave this morning! After days of rain and cold (or is it weeks? I'm losing track) we finally had a "normal" autumn day with sunshine and cool weather. The leaves are gorgeous this weekend -- I think the yellow maples must be at their peak -- so we took advantage of the fall color. Here are just a few favorites....









Maureen and Dave, thanks for letting me share in your joy today!

Shawn

Had a wonderful day with my daughter, Anna -- did some location scouting in Cambridge for an engagement session tomorrow, went for a walk, raked leaves, and baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies... I love this time of year!

And now I'm catching up on some blogging... Shawn stopped by last week for a yearbook-only session because he "hates having his picture taken." Give me a break! This guy should be a model!

Grandma's House!

Saturday's dreary weather didn't put a damper on this family's session at the grandparents' home near Helenville. There is so much I'd like to say about this family... so much love in this home... but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We decided to create portraits of the grandkids indoors while we waited out the rain :-)






And Kathleen has a conservatory off the kitchen! It is truly beautiful, and soon she'll bring her orchids inside for the winter. Since it's obviously one of her favorite rooms in the house, I wanted to make a portrait of her there, with a hint of her stained glass and beautiful banana tree, but not so much that it would be distracting...


Kennedy's favorite thing to do at Grandma's house? Watching movies!


And another favorite activity: Story time :-)


The sun came out for approximately 3.5 minutes, when we got this photo of the grown-ups...


And another of my favorites from the session, Kathleen and her son.


Many more to come on the online proofing site... This session was truly a celebration of life, and of family, and of love. Kathleen, I'm so honored to have been part of your day.

Ashley and Chris

Ashley and Chris came all the way out from Minneapolis for their engagement session this morning! We've had a lot of dark clouds lately, but at least it wasn't raining... so we took advantage of the break in the rain and headed out to the country. Here are a few of my favorites!

Ashley shows horses, so this rural setting seemed a perfect match.



I love how he makes her laugh...



And this is one of my new favorites.


We went downtown for a walk along the river...


And Ashley told me, "If we fight about anything, it's this..." and she pointed to her Wisconsin sweatshirt and his Minnesota one. Not a bad thing to fight about ;-)


Thanks so much for a great session, Ashley and Chris! Can't wait for your wedding in Green Bay next summer :-)

Theresa and Allen

So much love and so much joy at Theresa and Allen's wedding last night!

Take a look at their slideshow, or you can scroll down for a few of our favorites.

The rings were gorgeous (thanks to my husband, Eric, for this shot)... he's been practicing with our brand-new macro lens and it shows!


The girls watching Theresa get dressed...


Theresa's father was remembered in so many touching ways throughout the day. Her dress revealed part of her tattoo, created in memory of him...


We went outside for some portraits before the ceremony. These girls were adorable!


And of course, if you have a swirly dress you have to take it for a twirl!


Allen during the ceremony. I love the expression on his face here.


Theresa during the ceremony...


Outside afterward...


And I just love this shot that Eric got of the groomsmen laughing. Another good reason to have two photographers is evident here: one of us always gets the formal, posed shot and the other gets everyone laughing right afterward :-)


Look at the look on his face! So in love...


And a formal portrait. These are so important! I like to think that this one will be handed down to the grandkids...


And this one is a stand-out, too -- it's an unusual pose, perhaps because it wasn't posed! We had walked over to some big trees to do a few portraits and something about the way Theresa was standing here caught my eye -- she seems like a really strong, independent woman and this image reflects that... and it looks like a fashion shot out of a magazine, don't you think?


One of the grandest "grand entrances" ever :-)


First dance.


The DJ (Travis at Madison Mobile DJ) got everyone dancing...


Do you want to know what's in the pretty box?


Good fortune :-)


Thanks so much, Theresa and Allen, for inviting us to share in your happiness. We wish you all the best ~ and of course there are lots more photos to come.

Candice and Josh

"One of the problems with eloping," Candice wrote to me in her first e-mail, "is no pictures."

Later, at our first meeting, she and Josh explained that they had eloped just prior to his deployment with the Marines, and a friend of Josh's had taken some pictures of their civil ceremony with their digital camera. That camera was stolen the next day (!!!) so they were left with no photographs at all of their wedding.

This time around they wanted lots of candids of family, friends, and the ceremony; posed shots with relatives; and creative photos of just the two of them. Candice had found me through my membership in the Wedding Photojournalist Association, and she said that photography was *really* important to her.

So today we met again -- and we had a truly lovely time. The air was cool, the sun was bright, and all in all it was a great day for Candice to marry the man of her dreams... again :-)









And here's their slideshow!

Crazy busy

OK so we're back and I've had some really fun shoots this past week. And also -- get this -- we got back from Colorado at 1 am and *six hours later* Eric and I were ripping out our kitchen ceiling.

I don't know what came over us. I woke up at 6 am and I took one look at our kitchen -- which I have never liked -- and decided something had to be done. Immediately. I decided I'd paint the cabinets, and I went upstairs to wake Eric up and tell him so. He came downstairs, looked over the situation, and said it would be a wasted effort to work on the cabinets before doing something about the ceiling, which looked kind of saggy and weird. A few hours later we were knee deep in plaster and lath, literally shoveling out our kitchen with a snow shovel!

So I've been doing photo sessions this week but we've been so busy dealing with the mess in the kitchen that I haven't had a chance to even *look* at many of the pictures yet, let alone start editing. But here are a few from a session in Milwaukee on Wednesday. This guy is Danny Litz, an aspiring model from Kenosha. I think he's got the look!