Nora Turns 5
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.
In Ethiopia With Seeds
As many of you may know, last summer my darling Luke and I traveled to Ethiopia to teach for and work with an education and community development nonprofit called Seeds Of Africa. During my time there I took many photographs of the children and the community as well as taught the students photography . When I returned home I thought about the many photographs that now sit on a hard drive and decided to put together a gallery show to share what Seeds Of Africa is doing to my community here in Madison, Wi. Adama, the city where we were is about the same size as Madison and in many ways they are similar, so it is only fitting to share with you all my experience, my photographs and together raise some money to help Seeds Of Africa continue with all of the things they are doing. The opening is this Saturday, April 26th at the Common Wealth Gallery located at 100 S. Baldwin St. Madison, WI. We will be there from 6-10pm with Yes Coffee Roasters sampling Ethiopian pour overs, as well as some lovely coffee donated by Johnson Public House - Brown Rice and Honey is baking some delicious goodies, there will be a raffle  and DJ ASUMAYA (aka Luke) will be spinning some Ethiopian cassette tapes that we found on our days off.
The gallery will be open until May 2nd, which there will be a closing reception from 5-9pm for Madison's Gallery Night.
