Meet Mckenzie! She's nine days old, and super fun to just watch. She has tons of facial expressions, and is pretty strong for her age. And you should see how sweet the family dog is with this cutie. Lucky girl.
Well, I bet you didn't expect to find me at Lady Gaga, now did you? Heh, trust me, I was just as surprised as you are. Jamie scored some tickets through work, so we thought we'd check it out. And since the tickets said "NO CAMERAS ALLOWED," I snuck in a point and shoot, only to learn that those were just fine and totally allowed.So just for the record, many of you ask me (a lot) what kind of point and shoot is the best. I haven't researched this in awhile, but I did last week, and I borrowed this Canon S90 to test out at the show. While it's not as sharp as my dynamite Nikon D700, it's pretty great for a point and shoot. And a little birdie told me that they're about to come out with the Canon S95, so you might want to hold off a few weeks before buying one. But I would like to point out that I shot this using the manual controls, and if you are ever shooting a concert, please do us all a huge favor and turn off your flash. A) Your photos will be better and B) other photographers might stop mocking you.
Today we tackled the state fair -- and man, were we beat by the time we were done. We *tasted* onion rings, honey ice cream, the peaches and cream parfait, fried green tomatoes (awesome!), corn fritters, fresh pineapple pina colada, and cheese curds. I also witnessed the eating of a scotch egg (hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage, breaded and deep fried) and a deep-fried cheeseburger (yes, the bun was included). So yeah. Our arteries are officially clogged.But at the end of our day, we made it down to the animal barns. Oh, how I love seeing the crazy chickens and the goats. These guys always give me great poses, and I love those eyes. They remind me of Shrek.
Baby Bodhi is growin' up! Look at that hair! And his cheeks are totally proportional! Remember him back here? Anyway, his dad invited us over tonight so we could test out a bunch of recipes. Um, yeah. Anytime anyone needs us as taste testers? Please feel free to reach out. Especially if you are an amazing thai cook. The food was amazing, and it just kept coming. Plus? I got to hang out with my good buddy Courtnay, and it's always so good to see her outside of the office.
I had a photo session today for some senior portraits over in Woodbury. I hadn't done any sessions out there before, but we decided to do the shoot in Lake Elmo. Man, there are some great spots in that park, but you know what else they have there? Swarms of mosquitoes. Still, it was completely worth it.This lovely lady is one of the most grown up seniors I have ever met. She wants to go to nursing school after she graduates and then move to Africa and work as a midwife. Talk about some goals! Very impressive.
I stopped by The Fetus tonight on the way home to hear an in-store performance by S.Carey. If you are a fan of the Bon Iver genre of winter/Wisconsin/cabin music, you should check this band out. It was amazing to see how they pulled the sound off live, using cello bows on a xylophone and all kinds of unusual instrumentation. This makes great early-morning music. Oh! And they're playing at the Southern Theater Friday night. Check it.
Tonight after work (after a very long, and very annoying day at the office) I met up with a few friends for dinner at Nick and Eddie. Do you know what the special was? LOBSTER ROLL. I am so mad at myself for not taking a photo, but the waiter set down that amazing and delicious sandwich in front of me, and I'm sad to report that all I could do was eat it. Taking a photo was the last thing on my mind (sorry, kittens).So after I finished scarfing down my delicious dinner, I realized I forgot to take a photo and had not shot a single thing all day. My buddy Mandy suggested I shoot the alley (which is one of my favorite spots in the Twin Cities). So here you have it. A beautifully lit dark alley. I'll try to do better tomorrow...
Today was our fall fashion shoot, which is a ton of fun... but hard to show here. I don't want to give anything away, but I want you to have a taste before our issue hits the stands. So this is what you get. Check back with me in a few weeks and I can show you the final shots, which I have very high hopes for. Also, some of you ask me if I shoot these, and no, I don't shoot our fashion spreads. I'm the art director, which means I hire all the stylists, choose the location, pick the themes/plan out the looks with the crew and work with our amazing photographer, Carlos. Then I lurk around and take background images to show you guys ;) Lucky for me, Carlos never minds.