Ode to my Mother

While Thanksgiving is a normal time to give thanks for our family and friends, this year's thanks were much more meaningful. My mother can be described in many ways: workaholic, giving, caring, independent, creative, optimistic, soulful, beautiful, intelligent, lover of life, musician, writer, poet, artist, teacher, confidant, best friend, and many more. Thanksgiving morning she admitted herself to the local hospital. She had been denying an extreme pain that had been building in her body for days (which she told no one else about), and tried to self-medicate with over-the-counter drugs to help eliviate the problem. She didn't want to go to the hospital because she had too many meetings and things to take care of at work. When she called me to tell me the news, I was in shock because she had been hiding her problem so well. We had planned to spend Thanksgiving Day together in Frankenmuth at our favorite holiday restaurant, Zender's.

I have never seen my mother in such pain. Even in the state she was in, she was still too concerned about having to make it to work the next day and not being able to go to a meeting that was scheduled, etc. All the while, I'm just thankful she's finally getting help. After a CAT scan and an ultra sound, my mother was admitted for exploratory surgery which led to the removal of several organs. She is currently in the hospital recovering, but with my brother and I being her only close family, it will be very difficult for her to deal with being stuck in the hospital. I may be unavailable at times, but I hope that everyone understands. Please send your thoughts and prayers for a safe and speedy recovery.

UPDATE: 1/06 Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers! She has made a complete recovery and is back to her usual doing-too-much self. However, now she's taking more time to relax and be healthier, and she's looking more beautiful than ever. ;-) I love you mom!

Kelly & Brian Engagement

There are so many beautiful locations in the area, but often times the same ones are chosen over and over again. The challenge for me is to find new and interesting ways of looking at the same location. It would definitely be easier to use the same shots and poses each time, but then everyone's pictures end up looking the same- and that's just too predictable for me! Kelly & Brian chose Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester Hills as their backdrop, a place I'm very familiar with. In fact, I really have to try pretty hard not to give couples a complete historical tour of the place (I used to work there as a tour guide)! Kelly & Brian had mentioned that they wanted to take advantage of the fall colors- so I tried to incorporate as much as possible into their images. We had a lot of fun just playing around and being silly. I really love the action shots that we did with the milkweed and the leaves. My inner movie director came out and when I got to shout "ACTION!" :-)

Danielle & Joseph's Wedding

This was the first time that I had ever been hired by the bride's brother, who was basically serving as Danielle's wedding coordinator, and what a fabulous job he did! I was only hired for four hours, so the images won't be proofed online, but I did create a sample to share since they are all out of town and it will be a while before their images can actually be finished and delivered (click on the image above to view the sample). Danielle's brother, Cory (http://speakproductions.com/), did such a great job with the details that I just couldn't stop taking detail pictues! The green, purple, black, and silver accents were all so unique and went so well together :-). Not to mention the historic Baker Street Station in Ft. Wayne, IN was such a beautiful location! I hope you have as much fun looking through their pictures as I did photographing them! Congratulations Danielle & Joseph, I hope your life is filled with many more wonderful surprises!

November Desktop Images

Every month or so I change my desktop image to a recent photograph I've taken and I thought it would be fun to share these images in my blog so that you can download them for your desktop as well! Every month I'll try to post a new image that is suitable for displaying at desktop size and resolution. Click on an image to download a copy for your desktop.


Well, October has simply flown by! A lot of people "got hitched" this month and became someone else's ball & chain. This is my ode to marriage and the commitments that we make to each other!


One thing that I'm looking forward to in November is more time to go to concerts. I have been so tied up with work lately that attending live music events has been on the back-burner. This is one of my favorite microphone abstracts which I think works really well as a background because of its free flowing colors.