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I had a fun opportunity to try something new this week. I received a last minute offer of a photo pass to First Avenue to photograph the They Might Be Giants concert. I don’t have much interest in concert photography and very little experience (well, none would probably be more accurate, with the exception of various outdoor, afternoon concerts) but I’m a (admittedly rather lax) TMBG fan so I thought it might be fun to give it a try.

Let me tell you…concert photography? It’s hard. It was hot and crowded and very dark and the stage lighting was constantly changing and as the opening band played its fifth and sixth songs that sounded exactly like 1-4 and the girl next to me continued to dig her elbow into my side, I wondered what on earth I’d been thinking when I’d decided to go. But when TMBG finally got on stage, I was so glad I’d gone.

When I say I’m something of a lax fan, I mean it’s been quite awhile since I’ve listened to or followed the band. Their album Flood was actually the first cd I ever bought, back when I received a discman for Christmas (woowoo!) and my uncle took me to a used cd store on the Ohio State campus and I got to pick out something to listen to in said fancy new contraption. And I loved that album but that’s about the last time I listened to them so I only knew about five of the songs. Thankfully, it didn’t really matter. They had a great and energetic stage presence, the crowd was completely into it and their stuff was good and funny and entertaining. My photo pass allowed me to spend the first three songs right up at the stage and the remainder sitting in the stairwell which was blissfully free of other people. I left the show somewhat deafened and a bit tired but definitely glad I went.

(Incidentally, TMBG has several children’s cds out now as well - they played a few songs from them which were equally entertaining to the adults - so if you’re looking for new music for the kiddos and you’re over Raffi, you might check them out.)

A big fat sneak peak for the D Fam because I had way too much fun at their session. Ben is another photographer friend of mine (yes, about 99% of my friends are photographers, it’s kind of wacky) and I met him and his family at Richardson Nature Center in Bloomington one evening. The weather threatened storms but turned out to be quite perfect for photos and we had the area pretty much to ourselves.

(In case you are wondering, the nature center has lots of frogs but no alligators…that we could find anyway.)

I did not steal either of the kids to take home with me, although I was pretty tempted and might reconsider sometime soon. Thanks for a fun session, guys!

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to shoot a wedding at the Semple Mansion with Daniel Snow. The Mansion is a beautiful location and the wedding was beautiful as well. I wanted to share a few quick shots while I’m in between editing sessions!

Someone has been neglecting the blog a bit! It’s not entirely because I’m spending all my time with my beautiful new iPhone but I can’t say that I’m not already loving it. Okay, I’ve actually been really busy taking photos, preparing print orders and working on a few fun, upcoming projects.

Last weekend, Julie came over to my home studio so we could do some maternity photos. She arrived with a bagful of wonderful wardrobe and accessory options so we did a little bit of inside and a little bit of out.

Her husband came with her and we grabbed a few photos of him too before he did some serious studies on the comfort factor of my new hammock.

I know the sex and name of the baby-to-be but I’m not sure if the J family is sharing that publicly yet so I’ll just say that it’s a super cute name. Thanks for coming over guys and congrats on your new addition!

I met up with the Z Family early yesterday morning at Lion’s Coon Creek Park in Coon Rapids. I do a lot of shoots with just one child so a family of six, with three of them beingfive years and younger, was pretty exciting! Lot of sibling love in this family…they were very cute!

This last shot is my favorite of the session…Mom’s idea!