Kristine and Rob: Wedding Photographs, Duluth style

Kristine and Rob — who you may remember from their epic engagement photographs (and one on my main site too) or even a more recent post about how brave/trusting Kristine is — got married a few weeks back.  The quick, personal, and to-the-point ceremony took place at a tranquil park in Duluth, Minnesota; the reception followed, and was considerably more raucous, at the historic Depot in downtown.  Everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves – and it certainly rubbed off on me; I love when people get ‘into it’ (whatever ‘it’ may be, really).

You’ll notice below there are three images of Rob getting his ring. ’twas pretty funny: when Kristine went to put on his wedding band, low-and-behold, Rob, being the stylin’ dude he is ;-), already had a ring on his ring finger!  Combined with his facial expression, you can almost see a thought bubble above his head screaming “Gzeeeahhhh!!”.   Hilarity ensued, his engagement ring was replaced with a wedding band, and life was good.  A visual walk through of their wedding day…

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Farmroom photo station

When we arrived at Willow Lake Farm in Windom, Minnesota for Anna and Mark’s wedding, the photo station was to be set up in a small ‘milking station’ in the barn.  The room had a structural post right in the middle of the shooting area and a board running over a trough in the ground.  I knew this would be crazy-different than the first photo station I ran in a near-brand-new reception hall – but of course, it was still going to be a blast.

I knew from working with Anna and Mark over the past 9 months how important the farm was to them.  It came up numerous times in our conversations while planning, from their awesome custom wedding website, to their engagement session photographs, the ‘Willow Lake Farm’ was a constant topic of discussion.

Walking around a bit, it became clear to me that even the photo station pictures needed to have a sense of ‘place’; an anonymous backdrop just wouldn’t be right.  So I moved a few tables and some tools, and decided to use this gnarly wall instead.  Everyone dug that idea, and I agree that it worked out amazingly well.

I love how the photo station really gets everyone’s personality front and center.  And man, Anna and Mark had some ‘personalities’ at their wedding, for sure.  Great times.  🙂

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Cliff Ties

The owner of Cliff Ties, a new company looking to sell hand-screened graphic neckties, contacted me about doing a quick shoot of some of his ties on real people as they might actually look while wearing them; “I’m in”, I said.  He showed up with a box of the cool, hand-crafted ties and we headed down to the wharehouse district in Minneapolis.  We had a good time, got some good photographs, and didn’t do the “stand in front of  a brick wall and try to look like a rebel” toooo much.

Cliff Ties is having their launch party (complete with a band and discounts on ties (and free drinks for anyone named Joe Federer??)  )  on Sept 10, 7pm at Stella’s Fish Cafe in Minneapolis.  I believe their website may have just started accepting orders for those of you looking to be among the first to own one.

Here are some of my favorite images from that (even if these aren’t the ones that best show the ties — it’s my blog, I’ll post what I want! 😉  ) …

The astute observers among you might notice that Colleen and I (me wearing a funny “hot chicks” tie) got into the action as well.  Yep, we’re famous..

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Part three of my South America quest (Buenos Aires and Peru being parts one and two) is finally making it online.  Colonia, easily accessible via ferry from Buenos Aires, is a small little backwater town a few hours down the coast from Montevideo; seemingly plucked straight from the past – even the ‘modern’ touches seem 30-60 years old.  Colonia is the oldest town in Uruguay and the historic quarter is a wonderfully serene place.  We were there for 3 days in the middle of the week and rarely saw other people – especially after the sun went down.  Sad, in some ways, because you could tell it was a shell of it’s former self — but what a shell it was!















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Brave Bride

I gotta say, Kristine is pretty darn brave. Not only was she willing to climb a tree, hang upside down from monkey-bars, and jump off a picnic table (over me) during their engagement session last fall, but on the day of her wedding, after the makeup has been put on, after the hair, the jewelry, the dress… not long before she was going to be walking down the aisle… her Aunt decides the best method of emergency eyelash separation was “big pair of sharp pointy scissors to the eye”.

It was more comical than it sounds…. but there was no laughing. (at least, not until there was a little scissors-to-eye buffer) 😉

She managed to survive, beautiful eyes intact.  🙂   Got married to her best friend and is likely now gallivanting around Jamaica with him.  Oh, and we got some photographs in there too, but more on that later….

Kristin and John’s Wedding

Kristin and John live in Virginia, but came out to Minnesota to have their wedding.  I don’t know what it is about Como, but I always seem to blog when I go shoot there.

A little getting ready at the St. Paul Hotel, a touch of ‘waiting for the conservatory to open’, the ceremony, and that was the day (my part of it at least).   Then they flew away to Belize… lucky ducks.  :p

It was a small, short, yet moving ceremony; really seemed to fit their personalities to a ‘T’.  I am really glad I got to be part of it; I think my favorite moment was watching Kristin tear up when she walked into the sunken garden because of “how beautiful it is”… though her grandparents (large backstory) grabbing one anothers hands in sync with Kristin and John as they exchanged rings still tugs at the heart strings like few things can.  Getting moments like that on film (film?) for my clients is one of the reasons I love shooting weddings…


















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Carousel Bookends

A few months back, we did Kristin and John’s engagement photographs at Como Park in St. Paul Minnesota.  The first shots we did were against the wall of the Carousel.

Well, they got married in touching ceremony in the sunken garden a week ago, after the ceremony we went outside and made a few more images – ending with this one; in the same spot we started a few months prior.  Bookends.

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