After five years - my best friend asked me what I was doing for the rest of my life. 

Whatever it is, we'll be doing it together cause we're getting married !!  :-) :-)

 

 

I feel so lucky     :-)

Sean and I are packing up and heading out for a quick trip this weekend.  So I will be out of email contact and have limited cell phone service until monday - but I'm taking the laptop with me so I keep on trucking.  I've been enjoying my January - it's like the summer vacation of wedding photographers.  It feels good to be home, to answer emails in a timely fashion, to take apart and reassemble the working parts of my business in a way that is more efficient and neat.  Speaking of which - I am in the process of redesigning my website and plan to follow that act with updating all of my printed materials. 

 

It's nice not to be a million photos behind.  I've completed 5 albums since christmas and have Anna working on one too.  I'm starting another this weekend while we're away and will have all of Megan & Jon's wedding images finished and ready to post when we get back on monday!

 

I even have time to stop for a coffee with a good old friend now and again :-)

 

 

 

 

 

And because everything is better with photos - these are two twin sisters who I've known since high school.  At long last everybody is back home again.  It's good to catch up :-)

 

 

 

I can't resist!  I have to post a few images from Megan and Jon's snowed-in-winter-wonderland wedding from this past saturday.  (HELLO MAUI   :-D :-D  Hope you guys are having an awesome time!!)

 

Just a few moments after seeing eachother for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Late in the evening - fire and ice :-)

 

That's it!  That's all I'm giving away for now! 

 

Congratulations on getting Maui'ed    :-D  Big hugs !

 

A fresh take on the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 I've been wanting to make one of these lists for a while now, (they were all the rage a few years ago).  I'm late to get on the bandwagon as usual.  The beginning of a new year feels like the time to get organized, regroup, plan for the year ahead.  I thought 2009 went pretty well for the most part, but now I want to refine.  Take what I do and do it better.  Be more efficient, be more creative, be more effective, be more aware, be more organized, BE.  DO. LIVE.  

And I want to communicate more and better.  So say hello!

 

Here's how the list works.  You come up with 101 goals that you want to accomplish in 1001 days - it can be grand and difficult or something simple.  The biggest rule is NO WAFFLING OR BEING WISHY WASHY.  Things have to be clearly worded.  Vague-ness = being chicken.  That's something else I want to do for 2010 - take a page out of Jean Luc Picard's captain's log and boldly go where no one has gone before.   Will I accomplish all of these goals?  I dunno, some of them are pretty far reaching - but like dreams - looking up keeps you headed in the right direction. 

 

1 0 1   in   1 0 0 1

 

Start Date:  January 6th 2010

End Date:  September 12th 2012

 

1. Shoot a destination wedding   completed 4/30/10
   
2. Open a studio space where I can sit down with my clients
3. Have my car detailed and keep it that way for a month
4. Plan a girl’s weekend away and take the trip with my friends
5. Learn and incorporate lightroom into my workflow
6. Take one absolutely fantastic group picture
7. Walk at least one mile per day for a month
8. Get some kind of affordable health insurance
9. Make apple butter from scratch and learn to can it
10. Buy a house
11. Update my website to show product examples
12. Do some kind of photo spread for GSUSA
13. Host a dinner party
14. Send a secret to PostSecret
15. Go to a Steeler Game at Heinz Field
16. Start a retirement plan
17. Attend a Halloween Costume Party
18. Fly
19. Take a ballroom dancing class
20. Get down to my goal weight
21. Participate in Race for the Cure
22. Visit the Pittsburgh zoo and new aquarium    completed 5/25/10
    
23. Plant a tree
24. Go antiquing and buy something for my dream house
25. Plan a surprise birthday party
26. Do a photo shoot for an animal shelter
27. Get my passport
28. Re-do the 1997 road trip
29. Shower and wash my hair in a rainstorm
30. Back-up ALL the 2009 photos in external hard drive completed 3/31/10 
31. Make a quilt
32. Register to vote and follow through
33. Photo essay on “Camps”
34. Show some work in a gallery
35. Attend WPPI annual convention
36. Spend a weekend at a Bed & Breakfast
37. Take my Dad to the Boundary Waters
38. Photograph the Amish
39. Pay off my student loan  completed 11/2010
    
40. Have photos done of myself that I LOVE
41. Save something from extinction
42. Get published in a magazine (with my name on my work this time)
43. Teach a workshop
44. Snorkel in the Caribbean
45. Take a bath (since we’ve only had a shower all my life)
46. Advertise for 1 month on a billboard over a major highway
47. Dance all night at a wedding where I am not the photographer
48. Spend an afternoon on a sailboat
49. Send out anniversary cards to my wedding clients
50. Play laser tag with 2 or more friends completed 11/5/10
    
51. Visit Dunton Hot Springs, Telluride, Colorado or Paws Up Resort, Montana
    
52. Carry out a random act of kindness for a group of deserving people
53. Streamline album design process
54. Win a photo contest
55. Start entering photo contests
56. Audition for survivor
57. Take a totally spontaneous weekend trip
58. Seriously look into laser vision correction
59. Update the layout of my blog     completed 4/6/10
60. Set up kick-ass home office in a new house
61. Buy a new used car
62. Shoot images every month for the calendar
63. Finish my best friend’s wedding album
64. Photograph a bald eagle completed 5/2010
    
65. Host a campfire cookout night
66. Participate in the polar bear swim
67. Take 30,000 photos in a year
68. Print and frame personal photos for new house
69. Visit Alaska
70. Go to yoga class once a week for two months in a row  completed 8/2010
    
71. Set-up and implement a customer satisfaction survey
72. Visit a National Park
73. Blog everyday for a month
74. Cook a whole thanksgiving dinner myself
75. Get a fancy camera strap  completed 3/11/10
    
76. Buy a video camera and learn to use it
77. Start hosting PhotoEscape and get people to show up
78. Plant a garden
79. Spend a day at a theme park
80. Go to a drive in movie three times completed 7/2010
    
81. Start recycling  completed 10/2010
    
82. Go snow tubing
83. Go tubing on the river  completed 5/2010
    
84. Compile recipes
85. Send out photo xmas cards for my business
86. Offer wedding photography away free to a give-away winner
87. Find out my credit score
88. Go camping with Jon
89. Get a dog
90. Get an eye exam  completed 3/11/10
    
91. Personal goal  completed 1/25/10
    
92. Visit the Baltimore relatives  completed 4/2010
    
93. Get some photos published in PA publication
94. Camp in a YURT   completed 5/14/10
    
95. Go fishing  completed 4/24-25/10
    
96. Get my kayak out at least 5 times every season
97. Take more photos of Sean and I
98. Take more personal photos of family and friends and I
99. Put a face to my name on my website   completed 2/5/10
    
100. Go on one planned “date night” per month for a year
101. Update all written materials, contracts, print portfolio, etc.

 

 

 And now, because everything is better with pictures - here's some shots from this past summer's fireworks night at Saltsburg Canal Days.  That's the old grist mill on the right and the vendors were set up along the old canal walkway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year everybody!

 

I actually thought about posting a 'Best of 2009' post for the end of the year.  But that feeling only lasted about 37 seconds.  I opened my master folder of all the photos I've shot this year and checked the file size.  It contained 26,964 photos.

 

Which roughly averaged means I shot 73 photos per day, or 1 photo every 30 minutes all year long.

Actually I thought it would have been more than that....  but I guess when you figure in sleeping and driving with both hands on the wheel it all works out about even.

 

 

So what could I show you to represent a year's worth of work?  For the first time - this year I've released a 12 month calendar of images I've shot all over Pennsylvania.  Cool, huh?  :-)  I'm proud of it, and when you do sort through 27,000 photos you find a lot of hidden gems. 

 

 

 

If anyone would like to purchase a calendar, they are on sale for $28.57 each.  They are 12x18" in size and each page features on large and one small color photo.  The front cover is a poster size image.  I realize this is a little pricier than a kitten calendar you can pick up at the bookstore and I've wracked my brain trying to figure out how to make it cheaper.  They cost me $21 each to make, and because it's an odd size and has to be shipped flat the cheapest I can ship it is $5.95 - then you've got that good old sales tax and *poof* we've arrived at $28.57.  Every time I say it I have this "  wuh wah waaaa " game show loser feeling.  But I thought I'd put it out there just in case anyone was interested and might still like to get one.

 

If you would like to purchase a calendar, please email me at PhotosbyAW@aol.com .

 

 

 

 

Also - on the first of each month I'll post the calendar photo of each month here on the blog - so without further ado - here is January.   Happy 2010 everyone - here's to good health, good friends, and great adventures in the new year!