Skye

Cuyler - Senior 2010

2009-11-14T22:13:00.004-06:00

This was a last minute session in the alley ways downtown.

I finally figured out my computer problems were stemming from a bad hard drive. I got a new one went we went to Best Buy to get Tye's Christmas present yesterday (I'm glad I got his one & only request purchased so early).

The old hard drive not only kept causing crashes, but would stall while I was working, sometimes for 20 minutes. It was so frustrating. Hopefully, I will be able to get back into a good groove and finish up a lot of sessions. I have many that are finished but need the disks burned, and some that are half -edited.

Trick or Treat

2009-10-31T22:26:00.006-06:00

Ah, Halloween. It's that time of year when I spend more money on making costumes for the kids than I intended, which is usually more than buying a costume at the store would be.
However, it is usually worth it.
Tye was Jeff Hardy this year. In case you don't know who that is, he's a WWE wrestler. The most important part of his gear is the cut up arm warmer things he apparently wears. Tye showed me a photo of them weeks ago and I knew they would be fairly easy to create. He tried them on tonight and said to his friend, "Dude, check em out. They are so sweet & perfect. And my mom made them." That made it so worth every dime.
So here is is all dressed up with purple hair & face paint.

Then he did the Jeff Hardy pose.

A G.I. Joe character named Snake Eyes showed up (a friend of ours).

Then a demon tried to attack us (another friend)...

And from out of the shadows, rose a werewolf (also a friend)

But then another WWE wrestler, John Cena, aka Bodie, came to the rescue. First he showed off his muscles...

Kissed his guns...

Showed off his championship belt...

Then defeated the monters!

Actually, Bodie satyed back with Grandma & me to hand out candy. He's never been big on trick-or-treating. Tye on the other hand lives for it. He and the other boys went out for a bit & came back with a bucketful! They were worn out & went to bed early. Thank goodness we get an extra hour of sleep tonight!

Paying It Forward

2009-10-28T19:17:00.003-06:00

As many of my family & friends know, I was an exchange student through Rotary during my junior year of high school.It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life.
I volunteered to photograph the current exchange student this year. She is from Japan, vibrant, gorgeous, and a sweetheart. She made me a beautiful decorative ornamental ball as a gift, that I will have to photograph tomorrow to show you all.

Being an exchange student can be very difficult at times, especially when you are trying to master a language and culture. But she seems very eager to make the best of her time here. I hope for all the best for her.

H1N1?

2009-10-28T09:23:00.003-06:00

Tye had a fever over the weekend and is still home from school today. He feeling much better, but I thought I should keep him home one more day. One of the kids in his class has H1N1, so we are assuming that's what Tye had. Early this week, there were 6 kids or so gone from his class.
Last night Bodie, John, & I all came down with fevers, body aches, and headaches. John decided to go to work, but Bo & I are home today.
Tylenol seems to help, but I'm feeling pretty dizzy now. So I'm off to lay down.

Redheaded Beauty

2009-10-27T21:59:00.005-06:00

Finally getting back on track! Still behind, but its looking up.

In my next life I want hair like this...

This was an interesting shoot for me because her dad is also a photographer. It was strange but inspiring to see how he would have composed some of the shots compared to what I was doing and the ideas he suggested for posing. It mde me stop, think, and try to look a little differently. My mind was really trying to think outside it's box!

Woe is me

2009-10-16T23:04:00.003-06:00

My computer is...broken. Not dead, yet. Just broken.
I crashed 2 days ago. And I was really on a roll, too. In the 2 days before, I had finshed editing 3 sessions in record time. I just needed to burn them to disk.
I am really pretty handy when it comes to this sort of tech-y stuff. I am known to some in my family as "Nick Burns, your company's computer guy" (SNL fans will get that joke).
But when I looked up the error message I am getting, the term I keep reading all over Google is not a good one. They call the error....are you ready for this?....The Blue Screen of Death or BSOD for short.
Not good, right? So I ran through all the procedures I could find and nothing worked. So I called HP for support. They told me my warranty expired just over a month ago. I paid a nice chunk of change for them to tell me try everything I had already tried, to no avail. Nice.
My father-in-law help me figure out that the hard drive is still good, but the thing just won't boot. My recovery disks are apparently bad, so I had to pay a little more to HP so they can take their sweet time to send me new disks.
In the mean time the in-laws are being very gracious, letting me pry open their nearly new computer, and put in my hard drive. It works, so I'm happy. I can still use all my files, nothing is lost other than time. None of my photo sessions were lost, nor were my edits.
I will still be able to work on photos once I can get all my programs installed on their computer. So all is not lost and I am not nearly so woe as I was 2 days ago, even though I am typing this from the dinosaur-aged computer in our basement.
Thank you everyone for your patience!

Dakota-Senior 2010

2009-10-12T20:06:00.000-06:00

The Feind Wedding

2009-10-12T12:05:00.010-06:00

AJ & Amber were married in early August, on one of the hottest days we had all summer.

One of my favorites...

This is one of the best accidents I've ever had. The flash did not fire when it was supposed to, so all I got was this gorgeous silhouette...

The bride's mother & niece...

I love her expression here while he was retrieving the garter...

This is my Uncle Glen and Aunt Linda, who are firends with the groom's father.

Sean, as always was the life of the party!

Brienna-Senior 2010

2009-10-11T19:49:00.005-06:00

I have been editing many of the senior sessions from this fall. I have done more senior sessions than ever before this year. I truly love it because they are up for almost anything I want to try and they always have great ideas for shots.
One of the seniors I was lucky enough to get to photograph this season is Brienna. Her eyes just sparkled in her photos. And, I don't think she realizes how pretty she really is.

New favorite location

2009-10-07T23:01:00.004-06:00

Thanks for venturing up there with me Courtney!

Also an update: This time of year is extremely busy for me. I have been staying up until after midnight every night trying to get caught up. I am still behind on many sessions. I have 2 more from August to finish editing, and a few seniors who need their photos back before November for the yearbook. Hang in there, with me. Thanks for everyone's patience!

Swamped

2009-09-29T23:59:00.003-06:00

I feel very swamped right now. I think If I can get 2 good days of editing going, I can get caught up. I finished 4 sessions in the last week. Right now I'm working on photos for the Chicos/VonArb family, The Truex family, and a project for work with the baseball fields that is very challenging! Thanks for your patience!

Editing away....Update

2009-09-25T21:45:00.004-06:00

***I am considering my calender as COMPLETELY BOOKED for 2009 at this point. Please let me know if you would like to be on a wait list for any cancellations I might have.***

I have edited 3 sessions this week and am very close to finishing up a wedding I shot back in August. I am about a week & a half behind on my editing schedule right now. I hope to catch up soon, but I really appreciate everyone's patience.
I've heard some questions about why it takes me several weeks to get photos back to my subjects. I thought I might give some insight into the process I go through after a session.
1. I usually download the entire session to my computer within 24 hrs. of the session. I back it up on my hard drive, too, just in case. I then give them a qick peek to make sure I didn't screw them up royally :)
2. I usually wait at least a week before I sort through the photos. Some sessions can have up to 300 photos (up to 1200 for a wedding). I want to give myself some time & distance from the session so I can be objective and really choose the best photos.
I have been trying to give at least some sneak peeks on the blog or Facebook, too. I try to pick the top 5 or so from the session when I do the first sort through.
3. I try my best to edit sessions according to the date I take them. Occassionally I'll have someone who needs their photos back early for one reason or another (like seniors who have a due date for their yearbook photos). Then I have to try to squeeze that session in a little earlier than I might have intended. Usually it's not a big deal and I can catch back up quickly.
4. Now for the editing...
Its not just about removing a blemish or two. Sometimes it much more than that. I color correct the skin from any color cast, like green under the chin from grass below, to the blue grey color left in the entire photo from shooting in the shade, like the sample below. Also in the sample below, I removed the pink strap from her shoulder. Sometimes I smooth skin & wrinkles. The trick is to make it so you won't notice the chages and editing I do.
I then try to make the photo look vibrant, juicy with color, and like something I would want to hang on my own wall...

5. When I'm satisfied with result, I save the color version. Then I make the conversions necessary for Black & White and Sepia versions (sometimes more versions). Sometimes I make extras, like Grad Open House Cards, Christmas Cards, etc. But I only do the extras if I have time, which lately I don't. I then save all the photos to a disc. I also make a slideshow which can take anywhere from a half hour to 3 hours.
6. Oh, one more thing. I do have something that resembles a life. I have kids, a husband, dogs, a part-time job, and a house that desperately needs cleaning. And once in a while I like to watch a TV show , though, honestly, most of the TV I watch I don't really watch. I literally sit at the computer editing and listen to the shows. I could tell you who's who on the Young & the Restless just by the sound of their voice :)
If dinner would just magically make itself and the bathrrom was self cleaning, I might never get behind on my editing.
I hope that gives everyone some insight as to my process and why I do take several weeks to get you photos back to you. I try my best to accomodate everyone, and in return, I truly appreciate everyone's patience. I'm going to try to get some of the shots from the 3 sessions and the wedding up sometime in the next couple of weeks, so check back soon!

The Paulsons

2009-09-16T10:37:00.007-06:00

Renee was the last of the 7 siblings of my best friend I had yet to meet. Renee brought her family over from Red Wing for me to photograph and finally meet them.

I love the colors in this one...

Some sisterly love...

and, of course, I made them jump!

Kristin's Daughter

2009-09-10T21:56:00.006-06:00

Miss K. is one year old. When we started the session, she was definitely not sure about me...

But then she started to warm up...

Some of the bluest eyes I've ever seen...

Kristin called me the other night to tell me how happy she was with how the photos turned out. We were both worried because there were very few smiles from little Miss K. Sometime with little ones, you just take what they give, and this time it turned out to be just perfect!

This weekend so far...

2009-09-06T21:23:00.006-06:00

I got to finally get the 35mm F/18 lens for my Nikon on Friday. I've been waiting for it since its release this spring.
Then we went to the Mall of America with Gene & Lara, just to browse, shop, & hangout.
Lara & the boys but on a concert in Best Buy. Bodie has been walking aroound singing "Yellow Submarine" ever since.

*We went through a new mirror maze at MOA. I felt really dumb because we got lost at least twice. I could feel us walking in circles.

At the end they had a funhouse mirror.

Unfortunately, our bunny died on Saturday. She went into her hut earlier in the week & wouldn't come out to eat or drink. The boys and John made her a nice headstone by the tree in the backyard.

In the afternoon we went to my Grandma & Granda Meyer's house for a get-together. We had a blast. It was so relaxed and a gorgeous day.

Tye with a mouthful...

I think Bodie had dessert at least 3 times.

Tye git a pitching lesson from Uncle Gene. He really learned a lot. Gene is really great at explaing the physics of pitching and had lots of patience with Tye.

Then he had to school Bodie on how to jump his bike.

Lara went for a cruise too.

Then we played Ladder Golf the rest of the afternoon.

Lara was very "happy". When she asked Tye to fetch her more wine, he asked her how she "drank a half a bag already?" It was hilarious. She had just finished saying how nice and polite my boys were.

I tried to get a few photos of my grandparents. Lokk how blue my grandma's eyes are here. They look just like I remember her dad's eyes. almost too icy blue to be real.

Her hair is snow white like his was, too.

Grandpa was in a great mood yesterday. I think he really loves all the socalizing & game playing.

My grandparents used to have horses on thier farm. Now, since they are gone most of the year to Arizona, they don't have any. They are letting one of the neighbors keep some cattle at their place to keep the grass in the fields down. So I got to practice photographing the cows. I think I'll stick with people.

Bodie took a very nice shot of me with the new lens. Ifinally colored my hair again this weekend, too.

I love the evening sunlight in early September.

Today we just relaxed. I had a senior photoshoot & got bitten by way too many mosquitos. I think I ate at least one. It was horrible. The senior, Kelcie, did a great job though, dispite being eaten alive. I think her photos will be wonderful.

Tomorrow is the last day of summer with my boys before school starts.

A little blondie

2009-09-04T22:21:00.001-06:00

"In summer, the song sings itself. " ~William Carlos Williams
I love summer, especially in the park. I love it even moree whenI get to photograph little blonde boys in the sunlight...

Brooke- Senior '10

2009-09-02T12:18:00.000-06:00

Another beautiful senior in the park...

We tried some different background choices, but I'm not sure which one I like best.

And some at the industrial building behind my house...

A little sun flare love...

Julie's Family

2009-09-02T11:26:00.008-06:00

I love when I get to photoraph families just being themselves. While we were trying to get a few portraits, ...

...I also got lots of candids. When young children are involved, I find, I love the candids the most., like moms comforting their children.

Julie told me her husband was bringing his truck, and I was very excited. I've been secretly wanting to do something like this for a while...

And it was a very cool truck! I love that he's going to keep te body just as it is.

Don't you just want to squish her cheeks?

My favorite shot from the whole shoot...

Courtney-Senior 2010

2009-08-29T17:36:00.010-06:00

Haircut

2009-08-17T14:03:00.007-06:00

Before (photo from our trip in June)...

and After...

Tye decided it was getting too hot for long hair. I think he was just ready for a change, because he's had it long for anout a year and a half now.

Steph- Senior 2010

2009-08-14T11:56:00.008-06:00

**There are lots of photos in this post**
Steph is my first senior of the season. I love doing senior photos because they usually come with great ideas and are willing to try different poses and shots. I can get creative with seniors.
We had 2 sessions to play. One evening we went out to her family farm & we played in town another night.

Does it get better than this?

Her family runs a dairy farm & she's involved in FFA. So, we had to get a shot with the cows...

and in the corn...

and on the hay bales.

Back in town...

My new favorite red wall :)

Lo

2009-08-11T10:16:00.000-06:00

She is my little sister, my "sista-from-anotha-mista", one of my best friends. I would choose to hang out with her everyday if I could. She's smart, sarcastic, and we totally share the same sense of humor. And if I say anything more, she will be totally grossed out by my spillage of emotion:)
When she moved to Colorado this summer, my boys were very upset. She has always been the cool auntie who is all the fun things their mom isn't. They just adore her.

And lastly, here are 2 shots I took of LO & Nicki together.

Nicki

2009-08-11T08:46:00.000-06:00

Here are some of the photos of Nicki from the session mentioned in my last post. She's my sister's best friend since 5th grade and she has been around so much, she's really like a sister to me and part of the family. Nicki & Lo moved to Colorado this summer. I miss them so much.

My mom

2009-08-09T20:19:00.000-06:00

In early June I went out with my mom, siter Lorraine, and Lorraine's best friend, Nicki to snap some photos of them. Lorraine and Nicki moved to Colorado at the end of June and I wanted to do this a going away present for them. My mom also needed some updated photos, so she came along.
Here are my favorites:

The Mathisons

2009-08-09T15:17:00.003-06:00

Way back in May (yes, I'm very behind in my posting!), I photographed the Mathison Family. The Mathisons have 3 sons, all of whom have 3 children of their own. So I met all 3 generations of Mathisons at the park for a session.

These twins are the youngest of the grandchildren.

Aren't they cute?

The twins' big sister...

The next 3 are siblings, a girl and 2 boys...

The next 2 girls you might recognize from my blog header...

They now have an adorable little brother!