Great encouragement from the great John Jay, the Executive Creative Director and Partner of the Wieden + Kennedy advertising agency!
Have we mentioned how much we love photographing seniors? Capturing who they are and what makes them tick is a creative, sometimes challenging, but always fun opportunity that we enjoy completely! It's a creative high we get, what can we say? :)
Tuesday evening was another interesting evening weather-wise, with severe thunderstorms predicted complete with 40+ mph winds, frequent cloud-to-ground lightning and heavy downpours. Instead of a storm however, we got mostly clear skies and a beautiful, breezy evening. Go figure. <shrug> We almost rescheduled the session, but we're so glad that Matt was game to give it a try, despite the weather forecast.
Three years ago we photographed Matt's brother, Robert, and it was great to have another opportunity to work with the Wood family. Check out Matt's teasers from our shoot together and be sure to let him know what you think!
Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.
Meetup's mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.
Monday night was pretty gloomy and rain threatened the entire evening, but our photshoot with Erik Porchik was anything but dreary! Even with the challenge of gray skies we were still able to capture the individualaity of Erik with some pretty sa-weet cloud textures.
Workin with Erik was a blast and if it wasn't for the horrible onslaught of mosquitoes, the evening would have been perfect! Erik was willing to try just about anything we threw at him, including climbing on top of a train just to capture a different perspective. His sister, Kerianne, was a huge help throughout the photoshoot too, and provided the perfect comic relief when we needed a genuine smile or two.
Check out Erik's teasers and be sure to let him know your favorites.
Finding a family vacation destination that doesn't break the bank is tough these days. Although Disneyworld, indoor waterpark resorts, amusement parks and cruises can be the ideal vacation to some, they can also be out of the budget for others.
Kevin and I love to camp, and our kiddos have followed us in our the love of the great outdoors. Sometimes however, it's nice to be able to get away and not have to rely on an open campfire to cook our food, and to have such modern conveniences as indoor plumbing and microwaves! Just a few weeks ago we were blessed with the opportunity to use the family cottage of my dad's cousin in Canada for free. We had to supply the gas to get ourselves there and the food to feed ourselves, but otherwise the vacation couldn't have been any more frugal! Perfect for a family on a budget.
We were blessed with this vacation opportunity because we swapped services with my second cousin (my dad's cousin) this past winter. What a frugal way to relax and rejuvenate! When on a budget, ask yourself: do I have services or abilities I can offer to others? Do I own something that can be lent or used to save someone else money? Budgeting for an extravagant vacation is very exciting and worthwhile, but in the in-between years it's good to be creative and enjoy your family without having to count every penny. Get to it! Rack your brain for ideas and ask those around you for some swapping suggestions. It might not be a vacation you get out of it, but there are plenty of possibilities, to be sure.
Do you have any great penny-pinching vacation ideas? What are some of your favorite budget-friendly activities? Any swapping successes? We'd love to hear what you do with your family.
And of course, here are some of our photos from the trip to Canada:
And you can't expect two photographers to go into the glorious Canadian wilderness (or cottage country, at least) and NOT take scenery pictures! Kevin took the majority of these images early in the morning (between 5am-6am) - now that's some photography dedication to get up early on vacation!
And, of course, we couldn't miss out on the sunset and night time pictures either.
~ Heather
