Jenny and Jimmy’s wedding was my second Door County wedding for the year. A very elegant wedding no doubt! The setting was absolutely perfect! We shot formals in Fish Creek, beach shots in Bailey’s Harbor and one heck of a classy wedding reception at the Stone Harbor Resort in Sturgeon Bay. Jenny and Jimmy were so awesome to work with, right from the start. Many thanks to Jenny for helping me find “the good light” for the photos.

Their wedding website is the first I’ve done with my new slideshow layout. It’s still a “work in progress”, with the upcoming addition of a music media player and some minor tweaking to the “next” and “previous” triggers. Many thanks go out Andy at Beacon Studio for his hard work! Expect to see more of his work in the coming months!

You can view the slideshow HERE!

~dave

I’m way overdue for photo updates here. So, with that being said, here are three fairly recent shoots.

First up are a few shots from a shoot with Meghan and some of her friends. I did her senior pictures a few months back. She was so stoked with her photos, she booked me AGAIN, for some fun shots with her friends. Matt, keeping true to his style, got to be apart of it.

Next is Kate. These are from her senior shoot. I absolutely love working with Kate. She worked with me over a year ago, for some promo shots for a book she was working on. Going into this recent location-shoot, was smooth. The best part of it was, the Plymouth station wagon, with a rear facing seat in the hatchback. This was also the very first time I cracked out my Russian made Hartblei tilt-shift lens. I’ve found that I need to work with this much more, than shooting my SIMPLEDIRTY work. Thanks to Kate, if your ever in Green Bay and want a truly amazing burger… it’s all about Al’s Hamburgers. Crazy good!

Last is Ellen. This girl can SMILE! I literally had to force her to draw a serious, moody face. I knew going into the shoot, she wanted to accentuate her love for bike riding. She brought this old-school Schwinn, straight out of the 70′s. That, coupled with these crazy red shoes and her homemade dress, inspired me beyond words. I typically visualize my client’s personalities with color, even before the day of the shoot. I think we nailed it…

More to come soon, have faith!
~dave

This is Adam. He is my brand spanking new assistant. And from the looks of it, he’s gonna be a perfect fit. He’s a freakin’ workhorse. And he’s more than eager to learn the ropes.

Please welcome him to my family, and by all means.. feel free to harass the crap out of him on shoots and out on the streets when you see him walking.

(Photo by Nate Nygren)

This is his first ever attempt at shooting with off-camera lighting.

And this is where he feels right at home…

~dave

I kid you not! So for all you Apple laptop owners, especially those with a MacBook or MacBook Pro, sit down and listen to my words. OK, here is my story…

Thursday night, I sit down to my MacBook Pro with a cup of coffee, some Miles Davis spinning in the background and my favorite my fuzzy bunny rabbit slippers. I plug the power cord/adpater into wall, then the magnetic end into the laptop… much the same as I have done since July of 2006.

Not even 45 seconds into checking my email, I smell a faint odor of electrical burning. My curiosity is suddenly brought to reality, when I see smoke rising from behind my computer desk. I practically go over the top of my desk head-first to see more smoke and a wonderful flame growing from my power cord. After violently unplugging the power cord from the wall, I stomp out the flame on the floor.

I immediately came to the realization the power cord at the transformer fried, melted through the wiring and outer rubber coating, then attempted to perform an arson in my basement. I re-check everything. The magnetic end was plugged in properly. The power cord was plugged into the surge protector. Everything was textbook. My battery was at 6%, and I had no power cord anymore. I was left high and dry. Good thing I didn’t just plug it in and walk upstairs for an hour or two…

After running to the local Apple dealer the next morning, they tell me the power adapters for MacBooks are on back-order. They tell me 2-3 weeks to get one. I need one now!! I have editing deadlines to meet! They offer to recharge the battery for me. OK, I’ll just come into the store every 2 hours to recharge my battery. COME ON! Then AppleCare tells me the same story for delivery time. But get this.. Dude from Apple actually suggested to me that if I need a cord faster, that I should buy one from eBay!!!

After calling both the Milwaukee and Chicago Apple Stores, I locate one at each location. Yeah, two in the entire Midwest! My brother-in-law’s girlfriend works on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. They hold one for me, as we would be meeting her in Beloit over the weekend. I think, great! How convenient! They give her a power cord to a G4 PowerBook……. GRRRRRR!!! Long story short, I drive from Beloit to the Milwaukee store this morning to get a new one. Then back to Beloit to pick-up my family, then to Madison for my Dad’s birthday and back to Appleton tonight. I’m thinking I’ll submit 350 miles of travel expenses to Apple. Perhaps I’ll get a t-shirt out of it.

Well, I’m going to call AppleCare tomorrow to address the problem again. Im finally back up and running, but this is a true safety issue. After a few Google searches, I come to find out that this same problem has been occurring to MacBook cords all over the place. But no recalls? Come on. I love Apple’s products, but this seems like it’s in issue that needs to be addressed.

Mac owners, take my experience as a warning. Don’t let Steve burn your house or studio down. Thanks for listening to my rant. Now back to work for me…. although I had a fairly relaxing, computer-free weekend.

~dave

Tobin’s first day of Pre-School. Wow, she’s growing up way too fast. She did so awesome yesterday!

~dave