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One of my favorite things about being in a relationship is the different ways communication happens. There is the obvious - words - and there are the looks and touches. One of my favorite means of communications is through notes. You remember notes don't you?! I'm sure everyone passed notes in school at one point or another. Melissa and I have always written notes to each other and still do. I love them even more now that we're married - there's something very romantic about it. It is something that isn't hard to do but it takes a minute of your time to stop and write; sending a message to another person. It shows that you were thinking of them. Its even more special now in this day and age with text messages and the 200 social networking websites! The reason I thought to write this was because Melissa left me a note just the other day.

Below are two pictures of notes we've recently written for each other. You'll notice that mine is the one with the really small handwriting.

Ok, so there's something I wanted to share with everyone. Some may know about this and some might not.

When our girls were born (05/16/07) I was inspired by the entire experience. Having children is one of the best things that can ever happen to someone. I wanted to take the girls pictures, everyday! You can see all over the place the people who do self portraits for a year or will take one picture every year for 20 years of someone or themselves. There are many variations but you know what I mean.

My idea was kind of similar but a bit more evolved. I wanted to photograph the girls everyday for much longer than a year. For 18 years. ...So you're probably like, "Yeah, whatever", right? Well here's the best part. Its a family project. And my goal isn't to take a picture of their faces in the same way each day like what you'd expect. I wanted to capture each of them in the day. So whether they are playing together and happy or crying in the corner, the picture has to represent them in that day. So how is this possible to do? Remember I said it was a family project? It doesn't matter who takes the picture as long as its taken from someone in our family. I'm expecting to get the girls each a digital camera by their 3rd birthday so they can start taking pictures of themselves.

It's been almost two years. As of yesterdays pictures, we made it to 665 days. Seems like a lot but when I think about Ava & Bella being alive for that long it seems so short. I remember right after the girls were born I told my family about what I was going to be doing. They kept saying, "thats what all fathers say when their kids are first born". It's gonna happen and Melissa and I are committed! Its actually become a habit for me to take their pictures everyday. Definitely a good habit though.

So I guess I'll invite you all to the show we're gonna have in 16 years! I want to line up all of the images, printed small, side by side going all the way around a room(large room!). When/If we have more children, we'll be adding to the pictures up til the 18th year so you'll see another line of pictures added each time a child, or children if we have twins again, is born.

Below is an image that was taken a couple days ago. Ava is the goof in the bag and Bella is the mastermind in the back trying to get into the drawers.

This past Saturday was SOOOO NICE so we had to go outside to play. Below is a little video of some of the images that were taken that day. The girls, as you'll see, are getting so big and kinda crazy! I love when Melissa and I get to play outside with them! Its great exercise to, lol.

Melissa & I went up to stay at her parents house this weekend. We had to meet with a couple up there who ended up being really nice!! We were up near Harrisburg; about a half an hour north in this little town. There is usually this sign going into town carved out of a log that says "Git-R-Done" and I was hoping we could get a picture but someone knocked it down, lol. It'll be up again, it always ends up being put back by someone.

Have you ever had your camera with you and saw something that was pretty awesome and totally didn't even think about taking a picture until after it happens? We were driving on some highway and we were looking to the right in a big open field filled with like 75 birds. Geese I'm guessing. So while looking we saw a dog run towards them from a set of bushes about 50 yards away. Not one bird moved at all and this dog just ran over to them and snatched one in its mouth! Still, no other bird moved while the dog took a few big chomps on the bird an walked away! It was so rediculous!

Coming home today from up there we passed by this 80's pick up truck with a HUGE black bear in the back of it. It was just looking off the side! We assumed it was fake/stuffed/whatever but WHAT? Melissa and I turned to each other and I said, "Where are we?!" Another wish we had our camera ready moment. Good times though!

This picture, taken by Melissa, was going up the mountain Saturday morning...

There was this video I saw from a photographer talking about his work and his life. It's one of those things you experience and it gets you to really think about things. So I thought about how I actually got into this craziness(photography). So here you go...

I really only picked up a camera when I was a junior in high school. I wish it were earlier but the timing was perfect. My high school art teacher, Garrett, spent time with me during our summer art program. And yes, I was one of those kids who, over the summer, spent a few weeks making art! Garrett told us that he was going to give a lesson in photography so bring your camera. So I managed to get ahold of a Pentax K1000 which is still to this day one of my favorite cameras. Once I learned how to use the meter I was off. I was fortunate enough to have a connection for free film and developing. Garrett suggested that I shoot slide film in the beginning because there is little margin for error when metering with slide film. Needless to say he was right. Once I got that down, I moved to color film. During my senior year, once I got a roll developed, I'd simply put it on his desk and leave it there. I'd come back later in the day or the next day. He would put little post-its on the pictures that "worked". We would occasionally talk about certain images afterwards but that is how I learned composition. Its an unorthodox way of learning but thats Garrett. But if you look at his success and accomplishments in his life you realize that unorthodox is the way to go. Also, there was no photography program at the school at that time so we had to do all of this "off the books" (even though that term doesn't really apply, I like it). Once I had gone to college for photography and had become fairly successful, as it would pertain to someone at my level. I had a bunch of shows and had an article written up in a local paper about my work. I also hooked up with The Gabriel Project, through the founder Mark Melamed, non-profit organization is to provide life-saving heart surgery to a children from an area where such surgery is not available. (thegabrielproject.com) I had donated much of my work to them to help raise money.

I was fortunate to see just a couple years later a photography program implemented into our my high school. In no way was it because of me but Garrett and I created this rush of photographers from my time there and my returns in the following summer art programs to help the students in their photography.

Before getting into photography I was lost. I had no ambition to do anything nor was I really interested in anything. There was a void in my life and it the photography that I was waiting to find and it was Garrett who was there to show me. Without getting too mushy or sentimental, I do owe this all to him and to this day, 8 years later, I still keep in touch with him. In fact, I'll be visiting him and his daughter on Sunday because I'll be shooting her wedding!

Tadaaa. The end

P.S. This posts picture is a new technique started using for multiple exposures. I was obsessed with this when I first started shooting and this allows me to take it a step further.

Michael

Last week I had the opportunity to shoot with Melissa alone. Its really hard to get time like that because of the girls but we had a babysitter! Melissa and I always try to take pictures of each other to help us come up with new ideas and techniques(pre & post production). These pictures are a few of what we came up with.


Michael

It's 1:46 AM and I just finished redesigning our website. It took about 2 hrs of planning and over 5 hrs of creating but its done! Melissa and I are very excited. I felt that the old design didn't represent us in the right way. I'm a clean freak and that applies to everything I do so it's more obvious in the new site. I added a new photo to the main page. Its from a wedding almost 3 years ago but its one of my favorites. I posted it below.

Let us know what you think of the new site!!

Michael