I think I might be more tired that this girl. We both got up super early today. I dropped her off at daycare, and then I headed into an all-day shoot downtown. I shot more than 4,000 frames at the company I was photographing, and after more than 8 hours, I headed back to pick up the vizsla. And now we are both comatose on the couch watching old action movies on TV.Don't worry, I still have an internet share for you today. This is a wonderful series of photos of dogs' noses. I love it!

Tonight I photographed a family out at a pumpkin patch (have I mentioned how great fall is?) and I caught this moment between these sisters while I was adjusting the light readings on my camera. Cute, eh?Otherwise, I immersed myself into the Breaking Bad finale, and man was I pleased with how THAT turned out. I find it rare that books, movies and TV shows find the perfect ending, but of course the people over at AMC made it so. That was a great end to the evening.For your internet share of the day, I'm sending you to explore these images of lots and lots and lots of animals congregating together. My favorites include the bats, the sardines and the whales. I'm kinda predictable that way.

Today I had four different shoots for an upcoming project (that I will surely tell you all about when the people that hired me give me the green light), and I got to photograph some AMAZING places. This was one such spot, and omg the smells and the music and the location and the sights? It was glorious. I love how the water in the mason jars is all frosty. This was my first shot as I was adjusting my camera for the light before any food was plated.Man, today was fun. I want more projects like this, please!Today you (kinda) get two internet shares of the day (both from my lovely friend Margaret who scours the web like no other). The first is a map showing all of the Sasquatch sightings in the last 92 years. There are even some in Kansas! Fascinating.The second share is a story about Vince Gilligan (who wrote 'Breaking Bad') is starting a new TV series called 'Battle Creek.' For those of you who don't know, I lived in Battle Creek, MI for my first 11 months out of college, and it was the absolute most miserable time of my entire existence. The only bright spots were when I escaped to visit Jamie in Los Angeles before I joined him there, and the crazy dog I adopted (Maudee, the neurotic sheltie). And if you don't believe me about the craziness that was this town, take me out for wine and ask me about my neighbor who would often wake me up with her sex screams. Her real-life name was Barbie. Her stripper name (because yes, she was a stripper) was Candy. You cannot make this stuff up, I tell you.

Man, what a day. I had four meetings, a photo shoot, a conference call and a gazillion emails. I. Am. Beat.At my shoot this evening, this young boy (whose name is Finn, which I adore) discovered the fun of climbing trees. This was the first tree he had climbed, and man, was he enthralled. It was adorable.I was supposed to attend a concert tonight, but I'm just too tired. Instead I'm gonna have a glass of wine, catch up on television, and process a bunch of wedding photos.For your internet share of the day, I'm sending you to see some gorgeous photos of people in Chicago in the rain and snow. These are so lovely and such a great use of light. I'm about to start my lectures on photography and light in my class at the U next week, and looking for inspiration for my students is always so much fun.

Dang this kid kills me. So first, let's just get it out in the open that I love it when dogs wear bandanas. I am not for dressing up my animals in clothes or costumes or whatever (poor things), but for some reason, I like the bandana look, and I think the red looks so nice on Mags. Plus? Hidden side effect? Something about wearing it around her neck makes her more... timid? Shy? Calm? Whatever, I'll take it.So I put this on her yesterday or the day before, and today I was in the kitchen trying yet again to snap images of birds at the bird feeder (no luck guys, sorry!), and I turned and saw her in the living room watching me just like this. Holding the bandana in her mouth. Something about this reminds me of a kid sucking his thumb -- not sure why. Anyway, I had to get the shot. The bad news was that my camera settings were (literally) for the birds, and the image came out way dark. When I fixed it in Photoshop, there was a lot of grain in the photo. So we're gonna just live with that.Also, can you guys believe how bad I suck at getting bird photos?! I had no idea it would be this hard! Ah well, I'll keep practicing.And speaking of birds and nature and such, today I posted some photos from the wedding I shot in Lake Tahoe this weekend! Go ahead and click. You know you want to see that bear that came to the lodge!Now, let's get to the internet share of the day, shall we? Today I'm sending you to Jimmy Fallon telling you a story about his ping pong match with Prince. Oh you guys, I love this so very much. I still remember, clear as yesterday, when I learned about Prince. I was nine, and my mom and her best friend and her daughter and I were driving to Kansas City for back to school shopping. This was such an exciting thing for me to do because in Kansas City they had Saks Fifth Avenue! And Banana Republic! And The Gap! And we didn't have those stores in Wichita at the time. (BTW, this might have been the trip that yielded me my very first pair of Guess jeans.) Anyway, I was in the backseat with Susan Kluge (mom's friend's daughter) who had brought her walkman and loaned me the Purple Rain tape to listen to. I just played it over and over and over the whole weekend, I loved it so much.And now, to this day, I still fantasize about seeing Prince at the local grocery store, in his heels, trying to choose his breakfast cereal. HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE? Anyway, you can see why this ping pong story is so great for me. 

Ah yes, fall... my favorite season. Another reason I love this part of the year is all of the soup I can make! Tonight I kicked things off with a delicious Walleye stew. You guys, it was so tasty.This was my first time making it, and I want to make a few more adjustments, and then I'll show you a finished image and pair it with a recipe. For now, you just have to trust me that wine, walleye, broth, tomatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, garlic, sweet potato, red pepper, thyme and basil all taste delicious together. Mmmmm...For my internet share today, you're getting to see this BEAUTIFUL website. Whether you stand behind the message or not, just play along and see how it works. It's so rare to be surprised (in a good way) by web design these days, and I love it when it happens!

So today I was living the glamorous life of a freelancer, taking a break between client invoicing, mileage reports and emails to do other fabulous work like picking up dog poop from the backyard (what? I don't want you people to think it's all about the travel and the excitement! You need to hear about the reality as well...), and I saw a huge cicada bug. I quickly snapped a photo for instagram and then ran inside for my macro lens to get a really cool photo. And when I came back outside, it was gone.So later this afternoon, I was trying to figure out what to photograph for the blog (in the back of my mind, of course, as I edited photos and maintained websites), and I realized that I never really celebrated the first day of fall on my blog. And we all know fall is my FAVORITE season. You have the crisp air, the fresh school supplies, the fires in the fireplace and the brand new TV shows. What's not to love?? So I thought I would head back out with my macro lens and shoot some leaves or flowers or something.I bent down to snap these porch plants and then a bee landed on them right in my frame. That's how you spell a.w.e.s.o.m.e., in case you're wondering. Then? Then ANOTHER bee (of a different breed!) landed! Also in my frame! AND THEN! Then they started to FIGHT! It was like the Discovery channel on my front porch!!What? Don't give me that look. I just told you what the rest of my day was like. This was EXCITING, dammit.Anyway, for those of you who are not camera and lens geeks like myself, one thing to know is that my macro lens is manual focus. No snappy auto-focus for this girl, so these are the best three shots I got. Much like the fox, I simply could not edit it down to one image.Ok, ok, ok. Enough about Mother Nature. For your internet share of the day, I'm sending you over to this cool graphic that illustrates time -- and the coolest part is looking at the life of a current 30-year-old in graphic form. Or at least I thought so. Enjoy!

And we're back! You should have heard the happy squealing this little girl was making when we got home tonight -- it was one hundred percent adorable. She and Merlin were thrilled to see us, and it is so good to be back home with them, eating our favorite thai food, watching our favorite tv shows (while we work our butts off to prepare for our jobs tomorrow).But enough about work! How about I entertain you with some crazy, creative facial hair! I promise, you've never seen anything like this before.