Christmas Eve... Hug your loved ones.

One of our loved ones passed away yesterday. Aaron's uncle, Darrell. He got an infection that kind of came out of nowhere. Darrell had also been suffering the effects of a severe stroke he had 4 years ago... wasn't able to communicate like he wanted to, and needed help with many things. He is no longer suffering, now.
Still, for those he left behind, it is a sad time. Aaron and I didn't get to the hospital in time, and we are sad about that... and that we couldn't be with his family yesterday night. Please pray especially for his wife Judy, and kids-- Heather, Kristi, and Mike.

Here is our family at the wedding... Darrell is in front next to me, and his wife and kids are the first 4 people on the left of the photo.


(I love his grin in that pic... ha:)).

In August, I photographed the wedding of Kristi's friend. I snapped a quick pic of Judy, Kristi, and Darrell.




I am so happy I have these photos of him. They mean something to me. This is why, at weddings, I try to capture as many of the guests as possible. Two reasons... each person at the reception is special to the couple, and, you never know when it will be their time to go.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Hold your loved ones closely. May there be much peace and comfort in your lives.

Ben's da man... and early Christmas presents!

This is Ben.


He's the one editing the promo video like a madman right now.


In the meantime, I ordered groceries online because I am in the midst of editing a bajillion pics and no time to shop.
"Coborn's delivers!" I wrote to my friend Johanne and sent her this quick pic on my phone:



"Boy do they ever!" she replied.

When I had opened the front door to check if they had come while I was sleeping, they surely had.
".... Oh my....." I said.

I will absolutely use them again. It saved me SO much time, and it truly wasn't that much more expensive-- and they even have weekly coupons as well.

The delivery fee? Five bucks. That's it. Sweet! 6 huge bins of food! But it was fun! Like opening Christmas presents!!



Speaking of Christmas presents...... Aaron got me a Wii for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it's partially from his parents too. I don't know yet, because I was the one who bought it today, haha! He's paying me back (no seriously... cause we have separate accounts:)). He asked me today if I wanted a Wii for Christmas, and I was at Target running errands, and I said, yes, and that I would check for one there.... they weren't on the shelves, but when I asked the Target Team Member (:)), she checked the inventory, and they had one in the back!!!!

I can't open it until Christmas, so that's fine with me. But I am so excited to play it with friends. AND, I have no time to play it now-- much editing to do!

My parents got us some new rugs for our entryways today (so that we don't have to put two together as shown in the photo above) for an early Christmas present, and paid to recover our dining room chairs as well (they really needed it). Early Christmas is way fun!!!

Back to work-- hope you all enjoy your weekend!

My Promo Vid production is underway!

All of Friday, and part of today, and a chunk of tomorrow are all devoted to taping for my promo vid for my website, so it's going to be a long weekend, but exciting too.


I am working with my designer on new color schemes for my logo, as well.

Have some editing to do this weekend also, AND I have a family Christmas to attend later on Sunday!

Busy weekend, so I'll try to post some more photos this coming week at some point.

My BABIES!!! (sob!)

I sent both of my pro cameras in for check ups today!!! They should be back soon enough, but STILL... I feel NAKED!!!! It's the best time of year for it-- in between portrait sessions and weddings.

Also, my point and shoot camera has been busted for a few months now... now is a good time to take it in to get fixed so I am not completely without a creative outlet relating to photography. I remember the first time my FIRST point and shoot broke. It was my junior year of college. I had NO idea how much I truly loved taking photos, and how OFTEN I took photos until that camera broke. They took a month to repair that point and shoot, and I was in agongy! I realized that I probably had used my camera nearly ever single day... it's no wonder it wore out, ha:)

Thank God for extended warranties they offer at Circuit City and Best Buy. Let me tell you this... Whenever you purchase a point and shoot camera, if you know you will be using it a lot, it is SO worth it to get the extended warranty. SO worth it. I bought it for both of my point and shoots, and it was what... $60...? Well, it saves me the money that I don't have to spend getting it repaired now, or buying a new one!

I await the day of my babies' return.... returns... (?).

I have plenty to do in the next two weeks though... some editing, shooting the rest of my promo vid(So excited!), meeting with clients and friends, and Christmas related things, of course!

In the meantime, I will rely on my trusty camera phone for random everyday use.
It took these photos in low light, which isn't too shabby for a camera phone.

This is my friend Marie getting texts from my friend Matt and me.


This is Matt and me laughing at the texts we were sending Marie.



Matt is going to Iraq for the LAST TIME in a couple weeks! Then he is home in Minnesota for good in July. He's been in the Air Force for what seems like 10 years (I'm sure he feels the same), so it will be fun to have him around for good! His little girl (pictured with him in my "Family Pics" post, just a few posts down) will be happy with that as well! Thanks for serving, Matt!

Lindsay & Andy: Just for Fun

Lindsay and Andy wanted some photos taken of them for some Christmas cards, and just for fun. I shot their wedding last December, and I can see they are still very much in love and a beautiful couple. We had a ton of fun on this shoot. It had just started getting cold at this time, and it was really funny... by the end of our shoot, all of us had no feeling in the bottom of our faces. Seriously! Our chins and cheeks were numb! (That could refer to ALL "cheeks" haha:))

Happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday!

So very much to be thankful for this year!

I had an early morning call for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. Reminds me just how much we all have to be thankful for. The parents who lost were a beautiful couple, who have each other... and for that, I am thankful.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving,

And to those of you who participate in Black Friday, happy shopping! I plan on participating this year, and a few of my business purchases will include a Garmin, as well as some VERY cheap 4GB memory cards from B&H Photo. (Dig in, fellow photographers!)




Love,
Ginger

Family time!

Fall was a great time for family photos. These families will be using a photo for Christmas cards, gifts, or just to put in their homes!



(3 years old! Yay!)








("Brrr!!!" she said. "My eyes are cold!")








What a bunch of fun fams! :)


Here's a photo I snapped while I was out shooting. Good-bye, Fall!

A different type of week....

Hey all!

I know I've been MIA lately. It's been a very different week for me.

*Aaron was out of town all last week-- he went out to San Fransisco for work, and didn't get home until yesterday. I don't' want to sound like a baby, but every night was so so long. I slept on the couch every night with my cat because I didn't want to be alone in a cold bed. I hate being in the dark alone, and I hate the cold! I didn't mind it, and I was super comfortable.

*My back has really been bothering me for 2 weeks now... I have been working in a bad desk chair since this summer when I moved my office down to the basement temporarily. I didn't realize it wasn't a good chair until my back started hurting, and I started getting migraines. It's nice down here in the basement, but sitting and editing or emailing for hours with the slouchy posture that I have isn't good on my back. I had to spend a couple days just laying down (which was totally boring) because I couldn't sit for longer than 15-20 minutes without the nerves in my back getting mad at me. Even driving places hurt... or SITTING on the couch hurt. The only thing that felt good was lying down with a hot pack... that way the pressure was off that part of my spine that was hurting.

*My friend Matt is in town. He's in the Air Force and is home for one last "leave" before he heads off to his final tour in Iraq. He'll be there for 6 months, and then home for good-- which he, and everyone else, is looking forward to. This week, I took some photos of his little girl for him and his fam, so he can have some good photos of her to bring with him. We've hung out a couple more times, just to get in some fun before he leaves again. Sarah, Dan, and Marie and Matt came over and played Wii one night. Not my Wii... Dan brought his over. I WISH I could even FIND a Wii at the store!

*My parents took me out for dinner on Thursday night, so that I wasn't too lonely (I seriously was pretty lonely... I'm a people person, so I was thankful for their company, and my friends' company!).

*I've been having orchestra rehearsal the last month (Northern Symphony Orchestra) in which I play the cello! Long rehearsals were hard on my back the past couple weeks, but we played a lot of fun music. Saturday, we went up to St. Cloud for the day and played there for the man who was doing the piano concerto with us. He was celebrating 60 years of being a concert pianist. Isn't that AMAZING?? Our home concert was at the local high school tonight, and everyone loved his playing. We had a lot of notes in the concert, and we were all exhausted but satisfied at the end!

*I went to a funeral out of town this morning, and it was sad, but happy, as well. A celebration of life, AND, life after death... exactly what I want my funeral to be someday.

*I have been on a pretty "opposite" schedule since March. It started off with going to bed at 2-3am when I was out in Vegas for WPPI. When I got home, I didn't adjust back very well (2 hour time difference), then I went back to Vegas 2 weeks later with Aaron for work, and I got more into that schedule. With not having to be up in the morning, except for on Saturdays, it worked well for while. Now that it's November and I don't have any weddings this month, and only portrait sessions later in the day, I had no reason to try to get up. Only a month ago, I was sleeping 10-13 hours a day when I was fighting some sort of virus that a doctor said was either a relative of Mono, or my body was just fighting hard to get rid of something, and it was making me exhausted... and so, that really threw off my sleep schedule more. When Aaron was gone this week, and with having to rest for a few days in a row because of my back, my sleep schedule was "at it's worst." I was getting enough sleep, but it was just at such an "opposite" time of everyone else. This last week, Tuesday, I went to bed at 8:30AM, and woke up at 5pm, and then I worked at night. I have tried SO many things to get back on a regular schedule, and according to my cousin's sleep specialist (she was having similar problems), I need to adjust it little by little. Well, last night, I fell asleep after "eating dinner" at 11:30pm... why? I have no idea... other than it was perhaps an answer to prayers. And so, tonight, I hope to get to bed at perhaps by 2:30AM... and I hope to FINALLY slowly work backwards to the sleep schedule I would prefer. (Wake up at 9AM, go to bed at 11:30pm).



So, tonight, after I am done editing in this grumpy desk chair, I hope to get to bed at a decent hour, wake up at a decent hour, and go shop for a new desk chair... so that I can enjoy orchestra... and sitting... and life. Because life is really too short to not enjoy, and too long to have back pain at the early age of 25.

My family?

My friend Corrie sent this to me on my phone, and I thought it was funny.

"Your family in 5 years. Apparently you triple in size after having 2 kids."

I miss Fall already!

I took this pic with my phone just about 2 weeks ago... it was so beautiful!!






Today, it is rainy and yucky, and it snowed a bit this morning too. What the heck? Not cool.


You know how they say if you have nothing to talk about, talk about the weather?
Well, in Minnesota, the weather is never a boring topic, because it is so CRAZY.


Aaron has every other Monday off, and since I often work on the weekends, it works out well! A couple weeks ago we headed down to the Jordan apple orchard (Minnesota Harvest), and went through the corn maze. It was a lot of fun, and the colors in Jordan were SO pretty.

This is the drive once you enter the orchard area. It just glows!! (Again, all pics taken with my camera phone.)



After some cider, we drove over to the corn maze:



Aaron climbed a ladder to see if it would help us find our way out...
He looks and goes, "I can't see anything."


So we navigated our way out with the map... which was kinda hard, since half the time we didn't know where we were, and the "map" is a maze. Once we figured out where we were, we got out!

So anyway... yes, I miss fall... but I am glad that I got to get out and enjoy it a bit!

Katrina & Tommy's Wedding

Hello, friends!

I have been editing away... portrait sessions, engagement sessions, and weddings. And I am happy with the results, and happy with my clients!!

I have also had the pleasure of meeting with a few wonderful couples over the past month to discuss having me shoot their weddings. I love client meetings-- being able to hear about the beginning process of their plans for the big day!

I admit it... I am a blog slacker! I do better at getting these pics up on Facebook than I do on my blog. Some of you may have already seen these, but for those who haven't, here are some images from Katrina and Tommy's wedding!









Her groom awaits...


Everyone was pretty happy these two were finally hitched! They had loads of friends and family to support them, and celebrate their day!






Most of the guys were on the Bethel football team together...





















Steph captured this wide shot with the natural dance light. So pretty.