The most amazing, beautiful and cool engagement pics ever

Hey,

So, after a bit of scheduling trouble, Jon and I were able to finally do our engagement shoot with Bryan Mitchell. It was AMAZING. First of all, we knew we didn't want to do the traditional engagement pics of the couple standing in a field or anything like that. We wanted to do something cool, something a bit punk rock and something very much us. I got a lot of ideas from the website Rock and Roll Bride (awesome, even if you aren't getting married, check it out) and Bryan was very willing to make our ideas work. We met outside the Blind Pig, an Ann Arbor rock and roll institution of sorts. Not only does it have a rich musical history (artists such as John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, REM, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana have played there, to name just a few) but it was also one of the first places Jon and I went on a date. We shot a bunch of photos in front of the Blind Pig, a bunch down by The Millennium Club, some in the alley beside the Blind Pig and even some inside the 8 Ball (the bar under the Blind Pig).

We had a blast and Bryan was inventive, creative and generally awesome. We are SO thrilled with how the pics came out and the hardest part will be trying to decide which ones to print since there are so many cool ones to choose from. These are just a few:

Just a summary...

I know it's been forever since I last posted, I'll try to remedy that this summer but I'm not promising anything. So, an update of things possibly interesting and probably not-so interesting:

• I am still wearing the heart monitor. I can not WAIT to be rid of it. I've made it through almost 30 days of wearing it and Friday night I will be FREE! I know it was a good decision to go through wearing it and I did have an episode about two weeks ago which got recorded which is the whole point of wearing it, but I hate, hate, hate wearing it. Not only do I have four electrodes and a little disc the circumfrence of a coffee mug attached to me at all times, the stupid adhesive on the electrodes makes me break out in a rash. A rash I have now had for over four weeks. A rash I can't get rid of until I can stop wearing the stupid electrodes. It's agony. It's sort of like having chicken pox all over your torso but for four weeks. Needless to say, if you hear rejoicing on Friday night, you'll know who it is.
• School is over for the summer (yay!) though they didn't have contracts for us to sign which makes me somewhat nervous since there was talk of layoffs. I like to think I'm fairly safe since I'm the head of the department, but I'd still have felt a lot better walking out with a signed contract in my hand.
• I have been invited to over 15 graduation parties for seniors. I don't think I've ever had quite so full a social calendar. It's flattering at the same time though, and I'll really miss those seniors. Of course now they're allowed to be friends with me on facebook (that was my rule, I'm not your friend on facebook until you graduate) so I get to hear all about what's going on...
• I started my Constitutional Law class today. It's just an online class through the continuing ed program at WCC, but I'm still excited about it. I took a Journalism Law class when I was at MSU and LOVED it (totally nerdy, I know) so I'm looking forward to this. If it goes well I'll probably take the Evidence Law classes they offer too. Who knows, maybe I'll give the LSAT a shot...It's something I've always kind of thought about, so maybe I'll just do it and see what happens.
• I've started running again (yay!). Bummed that I had to miss the 5k I was going to do back in early June, but I've set my sights on doing a 10k in November. It felt really good to be running yesterday, and if I'm going to all these grad parties, I better start running again. Seriously, the amount of food at these things is nuts.
• Jon and I have our tickets for Arizona to go to Josh and Julie's wedding. I'm a little nervous about Phoenix in late July though. I am SO not a hot-weather person. Good thing the house we're staying at has a private pool. I think I'll be in it all the time (provided my stupid hives go away and I can wear a bathing suit without everyone thinking I have some awful skin disease.)
• I think I'm going to do some photography at Kelly's fashion show. She just graduated from FIT and is trying to put together a show of her stuff for late summer/the fall. I think that would be really cool, though I've never shot anything like that before. Worth a try :)
• I don't remember if I ever mentioned it, but in addition to writing for Revolt, I've been writing for Chris Schwegler's site. If you've never heard me mention him, he's a photographer in the Detroit area that gets to go to ALL the big stuff. Coldplay. Eminem. Elton John. Billy Joel. Aerosmith. Green Day. So, I've salivated over his photos for a number of years now and finally just emailed him one day and asked him if he needed anyone else, either as a writer or photographer. So, he hired me as a writer! I've got quite a few reviews up at his site now but one of the most exciting things was that I got to shoot the Lily Allen show for him! My photos and review of the show are here. I put in requests for a number of other shows this summer, I hope at least a few of them come through. It was pretty damn cool getting to photograph Lily Allen though. Totally fun show :)
  

Well, I think that's about all the big news for the moment. I'm keeping busy, that's for sure. Not too much time yet to get totally bored :)

Hawthorne Heights Interview

Two weeks ago I got to do an in-person interview with two of the guys from Hawthorne Heights and that was pretty exciting. Most of the interviews I've done have had to be email interviews and, although I get pretty nervous, there's something much more exciting about doing a live interview. Especially when the band is pretty well-known. So, after having to wait outside in the freezing cold for about 45 minutes due to some delays at The Shelter, I got to sit down and chat with Eron Bucciarelli and Micah Carli from Hawthorne Heights. If you're interested in reading the story, check it out at Revolt. The show review and some photos I shot will go up in about two weeks. I think getting to meet them was especially exciting because I felt a little like things had come in a circle (well, maybe a spiral would be a more appropriate analogy) because they were the very first band I got to photograph from the photo pit at a show and one of my very favorite photos of all time was a picture I shot of Micah Carli at that show. I didn't have a photo pass (another photographer and I started chatting and he sort of snuck me into the pit) and I was just using my Canon point and shoot, but it was a thrilling experience. So, to actually meet them and sit down to talk was really a thrill. :)

Adventures in Journalism

Well, I had a new experience last night. One that I hope not to repeat, but it was kind of interesting (and a little funny) now that I'm roughly 24 hours away from it. Let me explain:

Last night I was covering the Kings of Leon show. Openers were The Whigs and We Are Scientists (WAS were the ones I was most excited to see, I missed seeing them two years ago and was psyched to finally see them live.) I had a photo pass and ticket. I got to the State (er, Fillmore) Theater with no trouble, found parking right away and even was able to skip the long line of people waiting in the cold because my ticket was printed by Live Nation and not Ticketmaster (beats me why that matters, but, whatever). So, I mosey my way to the front of the theater and meet up with a security guard that almost always works at the State/Fillmore and actually remembered me. He was very nice, friendly and, to be honest, gives me some preferential treatment (he's the guy that managed to get me to the front of the crazy crowd at the 89x Christmas show two years ago and let me photograph Fall Out Boy from basically the photo pit even though I didn't have a photo pass that night). No problems photographing The Whigs.

Then come WAS. I'd gotten talking to one of the other photographers and we discovered a problem. According to this Big Scary Bald Australian or British guy that worked there, his photo pass was only good for Kings of Leon and he was not to photograph We Are Scientists. Now, I've run into this sort of thing before but usually you get permission to shoot one of the openers and not the headliner, so this seemed a bit weird. I looked at my pass and it seemed to be good only for We Are Scientists, but I didn't advertise this to anyone and didn't think anyone would ask. No problems shooting WAS and they played a fun set. My security guard friend even let me stay up in the photo pit (to the side) to take notes during the rest of the set (I didn't have my camera out).

Then came time to get ready to shoot Kings of Leon. I'm standing in the pit and Big Scary Bald Australian/Brit comes up and looks at my pass. He says I shouldn't be up there, my pass was no good. I feel that I HAVE to get some photos of the headliner and figured I'd just stay to the side (cameras were allowed in the show which is a bit unusual) and get some pictures that way. Security guard (SG) guy pulls me up to the front.

Ok, let me take a moment here and say that what I SHOULD have done was fess up and tell SG that Big Scary Bald Australian/Brit said my pass wasn't good for the headliner and sucked it up. I didn't. Ok, that's totally my fault but I guess I thought that if I stayed to the side and only got a few photos, and kept out of peoples way no one would care. Er, wrong.

So, Big Scary Bald Australian/Brit somehow saw me (I thought he was backstage) and I am physically removed from the pit. At first I thought they were going to kick me out of the show entirely. Nope, hauled up to the production office where Big Scary Bald Australian/Brit made me delete the card in my camera. Luckily not all of my photos from the night were on there and I'd swapped cards so I may have lost a few photos of WAS and all of the Kings of Leon pictures, but I still had photos of The Whigs and WAS on a separate card. He then told me to put my camera in my car.

I was able to finish watching the show but, needless to say, the fun of the night was gone. At first I thought that he'd gotten ALL my We Are Scientists photos but then remembered as I was driving home that I'd swapped cards before Kings of Leon went on. I was really worried that Sherri (my editor) would be super pissed, I'd be blacklisted from shows, etc. etc. and maybe that blacklisting thing will still happen, who knows. Sherri, however, was pissed that he made me delete my photos and thinks it's idiotic that they give passes for everyone but the headliner. I mean, come on, unless you're the Rolling Stones or something, get over yourselves! I mean really!

Yeah, so, it was quite a night. I'd prefer not to repeat it. Maybe this makes me a "real" journalist/photographer now that I've pissed someone off. I guess in the old days he'd have taken the film, eh? I accept my responsiblity for the whole thing, but he was a bit of a douche too. (But some of the WAS photos are really cool, I'm glad I didn't lose them all, AND the WAS bassist gave me a big smile right as they were starting, so that was kind of cool).

Another cover...

I believe this is the third time Sherri has featured one of my photos on the Revolt "cover." It's still a bit of a thrill! Read the story and see more photos here. It was a tough show to shoot since the people at St. Andy's had the barrier shoved almost all the way up to the stage, effectively eliminating the photo pit entirely. I had to do all my shooting from the right side of the stage, which made things a bit tough.

In other fun, writing/photography related news, I'm also going to be covering the Kings of Leon/We Are Scientists show in November as well as the Hawthorne Heights show. What makes the HH show especially cool is that I also get to do an in-person interview with the band before the show! It's funny, it feels a little like coming full-circle or something since it was at a Hawthorne Heights show two years ago that I managed to get into the photo pit for the first time. I had never touched a digital SLR, much less owned one, and now I've photographed lots and lots of shows, not only held but purchased a lovely digital SLR and had some experiences I never thought I would in a million years. Wow :)

Tomorrow is the big day, tattoo number four. I'm at the nervous but excited stage. Tomorrow I'll probably be mostly nervous until it actually starts, then I'll be wincing but excited and then sore but happy. It's all part of the process I guess. How much things have changed in some ways since moving back to MI in 2005.

I guess I'm just in a reflective mood right now. It's in a good way though :)

So glad it's almost Friday...

Whew, maybe it's because I'm now 30 (yikes!) or maybe it's just been one of those weeks. In any event, I'm SO glad tomorrow is Friday. It's been a pretty good week though:) I had a great birthday with flowers from Jon and some from my parents as well. I got loads of sweet emails/ecards and messages on myspace and facebook from friends and family. Jon and I cooked a tasty dinner of shrimp fra diavolo, drank wine and had a great night. I'm really excited for my party on Saturday and though the karaoke still makes me a little nervous, the excitement definitely is outweighing the nerves.

Too bad the rest of the week was a little blah. Nothing bad but nothing terribly exciting (other than an episode of Buffy that was quite distressing, don't ask). I'm cursed *cough*, er, "blessed" with a meeting about whether to keep The Good Earth in the curriculum tomorrow after school (postponed from last Friday because of the snow day). Honestly? If I'm out of the meeting before 5:30, I'll consider myself lucky. I dread it.

Oh, actually, there was some fun news yesterday. I got my first assignment for the Detroit Fashion Pages. Weirdly enough, it's a pure photo job, no writing. I'm shooting this event at the 555 Gallery & Studio in Detroit, a big DJ party type thing with this guy Ben Sims who is a DJ and producer from London. It's pretty exciting, finally getting paid for my work and all! Woot!

Ok, I guess since I have to go to work tomorrow I probably should DO some work. Blech.


Listening to: (Husband's fav) The Killers, Sam's Town

Good News in Photography

So, this is pretty damn cool, but Husband got himself some photo credits! Check out his sweet pics of Thomas here. Fuckin' awesome! Yay, Husband!

I also was just given a pretty sweet opportunity. Victory Records contacted Revolt and wants coverage for their bands. I got to pick a bunch of upcoming shows by Victory artists and I've been guestlisted for them as well as getting a photo pass AND a chance to interview the bands before the shows! So, I will be seeing:

The Audition along with Jack's Mannequin & Head Automatica @ The State Theater on Feb 17
Bayside @ St. Andrews on March 1
Aiden (along with The Used and 30 Seconds to Mars!) @ Cobo on March 31.

I'm psyched about them all, but to be guestlisted for the Taste of Chaos tour is really sweet. Victory also really wants us to do an interview with Aiden so I will even get to go behind the scenes at Taste of Chaos! Woot!

I was going to get to interview Kevin Lyman (founder of Warped Tour) but that fell through...would have been kinda cool though!

Gatsby party in just two and a half days...the countdown is on. I think it is gonna be awesome! It looks like we'll have about 16 or 17 people there! Crazy...I've got serious grocery shopping to do on Friday though. I'm pretty excited about the menu though, so I'll probably have fun with it.

Peace out Starving Nachos :)

Listening to: Unwritten Law, The Hit List