Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. We love dressing up, eating candy, decorating, scaring people and getting scared! Last year we had a family theme of the Big Bad Wolf (me), Little Bo Peep (Nicole), and a little Sheep (aubs when she was 6mo old). This year, we are a family of Pirates, Arrrrr!

The night before Halloween, our town had a Trick or Treat on Water Street event where everyone could go down the main street and trick or treat. So we decided to do a little warm up for halloween and head down there for a little treating and tricking. Then it was off to dinner to celebrate our loot!

Our family of Pirates, Arrrrr!

Heading down to Water Street, ended up being very windy.

After Water Street we headed to the Blue Spoon. Here are the Pirates waiting for their meal.

Pirate Aubs sippin from her cup! Arrrrr!

Pirates showing you how they stick their fingers in their mouths & noses - Arrrrr!

Mike showing how to eat salad like a mean and rotten Pirate - Arrrrr!

Mike showing how to drink like a Pira.... errr... nevermind. Arrr?

BLING!

As I continue to work on editing photos from our very, very busy month of October, I thought I'd do a quick post of some of the recent Bling shots. Majority of these shots were taken with Toooobz by Nicole. For those who don't know - Extension tubes are just what it sounds like, a tube that fits between your camera and whatever lens you use. By having the glass from the lens further away from the sensor on the camera, it creates a macro effect. So enjoy some of our recent BLING!

This was actually an acorn which Nicole found that was missing its top. Now it is the most expensive acorn in the woods. : )
One of my favorite Bling shots by Nicole. And it is an amazing capture as it was a windy day which can make blurring an issue.

Patrick: Senior Session - Sneak Peek

Patrick attends Sun Prairie High School and will be graduating in 2010! He has plans to continue schooling for Radiology at MATC at first, then transferring to a UW school later. Patrick also said he has a love for fixing up cars. So we used our who-do-we-know card and were able to get a classic chevy impala for a few shots. Big thanks go to CJ & Richelle for helping us out!

Brian & Molly: Engagement Session - Sneak Peeks

Wow, just wow. Brian & Molly brought 'it' with them to their engagement session. We started out at Devil's Lake State Park during sunlight and moved our way towards Prairie Du Sac, WI for a little dusk/night time shooting. Thank you Brian & Molly for bringing 'it'!

LOVE this shot that Nicole captured!

Gnarly Tree. This is one of my new favorite fall spots, just love the angles this tree has. Thank you tree.

New angle to the tossing-leaves-in-air shot. Although I forgot about gravity. : )

Yes, we like to play and have fun on shoots too.

Extended Cuts: Behind the Scenes #2

October has been a busy month for us with multiple engagements, families, and senior shoots. We both feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people and are thankful to everyone who has helped spread the word about 5th Street Photography - cause majority of our business has been from word of mouth! I will definitely be busy the next month or so taking the time to edit and wow each and every one of your photos.

Because of all the work ahead of me, I may not be able to post to the blog every M-F for the next month as was my goal for this summer - however I will try to do my best to still make it every day... In the meantime, here is a collection of behind the scenes shots from some of our recent engagement sessions... enjoy:

Nicole finding the right lighting on the staircase at the Cedarburg Winery

Capturing the love on the bench at the UW Arboretum

Mike is a dip. Er, I mean Mike is capturing a dip shot! : )

Fall is such a colorful time for Wisconsin

Finding natural framing on the UW-Madison campus

Purcell Family - Sneak Peek

I met up with the Purcell family at their home last night. We took shots around and inside their house attempting to gain the attention of little Ethan and their dog Radar (yes, from MASH : ). It was challenging and fun to think of different ways to draw attention to myself and the camera. I jumped up and down, made silly noises, barked, set dog treats on top of the lens, and bounced both dog & baby toys off my head. In the end, I think it was all worth while as going thru the set last night I saw many wonderful shots. Here is a sneak peak to tide you over...

Radar wondering what this person w/the camera is doing at his level.

I believe Ethan was sharing a story with his arms in this short collection of shots.
I love finding props wherever I am.
One of several fall family photo outside the home.

Thank you Purcell's for inviting me over and letting me capture an evening at home with you!

Richard & Lachele: Engagement Session - Sneak Peek

Richard is soon to be a lawyer. Lachele is a teacher. Together they bring the awesome!

We spent last Sunday afternoon following them around the UW-Madison Arboretum and downtown on campus. Their love and playfulness with each other shows in every one of their photos. Enjoy this appetizer of photo samplings. The main course will be coming in a few weeks...

Grogan Family - Sneak Peek

This weekend Nicole and I had the pleasure of shooting the Grogan family portraits. Gracie is almost 6 years old and was so happy to be in front of the camera and show us around. Julia just turned 1 not too long ago and wasn't camera shy either. She was adorable as she led Nicole and I by the hand around their home! Here are a few sneak peaks from their session.

At Lakeview park in Middleton.

A collection of shots I normally wouldn't include as they were spur of the moment-w/out looking shots. But I wanted to show how curious Julia was with this strange guy with a camera! : )

Train rides

Nicole runs 5th Street Childcare during the weekdays. Last Friday we took all the kids to North Freedom, WI for the historic train ride thru the autumn scenery. All the kids had a blast as did we. The train ride was just a short stint down the track & back, and only goes about 10 mph, but being on a train that is like her toy train table was awesome!

In front of one of the historic engines.

Hey, there are other people on the train!

Cup time while we wait for the engine to move from the front to the back of the cars to bring us back to the station.

The ride home was peaceful.

Jake: Senior Session - Sneak Peek

Jake and I have something in common; our dream job is to work for Pixar. Seriously if you own the movie Monsters, Inc., check out the behind the scenes about working at Pixar - paper airplane competitions, encouraged to play with toys, scoot down hallways, and live monkeys! Jake is looking to get into Stout to start his journey by learning about game design and character animation. So cool!

Due to our October weekends being booked, the only time I could meet Jake and his mom Julie was after school on a weekday. And with October having shorter days, I got to break out my off camera flashes for some pretty awesome shots. Big thanks again to Pierre & his After Dark Workshop I attended last Sunday where I picked up some new techniques. And a huge thanks to Julie for being my off camera flash assistant for the shoot!

Here is a sneak peak...

Capturing the last of the Sunset at the Union.

Here I used a couple flashes, one to camera left, and one behind Jake. Love the shadow capture here!
Using the glass blocks at the Union from the outside, normally people shoot on the inside with the daylight lighting the subject.
Most shots were with architecture on the shoot, so we found some nice green growing on... some architecture! so I guess it was all architecture! : )

Thanks again to Jake for running across busy streets with me to get to locations and to his mom Julie for helping light the scene up!