August 1yr - Sneak Peeks

You may remember August from a few months ago when Nicole and I put on the Benefit for Rocco event for families and children to help the Meriter NICU. Well, August is back with his big blue eyes for his 1 year photographs! August turns 1 in December and he was as smiley and cheerful as I remember him. This time I went to his place to take photos around the yard. Big thanks goes out to his mom for helping reflect light and setting up awesome little staged props for August to interact with! Now, onto the sneak peeks...

Bond, James Bond...

I absolutely LOVED this little classic race car that went with his outfit perfectly!

On a side note: I would like to thank my lovely wife for filling in and throwing up some posts on the blog last week. I have been busy with editing and making some thanksgiving goodness. Thanks Nicole - Love you!

A day to be thankful

Throughout my life I've gone through the holidays and they've never really meant a whole lot to me. We go to someone's house and I see my parents, my brother and his family, my grandparents and other relatives. I always just felt you go through the motions. You sit, chat a bit, eat turkey and then pie. Soon after the pie is eaten everyone leaves to go their separate ways and go on with their lives. That has always been my holiday.

This year was different. Yes I got together with family, ate turkey and pie, and chatted a bit. Sure most people left after the pie was served. But this holiday has meant more to me than any other holiday to date. This was the year I truly felt the word FAMILY. With everything that has happened this year {good & the bad} it's always a blessing to see your friends and family by your side. They cheer for you when your up and put out a hand when you've been knocked down.

I looked up the definition thankful and it says: feeling or expressing gratitude; appreciative. And THIS has been the year to be thankful. I would just like to express my gratitude this Thanksgiving to all of our family, friends, and clients. I appreciate everything you have done and for all that you will/may do in the future. You make what we do possible every day and we couldn't be more thankful!

Mike, Nicole & Aubrey would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! We wish you safe travels and more love then you think you need.

Santa's coming!.... I know him! I know him!

Yes folks, the holiday season is approaching fast! And 5th Street Photography has made your holiday shopping even easier for you --- we are now offering gift cards. Purchase a $25.00 gift card for only $20.00!! (This offer expires Dec. 24th) The gift cards can be used for photo sessions or print products.


Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone and a safe Black Friday!

Portraits of Love Session: Carter Family

I would like to introduce you to Samantha and her son Alexander. They gave us a call asking about photos after seeing us in the media for Portraits of Love. Samantha told me her husband Richard is currently deployed in Iraq for his first time and would love to send him a photo from home. He is expected to return this coming February, just a month shy of when his second child is to be born.

So I jumped in the car yesterday and drove out to Pardeeville, WI. When I got there I took the camera out and started taking shots as Alexander showed me his elmo, firetrucks, and v-tec toys. Then a noise would sound from the kitchen and Alexander would run into the kitchen excitedly, only to hear his mom say "No honey, that isn't daddy on the phone."

Uh, it broke my heart and made me happy all at the same time. I'm happy because Alexander is so excited whenever he gets to talk to his dad. But sad because it has to be rough being away from your family. That is the main reason Nicole and I wanted to help by joining up with Portraits of Love and offering this awesome gift!

Here are some sneak peeks of the Carter Family from Portraits of Love:

I LOVED how Alexander was so focused on Elmo!

Tickle Fight! : )
Samantha, Alexander and a little bun in the oven.
Alexanders dad is also a firefighter. You can tell he looks up to his dad by playing with firetrucks.

Portraits of Love Session: Hall Family

Thanks to being in the local paper (story) and Nicole's news segment on nbc15 (story), we have had a few military families take advantage of the Portraits of Love program 5th Street Photography is taking part in (story)! If you have seen us in the paper, on tv, or just heard about us through word of mouth and have a loved one serving overseas, give us a call or send us an email.

Miranda's husband/Layne's father, David, is currently serving over in Iraq. He has been over there since February of this year and is expected to return sometime in January 2010. We had a fun time walking down by the river in Prairie Du Sac, WI finding neat spots for photos. I also had a chance to put Layne's math skills to the test. Apparently he is one of only a few students in his grade to be challenged by the teacher with multiplication. He definitely wow'd me for being only 7!

Here are some samples from our short 30 minute session...

I asked for silly, they brought it! : )

5th Street Photography on local news

Double blog post day (see Keith & Missy's engagement below)!

In case you weren't up early enough or don't live in the Madison, WI area - Nicole was on the news this morning talking about Portraits of Love. Here is her news segment:

Keith & Missy: Engagement Session - Sneak Peeks

Who would have ever thought a brewery is a great place to take photos? Keith & Missy did, that's who! And wow, did Nicole and I ever have fun with these two at the New Glarus Brewery in WI. We did a self-guided tour of the brewery and found many fun spots inside and out for shots. If you haven't been to the New Glarus Brewery since they moved into their new location, then it is well worth the trip!

Here is a small sampling from Keith and Missy shoot who were naturals in front of the camera!

Nicole grabbed this intimate shot which is one of my favs from the session!

Keith & Missy were naturals; almost all shots are candids of them just being with one another.

I asked them to jump. They flew.

Presenting: tHe Phunkybooth - Steve's B-day Party!

This past Saturday I was honored to take photos at a birthday party for Steve and his family. They rented a huge condo at the Kalahari in the Dells which had a lot of room for the kids to run around. I had a blast chasing everyone around and capturing all the love and happy memories...

(I also broke out the Phunkybooth for the first time -> scroll down for more)

Birthday boy Steve with his daughter Claire in his lap & wife Jodi watching on.
Steve asked me to take a shot of his nephew having some cupcake.

Brains! Er, I mean Chicken Wings!

And now onto the Phunkybooth! Essentially the Phunkybooth is our take on the classic photobooth you see in mall shopping area's. It is a chance for folks to let loose in front of the camera and be all around funky and silly.

This was our first time doing the Phunkybooth. Future versions will have even more props and a white backdrop. If you think you might be interested in a Phunkybooth at your event, give us a call or send us an email. In the meantime, enjoy our first round of phunky-ness!

Yes, that last shot in the lower-right was me wanting to get in on some of the phunk action!

Before & After: I've got a short stack

This morning I cooked up some silver dollar chocolate chip pancakes for Nicole, Aubrey, myself and the 5th Street Child Care kids - and as I missed this weeks Before & After Tuesday, I thought I'd make up for it by showing the world my short stack... of pancakes.

Here is the straight out of camera image of the chocolately and buttery goodness (5d2, 50/1.8 at iso 800, 50/2.0):

After importing the image into LR2, I boosted the contrast and added a slight touch of Fill Light:

Next I exported the image into Photoshop and used some TRA's and my own personal actions to boost the contrast a bit more and de-saturate the color a tad.

As you can see, it isn't a huge difference from the straight out of camera shot - but most of the time that is what you want to shoot for. The less time you can do in post processing means more time shooting other subjects, or play around with other funky post processing artistry...

Thank You to our Military! | We made the newspaper!

It is Veteran's Day today and Nicole and I wanted to say thank you to anyone who has served or is currently serving in the military! Your dedication to country and preserving our freedom is one of the main reasons we want to give back by participating in the Portraits of Love. If you have a loved one serving overseas and want to send them a photograph of you or your family at no cost to you, please contact us!

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This morning we woke up, brushed our teeth, chased aubrey around the house, let the dogs out and checked email as we do every day. What made today a bit different was seeing a very sweet email from a local resident in the Sauk area. She wrote about how she saw our article in the Sauk Prairie Eagle newspaper and thought what we were doing was wonderful for military families and how we bring the fun out in our photos.

Two things came to our mind when we read this awesome email: 1. Donna gets up really early as it was sent at 6:30am : ) and 2. With all of our car troubles and photo editing, we almost forgot about the newspaper article coming out today!

So I put a jacket over my pajamas and hopped in our extravagent loaner car and went to the local grocery store. I was expecting a small article buried somewhere in the middle or end of the paper with a small black & white photo the reporter took of our family outside. Therefor I was shocked to see we made the front page with a full color photo! I grabbed a stack of them and went to the checkout. The lady at the checkout gave me an odd look for buying so many of the same paper, so I showed her the photo on the front page and smiled for her. She brought her glasses down and started reading the paper as a line started forming behind me : ) !

Nicole and I wanted to say a big Thank You to Jeremiah who wrote the article and his editor for finding out about Portraits of Love and wanting to do a story on it. We really hope this, along with our NBC15 news segment which airs next week will spread the word to military families who can take advantage of the program!

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My daughter Aubrey who is almost 19months decided to contribute to todays post also when I wasn't looking : )

Aubrey says: mnmk.;.

I am not rich...

We are not high-end, super-wealthy people by any means. I would say we live a lot like the average american living in Wisconsin. We pay our bills on time, have a mortgage and are able to afford small luxuries such as getting fast food once a week or needing winter clothes to stay warm. So why are we driving around a Lexus RX400h (hybrid) these last couple days?

I had a long career in the IT industry with a focus on programming and Internet technologies before doing photography. I also used to own a home of my own which I ended up selling after 3 years. So right before I met Nicole and with the extra money I had at the time, I decided to buy a used Lexus RX300. The car has been super-wonderful and I have hardly had to put any money into it at all.

Until this last weekend when the transmission broke. It is taking a fairly large chunk of change to get fixed, but it is our only vehicle and has been very dependable. While we awaited word from the dealer on what the problem was, we rented the 2010 Ford Fusion - a fun car, but costing us each day to use. Monday when got word that the transmission needed replacing, I asked if there was anything the dealer could do for a loaner car. They hooked us up with a 2008 Lexus RX400h.

It is similar to our SUV which is in the shop, except with all of today's technologies that just blows our mind. Navigation (yes we have never had navigation), rear camera when backing up, DVD player, power rear door opener, and a zillion other bells and whistles show up on the display. Some of these features may be normal for some, but we are definately not used all of it.

Not to forget it is a Hybrid too! Virtually silent except for the wheels on the ground when in idle or under 8mph and it gets around 30 miles per gallon, which for an SUV is awesome! Anyway, I took shots of our rented Fusion, so I wanted to share some of the RX400h....

Yup, this car has flare : )

Also - I wanted to give an update on our exposure with the local news station NBC15 for our Portraits of Love participation. Nicole had her interview w/one of the popular anchors this morning - Christine Bellport - and said everything went fantastic! Apparently Nicole got it all in one take also!

Way to go Nicole and THANK YOU NBC15 for helping us get the word out to military families about this opportunity! The short 1-2 minute segment will air Tuesday November 17th at 5:08am and again at 6:10am. If you are a family who we have taken photos for in 2009, be sure to watch to see if your family or child portrait made it on television!

Roller coaster of a weekend...

This weekend has had its ups and downs, or I should say downs and ups as it happened in that order. Saturday morning we were going to head into the Dells area to do some shopping and then take Aubrey to the zoo in the crazy 68 degree weather we were having.

However our car thought it would be funny to start having some transmission trouble as we started to leave the house. As it is our only car, we decided to scrap our plans and have it checked out. Every time the automatic transmission tried to switch gears, the car would jerk. So we were thankful we made it to a Sears Auto Repair shop. But then we were worried again after the Sears folks told us they don't do any transmission work and suggested Firestone Full Auto Care. Luckily Firestone was only three blocks away. Unluckily 'Full Auto Care' doesn't include transmission work. We finally decided to limp to the dealer.

We made it to the service center 10 minutes before they closed, they said they'd be happy to look it over... on Monday. So now we are anxiously awaiting word from the dealer on what might need to happen. Based on how I described the problem, the service tech thought we might need to have the transmission replaced which he quoted us at around $4500.00! (this is the part of the roller coaster where there is a giant drop and you get the sickening feel in the pit of your stomach.)

From there, we decided to rent a car and head to the zoo in order to enjoy what the day had left for us. It was nice to get outside in the warm weather and watch Aubrey say 'hi' to all the animals.

Now for the fun part of the roller coaster weekend - Our favorite local news station NBC15 responded back to an email we sent in about the Portraits of Love and want to do a segment on it with us! Whoop!! Between the newspaper interview last week and the possible broadcast on a major local news show, we hope the word will spread to those families who have loved ones serving in the military to take advantage of this awesome opportunity we are helping to provide! Nicole goes in for a taped interview with Christine Bellport Tuesday morning. We will be showcasing several of our family portraits we have taken in 2009 to help show what military families can expect from a picture with us.

So that was our down and up roller coaster weekend. And as every post needs a pic or two - here is our 2010 Ford Fusion we rented from Enterprise. Big thanks to Enterprise for helping us get to where we needed to go right before they were going to close Saturday!

Portraits of Love - for Military Families

Since the beginning of September, 5th Street Photography has been a part of the Portraits of Love program which was started by Soldiers' Angels - a non-profit organization providing aid and comfort to the men and women of our armed forces and their families. The Portraits of Love program is where photographers can donate their time to take photos of families of those serving overseas. Then the families can choose which photograph to have sent to their loved one thanks to Kodak.

We have been a part of this good cause for a couple months now, but have had little inquiries. Until yesterday when we received a call from a reporter from our local newspaper. He is doing a story on the Portraits of Love and will be coming over to do an interview with us. Our hope is that with the help of the local newspaper, we can generate more buzz about the program as it is a wonderful opportunity for military families.

And as every post needs a photo, here is a shot of Rocco & Angie from the Benefit for Rocco we put together a couple months ago.

2010 - Is going to be a very good year!

With the start of 2010 we are looking to offer a bunch of fantastic new services! Just recently we started offering prints, albums, and canvases to all 5th Street Photography friends and clients. We are also excited to now offer a Photobooth service starting in 2010!!! We bring all the lighting, set up cameras, have fun props (like hats, feathered boas, sunglasses, etc!), help if needed with posing, and a great time! Please inquire for more information!!

Since this is a photography blog, I thought I would throw a couple of sample pages from an album from one I started yesterday! Enjoy!

Here is a photo cover page for a 10x10:

Lynn getting ready sample page:
Details of their day collage sample page:

Before & After Tuesday #3

Welcome to another addition of Before & After Tuesdays. These are the posts where I share with you my straight-out-of-the-camera shot and tell you how I got to the final image.

This morning I was wondering what I was going to post, until Aubrey and one of our three cats, Oliver gave me an opportunity. Seeing both of them in the tub, I ran and grabbed the camera and took this quick shot. Here is what the camera saw:

As you can tell, really bad indoor bathroom lighting casts a big yellow hue across the image. Of course it probably doesn't help that our bathroom still has the original 1960's colors to it either. : )

From here I imported the shot into Lightroom2. I boosted some contrast and cooled off the temperature to where the white on Aubrey's shirt was actually white. The result is below:

After exporting the image from Lightroom2 and into Photoshop, I again boosted contrast and ever-so-slightly blurred the upper and lower sections of the image to bring more of the focus on Aubrey & Oliver. Finally I used a black'n'white action that I love to generate the final image: