Spring fling! (including Parfrey's Glen an Indiana trip)

Lots of fun times were had by all recently! Jennifer's parents visited and we took them to Gibraltar Rock and Parfrey's Glen on Friday, both of which were awesome. Except when her dad's Blackberry leapt 100 feet off a cliff. Oops.

All photos below were taken with iPhones.

Jennifer and her pa!

Jennifer's folks.

Groovy old tree. Gibraltar Rock had lots of bonsai-type trees growing out of it.

Hiking up Parfrey's Glen.

This triptych looks a lot cooler huge. Email me if you want one.

The amazing falling Keeley Yonda! Actually I didn't fall, but this incredibly heavy, waterlogged balancing pole almost made me!

We said goodbye to the folks on Sunday and drove to Indiana to see Jennifer's sister at college! What a family trippy week! We'd been looking for a new car and there happened to be this little sweetie in Indianapolis. So we bit the bullet and drove it home! We had to say goodbye to Sunshine, our old car, which Jennifer is saying goodbye to here. She was a great car for 10 years, but it was high time, let me tell you!

Aw yeah, Jennifer is inspired by the new vehicle.

Then, ten minutes later in the Broad Ripple neighborhood of Indy, there was a flash flood! The popcorn store owner ran out of the shop as soon as we bought our nummy chocolate covered popcorn so she could save her car.

That's Jennifer's sister on the left. Bye bye Lauren!

Not again!

We were surprised to hear outside our studio a car-crashing sound that we naturally assumed was not a car crash. Maybe a garbage truck dropping a bin, or a beer truck unloading at Alchemy? But lo, 10 minutes later we noticed a bunch of fire trucks and police cars gathered around Chase Bank across the street. A car had driven through the intersection of Atwood and Winnebago and smashed into the bank, knocking over a huge column (the driver was okay). My first thought was "Not again!", because this exact same thing happened 5 years ago! It's not like they placed the bank right in the way or something--as you can see, these cars have to bust through a big chain, over or around a big rock, and smash the column with enough force to knock it over, which probably means they were exceeding the 25mph speed limit!

We had to take pictures because I happened to be there last time, when I was randomly biking by at 3:00 a.m., and the crash had just taken place. (Those photos were published in the Capitol Times, excitingly enough!) In both crashes, the driver walked away, amazingly. As you can see, with the latest one, the top of the column fell right through the windshield and into the empty passenger seat!

The boy in foreground above was really excited because there were more fire trucks than he'd ever seen in one place, and there were "5 million firemen!"

The last three photos, below, are from 2006, when a 13-year-old took his parents car out of the garage in the middle of the night and crashed it at 70 mph after a high-speed chase. Whoops!

Chad Vader visits our new studio!

Although we're still putting the finishing touches (like a doorknob) on the studio (come to the grand opening Friday Dec. 3rd!!), it's ready enough that we were able to host Chad Vader a.k.a. my brother Aaron for a film shoot last Friday. Here he is all dressed up, with co-director Matt and camera-woman Tona. Check out the video they made that day--it's part of YouTube's Comedy Thunder series! If you're not a Star Wars or Darth Vader fan, it might not be as funny, but if you are, laugh on!

Hilariousness

I just had to share this photo I came across as I was culling our most recent wedding. This random woman had stopped to get a photo of the groomsmen and after she took it I turned around and surprised her and her friends by putting them in my own photo! I just love that they are all turning or bending in some weird way, but they all have huge smiles on.

Pastry!

I had been meaning to post photos of some pastries Jennifer and I created a couple weeks ago, but we have a lot going on (new studio!!!) you see, so the project languished. Until my mom came into town for Easter, and I thought, Hey! Moms like to to help, and this particular one runs a mean DSLR, so why not delegate? She was more than up to the task, as you can see. Thanks Ma!



We made the above pastries at a meeting of local event/wedding people, at MATC. The base fondant cakes were provided, and we just used their supplies to get creative. It was pretty wild!

"Habitat": Tommy "Speedy" Sweeney's Big Movie Premiere

We attended our framer Tommy "Speedy" Sweeney's big movie premiere last night, at the Sundance Theatre here in Madison. It was for his film "Habitat", about his crazy group of sportbiking pals, who ride at hundreds of miles an hour down country roads. Some great cinematography, tell you what! And a good time was had by all.

































This is just a drink we got at the Sundance bar. A Manhattan.

August Teens CD release partay pics

Jennifer and I went on a date the other day, and we started it off by stopping by the CD release concert of an old friend of mine (Dan) and his band, The August Teens. It was a really fun show, as always--thanks dudes!

Easter basket time!

Another nummy gift basket from our pals Clare and Matt over at Quince and Apple. The best part of this shoot was eating the chocolate afterwards--pretty awesome! Be sure to order early and often for all your Easter gift basket needs!

A li'l ski

Brought the camera along on a ski this morning. Jennifer was a little afraid of the 15 degree reading on the thermometer, but with that sun beating down, it wasn't too different from Mexico last week! Okay, it was fairly different. But a lot of fun!

Wingsuit base jumping--have you tried it!?

Here's a random tip: If you haven't heard about wingsuits, check out this video! Basically, you can jump off the top of a mountain, fly down the slope, inches away from the ground, if you like, and pop out a parachute just before you hit the valley floor. It's basically like a flying squirrel suit for humans!

Image from Environmental Graffiti

I can't wait to try it!