Why we didn't go....

So last weekend we head for the boat with thoughts of coasting down the shore to South Haven dancing in our heads. Ha ha! Thursday night we left our house and set off to Grand Haven. We had reservations for a slip in South Haven, which is the 2nd time my husband has made reservations. Checking the weather before we left, there was a chance, a rather big chance, that we might not be able to make the trip due to the weather. First thing Friday morning, my husband and I went and got coffee then made our way down to the beach to see how the lake was looking. The website I checked for wave heights said 6 to 8 footers, but I didn't really expect to see them:


The beach was empty, except for the seagulls, who didn't seem to mind us being there;




It was so windy that when the seagulls would try to run away from the water, they would get all fluffy, which they didn't seem to like, so they would run then turn around very quickly! They were also hoovering in the wind, a few of them right next to us as we were walking toward the shore. Even though our trip was out of the question we had quite an experience on this morning and we had an awesome day just checking out things in Grand Haven and Muskegon and Whitehall. All of which I will talk about later!

Signs, Signs, every where

So I was looking at another blog, and she seems to have a photography group, probably much like the one that I am involved in, in the winter time. Anyway the group has a theme each month or week of things that you go out and find. It just reminded me of some restaurants and signs we found when we went on our Ludington trip. These I found in Pentwater, it was an adorable little town, I would like to visit it again....maybe stop at the "Bitchen Kitchen"

Stop in and have a drink at the Antler Bar with the antler door handle,



This sign I just liked because it had an aged feel to it.

This was a cute little shop:

And they had a great Latte`!!

Of course if we went back we would hope to see this again, and maybe find out if it is advertising for something?


This place is in Grand Haven, we happened to find it the week my son and I stayed at the boat.


The rest of my sign photos are on my back up which is still at the boat so enjoy these ones for now!!

Finally

So, I had to wait until the bride and groom seen their pictures before I could share them with the world wide web. Well that's my rule anyway. Personally I don't think it is fair for everyone else to see photos before the client themselves see them! Anyway......it did end up raining until about 3:00 p.m. which was what time the wedding was supposed to start at the park, where the bride and her maids would walk down a stone stairway onto the white runner and strut on down the isle. The rain pretty much put a damper on that! The wedding was moved to 4:00 p.m. and held at the hall that was reserved for the reception. Things were chaotic of course, well not until the girls started arriving, before that, it was actually pretty quite except for the thunder and lightning. When I left my house that afternoon the temperature gadget in my car said it was 69 degrees, by the time I left the hall that day, it had risen to a very muggy 85ish degrees. Personally I was glad that the wedding was moved into the hall with the air conditioning. Back to the hall being quiet, I arrived about two hours early to take photos of the grooms men and the groom. There was about an hour while I waited for the brides maids to arrive and luckily it worked out that I was able to get quite a few shots before the ceremony started, which is always nice!
These guys were cracking me up, especially the best man, he was full of it. It was nice to see them having a good time though, as they complained about the shoes and the no drinking rule. Even though they ignored it.

The girls like the groom as much as the guys, so they had to pick him up too:

Don't worry, they liked the bride too:

These two, were cracking everyone up, not just me!

In all seriousness, the real reason I do this
,
it's my job to capture her, and her party on the most special day of her life (until she has kids). This is the one day that a woman really gets to be a princess, and I love being the one who gets to freeze these special moments in time.

Oh yes, and being the ol' sap I am, why would I want to miss things like this:







Right now if you can't feel the love between these two, then I am doing something wrong!! This is why I like being caught up in the craziness of weddings!

The wedding

No shots yet of the wedding, because the shooting will not begin until around 2 p.m. today! While I am setting here waiting for my coffee to get ready, I was thinking about what makes me want to be involved in the craziness of weddings. People running around yelling and crying and no one is making things easy and I am just there to capture this moment that will be the most special day to one boy and one girl. Imagine your at a wedding, "here comes the bride" starts to play, everyone stands and turns, and there she is, in her big beautiful white gown. That's why I do it. This particular wedding is going to be in a park, and the girls are going to come down this beautiful old stone stairs, and the whole time they are working out the arrangements for the rehearsal, all I can think about is: how beautiful is it going to look when she comes down these stairs, and what a great shot it is going to make!
Once the ceremony is over, I do enjoy taking the shots of the bride and groom, all dressed up and in love.

This is from a previous wedding, this was in my studio before the ceremony, but these ended up being some of my favorite shots.
This is the mother and daughter/flower girl and i caught this tender moment at the reception.


And of course the love
Unfortunatly I won't be able to share this wedding until the bride and groom have seen them, but I will show them in various places!
Now I should start getting ready!

Ludington

Last time I was here, I described our trip to Ludington. Here is some of the stuff we seen while we were away.

This is the Ludington lighthouse that I made look like an old photograph.
Here is a HDR version:

Ofcourse we seen way more than this light house, but something that was really cool about this light house was we actually got to go into it

We walked all the way out the break wall and there was a sign that said adults $3 and Children $1. This is the first one we have gotten to go into. Of course it's only the second light house that we have walked too.
So here is the light house up close:

When you walk through the door, there isn't much to look at. The "volunteers" have set up a table and spot for little souvenirs, they take your money which goes toward the up keep of the light house and what not, and they tell you some stories about it, and about how you yourself can be a "volunteer" and you can stay in the lighthouse for a weekend. I couldn't imagine staying in it, but I am sure it would be an experience! There really isn't much inside to see, and as you go up the space shrinks!

Here is a couple of shots that show the view from the top floor. There was four people and a dog up there, and I squeezed up there for a minute and that really took away from the elbow room! I say a second because I am terrified of heights, but I am trying to over come it, at least for photo ops!


This is what it looks like looking up! If you look closely you can see my famous dog! She is in the bag and famous because she got to go all the way up into the lighthouse. We took her out on the walk with us so she could get out for a bit and get some exercise, but when we were on the break wall there wasn't enough room to let her walk on the leash so we put her in my bag, she never complained!

This would be the third floor. This is the floor where the bell or whistle is blown. The signs there talk about how loud it is. There wasn't much inside to photograph, but this gives you a slight idea. Here is looking out the window of the third floor.
Here is the second floor, not much going on here:

The boat trip

Last Thursday, would have been the 23rd of July, we packed our boat full and waited for the morning to arrive. Rather early, we unhooked all the lines and shoved off for our very first boat trip away from our marina. We were heading for Ludington, 56 miles north of Grand Haven on a very smooth and calm Lake Michigan! This is Sarah and Harlins boat on the way to Ludington. Gives you an idea of how calm the water was.

That is the sand dunes behind them. Silver Lake Sand Dunes to be exact.
This is their boat again, and we are actually leaving Ludington and that's the light house we got to go up into, but more on that later.

While we were gone, I took over 400 photos and that's just with my big camera. For now all I have is boat photos, from the ride there and the ride back. We started to head home on Sunday, but we were facing five footers that we heard turned into eight footers (waves) so we turned into port at Pentwater. We had a lot of fun there, even though I complained a bit about the lack of luxury! It wasn't so bad and we had tons of fun in the one night we were there. The town was adorable and had tons of shopping. We left out of Pentwater at 7:30 because we wanted to beat the waves that were going to build, and the waterway would be shut down at 1:00 in Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Fest that would start last weekend!
So here is Rick and Kim on the way home! It was a very nice ride home, we were so glad we waited until Monday.


Here is Tu Dogs, Herb and Kathy, also on the way home. This was such a nice trip we can't wait to do it again. There is plenty more to talk about, as I said earlier, I took over 400 photos on this trip! More Later!

The birthday.

So Saturday, we had a pretty good day. Chuck and I went over and looked at a couple boats, we are thinking of moving up. Then when we came back and everyone was down at Herb's boat chatting so I said if you are all ready for cake, let's have cake! They were, of course, who doesn't love cake? It turned out to be the best cake I have ever bought from Wal-Mart! It was really delicious!

And it was super cute! I didn't make any plans, but we had a good turn out. These are the ones who stood still for the shot, except they all looked down? There was more people on the other side, but they dispersed when I turned around to take a photo!

Of course I didn't have 31 candles, so we just made them worth 10 + 1, which was actually aunt Sarah's idea!


Bob and Leeann got Chuck a pretty cool card, and gave him some of Bobs beer!

After all this, we ate dinner that Chuck made at home and brought with him. We were so full with cake and stuffed noodles! Aunt Sarah made a comment about walking the pier. I am still not sure how we managed to get the guys going but we did! It was the first time I had ever walked out there! I have rode by it on the boat, but never walked it. It looks really far, but it's really not so bad!

Even though it was kind of crowded, it was really peaceful.


At the end of the pier, the waves crash up against the wall and it's pretty awesome!

They are pretty strong and can drag you right in. It's pretty rough at the mouth of the river and the lake, not a place I would like to fall in! That is my son Jaden, he kept saying he was going to get wet, but he kept moving back! Saturday turned out to be a wonderful day!