Halloween 2011

Greetings everyone,

In honor of Halloween we decided to post some pictures from some of our favorite Cemeteries from around the country? Nikki put her creative touches on them, so please enjoy!

This first one is from Boneventure Cemetery in Savannah Georgia. This burial plot is for a daughter who died early, her name was Gracie. This cemetery is truly incredible, and ranks among one of the best and most beautiful cemeteries we have ever seen.

On our trip to Mount Carmel Cemetery to see Al Capone's grave, we walked past this grave marker. It caught our attention, and the camera.

We were in New Orleans three weeks before Katrina hit, and we had a private cemetery tour out of one of the Irish pubs from the French Quarter. The stonework and artistry was incredible.

Here we have one of the most haunted cemeteries in the country. A ten minute drive from our house is Bachelors Grove, in Midlothian, IL. This cemetery is very interesting. We went there a few days after a storm, on Halloween, and some trees had fallen down on to the grave stones, it was sad that nothing had been done to fix them. Can't wait to go back and get some more pictures.

The last one we have is from Mackinac Island in Michigan. This was a pretty interesting Cemetery, because it was so quiet. No cars are allowed on Mackinac island, so there was hardly any noise to pollute the area. Combine that with the horse and carraiges that would go by, and you would truly feel like you were in a different era.

Hope you enjoyed this entry and had a great Halloween!

Take care and keep that shutter moving,

Joe and Nikki

Quick Trip To The Zoo

Good morning everyone,

Just a quick little entry that we shot at the zoo the other day. We are members of the Brookfield Zoo so we went there this past Sunday. The weather wasn't the best so we thought it would be nice to walk around the indoor displays, but the weather held off and we had a great day. Enjoy.

The Zoo was starting to get ready for "Boo At The Zoo" and there were pumpkins everywhere. This display was right after you walked in.

I had never been in Tropic World before. It was very cool. All the monkeys running around, chasing each other. We saw this one playing with a big paper bag, and managed to get a good shot of him.

Here we have his buddy just hanging out relaxing. They have it good at Tropic World. Hopefully this will be me in about 20 years, hanging out in my rope hammock, just not as hairy.

They also had a lot of cool birds flying around inside Tropic World. I was trying to get some cool action photos, but that wasn't working. One of our favorites came as we were walking out. Hopefully, I'll get the in flight shot next time.

Here we have Gwen, discovering leaves. She would pick them up and carry them around until she broke them, and then it was time to get another. She was having a great time walking around, because the other two times she has been there, she was barely walking, so she was off to the races today.

Here's Gwen again, inspecting the pumpkins. She checked them all, of course. We were just worried she was going to start carrying them around like she does at home, but she was a good girl, and left them alone.

This was one of my favorites from the day. The Bald Eagle had just woke up, and was flying around the cage. It was feeding time, and the eagle looked great.

What is nice about the zoo, is you are allowed to bring lunch in, so we sat down at a table, made ourselves comfortable then we got a surprise. This peacock just walked up to us, and started circling. It was looking right at Gwen's Peanut Butter Sandwich. Gwen was a good girl and did not feed it.

Overall a fun day, at the zoo.

That is all for now, until next time, Keep that Shutter Moving

Joe

Hearthstone Arts at Lake Kathryn

Good afternoon everyone,

I have the afternoon off from work, and I found one of Nikki's creations. We went to Lake Kathryn the other day and did a photo shoot with some goblets that we had purchased from Hearthstone Arts at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. We love these goblets, and use them whenever we have a nice dinner or want to think back to the Ren Faire.

So this is just the first entry of the photo shoot. I was just excited and wanted to get one up online. Stay tuned for more of Nikki's creativity.

Until next time, keep that shutter moving.

Joe

Southwestern Michigan Wineries Part 2

Greetings again everyone,

Part 2 of our trip to Southwestern Michigan Wineries is finally here, sorry for the delay, it has been a crazy couple of weeks. We went to about six wineries, and took a lot of pictures. We had a great time, the pictures from Free Run Vineyards are truly priceless but Nikki won't let me put them online. She was acting goofy, and I caught them, needless to say she is the Chief Creating Officer, and what she says goes.

That is all the writing I have for now, so enjoy, because we sure did!

A view from the vines, it was so much fun walking around the grapes and just being out in the country. So quiet and peaceful, what a great way to spend the day.

One of the great things about small wineries is that you will find so many different arts and crafts that the big commercial wineries don't want to put out.

Almost harvest time! They were inspecting the grapes while we were out shooting, and they said that any day now, they will be ready to pick. I can't remember if these are pinot noir or cabernet grapes, but they are both great wine varietals, so it doesn't matter to me.

Pulling up to the Contessa Vineyard we saw this sign, and I just had to get a picture. Set the tone for this winery. A very cool location with an incredible outside porch. It was three tier porch, with a secondary bar station on the lowest level. We so much want to go back there in the high season, and see this place when it is packed. Definitely on the to do list for 2012.

Time for a little joking around. This is one of the few times that you will se a picture of me. I was trying to take a candid of her, and she turns and shoots one of me. She is sneaky!

Not sure what type of wine they are going to be making with the above juice, but the winery was open to viewing from above, and the aroma was incredible! It was so cool watching them test the wine and prep it for the next stage.

One cool thing about the wine trail were these signs. It was so nice to drive through the country side, and see these signs directing you down the right road. The roads were marked rather well, and this made the getting from one winery to the next very easy.

This last picture came by accident. We didn't want to leave the Domaine Berrian so quickly so we bought a glass of Pinot Noir and relaxed on the back deck. It was such a nice day, and wanted to spend as much time soaking in the day as possible. I had the camera in my lap and was just snapping some pictures, and one of them turned out pretty nicely, so I asked Nikki to pose for it, and this is the finished product.

Over the last two posts, we have put up around 20 pictures or so and there are about 480 more pictures in the trip file. Needless to say we had a great time shooting the area, and cannot wait to go back and take more. Next time up there we need to hit Tabor Hill and Round Barn again, and try and get up to St. Julian new Grand Rapids.

We just did a photo shoot today at a lake nearby, having some fun staging some goblets and trying to get creative and artsy.

That is all for now, and until next time keep that shutter moving,

Joe and Nikki