Lately we have been having a rash of great weather in Milwaukee. That never happens. Either way, with the great weather, comes some great photos. Robin heard of us through one of our Street Team members and decided we were the place that she wanted her photos taken.

She wanted her photos with some greenery, and so we went to Doctors Park right on Lake Michigan and ran up and down hills getting great photos and exercise. Check out some of my favs from her session:

Milwaukee, heck… Midwest weather confuses the heck out of me. One day it is amazing, the next it rains, the next amazing, then rains… you get the point… Well, we had an E-session scheduled with Kirby and Ryan and the weather said it was suppose to rain. I was watching Weather.com all day and the times rain was suppose to come changed every hour. We got to the shoot and were able to finish it with minimal amounts of getting wet. It sprinkled a bit, but nothing serious. Glad we got this shoot in, it was lots of fun and we got some fantastic photos! Can’t wait for their wedding in Lake Geneva next year!

(I would normally write more, but I just have tons and tons of blogs coming up for you fantastic High School folk, and those of you who wish you were in HS so you could have had better photos (I know I wish I had better ones))

Kyle has his hands in lots of stuff. From film to business, he is starting to rock even before college. We shot some photos in downtown Milwaukee with his bike, some shirts he made, and the pending doom of rain. The rain didn’t turn into the down pour it was on Thursday, so the show went on. Check the photos:

Well, Andrew and Abby needed no help from my camera or me to be flattering.  They were a great looking couple that showed up and were ready to have fun.  Jake and I thought that the Third Ward would be a good place to shoot, so we met them right by the Milwaukee Public Market.  From there we wandered around the streets, jumping on things, going in and out of alleys, and even jumping in fountains.  There were so many opportunities to make great photographs that it was hard to whittle down this post to the size that it is (and it is still big).  I am excited to shoot this couples wedding because I know it is going to be fantastic and so much fun to shoot.

What the heck is a Trash the Dress session? I’ve had lots of people ask me about this and it is kinda hard to explain, so instead of explaining, I figured I would just show.

A TTD session is all about showcasing  you and your dress.  Some people really want to save their dress and use it as an heirloom or keep it for their 20th anniversary, but some people put it in a box and never do anything with it.  Hopefully on your wedding day you were able to get some fantastic photos of you in your dress and you love them.  On the wedding day though, there is a limit to where you can go and what you can do as far as photos and locations.  Either there is a time constraint or you don’t really want to go into the middle of a forest, the sand dunes, or an old warehouse.  I get that.  No one wants to get to the reception and look like they were hiking up Mt. Everest or white water rafting (although that would be a sweet shoot… holla back if you wanna do that), so those locations are out the window.  With a TTD session, you can go to those places and get crazy fantastic shots.

TTD sessions are not about trashing the dress (as the name implies), but they are more about showcasing the dress in situations that you would not normally see a wedding dress in.  It’s not about getting dirty, but it is being able to let go and let loose to get awesome photos without having to worry about showing up to the reception looking like a mess.  Heck… bring your man and make him get all crazy with you too… Who doesn’t want to make out in a lake with the sun set behind them?

So… because this is kinda hard to explain in words, Jake and I got the idea to do a TTD session with a model to show you what this whole thing is about.  The story below is our adventure into the foray of: TTD, Valo-syle.

First thing we needed was a lady who was up for anything.  I had worked with Amber a while ago and knew she was a lot of fun to work with.  I shot her a message and she was all about doing the shoot.  From there, we needed a dress.  I really do not know how you ladies do it… Amber and I went to pick out a dress from David’s Bridal.  They have a huge rack of $99 dresses that we were picking from (a good option if you want TTD photos and still want to keep your real dress).  I had to register and we were mistaken for a couple quite a bit.  It was also around the time when people were picking out their prom dresses, so the store was crazy busy and filled to the brim with ladies.  I kinda felt like I was invading a female only club… got some really funny looks from some ladies.  Anyoldways… Amber and I found a dress that we liked, she tried it on and it looked gorgeous.

From there I contacted two of my good friends Kristin and Amy who work at The Fringe Salon to do Make Up and Hair for the shoot.  After I got them on board, I wanted to get some flowers for the shoot, so I contacted Greg from Gregory and Company and got an amazing Bouquet from him to use for the shoot.  We finally got everything set up, nice weather, great team of people, and great location… then… it started to snow.  It was in the 60′s a few days before, but then the temp dropped very quickly the day before and the day of the shoot to somewhere around 30 degrees.  We got out to shoot and were able to shoot for about 30 mins before it started to snow.  It wasn’t too bad at first, but when you have a model in a wedding dress and sandals… well… that is just crazy stuff.  She was a trooper and we were able to get some fantastic photos while we were out.  We might end up doing another shoot when it is a bit warmer… but for now, check out the photos we took.