Monthly Archives: August 2011

Adventures on the road to Grandma’s house

Last Friday was just one of those days. You know the kind. You wake up all excited and happy and then everything slowly falls apart until you have the choice of either crying or laughing hysterically. Yep. One of THOSE days.

My mom, sis and I were planning on being on the road to visit my grandma by noon. Well, things just kept going wrong all morning. We needed to make some bread to leave with my dad and brother, but we didn’t have time, so we made scones instead. Except I added too much soy milk and they got super sticky. So mom added more flour which poofed all over the kitchen. And then somehow a bit of dough ended up on the floor and mom tracked the sticky stuff all over the kitchen before we noticed. This is what comes out of trying to bake in a hurry! It took about an hour to clean up.

Then my bro asked us to mail one of his etsy sales on our way out of town (he makes awesome hand turned wood items which you can check out here!). So we headed out to the post office -which had a LONG line of course. We finally get to the counter and the lady told us we couldn’t mail this particular box to France because it had “Priority”  printed on it. So we had to trek back to the house, repackage the whole thing, go back to the post office and finally mail the silly box. By this time it was 3:30 in the afternoon.

On the road!! Yes!! We drove from Fargo to Bismarck – about 3.5 hours and decided to stop for something to eat. 3 hamburgurs and choclate shakes later we happily get into the car, drive 2 blocks and hear this flapping noise from the front right. oh, NO. It can’t be. We just bought new tires last week (seriously!). We pulled off the road and sure enough:

Great! At this point we reached the laughing hysterically side of things. Empty out all our suitcases and pillows to get to the spare. Call Dad. Call AAA.  We actually stopped right beside the Bismarck Cemetery so my sis and I wandered around trying to find our great-grandparents graves (no luck) – and pointing out neat names. Gustuv, Ludwig, Odessa, Laverne, Otto, Jerome, Hildaguard. Actually quite entertaining.

The AAA guy came and put on our spare, and told us to check out Sears across the street since they were open for another 20 mintues (it was 7:35 on a Friday night – everything else in town was closed!). So we rushed over and got in at the very last minute before they locked up for the weekend. Whew. It wouldn’t have been fun to be stranded over the weekend!  I’m so thankful the flat came while we were in Bismarck, we could easily have been 100 miles in the middle of nowhere! Most of North Dakota looks like this:

Beautiful but not exactly where you want to have a flat tire. God seems to enjoy taking care of us!!

We finally arrived at my Grandma’s house at about 9:30pm, so nice to see her again! Visiting, drinking her so-pale-it-could-be-herbal-tea coffee, and listening to stories.

 And so our “Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” turned out just fine after all.  (Bonus points to anyone who loves that book!)

A few more pics from the road:

I snapped the next two out of the window at 80 mph – but I liked the blurred edges.

 All’s well that ends well.

Until later!

Kandel Photography | Fargo + Minneapolis Wedding Photographer | Facebook Page 

Fargo Wedding Photography

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Reflections

This week’s assignment in my fun photography club is: Reflections.

I just bought a pair of fun sunglasses for .40 cents (yes, a $40 pair of glasses on sale + $10 off cupon = .40 cents paid!) … and I noticed they were extremely reflective.

So I made my sis try them out while she was playing fetch with Elssa I snapped this photo.

ISO 200 F2.8 @ 1/500

I’m using my old camera for all my assignments now because Nikon has sold out of all their D700′s and I don’t want to break mine and not be able to replace it (it scares me just saying that!). There are rumors that Nikon will be announcing a new DSLR camera in the next 2 months, but until they do I’m going to be VERY careful and only use mine for work. I do have backups but my D700 is my favorite camera so it’s being babied right now. ; ) I hope the rumors are true that the next model will include HD video, that would be so fun!! Until then my assignment pics are taken with my 4 year old D80.

It’s been a quieter few weeks for me. Really nice to be caught up on all my editing and design work. To be able to enjoy summer and family! Tomorrow I visit my grandmother who has no internet – not sure how I’ll survive but hopefully I will.  And then life gets crazy again in September!! I’m enjoying time off but also looking forward to being busy with work. It’s such a strange business … one month you work 6 days a week 16 hour days, the next you had nothing to do. So weird. But it keeps life interesting!!

What are your weekend plans?

Kandel Photography | Fargo + Minneapolis Wedding Photographer | Facebook Page 

Fargo Wedding Photography

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Foodie confession

I grew up in a family that cooks food from scratch: healthy, real, unprocessed food. And I thought it was normal. Only recently have I begun to realize how un-normal that is! My sister and I will gladly eat a raw green pepper for a snack. And we all LOVE our garden produce. Right now we have buckets of green beans and tons of tomatoes coming out of the 10×10 foot green house. A good problem to have if you ask me. Nothing says summer like a fresh BLT sandwich or fresh tomato and basil spaghetti sauce. Or zucchini boats baked to golden perfection. MMMM.

I really do love good food!! So I thought I’d better ad it to the about me page on my website. : )

I’m not just a veggetable lover; I enjoy a good steak, a piece of rich dutch cheese, strong coffee, black licorice, dark chocolate with any kind of nuts … I guess you could say I have European taste buds. lol! Strong, rich flavor in small amounts. Although I do LOVE Asian food too. Hot and spicy, burn your mouth curry. Peanut sauces over grilled chicken, and aromatic Jasmin rice. Ok I just love good food. : )

I actually took the tomato photo for my club assignment last week. The assignment was (of course) Food!

ISO 200 F2.8 @ 1/1000 second

For those wanting the recipe it’s easy: Slice a tomato, stuff it with fresh basil leaves. Ad some cheese, a drip of olive oil, salt and pepper.

Easy! And oh so yummy!

So there you have it.  What are your favorite foods??

Kandel Photography| Fargo + Minneapolis Wedding Photographer | Facebook Page

Fargo Wedding Photography

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Editing and becoming a curator

Love this: ” You don’t make a great museum by putting all the art in the world into a single room. That’s a warehouse. What makes a museum great is the stuff that’s not on the walls. Someone says no. … There’s an editing process … it’s the stuff you leave out that matters. So constantly look for things to remove, simplify, and streamline. Be a curator.” – Jason Fried and David Hansson in the book Rework

I try to do that in my editing process as well. Not every photograph I take at a wedding is worth looking at (it’s painful to admit). Maybe I shot the ground by accident, or someone sneezed mid snap, or uncle bob leans into the frame, or maybe I just trip over my feet as I’m backing up and jiggle the camera. But there is definitely a culling process after the wedding is over, picking out the best images, the great shots, the most emotional, or funny. Trust me, you still get way too many photos, but the point is you get the best.

I aim to be the curator of your wedding photography.

I always did want to be a curator …

And now on to a few fun e-session photos because a post isn’t a post without a photo.

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photographer | Facebook Page

Fargo Wedding Photography

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Fargo Engagement Session |Alicia + Ross | Kandel Photography

Nothing I can say about these photos cuz I love them all! Alicia and Ross were so comfortable and let their true selves shine through… which makes my job magical. So I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. ; )

I think the next one is my favorite. But how can I choose!?!

 


Thanks guys for an amazing evening of romance and laughter!

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photography | Facebook Page

Fargo Wedding Photography

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Fargo Air Show 2011

This weekend if you were anywhere near Fargo you knew the Air Show was in town – because the Blue Angles were practicing with their Jets all over the skies leaving a trail of thunder behind them. It was a perfect, gorgeous weekend for a day out in the sunshine! The whole atmosphere was like a fair or carnival: people, the smell of hot dogs and cotton candy, music, loud speakers, Navy bands and of course -air planes!

We arrived just as the WWII planes were showing off. I’m a history lover, and WWII era is one of my favorite time periods to study so this was super cool for me!

The B-25 bomber was amazing:

They also had Spitfires. Every time I saw it zoom past I kept hearing the theme song from Foyle’s War in my head (in the series Foyle’s son flies a spitfire). I was amazed at how fast it could go considering it is about 70 years old! How would you like to look up and see hundreds of these flying overhead? A scary or hopeful sight depending on who you were I imagine.

One of the other things that amazed me was how distinct the sound of the WWII engine is. They would start up out of sight and I KNEW it was a WWII plane. Maybe I’ve watched too many old movies but they definitely have their own sound as well as look. A deep throbbing sound.

I love the shot below of the B-25 props – notice all the people in the reflection. : ) Can you spot me?

We even got to stick out heads up inside (although we couldn’t actually go in) … it felt like stepping back in time. The look, the color of the paint, the empty space full of stories and ghosts of past missions.

Turn the image black and white and all of a sudden you ARE back in time. Who sat in these seats?

Love this shot of the crowd: A guy holding his wife & child up to see better!

Tons of other planes to explore: Fat Albert

After the WWII planes then the stunt fliers swooped and spun. Flipping in ways that made you wonder “HOW do they do that?!” 

And then the highlight of the show: The BLUE ANGELS!!

Look at how close together they are? And at 300-500 MPH!

How do they not crash?


Every time they swooped down it was silent until they were right above you and then ROAR!!! The sound vibrated your chest.

Even the fire fighters on duty climbed up high to enjoyed the show.

And the grand finale:


Whew. What an exciting weekend! I sunburned my nose which is a sign of good old summer fun. : )

What did you do for fun this week??

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photographer | Facebook Page

Fargo Wedding Photography

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Fargo Engagement Shoot | Alicia and Ross | Teaser

Yesterday was probably the most perfect lighting I’ve had in a long time. The cloud cover was perfect for soft romantic light downtown, allowing me to go to walls that are normally too bright in harsh light. And then the clouds literally swept away just as we reached the park giving us golden rays in the grass. Photographers just live for moments like this!

Ad in a couple who are laughing, enjoying themselves and relaxed.

Oh. The. Perfection!!

I’m so excited to dive into the editing and find more gorgeousness to share!

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photographer | Facebook Page

Fargo Wedding Photography

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Early memories + Bow – tie pasta

I have a favorite pasta shape. Do you?

Maybe it’s a weird thing to even have a favorite, but it’s true. I love  bow-ties AKA: butterflies. Technically named Farfalle. Why you may ask? Well one of my earliest memories is when I was about 4 years old, sitting at the table eating bow-tie noodles in Germany. My only other German memory was my preschool teacher / daycare leader only had one hand – her other arm a stump, yet she amazed me that she could tie my shoes and I couldn’t do it with two hands!! Such talent. : )  Funny what we remember isn’t it. Farfalle and a one handed teacher. We only lived in Germany for about 8 weeks while my parents were training for work in Africa, so it’s pretty amazing that I remember anything from that short period of time!

Anyway, I think of those memories every time I have bow-tie pasta for lunch – like today.

Ok, enough sentimentality over noodles! Sheesh.

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photographer | Facebook Page

Fargo Wedding Photography

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Krysten & Heath’s Fargo Wedding + Credit Card Fraud

Oh my word, the last week has been insane for me. It started out when I got my credit card bill and noticed three items that were not mine. Yikes. Call the company and go through the whole “If you want to hear your balance please press 3, if you want to update your address press 72, if you would like more options press 39840940″ etc. Finally talked to someone who transferred me to their fraud department where I had to go through every purchase one by one with the representative. Turns out in the week it took me to get my statement this thief had gone pretty wild with my card. Bought tons of stuff like netflix, apple itunes, cosmetics etc. They tried to get $2K worth of equipment off of newegg but thankfully that one was denied. The funniest thing was they signed up for eharmony.com!!! Irony for two reasons: #1 I’ve said I’d never do online dating because you never know who you are dealing with … which brings me to #2: did they put “thief” under occupation?!!?! lol! Wow. I hope nobody dates them, that’s just sad.

Neeless to say, I spent a lot of time trying to sort out the mess. Thankfully my Credit Card company is taking care of most of it, and I’m not liable or responsible for any of the fraudulent charges. But I still got pretty frazzled by the whole ordeal. I’ve been double checking my other accounts and debit cards etc to make sure none of the others are compromised. Reported to the Credit Bureau and put a flag on my SS, just so it doesn’t go from credit card fraud to identity theft – which is totally freaky! And did a bunch of praying for identity protection. Yikes. It’s amazing how vulnerable you feel after something like this. There’s no way to trace how they got my card (I’m super careful where I use it), and what other info they have. My bank did reasure me that the kind of purchases they were making were all online which means they probably only have the card number, since they are not doing any in-person purchases. Whew!

Ok, enough of all that drama. Let’s look at pretty pictures to calm those ruffled nerves!

Krysten and Heath’s wedding!!



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Vendors

Dress: Allen Evans

Flowers: Hornbachers

Venue and Catering: Radisson 

Fargo Wedding Photography by: Kandel Photography - Me ; )

Kandel Photography | Fargo Wedding Photographer | Facebook Page

Fargo Wedding Photography

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