Crossover

I'm not sure how many of my friends cross from my personal blog with Erik to my business blog with Mike, but now is an excellent time to do so!

Anyhow, Erik went with me to Dodge City a few weeks ago because I had an engagement session with Shauna and James. Erik's grandpa John lives there, so we had a nice lunch with Greandpa, uncle John Wayne and some of Grandpa's cronies.

After lunch, Erik did manly things like watch golf with the men while I had the engagement session. Anyhow, cruise over to the Heartland blog to see the slideshow from the session!

I admit it ....

I WAS cheering for KU this afternoon (despite their pathetic attempts to play basketball, the guys finally won).

NO, I'm not having a change of heart ... I'm just mean. They will play against Roy's team next and I want Roy to spank them and anger all the KU people out ther (heck, my NCAA bracket is shot to heck, might as well enjoy what's left of the tourney!). Besides, good old Bill Self seems to be a really nice guy and Erik says of the times he's advanced to the Elite Eight, he's never made it to the Final Four ... so way to go Bill. Now I want the red & blue fans to cry after the next round (evil smile).

It'd just make all those Beakers sour and make me smile in an evil way....(sorry, daddy Vern!)

So, yeah, Erik came to Hays and we hit two places to watch the games today ... excellent times!

Visiting the Sheps

Easter evening, Erik and I ventured over to the "west side" of Wichita to see Mike and Angie's new house. Mike was excited to show us around .... above we're in the new Heartland Photography office ... but it needs a *little* work. ;-) Mike has grand plans for it, and I'm excited to see how the south office shapes up. It's the "south" office because I'll set up the "north" office in Salina soon!

See how Mike completely ignores me here? And Erik's giving me this "Would you stinkin' quit taking pictures?" look! :-) tee-hee-hee.

So....here's Erik getting action from another chick. This is Harley, Angie and Mike's dog. (I think she likes Erik!). She was trying to give Erik kisses ... but he kept saying "Not on the lips! Not on the lips!" Doesn't look like Harley listens very well...





(Maybe eventually Erik will get up to speed on how to use my camera, and you'll see some silly photos of me on here, too!)

ANOTHER wild wedding dream!

SO, last night, I had ANOTHER weddding dream!

Why is it that wedding dreams aren't all flowery, warm and fuzzy?

THIS time, in my dream, we forgot to send out the wedding invitations (crazy, I know). So, at the last minute, we were calling and e-mailing people, asking them to come to the wedding.

I can't imagine my dreams getting much stranger, but I'm SURE it's possible. *sigh*

According to our wedding web site, there are only 183 more days until our wedding (I seriously had to look it up, I'm NOT one of those brides who is counting the hours and minutes until Erik and I are married — YET!)

So, that's 183 more nights where it's possible I'll have crazy dreams. THEN I hope it will end!

Mikols Men

On any given Saturday or Sunday afternoon, it's a given that you will find someone passed out on "The Green Couch" at my parents' house. The thing seriously swallows people whole!

Paul crashed out, and was having a snore session, when I grabbed this photo of him! Being a college student is hard work, so I understand the need to nap during spring break. ;-)


After Easter dinner at the Sheldon household, Grandpa Benny crashed out ... sitting up! He is a sleeping champ! Anytime, anywhere! I wish I could do that! In the background, you'll see Carl sprawled out on the couch, nabbing a few zzz's also.


Lastly, here is dad. When I was in 8th grade, he taught me to work a SLR camera, and you can't tear it out of my hands now! He continues to take photographs, but not in the professional realm. He's more of a "prosumer." He got a new camera recently and has been having fun with it!

Here is the photo he took of Max:

Priests + Easter Bunnies

Here are Fr. John and Fr. Dan, the associate pastor and pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas. I grew up at St. Thomas and remember several pastors. Fr. Dan came when I was in high school and I remember he and Fr. Sherlock coming to eat at the Garden Cafe. I had fun serving them, because it seems as priests in our parish, they do all the serving of US.

As a visual junkie, I love that Fr. Dan has the white rabbit on the right .... because it contrasts with his gold vestment.


And Fr. John ... I actually met Fr. John when I lived in Independnce. He was in the seminary at the time and teaching Totus Tuus in Coffeyville. I made a few trips down to help the team with whatever they needed.

Ok, back to priests + easter bunnies. A few years ago, Fr. Dan started the easter egg hunt after the noon Mass on Easter. The egg are wooden (you trade them in for prizes/candy) and two have "Easter Bunny" written on them. The bunnies are the BIG prize. Although it's pretty humorous to watch, because it seems when we go, the parents are always hoping one of the children does not find the "easter bunny" egg becausae it might create havoc in the rest of the household/kids. :-) It cracks me up! But ... I guess when I have kiddos, I might be in the same boat!

Robin in the Collegian

***We interrupt the Easter posts to bring you news from my sister***

This morning, my sister Robin sent me a text saying her photo was in the K-State Collegian.

Yay! Since I worked for Spub for years, it wasn't really likely she would be featured in an interview or photo. BUT today, they did a story on Women in Aviation at K-State Salina. (that's the direct link, they'll change the front page tomorrow and you'll have to dig for it).

The photo was from Robin competing in the Air Race Classic.

Way to go sis!

Easter Egg Hunt No. 2

This is a little bit out of order, but I wanted to share these cute photos of Max and Gianna with Auntie Sarah in Atlanta! (We all MISS YOU SO MUCH, SARAH!). On Easter Sunday, the Mikols family invaded the Sheldon household. We converged with Marie & Gary and their kiddos. Gianna, top, is all smiles and talk. Max, second, is more quiet, but during the Easter egg hunt, had bunches of rowdy fun! (Isn't Gianna's dress cute? I'm told Auntie Sarah got it for her!)

(BTW, Easter Egg hunt No. 1 was at St. Thomas Aquinas before this hunt ... be sure to check back tomorrow for a few photos of that ... but they will be not of kids, but of priests playing!)

The thing of the Sheldon Easter egg hunts is the eggs are filled with one of two things: coins or confetti. If you get coins, you pockest them. If you get confetti, you crack them open over someone else's head (BUT that must be done OUTDOORS!). It's heaps of fun, usually involves chases around the backyard and peals of laughter and shrieks. The above photo of Max is after Gianna smashed an egg on his head. Gianna wanted to know what to do with the egg, so we told her to crack it on Max's head, and she LITERALLY did it...smacked it on his noggin. Oops. She learned how to open them and dump them on people's heads, though ... see Marie help her get her dad, Gary? (side note: Gary used to NEVER let us get him, but his kids are awesome at getting confetti on their daddy-O!)


Check out these smiles! I think Max and Gianna had a blast! (Did I mention they will be our flower girl and ring bearer in September? They are excited, as are Erik and I!)






The twins, Agnes and Clare, were in on a little bit of the romping and playing. Here's Mary carrying Clare around:


I LOVE how you see the teething ring and her little mouth! It sounds like Agnes and Clare are teething, but Clare gnawed on my fingers for a good portion of Sunday, and I didn't feel any teeth .... but she was chewing away regardless!

Lastly, it wasn't the little kids having all the fun. My dad was distracted with his new camera, so Erik took advantage of it and let loose with some confetti...

Paul + wind farm = field trip

My brother Paul volunteered to come collect me from Salina on Friday night. This was important because Erik was joining me in Wichita on Sunday and we wanted to be able to ride back to Salina together Monday afternoon.

So...we went to Martinelli's, one of Erik's favorite places to go.

After dinner, I asked Paul if he had a little extra time and would like to go on a field trip. He agreed, so we headed west from Salina, heading toward Ellsworth on I-70. He filled me in on his engineering classes, and it turns out the subject of wind energy has come up in one of his classes. I filled him in on the back and forth debate over the wind farm in Ellis County as well.

We headed off the Interstate and hit some back roads. THEN we took Paul's little Honda OFF ROADING! It bottomed out once, but made it up the hill to where one of the turbines was. This photo was taken basically at dusk. Minimal sunlight, and mostly moon light. It was taken at 1/7 of a second, which is SLOW, but sometimes possible for photojournalists. :-)


So...it looks like Paul is going to do a college project on wind energy! Excellent! (yeah, this photo is a little blurry, but it's at about 1/7 of a second, which didn't hold still this time!)


This last one is NOT in focus at all, but I like the eerie feel of it ... sort of ghost like. I'd not been up close to a turbine in a long time ... and both Paul and I were certainly given a sense of perspective about our place/size in the universe.


I'm also hoping to make a longer term documentary project out of this wind project, which was also strongly contested. I'm going to apply for a grant next month, so we'll see what happens.

Easter

Erik joined me at the Sheldon household for Easter. Dad grabbed a few photos.

The twins were over and I spent lots of time holding Clare. She's cute as a button!



I have more pictures to share from the weekend, so be sure to check back!

Self portraits

One of the quirky things about photographers is that we take self-portraits. Often, we are not seen in photos of family events because we are BEHIND the camera. Sure, we captre the event, but we are also a missing component.

This is the Willie from my freshman year at K-State (1999). I adored him because he'd always come over and take self portraits with me. :-)

Today, I thought I'd share some of my crazy self portraits.

This is Kelly ... he asked for some self portraits for a class he's teaching, which prompted this post. Kelly and I were both accepted to the Eddie Adams Barnstorm in 2002.



Here's my one from college graduation.


This is also from my time in Independence. I went to Sedan, Kansas for a clown festival to celebrate famed clown Emmett Kelly.


This is when I was the designated animal shelter photog in Independence. It was rough to go see the kitties and puppies without homes. The kittens enjoyed crawling on my shoulders. Esse did this when she was wee, too.


Also near Independence, a sunflower field ... I went one night to photograph and dis some self portraits (yes, I'm a TOTAL ham!)


This was when Robin shaved her head for a St. Baldrick's fundraiser.


These two were from when I photographed a group of women who take "girls trips" on their Harleys (I want one!!!!).





After the trip, I got this shirt, and sent an email to everyone I knew, telling them I was going to go to the Harley Davidson mechanic school in southeast Kansas! It yielded some awesome responses from friends! It's also the shirt I was wearing the night Erik and I first met.


This was taken when I was in Rome photographing ... I LOVE it!



I shot this last year when I went to Salina for a work trip. I went to Coronodo Heights ... then it snowed the next day. Itw was CRAZY!


This is Louie, Allison and I. Allison and I teach CCD on Wednesday nights and have too much fun with our second graders. Over the summer, she invited me to watch her in a cow milking competition ... but later told me that she needed team members, so I had about 5 hours to learn how to milk a cow! I dressed accordingly, though. :-)


Heidi

Last year, my friend Heidi and I went to the POY judging in Columbia, Mo. I told Erik I was going to go pee on the pillars ... we had a little fun!




To finish it up, this is Eirk and I. He told me to stop flashing my ring when we were taking a photo for our Christmas card. This was my response.

On ChristopherRobin Blog!

HA! So Robin & Chris picked out a blog header!

About a week ago, I posted a few blog headers I put together. I couldn't pick a favorite, so I left it to them, and I think they did a fantastic job. It looks SOOOOOO good, especially with the blue background of their blog.

I am SOOOO excited for Erik and I to have our engagement photos done so I can make a better blog header for us!

What inspires me?

Part of my morning routine involves blog stalking. Yes, I admit it. I AM A (blog) STALKER!!!!!

Now that that's out of the way, I was stalking Jules this morning and saw her NEW WEB SITE!!!!! It's totally yummie, so check it out. (I'm super excited because we're overhauling the Heartland Web site as we speak! I'll let you know when it's up for public consumption).



I LOVE to comb through other photographer's Web sites because it inspires me. I see photos I admire and think "wow, I would never have THOUGHT of that" or that I make a mental note to avoid.

One of the biggest reasons I will return to a blog day after day is that it is frequently updated!

Here are a few others I *adore*

Heather Essian (She's going to come and photograph OUR wedding!!!)


Kara Pennington


Anne Ruthmann


Davina Fear (I just LOVE her name!)


Millie Holloman


(There are SERIOUSLY too many to name, so if you want a more complete list of the places I visit regularly, start by looking at the sidebar at the right, then drop me a line or leave a comment!)