A few weeks ago my dear friends Maia & Travis came for a visit from San Francisco and I got the chance to meet their lovely daughter, Ingrid. I met up with them at their cute AirBnB on Spaight St. to catch up and do a little photo shoot of their adorable child. Maia runs a successful blog and has been something of a guru in that department, she is also the art director for Rue Magazine  and every time I head over to San Francisco I try to work with Maia, she is one talented lady and a joy to work with.

My favorite way to spend my time with friends is around a table sharing food. A few weeks ago we went over to our friends home for a meal and a night of swing sets and firefly hunting - a perfect summer night.

A few weeks ago I met the Johnson family for a tea party to celebrate Etta's 1st birthday, a perfect day (except for all the bugs) to celebrate a lovely little lady.  

I'm not entirely sure how to start and where to end on this one -- Elizabeth Rose has been my best friend since before we had our drivers license and we were pen pals before cellphones were in everyone's hands. Elizabeth and I have many stories I could share, so many memories growing up together - every weekend being a sleepover throughout high school. I love her dearly and being a witness to her marrying into this amazing family was one of the greatest things I have been apart of. I could write a novel about how I feel about these two and this family of six, but I don't feel like everybody who reads my blog needs to know, or really wants to know – so I'll say this – when Elizabeth called me to tell me they were engaged – I made the weirdest sound possible - a combination of a scream, a burst of tears and some kind of words of congratulations – I was filled with joy because I truly couldn't pick out a better match. The love these two have for each other and for those 4 amazing children is a beautiful thing to witness – the love these two have for their close friends and family is just as beautiful and I am so thankful that when I come up to Appleton, I know I can spend a day at the beach hanging out with the kids and Elizabeth followed by making massive amounts of food and end the night sitting on their porch talking until the early hours of the morning.

Here is a series of photographs that I took while being apart of their wedding, with the exception of a few that I am in taken by my lovely Father and Elizabeth's brother, Ezra.

Oh my darling Nora, my dear little friend has turned 5! I have known this sweet girl since she was a baby, I would spend every Thursday afternoon with her and she became a subject in many of my photographs through the years and will continue to be so through her childhood. Nora is a big reason why photographing children is my favorite - no insecurities, no 'good side' just pure joy and true candids. When I get to spend an afternoon with her with my camera at my side, I feel like I can really document her - she doesn't have a pintrest board, she doesn't say 'can you photoshop out my (insert an insecurity), she just is, and I get to document her - and it makes me remember why I am and continue to work on being the best photographer I can be. I wish we could go back to the mindset of a 5 year old, get the pintrest mindset out, get rid of the insecurities and just be - so I hope this set of images from Nora's 5th princess themed birthday party helps awaken your 5 year old self.

I booked the space 2 months ago, then I caught a plane to Sweden & Germany where I then let 'In Ethiopia With Seeds' slip my mind for two weeks. After my trip I spent the weeks leading up sending out press releases, facebook messages, hanging hundreds of flyers all over Madison and managed to neglect my email a little too much (sorry to my clients, I'm back on the grid I swear!). It takes a lot to set up a show, and the opening is the moment where you find out if you did a good job getting the word out -- Saturday was that moment - will I sit with only my close friends and family with enough coffee & cookies for 100 people or will the room be full? Happy to say about 150 people came out to the opening and Sharon from SV Heart Photography came with her camera to document a little bit of the event. Thank you to all who came out, purchased prints and with that, donated to Seeds Of Africa . There will be another event just like Saturday's this Friday from 5-9pm so if you missed this party, be sure to get here on Friday for some Ethiopian music, coffee and photographs! \\\The gallery will also be open during the week if you want a little quieter viewing, I'll be here, editing photographs and looking for conversation so stop by ---- 100 South Baldwin St. Madison, Wi.///

Please enjoy these images taken by the lovely SV Heart Photography

A few weeks back on a Sunday afternoon I took the beautiful trip out to Monroe Wisconsin, a place everyone must visit, to meet up with a family who I have become friends with to capture some images of their 2 daughters and their 2 nephews as well. I went out in the yard with the 4 kids who all now have hung out in front of my camera a few times now to capture their ridiculousness -- enjoy.

Happy Ethiopia Monday! It seems these will sadly end soon since I only have a few more things to write about but today I am very excited to share with you some of my students work! If you weren't aware, while I was in Adama, when I wasn't photographing for Seeds of Africa I was teaching the children photography thanks to a handful of wonderful friends who donated their old digital cameras to me to give the children. So today is all about the UKG (upper kindergarden) class and my favorites of their images. I tried to teach the children some simple composition and maybe you can pick some up in these images but my amharic is, well pretty much nonexistent and they were just starting to learn english - so communicating was a bit challenging and by week two I was just letting the kids go wild with the cameras to I ended up really enjoying the outcome:

On (what I fear) the last day of summer I went over to get to know the Kovacic family and document their newest member of the family, Mikey. We had a great time in the heat and captured many great photographs of the whole family.

No words are needed to describe what is happening here...  

A few Saturdays ago a very rare thing happened -  I had the day off, so I was able to go over to Grey Gardens for their pizza party. In the last year the Gagnon's built a brick oven in their yard and every weekend they have people over to make amazing pizza and drink wine- it is the perfect way to spend a Saturday.  

Today I get to brag about my boyfriend Luke, and what he did at the Take Root Center while we were in Ethiopia. Luke is an elementary art teacher  here in Madison so prior to us leaving I knew he was going to feel right at home. Luke worked on a music project with the students, he helped them record songs that either they have written or their teachers did, he also had them create album art and he taught them basic video editing. He will be putting together an album of all the songs that he worked on and will hopefully sell them to raise money for Seeds of Africa.  Together Luke and I made videos of the songs, I would take video clips throughout the day and then Luke would put it all together, you can see my favorite one here. Luke also had the idea to put together a little documentary about the Take Root Center, you can watch that here. I have heard from many people here in Madison that Luke is an incredible teacher, and although I have never doubted it, it was so wonderful to be able to witness him in action, it was an amazing experience to share with Luke and he is the best travel companion a girl could ask for.

During our time in Ethiopia I took a few rolls of film, and after I got them developed I wished I would have taken more. Below is a collect of my film shots, I only took a few at the Take Root Center but most of them are from our last days in Ethiopia where Luke and I spent it exploring Addis - drinking coffee, searching for cassette stores and wandering the beautiful city.

Last week I got the opportunity to photograph one of the most promising new movements in youth culture, Girls Rock Camp. Girls Rock Camp Madison is an intense, one week day-camp for girls ages 8-18. Campers of all skill levels learn guitar, drums, keyboards, bass and vocals, form a band, write a song and perform at the end of week for friends, family, and hundreds of screaming fans - Girls Rock Camp is great because it recognizes the potential of every young woman to be a strong, talented, creative and empowered individual while providing a safe space where all girls rock. I have been photographing their showcases for a few years now and I finally have gotten around to write a blog about it. If you would like to learn more, send your child or if you wished this was around while you were young, no worries - they have Ladies Rock Camp as well - visit their website here. 

This week on Ethiopia Monday I have a collection of images of the staff at the Take Root center. They all were incredibly dedicated, treated us like family and made us feel very welcome.  We worked with them at the center and had lunch every day over at Genet's house - always amazing and always made me eat way more than I needed to.

I enjoy photographing weddings, I enjoy working in fashion but if I am being honest, children are my favorite subject. Children have a way of forgetting about the camera- what I try to get everyone I work with to do, comes so natural to them. So yesterday I took the afternoon off to have lunch over at the Gagnon's - where we picked out lunch from their garden, drank tea and talk about life, Africa and how August in Wisconsin is perfect. After lunch, Nora picked me some flowers and some food to take home -- images below will show you the process of our afternoon together.  

As most of you know I have just returned home from just shy of a month long trip to Ethiopia where my boyfriend, Luke and I spent the majority of our time working with Seeds of Africa , teaching at the Take Root Center (See blog about my teaching here). Along with teaching the Seeds I was asked to document the TRC, staff and the community, so I have many photographs and stories to share -so for the next several weeks, Mondays will be 'Ethiopia Day' - I will be posting my photographs and telling my stories from our travels so be sure to check out my blogs on Mondays!  

Today the following images are from our time out in the playground with the kids, everyday between classes and after classes were done, Luke and I would get to jumprope, play football and I would usually get my hair done (no photo proof of this).

For more information as to what Seeds of Africa does please visit their website here

For the last few weeks I have been spending my days in Adama, Ethiopia teaching and photographing for Seeds of Africa , a nonprofit educational organization that runs an after-school program that includes academic projects, cultural enrichment, the arts, ethics, sports and student health education. In addition, students are provided with nutrition, medical services, clothing and school supplies. I encourage all of you to click to the link for Seeds of Africa to learn more. My boyfriend, Luke and I were asked to come and teach art at the Take-Rook Center , Luke did an amazing music project with the kids, together we made a series of videos and I taught photography thanks to a handful of my friends who donated their digital cameras (I showed up to the center with 10 great point&shoot digital cameras that I was able to leave there for the kids to use!). For the next few weeks my blog posts will be filled with many of the photographs from my time at the Take-Root Center along with my students work. Stay tuned, and enjoy.

Summer time become my busiest time of year and it is hard to stop working when your work is always on your mind. With this year being a bit more packed than normal with my trip to Ethiopia in the middle of the wedding season, I have a lot to finish and a lot to plan all before July 9th. The terrace has become my place to relax by the lake, sip a beer and listen to my friends play beautiful music. Last week at Dietrich Gosser's show, this beautiful boy had his Mother make him a jet pack - oh to be young again, how I long for the days where summer vacation existed and all you did was play with your friends and go to the pool to get summer blonde hair and have your skin smell like chlorine, always.

A few weeks ago I got together with my friends Jessica and Joseph to meet their daughter Dee Dee and catch up. I've Known Jessica and Joseph since the first week I moved to Madison, they both lived in my neighborhood and we would spend many late nights on the porch listening to records that would end in a dance party. I remember when Joey proposed, I remember their lovely wedding day and now, years later they have a little girl that I get spend time with and document her life .