Our Wedding Day

This path all started a few years ago when I met this beautiful intelligent woman (Diane) that has added so much to my life.

We met just over 3 years ago and had our first date on July 4th 2011. On February 28th 2013 I asked her to marry me in Jackson Square – New Orleans, and she said yes! This past week on October 5th we both said I do to each other in a wonderful ceremony at her church in East Lansing, in front of friends and family.

I had my Best Man Andy by my side, and she had her Daughter Jasmine as her Made of Honor. There ended up being 117 people there. We had a place called “Meat” from old Town (Lansing) cater the food (sorry vegetarians!). A friend of mine David Loomis and his girlfriend Sarah did the photography.

After months of preparation the day finally arrived. I picked up Andy from the hotel about 9am, and we got ready at my place. Diane left about 7am with Jasmine to head over to the hairdresser. They got dressed at the church. Andy and I got to the church about 10am and the service started at 11.

We waited in a side room as everyone walked in and got seated. I wasn't really as nervous as I thought I would be but of course there were a few nerves. I wasn't nervous about marring Diane at all, but more about getting married in front of all those people. Even though for work I have had to give many presentations, training's, and I have spoke in front of many groups, it’s different when it’s so personal. So after waiting in the side room with my family and friends, it was time. We lined up behind the Minister (Katherine) and walk down the aisle. I was happy to see all our family and friends there, and that helped to calm me down.

We then turned around and waited for the parents to come down the aisle. My Mom, Dad, Diane's Mom escorted by Diane's nephew. Then I first saw Jasmine. She looked beautiful, I had not seen the dress on her yet and they couldn't have picked a better one.

Then I saw a glimpse of Diane with her brother Mark. That’s when I almost lost it. I started to tear up and could tell everyone was looking at me for my reaction and it was a real one. Then luckily I was able to gather myself, I actually had to tell myself, you either pull it together or you are going to lose it. Diane looked amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Mark brought her down the aisle and gave her a kiss before she turned and walked towards me. I could tell she was nervous, she was shaking and reached out for my hand. I grabbed it and told her she looked beautiful and then the minister started. Throughout the service all I wanted to do was kiss her, and I almost did during one part, but I waited. It was a really nice service with a member of her church (Randy) playing some music. I was able to take it in, I looked around and tried to see everyone that had made it. While doing so, many memories came rushing through my mind. Some from a long time ago and some from more recent. We then said our Vows and I do’s.

At the end we had everyone turn around and take a photo of the entire group. As we left everyone threw confetti and had noise makers that Diane had bought.

We took some family photos outside while our guest started to dig into the food.

After the photos we came in and tried our best to make our rounds to talk to everyone. Many of you have been married, so you know it’s almost impossible to spend any quality time with anyone. You are being pulled in 20 directions, but it was great to see everyone, even if it was brief.

Diane and I were so overwhelmed by the turnout. We wished we could have invited even more family and friends, but at some point you just have to draw a line. Or else we would have a 500 person wedding. We also couldn't believe the generosity of everyone. We got so many wonderful gifts.

I couldn't have asked for a better wedding. My biggest prize is being able to spend everyday with Diane and to have a wonderful step-daughter Jasmine in my life. It was great to be able to share this day with so many people that have meant so much to both of us in our life so far, and to know we have a ton of support.

On our way to Vermont

One of my best friends (best man for my upcoming wedding) and I are taking a trip out east to Vermont for a couple days for my bachelor party. This is a completely different trip than either one of us thought we would be having for my bachelor party just a few short years ago. We both have made some major changes in our lives.

Day 1

He picked me up from my house about noon; we stopped at one of his favorite places to eat (Jersey Giant) in East Lansing. We then hit the road. We have been on several road trips in the past including the Kentucky Derby several times and Chicago, but this is the first time we have just hit the road together in many years.

We headed east on 96, south on 23, and then east on the Ohio Turnpike. We bullshitted with each other as always about a thousand different topics. Our first major stop was in Buffalo to get some wings. We both love food, and well, when in Rome right?

We wanted to go to the home of the wing (The Anchor Bar) but it was a Sunday and they closed at 6pm, so a friend of mine that lives in Buffalo suggested Brennan’s. We ordered 20 wings and 20 shrimp. It hit the spot, it was just what the doctor ordered, or probably the exact opposite of what the doctor would order.

Then we were off to Niagara Falls. It’s about a half hour drive from where we were, and the sun was setting. If you follow my photography at all, you have heard me talk about sunset. Most photographers and people in general like to shoot right when the sun is setting. I on the other hand enjoy the blue hour (more like 20 minutes) about 20 – 30 minutes after sunset. When doing long exposure photography it really brings out this magical blue tone in the sky.

We were there about an hour and decided to hit the road, we are both fans of the show Breaking Bad, so we wanted to get to a hotel to watch the second running of that nights episode at 11:30. We got to the room about 11 and by the time we got settled in, the show started.

Today brings a new adventure. We have a 3-hour drive to Cooperstown to check out the Baseball Hall of Fame. A fitting place for us to go, we became friends in high school while playing baseball. Then we are off to our finally destination of this trip, a couple days in Vermont…

Last week and this next I will be working in the Houston TX area.  

So after work one day this past week I ventured to downtown Houston as you will see in this first shot. I went to Buffalo Bayou Park. It was about 95 degrees, and there were people walking, running and playing with their dogs, all with a wonderful backdrop of the city near by.

The second night I took a 45-minute drive to Galveston. I went straight to Pleasure Pier, where I had one of the best-broiled fish dinners around at the restaurant Fish Tails. Then as sunset came I walk over to the beach across the street and captured this shot of the Pier.

When I finished up work on Friday I took a 3-hour drive over to San Antonio. My first stop was the Alamo.

Then I walked over to the River Walk just a couple blocks away. The River Walk was like no other part of this country that I have ever been to. It’s a fantastic mix between restaurants, gifts shops, artistic stores / galleries, street vendors and boat tours going down the river right in-between all of this.

After spending a couple hours in San Antonio I drove the quick Hour and fifteen minute drive to Austin.

The next morning I went to the Texas Capital.

Then it was time to see what all the Texas BBQ hype was all about. I first drove by Franklin BBQ. I had looked them up the night before and knew I wasn’t going to wait in the 2-hour line, but I drove by to see it (Photo 7). People start lining up at 9am, and the doors open at 11am. They sell BBQ until they run out, Usually around 2pm.

After driving by Franklin BBQ I went to Stubbs’s BBQ. It lived up to the hype. I had the Major (3 meats and 2 sides). After that I needed a nap.

As the sun was setting I went to the Congress Street Bridge where at sunset every night thousands of Bats fly out from underneath the bridge.

From there I walked over to the other side of the bridge and captured this night cityscape shot of the city. By this time I was hungry again, so I stopped by one of the hundreds of food trailers throughout the city.

The next morning it was time to head back to La Porte to finish up my work this upcoming week. From Austin to Houston I took a 4-lane highway 71 most of the way, where I captured this final photo of the countryside.

2.26.13 Heading South – Chipley, FL & 2.27.13 Orange Beach, AL

A few months ago Diane and I were sitting around and decided we wanted to take a trip to New Orleans. Neither one of us had ever been there.

When looking into plane tickets and hotels when we decided to drive instead of paying $800 to fly. I love to drive anyways, so I pushed this way of travel whenever possible.  This also allowed us to do a couple things. My Mom has a friend in Chipley, Florida, so we decided to see if she wanted to ride down with us and stay with her friend for a few days and then we could pick her up on the way back. She was very excited and so it was, she was coming with us.

We could also stop at Orange Beach, Alabama, and see a friend and former teacher of mine, Gej Jones, and his wife, Sally. Gej and I are having a Photography Gallery show together June 8th at the REO Art Alley in Lansing MI.

So day 1 we took off at 6am Tuesday February 26th. It’s about a 14-hour drive from East Lansing to Chipley, FL. The drive was uneventful; we took turns driving and made pretty good time. The last 2 hours of the drive was the worst. You have to drive a 4 lane state highway, which has about 200 lights over 140 miles. So it’s a lot of stop and go. When we finally arrived in Chipley we spent about a half hour talking to my Mom’s friend Elaine before Diane and I crashed for the night.

The next morning Diane and I took off about 8am, it’s a 2.5-hour drive if you go straight to Gej and Sally’s place, but we decided to take the more scenic ride along the coast so it took us about 4 hours.

When we arrived in Alabama we pulled into their place, took our bags in and spent some time talking with Gej and Sally. After about an hour they wanted to take us to lunch at one of their favorite places with the fancy name of EAT. When you walk in, there are about 10 tables. Its kind of a cafeteria-style service. You walk along the counter and tell them what you want. They are mainly a caterer for their main business and supplement their income with the (Open for Lunch Only) restaurant. Each day they have a different menu. On this day it was Cajun, which is right up my alley! We had a great meal, a little Gumbo, Catfish, Jambalaya and Red Beans and Rice.  After that we headed back to their place to regroup.

A couple hours later we went to Fort Morgan to do some shooting. Gej had been there many times, and he wanted to take me there to take some photos, and I’m glad he did. The place was amazing, I didn’t catch much information about the history of the place, I was too busy shooting to ask. We spent about 2 hours going around shooting, while Diane and Sally talked the whole time about god knows what, they seemed like they had been friends for years.

When we returned from Fort Morgan, Gej and I edited our photos for a couple hours.

Then it was dinnertime. They had bought a couple pounds of shrimp, so we sat around and peeled and ate them. 

Then we sat up for several hours talking and solving all the worlds’ problems! We had a wonderful time with them, it was so nice for Diane to meet Gej and for both of us to get to know Sally; they are two of the nicest people you could spend time with. 

The next morning we were off to New Orleans…

Bringing Savannah Home

As Diane and myself moved into our new place last August we talked about the logistics of having a dog. We both are dog lovers, but we kind of came to the conclusion that we should probably wait a year or so until we get into a house. Then for the first several months we would bring it up every once in a while, but we continued to come up with the same conclusion, but both of us were still fighting the urge to get one. Every time a commercial would come on with a cute puppy we would both look at each other, or we would see someone walking their dog and both think, man it would be nice to have a dog around.

Well then came December 21st when this post all of the sudden pops up on Diane’s faceBook page “Against all my better judgement and intuition saying nonononono, I REALLY want a puppy for Christmas!”

That was all it took. Now we were in full Puppy hunt. I responded to the post with “Is that’s what we are doing this weekend? Let’s do it” and Jasmine (Diane’s daughter) was home from Eastern Michigan and said “Me tooJ!”

When Diane got home from work that’s all that we could talk about, so we discussed it again and decided we would start looking. We had a lot of plans for the holidays so we decided that when we got back from my work trip to Milwaukee (Diane was able to come with me because she was off work for a couple weeks) I know what you are thinking (Lucky for her, and that I take her to all the exotic places hahaha) that then would be a good time.

After that trip we took a ride over to the Capital Area Human Society to see if any stuck out to us. Diane and Jasmine each had their favorites and I had mine, but we didn't agree on any of them, and none of us just fell for a dog, so we didn't try to talk each other into one. Then on the way back we stopped at Petco to see if they were having any dogs brought in anytime soon. They said they were that weekend. Diane and I both really wanted to rescue a dog rather than get one at a store, so we decided we should look around and that would be our last option. We ended up going to the Ingham County Shelter on that Saturday.

We walked in, signed in and started looking around. I had decided I didn't want a Pit Bull, I have known a lot of them and have found that they (In general) are very kind to humans but sometimes can be mean to other dogs. Like I said in general, I know there are plenty of Pit Bulls that are fantastic dogs, and it really is the way you raise them in most cases. Other than that, I didn't have any idea of what kind I wanted. As we started to look, Jasmine went straight to the Pit Bulls and I think she really wanted one of the two brother and sister’s that were in the first pen, and to be honest they were pretty damn cute. Diane was still looking at them when I can up on the last pen in the first room and saw “Molly”. She was this cute little 9 month old Beagle that was in the corner of her pen, she was shaking and had really sad eyes. I knew instantly I wanted to get her out of there. She needed a home. Diane came walking up next and saw her, and said AWWWWW, look at you shaking, she walked in and picked her up. We then walked through the rest of the place and looked at the others. I kept just thinking of “Molly”.

We came back to her and grabbed the leash and took her outside. She was very shy and got scared very easy. She wouldn’t look us straight in the eye, but then when we got over to a bench and Diane picked her up, and Jasmine sat next to her, “Molly” started to warm up just a bit. I then sat down and grabbed her and she smelled my face and ears. Then we took her back to the pen. We talked about it for a minute and decided we would like to take her home.

Of course we picked the one dog there that had not been spayed  so they told us we could put a hold on her, but could not pick her up until Wednesday between Noon and 3. They did a little screening interview with us, and then we were on our way.

So we waited the long 4 days until we could get her and unfortunately Jasmine had to go back to school that Sunday, so she hasn't been able to spend any time with her.  Wednesday at 12:01 I picked her up. I did some paperwork and paid for her, and then Savannah and myself were on our way. We had decided during the 4 days that we would name her Savannah. We had taken a fantastic trip down south last summer and stayed in Savannah a few days, and had a blast so it seemed fitting.

As soon as I walked outside with Savannah she took right off (I had her on a leash) but I think she knew she was free. This was the first time I saw her really happy. She did her business and then we got in the car, I took her straight to Diane’s work, so Diane and the other ladies in the office could see her. I then brought her home. She was very shy when she got home, and very nervous. Every day she has gotten better and we are seeing more and more of her personality every day. She was a cute little angel the first few days, but now she is really coming into her own. Like every new animal we have a lot of work to do with her, but she has been a fantastic joy so far. It’s nice to see her enjoying herself, and she is getting spoiled around here.

2012 Travel and year in review

Here is my annual travel/year in review.

In 2012 I traveled to Boston (3 weeks), Kentucky Derby (18^th year in a row), Smokey Mountains, Savannah, Myrtle Beach, D.C., NYC, Higgins Lake, Midland (for you Nicole, I missed this last year) and countless times to Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, U.P., and most of all this year my home away from home was lovely Green Bay! I missed not going out west and to Key West. I have plans to do both in 2013 plus my first trip to New Orleans.

The best times of 2012 were with my fantastic family and friends. I’m lucky enough to have Diane and Jasmine in my life. I had my first photography Gallery show, which was amazing, THANKS everyone that came out and supported me, it was one of the best nights of my life and I hope to see you all at my 2^nd show June 8^th, 2013

All of this is only possible because I was sober for another Calendar year (As long as I make it the next 14 hours!)

So here is to 2013, let’s see what it brings! 

Right to Work Protest

I haven’t really been anywhere I don’t go all the time lately so I haven’t had a blog entry in a while. I worked in Green Bay and Milwaukee in the last couple weeks, so of course I stopped in Chicago and captured a few shots.

Tuesday I decided to head downtown Lansing to the Capitol to capture some of the Right To Work Bill protest. I arrived around 8am and stayed until 10am. When I arrived people were just getting to the Capitol. There were probably a couple hundred people at the time.

I started walking around to see what I could find. This was one of the first people I saw. She was standing silent, alone on the Capital steps, and it really stuck out to me.

About 20 minutes later the crowd started to get bigger by the minute. I would say by 8:30 there were a couple thousand people outside and from what I heard there were a few thousand inside as well.

Most of the people I saw seemed to be UAW members, but I know there were a lot of teachers there as well.  As the crowd got bigger they started yelling, “Who’s house – our house” over and over amongst other chants. There was a guy in the middle of the Capitol steps with a red megaphone with a lot of UAW members surrounding him.

I then noticed a few people that were for the bill (I will call them Pro-Bill) at the bottom of the steps. I saw them walk up to the UAW members and start yelling, then the Union members started yelling back calling them scabs and a lot worse. This exchange went on for about ten minutes until the Pro-Bill people finally walked away. I saw this same scene play out several times in the time I was there. You could tell it was going to get a lot more heated as the day continued, and from all reports it sure did.

I then decided to walk around and capture some faces in the crowd.

After about two hours I had enough. I decided I would head home and edit some photos. I then uploaded them to CNN.com and did a couple IReports (One currently has over 17,000 views and the other has 4,000+) which started some heated discussions online.  As soon as I uploaded them, one of the producers called me to vet the story; then, about a half hour later, another producer called me from CNN’s sister company, HLN. She asked if I would like to be on the show “Making It in America”. I said sure. She said it would be a phone interview with the host, Susan. They called me about 3:55 and I was on the air at 4. The whole story lasted about two minutes and I was probably on the air for 30-45 seconds. I prefer to be behind the camera or in this case behind the scene, but it was an experience, and I was glad I did it.

It ended up being a lot busier day than what I expected when I woke up!