Tim + Jaime Taulbee {Wedding}

This past Saturday, Kevin and I had the opportunity to photograph and celebrate the amazing wedding of Jaime Nalli and Tim Taulbee.

After a week of rain and storms, everyone was relieved when Saturday arrived warm and sunny, especially since the ceremony was to be held outdoors at the beautiful Grecian Center in Southgate, MI. We had to fight the every-changing lighting due to the harsh midday sun and spotty, dense clouds, but Jaime and her girls were cooperative, upbeat and so much fun!  We love it when we have the opportunity to work with such great people!

Everyone knew the moment the guys arrived on the scene - just look at this imposing group!  We were reminded a bit of an old 1920s mobstor gang (minus the tommy-guns) while photographing these men.  They provided us with a lot of laughs and a lot of amazing photo-ops!

Jaime and Tim's ceremony was simple, sweet and gorgeous!  The Grecian Center has a beautiful outdoor pavilion for special events and weddings, and we couldn't have thought of a more beautiful location to celebrate such an important day.

It is well known that both Tim and Jaime are fun-loving and spontaneous, as are their entire bridal party. The playground shots were must-haves for this group! 

The reception was held inside the Apollo Hall at the Grecian Center, right on the same grounds as the ceremony.  The party was rocking and the dance floor was hopping all night long!  Congratulations again to you both, Tim and Jaime!  May you be surrounded by love and cherish the memories from your wedding day always.

~ Kevin & Heather

Jenny McHenry {Senior 2011}

Jenny McHenry was so much fun and her photo shoot was simply amazing! We had a great time traveling all over and around Plymouth to get these shots, and Jenny was so relaxed and easy-going that we took WAY too many portraits (a common problem).

We loved Jenny's natural beauty and her gorgeous auburn hair - definitely easy to photograph.  Enjoy this sample of images from her senior portrait session.

~ Kevin & Heather

Frugal Friday - In the Laundry Room

One place I like to save a few pennies is in the laundry room with one simple little trick.

I learned a while ago that you can easily divide your fabric softener amount in half and still obtain the same soft and fluffy (and static-free) results.  We use dryer sheets and it is simple, easy and very cost effective to cut a stack of them in half for future use.  I have never once felt that our clothes have been less then perfect and I love the fact that I can save pennies with each load of laundry I do.  With a family of 6 with young children, you can be sure I do a lot of laundry, which means I save a lot of pennies! 

~Heather

Neighborhood Visitors

This spring, the tree directly outside our guest bedroom was chosen to be the nesting site to a pair of Blue Jays.  What fantastic front-row seating to one of the miracles of life!  Unfortunately, however, we only discovered the nest once the nestlings got noisy and quite vocal around feeding time, just a few days before they left the nest.  Feeding time was quite the early-morning alarm clock to our recent house guests - lol.

Yesterday, as I was folding clothes in the laundry room, I glanced out the window and noticed two little dark eyes surrounded by a mess of blue and gray feathers staring directly at me.  The fledglings were out of their nest and about to embark on their first great adventure of life!  I quickly grabbed my camera and headed outside.  As I snapped a few quick images, I realized just how fragile and dangerous those first few days out of the nest were - the fledglings are unable to fly, rely on mom and dad still to feed them and are completely vulnerable to predators.  I had Eli run and lock up our two barn cats immediately and hoped that there weren't any other furry hunters in the area looking for a quick snack!

We've kept our eye out for the babies today, but so far there hasn't been any sign of them.  Hopefully they are hiding well and staying out of trouble.  It would be great to see them set up residence in our backyard with all our other woodland creatures.  You've got to admit, they are cute!

~Heather

A few of my favorite apps...

In this electronically-enabled day and age, many of us have smart phones and many of us are self-proclaimed app-addicts.

I will be the first to admit that this is something I may need to seek counseling for.   When downloading productivity or task management apps I have great and noble intentions of using them, however my problem comes when I keep searching for a better one and in the end never fully use any of them!  I'm sure there must be a self-help book out there for other 'app junkies' like me.

On my phone are many apps, but not all are created equal.  I'd love to share with you the apps that I find the most useful and the most often used.  These apps are iPhone specific, but I'm sure there are Droid compatible apps out there too.

CALENGOO

First, one that we couldn't handle our busy lives without is CalenGoo. If you use Google Apps or, at a minimum, Gmail and you make use of their calendar then this is a MUST. CalenGoo synchronizes with your Google Calendar and looks pretty much just like the online version. You are able to create Events and Tasks and within seconds it will synchronize with the web. Heather and I share our calendars with each other online, and when each of us links our CalenGoo to our own Google Calendar, we can view each others schedule.  Definitely super cool and super helpful in our busy lives!!!

FLASHLIGHT

On to number 2.  It may seem sorta goofy, but Flashlight comes in super handy regularly. I have been surprised at how often I end up using this app.   I have flipped it on anywhere from working in a tight area (like fixing a plumbing leak) to a night time photo shoot where our auto-focus is having a rough time focusing in the dark.

DROPBOX

Number 3 - Dropbox.  For those of you who haven't heard of Dropbox at all, it is pretty much a must have for multiple computer users (even for those without smartphones). I have a few entrepreneurial friends that I've introduced Dropbox to and it has helped change how they do business - anywhere from a CPA transferring Quicken and Quickbooks files to and from their clients, to a bookkeeper keeping certain files synchronized on multiple computers. The way Dropbox works is that it installs a very small application on your computer (PC or MAC) that keeps a folder and all of its sub-folders synchronized with a web server. You can then install that same application on as many other computers as you would like and 'VIOLA' all of your computers, as well as the web server, are constantly synchronized.

The smartphone app for Dropbox basically makes the web server available on your phone. A couple of ways that I make use of it is for active client contracts, a document or article that I want to read but am not sure when/where I will be to read it, audio/video lectures or training material to listen to while in the car, etc.  With the Dropbox app I don't have to go through the process of putting the files on to my phone, they're just accessing them from the "cloud".

SQUARE

Last for today is Square.  This app is another must for every merchant, and it can even be great for people that are active on CraigsList, etc.  When you sign up with Square they send you a little card scanner that plugs into the headphone jack of your smartphone (iPhone and Droid). Once the app is installed and you have the scanner, you can swipe a credit/debit card and make transactions all day long.  Don't have the card in hand, just punch in the card number and you're all set.  I love the convenience of this!  Square then does a direct deposit into the linked bank account. The per transaction amount that they charge is less than most places and with the $0.00 monthly fee you really can't beat Square.

~ Kevin