I whole heartedly believe brunch is mostly about the drinks. The more drinks you have the better the brunch. The very last photo in this blog is one of my favorites. There was Alterra Coffee, this spritzer/white wine magical punch drink, and a beery mary! I think about brunch all week long.
I shot the very first brunch at One Barrel Brewing! This thing happened where the Nostrano people showed up with food and they call it a pop up brunch! Right? They all talked about it like it’s a thing so I got on board and was hip to the pop up idea of food. It does seem very smart and delicious. Best grits i’ve ever had! I mean the whole idea is just so cute. First the drinks show up and then different courses of food came -drinks were refilled and people were mingling. It was amazing. OH, and there was also this bourbon pudding at the end. I’m still thinking about that.
Wisconsin folks are so bad ass!!! It’s cold. Man, it is cold. There was an iron pour one block from my house-how fun is that?! and cold. I met the delightful Alyssa from FeLion Studios a few months ago. This gal is a fun go-getter! She made all the states into cast iron skillets–I desperately need the Wisconsin one. It’s soooo cute. I hung out at the Sector67 for a few hours shooting some photos, drinking a few beers, and watching how an iron pour goes down. It was a good Saturday!
Tina is about my favorite person in the world. And Nick is probably my fourth favorite person in the world! AND THEY GOT MARRIED! It was a nice little ceremony at the HIlton Head with family members. The day was easy and cute and heartfelt. Good work team. I’m glad I got to be at your wedding! I did get to the wedding about an hour before the ceremony….a little stressful….but it works! Tina wore a dress she got at BHLDN-which is the Anthropologie wedding dress store. SO CUTE. SO SO CUTE. One of my favoritest dresses so far. And Tina couldn’t quit smiling. It was perfect.
I just love love love an outdoor meal on a long table! It’s just so romantic. And I’ve had a love for the fuzzy cows since I saw them in Scotland. I think in the Highland region–which is what these cows are called! Well, how about that. That makes so much sense. This dinner happened a couple Sundays ago-It was a perfect day at the Prairie Fountain Farm. The fancy L’etoile restaurant gets all their beef from this farm! I learned this because Tory Miller was at the farm doing all the cooking-with a team cooks and servers! There was a wagon ride & wine drinking. Unfortunately there wasn’t a cow hugging station. I wish I could live this event twice….once shooting it cause I love photo taking. and another time mostly drinking and maybe slow dancing and really eating the food. I did eat some food-It was pretty kick ass!
I shot this event for Natural Heritage Land Trust. info here! http://www.nhlt.org/
Learn about the Farm here: http://www.fountainprairie.com/farm.jsp
I shot the MATC graduation a couple weeks ago. It was the 100 year anniversary!! The graduates got ready at the downtown campus and walked down the street to the Overture! Pretty cool! A little windy and really hot! I was a bit of a sweaty mess. Gross.
I ran into a few teachers I knew from when I went to MATC–That was fun to see them. That’s right!! I’m MATC Alumni! I might get a sweatshirt.
A surprise proposal! wait, aren’t all proposals mostly a surprise? i think so. That’s the idea I hear. Ok, but i’m usually not there and for this one I was! Jillian proposed to Amy at the Majestic Theater and then had a whole party after to celebrate. That is some good planning on her part! There was this whole story about going to Woofs for free drinks but they had to get there before 9:30. Ok, i’m not sure about all the details cause I was taking photos…I couldn’t believe how cute Amy was for not knowing this was going to be a well documented event!!! jillian said she’s always look’n good. How cute are they!!!!???? (amy is wearing a polka dot dress. jillian look’n good in a hat!) Oh! also!!! a good time to take engagement type photos is right after the engagement because everyone is just so happy and can’t quit smiling. Easiest session in the world.
Congratulations guys!!! I loved shooting your proposal, super fun! oxox
Alexandra & Pete had an engagement party on the roof of the MMoCa! It was dreamy. I wish someone would throw a party for me up there. They had this beautiful outdoor couch, it felt like a magazine party. to me. I had a nice time. I think they did too.
North Carolina! We made it! My friend Tina lives in Charlotte so it was nice to have a real bed & shower! we shot some really great things in charlotte also-good worky things. It was 100% all leads that Tina gave us. Tina is the best! I’m going to caption these photos, I’m starting to forget what is what & where these days. so much traveling! I asked Eric & Nick how long they keep this up and Eric said “indefinitely” I liked that answer. I could do this for awhile longer. In my perfect world I’d like to park the RV longer in one spot & get out the bikes more. We’re so go! go! go!
Waffle House in North Carolina. Leaving Greensboro to get to Charlotte we saw the waffle house. I was so excited! Since this waffle house i’ve seen like 59 more. i’m not as excited anymore. but but but….they were nice to us. most people are. but we’re nice back. so there’s that.
This is Jamie! He is an electrician. I liked him. Easy to talk to, easy to hang out with. Like most of the people we’ve interviewed on this trip. Oh & the best thing about him is that he (for reals!) keeps on older rayovac flashlight in his front pocket all the time. he’s had it for 4 years now. He works out of his house & we went with him to a local barber shop to get photos of him doing some electrical work. 
Tina took us to the downtown Charlotte! Mostly we were excited to drink a beer but we first went to take photos of iconic-ness Charlotte for work. we’re hard workers. uh huh. We went to a sculpture garden by the art museum. It was really cool stuff. we took a group photo. I love a group pyramid. people should do this more often. The world should have more sculptures you can climb on. i hope it was ok we climbed on them. 
we look like this a lot. sometimes we might just run out of things to say to each other. 
This is Chris from Sign World. Chris is the middle of making a Coca Cola billboard. It’s huge! & it’s 3D-ish made of tin or something. he has a giant press like tool that doesn’t even need electrical cords. that’s a real tool! He is one of two people that work in the production part of Sign World. It was nice….he had some music going & a garage door open off to the side….fresh air & working with his hands. seems like a good gig. 
Right across the street from Sign World was a boat sales & repair place. So we strolled on over to see if they would be interested in trying out or flashlights and putting them to the test. We talked to a repair guy for a few minutes and took some photos of an engine he was working on. He’s cute with a nice smile. Oh, & this is a rare boat. There are only some left. Whatever the some number is….I guess it’s not very many. you know I think 5 is not very many but i’m sure it’s more like 5,000. I wish i had stars on my car. oh, 
hi! we’ve been to chicago. we had adventures in chicago! Our first stop was to talk & hang out with John Slavik, a scupture from right outside of Chicago. I just googled him & I think he must be pretty famous. here is a link to some of his work. http://www.opgallery.com/artists.php?artist_id=29
here are some facts: 1.during the interview with John kept talking about the wild turkeys and coyotes that he sees & years on his land. hey, that’s pretty cool. 2 he let us park our RV in the neighbors driveway. it was very nice! 2. we use my verizon hotspot to get the internet. the internet was not working very well so we put it on top of the rv. ….does this really work? apparently.
I kept imaging the coyotes wold be using my new cellular iphone to call their other coyote friends across town. i think coyotes might have a lot to say to each other.
The next day we went to chicago to some exploring and do another interview with Paul who is in the band Mr. Bloto. His studio is at this great location for Professor Eric to do some Rayovack flashlight tests! During the Paul interview I was in charge of the audio so I didn’t take too many photos. We took a tour of his tour bus. Mostly it smelled like boys but i bet those boys have a really great time!!
Eric is passionate about steel mills and steel. pass-ion-ate. for sure. I learned some facts about steal from him. I told him a steel mill to him is s pink town to me. i hope there is one. ok, right, so we went to Gary, Indiana to use the steel mill as a back drop for the flashlights. we got kicked out of the parking lot. those steel mills have better security than the mall!
I do photos for the isthmus sometimes. I did this assignment on first dates. This girl Lorri went on 5 first dates, which sounds super exciting! she has a blog about her life. you should check it out: http://your-illfitting-overcoat.blogspot.com/
Right-so the part of the assignment I got was to take photos. But not photos of Lorri & her dates but people I can talk into going on a date. or a sorta date while I take their photo. I went on 4 dates. It was a great week full of adventures! Adventures are my favorite. I talked Heather & Eric, Kristel & Mike, Kristel & Bryan, and Andrew & Jennifer to go out with me. Kristel went on two dates! Ok, so the first date was at the gallery with Eric & Heather. Mostly this date was successful except the gallery people got mad at us for taking photos in the gallery. After they said we could….I even got a little badge that said visitor or something. It always kinda throws me a bit when I get a talk’n too. So we left & got a drink at the Pauls Club.
The next date was a night walk at the Arboretum with Kristel & Mike. I learned some valuable lessons this night. Taking photos on a night walk is not easy. We were with a group. I got yelled at again for taking photos on a night walk. I get it that my flash was disruptive to the night part of walk. AHHH!! & trying to keep up with the group-talking photos-not talking photos-cold. When we the walk was over we got drinks at the Mason on Park Street. Super cute bar!
The third date was contra dancing at the Gates of Heaven Synagogue at the James Madison Park with Kristel & Bryan. Bryan was nervous so i think he had a few drinks before we went. or he was really thirsty. maybe he was just thirsty. The contra people gave Kristel & Bryan a little dancing lesson before the real dancing started. It wasn’t enough. In the middle of a dance I think Bryan got really nervous and left. & it’s scary to do all these moves and everyone else has them down……& then it feels like people are mad at you. I didn’t have to experience any of this-but I get it. Life feels like that sometimes. Then I think someone yelled at Kristel cause her dance partner left the group. It wouldn’t be the same if someone wasn’t irritated with us. This was for sure my most favorite date! It was so so funny! Kristel & Bryan had some melt down moments in the basement where they yelled at each other for a few minutes and then i took some photos of them dancing. Disasters bring people closer together. right? i hope so. Then we went to the Mickeys and had some drinks.
The last date was with Andrew & Jennifer! We went to the Union to see a free movie. The movie was Catfish. This movie was great! See it.Sooooo…..by now I feel like i’ve got this down! We showed up early early early to take photos in the theater without bugging anyone! Mostly I just had them eat popcorn & look cute while I took their photo. They were good at it. Nothing terrible happened. It was smooth! You can even get a beer & drink it during the free movie. I feel like I found out a Madison secret.
