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...