A Ludwig-Woods Engagement

I recently spent a very cold afternoon photographing an old friend of mine and her awesome fiance. Take a gander if you wish.

HERE for facebook or HERE for Flickr

Do You Validate?

And there she was. Out of the corner of my eye, I could finally make out her facial features. Things were a bit blurry at first. I could see the sunlight illuminate her beautiful blond curls. From a short distance, I could actually see her infectious smile. As she parked her car next to mine, I could feel the butterflies exploding in my stomach. A zillion bolts of electricity bounced from neuron to neuron in my minuscule brain. You see, this was just supposed to be an ordinary blind date. I had never actually seen this woman in the physical form. Sure, we kind of knew each other. I mean, we had emailed and talked on the phone for months before this day. During the previous three months, our conversations accelerated from the standard day to pleasantries to deep, humorous thoughts on life, love and everything in-between.  An average day would yield hundreds, if not thousands of email messages. I would wake up each morning actually excited to get to work. The morning commute was excruciating and seemed to take hours. Each and every day, I would sit in bumper to bumper traffic anxiously awaiting the very moment I would be able to park my car, clock in, and open my email. Now all the sudden, the woman on the other end of the computer was nearly within arms reach. I knew this day would come. In fact, we had planned it for weeks. I could hear her put her car into park. She was so close I could hear the ratcheting sound of her engaging the emergency brake. I am not a nervous person by nature. Today, this was not the case. As our eyes met, I was absolutely frozen with excitement and fear. What if she didn’t like what she saw? What if I made a complete fool out of myself? I felt like a kid getting ready to give his first book report in front of the class. Truth is, I was just a kid. After all, I was just entering the first couple months of my 20’s. All I could do was smile. I could barely muster the word “hello”. To tell you the honest truth, I can’t even recall the first hour of our date. I know there was idle chit chat, food, and an adult beverage or two. Other than that, I was lost in my own thoughts. I was in complete and utter awe of this magnificent woman. I carefully studied every move she made. My brain tried to process and analyze every single word that effortlessly danced off of her lips. Occasionally, I would be able to form a coherent thought. Without stammering or stuttering, I would belt out a clever quip or two. I think it was just enough to fool her into thinking I was actually calm, cool, and collected. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Before I knew it, our little rendezvous had ended. A simple hug and a handshake, then she was gone. You see, neither one of us knew that this so-called ordinary blind date would, in fact, be the last first date either one of us would ever attend. Neither one of us had a clue just how different life would be from that moment on. Nearly a decade has passed since that serendipitous afternoon. I have no clue how I accomplished it, but I somehow, someway convinced this wonderful woman to love me, marry me, and eventually give birth to two beautiful children. I am definitely one lucky ones. Most people go through years and years of wandering around like lost patrons asking each and every potential host or hostess, “Do you validate?”. Me? I simply had to pull myself together enough to unlock the car door, smile, and hang on for the ride of my life.

The Kiddos

In my opinion, these are some of the most beautiful hands and feet in the the whole entire world. Have a look for yourself. HERE for facebook or HERE for Flickr.

Three Wolves A Plenty

What could be more powerful or more respected than the original Three Wolves T-Shirt? No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Behold! The Three Teen Wolf T-Shirt has been born! Since 1985, I have been trying to find a decent way to pay homage to one of the greatest movies ever made. That’s right, I am talking about the one and only, Teen Wolf. If you are a child of the 80’s, you know exactly what I am talking about. As a sweet, innocent, and purely angelic child, I spent many a day and night hoping, wishing, and praying to the Teen Wolf gods that I would sprout a full body of hair, grow some fangs, have the ability to make my eyes grow red, and ultimately be the best high school basketball player to ever grace the court. Every night, I would go to bed and dream that in the morning I would wake up to be Scott Howard reincarnated. Well, just like my dreams of going to Space Camp, these things never came to fruition. I mean, the only thing that even remotely came true was the fucking body hair. Seriously, I am pretty much the love child of Robin Williams and Chewbacca. It would have only been righteous to throw in some kick ass fangs and some glowing red eyes into the deal, right? I mean, all I wanted to do was buy some beer, surf on top of my best friend’s molester van, and eventually spurn the hottest cheerleader around to be with my soulmate, Boof. As far as I am concerned, these things were not too much to ask for as a 5 year old boy. At that time, most kids my age were begging their parents for a brand new Nintendo or a puppy. Me? I just wanted to rock a polyester suit and break dance. So today, I implore you to join me in the celebration of pure cinematic excellence. Get up, grab your sweatbands, throw on a tank top, slide on some horribly tight shorts and ask yourself, “What would Stiles do?”.