the bLog has moved...

As of March 1st, 2011, our bLog has moved to its new home. You can now reach us any of these ways:

Our Site: http://www.5th-Street.net

Our bLog: http://www.5th-Street.net/blog

Our Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/5thstreetphotography

Hope to see you around! : )

It's coming...

One of the best outlets for any small business - especially photographers - is having a web site. All versions of our current and past web site has always been done by yours truely using Notepad and our knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScripts. I have always prided myself that I had the technical programming know how to do this and always preferred to write it out on my own instead of paying for pre-packaged sites like Blu Domain or ShowIt.

But this last iteration of our site took me longer than normal to create due to not having enough hours in the day to do that and the editing of sessions from one of our busiest years. So after doing some research and weighing the pro's and con's, we have decided to make one more change to 5th-street.net by going to a blogsite route. Essentially this means using a blog as your web site. This will allow for all our latest work to be viewable and will require less upkeep as I won't need to code in Notepad anymore. : )

So stay tuned. The debut of the new 5th-street.net will be coming any minute!
^Cardboard boxes = great framing

Tales from Vegas

Every year, WPPI holds a convention for photographers from all over the world to come and participate in workshops with some of the top names in the field as well as check out the latest products available. This was our first year attending and we had a blast! The following post is the story of our journey...

The Saturday before the morning we were supposed to fly out of Madison, the weather reports started saying a Winter Storm Warning starting at midnight. We immediately attempted to try moving our flight up to that night in fear we wouldn't be able to go to Vegas due to weather. Unfortunately there were no further flights left for Saturday, so we had no choice but to pray the weather would be good.

Sunday morning around 3:30am (30 minutes before our alarms were set to go off) the carbon monoxide detecter started going off. We woke to shut it off and discovered there was no power in our town, which is why the detecter was going off. Waking up 30 minutes early was a good thing as our flight was moved up 15 minutes earlier than previously scheduled. So with flashlights and toy night lights in hand, we woke the girls and finished packing in the dark.

We met up with my father who was coming with to help with the girls and went to the airport. Thankfully none of the snow or ice rain that was being reported earlier had started yet here in Wisconsin or in our connecting flight in St. Paul, MN. We ended up making great time!

^This was Aubrey and Ella's first plane ride. Aubs has been so excited for this moment for the longest time. Both of them were fantastic and we received so many compliments from others amazed at how well behaved they were.


^Toys, crayons, snacks, and silly parents helped keep Aubrey entertained for the long flight.



^Ella loves that toy Giraffe that seems more like a dog toy than a baby teether.



^Grandpa Dave was along on the journey with us to help with the munchkins. Thanks Grandpa!


^It was a super-long flight, but Nicole and I are very proud of our girls for being so well behaved.


After we landed in Vegas around 11am, we took the shuttle bus to the MGM hotel to check in. They informed us our two seperate rooms were not ready yet and wouldn't be until 3pm. This is not the thing to tell a family with two small children who have already been awake since 3:30am. But we made the most of it by having lunch in the food court (average McD value meal = $8). After we were done eating I ran off to my first MasterClass workshop while Grandpa, Nicole and the girls searched for the lion exhibit in the casino.


My workshop with Gregory Schrader was very inspiring. He provided insight on how he ran his very successful business in Michigan as well as his 7 secrets to how he approaches photography.


After the class, I was led on a treasure hunt via txt msgs on how to find our room which the rest of the family was finally able to check into. After taking the elevators to the 16th floor, I found the hallway to room 341. There was a long hallway... very long. And I feared our room was the last door at the very end. It was. It can be very discouraging to be so tired from walking all over vegas only to think you are about to get to your room only to find you now have to trek the never-ending hallway.


However, seeing that instead of a single door, there were double doors, with a security camera above and a doorbell perked my attitude right up. Turns out, they upgraded us for free to a suit (aka, big apartment with mini-bar, two full master bedrooms, and a jacuzzi! This was pretty freakin cool as we are not used to such expansive accomidations. Our view from the 16th floor covered all the way from the airport to the strip!

^Unless it is for advertising, I hate taking pictures of a room, building or landscape unless there is someone in the photograph to give it that meaning or personalization. So this called for a photo session with the girls!

^Sisterly love! Aubrey is the bestest big sister. Whenever Ella starts to fuss, Aubrey will dance for her which turns her cries of woe into histarical laughter and smiles.

We pretty much ate McDonalds the entire time we were there. It was by far the cheapest, quickest and one of the only things Aubs would eat (she is in the phase of not wanting to try new foods).

^To help keep Aubs entertained, we let her take some photos with the point'n'shoot. Here she demonstrates the best way to photograph a hot dog bun in her mouth.

^And the resulting image showing off Aubrey's artistic side of 'hot dog bun in mouth'.

^When the camera wasn't photographing chewed up food in her mouth, she would eventually take shots of us.

^Even with the stress of travel with kids and only being there a short time, we still managed to make memories and have fun together as a family.

Vegas isn't really for kids. There isn't too much to do for them as they can't gamble and we had sheild them from any Sin that happened in our travels. However Vegas does have one store that seems to have been made for Aubrey... ^Aubrey was smiling ear to ear when she saw the huge M&M store with its four floors of merchandise and chocolate yummies.

^Ella slept a lot of the time while we walked. Here she is giving her sleepy look having just woken up before we were leaving the M&M store.

^Mmmm, Krispy Kreme's...

^I loved being able to spend time with both my wonderful daughters! The trip alone is worth the memories it creates.

Even though Vegas was good bonding for our family, we were also there for the photography convention. On Monday, Nicole took Andy & Angie Wood's business class. She said it rocked. And on Tuesday before our flight I took a workshop on Lighting with Claude Jodoin - that rocked and was full of information I just soaked in. Thankfully we were smart and purchased a digital voice recorder before our trip, so we caught audio on all three classes and both can listen to what was presented.

^The convention had booths setup from all different vendors in the industry showing off their products, showing live demonstrations, and overall just sharing knowledge.

^My wife caught a glimpse of Jerry Ghionis, a very well known Australian photographer who is huge in the industry. He was super-cool and was happy to do a photo with Nicole and Ella (see facebook page for more photos)

Alas, Vegas couldn't last forever though. We were only there for a short two days. And the girls were getting tired. So we packed up everyone and started our journey home.

^Goodbye Vegas, thank you for the memories!

Note:
*All photographs were taken either the Rebel xti w/a Tamron 17-50/f2.8 or Canon point'n'shoot SD1300 (easier to carry these smaller camera's around w/the kids).
**Additional photographs of our adventure to WPPI can be found on our Facebook page.

Weigh In Wednesday: Week 2

Welcome to Weigh In Wednesday Week 2:

Every Wednesday I am going to dedicated the blog to my goal to losing 30lbs

^Family shot on the plane heading to Vegas for the photography convention. You can tell I have some weight to lose in my face as my chin has disappeared!

I 7lbs lost this week thanks to Las Vegas! We did Vegas for two days for a photography convention (full post coming soon) where we brought Aubs & Ella with. Little did we think to bring a stroller so there was a lot of child carrying all over. But this worked to our advantage as our bodies got a really good work out. And even with eating overpriced McD's & Krispy Kreme's these two days, I still lost 7lbs!

Now, I just have to figure out how to keep this trend up while at home...

Leaving for Las Vegas

^Getting the kids all packed up for our trip to Vegas...

In three days we will be boarding a plane in Madison and heading out to Las Vegas for the WPPI (photographers) convention. This will be our first year going to the convention and we are super-excited to discover new things and meet other photographers from all over the world. Nicole will be taking a business class focused on photography and Mike will be taking part in lighting and wedding focused classes.

This will also be the first plane ride for Aubrey & Ella. Aubrey is super-excited for it and has her backpack all ready. I can't wait for to see her reaction to the M&M store (where they have tubes of M&M's seperated by color from floor to ceiling) as that is her reward for going on the potty.

Other items we are super excited for:
-Lions inside the MGM
-Krispy Kreme
-tons of photographic opportunity
-really good and tall Margerita's
-warm weather
-the inspiration we will be flooded with by all the talent we meet.

We'll update the blog when we get back from our travels mid-week next week. In the meantime: "Stay classy... Planet Earth" - Ron Burgandy

Weigh In Wednesday: Week 1

Welcome to Weigh In Wednesday Week 1:
Every Wednesday I am going to dedicated the blog to my goal to losing 30lbs.

^Retro picture of myself as a teenager. This is my goal for my 30's.

Well, I'm not sure if this week was a good week or bad week. I didn't lose any pounds, but also didn't gain any. I attempted to work on portion control with some days not having much success. I'm not sure what it is, I just feel the need to eat more than I need sometimes. For example, I made meat loaf the other day with mashed potatos. I ended up having seconds cause it tasted so good, but regretted it afterwards cause I was so stuffed!

I did do one work out with weights this past week. My goal is to do 3 days a week on weights and 4 days a week cardio. The hardest part for me and work outs is finding the time. Though I have started a habit of walking up and down stairs once a day for about 10 minutes. Enough to generate heavy breathing and a slight sweat.

This week we are gearing up for our Vegas trip with the girls for the photography (WPPI) convention. I expect to do more walking around during the trip - so let's see if that helps jumpstart my road to health.

^Photo from Nicole's Blackberry at night time. It is showing how Aubrey is excited for a plane ride as we started packing our bags. I, however, am using it as my new desktop wallpaper to remind myself to get healthy. Can you figure out why? : )

Osiedacz Family - Sneak Peeks

^Meet the Osiedacz family



It was a warm Sunday afternoon when I pulled the car up to the house. Dan was clearing off the sidewalk from melting snow and Heather stood at the door welcoming me inside where I was introduced to Stella and Augie.


Augie is 10 months and starting to crawl though he will probably go straight to walking : ). Stella who is 2 going on 3 was slightly shy of me at first - but I later found out she talked about me that night. I received a facebook post from Heather saying Stella told her 'Mike fell in the snow and took our picture'. (yes, I do some silly stuff at times, like stick my toosh in the snow or smash a snowball on my head. And sometimes I do it when I'm not even taking pictures - just ask Nicole : )


Thank you Osiedacz family, it was great meeting you and I'm honored you asked me to capture your family's personality... And now for some sneaks ->

^Augie loves to wave which caught on to everyone waving - even me : )

^Augie showing off his skills at chewing plastic soccer balls wows the crowd.

^Heart this one, Augie is holding a cherished ornament.

^Stella got this really cool wooden doll house for Christmas. She was very proud of it.

^Stopped traffic for some mom & dad time - they still got 'it'

^Two of my fav candid shots of the day

^I love that the kids are totally into their parents with this image - it shows the love.

^Mom hearts Augie

^You know you live in Wisconsin when there is still snow on the ground, it's 45 degrees and everyone is wearing short sleeves and no socks.

Derek & Jamie: E-Session

^Democrate + Republican = Love

His profile must have read: Computer Programmer, Hunter and Republican looking for love. Her profile probably said: Artistic, Photographer and Democrate looking for love. Match.com made the calculations and decided these two should meet.

Jamie & Derek jokingly chose the word 'Boring' as the theme for their Enagement shoot. I think it was everything but boring. These two seemed like polar opposits as they shared with me their individual interests, but when they came together it was like they completed each other.

A week or two before their session, they called to suggest we do the shoot at Derek's work. In my head, I'm thinking ok we can make a computer programmers building work - after all the images are mostly about capturing the personality and interaction of the couple. Upon arriving at Epic, I was amazed at the size of the environment and the Willy Wonka-style funhouse that was inside. I think I'll be fine tuning my programming skillz and updating my resume soon!

Thanks Jamie & Derek for choosing us to shoot for you. It is always an honor when fellow-photographers like your work enough to capture their big day. Enjoy some sneaks...

^Epic has a slide in one of the buildings. You go as fast as Clark W. Griswald on a greased up sled.

^He may be a hunter, but he is also a lover of animals.

^Left: Wacky Fun mirror; Right: Bling!

^The... chairs... were... Awesome!! Very Mork form Ork.

^I believe my direction here was 'staircase seduction'

^So many different cool area's to shoot in these buildings. This yellow corner shot is one of my favs.

^'She knew he was a bad boy, but she loved him anyway'

^Another fav location for me was the starry hallway connecting buildings.

^Derek's suggestion for a location - letting the personalities pop out.

^Another fav of mine as it reminds me of Degobah