Sunday, September 21, we will be at the Holiday Inn (72nd & Grover) for the Omaha Bridal Show. The activities will start at 10am and last to 4pm. We’ll be giving away another romantic dinner for two at our favorite restaurant, Lo Sole Mio. We’re excited to show off our new sample albums, and we’ll also have some door prizes with a few goodies like CDs from The Confidentials. Mark it on your calendar and if you get a chance to stop by and visit us, please do!
This morning I photographed the hard working staff of CityMatCH, a non-profit organization with the mission “to improve the health and well-being of urban women, children and families by strengthening the public health organizations and leaders in their communities.”
CityMatCH is grounded in the philosophy that all children and families deserve to be healthy and achieve their optimal growth and development in the physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual aspects of their lives. The responsibility for assuring this is shared by each individual and his or her family, the community, and government at the federal, state, and local levels. Children and families in urban areas have unique needs and deserve special attention. These needs must be effectively addressed in order for all children, and ultimately our society, to achieve full potential. Local public health agencies are a critical component of the collaborative effort that is needed to improve the health of children and families in urban areas.
As an AseraCare volunteer today, I had the wonderful privilege of photographing the very real connection between a mother and her daughter. It was a blessing to be in their presence; they were both so full of joy…
It seems the more comfortable we are with the coming of death, the greater appreciation we have for life, and we are truly able to live.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
-Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple
Taylor will be a senior at Shattuck – St. Mary’s this year and – as you can probably tell from the pictures – she’s quite the gifted soccer player! She’s also extremely beautiful, bold, energetic and an all around sweet girl. For her signature plus session, we explored the Old Market, got some shots with her kitties at home, and headed down to the soccer field to see that soccer kick in action. I told her not to worry about hitting me with the ball so we could focus on making it feel real. I ended up with a broken flash and a black eye, but it was worth it – we got some killer images!
For Courtney’s signature session, we photographed in and around her home to get some images with a personal touch – from playing the piano, posing with two very large dogs, and just hanging out in the living room. We even got a classic Nebraska hay barrel shot just across the street complete with a moody and stormy sky!
We look forward to seeing you at the viewing session, Courtney!
“An infant is born with a clenched fist; a man dies with an open hand. Life has a way of prying free the things we think are so important.”
-Unknown Author
After working almost nonstop for the past two weeks (up to 14 hour days), I finally had a chance for a break to do some creative refueling. My favorite thing to do is to take a drive or walk, maybe listen to some music and to think about the goodness inherit in simply being alive. But why is it so hard to keep that in mind? Today I thought about the nature of love – or should I say, I thought about how love matures.
As of late, I’ve been struggling with the ever widening gap between the doom and gloom of our world from recent news coverage (global warming, raising gas prices, deceptive politics, war, bloodshed, etc.) and the slick and styled promise of a better tomorrow from advertisements and paid sponsorships. My exposure to public media has been saturated with such emotional extremes, I often feel powerless to do anything about the growing problems of our world but to go along for the ride and settle for the superficial good feeling of buying something new. But that approach to life is so incredibly unhealthy and I want to move in a different direction… I want to choose to love.
There is a side to life, full of brokenness and tragedy, that makes the choice of love so much more painful. It’s the darker side of life that’s easy to ignore until it strikes, because in all honestly, so few of us actually have the tools to cope. Instead, it’s easier to indulged in a reality escape or bury it with a blur of activity instead of choosing anything at all. But that will surely keep us from love. By acknowledging the brokenness in our own lives and in the relationships we share, we make room for love to grow. Surprisingly, it is not weakened by our weaknesses; love is not spoiled by our past mistakes. It is not hindered by our inability to move without it. Like nothing else, love accepts and transforms the tragedies of life.
Love matures by seeking to heal and repair that which is broken beyond its own usefulness. Much like a cracked cup that can no longer hold water, love confidently moves forward and offers a fresh and tender bandage.
A funny thing happened this morning… Our dog, Patches, was attacked by falling debris hurled by an angry squirrel. This little guy even yelled at my wife for a couple minutes and then posed nicely for me to take a picture of him. Stranger things have happened…
Joe and Jenny had a beautifully moving wedding full of emotional music, energetic family, and of course, good food! After knowing Joe for almost 10 years now, I couldn’t imagine anything less. Joe was emotional and expressive, Jenny was absolutely gorgeous, and together they lit up the sky with laughter and tears of joy.
Thanks to some other photographer friends, we had a chance to try out a new idea for wedding receptions. As a way to remember all the guests, we setup a photobooth and photographed people as they stopped by. But we wanted more than to just document they were there. We wanted to showcase more of people’s personality and create some interesting character study portraits. Check out the results with this slideshow.
Congratulations Joe and Jenny! Can’t wait to show you the album tonight at the viewing session!
Currently Dan and Holly are living in Germany with their little baby girl as Holly serves our country in the military. On June 14, they had their wedding here in Omaha at the Magnolia Hotel with family and friends. The wedding decor was beautiful with a personal touch to make it unique – the groom’s cake was sculpted as characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas, several guests wore their biker gear, complete with leather and chains, and a pair of sunglasses from Air Wolf kept popping up throughout the day.
Overall, we got some beautiful images! Here are some of my favorites including a stunning portrait of Holly, Dan looking cooler than a rock star, and a tender moment between a father and his daughter.
