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

Aubrey's Imagination

^"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." ~Albert Einstein

She wears a orange and pink tutu over her pants and on top her head rests a plastic purple crown encrusted with several shiny gems. In the morning it is the first thing she puts on and at night they are the last to come off. She is my daughter... my imaginative angel... my Princess Aubs.

For the past 5 days or so, Aubrey has been wearing a crown and tutu all day long and anywhere we go. Walking down the isle at the grocery store, people see her and smile. She holds her head up high so proud of her tutu and crown. Aubrey's imagination has been on a high lately and I'm loving watching it shine. She definately inspires me to think outside the box.

^After she got dressed and put her tutu and crown on this morning, I took her downstairs for a couple quick shots. I'm almost thinking about starting a photo project centered around her and her new Princess every day theme.

Health kick in 3, 2... 1 1/2...

The hardest part about losing weight isn't the decision to lose weight or the two weeks after you already started dieting and working out. It is the initial changing of the diet and getting on the treadmill. The body and mind are resistant to this change in everyday life. This is usually the time when I fail - the after the decision to lose weight and before the two weeks is up.

I came to a realization last night that I think is going to change things for me and get me in the right mindset. Nicole and I watched Perfect Couples on tv (great show). The middle-aged man got dressed in work out clothes, turned on some groovy music, and went down to the weightbench and treadmill where he found a magazine that distracted him from his goal. 5 minutes later he is sitting on the weightbench reading the magazine and eating chips. This was hilarious and sad for me as I have been in this position before. This along with coming up behind my wife last night to hug her and finding I'm hugging a lot less of her; this was the final bit of my realization that I need.... no, I want to get past the two week hurdle.

Nicole has lost over 50lbs since having our second child and all she has done is adjust her portion size and the type of food she puts in her belly. I am so proud of her for this weight loss! Now it is my turn. And I'm going to hold myself accountable by sharing my journey with all of you.

My goal is to lose 20 lbs. My plan to do this is portion control, cutting down the sugar, and doing some exercise a few days a week. Wedding season is fast approaching and I need to be ready. Expect to see updates on my progress every Wednesday here on the bLog. I'm not sure if I am ready to take 'fat' pictures of myself and share them, but I'm sure I'll share a photo of some kind to go along with the updates.

^Eventually, maybe, I can look like I did as a teenager in this retro picture of me in the early 90's. Yup, that is me standing back there - and I had that figure for most of my 20's.

Random Point'n'Shoot action

^Sophisticated Fun...

It is blue and silver, light and portable; and unless it is daylight or you use a flash, the picture comes out shakey or blurry - and we love it! Inside our diaper bag or sitting deep in a pocket, you will find our canon powershot point'n'shoot camera we take with us everywhere. The poloroid-style images which are produced from how we use the camera are some of our personal family favorites.

Here is a collection of some random shots taken with our trusty blue wonder. Some are taken by us, others by our 2 yr old Aubrey who is becoming quiet the photog of her own...

Remember Bert & Michele's Maternity session from yesterday? Here is a small sampling of Aubrey's viewpoint:
^We had turned the flash off the camera so it wouldn't distract or interfere w/the session - hence the shakey look. You can't deny though that Aubs has great eye for composition!

^I think if we gave aubs a camera that could shoot in low-light, then a lot of these shots could be used in our the final selection!

^This was our Sunday trip to the Children's Museum downtown madison - the place we will be having professional family shots done by Mr. Sam Hassas who will be coming up from California.

^The children's museum just speaks sophisticated fun!

^Random Aubrey shots

^Sisters! i HEART the one of Aubrey & Ella holding hands in the top-right corner. Makes me smile ear to ear.

Bert & Michele: Maternity Session

^One of these two is pregnant.

Bert (short for Robert) lived across the street from me when growing up in the small town of La Crosse, WI. We have always had that friendship where we can pick up any conversation like it was yesterday when in reality years have gone by when we last spoke. Growing up we used to play kickball in one of our yards, walk down to K-Mart to get the latest GI Joe toy, or have pull-up competitions where the winner got a quarter from his dad. These days we have bills, house payments, and starting families.

Nicole and I last saw Bert & Michele at their wedding a couple years ago. To our surprise and joy, we discovered they were pregnant with their first child late last year and wanted us to take some maternity photos. We happily loaded up Aubs & Ella and made the trek to Eau Claire for a visit. As always, talking with each of them was like no time had passed. We also had tons of fun taking photos - especially with Aubs who assisted me.

Bert & Michele - Thank you both for your hospitality and great food (bert has mad-cooking skillz). Enjoy some sneak peeks....

^You could tell by the amount of gifts from their recent baby shower that the child is going to be loved by not only mom & dad, but all family and friends. Bert and I 'cleaned' by moving the boxes to the other wall so we could do some crib shots.

^That is a Happy Bear (inside joke).

^Can you guess when she is due?

^Bert & Michele are definately going to be awesome parents.

^Bert being a comedian at heart is 'realizing' she is pregnant for the first time.

I would like to throw out a HUGE thank you to my beautiful and wonderful assistant who also happened to be my daughter - Aubrey! She took our Canon Powershot point-in-shoot and covered a lot of the setups also in a serious and professional manner - which caused Bert & Michele to crack up histarically.

^Aubrey getting the close-ups : )

Stuff in our heads

The following is a list of thoughts which have been cycling through our heads the past few weeks:

1) Our goal this year is to start writing a blog post every M-F starting next week.

2) Ella (our 5 mo old) is now eating baby food for the first time!

3) Aubs (our almost 3 yr old) has doo doo'd in the potty twice now - YAY!

4) We will be trying out a new vendor for our dvd's which has eco-friendly printing/labels soon.

5) Nicole is almost done with her most recent wedding album design.

6) Our house got covered in lotsa snow this week.

7) We have a list of new toys we wish to purchase this year.

8) Currently pondering redoing our site (again) & blog to a completely different format.

9) Doing a maternity shoot tomorrow for one of my best buds from childhood.

10) On February 5th, my gorgeous, incredibly funny and highly talented wife Nicole will turn one more year younger. My birthday is at the end of the month. Our presents to each other is taking the family to Vegas for the WPPI (photography) convention. Whoo hoo!

and now for the pic of the day. One of these lenses is not what it seems:

Snowpocolipse - 2011

^Don't adjust your screen, that really is the color of our house. : )

Snowpocolipse 2011 hit most of the midwest the last couple days. We were lucky as we were only on the northern edge of it. Our small town only received about 15 inches with snowdrifts several feet high thanks to the strong winds. Chicago and places more south of us received close to two feet with high winds.

Most of Madison was shut down , which meant we had a snow day and time to take some snapshots...

^This is about all I shoveled - just to show how high the drifts were. Nicole did the rest with the help of our neighbor and their snowblower.

^We do have a sidewalk here... somewhere.

^Nicole working away with a little help from our daughter Aubs.