19 Hours Later...

We made it till the end - 6 pm finally arrived! It was very crazy at the store towards the end though. About 60-70 people lined up to get the iPhone and all three Madison TV stations were there doing live remotes. But we finally got to go into the store and see the iPhone. The funny thing was though that of the first 10 poeple to go into the store, Val and I were the only ones to actually go over to the display and actually see and play with the demo phones. Everyone else just went right up to the counter and bought it and left. Not that we weren't convinced that we were going to buy, but we just wanted to get a quick taste of them first.
Since we were numbers 2 and 3 in line, WKOW wanted to do a live interview with us for their 6 pm broadcast. So we hung out a bit longer after we made our purchase and did a short "post-purchase" interview. Normally I don't this excited about things like this - I've never stood in line after Thanksgiving to get a deal on a TV at dawn, or waited in line for tickets. We could have just waited a few days or a week and calmly walked into the store whenever we wanted and got the phone, but this was a pretty fun and definitely memorable way to do it!
We got home last night and I activated the phones, which was so simple and quick - it's AMAZING! We actually went back out and had some dinner after that, but then just came home and crashed. We were soo tired.
Today we're off for a full day with Angie and Jay for their wedding - with our iPhones in tow!
This all may sound like a bit much for a fancy phone, but just wait until you see it in person.

Camping ... iPhone Style!

So Val and I are both big Mac fans, and we've both been eyeing up the new iPhone from Apple. So last night we made a last second decision to have some fun and get an iPhone. We saw one lonley guy sitting outside the AT&T store on University Ave., so we decided to join him and camp out in order to be guaranteed an iPhone when they go on sale tonight at 6 pm. The night was perfect for sitting outside. It was a bit cool, but we had blankets and sleeping bags to keep us warm. We didn't get much sleep. The night went quickly, but time is slowing to a crawl this morning. At about 8 am we were joined by about 6-8 other people, and there will surely be more thoughout the day.
Having the iPhone will be really sweet, but the experience now is pretty cool too!

Sam and Jarad's Engagement Portraits

I feel pretty bad about not getting these engagement portraits finished sooner. It's very out of character for me to take more than a week to finish projects, but these photos got caught up in the craziness of our move. I was finally able to spend some time with them and polish them up.

Val and I broke away from packing up and went down to the Memorial Union to shoot these. The combination of the great light, romantic architechture and awesome subjects made for a really sweet shoot. Sam and Jarad were so cool to work with! Jarad is a dance teacher and Sam is an actress/performer, so they really knew how to work with the camera, plus they're great dancers! I can't wait for their wedding in May!

Thanks for the great photos guys - sorry they're late!

Liz & Justin

So because of the move I've gotten a little behind on my work, but I've finally finished polishing the photos from Liz and Justin's wedding. What a wild day! The church was more or less in the middle of nowhere; no buildings around, just fields, which made for a realy cool setting. Liz, Justin, the wedding party and all their guests definitely know how to have a good time, as you can tell from the photos. I've seen a lot of different things that guests have to do to get the bride and groom to kiss, like singing a song or telling a story, but this is the first time I've seen guests doing beer bongs to get a smooch! Val and I had fun and it's definitely a day we won't soon forget.

This is the first time I've put a slideshow into my blog. I hope it works and I hope you enjoy it. Click play to view the slideshow with music, or click the "grid" button to view it gallery style. Enjoy!

The chaos of moving

It's funny just how chaotic we can feel when those little things assume will be where we expect them to be suddenly aren't there, or when our small daily routines are disrupted.  All those things get turned upside down when you move, and I've not only just moved my home, but also my business. 

When I get home and walk in the door, I have to remind myself of the new place where my keys go and where I put my shoes. I have to think now about which light switch goes with what, where the cereal bowls are, where to position the faucet to get just the right wate temperature.  We even drove completely past our own driveway Friday night! 

In many ways I discovered just how much my business thrives on routines too, like getting the mail, getting UPS deliveries, charging batteries. Wedding days are usually the most chaotic and stressful day of the week for Val and I, but spending last Saturday at Jason and Renee's wedding was a welcome respite from the disorder of our home. (We had a great day with them by the way, but more on that later this week.)

Things are slowly becoming familiar and routine around here though. I have a functioning office again - Woo Hoo! - and there are new things to look forward to as well, like my new gallery and studio! I'm looking forward to getting that completely set up and welcoming both new and old clients into it. 

I think for most people, Monday's are the most routine day of the week, and therefore the most dull, but I'd like us all raise our coffee cups and toast to happy routine Monday's!

Moving Time

So Val and I are moving into our new place tomorrow, which is cool for a lot of reasons. First off it's our first "new" place as a married couple, so that's exciting. Second this new place is SOOOO much bigger than where we are right now - like four times bigger! We're going to have more space than we know what to do with!

The part that I'm looking forward to the most though is that our new place has a really large finished basement, which I'm going to turn into office, gallery and studio space for Dave Watkins Photography. WOO HOO! It's going to be so nice to have a space of my own to display my work, meet with clients, shoot studio portraits, and just have a "place" to work in general. I can't wait!

We're just packing things up now and we pick up the keys tomorrow, then move the big stuff on Tuesday. I'll keep posting about our progress.

Summer Wedding Show!

Last night was the annual summer wedding show. Val and I had a very long day getting everything ready for our booth, in fact it's been a long couple of weeks getting everything ready. I don't know how I would have done it without Valerie's help though - she's had so many good, clever ideas and she's a great source for feedback on my ideas too.
It was great to see so many people last night! Some familiar faces and lots of brand new faces. I want to thank everyone for stopping by our booth, and also for all the wonderful compliments on my work. I'm looking forward to talking more with all of you!
Wedding show days are always long and stressfull, so I'm taking it easy today - maybe going and seeing a movie. We'll be in Green Bay tomorrow shooting Liz and Justin's wedding, then next week we move! More details on that to come...