I walked in the parade with the wonderful local store, Stuff. Their theme this year was "Are You a Lucky Duck?". They tossed out small ducks with numbers on the bottom and you can take the ducks into the store to see if you are a winner. Check out video and photos below. The rest of the photos can be found here.
Stuff has by far, the best window designs in Brookside. This week it had the words LUCKY and a pile of dice, ducks, and horseshoes underneath it to match their parade theme.
The stuff chear team had a plethora of energetic kids helping out.
A woman on the sidelines of the parade had a Stuff shirt from years past. I'm jealous because I don't have one :(
Don't worry...I am not becoming a videographer. Video is not my favorite of mediums, BUT my new camera does awesome video, so I will be playing around with it for a while.
The first part of the footage was shot outside my parents house. We then went to the Waldo Bar & Grill for a drink. You can see my sister making custom jewelry and the necklaces that she is wearing are also made by her. Go check all the cool things she makes on her website: http://www.ellesilverworks.com/
We then went to Strouds for dinner and I can't wait to eat my leftovers for lunch!!!
Enjoy the video below. Don't forget you can sign up at the top right to have new blog posts delivered directly to your e-mail!
I was reading one of my favorite blogs (Tony's Kansas City) a couple days ago and came across a post that caught my attention. Tony has a great blog because he cuts the bull and has some humorous things to say, but I have to defend the 'engagement sessions' he questioned in said post.
Tony basically says he doesn't understand what kind of guy would partake in an e-session with his fiancee. He also wonders if the "differences are race or class based". I have shot white people, black people, brown people, and yellow people (well, no red people...so if you are Native American and need a wedding photographer, holla at me! ;)
Before I became a wedding photographer, I never heard of e-sessions and thought they weren't important and sort of lame. I am the polar opposite now. With the right photographer, the couple get great photos that aren't completely cheesy and they turn from clients into friends.
I push e-sessions and have recently made all of my packages include it. Why? It's simple...I want to build a relationship with the couple that I will be shooting on their wedding day. It gives me a chance to get to know them better. They also learn my shooting style. This way on their wedding day, they don't have the feeling that some weird stranger is taking their photos. A bride might spend a couple hours with the hair-dresser and make-up artist, 30 minutes with the officiant, 4 hours in the same room as the DJ, but I spend the WHOLE wedding day with the couple so it is imperative that I get to know them and form a relationship early on.
E-sessions are a breeze for the couple though...I am the one who has to do all the work ;) Normally we meet at a bar or restaurant, and I recommend the couple have a drink while we talk so they can loosen up and not worry about the camera. I want the couple to talk, have fun, and laugh during the shoot. I will 'direct' the couple on what to do, but sometimes I will put a zoom lens on and tell the couple to just talk to each other and walk away to shoot from afar.
And if Tony was worried about not looking like a man's man...here are some shots where the guys kept their street cred. ;)
Come on...how can you not be a pimp next to an El Camino??? ;)
And I forbid Tony from posting the photos from my site where the dudes are all lovey-dovey with their fiancee to counter what I just said ;)
Here are some photos that I took while driving back from Ottawa, Kansas after we visited some of Holleigh's relatives. The first place was a beautiful, newly abandoned red barn. The clouds were very dramatic that day.
See, it is red, I wasn't making that part up ;)
We also came across a car lot that had a ton of vintage cars. I have an affinity for old cars and maybe one day I will have a gallery show with my car photos. This lot also had a bunch of roosters walking around..I just had to chase one ;)
We were told to check out an abandoned plant south of Ottawa. If you look at this Google map, the place (Buildex) is on the left. It is interesting to see how lifeless the place is compared to the business across the street on the right. I am pretty sure the place on the right is the sales office for Buildex. They still have two other plants where they mine shale.
There were a bunch of old machinery (like bulldozers and cranes), a gas pump, a couple office buildings, as well as other things that were a mystery to me. The following photo is of a crane.
This place had a quarry and they mined shale. These are the controls inside one of the buildings. Not sure what the machinery inside actually did. My guess is the machines broke the shale into smaller pieces.
Inside the office's bulletin board, there was a memo dated March 27, 1986 and it was addressed to all plant employees. It stated that "due to the current farm economy and reduced oil prices" the Ottawa Buildex plant will be closed indefinitely and will not reopen unless business improves. Looks like after 23 years, business never improved enough.
Exploring abandoned buildings is one of my favorite past times and it's always interesting to slowly learn the history that was left behind.
We are already into March and I have only blogged twice in 2009. I will cut myself some slack as I have been busy finishing school and I have not been shooting.
I am going to start blogging more and will be doing more personal posts to mix in with PBP shoots that normally go in the blog. PBP is me, Patrick Binder, so I should start to show more of that here.
Tomorrow I should have my hands on a new camera and am hoping I will be able to do some new cool things with it, so be on the lookout. I am also hoping that by year end my website and blog will look more how I have envisioned them.
It feels good to have some things in the pipeline and I am really looking forward to shooting some engagement sessions in the next month.
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