Living What I Love

Sunny Friday

The sun is shining today in Michigan, making me suffer *marginally* less from S.A.D. than usual... but I still feel like I could use some cheery imagery to kick off the weekend. And anyone living anywhere but California or Florida will probably agree. 2 feet of snow? Your car's still buried under a drift the size of Jay-Z's yacht? Three days after the blizzard and your Sorel boots are still no match for the piles of slush? These are for you:

Big Sur, California coast. This was in February, too, I believe, about 4 years ago.

Look at that dog, lovin' life. Dogs have it good in CA.

Green! Remember that color?

My husband, the gymnast.

Feeling a little better? Me too.

Happy weekend, friends!

 

Before

Before this:

and this:

there was this:

and this:

(above: the first time we ever hung out, outside of ballroom dance class that is. Devil's Lake State park hike, fall 2003. Man, we were young here!)

which is why I came home on Friday to find these from my husband:

who I've been with now for six (!) amazing years. Somehow, they just keep getting better, too. Gotta love a man who remembers both the official day you became "Kate and Chad" and the day you became "Mr. and Mrs." Also, that daisies and irises are so much more me than roses. I do. =)

Wolverine vs. Buckeye

A few weekends ago, some friends who inhabit an apartment known as the "Cali house" (since most of them hail from that fine state) invited us over for a wine tasting party called Wolverine (University of Michigan, ie wine costing around $20...though in my opinion the fine wines should have been called the Badgers) vs. Buckeye (the University of Ohio, Michigan's sworn enemy and the below $10 bottles). Every guest had one glass and a score sheet numbered 1-12. In teams of two, we were asked to taste a little of each of those twelve bottles and try to determine which was the "nice" wine and which the "cheap". The bottles were all covered and opened, so you couldn't cheat by looking at the label or cap.

A fine idea for a party, and good times were had all around, until scores were tallied and it was divulged that Chad and myself, California residents for 3.5 amazing years, guessed the least amount of Wolverines and Buckeyes correctly. Wah-waaaaah. Ah, well. After the third sip, they all taste the same! (And most people didn't fare that much better than us.) Former California residents or no, I never said I didn't appreciate a little Two Buck Chuck now + then. ;)

it's the weekend, baby.

Yeah!

Even if it doesn't make you jump for joy like my friend Erica, I hope you all have a good one! My husband, a bunch of friends and I are heading up north to ski a "mountain" (a Michigan mountain anyway...), hang out, drink warm drinks, and maybe even play some Bananagrams. And for me: shoot some cozy indoor wintertime photos. It's been awhile.

back to the start

Finally: my iMac is safely back on my desk and after a semi-nervous breakdown, all my photos, music, documents and various other files are in their rightful place(s). Here's to hoping the new hard drive runs like a champ for another year at least, after which I can hopefully get a new iMac. This baby has been working hard for me for five years now, and we've had some good times. Though it was a major pain to manually (yes, manually) re-organize all my photos, it was also kind of a trip to go through old files.

It also reminded me of how I got the whole dSLR/real photography bug to begin with: my friend Richard. He and I had worked together for a bit in San Francisco, and after I left to start my full-time job, we stayed friends and found out we had a lot of common interests, photography being one of them. He'd bought himself a Canon Rebel XTi, and after a few days of playing around with his camera, I was hooked. I saved up and a few months later, bought myself the same camera. Richard is monstrously talented and was (is!) always five steps ahead of me, but it was so fun to have a friend who shared my passion and who could teach me a few things, too. Under his enthusiasm and unassuming guidance I got the confidence to get out and shoot more, buy better lenses, and even book myself a few first gigs.

One of the best things we used to do was get together for spur of the moment photo walks. San Francisco is a treasure trove of different neighborhoods, people, cultures, geography and views... views for miles. On this day, we schlepped our gear out to Sea Cliff, home of the rich + famous, and capture SF at its foggy best. Richard now runs a super successful and fun company out of SF and LA (Project Photobooth, hire him!!), but he and I still geek out over photography via gchat all the time. Here's to friends who share your passion, encourage and inspire.

 

 

twenty eleven

Welcome back, hey!

Happy new year, friends. I'm back in Michigan after a great week off work and time spent with lots of family, friends, and puppies. =) The first few days of 2011 entailed some slight setbacks, namely the failing of my iMac's hard drive (replacement being installed as we speak, and a full backup completed before the crash so here's to everything loading back up as it should!) and the new year's eve-related dropping of my little point and shoot Canon. Ooopsies. Remind me to from now on *walk*, not drop or toss, my small camera to the group-shot-taker. Yeah.

As the above are merely material things and, for the most part, fixable or replaceable, it's all good. I'm looking to this year with happy anticipation, as it will soon be filled with lots of excitement and change. The next few months will be de rigueur, but come May 2nd - whew! So many good things! My husband and I are embarking on a 2-month adventure through Eastern Europe, Turkey and Greece, returning to the States to hop a plane to San Francisco for a good friends' wedding, and then packing our car back in Wisconsin for the road trip out to our new home city - Seattle, Washington!

Since my home computer is out of commission at the moment, I don't have a lot of photos to share but did snap a few quick shots of one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year. My mom made me a copy of this great old photo of her paternal grandparents, Magdalena and Justin, standing in the branches of an apple tree in their orchard in Illinois. I saw the photo earlier this year and loved it; it tells such a story on its own but leaves me wishing for more information, too. Old photos always have that great air of mystery. I've already framed it and put it up on my wall. Someday, when I have a house, I'm picturing a large wall, maybe a hallway, filled with framed family history photos. I think it's important to recognize and remember your relatives, even the ones you never got the chance to know.

current living room wall art, clockwise from l to r: not sure of the artist, but it's from Velocity in Seattle; "Ice, Iceland" print from tomfowlks on Etsy, Warm Wishes Swedish Dala horse letterpress card, my beloved San Fransisco's Golden Gate Bridge print (by me), and my new family history print. Happy with it. For now. I like to use this wall as a rotating gallery.

With all luck I'll have my computer back and re-loaded in a few days. Until then, enjoy the snow and as always, take lots of photos!

the glöggbööth

a few weekends ago i planned my office's holiday party, and like last year we went with a swedish glögg theme. glögg is basically a mulled red wine served warm and traditionally enjoyed in tiny mugs as it can be rather strong, and meant to be savored. i had to make the glögg via shortcut and more cheaply than my family's recipe (which has all sorts of crazy stuff in it!), so i found a great winery in vermont (boyden valley winery) that sells it by the bottle and ordered a few cases. to that i added a little vodka and brandy, along with almonds and golden raisins and heated everything up in a few crock pots. i think our party-goers enjoyed it as all 18 bottles were gone by the end of the night. evidence below in the glöggbööth. ;) 'god jul', btw, is 'merry christmas' in swedish. ridiculous accroutrements courtesy of our prop closet. 

 

 

Katie + Nathan Get Hitched: part two

The main event + party pics!

Katie + Nathan Get Hitched: part one

A lovelier couple than Katie and Nathan you would be hard-pressed to find. It's so nice to shoot a wedding as both photographer and friend, and these two made it incredibly easy on me. They are warm, welcoming people with huge hearts and an evident love and respect for each other. Their wedding day over Thanksgiving weekend in Franklin, Wisconsin was beautiful and I truly had so much fun working with them. I have no doubts theirs will be a long and blissful marriage. Congrats, you two! Thank you for letting me be a part of your day.

6 questions

i was tagged by my friend brittney at hush n wonder to answer a fun and quick little survey. i haven't done any of these yet, and since it's snowing outside and i'm finding myself having a relaxing, lazy sunday i thought it'd be the perfect time to fill this out. i hope everyone in the midwest is enjoying the snow! it looks so pretty outside of my living room window.

1. what were you doing ten years ago?

hmm... ten years ago i was seventeen; a senior in high school all excited to go to college in madison. i had my first serious boyfriend and was driving and going to concerts and taking the train to chicago and feeling very grown-up and ready to take on the next phase of my life. =) i was playing volleyball and softball with my friends, and going out for early-morning breakfasts before school at daddy maxwell's. i was loving the tv show 'friends'. my bedroom had light pink carpet (ha!).

2. what are 5 things on your to-do list today?

-make it out of my pj's and out of the house

-get to the grocery store and the gym

-get outside to enjoy the snow. ever since i was little, i've really enjoyed taking a walk by myself in the snow. there's no quiet or peace quite like it. it's first big storm of the season and it's those perfect big, fluffy flakes.

-edit photos from a recent shoot

-celebrate a close friend's departure for three months in argentina at a dinner party this evening.

3. snacks you enjoy?

-any kind of fruit

-salty chips

-baked goods: donuts, chocolate croissants, or a piece of fresh baked pumpking or banana bread. preferably with a chai latte in accompaniment. ;) if these things were magically healthy, i would love to have a proper swedish 'fika' every afternoon with a friend at about 2:00 with a small baked good and some chai or coffee. i think it's such a cool tradition.

4. places you've lived:

-williams bay, wisconsin

-madison, wisconsin

-elkhorn, wisconsin

-san mateo, california

-san francisco, california

-ann arbor, michigan

and soon: seattle, washington!

5. what are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?

-build a cozy but modern house on lake geneva and have all my family and friends there to visit me every summer, with lots of big dinners outside by the water

-buy my mom her long dreamed-of bmw and a little writers' cottage in new hampshire

-have a horse, which has been a dream of mine since i could form coherent thoughts. =)

-fund as much m.s. research as i could - two of my aunts have it and it's a disease i would really, really like to see eradicated in my time.

-be able to travel back to sweden once a year or so. maybe a little pied-a-terre in stockholm, too. ;)

thanks for tagging me, brit! that was fun.

beginning to look a lot like...

christmas! not sure about you, but i love the holidays. everything about it. it's only a few mere hours past thanksgiving and i'm ready to string twinkle lights, fire up some candles, and play my favorite christmas albums (vince guaraldi's charlie brown christmas, nat king cole, and some newer stuff...).  i so look forward to dressing up for parties, making some swedish glögg to share with friends and family, wrapping presents (i'm ocd and i shop early, and mostly online - thanks amazon prime!), baking and cooking. it's only two weeks into december but i already have some fun holiday-esque photos to share. lots more to come! now all we need is for a little snow to stick...

downtown marshall, michigan

lindy checking out my aunt's awesome vintage store, amazing grace antiques, in marshall

little gracie, aunt deb, my cousin danielle (and grace's mom!) + me

aunt deb's window display - so cute!

went a little nuts with the craft paper, stamps and jingle bells on sunday, but i'm happy with how the gifts all turned out!

hope you're all finding joy in the little holiday things, too. =)

 

sneak peek: katie + nathan

a few shots from the beautiful thanksgiving weekend wedding of katie + nathan in franklin, wisconsin... more to come soon!

hot lips.

i was recently inspired by two fellow bloggers (anna at door sixteen and jules at pancakes and french fries) to rock a lip color other than my usual, boring sheer-ish gloss. and a lipstick at that. lipstick! i.e. what i falsely assumed only my grandmother (her favorite: clinique), j.crew models, and drag queens wore. though i wish i had the cojones to wear a great red with the aplomb of anna and jules, i went with a rather shocking pink instead: lustering by mac (the best). i kind of love it. excuse the grainy mirror-reflected self portrait; i am luckily much better at photographing *other* people than i am at snapping shots of myself.

the moral of this story: ladies other than j.crew models and lady gaga *can* rock bright lips. you just have to put it on and own it. ;)

the simple things: light

i'm starting a new post category - the simple things. sometimes i think i let the day slip by without stopping to appreciate those very simple and easy things in my life that catch my attention. tonight, i glanced for one extra second into the depths of our coat closet and saw, on the top shelf, a tangled-up strand of white christmas lights. they looked lonely in there so i put them to good use.

a few minutes later and they found a new home for the winter: inside one of our lamps, making a glowing bowl  of twinkle-y, cozy white light.

amazing what a strand of lights can do for the mid-week blahs. a little rosemary clooney christmas on the ipod dock and some hot tea didn't hurt, either. ;)

let's take a fieldtrip

...to 826!

826michigan hosts their own brand of field trips for local elementary school students, filled with brainstorming, writing, drawing, and finally waiting in agony to see whether or not the elusive and picky dr. blotch will 'accept' their stories. (miraculously and without precedent, *all of the stories* were accepted this time!) to which the kids celebrated with great jubliation, obviously. that dr. blotch is one tough critic.

tracie + scott

a coworker who is a sometimes-photographer asked me to fill in for him when he was unable to shoot his cousin's wedding, kind of last minute. (1.5 months out). brides, you can attest to the fact that this is something that you might get a little worked up about - having your photographer bail last minute. luckily tracie, the bride, was quickly on board and so much fun to work with. she and scott also had *the* most perfect october day i've ever seen. yellow leaves, golden light, and green grass made for some great photo backdrops. congrats tracie + scott!

planes, trains, and automobiles.

i meant that quite literally.

chad, my dad and stepmom and i visited the henry ford on a rainy saturday afternoon when they were in town a few weeks ago.

that h. ford collected some very random things. the highlights: the bus rosa parks first protested in. the last car jfk ever rode in. the most giant train i've ever seen. and, on a lighter note, the oscar meyer weinermobile. hot dogs for lunch were thoroughly enjoyed post museum tour. america!

who knew henry appreciated great mid-century modern design? the eames chair: mmmm.

giant dot candy! 

*the* bus rosa parks sat in. pretty cool.

jfk's last ride: sad.

narrowly escaping becoming a train sandwich.

ross got talent

the U of M ross school of business hired me to capture their beginning of the year event (ross got talent) a few weeks ago. this year,  it was a southern-style bbq behind the school followed by a pretty hilarious (and often rather vulgar) variety show in the auditorium, put on by the incoming first year students.

the students had all been given the night prior to split off into their sections and come up with some kind of impressive 'show' to be performed in front of a panel of judges (including the dean of their school). most of the skits were great; some even required quick escape maneuvers on my part to avoid a high-kick or two. the last shot was one of two variations on 'west side story', one of my all-times faves. but alas, they were not the victors....

off to capture another wedding tomorrow afternoon. can't wait!

gimme shelter

last weekend, i had the privilege of photographing a lovely benefit dinner and auction for alpha house. alpha house is a nonprofit here in ann arbor that provides counseling, childcare help, meals, and temporary housing to homeless families. it truly is a great organization - they help so many families get back on their feet every year - it's pretty amazing. "gimme shelter" was a smash success, thanks to the careful planning of alpha house's staff, a bevy of great items and services donated by people all over the area to auction off, and a bunch of volunteers who helped the night run smoothly. the food and cakes were amazing, the short presentation inspiring, and the washtenaw community college's jazz band kept the mood swingin'.

thanks to my friend lindy,  who works at alpha house and did such a great job getting volunteers together for this event (and every week at the shelter!), for asking me to come take photos. it was an honor and i had so much fun!

if you'd like to learn more about alpha house, or be a super cool person and donate your time and/or money, go here.

one of three beautiful cakes; this one by zingerman's bakehouse.

so ppppst: not only does my friend lindy run the throngs of volunteers a.h. gets, she also is a super talented jewelry designer. she donated this piece for the auction - it got a lot of attention!

a former alpha house family, back on their feet and doing great.

lindy and kris

 

a whole new level

a few posts ago, i wrote about tea: how much i love it, what kinds i drink when, and how my cabinet is overflowing with tins and boxes of it. thanks to the magical powers of the internet, a representative from pg tips tea contacted me and thanked me for mentioning their brand in my post, and would i like to try some of their new green tea? SURE i would! free stuff to try, all from blogging? i could get used to this.

needless to say it was only a few days until a fedex package arrived at my office with my name on it, complete with the tea as promised and a nice note from the woman who contacted me. so fun! and the tea *is* very good - a nice, clean green tea that comes in pg tips signature triangle tea bag that i understand helps the tea breathe better while it's brewing. makes sense.

i certainly don't plan on name-dropping brands or products in the future just to try to weasel my way into more packages at my door, but it was an interesting lesson in how my seemingly inconsequential posts reach all sorts of people and places. to blogging!

color capture: yellow

the happiest color, i think!

Old photo love v.1

Sorting through my boxes of photos today (remember when people printed their photos?), I came across a stack of photos I've been meaning to share for awhile. I don't know how or where these photos came to be in my possession, but I treasure them and have grand plans for a family history wall someday when we have more wall space and I have the full collection of both sides of Chad's and my families.

I am fascinated by old photos. My answer to that question, "If you could have a superpower, what would it be?" has always been time travel, hands-down. There is nothing more intriguing to me than learning about my ancestors and hearing bits and pieces of my personal family history. I would give anything to go back in time and ask my great-grandparents why they were deciding to leave Sweden and Germany and the Netherlands. Were they the first to leave? Did they like it here? Did they miss home? As time travel isn't exactly on the horizon just yet, I'll have to settle for looking through these great old photographs and making up stories of my own. I love the formality of them, too - no such thing as digital photography or snapshots, a photograph had to be planned for, often paid for, and the result is so lovely. Bowties and dresses, Sunday best. I love it.

I do know enough to narrate these a bit. My dad's side of the family all came from Sweden in the early 1900s. My great grandfather, Oscar Kullberg, came from central Sweden and landed in Rockford, Illinois, with his brother Henning. I know that Henning eventually moved back to Sweden from a letter I was lucky enough to have translated to me from Swedish to English last summer while visiting relatives in Sweden. My grandfather was then born in Wisconsin and eventually became a watchmaker; a trade he passed on to my dad, who has owned and run Kullberg Jewelers since my grandfather became unable to do so in the early 1980s. Without further ado, the Kullberg Family:

I'm not 100% certain who this lovely lady and little boy are; I know they're somehow related to me, though! And I adore the moon; I think it's genius.

My great-grandparents, Selma Svensson and Oscar Kullberg, with their three children. My grandfather Walter is in the middle.

My grandfather Walter, so handsome! The back of this photo is labeled, "June 16th, 1929." It must be right around the time he and my grandmother Dorothy Tekla met, because the following photo of her has the same thing written on the back.

My grandmother Dorothy. What a cute smile she had!

Proof that photobooth photos are forever great. Hi grandpa! I think this was around his watchmaker school years.

This guy with the impish grin, looking like he's up to no good? My dad! No date, but I'm guessing this is around 1960, when he was about 6 or 7.

My dad on the left with his big brother John, around 1959. That's Williams Bay School in the background - their and my alma mater. =)

I love this photo. Check out those boots! And that hair! It's taken from such a cool vantage point, too. Props to the mystery photographer who shot this one. My dad could build, take apart, and rebuild a whole bunch of things from a young age, from dirtbikes to Volkswagon Beatles.

The early 1970s, man. My Uncle John, grandma, grandpa, Aunt Mary, and my dad on a pier over Lake Geneva. Groovy outfits + hairstyles, and the camera around my grandpa's neck makes me smile. Miss you, grandma, grandpa, and Uncle John!

That's all the family history I have for now. Stay tuned for a future post about my mom's side!

....so....

...i went to get something out of the cupboard last night and suddenly realized i have a little bit of a tea 'thing':

yeah. looks bad, i know. however, i bring a thermos of tea every single morning to work, and often have something decaffeinated at night, so i do drink it all, and often! still, this is bordering on obscene.

there is just something about a cup of tea, though. i've never liked coffee much; there are the occasional times when an iced caramel macchiato from starbuck's tastes really good, but usually the caffeine in coffee leaves me feeling weird. a nice cup of green tea in the morning makes me feel both alert and healthy, and i like the tradition of tea drinking that goes back so far in history and crosses so many cultures.

my favorite out of all those tins and boxes? anything by the republic of tea, especially their green teas. i'm really into the matcha green tea right now. when i'm sick, there is nothing better than a mug of throat coat by traditional medicinals (thanks, katie stub! she taught me that freshman year of college). the super cute white tin with the ice cream cone is a homemade tea i bought at the diy fair last fall called frosty almond by herb + ginger , which is awesome for fall and winter. and the far left one, pg tips, is apparently the uk's #1 tea. so if the queen of england should stop by, i'm able to serve her a proper british tea! though admittedly i'd be more excited to serve a cuppa to helen mirren as the q.e. instead, love her. 

so, obscene or not, this is what hides in my cupboard. any other tea addicts out there?

my FAVORITE time.

fall!

for many reasons, but mainly for the cooler weather, for the apples, pumpkins, and cider donuts, toasty drinks, and because i can finally wear my BOOTS. brown leather boots, they're where it's at, ya'll. the most perfect september day today, and some friends and i celebrated with a little trip to a nearby apple orchard to pick us some apples, dodge the bees, and grab a few donuts to go. days like this, i love living in michigan. get back to me in a few months when it's -12. but for now, it's lovely!

on road trips (and side of the road stops)

last weekend, chad and i drove up to the sleeping bear dunes area with nothing on our agenda but climbin' some dunes, swimmin' in some lakes, and maxin' + relaxin'. happy to say we accomplished all of the above. road trips are so fun, no? good tunes, good conversation, plenty of candy and a few hours later, you're there, man.

we were especially blown away by the color of the water in this part of lake michigan. this mighty great lake has many sides; the one both chad and i are used to seeing is from the milwaukee/chicago viewpoint. from there it's always pretty, but a much deeper cobalt blue and not exactly the most inviting for swimmers (who knows what's in the water over there...). in northern michigan, though, there aren't any nearby big cities to invite runoff or chemicals or otherwise nasty things in its waters, and the water is SO clear you almost think you've landed in the caribbean instead of the upper midwest. behold:

after we had sunned, swam, and eaten ourselves silly for two days we decided to hit the road back south-bound. (or, as we overheard some local folk at a gas station call us, 'down-staters.') it wasn't long into our drive that i saw a bright blue antique chevy truck with a flatbed full of firewood and a sign propped against it that read: "morels + firewood" morels?! as in, the mushrooms i'd read so much about and always wanted to try, but not being an educated mushroom hunter myself, unable to sample? (and somehow the bag of dried morels at whole foods i saw once wasn't very enticing, especially since it was .5 oz for about $21, i think).

anyway, since my husband is awesome, he pulled over right away and we moseyed over. from the other side of it came two slinky, wary-looking german sheperds. hmmm. not exactly inviting. but then we spied a set of dirt-and-age-gnarled bare feet under the truckbed and this amazingly gnome-like off the grid woodsman guy stepped out and said, 'howdy, folks!' he was probably 5'6" and 110 lbs, late 60s, had a long gray beard and wore sunglasses, a winter cap, rolled up jeans and a blue button up shirt that looked like it had stood the test of many, many years. i was immediately intrigued. we told him we were interested in his morels, and he proceeded to educate us on not just the mushrooms in questions and the best ways to cook them, but his various inventions (wood burning stoves that heat his whole house off the grid; a variation of rose that looks like it was splattered with four different colors of paint) and the trials that followed (damn the man - patents are expensive!). i have no doubt that he worked on that truck and kept it running himself, too.

we paid up for our one ounce bag of dried morels (which we can't wait to try ground up like pepper over chicken and baked, like he suggested) and *tried* to be on our way, but the guy was so intent on sharing stories with us that we didn't end up leaving for about fifteen minutes. after we'd thanked him and gotten back on the highway, i was immediately bummed that i hadn't asked him if i could take his photograph. because guys like that are not a dime a dozen, and he certainly wore his adventurous and unusual life on his face. what an interesting man.

i do, however, have a photo of our spoils:

morel mushrooms with a side of storytelling. you never know what you'll find on a road trip! just have to keep your eyes peeled.

the weekend.

driving home to wisconsin, we caught this sunset. an upside to chicago traffic!

i got to spend time with my mom and my sister maddie, who has very stylish tom's and very beautiful red hair =) :

we stopped down at the george williams pier, where i whiled away many a day getting a tan (and getting paid for it) - lifeguarding summers in college. also known as one of my favorite places, ever. lake geneva is the prettiest around 6pm in the summer.

the night before we had to head back to michigan, we made last minute dinner plans with some good friends of our and then stopped by their house to see their daughter. she is SO cute. moves a bit fast even for my f/1.4, but i got a few snaps in:

Upgrade ya

I have to share that not only did my husband bring himself back from Seattle this weekend, but he also brought me THIS:

the Canon EOS 7D camera. As in, what I've been lusting over for about 1.5 years now. Compared to what I was shooting with, my very introductory bottom-of-the-line Canon Rebel XTi... I can't even describe. Picture driving the used Honda Civic you've had since high school (trusty, runs great, you kind of have a soft spot of nostalgia for it but leaves much to be desired) and then suddenly someone drives a brand new AUDI A6 with a big red bow into your driveway and says, "Here." This is going to make my upcoming projects so much sweeter, and so much more fun.

Awesome!

today

i get my husband back. he's been gone all summer at his internship in seattle. let's just say i'm pretty excited for his flight to get in tonight!

smiling faces

To start your weekend on a happy note: check out these beautiful kids! I was out shooting for 826 tonight at a local nonprofit and although I was supposed to be taking photos of other things, my lens kept turning to the kids instead! Have a great weekend everyone + remember to smile, whenever possible. It just makes things better.

 

Okay, so, not a kid. But if you don't also think this puppy is pretty dang adorable, you might not be allowed back onto my blog.

Liz + Mark

I had the pleasure of working with Liz and Mark, who is the younger brother of my college roommate Eva, in July for their La Crosse, WI wedding. These two are kind of old news, really - they've been dating almost ten years! ;) He's on his way to becoming a doctor and she is a masters' holding librarian - how cute are they? The sun shone, the Mississippi sparkled and the golfers even gave us room to have a little post-dinner photoshoot fun on the green. A great day all around, and I think it's safe to say my official first wedding, and the day, was a smash success!

What a beauty!

That's my college roomie and dear friend Eva, lookin' all gorgeous, too.

And the longtime happy couple, going on to many, many more years of married happiness. 

I kind of love this shot.

Marks surprises Liz (and everyone else) with a mid-recessional kiss...and a big one at that!

I'm pretty sure she was into it.

 

La Crosse is so pretty.
 

And with this great final image, I'm out. ;) Pics from my upcoming Chicago weekend to come!

summer. it's hot, but these things make it (almost) worth it.

i have been accused of getting a teens bit cranky when it gets hot outside. well?! blame my swedish blood; i'm really meant to wear elk skins and live in an ice igloo, or something.

however, it's not all bad, june-august. some things that are awesome about summer:

lake michigan + a beach. this one was silver beach in st. joseph, michigan. not as good as south haven, in my opinion, but a nice beach nonetheless and the waves were SO FUN that day! i had to get out into the water to swim and jump waves twice - and both times i was reminded how much i love to just be in the water. nothing quite like that feeling when you dive down and all sounds cease except that funny little mystery tinkling sound (sea fairies?). love.

visits from friends who live halfway across the world. this is my dear, dear friend celina. she and i have been friends for about 14 years now, and even though she lives in zurich, switzerland, we manage to see each other every few years and pick right back up to wherever we left off last, giggling and re-hashing stories and staying up too late, oh, and almost dying a tragic death by tornado in briarwood mall. whew.  aren't friendships like that the best?

summer art, diy style. the ann arbor art fair was going on all this week, and while i checked it out and saw a few cool booths, most of the stuff isn't really my style. then i moseyed over to the blue house ann arbor saturday afternoon for their little diy sale and LOVED everything i saw. gotta love mittenmade!

top of the park.  because who doesn't love free live music in the park? lindy and i definitely do. also, a 5-year old boy who ran past us fresh from the face-painting booth and screamed, "I'M A ROBOT!!!" he loves it, too.

just-passed thunderstorm clouds. these were wicked awesome. celina and i had to go outside to fully enjoy these surreal skies. that one in the background was still sparking with lightening streaks. nature sure is awesome sometimes. even when it forces us to be shuttled into long emergency tornado shelter hallways by mall cops for forty minutes when all we wanted was to browse us some j.crew and banana republic.

watermelon. never enough watermelon. this salad is super easy, fyi. fresh melon, drizzled with light olive oil, salt, pepper, mint and feta. MMMMMM.

loud nails. this is literally the most perfect summer shade ever - essie's california coral. somehow it just doesn't work in winter.

stuff I bought in Seattle

I don't know about you, but when I travel, one of my favorite things to buy is art. Not major, antique oil-painting kind of art, but smaller, unique, fun kind of art. Here's what I got:

The green one is actually a greeting card from Elliot Bay Book Company - but I love screen prints and I think Seattle has such a cool skyline; I'm going to frame it eventually.

I know, you're thinking: Stamps? Really? But I found a whole tray of these at Wilson Kennedy and the orange and white fish jumped right out at me. What a cool image. I decided I had to take him home but he'd be lonely in a frame all by himself, so I picked out five more in similar colors to keep him company. Also, there's nothing better than getting a handwritten letter in the mail with a cool or interesting stamp in the upper right. The U.S. needs to make better stamps. Coolest I've seen lately are the California Marine Life ones.

 

This is an original watercolor + ink drawing that I picked up at CakeSpy in Capitol Hill. I already framed it and I think it's so beautiful.

Okay, I didn't get these in Seattle (I got them at Notice in Lake Geneva, WI) but these Momiji dolls just made me smile and are now watching over my desk while I edit photos. ;)

Some more 826.

Drop-in tutoring at 826Michigan: homework help! down-home remedies (chamomile tea bags) for itchy allergy eyes! an awesomely tacky gold couch! robots! all good things.

 

 

 

 

may 2010

aviator shades.

I forgot to add this one to the earlier post with photos from the anniversary photoshoot. I think this photo is really cool, and also it makes me laugh, because my dad has been wearing those SAME exact aviator glasses (ahem, clip on aviators, a man's gotta see out the cockpit) for about 35 years, and now that they're back in style again he looks so HIP. This post will make him laugh, too. Here's to your hipness, Dad. May all your style choices be so cyclical.

Here we go...

First official wedding shoot is THIS WEEKEND. La Crosse, Wisconsin, here I come!

Not sure the groomsmen will be into the whole 'army crawling over the hill' thing, but I'm sure we'll get creative. ;) Lots of Midwest summer wedding goodness to come! Peace out!

want to go to there.

The Terrace, Madison, Wisconsin. Meeting place for all good things: a beer (Spotted Cow, naturally) with friends, live music, those great iconic chairs, the cow sailboat, and best of all front row seats to the gorgeous views straight out - Lake Mendota. Whiled away many an hour/day/night at this spot, both during undergrad and on my visits after I graduated. Really miss it there this time of year! Hope to see ya soon, Madison. <3

summer 2009

Aaryn + Dave

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to work with Jamie at Nicole Christian Photography on a wedding she was shooting on Saturday in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. It was a gorgeous day, Aaryn and Dave were super cute and their wedding party was really fun. I definitely have a new respect for photographers who do weddings every weekend from May-September now - wow! So much work. I haven't even begun to go through and edit all of the images I shot... but here are a few that stuck out as my favorites right away.

 









Now I'm even more excited for the two weddings I have on my books this year!

giving it a go...

The world of wedding photography, that is. I'm second-shooting with a friend of mine tomorrow... excited + nervous but very much looking forward to seeing a full wedding from a photographer's viewpoint and learning as much as I can. Two weddings of my own to shoot in the next few months! I'd better take notes.... wish me luck! Oh, and have a lovely weekend.

Photo from a friends' wedding last week in Livermore, CA (attended as a guest but obviously I couldn't NOT bring my Canon). ;)

Seniors - done!

I finally finished sorting, organizing, and editing the batch of nearly 400 senior photos of the three boys I shot back a few weeks ago. Time to share a few more - I was really happy with these and I really hope the guys and their families are, too. My senior photos certainly weren't half as cool... bummer. Where's that time machine when you need it?

wild blue yonder

Took a few cool shots of my dad and stepmom at the small airport where he keeps his plane. I was worried about the sun being too glare-y but I think they turned out pretty great. The blues are SO blue. They've been married 20 years this year, so it was kind of cool to mark it with a photoshoot.

I loved this last one so much I made it the home image on my website.

Kate Kullberg Photography

Stay tuned for more photo goodness from the great state of California....

Class of 2011

While I was home in the LG last weekend, I worked with three Elkhorn High School boys and took their senior photos. They were all nice kids and super easy to work with. One of the guys had even had his braces taken off for his photos! That's dedication. We dodged rain all afternoon but it ended up making for some awesome photos. Special thanks to the moms who acted as my personal umbrella holders for part of the shoot - I couldn't have done it without them! I haven't edited them all yet, but here are three I already showed to the families.

Lake Geneva

I was home this weekend to see family and also to shoot some senior photos of three soon to be Elkhorn High School seniors. More to come from their session, but as I was scouting out good photo locations with my sister, I had to stop and snap a few Lake Geneva shots. I grew up on this lake, worked on this lake, have swam in it and sailed on it and read many a book by it, and it never ceases to take my breath away. Such a beautiful place. These photos were shot down at the Riviera docks and they're of Gage Marine's cherished old fleet of touring boats. Such craftsmanship. The first one below is the bow of the Lorelei, my favorite.

Everything's coming up roses

At least around here. I had to bring my camera along on my walk to work Friday morning to show you. It definitely feels like summer around here; this is the hottest late May I can remember.

(not roses, but pretty nonetheless!)

painted

I was sitting in the living room tonight reading and glanced up just in time to catch these gorgeous clouds. They looked like a Renaissance painting. I had to put down my book, grab my camera, and go outside to capture it.

It's been very hot here in Michigan this week which has the tendency to make me kind of crabby. Tonight was a good reminder of what those muggy summer days can bring at sunset in the Midwest. So pretty. And also, that life is better when you notice things. Tomorrow, I'm going to bring my camera along on my walk to work to capture the hot pink rose bush hungrily overtaking a neighbor's front porch - incredible.

Thanks guys!

826Michigan gave my photography a very nice shout-out in on their website this week.  Taking these photos was not only an honor, but fun and delicious (I got to sneak bites of the amazing food in between shots)! Again, if you haven't checked out the wonderful, wonderful 826 here in town, definitely do so.

http://www.826michigan.org/article/956/the-storymakers-dinner-wrap-up

If you live in a city other than Ann Arbor but want to help support 826, *please* go here and check one of the other six great centers so far across the U.S.: www.826national.org (if you're not the tutoring type, don't worry! There are literally tons of ways you can help. You can donate supplies, funds, time working in the various fun storefronts, copyedit, design book covers, and on+on+on.)

Dinner with Dave

Last week, I was asked by 826Michigan to take photos of a benefit dinner they were having. 826, in case you don't know, is a fabulous writing and tutoring center for kids ages 8-18 that has 7 different locations across the US. There happens to be one here in Ann Arbor, and I volunteer tutor for them once a week. Anyway, they knew that I shoot photos so they asked me to do this for them. It was a fundraising benefit dinner at Zingerman's Roadhouse with lots of wine, good food, and nice people who would hopefully donate lots of $ to 826. Oh, and Dave Eggers, Pulitzer-prize nominated writer, McSweeney's head, screenplay writer, and founder of 826 was also going to be there. AWESOME. Here are a few shots from the night. The food, by the way, was also outstanding. Definitely going back to the Roadhouse again!

Dave with two high school students who read amazing pieces they'd written.

 

Sometimes I like to make stuff.

*Someone* didn't like the print I had in this frame before, so a few weekends ago I made something else to put in it.... a Frenchie. ;) If I can't have a real one yet, might as well have a rainbow-striped one on the wall, no? Pretty happy with how it turned out:

Amazing what you can do with a little cut paper.

Cowboy, baby.

Came home tonight to find this guy hangin' out in our living room, strummin' away. All plaid shirt and gee-tar. I liked it.

Liked it even more when he surprised me with "Fields of Gold." He just taught it to himself today.

Thanks, Earth.

For things like this:

Lake Mendota, Madison, WI. And those insane clouds in a blue blue sky.

And this:

Wild flower in Muir Woods, Marin County, CA.

And this:

Home of the artist Carl Larsson, who loved the outdoors, central Sweden

And this:

total serenity: a secret spot outside Elkhorn, WI

And this:

A hike in Marin County, CA

and lastly, this:

Yosemite Valley from way, WAY up a mountain.

I'm very thankful for your beauty and awesomeness.

down on the farm

my dear friend kate ("other kate") lives with her husband and brand-new baby boy on a farm just over the wisconsin/illinois border. in illinois, but we forgive her that. her husband's family has run their dairy farm for many, many years, and kate has taken on a lot of the 'farm chores' for herself. she gets up every morning, early (SO EARLY), to feed the chickens and milk the goats. her husband gets up even earlier to milk all of their cows. kate, in addition to doing the aforementioned farm work plus the occasional chicken butchering or calf feeding, also works full time as a social worker and then makes dinner most nights for her family. she's now, recently, also a mom.

so basically, she is awesome. on a visit to see the full farm operation last summer, chad and i were amazed at all of the knowledge and all of the skill that it really takes to be a farmer. kate's family also grows corn and soybeans, mostly for feed for the cows but also to sell. it's a tough life and there are never ending things that have to be done, day after day. something that is a far cry from this city girl's life, and yet i'm always really interested in the day-to-day things that happen on their farm. i would never in my life think, 'hey, let's get some goats for our barn and learn how to make goat's milk.' even though i DIE for goat's cheese. i die. little rachel zoe for ya.

anyway, chad and i went to get the full cow barn tour last summer while we were home. we'd been to their house a bunch of times, of course, but never really seen a slice of their life on the dairy farm. it was such a gorgeous, quintessential midwest summer night. again, i only had my point and shoot but some of these photos are worth sharing. just a reminder that our food comes from people who work really hard and, hopefully, from people like kate and her family who also care a whole lot about how it's cultivated.

also, i know i'm a midwest girl at heart but i think this part of the country is so gosh darn beautiful in the summer. makes me want to find a quiet, cornfield-lined country road and drive with the windows down while blasting some little big town. i guess i am a 'little bit country', too.

the two kates! the end. =)