This was such a colorful engagement session! I love love the colors in Melanie and Adam’s engagement photos. Her dress, brightly painted doors, wild flowers it all added up to create a joyful explosion of colors. Melanie wanted both urban and nature backgrounds for their shoot so we decided to meet in Baraboo WI which has some great spots along the river within a short distance. The locations were perfect to begin with but with beautiful Melanie and handsome Adam and we got something really special! Melanie and Adam are super cute, fun loving and kind people with bright smiles and it was a joy to watch them interact with each other and hear their laughs. Here are some of the engagement photos we created together. I’m looking forward to their big day next year so that I can get them in front of the camera and do it again. Thanks so much!
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The forecasts were predicting a rainy day but mother nature cooperated and Renee and Darin had a perfect weather for their wedding day – warm, dry and just windy enough to make the veil flow. We started with “getting ready” photos at St Norbert church in Roxbury WI. Renee was all ready to get into her gorgeous dress. With some help from her bridesmaids and her mom within minutes she looked stunning and was ready to read a love letter from Darin. After a few tears and several laughs it was time to head upstairs for the ceremony.
There was a slight chance of rain in the afternoon, but the weather was still holding up beautifully for all the portraits we planned after the ceremony. St Norbert church is located on a hill and the grounds have lots of mature trees so we didn’t have to go far in search of perfect photo spots. We could even include Renee’s family farm in one of the backgrounds.
After we were done with all the family and wedding party portraits, it was time to head to the reception… across the street. The Dorf Haus Supper Club in Roxbury is conveniently located next to the church and it is famous in the area for its good food. Both Renee and Darin have big families so the restaurant was full with guests. Renee specifically asked me for one special Dorf Haus wedding photo from their day in which she wanted to include all the guests. The grounds around Dorf Haus were soaked with water and had huge puddles from recent rains so the original idea of shooting from the deck with everybody on the grass wasn’t going to work. Instead we did our best to squeeze as many people as possible on a small lower deck. Even though not everybody was able to fit in – it was a great plan B option. 🙂
And then the reception and the dances followed… Later that night, when I was leaving the Dorf Haus the sprinkles started, what a perfect timing!
Renee and Darin, thanks for having me to document your big day! I wish you many years of happiness and love.
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My Big WHY Question – Sauk Prairie Portrait and Wedding Photographer
Beloved Portraits , Families , What I love
At a recent photography workshop we were all inspired to figure out answers to our big WHY question. I’ve been thinking about it before but never put anything in writing to share with the world. This time we were encouraged to dig deeper and to share our discoveries openly. Why am I doing photography? Why do I care about it so much? What has happened in my life that photography helped me heal or fill in a void? These and a few other questions were intensely on my mind over the last couple of weeks. I kept exploring, kept making notes on different scraps of paper and was happy to see that something was actually coming out of them. And now I think I’m ready (or as ready as I can get) to share it with you…
Growing up in communist Poland meant that photography wasn’t a big part of my childhood. These were different times with different everyday struggles and having family portraits just wasn’t one of the things that people would focus on. Displaying photographs at home also wasn’t part of the culture (this came later in the early nineties with introduction of IKEA stores :)) I do have some snapshots from that time, but none of them is a family portrait. My parents divorced when I was six and since then the only photographs I have are school class photos. My teenage years are captured only in my memory, nowhere else. I remember being drawn to that small selection of childhood photographs and how much I loved looking at them, I knew them all by heart. When I tried to figure out why I was so attracted to them I think the answer is that they made me feel important and special. And this wasn’t a feeling I experienced often back then…
Portraits can have a huge impact on our perception of who we are and how we feel about ourselves. All my school years I was shy and quiet, doing my best not to stick out from the crowd. Confidence and self esteem were concepts I knew little about and definitely not something I learned at home or school. I remember this constant feeling of not being good enough or not capable of doing something special. It might be stretching to a conclusion, but I think the lack of family photographs from my school years had a big influence on this perception.
What I want to do through my photography now is to show people how beautiful, special and ever important they really are. I want to show how much they mean to those who love them; how precious their relationship is. I want to show them that they belong and how much they are loved. I want them to feel grounded and connected to each other. I want them to celebrate relationships they have with the people they love and with themselves.
I often hear that all my clients are beautiful. I agree. However, it’s not the surface beauty that shows on the photographs. It’s their inner, authentic beauty and their true personality that they share with me. I do my best to create a safe space for my clients to open up and express their feelings for each other. A place that enables them to share in a joyful and fun- filled way their individual, beautiful sides of themselves. When they do – magic happens. 🙂
I still sometimes feel my insecurities and self-doubt, we probably all do, but now I can always find strength inside that helps me grow from them and not shut down and crawl into a hole. My “WHY” is to bring more love and happiness into this world, to show everybody how beautiful they are, help them feel good about themselves through photography. This “WHY” is so big that I just can’t stay in that hole too long. So here it is, wide out in the open… I still can’t believe I finally shared it. And if you are still here – thanks for reading!
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Center Stage Dance Academy from Sauk City, WI shines again despite the looming threat of thundershowers and stormy weather. Yesterday’s 10th anniversary dance recital featured kids of all ages from adorable preschoolers through awesome high school seniors. Ballet, tap, hip hop, jazz and even stomp dance routines were all beautifully choreographed and entertained the audience young and old including our 93-year-old neighbor Phyllis. She shared that this was the best evening she had in a very long time. 🙂 Enjoy some photos!
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Business As An Artform Retreat – Afterthoughts
Beloved Portraits , Everyday Magic , Studio News and Products
This week was definitely one of the most memorable in my life. I know it’s a bold statement, but this is exactly how I feel after returning from Business As An Artform retreat in Denver, CO. I discovered “Beloved” a little over a year ago and was immediately drawn to this approach to portrait photography as well as the amazing, powerful, authentic imagery it creates. The retreat in Denver brought together “Beloved” photographers and business mentors from all over the world; and I still can’t believe I was able to be a part of it as well. So grateful. Those attending were a wonderful group of people who truly care about each other, are genuine, non judgmental, open and sharing. It’s challenging to put my entire experience into words but I’ll do my best. Thank you Jesh for teaching us how to look inside ourselves to become more passionate, joyful and inspiring. Thank you Steve for sharing how to build a solid foundation on which we can create something worthwhile. Thank you Andrea for making us think about what our “big WHY” is and how it can help our clients. Thank you Marianne for inspiring us how to take care of our clients in the best possible way. Thank you Kristen for teaching us how to be a fun loving cilantro. 🙂 This workshop was an amazing journey and I am so happy we’ll keep growing together. Now sky is the limit!
here is what I was able to capture on my way home 🙂
Sometimes life can be full of magic, like this gorgeous rainbow that popped up over our house yesterday… So pretty 🙂
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Hiking in Wisconsin is one of our favorite family activities and with the spring coming late this year we were getting quite restless to finally go out and discover new hiking treasures. Yesterday the weather was gorgeous so we headed out for our first serious hike this year. We chose Devil’s Lake SP and decided to explore the southwest part of the park. We followed a boulder covered stream into a beautiful deep canyon. A nice surprise was waiting for us at the end – two high springtime waterfalls. The trees were still bare but ground was covered with first wildflowers of spring. These were like tiny (white or purple) jewels but hard to miss as there was not much else blooming. I’m sure this will change quickly and with the temperatures in the 70F range in a few days everything will look completely different there. This change will be a great reason to come back and explore some more. For now a few images from our early spring hike. Enjoy!
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Frank was an unusual model for me. I do have some experience in pet photography because quite often dogs do show up as family members on my clients’ family portraits. High school seniors also like to include favorite pets in their senior photos. Frank however had a photo session just for himself! His owner Brianna did show up in a few shots but he was definitely my main model. And he was good! We did have to use quite a lot of treats to get him to pose and collaborate but it was still easier than it is sometimes with toddlers. 🙂 It was a new experience in pet photography for me, but I liked it and I’m ready for more. Are you considering having beautiful portraits of your pet? Maybe I could help you with that, let’s chat! Here is awesome Frank… Enjoy!
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What I Love – Quick and Easy Ciabatta Bread Recipe – Sauk Prairie, WI Photographer
What I love
Both of my kids just LOVE ciabatta bread. It’s a delicious type of Italian bread made from wheat flour and yeast, probably not the healthiest choice of bread but tastes sooo good. It is especially good with soups or as a sandwich. I used to buy pre-baked frozen ciabatta in a store and just put it in the oven before a meal. I wanted to learn making my own ciabatta but I couldn’t find a recipe that seemed easy and quick enough. That is until a month ago when I searched a great Polish cooking blog Kwestia Smaku. There are several ciabatta recipes there but one appeared especially simple. I tried it and indeed the ciabatta was very easy to make and came out perfect. Do you want to learn how to make homemade quick and easy ciabatta bread? Then keep reading…
HOW TO MAKE CIABATTA (this recipe is adapted from Kwestia Smaku)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour (I used unbleached bread flour)
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (you can skip this and just use more white flour)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 12 oz cool water
Extras:
- olive oil
- dried oregano
- sea salt
- sesame seeds
1. Put all ingredients into a big bowl (sift the flour) and stir everything with a spoon for about 30 seconds.. The dough will be thick and gooey.
2. Cover the bowl with a plate or saran wrap and leave at room temperature for at least hour and a half. The longer the better. The last time I made it, the dough didn’t rise enough so I waited 3 hours and that seemed perfect. It almost doubled in size. I’ve read that you could also leave it overnight but I haven’t tried that yet.
3. With your hand pour the dough onto a well floured work surface. Sprinkle more flour on top, roll it a little and divide into 4 or 5 equal parts.
4. Oil a baking sheet very well.
5. Stretch each piece of the dough so that it fits on your baking sheet. You can also twist it like I did.
6. Place each ciabatta next to each other and spread some olive oil on the top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, oregano, sea salt, garlic salt or whatever else you think might taste good.
7. Preheat the oven to 485F. The oven has to be really HOT and you should also keep heating it for at least 20 minutes before you put ciabatta inside.
8. Leave the dough for 30 min to rise. I put the baking sheet on the stove, it gets nicely warm on top when the oven is being heated. This is how they looked after half hour:
9. Place the baking sheet on the middle rack in the oven and bake for 15-20 min until your ciabattas are golden brown (and your house is filled with beautiful smell of baked bread :)).
The bread tastes best when it’s still warm. It’s perfect with just plain butter. I also made herbal butter (with garlic, parsley or chives) to eat with our ciabattas. You can make sandwiches with it or eat it with some homemade soup (like this delicious and super healthy beet borscht). If you happen to have leftovers they are great warmed a little in a toaster. I encourage you to try this easy ciabatta bread recipe, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. 🙂
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Outdoor family portraits are my favorite. Each time I press the shutter to capture a beautiful family moment together, I feel like I’m creating a family treasure that with years will keep increasing in value. Sometimes when younger kids are involved, it’s quite challenging work. But then, when I do get that one awesome shot (and usually there are more than one 🙂 ), the result feels even more special. This was my third time photographing Alex in Vegas (you can see his last session here). We had three generations for the shoot. Alex is my cousin’s son, and I visit my aunt when I go there every winter for the WPPI photography convention. Since not much family photography is happening during winter in Wisconsin, it’s always nice after such a long break to do some outdoor family portraits in warmer weather. We didn’t have much time for this session because the sun was going down very fast, but I think we were able to capture a few of those family treasures I mentioned earlier. In 10, 30 or even 50 years these moments with grandma, Alex and his dad will be memories to cherish. What do you think? Are you considering having your own outdoor family portraits? If yes, I’d love to help you with that, let’s chat! 🙂
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