Tim & Nikki Goetze Wedding

This past weekend Renee and I got to travel to Waterford, Michigan (Suburbs of Detroit) for the wedding of our friends Nikki Pietrzak and Tim Goetze. It was my first time in Michigan and it was incredible. I got to ride over 8 Mile rd and listen to Kidd Rock. It can't get any more Detroit, MI than that. As a guest at the wedding and not a photographer I tried to keep my distance from the couple and let their paid photographer do his thing. But guess what, I got some pretty sweet pictures anyway. So many that I hope to have a slide show up Wednesday. But in the mean time I can't help but share a few of these with you.

So here is Nikki and her father walking down the isle towards Tim.
Amazingly enough she made it up the isle and went through with it. Here is Tim celebrating is success.
The reception was held at the Fountains Country Club and Golf Course.
They had a chocolate fountain and a MASSIVE cake made by Tim's Mother (I believe).
During the reception Tim was a good sport and even encouraged the Tapping of the wine glasses.And she couldn't look any happier.

She was even happy enough to clean the floor with her beautiful new dress. This "alligator" dance is a Michigan thing, so don't ask me. I'm still trying to figure it out.
I guess I would expect it from locals like these...
After that they got a little dirtier. Check out her eyes, talk about love.
Near the end of the reception, Tim's Dad had a special treat and got the DJ to play the "If I were a Rich Man" song, where Tim continued to do is traditional finger snap and body shake dance. For those of us who work with Tim, this is classic Tim.
Man, what a great weekend. I hope you two have a great time in Hawaii. I can't wait to hear all about it.

Unfortunately with the good also comes the bad...Who ever said grown men don't cry has never had their new D300 w/lens fall to the ground. The happy news couldn't wait, so I'll post more about that epic shattered filter tomorrow.

VICTORY is Mine

As I've said before, I am currently only a part time photographer. Between the hours of 0630 and 1600 (and whenever my blackberry buzzes) I'm a Chemical Engineer/Systems Engineer for the US ARMY. So in the spirit of being all that I can be, I decided to become a "Professional Engineer" or licensed engineer.

The "PE" is the Principles and Practices Exam given by the NCEES a non-profit licensing group for engineers and surveyors. Basically, twice a year they organize an 8 hour long test designed to torture engineers. Its the culmination of 4 years of documented engineering work and an additional 8 hour exam taken at the start of the 4 years of work called the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.

I think the hardest part was the long wait for the results, but that's now over. After waiting 74 excruciating days, the results from the PE exam finally came in the mail and I PASSED!!!


Its now time for a nice cold refreshing beverage to celebrate my success.

Oh yeah and the fun doesn't stop here, Renee is planning to take the PE next year in the Spring of '09. So wish her luck, even though I know she's gonna do fine.

Cherries

BEWARE of Guard Owl.

Talk about timing. After a few weeks of traveling we finally picked up Lexi, our dog, from Renee's parents house and as soon as she got home she had to go potty. So she ran around the side of the house like she normally does and I followed. As soon as I rounded the corner of the house I could see the hundreds of cherries STILL on the branches of our cherry tree and they were perfectly ripe.

So I conducted an emergency picking operation and was able to get around 3lbs of cherries off the tree. Unfortunately the cherries near the top of the 25+ft tree were over ripe, but the rest were perfect (yes, I did climb the tree). I'm not sure what kind of cherries they are, but they are slightly sour with a sweet finish!

Hopefully next year we can time the harvest just a few days earlier and get twice as many cherries.

Stephen and Heather

So here goes, my first slideshow.

This is of Stephen and Heather's wedding on May 17, 2008 at the Sheraton in Columbia, MD. I shot this wedding as a second shooter for David Cearfoss Photography out of Fallston, MD. It's always a pleasure working with David. As a second shooter I got to follow Stephen around on his wedding day. And since the bride tends to get most of the attention I decided to use my images from the day to make a slideshow that focuses more on his part of the day.

Hope you enjoy the show. They are awesome couple and threw a great party.

Click HERE!!!

The Furminator

No, I'm not skinning a cat. I'm using the Furminator deshedding tool on Sandy, one of our cats.

The furminator looks and sounds like one of those "As seen on TV" products that are nothing more than a waste of your money, but man looks can be deceiving. This thing is AMAZING! After 2 brush strokes I was able to remove more loose hair than I ever did using a normal brush.

I'm a avid cat lover and unfortunately have a number of friends who are allergic to cats. Hopefully this will help to remove some of the lingering fur and dander around the house making their visits that much more comfortable.

These things aren't cheap, but they are worth every penny. They also make for great pics...

Wedding Season

So it probably wasn't a good idea to start a blog during wedding season. May has been ridiculous. 2 weddings to shoot, 1 to attend, 1 to be a groomsman in, and my own. It has been amazing, but now that the honeymoon is over I have a mountain of pictures to sort through.

I was just looking through Heather & Stephen's wedding from May 17th and can't wait to get some images up. But after waking up at 4am (est) and flying to Utah and then driving into the desert and working till 7pm (mtn) I'm a little beat.

But I will post a pic, it's one of those how I'm feeling pics. This picture happens to be of the flower girl from the previously mentioned wedding as her father woke her up from her nap to get ready for the wedding.
























So now as taps play over the Dugway Proving Ground loud speakers I think I'll hit the sack.