October 19th, 2011
Dan and Camille – Minneapolis – Crazy Booth
October 17th, 2011
Dan and Camille – Minneapolis – Wedding
Sometimes I don’t get to blog as much as I would like. I am working on changing that so there should be quite a few blogs coming out this week. We have a ton of fantastic shoots and get to create so many great photos that I want to share with everyone.
This wedding is from last year in October. These two are fantastic folks that I got the pleasure of going to school with. They are both amazing musicians and are super in love. I was really excited when they asked Valo to shoot their wedding. Cami put a ton of work into her wedding and I hope it shows in these photos.
May 31st, 2011
Nemo is 1!
This weekend my lady and I went to MN to visit my family and celebrate my nephews 1st birthday. One year olds are normally pretty cute, but this guy is super cute. My niece and nephews are all good looking kids, which I am okay with. This lil guy making it to one is super amazing though. He was born at 24 weeks and was only 1.6lbs. I can’t even imagine that. I was 13lbs when I was born… a super chunk. He was in the hospital for quite a long time and once he was able to come home their hospital bill was over one million dollars. (Thank you US Air Force for paying that)
I took some photos a while back when I was in Vegas (that is where my brother is stationed) and thought now would be a good time to post them.
February 17th, 2010
Wedding – Marquel and Nicholene
I love it when I get asked by someone that I know to be a part of their wedding. If it is being in the wedding, or shooting the wedding, I love it. Marquel and Nicholene knew that they wanted me to shoot their wedding even before they were engaged. Well… I KNOW Nic did because she told me every time she saw me.
I went to college with both of these folks and had a great time creating music with them. Marquel can pretty much sing any part in a choir and play anything on drums, keys, and probably lots of other instruments and Nic would bring down the house with her singing. Creating music is amazing, but creating amazing music is even better, which made it quite appropriate that they got married at Orchestra Hall.
I arrived in Minneapolis with my friend Paul Sparks to shoot their wedding and was super excited. The wedding was outside and in the morning it looked like the weather was not going to cooperate with us. Gladly, a few hours passed and the clouds moved along, taking their raindrops with them. The weather, other than being crazy windy, was perfect. Great light and a lovely location at Orchestra Hall made for some fantastic photos.
Marquell is from Milwaukee and Nicolene is from Jamacia, but they met and now live in Minneapolis. It was great seeing their family come together and have a great time at the wedding. Sooo… enough of me babbling… here are the photos:
August 18th, 2009
31 And Counting
Mawiage. Mawiage bwings us toogetha…
My mom and pops are celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary today. I am so thankful for them and everything they have done for us kids. Shooting weddings, I have heard lots of advice and one of those nuggets that sticks out in my mind, and I find to be true of my mom and dad, is that every morning when you wake up, you choose to be married. Every day you choose love and to love a person that sometimes gets on your nerves, doesn’t make the bed, is messy, is clean, invites people over without telling you, kills squirrels because they eat the garden… you gotta choose love and choose to be married every day and every second of that day. My parents have made that choice for 11,323 days, or 271,752 hours, or 16,305,120 minutes. That’s a lot of choosing. That’s a lot of love. I hope that I can follow their example and choose to love my wife every day. (Gotta get married first, but you get the point)
Here are a few photos that they dug out the archive of their wedding day.
Here are a few interesting facts:
Mom made her own wedding dress.
Dad had to wear tights to the wedding, turns out dark legs show right through white pants…
First time my mom met my grandma they were engaged.
My dad proposed with a bottle cap. (Or something like that)
The first time they kissed, my mom asked, “So, does that mean your gonna marry me?”
August 15th, 2009
Wedding – Brent and Christina
Some weddings are like a party. Brent and Christina’s wedding was most definitely a party. From the moment we got there to the moment we left there were crazy things happening everywhere we turned. I love to shoot weddings that reflect the couple’s personality and where they are having a good time.
From the flowers to the dress, there were lots of things that were either handmade or given personal touches. Christina is my cousin (Brent is now as well), and there were lots of family hands involved in the planning and execution of the wedding. My mother made the cakes, I shot the photos, my uncles bus company provided a party bus, parts of the dress were sewn on by an aunt (if it wasn’t an aunt, it was a family member), and my Dad instructed the couple for the first dance and Father/Daughter dance. It was great to see how everyone helped pitch in to make this day very special for Brent and Christina.
The Party bus was out of control! So much fun!
Well… everything was nuts.
Ooo… my Mama made this cake. It was good.
My pops choreographed the First Dance and the Father Daughter dance.
My dad and sister were tearing up the dance floor. He taught ballroom dance and she currently teaches it in Minneapolis.
There was a lot going on at the wedding and it was such a blast. We brought out the crazy booth and you can see the photos from that here: CRAZY BOOTH
Also, if you get a chance, please vote for us here: VOTE
June 30th, 2009
Tope and Ebony – Wedding
I love culture. I love when two cultures mix and create a melting pot of traditions, clothes, and food. I had the honor of photographing a Nigerian/American wedding for Tope and Ebony. There was so much to photograph! From the amazing Nigerian food to the colorful dress and ethnic dances, everything was beautiful.
Jake and I were able to photograph Tope and Ebony a little while back for their engagement session. It was fun to get to know them a bit before the wedding and hear all about their love for each other over a burger and fries. It was very easy to see how much they loved each other before the wedding, so that day it was great to share in their excitement.
Ebony had a beautiful dress for the wedding. It was stunning by itself and looked perfect on her.
Tope was smiling all day… I can’t blame him.
The traditional Nigerian dress was fantastic. I loved the bright colors and the intricate details. The Sculpture Garden provided a great background for the photos.
She was too cute!
The toasts.
I was in love with the cake… both inside and out 
After dinner the wedding party got changed into traditional Nigerian dress and were throwing down on the dance floor.
They were posing for the camera all night long.
In some American weddings there is the dollar dance, where people pay money to dance with the bride or groom. The best man and maid of honor normally collect the cash and it is a fun way to give money to the new couple. At this wedding though, the dollar dance was awesome. As Tope and Ebony danced to traditional music, people came up from the crowd and would place money on their heads and it would fall to the ground where the bridal party and others would pick it up for the couple. This dance went on for quite a while. It was a lot of fun to be a part of the dance and be able to capture the emotion and energy that was in the room.
At the end of the night we said good bye and left tired from shooting all day and dancing all night. Thanks again Tope and Ebony for asking Valo to shoot your wedding!
May 17th, 2009
Tope and Ebony – E-Session
Tope (pronounced Tope-weh) and Ebony were a joy to meet. I had already known Ebony from when I lived and went to college in Minneapolis. I met Tope the day that we were going to shoot and he stepped out of his car with a sweet pink shirt and some killer shoes. I could dig that. We went to a park for a few photos with the couple then from there we went to St. Anthony Main and walked around by the river. Next weekend the couple will be getting married and I get the privilege of being their photographer. I am excited to make amazing images that capture their day.
May 10th, 2009
Maliya – Newborn Photography
Happy Mothers Day!!! I can’t express how important my mom has been in my life and still is. I know she is gonna see this post, so I am gonna brag on her a while.
I am an interesting person. My mom always called me unique. I guess that is a good way to describe me. Weird doesn’t work, odd, perhaps, but I think I like unique the best. I owe my mom tons for putting up with my uniqueness growing up. It was hard for her to punish me because I would dance, make crazy noises, or whatever I could to make her laugh so she couldn’t punish me. (Good idea, until she said “Wait till your dad comes home!”… yeah, then it sucked). I owe her tons for encouraging me to be who I am and loving me and not telling me that I needed to be anyone other then who I was. Words don’t really do justice to how she helped raise me with my pops and my other sibling. I think she is fantastic…
Okay! All that to say this – Maliya is cute! She was born on April 14th and Jake and I were able to photograph her on April 18th, just 4 days after she was born. Full of energy and hair, she was looking around the room cooing and looking cute. Her mom was there and looked a little exhausted. Maliya has two older sisters that Mom and Dad have to control, not to mention the attention a newborn needs. I am so honored and privileged to be able to record one of the first days of the, sure to be amazing, life of little miss Maliya. Enjoy the photos!
Oh… P.s. For all of you ladies who had a child, more power to you, but my Mom has you all beat. I was 13lbs right out of the oven. Broke one of her ribs… That ain’t no joke. My mom is my 5’2″ ball of fury!
You can see Jakes take on the lil’ lady: Here
May 9th, 2009
Tryenyse – Music Artist
Jake and I had a crazy weekend a few weeks ago. We went up to Minneapolis and crammed in 5 shoots over two days and one night. We left after work on Friday night and got to the cities around 11:30 p.m. and started to shoot just a little after that. Shooting in the dark is no easy task, but we made it happen.
Tryenyse (pronounced tra neice) is an artist in Minneapolis who describes her music as Soul, Blues, and R&B all mixed up. Her and her husband have been a friend of my family for quite some time and it was great to be able to get some awesome shots for the album that she is putting out this summer. Here are a few of the photographs that we took that night running around Minneapolis.
