DWF Vegas

Last week I spent 4 days with some of the top photographers in the industry for the annual Digital Wedding Forum convention in Vegas. It was great! There were some incredible speakers on all sorts of topics: pricing, copyright, shooting styles, clients; the list goes on! I didn't shoot very much, but I did manage to squeeze in some shooting time while wandering along the strip.


We were carted out to the middle of the desert for a shoot and stayed right until sunset.


I was walking along the strip heading to see Mystére (which is incredible!) when I saw hundreds of people gathered along the sidewalk staring at the Mirage. I was confused until the volcano started erupting. So cool!


A family watching the volcano


Many years ago back in college I spun my camera while shooting some fall leaves, curious as to the effect. I loved the blending of colors and starting bringing this style to all sorts of my work. I would spin the camera, zoom the lens, pan the camera, do anything that would create more movement. I then suddenly was bored with the style, as I was doing it constantly. Taking a hiatus was good, but seeing all these incredible colors that week made me want to try the style again.










The famous Chihuly exhibit




A full moon and Paris: what could be more romantic?

A weekend down state

Neal and I spent last weekend visiting his family in and around Altamont, IL. Usually these weekends are relaxing and slow-paced, but we were visiting people non-stop. It was great to see everybody! Of course, most of my photos were of the animals we passed along the way :)


Neal's dad is a bird lover and has always had various feeders outside the kitchen window.


Neal had brought a gift for his grandma, a digital photo album (those things rock!). She was quite appreciative. She's still going strong at 101!


We headed to his aunt and uncle's place where we were greeted by a cute little green-eyed kitty.




His aunt and uncle have two dogs roaming the house. This is Rivers, very much a people-dog.








Meet Grizzly, the very sad looking pooch.


Moving on the art section of the weekend...


The little green-eyed kitty had gone inside by this point and was watching me from the safety of the window.


There was also a cute orange kitty who seemed to be terrified of me, but he watched me from behind the bikes.


A cool windmill in his aunt and uncle's house




Great light coming in through the bathroom


We stopped in Champaign-Urbana on our way home and spent some time in a chapel with neat windows.

A fine art day

This past weekend I ventured out to Moraine Valley Community College to see Neal in his dance troupe performance. Much fun! No photos were allowed during the performance, but I did explore the campus before the show.


This was taken before I left my house. It's a little mouse made of various metal pieces that was a gift from my grandma. It's so adorable and deserves blog presence.




Now on to Moraine Valley: a sculpture on the campus.




This is actually a tree branch against a pretty blue sky, but I was playing with colors and really liked the bright orange.


Crawling around on the (very cold) pavement near a puddle


Same puddle


Inside the Fine and Performing Arts Building




I was drawn to this gumball machine; the building housing it was locked, so I played around with reflections through the glass.