Hiram, Ohio, 1950 
Hi everybody! Long time no see. Dad (aka Jimmy, pictured above) got himself a slide scanner for Christmas, so there should be quite a few gems of this caliber going up on the blog in weeks and months to come… hopefully I’ll be able to stick with it now that I’ve taken a bit of a holiday hiatus. Happy 2013, folks!
Posted in family, nostalgia, Old-Timey Tuesday, photography
Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio, winter 1949
When my dad was born in 1949, my grandpa was finishing up his Ph.D. and teaching chemistry at Hiram College in Ohio. I guess these are the kinds of things you do with babies when you are an academic/amateur photographer? Awesome. (Please note the kitty patches on the knees of little Jimmy’s overalls.)
Posted in family, higher ed, nerdery, Old-Timey Tuesday, photography
Since it’s finally the weekend and I’m going to some fun graduation parties tonight, I wanted to share a killer party photo from my friend Allison’s wedding in December. Our gang definitely knows how to get down, and we always bring along our beer-bottle microphones in case of awesome ’80s rock:
Most triumphant! And it gets better. When Allison sent me this, I immediately thought of another dance-floor shot: one from my wedding, of Allison:
Those are some super-fun parties, right? We are nothing if not passionate air-musicians. However, far and away the best part of these photos, taken a year and a half apart on different sides of the country, has got to be Shane, the dude rocking out in the background at left in both pictures. Beer in the same hand, sleeves unbuttoned and sorta rolled up, eyes closed and all-out singing along — and I’m pretty sure that’s the same tie. I damn near died laughing when I noticed this. Does this guy know how to party or what?!
Posted in friends, HUZZAH, observations, photography, ROCK, social graces, weddings
As time-consuming as blogging can be, keeping up with blogs is often even more so. (When I’ve had the chance to catch up on my Google reader since new years, I’ve been heartened to see that I’m not the only slackass on the blogs who’s still recovering from the holidays.) For that reason, some of my favorites are those single-image-post blogs (often tumblrs) — they’re easy to stay on top of, easy to catch up on. Here are a few of my favorites that you might enjoy:
First up, a tumblr by photographer Max Wanger called OHMYLEFTOVERS. As you might surmise from its title, the blog consists of leftover/otherwise unpublished photos. Sometimes there are kitties involved.
Speaking of cats, I’ve mentioned the delightful Dream Cats here before. If you don’t like pictures of cats, you can skip this one, ’cause that’s all it is. They pull from a group on Flickr that you can join and submit to.
Last (for now) but certainly not least is SCANDYBARS. This tumblr launched last June, posting scanned-in cross-sections of candy bars and bits — it’s basically the same idea as Scanwiches, just more delicious and happy-making. I particularly like this post about candy-scanning equipment and cleanup.
What other excellent quick-hit blogs are the cool kids reading these days?
Posted in excellent munchables, pets, photography, the internet
Johnson City, Tennessee, 1951 or 1952?
I’ve been hopping across the country for the past week (Atlanta > New York > San Francisco > Atlanta) and we’re flying out to Idaho on Christmas day, so it seemed an appropriate time to use this impossibly awesome photo of my grandma Dot and my dad, then Jimmy, returning home after a trip. According to what’s written on the back of the picture, they were “Getting off the train at Johnson City, Tenn. after our visit to Cape [Girardeau, Mo., to see family].”
Can you even believe this was real life and not something out of a movie? I can’t get over my dad’s tiny letterman sweater. Oh how glamorous the 1950s looked!
Posted in family, nostalgia, Old-Timey Tuesday, photography, travel
The cover story for the May/June issue of American Photo magazine (for which I can’t find a website?) catalogs the top 10 wedding photographers in the world:
So, imagine my delight when I saw (via the blogs) that Jesse & Whitney of Our Labor of Love — our wedding photographers — were among those honored! Of course, I’m not surprised in the least. How could there be anyone else? They’re the best! (And they attract the best of the rest to work with them.) Click over to their blog to read their reaction and see how they reimagined the cover photo… Congrats, Jesse & Whit!
*20 bonus points to those of you who know what I’m referencing in my post title
Posted in ATL businesses, in the media, inspirations, photography, weddings
This has got to be one of the most insanely awesome weddings I have ever seen on the blogs. I love all the vivid colors — the trees, bride’s hair and dress, everybody’s tattoos — huge grins and wild dancing.
photos by Matt Miller for Our Labor of Love
The bride and groom clearly put together a killer celebration, and Matt Miller from Our Labor of Love did an amazing job capturing everything. (The getting ready photos are especially awesome.) Go check out the OLOL blog post to see more incredible pictures! Happy weekend, y’all!
Posted in ATL businesses, love, photography, ROCK, weddings
While visiting my favorite local shop, Young Blood Gallery & Boutique, the other day, I came across a brilliant line of cards called (and by) Kate Funk. They feature Kate’s cat AC photographed in festive and funny settings. Check it out!
I love the mug shot! And I’m amazed at how tolerant this cat is of being dressed up and photographed. (Of course, I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes at these photo shoots…)
For those of you not fortunate enough to have a Young Blood-esque retailer in your area, you can pick up the entire Kate Funk line on Etsy (where all of these photos were obtained). Here are some of my other favorites from her shop:
Really, I could probably post a dozen or more of her cards that I love, but I’ll let you go poke around and see for yourself. She covers all sorts of occasions! (If you have one coming up, now you know who the cat card came from.) There’s also a pretty awesome 2011 calendar with AC the cat reenacting famous movie scenes. If only I could get Little Man to be so cooperative, he would be an Etsy star too! (all photos from the Kate Funk Etsy shop)
Posted in design, gift ideas, occasions, paper goods, pets, photography
As the head of the class reunion party committee, I more or less mandated that we would be having a Smilebooth, because what party is not made like fifty times better by having one there? Hilarity, as one might expect, ensued (as soon as people figured out what exactly the setup in the corner of the room was):
Me, Abby and one of the delicious cookie cakes we had. Go Cats!
Excellent use of props!
This crew is well-versed in Smilebooth best practices. (see here)
This football-captain ninja turtle was discovered in a classmate’s attic — it was a homecoming decoration senior year — so he brought it along. Amazing.
Get-a-load-of-this-guy cam
!!!
This and the next are two of my favorite shots — everyone in the photo is either in med school or a doctor already. Here are their best pondering doctor faces…
and here they are doing what they do best. (Sort of.)
That guy.
Twins! Don’t my glasses look great on George? No? Hm.
Reaction shot
Clearly a lot of warm fuzzy feelings about high school among these folks.
One of my reunion co-chairs and his lovely wife
Stoneface. HOW DID I MISS THIS ONE?
Number one! Go big green!
(To see the whole Smilebooth gallery from the reunion, click here. Smilebooth started in Atlanta but they can and do go anywhere, so check out their website if you’re interested in having one at your shindig!)
Posted in ATL businesses, events, photography
Two years ago today, Jon and I got engaged. That’s pretty well-trod territory, so I’ll spare you another recap here. Then last year about this time (March 30, to be precise), Jon and I got together with our brilliant wedding photographers for an engagement photo shoot. The timing was pure serendipity: spring came late last year and as a result the cherry trees lining the park up the block from us were in the most beautiful part of their blooming in the last days of the month. We spent a large portion of the shoot hanging out in and around those trees.
photos by Our Labor of Love
I watched those trees — which I sometimes think of as our trees, I’ll admit — this year to see when that sweet spot would fall on the calendar, and it arrived almost three weeks earlier than last year. Not terribly surprising, because Atlanta had an early spring — all of our February weekends were up in the 70s (not normal), but things cooled off a bit as March brought more seasonable weather.
Spring in Atlanta has always been one of my favorite parts of living here. I love that we waited to take these photos in the spring and still feel so lucky that we happened to have our shoot on one of the few fleeting days when the cherry blossoms were at their fluffiest.
Of course, we took a lot of photos that day in other locations around our neighborhood (another aspect of the pictures that I love). You can even see our house in one or two of the photos that we took on the hill of the dog park we live next to, if you know what you’re looking for. Here’s another spot that will always make me think of our day in the cherry trees with Jesse and Whitney:
photos by Our Labor of Love
I just ordered a few prints of these, finally. (The only place they live in hard copy at the moment is in our wedding guest book, which is super awesome.) Time to put some of those wall frames we got for our wedding to use! I’ll have happy cherry blossoms and Coca-Cola jumps all year round.
Posted in art, Atlanta, nostalgia, photography
