Andy & Jeana: Engagement Session

Andy & Jeana live in the heart of Chicago. So it was no question that we were going to do a road trip and make use of the city. Though I would have to say the main attraction was the connection Andy & Jeana had with each other. During the session, we took a walk in the park, got scolded by local CTA authority, and took the El train down to Millennium park where ice fell from the sky & lenses were thrown to the ground. It was action packed!

Andy & Jeana's wedding is this summer in Madison and I cannot wait to capture more fun with them! In the meantime, I downsized some shots and sprinkled some pixel magic. Enjoy the sneak peeks!

-----------------

Unfortunately Nicole wasn't feeling the greatest and didn't want to pass along her sickness. So I took a last minute assistant with me, the man who let me use his film camera as a kid and originally sparked my photographic flame, my father! Thanks dad for coming along and helping carry everything as well as take some pretty nice shots himself. (For those who don't know, my dad took some of the best pictures at our wedding, must be where I get it from : ).

Casey & Lynsey: Engagement Session

"We're on a mission from God." Casey & Lynsey are so cool, they named their dog Elwood from the Blues Brothers! We met up with these two in downtown Madison at the Union. Nicole and I had a great time getting to know both of them and taking their photos. And we cannot wait to photograph their wedding at the Orpheum Theatre on State Street this year!

Enjoy the Smiles! : )


We found these logs on a frozen Lake Mendota and thought, Photo Opportunity!

Posing Workshop

One of the many things we do to stay on top of our game in the photography world is participate in local workshops. I attended a posing workshop put on by Pierre's Portrait Art Co. here in Madison weekend. In the class we learned different posing techniques to help 'Wow' your subjects. They also had a few models there for us to shoot and practice with.

I didn't get to shoot too much as I missed part of the class due to another engagement. So when I came back in the afternoon I volunteered to be a model. This way I was able to learn some of the things I missed by having other photographers instruct me on how to pose. Sometimes it is fun to be on the opposite end of the camera (if you want to see shots of me as a 'model', you will have to add me as a friend on Facebook).

Here are a few shots I took at this event.
Sample of perspective posing.
Sample of using Short Lighting for posing.
Pierre & Anna discussing group posing techniques

If anyone in the Wisconsin area is interested in photography and would like to learn more, check out Pierre's Portrait Arts Co. Pierre and his wife Anna are super-friendly and provide very valuable information while having fun!

Celebrating a Life

It is with great sadness that I heard a former coworker and friend lost her battle with cancer this past week. Jodi was a source of inspiration for me, she was always positive at work and had a solid head on her shoulders. You could always go to her with anything on your mind. Jodi is survived by her husband Steve, daughter Clare and son Will.

I was honored to be contacted by Jodi in October 2009 to photograph her husbands 40th Birthday party at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. This was my first outing with our Phunkybooth where I brought props and let everyone play to the camera. Here are some images of Jodi, her family and friends from this event.

It's Feb 5th: Happy Birthday Nicole!

Ok, so first, I know I had said that my goal was to do a blog post every M-F from Feb to Oct; and I have already missed a few days already, but all for good reason - really! In order to make up for a few of the posts, I am going to be doing a few posts today...

IT'S FEB 5th: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!
Every year on the 5th of February, Nicole has a birthday - weird right? This year Nicole wanted to head to Chucky Cheese. I took the day off from my 9-5 job and we loaded up the car with the child care kids to head to the Cheese. It was a fun time, if you count chasing two almost 2yr olds around a maze of arcade games and pizza booths. : )

Aubrey showing momma how to work the skee ball
Aubrey going on her first mechanical horse ride!

Pepsi love...

At the Hope for Kasia event we were at last weekend, we had brought our daughter with us. Aubrey loved watching the bowlers, getting her face painted and this pepsi machine! It is kind of funny because Nicole's first word she ever spoke was 'Pepsi'! So when I saw Aubrey pointing up at this machine, I had to take the shot for Nicole...

Simply Stainless - Product Shoot

This past Sunday I did a product shoot for Simply Stainless (http://simplystainlessproducts.com). They make stainless steel products such as some of the ones shown below. I highly recommend them if you are in the market for something sturdy and looks beautiful!

Hope for Kasia

Welcome to February and my goal of writing a blog post every M-F from now until October!

To start things off, I wanted to talk about the Hope for Kasia event Nicole, Aubrey and I attended this last weekend. One of the families we took photos for back in 2009 were putting together this event to help raise money for a baby girl they were adopting. When we found out about it, we jumped at the chance to donate our talent to help capture this all the love they received. Krysia and Guy had a wonderful turn out of many friends and family who came, bowled, had caracutures done and won fabulous raffle prizes. We were glad to be a part of it and wish the Strattons all the best as their family grows!

New job & Winter Landscapes

I have not been updating the blog as of late. You can say I'm getting ready to save all our material for when I start my goal of blogging every M-F starting February until the end of October. That means I will be

Another reason I haven't been updating the blog lately is due to my new 9-5 job I started last week. When we started 5th Street Photography, I was working in IT for 11 years at the same company. Then early 2009 my position was eliminated along with some others; so I pursued photography full time and helped Nicole out with 5th Street Child Care. Well, with the economy not being the greatest and me wanting to meet our goal to provide decent package prices, I decided to get back into the work force. So I accepted a position with a bank where I will be doing operational and IT duties.

What does this mean for 5th Street Photography? It means we will still be able to provide our competitive prices which people have liked about us, and that I will be able to do more photography than when I was at my last IT job. The bank is a strict M-F job with no on-call support; therefor all my weekends are free for weddings, family or children portraiture. If you have questions about this new change, feel free to email us or comment on the blog or on our 5th Street Photography facebook page!


Today's blog pics are some landscape pictures I took last weekend. Landscape photography was the original hobby that got me to pick up my first camera. So here are some early morning shots near the Wisconsin River after the prior days fog frosted onto the tree's making them a pearly white.

Sauk-Prairie is known for it's Bald Eagle watching days. This is the time of year when eagles flock everywhere looking for food.
Frosty
A very calm Wisconsin River.
How many Bald Eagles do you see in this shot?


If you are interested in seeing more of my scenic landscape shots from last weekend, check out our 5th Street Photography facebook page!

Retro post

Time to fire up the flux capacitor and take a trip in the way back machine!

Nicole does a fantastic job of updating our 5th Street Photography Facebook page. One of the comments that came across from our friends was to post our baby pics. So Nicole and I did some digging and found a bunch of our old photos. We haven't done any touch ups to these, they are shown as the actual photo looks. I figure so many photographers these days add textures, so why not leave the original scratches and dirt on there : )

And now, here is Baby Nicole:

Here is Nicole blowing whistles with her little brother Josh.
She is so adorable! I think Aubrey gets her good looks from her mom.
Halloween with her little brother Josh beneath the cookie monster mask.
One of Nicole's favorite photos. Doesn't she look like Walter Matheau in this picture?

And now here are some shots of baby Mike:

Check out the plaid! : )

I hated having my fingernails clipped.
Nicole swears I look like Aubrey in this shot.
Yup, pretty proud of my slide.

If you are on Facebook and haven't become a fan of 5th Street Photography, look us up! We usually post more photos on our facebook pages than what we put on the blog.