My sister said to me earlier this week: "My motto for this year: simplify."  I couldn't agree more.  The last couple week's made my life feel...heavy.  You know those times when what normally would be a small moment, like the gas light going on in your car, turns into a breaking-point?  Well, I've a had a few of those break-down moments over the last couple weeks.  With my wife ending up in the hospital the weekend before last, and trying to keep all of the plates in my life spinning, things have been a bit rough.

But, we're starting to come up for air.  After having many conversations with the universe, and choosing to focus on hope and prosperity, the light is beginning to creep back in.  Sometimes I find that I just have to remember not to get held down by the "things" in my life, focus on what's really important, and remember that no matter what happens our lives, we'll all be okay.  As cliche as it is to say, what's really important is having each other.

And my sister's advice is key.  How many of those darn plates do I really need anyway?  Not nearly as many as I think.

Unfortunately, my "little" project, the Project 365 took a major back seat.  But, I haven't forgotten about it.  And, I'm not going to feel guilty for not being able to uphold my goal for a short period of time.  Rather, it's time to get back on the horse, and move on.  So, Project 365 is back on track, and I'll post soon.

In unrelated news, did anyone see the Denny's commercials last night during the Super Bowl?  If you missed them, man did you miss out.  I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while.  Not sure why these tickle me so much, but these are right up my humor-alley. Check out the commercials on NFL.com:

Chickens (notice the secret-service chickens at the end of the first link):
My favorite 2010 Super Bowl ad
Another good Denny's ad

And, check out Google's Super Bowl ad.  I thought this was pretty darn smart.

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I'm not really sure where I first heard of "Project 365," but I recall being inspired and thinking to my self, "one day I'll do a project 365."  Well, that day is today.  I guess I'm starting a couple weeks late, if we're counting from the beginning of the year.  But, project 351 just doesn't have the same ring to it.  So, ignore this small discrepancy, m'kay?

If you're not familiar with what Project 365 is, let me spend a few moments to explain:

Project 365 is any project you commit to doing once a day for an entire year.  The one I originally encountered was a photographer.  But, I suppose this could really be applied to anything you want to do more of in your life that you don't do, or do very little of now.  For me, taking a picture a day is a big undertaking.  I'm a husband, father, and a graphic designer.  All of those things take up time, and can easily overwhelm me to a point where adding another "something" into my life seems impossible.  This project, however, it's something I need.  I need to expand my creative horizons, and take time to slow down.  And, I want to reap the benefits of taking a picture a day for an entire year.  If you're wondering why I might embark on such a thing, here's some benefits I hope to experience:

I look forward to looking back after the year has passed, and seeing all the pictures I've taken--all the people I've met, places I've been, things I've eaten, experiences I've gone through.

As I said, I'm excited to make the world slow down.  It seems that ever since I've had my kid, life moves 2x faster than it did BE (before Ella).  And, it was already clipping along pretty quickly beforehand.  Being able to take in the world around me in a conscious manner will certainly help.  As Ferris Bueller said it, "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it."

And lastly, I've been told that taking a photo a day will make me a better photographer.  I guess this goes without saying.  No matter where anyone is in their artistic endeavors, practice makes "perfect."  For me, I think this will push my creative potential; Forcing my self to find something new to photograph every day will undoubtedly squeeze out my creative juices.

So, here's how I plan on making my Project 365 a reality:

I'm going to take a camera everywhere.  It's not practical for me to take my "professional" camera everywhere.  But I will when I can.

When I can, I'm going to go on theme shoots.  I'll go shoot red doors, or dogs, or nature stuff.

And lastly, I'm going to blog the week's favorite pic on the blog, and I'm not going to let it slip.  Knowing who I am, I won't follow through if I get overwhelmed.  Staying on top of the posts, is imperative.  So, if you see me slipping, send me a nasty-gram.

With that, here's picture #1.  A sorta self-portrait--of my raggedy tennis shoes.

Okay first, I'm sorry.  I'm sorry I haven't updated my blog regularly in quite some time.  My life has taken some rough turns, and has required my full attention at times, and haven't been able to sit down share everything that's been going on. 

Without going into too much detail, my wife has been diagnosed with a life-long illness, and coming to grips with what that means for her, and us as a family has been a steep learning curve.  Doctor's visits, lots of reading and thinking, talking, and figuring out what the rest of our lives together is going to look like has been a full-time job as of late.  We're not out of the woods yet, but I think I see a small light at the end of the tunnel.

Nevertheless, it feels good to sit down and write.  And, I'm excited to finally post a wedding I photographed back in October in Kohler, Wisconsin.  So with that...

Susan and Justin came to me through a friend of a friend.  And when Susan called me for the first time, she couldn't stop talking about how much she loved my style.  And, Susan and I got along from the get-go.  So naturally, it wasn't too hard to convince me to fly up to Kohler, Wisconsin for their wedding last October.

When I got there, I had the opportunity to shoot their rehearsal dinner, and was able to meet Susan and Justin face-to-face before the wedding, which was great.  When Susan walked through the door to the restaurant, she said a couple obligatory "hello's," and made a b-line right for me.  "Are you Chad," she asked.  "Susan?" I replied.  A smile ran from ear to ear on both our faces and we talked about how excited we both were for the wedding the following day. 

Kohler, if you haven't been there, is absolutely stunning.  It's an old town that was originally developed solely for the purpose of housing the workers at the Kohler plant (the place where they design and produce Kohler sinks and such).  But today, it's a darling town of 2000+, where the streets are lined with 100-year old trees, and the houses are from the turn of the century (the earlier one, anyway).  To boot, we were there in October, and the leaves were turning.  So, beautiful.

On the wedding day, it was a tad cold, to say the least.  Okay, it was frickin' freezing and breezy.  Kohler is only a few miles west of Lake Michigan.  So, on top of being cold and breezy, it was humid.  And humid cold is way colder than dry cold like it is here in Colorado.  But, that didn't seem to get anyone down.  Susan and Justin were both excited and anxious, and ready.  And other than my trigger finger getting a bit chilly during the ceremony, all went off without a hitch.

The ceremony and reception were both at The American Club.  I could go on and on about how beautiful this venue was, but I've rambled enough.  Here are a few of my faves from the day.


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To everyone I had the pleasure of photographing this year, and to all of my future brides and grooms, and to everyone in my life: I wish you all very thankful Thanksgiving with full bellies, good laughs, and lots of love.

And because a post is always better with a photograph, here's one of the cutest kids in the whole wide world, Princess Ella.

Back in July we visited San Diego for our annual vacay out there, and had the omni-talented Sara France do a fashion-y shoot with my gorgeous wife, and a short portrait session with my little family (see the pictures here).  I had heard great things about Miss France, and she didn't disappoint!  Sara was so sweet and kind, and creative, and inventive, and exciting, and, and...we just couldn't have been happier with everything we received.

Thank you Sara for giving us such a wonderful experience--and beautiful images of course!

Hope to see you soon!