Project: Gratitude | January

After finishing the Project Life 365 album from last year (see it here), I knew I wanted to do another photo project this year. I did not want to do another 365 project. Did it once, and that was enough. While it was very rewarding, it was also very challenging. Through Project Life 365, we were given prompts everyday. While that was helpful on some days, most days it felt fake. I like to see things around me and appreciate what is in the here and now. I found with the prompts I often planned out what I would take photos of for the week rather than appreciating what was around me and focusing on what was actually happening that day. I am definitely more of a documentary photographer, so for me, this was just painful. Still, I will look back at the project with a lot of pride and am so happy I persevered even when I did not want to get my camera out the day after shooting a ten hour wedding.

Anyway, back to this year. I was not actively looking for a new project, but happened to stumble across Project: Gratitude. I knew it was what I wanted to do. The simple act of being aware of what's around you and appreciating it. Even when times get rough. Not only that, but without a daily obligation to take photos. There's no schedule. As often or as little as you would like. I hope to post about it occasionally throughout the month with bits of inspiration, but always have a post to wrap up the month.

So. Here's my month of January. It was a bit of a rough start and I actually purposefully did not bring my camera along for parts because I really wanted to be in the thick of it rather than feeling the urge to document. On the top of each image, I'll let you know what I was thinking as I took the image.

In January, I was grateful for....

the opportunity to say goodbye. 

While I don't live in the same town as my family, I am thankful that it only takes a few hours to get there. It's not the shortest drive, but do-able in a day. This time, it allowed me to get into town to be with my grandma before she passed.  Had I been farther away, I may not have had the opportunity to get there and see her one last time. I am pretty lucky. 

family. 

My dad's side is rather large and we are rarely all together. This was the most of us that have been together for a long time, if not ever, and it was just awesome to be around everyone and realizing what a great family I have.  On the left is a group of my first cousins in my parent's kitchen sharing stories and really getting to know one another. Many of us don't live in the same city much less the same state so it really was a game of twenty questions. So much fun-a night I will never forget. On the right is my dad and his siblings. Can you pick out my which one might be my dad? (iPhone images) 

 warm sunny mornings. 

With a little extra warmth for Lena. I must admit, I'm a little jealous. Ok, really jealous. 

 proud Packer fans in Minnesota. 

And yes, I did convert my husband to a Packer fan-something I am pretty proud of!

 community.

We live in a great city where even when it is cold out, people are out and about. This even was a kite festival on Lake Harriet in south Minneapolis. There was no wind and the temperatures were nice, considering it's winter in Minnesota, but the Lake was filled with people! So many people were out with their families, pets, and friends even though there really wasn't any kite flying happening.

 warmth.

January has been an abnormally cold month. There have been many days where it has not been above zero and I mean a high of -5. Yikes. Glad I have a warm home, hot coffee, and a snuggly dog for this Saturday morning.

 this guy.

While our home is feeling like a never ending project and money pit, I am so thankful this guy can do the remodeling and repairs. Yes, it sucks that most of our weekends are filled with house projects and we usually have sawdust or drywall dust on the floors, but we save a ton of money and are learning a lot. Like to never buy a house that needs this much work again!

 new friends. 

Especially when she's so stinkin' cute! She did a good job of wearing him out which has been a challenge since our walks have been cut so short due to the cold.  

 beef stew and mashed potatoes. 

For this cold January, it's hardiness really hit the spot. 

 neighbors.

Thankful I had the chance to help out a neighbor while she was out of town visiting family. Last fall, her husband passed away and over the past few months, we have become closer with her. I am so glad she has reached out to us and we know we can rely on her for help as well. It's nice to know you have a true friend right next door. 

Lessons of the New Year

I don’t usually do posts that are mainly writing, but the start of this year has been different than any other. Introspective and quite frankly, hard. It has brought to mind lots of thoughts about why I so love taking photos so much and will lead to changes within Freckled Hilltop Photography. I wanted to share…

Wow. 2014 already. Every New Year I feel like I am always amazed at how time has flown by. Time seems to do that more and more as I get older. When people talk about the past for example, “Oh, in 2005 that one event happened” and I am thinking it was a couple years ago. Oh, wait. That’s practically a decade ago. Yikes. 

Lesson number one of the New Year: time is not slowing down.

On New Years Day we laid pretty low. I had worked at a wedding on New Years Eve and then we went to our neighbor’s for a very late dinner and stayed until about two in the morning.  Not too rough of a night, but still in recovery mode. Then I saw I had a voicemail form my mom. My grandma wasn’t doing well and I should give them a call. Crap. Well Grandma had pneumonia and many other health issues but had always bounced back. I called them back and it was determined she wouldn’t make it through the weekend. Enter immediate breakdown. My grandma was a very special person to me. They lived a couple miles away and would often babysit me when I was a child. My grandpa was always the stern, rough one but she was always so sweet and gentle. After my grandpa died in 1996, I would go and see grandma at least once a week to keep her company. I thought I was helping her by stopping over for a visit but in retrospect, it is obvious I was the one who benefited more than she did.  She was a very religious person and pretty strict but I felt like I could talk to her about anything. I felt she was so full of wisdom and her life had been so much different than mine. She always provided me with hope and offered a different way to look at things that was much more optimistic than the view of my teenage self. When I went to college she would still write me letters every now and then. Nothing too important, just updates about the weather and what she had been up to that day, but it made me feel connected to her even being so far away at school.  When I would come back to my hometown, I would try my best to stop in and visit her. I know that if it were me, she would have given the time to stop in and I felt it was the least I could do.  After the phone call, I headed back to see her the next day. I spent a bunch of time with her over a couple of days. She passed away on the following Monday-of course she made it through the weekend like they said she wouldn’t. Always a fighter. Now I have my great memories of her and the letters she wrote. And pictures. So many pictures of her and my grandpa and their kids. Below is one of my favorites of grandma Joan baking cookies with her 10 of 11 kids. Cookie baking was always a big deal around Christmas and one of the tradition I remember most. 

Lesson number two of the New Year: you can’t put a price on a personal photograph.

A quote I saw New Years Eve: “I can’t wait to pass down this 2048px x 1536px image file to my grandkids.” –No One

This really got me thinking. I cherish the images I have of my family and grandparents. I am moved to see my grandpa when he was a sailor in the Navy or my proud grandma with her 11 kids or my mom and dad when they were dating. They are my history. As a photographer, I would love to provide those memories for others’ grandkids and family members. 

Lesson number three of the New Year: print digital images.

Yes, it has only been 14 days. A lot has been realized. So what does this mean for Freckled Hilltop? Details haven’t been hashed out, but I am sure printed photos will be a must for each client this next year. Your grandkids will thank me. 

Upper Peninsula Camping Trip

Earlier this summer we went camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a week. It was a great place to truly disconnect from the world, partly because you have no choice since there is no service in the middle of the forest! We have had a rather crazy summer so a week with no distraction and solitude was needed. I would highly suggest it, but make sure to bring a heavy sweatshirt and pants!  

 There were a million little waterfalls up in the Munising area tucked back into the woods. Not something I expected from this area, but fun exploring. You had no idea what was around the next corner. I think on this trail we saw three different falls. 

 Another waterfall just outside the city of Munising. Much larger than the others we had seen that morning. 

 In the late afternoon we went to a part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Since we had our dog Boomer with us, we were pretty limited which trails we could go on because it was part of the National Park system. We were able to take a little trail to see this, which is Cathedral Rock.

 When we got back to our campsite we decided to walk around a bit and check it out. When we got in the night before it was all wet from rain earlier in the day. We came across a couple of small hidden lakes that all connected to one another. Would have been awesome to have a kayak and navigate through all of that!

 Up the next morning with eggs and coffee for breakfast before packing up. I got some hot chocolate for the ride and immediately after taking this photo spilled the whole cup on myself. It was hot. Very hot. We had to pull over to the side of the road since I was soaked in hot chocolate. Luckily my suitcase was just in the backseat so I could change out of those icky clothes...on the side of the road.

 Before we headed to Twelve Mile Beach, part of the National Lakeshore, we had to see one more waterfall.

 Apparently the night before at our new site in Tequamenon Falls, they had a really bad storm and the campground was quite flooded. It looked pretty good to us when we got there though! Right on the river and really quiet. We started a fire, a challenge with wet wood, and had to experiment with some star trails! 

 Then we woke up and saw this as we walked out of our tent. Whoa. Not bad.

 During the day we went for a long hike at Tequamenon Falls. We started at the lower falls and headed up to the upper falls area. 

 Boomer wouldn't walk down the steps because they were metal grates. None of the other dogs there would walk down them either so our dog isn't just a wuss. Matt carried him all the way down and back up again. True love!

 On the way back we looked behind us at one point and saw this. Amazing. This is a river in between two large waterfalls! Sadly, this picture doesn't really do it justice either....

 A stunner. The sunset from our campsite after our long day of hiking. There are not crazy editing tricks used here. It really was that incredible.

 Lastly we headed to Mackinaw City and then over to Mackinac Island. No cars are allowed on the island, so it feels like you are traveling back in time with the horse drawn wagons and bikes. It's such a quaint and surreal little place. And a trip to the island wouldn't be complete without some Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream!

 Our hotel in Mackinaw City was just a few blocks from the bridge. On our last night there, we took Boomer for an evening stroll before bed. Great way to end the trip.

Vanderpool Cottage

There is a cottage in my husband's family that has been in their family for years. His cousins and aunts and uncles have lots of fond memories there since in the summer, they would all spend most of their time there. When all of the aunts and uncles were older and moved to other states, they still would make it back for at least a week out of the year with their kids to stay at the cottage. My understanding is that it was built to be a club house for a golf course, but after they had finished building it, they decided they wanted it in a different place and built another one. My husband's great grandma purchased the lake home when there were few, if any, other homes on the lake. It is a beautiful place with a prime location. This year we all got together to celebrate their grandma's 95th birthday. Check out all of the great grandkids she has! Pretty amazing...

As you can see, there is always lots of adventure at the cottage: skiing, sailing, and fort building but the addition this year was a zipline. Also at the end of the week, the whole family piled onto my father-in-law's boat and we went swimming in the middle of Lake St. Clair. Jumping off the top of the boat is the best way to get in, but it's about a fifteen foot drop. And from that high up on a rocking boat, it takes a little courage!

Overall, wonderful company, delicious food, sunny weather....great week!

Minneapolis Photographer | Saturday Morning Rockets

On a rainy Saturday morning in March a bunch of engineers and their kiddos got together to launch rockets. What better place than the middle of the Lake Reshanau? Winter is long in Minnesota and we like to find new and sometimes adventurous activities. John, Matt's co-worker, and his son have gotten into model rockets and we were excited to join in on the fun. After you launch the rocket, it flies hundreds of feet into the air. Then the parachute opens and you have to search for it. The tricky part is seeing it as it opens and then keeping an eye on it as it falls to the ground. After the first launch, we learned our lesson that binoculars made it much easier to search out the parachute and find it after landing. Boomer came along and he was having a blast running around the lake and through the cattails. Then the rockets started going off. Not such a fan. Even though it was wet and soggy, we survived and only managed to loose one parachute. Overall, success!