Spring!

After this week's snow it was so nice to feel spring again! I actually had time this weekend to do one of my favorite things, lay in the sun in the grass! We went to the Morton Arboretum and just layed around looking at the sky and thinking about life...and I was fortunate enough this time to have my husband there to daydream with me. Rarely do we both have time to do nothing together so it was a fun day.

I just wanted to post this to encourage everyone to get out and enjoy the fresh air, I guess this is even more on my mind as I think about earth day!


This is my husband Brian, isn't he too cute!!!

Hope you got to enjoy this weather!
Kristina

Earth Day is coming!

Earth Day is one week away and two things that are very near and dear to my heart, yoga and the environment, are teaming up to provide some great opportunities for the Geneva and St. Charles community and beyond. Prana Yoga Center is where I practice and they are having many scheduled events on earth day from 10 am-5:30 pm including many sponsors talking about how to make your life more green as well as your practice if you are interested in yoga. They are also offering a free yoga class so if you have ever been interested in yoga, this is a great opportunity to try it out and learn a little about how to improve your quality of life through green living and yoga.

I have also had the privilege of shooting many of the instructors who are all amazing people! Head over there to meet them, you won't be disappointed!



I wish I could do this!!!





Hope to see you there!
Kristina

Brides Against Breast Cancer Event

If you are looking for a dress or don't know what to do with your dress once the big day has come and gone consider this...

The "Brides Against Breast Cancer" organization is the number one fund-raising event across the nation. The event in Chicago will enable brides-to-be to find the gown of their dreams (at an incredible savings) while making wishes and dreams come true for women diagnosed with terminal breast cancer.

Donate your dress to the MAKING MEMORIES BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION

They are having a huge sale sponsored by ChicagoStyle Weddings Magazine. The event will take place Friday and Saturday, April 27th and 28th at the Wyndham Chicago Hotel, 633 North St. Clair, Chicago, IL 60611. Doors will open Friday from 10am to 8pm and on Saturday from 10am to 6pm. I believe you can bring the dress to the event to donate or for additional info contact
fran@makingmemories.org or call 503 829 4486.

Additional donations can be made to: MAKING MEMORIES BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION 12708 SE Stephens St. Portland, OR 97233

Something to think about :)

Best,
Kristina

Emily and Mike

Emily and Mike got married just outside Indianapolis, IN and I was so privileged that they were excited enough about me to bring me with them! They selected a beautiful venue which provided me with very unusual but amazing access to the couple from a different viewpoint. I was able to stay behind the altar and get the faces and expressions of the bride and parents which I often do not get to see because of the limited access in most ceremony locations. This was very fun for me and I was able to capture some wonderful emotions that help tell the story of this amazing couple. This led right into the reception which was a really fun party with lots of crazy dancers! I love a good party! :)

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures so far...

The guys had a heck of a time with those little kerchiefs...it was fun to watch ;)

A real view of the dresses...

The beautiful Emily...

This is what happens when you make the bride wait for the groom....almost unbearable :)

When you only weigh 90 lbs, you get tossed around a bit.

The ceremony

Mike's brother was my main competition :)

Congratulations Emily and Mike!!

Best,
Kristina

What I did in Vegas...

I am finally home and getting settled after a long week in Vegas. I had an incredible week getting to meet new people and reaquaint with some friends I don't get to see often. There are too many people to name them all but some of the highlights were getting to network with all the people I met in Texas at the Foundation Workshop and being invited back to participate next year, which was very exciting, as well as meeting the rest of the LaCour photo team. I was fortunate enough to spend some one-on-one time with them and discuss my business and it was definitly one of the biggest highlights of the trip for me and I am looking forward to learning more from them in July. I also got to see many of the people that I met at the Anti-workshop in Texas on the last night of the conference and that was a really fun way to end a long week. I was equally thrilled to see my friend Paul Gero who was one of the first people to help me through this wedding photography journey. Last but not least, I met Jay Premack who was truly a blessing to meet and get to know and I look forward to our continued friendship. I purposely left my camera in the room for this part of the trip so I could really learn and particpate in converstations instead of trying to document them so unfortuantley I have no pictures of this part of the trip BUT I do have pictures of the next part...

On thursday evening, several of the best friends a person could ask for flew from Chicago to Las Vegas to climb with me on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We have a little group we affectionatly refer to as LCO+1 which stands for Lead Climb Only +1 and it helps us to push ourselves and each other to conquer our fears and challenge ourselves by climbing on lead instead of top rope. We had an amazing time pushing the limits of our fears climbing the cliffs of the Red Rocks Recreation Area. I realized how truly addicted to climbing I am, I just can't get enough of the rush that you get from pushing yourself in this way...but I am always safe, can't miss a wedding! :)

I ran ahead to take this picture thinking really it is pretty safe sport but ironically enough while we were there, there was a climbing accident, one of the climbers fell from 50 ft and had to by airlifted out of the canyon...

The approach to the cliffs was almost as fun because there was a lot of scrambling over boulders to try and get where you needed to be for the real climbing. I had to put my camera away for most of it but this was in the beginning where it wasn't as intense and I was able to get around with two limbs instead of four :)

This is Bonnie (the +1 of our group) and she was definitly the strongest climber in the bunch. Here she is onsighting (which means she got to the top on her first try on lead) a 5.10a as her warm-up at the Magic Bus.

This is one time I could keep up with Bonnie and sent this on my first try right after Bonnie, it was a fun climb and a great warm-up for the rest of the day. Also, the picture on the left is me proving I wasn't afraid of heights after discovering that several of the people in my group were afraid of heights and were a little uncomfortable hanging out on the edge of boulders that were a couple hundred feet off the ground. I was shocked by this, after all we are climbers so I was having fun testing them and jumping around within a foot of the edge, it was making them crazy, and it was tons of fun ;)

This next set of pictures are of the whole group all climbing the same route at the Panty Wall (I have no idea why this cliff is named that). I climbed up the route next to it with a backpack with all my gear and anchored myself to the wall so I could get this perspective on the climbs and the climbers.









This is the veiw from the gallery where we climbed on the last day. It was an amazing place!

This is Bonnie rappelling down from a 5.11a she tried as the last climb of the trip. We were beat!

I was excited to eat at the famous In-and-Out burger after climbing, eating greasy food after climbing is so satisfying and this place did not disappoint! :)

Then on the last night, we decided to hit the strip. We had to leave our hotel room at 3:45 am so Mike and I decided it would just be easier to stay up then try and sleep so hung out at the Paris casino and watched the live bands and walked around.


Finally it is off to the airport and good-bye to Vegas, apparently though, Mike didn't get enough of the poker because he spent his last minutes up until we boarded on the video poker, it was a fun trip and I will never forget it!



Thank you guys for coming out to Vegas and climbing with me! Until next time...

LCO+1 for life ;)