The Missing Link(e)s

Hudson's 1st Birthday!

2010-06-28T08:33:00.005-04:00

Oh my goodness we have abandoned our blog! For our friends and family that are not facebookers we have left you for too long! Well we are back with a BIRTHDAY PARTY! Hudson had a great 1st Birthday this past weekend and we hope you enjoy the SLIDESHOW!

The Belly Session with Sam, David and Dale

2010-01-17T11:29:00.002-05:00

We had so much fun with Sam and David over the holidays! We took a moment to capture this awesome time in their lives as they await baby Dale! Sam and David were perfect subjects as they relaxed and had a good time in front of the camera! Thanks for letting us play and we are SOOOOOO excited to meet Dale!

Holiday Fun at Harbour Point...

2009-12-11T09:14:00.008-05:00

We had a fun trip over to my parent neighborhood last weekend for the Habour Point Christmas party (for kids). They brought a little Polar Express for the kids (and dad) to ride on and their were lot's of yummy treats...

It's that time of year!

2009-12-11T08:38:00.006-05:00

Well, we are having our big family Christmas at Linkeland South this year. So even though there is no snow, we thought we would get in to the spirit of things by going out to a tree farm and cutting down our very own Christmas tree. This particular location had a really great charity. They were raising money for an organization called "Three Dimensional Life." They work with adolescents that need help recovering from addiction and other destructive behaviors. So below are some pics from the tree adventure. You'll notice Hayden is super helpful throughout the process. lol

Grandpa making sure the tree is of good height...

Hayden testing the durability of the branches.. He warned me that kids would be around the tree and that is was important to make sure the branches were sturdy...
Hayden showing mommy the tree he thinks would be most suitable for our house...

Hayden making sure he can be in the right spot to help with the sawing of said tree...

Jenn overseeing the project and making sure all safety precautions were being properly taken..

The cutting of the tree...

Hudson thinking, "Is it time to eat yet?"
Hayden inspecting branch quality...

Hayden teaching me proper saw technique... I had no idea i was doing it wrong... ;-)
It was a great experience, and besides the giant beetle that jumped off the tree into our living room while we were decorating it, the tree looks great!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-10T19:39:00.001-05:00

It was a wonderfully frightful Halloween this year up in Washington D.C. It was so nice to share Hayden's first trick or treating experience with his cousins Morgan and Grant and the rest of the family. Below is a slideshow from the spooky evening!

Airplanes!

2009-10-28T21:23:00.006-04:00

Today we took Hayden to the park just outside of the Reagan airport in Washington D.C. He loved the planes so much. It's a bummer my dad isn't still flying cause he would have loved a cockpit tour! Here are some pics from the occasion.

Corvette Funfest.. Oh Yes, I was there...

2009-10-03T10:30:00.025-04:00

I had a little father son weekend last weekend in Effingham, IL for the 35th Anniversary of Mid America Motorworks. So for those of you that don't know, my dad likes Corvette's a lot. This little gathering in Effingham draws around 20,000 corvettes to their fairgrounds every year. So if you do like vette's, this is the place to be. We managed to leave with a much better sounding vette than we arrived in thanks to Corsa (worth a click just for the sound bite) and their fantastic sounding pipes! That being said, the festival was an interesting cross section of Americans. Overall, I had a great time getting a chance to hang out with my dad, and seeing and hearing some pretty neat cars. The best part of this trip is that it jump started the next vette project that we are undertaking... You'll be HEARING about it more later...

Stay tuned...

Here is a quick vid of the loudest exhaust I have ever heard followed by some images from the event...

Note the camera shake the first time he really hits the throttle. It startled me so much I almost dropped my iPhone. :-)

My dad's car amongst like kind...

Below is install alley where you can drive up and get a new set of pipes in 20 minutes... Do those lifts look pretty cool? They also fit nicely in a garage like my dad's. ;-)

Corvette Z06 doing a burnout to please the crowd..

This is about $300 worth of rubber into the burnout... lol He had brand new tires...

The result of the ridiculous burn out. Yes that is hundreds of dollars worth of tires bits there...

Out with the old...

In with the new. Thank you Corsa, these things sound fantastic!

Don't they look nice?

Can't go wrong with Kettle Corn!

Yummy!

I wouldn't want to have to unload that trailer...

Now if you read this far, you are about to travel back in time... There were two concerts on Sat. night. The first one was Beach Boy genre Jan & Dean Show. I felt slightly out of place.

Then I felt a little better when Survivor came on. Kind of fun to see a good ole hair band.. Brought me right back to middle school.. These guys dressed the part, but if you look closely they are not that young anymore. The lead singer still had pretty amazing pipes though we left after 4 songs. lol

The mic stand twirling and rock lock gesturing was worth the price of admission alone... Oh wait it was free.

There will be a series of Corvette posts as we are undertaking a pretty cool project with my dad's C5. Stay tuned for more pics and updates!

Escape to the Zoo!

2009-09-06T23:58:00.004-04:00

We became members of the Atlanta Zoo today! In Adam's few free hours off this weekend we took the Hs to see the animals! Adam is spending most of the weekend shooting a wedding atLake Oconee's RITZ CARLTON. Rita and Jack Henry joined us as well for a beautiful sunny day!

I was really impressed with the zoo - its not huge but it had great exhibits and Hayden was able to see all the animals up close and personal! He impressed me with his knowledge of the animals names and noises! Hayden loved the Elephant, monkeys and goats in the petting zoo!

Here are a few pics...

Happy Birthday to Hayden!!!

2009-08-23T16:21:00.006-04:00

What a fun day with our new 2 year old!! We started out with a Bday breakfast with friends at the local IHOP! Then the real fun began at Gainesville's annual Touch a Truck Event!! It was awesome! Hayden loved seeing the firetrucks, moving trucks, dump trucks, school buses etc! He was SO excited! He wore himself out! After nap time we headed to Hayden's favorite place - Granny and Grampa's pool! We had a great dinner at The Harbour Point Grill followed by presents and cake back at Granny and Grampa's! Sarah and Mark helped us celebrate the big day providing extra loving hands to hold the kiddos and some pretty awesome photographs as well! Enjoy this slideshow and join the fun!

Hayden ended his big day singing himself to sleep with Happy Birthday...... pretty awesome!

Jenn

Wedding images

2009-07-31T10:23:00.003-04:00

I just realized that I don't blog very often about the weddings I photograph. So here is a wedding down at Serenbe that was just a wonderful day all around.

Enjoy.

**Click Here to view the slideshow!

Welcoming the newest Linke - Hudson Dean!

2009-06-30T17:26:00.004-04:00

What an amazing week this has been! We were surprised a little early this time around with an early arrival for Hudson Dean Linke! Hudson was born at 1:46 am on Friday the 26th of June!
Our friend Katie Van Buren took these images Thursday morning! We never would have guessed that 13 hours later my water would break while I was home with Hayden and Adam was playing Hockey in Alpharetta!

Hudson is doing great and looks a lot like his big brother did when he was born! I am SO smitten with my 3 men! I love it!!

Hudon's middle name DEAN is a tribute to his Grampa Donald DEAN Linke. It also happens to be a family name on both sides with both Adam and I having grandpas that were Deans and several other family members as well!

We hope that along with his middle name Hudson will inherit his grandpa's honesty, integrity and intense love for family. What an awesome example our little guy has to follow!

Beautiful country

2009-05-09T09:52:00.006-04:00

Just a quick post. I went up to Asheville to speak about ShootQ at Corey McNabb's McWorkshop. Besides having a fantastic time catching up with Corey and getting a chance to meet lot's of up and coming photographers, I got to really enjoy one of the most beautiful drives up through the Mountains ever! Here is a panorama I took from a pull off. This is right on the Georgia North Carolina border. By the way, if you ever find yourself in the Asheville area and looking for a nice hotel, check out the Grand Bohemian. Absolutely beautiful!

Hayden rules...

2009-04-20T21:20:00.008-04:00

So every post lately has been about Hayden.. That is because he is so much fun!!! He is becoming more and more hilarious with each passing day. Here are some pics from a couple of outings including his first Easter egg hunt...

I love my new outfit! Thanks Nana!

Double fisting at the daycare Easter party...

I see an egg!

This basket is weighing me down...

I see more eggs!
Got it...

Here is another one...
Yummy or nummy as Hayden calls it...

Super grandpa (or dad) helping out with the deck. What a stud... No pun intended..
Any excuse to get dirty...
Hmmm. I like the taste of dirt..:-)

Ah quitting time.. Where is my bath?

The Hayden Show!

2009-04-01T21:35:00.005-04:00

I think I start out every blog with an apology about how long it has been since I last blogged. Almost sounds like a confession doesn't it? Well whatever. ;-) Here are some pics of Hayden being... Hayden Enjoy.

Look! I am a smurf!

Slides are fun too!
Raising the bar...

Weeeeeee!
Thanks mom and dad for a great day at the park!

All that play made me hungry. Ketchup rules!

I like to end the day with a little handy man work. Yes that is a Bob the Builder tool belt. Do you have any broken appliances?

A weekend in NYC

2009-02-09T20:17:00.011-05:00

Jenn and I had a great weekend in NYC with our friends Mel and Jeremy. It was really great to see some of our friends in the city as well as give Mel and Jeremy the tour of our old stomping grounds. Here are a couple of pics...

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T09:17:00.006-05:00

Happy New Year to all. We had a wonderful relaxing New Year's with our friend's Jeremy and Mel. It was a relaxing night with a fantastic dinner, some fine wine, and great company....

Nothing like a cozy fire on a sort of cold winter's night (below 40 at least he he).

Hayden with leftover's on his face...

Dinner prep begin's...

Steak au poivre anyone?

Holy crap this is my favorite!
Uh.... Do we get any?

Ah... cooked to perfection.

Christmas time!

2008-12-27T10:48:00.008-05:00

Well, it has been a little over a month since my last post and lot's has happened. But this time, I just want to share some fun pics from Christmas at the Fraser's this year.

Hayden all dressed up and ready to see what Santa brought him...

A little neck roll for our little jet setter....

Sean get's a 737-700 which i didn't even know they made that specific models of...
Hayden tries out his first tool belt!

Hayden getting in to the spirit of things by opening his own presents..

My flying monkey stocking stuffer. Hilarious furry monkey/slingshot that flies 50 ft while screaming.

Sean with Great grandma Memee...

Christmas spirit in the air.. :-)
Time to clean up the mess from all the presents and that is why Santa brought a little red vacuum for Hayden. I think he used it non stop for hours. lol
I guess the Sooner's are somewhat popular in the Fraser household...

Till the next post...

A nice peaceful Sunday...

2008-11-09T17:35:00.003-05:00

Being a wedding photographer, there aren't very many weekend's that Hayden and I get to chill and go for a ride... So, here he is in his cool car!

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T15:44:00.005-04:00

Well, It's Halloween and Hayden was dressing to impress today with all his little buddies. I'll send a follow up post with trick or treating action later on. By the way, the was first and only time we were able to get him to wear his cool hair.

After the storm

2008-10-09T09:31:00.011-04:00

I was lucky enough to grab my camera for this beautiful post sunset sky. It really was this beautiful, with a slight enhancement of saturation and contrast being the only thing done to this image.

When I grow up...

2008-10-08T16:48:00.004-04:00

There are so many things I could be when I grow up. But today I am very busy patrolling the hallway's of our house looking for fires to put out. I would also like to point out that I look great with my cool red Fireman's helmet!

Like i said, I am very focused on...wait where is the front of this thing?

Ah ha, now I am on track. Let's roll out people!

With the gas shortages that have been affecting us all in GA lately, I too have fallen victim to not watching the gas gauge. I'll guess I'll have to leave the firetruck here for now....

The good news is, I still have my helmet!

Is that food?

That looks like food!
I'll be right back...

Squeakin Machine!

2008-09-16T22:09:00.005-04:00

Faster than a squeaking bolt of light!!! We got new squeaker shoes in the mail yesterday and Uncle David shot this video while Hayden was at Granny's! He has taken 7 steps now - while chasing Daddy for a football - he will be up and running in no time! Enjoy the video! Its not graceful by any means but its a beginning!

Jenn

Birthday Continued.... Part 2 THE CAKE SMASHING!

2008-09-06T23:18:00.005-04:00

Our 2nd celebration was hosted by Hayden's Granny and Grampa at their neighborhood pool! Our weather was cool and iffy, Haydens little cake blew away in the wind but we were determined to celebrate! Hayden had a ball opening presents and did a very good job with his paper ripping! He also enjoyed his first taste of buttercreme frosting............... I am so proud. Thank you to those that braved the drive and the weather to join us!!! They company was great and a celebration was had!

Hayden.... experiencing his first SUGAR HIGH!!!!!!! Woo Hooo!

HAYDEN'S 1ST BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! (PART ONE)

2008-09-06T22:18:00.009-04:00

Can you believe it! I blinked and my little man turned 1! So many moments, stages and firsts flew past us in this blur of a year. But what an amazing year! It has been so much fun getting to know this awesome little person that rocks our world! Of everything people told me about being a parent, what shocks me most is how much fun it is. Next in line for shocking is how little sleep we get...but in comparison - totally insignificant.

We celebrated Hayden's birthday twice this year! Once with my family in Washington DC and a second time here in GA! Here are some pics from our first picnic party!!

This is Clemyjontri Park - a wonderland for kids to jump, climb, toddle and bounce on every playground piece imaginable! It was awesome! Hayden spent most of the time sliding down his first slide over and over and over........

The park was awesome, Nana's picnic was awesome - it was so nice to be with family and so great of everyone to have a party or Hayden! THANK YOU!

This beautiful girl is my niece Morgan! She is 3 and an awesome cousin to "baby Hayden." Grant is her little brother and the sweetest boy you have ever met! He has a constant flow of smiles, hugs and kisses for everyone!

My sis Kim, bro in law Scott and nephews Stu and Sean came down from Easton PA for the weekend! We finally got to grab a few family shots while we had them all together! YAY!

Thank you for 40 years of flying...

2008-06-24T12:14:00.010-04:00

On June 8th, 2008 my father, Don Linke, flew for that last time as a pilot for Northwest Airlines. He had been flying airplanes since he was 20 years old and he turned 60 on Thursday the 12th of June. In his 40 years of flying airplanes here are some interesting facts...

In that span, he flew 8 million miles and carried more than 750,000 people safely to their destinations. He was in the air for nearly 20,000 hours. So if he has flown a total of 8 million miles, he could have flown to the moon and back over 6 times, of course it only took the Apollo mission 4 days to get there. And as far as the number of people that have flown on his flights? He could have flown the entire population of Minneapolis to a destination of their choice....Twice..

On Saturday, we celebrated! We celebrated the retirement of my father and celebrated that he doesn't have to be in a range of 11 different time zones multiple times a month. So here is a slideshow that we put together from his early days of flying to the party on Sat. Hope you enjoy...

Oh and a special thank you to Mark Adam's for photographing and capturing my favorite moments from Dad's party.

SLIDESHOW

Here is dad in 1982...

Here is dad after his last flight on June 8th, 2008

The surprise retirement party revealed!

The discovery of long time friend Jerry Barron...

Jerry and Dad..
Real 747-400

Edible version (thank you Mark Brickman over at Baker's Man)

Dad impressed by the amazing resemblance of the edible version and the flying version...

Ahhh. Like father like son...

2008-06-10T14:57:00.009-04:00

Memorial Day weekend was the first chance we got to take Hayden out on the lake this year. He was a great sport and even enjoyed his first cool dip in the lake. After a hard day of crawling and exploring all over the boat, it was time to relax and enjoy a cold one.... Ok, so he enjoyed the water bottle but, he really enjoyed trying to sneak his first beer....

Go go gadget arms.....

Hmmm. This is going to be trickier than i thought. I have never seen this type of bottle before.. Where is the nipple? (gotta love G-Don's Tilley Hat)

Ah... successs...
Ok, so he never really was able to open the beer, but he was certainly fascinated by these frosty cool cylinders of fun....

My first Mother's Day!

2008-05-12T20:27:00.009-04:00

What a fantastic Day!
I could never imagine what it would be like to be a mom - I even have to admit that I wasn't always sure that I wanted to be one. I approached motherhood in trepidation and holding only to blind hope that I would do OK.

However, now as I look back at my first Mother's Day I am so incredibly thankful, grateful, ecstatic and proud to be this little man's mommy! I can't imagine feeling a fuller sense of joy!

I know I sound like a Hallmark card - though not quite as eloquent-but I can't help myself!

My fabulous mother's day was incredibly simple - I was woken at 6am
(no that's not a joke) (yes on a Sunday)(yes I am tired as #*!!)
My first gift was a snooze with the little guy till after 7 - H bomb gives the gift of bonus sleep if you will snuggle with him.

When we got up we had a bottle and played with various blocks, trucks, books and stuffed tools (Thank you Renee!) until daddy woke up. Dad gets to sleep in after photographing weddings.

It is so fascinating to watch this little man be a learning machine - we practiced picking things up with our pincer fingers, eating puffs, standing, climbing over pillows-over mommy-over Foto and Fiona and over anything else in his way. We had a blast. (I should also mention that the words ma ma were babbled SEVERAL times!)

So once little man was tired out and ready for a nap - Mom got to shower (no small luxury!) and get ready just in time for him to wake and be ready again.

We headed out and had a FABULOUS lunch at our fave sushi spot (ok we live in Dahlonega - it is the only sushi spot). Then, we ran to the outlets to get Hayden PJs and get my car washed and cleaned out! Yes! I know everyone is reeling in the excitement of it all!

After a jaunt to the grocery, the evening was spent over guacamole and enchiladas with our good friend Matt who is in town and Adam's Mom and Dad better known as granny and grampa. It was great to enjoy good company and fun conversation in our home.

That's it - and it was an AMAZING Mother's Day.

Micki Ann and Daniel's Wedding - SLIDESHOW BELOW!

2008-04-22T19:24:00.012-04:00

Adam and I had the honor of photographing the wedding of my cousin Micki Ann Cain and Daniel Ayra Felix Villafana, April 13th in the Dominican Republic! It was a fantastic wedding with so many unique and wonderful details, ceremonies and moments. We had an amazing time seeing such a beautiful country, wonderful family and an incredible wedding! We are so thankful to have been a part of it all!

The wedding was in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic where Micki and Daniel live. Both Micky and Daniel work in schools in Jarabacoa. Micki teaches 4th grade at Doulos Discovery School!
Micki's 4th grade class was a big part of the wedding celebration!

The Rehearsal Dinner was fantastic! Daniel impressed us all with his incredible culinary skill by creating the evening's menu and overseeing it's execution! That was followed by fabulous toasts and stories about the happy couple!

Micki designed her dress and built it from her mother's dress.

Micki's arrival!

Last minute Vow studying for Daniel

Trevor escorts his Mama to the wedding!

What a fantastic entrance!

And so it begins!

Both flower girls were a dream!

We wish you the happiest ever after!!

CLICK HERE for a slideshow of the entire event!

A special thank you to Steve for taking some great images! We loved working with you and look forward to doing it again in the future!

What do you say to a face like this!!!!

2008-04-01T15:11:00.002-04:00

Yes this is Hayden James - 7.5 months old and already an attitude! This is the look we get when he decides things need to go his way aka I'm not ready to go to bed, I don't like vegetables, I want to push ALL the buttons in the TV cabinet and I WANT THE REMOTE! He is all boy! His crawling is speeding up and he wants to walk around so bad it drives him crazy. I'm not sure where this stubborn and independent streak comes from.............. OK that's a total lie.......... many apologies to my mom and dad......... I hope you are enjoying life's little game of payback!

Yes this is the Hayden James that makes all those stubborn moments totally worth it! Also, if you look closely you can see his two new little teeth! They are a fabulous new addition to the smile that makes my world go round!

This is the Hayden James that cracks me up! He has the best chuckle ever! This is pretty much the response to everything his dad does. Adam seems to crack him up on a constant basis and he watches his every move! Da da seems to be the new fave word for everything.....sadly ma ma ma is SO two weeks ago....sigh....I guess I had my moment.

Thanks for checking in today!

Jenn

Tennis Time!

2008-03-29T08:48:00.006-04:00

So this post is a little delayed but Adam took some fun pics of my friend Alyssa and I at our first tennis match! I am playing on a team in Alpharetta with Alyssa; one of my good friends from FSU! She and her husband Chandler have 2 little boys; Colby and Camden - they are SO cute! We play on her neighborhood's ALTA team.

So we didn't exactly win our first match but we had a great time playing! Thats what it is all about....right? I'm definitely getting back in the swing post Hayden - its taken me a while...maybe we will win our next one! lol! I'm really enjoying that it gets me out to see my friend more often and gets me movin!

"Get your motor runnin!"

2008-03-28T09:36:00.003-04:00

Guess who this post is about? That is right, Hayden is getting quite a lot of press for a seven month old. In his latest starring role, he is showing us his blazing speed when motivated to grab anything involving electronics. The TV remote is probably his favorite...

Enjoy...

Starring Hayden James...

2008-03-03T19:22:00.005-05:00

Well, I figured I would go ahead and extinguish many a fire by posting some current pics of Hayden. Hayden says hello, and that he enjoyed his photo session.

This is Hayden's "How can I get over to that fascinating object" look...

This is Hayden's "please take me seriously" look. I forgot to tell him to wipe the drool off first..

"I love these silver rings!"

"wooooowwww."

"Are we done yet?""This one if for my agent." This could also be "sensitive yet mysterious."
"Mom will you have a birthday everyday so I can play with the balloons?"

Thanks for reading... :-)

Who dunnit? Jenn's Birthday fun...

2008-02-23T19:14:00.005-05:00

Okay, before I post more beautiful images from Hawaii, I had to post about my wife's Birthday this past Friday. Now, I won't reveal how old she is, but there are enough clues in the slideshow to figure it out... But we decided to make this one very special, so we hosted a murder mystery party for Jenn's Birthday. We had quite a positive response. Here are a couple of pics from last night. Thanks to everyone who participated. Photo's were taken by all of us throughout the evening... For the slideshow click here...

Hawaii

2008-02-20T14:45:00.006-05:00

Aloha from Hawaii!!

We are currently on the island of Kauai and have had an amazing trip so far. Rob and Carla's wedding was so much fun, and we will post some images from the event later next week. Here are a couple of images from the rest of our trip so far. The mountain in the background in this image is called diamond head and it is a dormant volcano. It was the backdrop for Rob and Carla's wedding. Then we took a trip up to the north side of Oahu to witness the Bonsai pipeline. I can easily say that these were the biggest waves I have ever seen in my life! Then we flew out to Kauai to slow things down a bit. We went to a beach yesterday that had a monk seal sitting on the beach. There are only about 1200 in existence and 35 on this island. So as you can imagine I had to take a picture.

Here is Jenn with Diamond Head in the background....

John and Kevin analyze their chances of survival should they try body surfing on the Bonsai pipeline...

A veteran surfer...

Roped off sleeping area for an adolescent Monk seal...

Hanging out on the beach at sunset in the formation of YMCA... :-)

More images to follow later...

It's great to see friends...

2008-02-13T23:56:00.015-05:00

Last weekend Jenn and I got a chance to check out Athens and visit our friends David and Sarah. What a fun way to spend a weekend. It was basically a couples night out on the town and we had a great time. So here are a couple of pics, and if you really want to get crazy you can check out the slideshow as well. :-)

We are on the move....

The highlight of the evening was having a Karaoke room all to ourselves while eating sushi and singing our guts out....

Then the group was off to cause more trouble at other establishments and you can tell that we meant business by the way my wife was strutting in front... :-)

Starry Night Part Duex

2008-02-08T00:10:00.001-05:00

Ok, so after my good friend Mark mentioned that he would like to see last nights exposure at two hours, I couldn't resist. So here you go Mark....

Thanks to my other friend Will for braving the elements and capturing this shot. So my next question is, how to make the stars brighter?

Speaking of Stars...

2008-02-07T15:47:00.000-05:00

My wife Jenn surprised me on my birthday with tickets to the NHL All Star game. I just happened to have a Mark III on me with a couple of lenses... Check out the slideshow.. I took these images from the last row lower level, so some are a bit cropped to try and get in on the action...

The North Star

2008-02-07T00:26:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased a tripod and thought why not put it to the test and find the North star...

If I was more patient I would have used a longer exposure than 23.6 minutes or 1418 seconds at F/8 at ISO100. Next time I will start out a touch earlier in the evening (than midnight)...

Have a great night...

Hayden's first dining experience...

2008-01-30T13:47:00.000-05:00

We are finally catching up on our blogging... Whew.. Just other day Hayden had his first bites of real food. Take a peek..

The other part of Christmas...(oh yeah still backlogging)

2008-01-30T12:37:00.001-05:00

The best part about the Holidays is family. We were very lucky this year as we got to hang out with both sides of our family. Usually we go to one or the others house for Christmas, but this year Jenn's parents came down for New Years, so that was great!.. Here are some fun pics throughout that week...

Note my grandmother laughing....She said that was the best party she'd ever been to...
;-)

Jim and Chuck decided to settle a bet the old fashioned way by playing some Wii Tennis..
No one was injured by their crazy swings, though there were a couple of close calls...

Grandpa feedin the little man...

Wifey poo feeding the little man. He never turns down a meal...

Connie posing for her photo op. She said this was her favorite pic from the whole week...

Barb loving her grandson...

Hi...

The ladies discussing the presidential race...

A little quiet time...

A hilarious game of "Balderdash." If you haven't played this game before it is worth checking out. Very funny...

Just a happy grandpa enjoying the week...

Backlogging continued Christmas edition

2008-01-26T13:18:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas on the second to last day of Jan.! Over here at the Linke household we work on being timely with our posts. However, since we fell hopelessly behind, but had some great occasions to write about still, we figured we might as well keep backlogging posts. :-) Here are some pics from our Christmas with Mom, and Dad, Sam, Dave, Scott, Grandma, Steve and Char.

Nothing like a great Christmas feast right?

This years goods...

Scott's reaction to learning that above picture represented his share of the pile...

OK, i totally made that up. This was really his new headshot for the ladies... Thoughtful, yet fun.

Sam getting very emotional about being around family and friends.... and of course the close proximity of onions...

Hayden getting into the swing of things by unwrapping his first Christmas present. He caught on too quickly....

This is Hayden spying on grandpa (still sounds weird to say that). Hayden is secretly thinking,"do you want help eating the wrapping paper?"

My beautiful wife stealing a Spanish olive from me while I am cheesing for the camera! Thanks Maite and Esteve for the fantastic Catalan Olives. They were even better than Spanish ones. :-)

Dave just before a brain meltdown....

We all had to later admit what a fantastic puzzle the Rubik's cube truly is. Frankly i would rather take it apart in order to match the colored sides.

Last but not least we have had this gag gift in our family for almost 20 years. Every couple of years the famed "electric potato peeler" is regifted usually to a newly married couple, or as it was first gifted, a really old married couple. The potato peeler was initially given to my grandmother where she proceeded to test it out by flinging potato skins all over the entire kitchen. She promptly threw the peeler in the trash, and it has been regifted ever since. Jenn, has truly entered the inner circle of trust by becoming the 2007 recipient of the infamous peeler...

More backloggin to come....

Nothing to say here, i think you know who my team is...

Backlogging

2008-01-26T11:55:00.000-05:00

Ok.... After I had vowed to be a better blogger, I dropped the ball a bit. But in order to make up for lsot time, I am backlogging some of our adventures so we don't miss anything. This post goes back to early December when we had the pleasure of visiting our frineds Matt and Sol with Mark and Erin and others.... I know we had posted about this before but we wanted to make sure to put up this fun slideshow that better captures the whole week. So here it is.... Slideshow

A little Hayden update

2007-12-11T07:27:00.000-05:00

With all these crazy adventures in the last couple of weeks one might ask, how is Hayden doing? He is doing great and growing like a weed! Jenn's mom was gracious enough to watch over him the week we were in Mexico. So this post is devoted soley to our little man. Here are some recent pics...

1977 What a year!

2007-12-10T22:36:00.000-05:00

I need to go backwards for the next couple of posts to cover a couple of fun adventures that we had been on before our big adventure to Mexico. The first one that comes to mind is Natalie Ritchie's 30th birthday. My best friend Steve is married to Natalie who was born in 1977. So what a more fitting way to have a 30th birthday by dressing up like it was 1977. This night was fantastic, and I must mention I had a chance to experience the nicest home audio set up I have ever listened to! Oh what a night...

Hola from Playa del Carmen!

2007-12-06T14:31:00.000-05:00

We have just a couple of minutes but wanted to say a quick hello and share some photos. The first one is of Mister Whiskers dancing with my wife, and as you can see they are "en fuego!" Then we were witness to a beautiful fire dance, that was amazing. We will be posting many more pictures when we return, but this last one was in Coba. Shortly after this photo was taken we climbed to the top. It was a great experience. After that, we cooled off at Grand Cenote. I will post more pictures on this later, but it too was a very cool experience. Now we are off to see Matt and Sol get married! This has been an incredible week and I can't wait to share more amazing experiences on this blog as soon as we get back!

Great to see friends

2007-11-11T08:22:00.000-05:00

We were so excited to see some very dear friends this weekend. We have all been friends since our days working at The Hudson in NYC. Tracy, Hunter, and Megan visited us from NJ this weekend. It was great to see them as the last time was over two years ago! We were all part of the opening staff at the Hudson Cafeteria way back in October 2000. This is also where I met Jenn my wife. We have had a great time catching up on old stories and checking out the local sites. When showing people around town, this almost always means a trip to "Pueblos." Pueblos, is our favorite Mexican restaurant in Dahlonega, and it is located right near the historical square. After a fantastic dinner it was time to read Hunter a bedtime story and finish the evening with a glass of wine and share fun memories of our lives in the big apple.

Here are few pics from the weekend so far....

TGIF

2007-11-03T22:17:00.000-04:00

Well, okay it's actually Saturday evening, but I wanted to use that title because this Saturday Jenn and I and Hayden took my grandmother out to dinner at TGI Fridays. I can't remember the last time we have had a chance to take grandma out on the town. She thought Friday's was the perfect spot to have a great dinner, and she was right. It is always nice getting a chance to hang out with family, and this was the first time she got to see Hayden outside of my parents house. Thanks grandma for a great evening, look forward to doing it again soon.

Hayden's first Halloween...

2007-11-02T16:37:00.000-04:00

I wonder how much scarier Halloween is when you are 10 weeks old. I don't think Hayden recognized his mommy once her wig was on. But Hayden was brave nonetheless and ventured downtown to our friends fantastic Halloween party. We never get to see Mark, Erin, Andrew, or Rachel as much as we like, and we never get to see them at the same time! What a great party! Thanks Mark and Erin for being such great hosts!

We are the Champions...

2007-10-31T13:19:00.000-04:00

After a great workshop in Asheville with Corey and crew, I hurried back to Atlanta to try and make our final Upper AA AHL hockey game. I was able to get on the ice after the first shift and we won! It was a great season with a great group of guys are here are a couple pics.

Hi Daddy!

2007-10-30T13:28:00.000-04:00

So while Adam is up in NC Hayden and I are enjoying a few days with Nana! Nana is my mom - she lives in DC. As usual when she visits we get started on more projects than we could ever finish! This visit we are getting started on prepping the house to sell! Know anyone that needs a great lake house? We have decided that moving a little closer to the city would make life, work and social activities a little easier! We love this house and hopefully will do a 360 later in life and find another one like it - when we work a little less and have time to really enjoy it. So mom, Hayden and I have been replacing light fixtures, sprucing up and remodeling a bathroom.....ok well mom and I are. Hayden just hangs out being adorable... but hey...do what you do best right!
Here is dad's newest pic of Hayden James! Back to work!

Jenn

Rockstar's spotted in Asheville

2007-10-29T23:41:00.000-04:00

One of the great things working for Pictage is that I get an opportunity to meet with tons of photographers like myself. This is a great perk. This week I am in Asheville, NC visiting my friend Corey McNabb while he conducts a 4 (plus) day workshop. Besides, getting to see some friends I haven't seen for a while, hi Amber, I had a chance to meet some new faces as well. Tom Flint is out of upstate New York. That's right Sam and David, if you guys have any friends that need an excellent wedding photographer in your area, he is worth checking out! I also got a chance to hang out with Ty Miller who is from my neck of the woods. He is another wonderful photographer and you can click on any of their names to check out their sites. I don't want to give anything away from the day except to say it was fun to go and capture some fun images in the afternoon thanks to our super willing and able models, Jon (of Jon Leidel photography) and Anna. Here are a couple of pics along with some fun ones at dinner...

Last but not least, I wanted to say thank you to Larry Crandall of White Glove First Edition Books for the great dinner.

I think that about covers it for today.

Blue

2007-10-25T17:56:00.001-04:00

My favorite color is blue. Every once in a while I photograph an image that has a blue that I really like. Here are two of them. I have been talking to my dad a bunch about how to get the perfect blue sky shot for his vacation to Europe. Time of day, f stop, ISO setting etc. These are some of the better ones that I have captured.

The last day of the Impala SS

2007-10-22T17:08:00.000-04:00

It's true. I sold my 1996 Impala SS with under 100k miles on Saturday. It was a sad day. My father had an Impala when he was younger and I proudly carried on that Linke tradition by owning one in college up until now. I had that car for over 11 years. That is a long relationship any way you look at it. I will always have tons of fun memories about that car and it's occupants. I would love to bring up a couple of those fond memories with some of my pals like Anders, Heller, and Hoblit, but I am not sure what the statue of limitations is in Minnesota so I will refrain. This is a picture as I am waiting in the parking lot for the new owner to arrive and take new ownership.

I've been a bad blogger

2007-10-19T10:50:00.001-04:00

A few months ago, Jenn and I were getting pretty good at keeping up with our blog. After August 22nd, things have gotten more tricky as far as finding time to blog. I know that is no excuse so I am trying to make a come back starting today. For now on, I will make an effort to post at least once a week if not more. This post is a bit scattered. The first image I want to share with everyone is what our bay looks like when the water level is down 14 feet.

The black line I have drawn in is the normal water level in a non drought year. This image was taken a couple of weeks ago when the water was down 12 feet. Doesn't matter now, as you can see, the dock is on the mud.

I wish I could say that having a newborn around the house is the only reason we have been bad about blogging, but the fact is, work has picked up as well. I have photographed a wedding for the past 6 weekends in a row, and Jenn has been juggling Hayden and getting back to work.

Finally, to prove I really have been photographing a lot of weddings lately, here is one of my favorites from this summer. Click Here.

Talk to you soon,

There are no words.......

2007-09-29T01:54:00.000-04:00

I know we are WAY overdue for a post about our little man Hayden but where do you begin! It has been such a whirlwind for the past 5 weeks! In a nutshell - we are so in love and having such fun getting to know this new little person!

We couldn't have survived the past 6 weeks without the generous help of our friends and family! My mom held us together before and after the big day - how she makes it all seem so easy is beyond me. Since then Adam's folks have been ready with extra arms to hold baby and generous helping hands.

As Adam was in LA I was pampered by two of my favorite women - my best friend Sarah and my big sis Kim. They were amazing - and worked way too hard but left me with more sleep, a smile on my face and a very tidy home! Along the way we also had friends bring dinner, bring thier camera and bring such great company! We are so blessed and SO THANKFUL.... and I have every intention of stating that in the thank you notes I swear I will get to..... soon.... I mean it!
One of our recent visitors was Jean Shifrin - she is one of our photographers for The Decisive Moment and a dear friend. She brought her camera along and despite Hayden's less than cheery disposition that day- captured the little man we are so in love with! What a looker :)

Jean has such a gift with little ones and shoots a pretty fantastic wedding too!
Jean's website is www.shifrinphotography.com

We will try to be better with our updates as we adjust to life with a little one!

Much love!

Mommy

Baby Hayden arrives!

2007-08-24T11:27:00.000-04:00

In this corner weighing in at 9 lbs 10.5 oz introducing Hayden James Linke! He was born into this world at 2:39pm Wednesday August 22nd. There will be a slideshow update later this week. But for now I just want to say thank you to all of our friends and family for their thoughts and prayers and support. It was a day that changed my life and I give special thanks to a close friend of mine Mark Adams for documenting Hayden's birth and capturing images that will always bring us back to those emotional and energizing moments. Here are a couple of quick pictures...

This is just a short post to let everyone know that we made it through ok.. If you need to some more pics immediately, you can check out LaCour and they have posted some beautiful pics. This is our friend’s blog and I think it is the second or third post down.

Talk to everyone soon,

Adam

Partner Con LA

2007-08-17T11:00:00.000-04:00

It is not very often that we talk about work on our personal blog, but I thought it might be fun for friends and family to see what this trip to L.A. is all about. For those of you that know what I do profesionally, I am wedding photographer as well as the Southeast regional pro consultant for a company called Pictage. A couple times a year we hold a members only conference to collaborate, teach, learn, and reconnect with many of our peers in our industry. I have the great fortune to be speaking at this conference about marketing. So check it out for yourself, and thanks as always for reading our blog... Below is a video snipit that encapsulates what this conference is about. Many of the photographers seen in this video are the best and brightest in the industry.

Adam

What's north of Dahlonega?

2007-08-03T09:31:00.000-04:00

Besides Tennessee? Actually, in the two years that Jenn and I have lived on the outskirts of Atlanta, we have never actually ventured north of where we live except to go into Dahlonega to hit our favorite Mexican restaurant. To my delight, Jenn and I drove up to Unicoi State park (map) after work last night so I could do little mountain biking. I might have been inspired by my brother in-laws recent post (Sam and David Infanger, and his recent post). SO, we got up there and I thought there were 6 trails to choose from and I had my mind made up to try this very easy 2.5 mile track to warm up. I couldn't figure out why it said it would take 2.5 hours to complete. I was thinking, "wow, this must be pretty hilly." These turned out to be hiking trails only. To my sad surprise the only Mountain biking trail was the one they used for Mountain bikers to train for the 1996 summer Olympics. The actual course that was used was located in Conyers, GA. That being said I was a bit worried that my first outing of the season might be an unforgiving one.

That was not the case. The course ran about 7.8 miles and I think I made a wrong turn that reduced it to about 4.5 miles. 4.5 miles was the perfect break in ride. It took about an hour and there were a couple of pretty steep climbs. The course itself was in great shape and a lot of fun to ride. It also splits off and you can ride to the nearest town, Helen. This town has a fantastic history. It was revitalized in the 60's and became an alpine themed German town in an effort to boost tourism. They hold one of the largest Oktoberfest's in the country. Click here for the complete chronology.

I look forward to my next adventure up in northern GA.

Here are a couple of Pics from the evening...

This lil Turkey is Cooked!

2007-08-01T18:48:00.001-04:00

Today we are officially 37 weeks and medically considered - FULL TERM. That means Mr. Hayden James Linke is good to go! He is statistically around 6.5 pounds and 19-20 inches from head to toe. The home stretch is definitely proving to be a challenge physically, emotionally and mentally!

Physically - I"M HUGE!! Getting around is definitely a major challenge with all the various aches, pains and extra pounds. I had a great time this past weekend having friends at the lake playing but imagine we will keep things pretty mellow for the rest of the time! I'm pooped!

Emotionally - well I'd tell you but then I cry for absolutely no reason at all and then hurt my belly by laughing at myself :) :( :) :(

Mentally - I am freaking out about all the things we have left to do and prepare before Hayden arrives! Unfortunately, I too darn tired to do them - which makes me cry, then laugh, then my belly hurts... you see the vicious cycle.

We did finally take new preggers pics a couple days ago! Adam did a great job despite his difficult subject :) So this is me - a very large, crazy, pregnant lady ready to pop!

Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated! We are so excited to meet the little man and see that he is happy, healthy and whole!

Much love

Jenn

Foreign Visitor

2007-07-26T10:51:00.001-04:00

This was a visitor that stopped by to say hello this morning. For a full backround on this little guy click here. It is always nice to have visitors...

I love Lamp.

2007-07-14T10:09:00.001-04:00

Okay, I admit... I have always wanted to start a post with a quote from Anchorman, and now I have. Now, on to the reason I am posting. It is time to unveil a sneak peak at mom and dad's little project that has kept them quite busy over the past 9 months.

They are finally going to have a house to call their own! Here are a couple of pics to get ya'll excited about coming down for your next visit!

Pontoons, I guess they can be cool.

2007-07-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

Well, we knew it would happen someday.

My parents finally got their first pontoon boat today. It is kind of a rite of passage into retirement when you purchase one of these bad boys. A pontoon is all about relaxing, enjoying a cool beverage or two, listening to good music and taking as much time as possible to reach your destination. Unless of course your my dad. This pontoon has a little 250 HP Mercury outboard on the back and we were able to tip the speedo's at just over 42 m.p.h. Not too bad for a an old fart boat...

Anyway, this is the most relaxing comfortable boat I have ever ridden on. So, I hope this encourages all friends and family that read this blog to head on over for an evening cruise with some cool beverages and great music.

Ohio, Trevor and Chelsey

2007-07-10T08:18:00.000-04:00

This Past weekend we were out in Alliance, OH for Trevor and Chelsey's wedding. Trevor is Jenn's cousin and we had a chance to visit Uncle Mic & Aunt Phil's beautiful lake house. We hung out with family and friends for the 4th of July so here are a couple of pictures of our home made fireworks show...It was a fantastic opportunity to see a large part of Jenn's extended family.

Mic Cain, Trevor's father, was the Officiant for the wedding and held a moving and emotional ceremony as he married his youngest child. They brought in a huge tent and held the ceremony and reception overlooking the lake. It took a lot of restraint not to grab my camera and shoot a couple of hundred pictures. The weather couldn't have been better and everything about the day seemed to fall into place. It really was a perfect day. Here are a couple of pictures of friends and family from the evening.. And I would alos like to say a special hello to Trevor's friends Aiden and Johanna who traveled all the way from New Zealand for the occasion. Click here for a quick slide show...

Washington DC

2007-07-03T21:58:00.000-04:00

Everytime Jenn and I get a chance to visit our nations capitol we have fantastic time. Of course it doesn't hurt to family there. :-)

Here are a couple of pictures from our weekend. We went to the Mall to see the Cultural Festival. I As you can see, it was a great time to have a super unhealthy hotdog and take in the sights.

I hope my brother in law Dave appreciates the excellent use of condiments... lol.

This is a Jeepny and is a fantastic way to get around in the Phillippines. Jenn used to ride one of these all the time. I just think they look cool. :)

The meaning of friends..

2007-06-27T11:35:00.000-04:00

Congratulations Michelle and Michael. I just had one the most fantastic weekends in recent memory. I had the priveledge of being a groomsman for one of my best friends Michael. As I write this, he has already whisked away his bride Michelle to Paris for their honeymoon.

This past weekend I had the chance to catch up with just about every friend I have in one setting! How rare is that? There was hardly a face I didn't know or have a funny story about. I am linking a slidewhow with this post (Click here). I always love putting together these slideshows as this is something we do in our business for our clients and I love telling a story through images. I now understand why they can be so powerful, as each image in this show has special meaning for me. I was suprised how much this affected me. So to all my good friends... Watch, laugh and be thankful... I am.

2007-06-15T01:13:00.000-04:00

When I was a little girl/navy brat, my family moved to the Phillippines! My dad was stationed on a tiny little base called San Miguel where he was the doc! When we got there I met Chrissy! Chrissy and I were inseparable (unless I was watching General Hospital - strange obsession for a 4 year old I know but we were lacking for good TV on our 1 channel)! We were best of friends from preschool thru 1st Grade! Yes - thats us to the right with our matching Care Bears. (thanks dad for the photos)

Our moms were also great friends and though we all moved on to half a dozen locations after that - they maintained their friendship! Well this year Mom and Mary were planning a girls weekend when my mom told her I was having a baby - as it turns out ... so is Chrissy.
We are both having boys and she is due a couple weeks before me. So with this great coincidence our moms decided on a Mother/pregnant daughter weekend!
It was so much fun to see them both! It was also great to have a girlfriend going through the same exciting adventure of a first pregnancy! Between shopping, a spa afternoon and boating on the lake we had as much fun as ever - there is nothing quite like picking right back up after twenty something years!
Chrissy is living in Colorado with her husband where she does floral design and is a design student! I can't wait for our little guys to meet in the near future!

Thanks Mom and Mary for getting us all together!!

(me, Colleen, Mary, Mom & Chrissy)

Another flower that dad planted.

2007-06-13T12:51:00.000-04:00

Before my parents moved to their current location they came over and planted some flowers that would survive the winter better here than they would up north.The upside is that I have really beautiful flowers in the backyard. So, here is a picture for dad of one that has just bloomed. I am avoiding calling it by it's name for fear I am incorrect. :-)

Who say's pregnant chicks can't look like rockstars!

2007-06-13T12:42:00.000-04:00

This is my wife! We were recently in Saint Simon, GA shooting a wedding. The bride and groom were fantastic and the location couldn't be beat. Here ia a link to the slideshow from the wedding...CLICK HERE
There are more details about the wedding and another recent wedding of mine on The Decisive Moment's blog at www.thedm.blogspot.com.

So, when the wedding was all said and done, we decided to head over to the beach for some food and relaxation before the 6 hour trek back to Atlanta to shoot a wedding the very next day. So, I decided to have a little fun fashion shoot with my wife, and this was one of my favorite shots.
It was a great trip - I think we are ready to move to the beach!
Adam

Baby Showerpalooza!

2007-06-09T15:42:00.000-04:00

We had such a good time at our GA baby shower!! Thanks so much to Sam, David and Colleen for throwing a great afternoon party!

Thanks also to so many friends and family for filling our house with love laughter and awesome gifts for Hayden! We are already a very blessed little family!

Enjoy the slideshow and pics and thanks to Mark and Andrew for picking up the camera and capturing the day in way only they can!
http://www.thedecisivemoment.com/slideshows/BabyShower/

THANK YOU AGAIN EVERYONE!!!! It was SO great to have you here!!!!!

A place for baby!!

2007-06-09T14:35:00.000-04:00

We are back! So sorry for the blogging delay! We are going to catch everyone up on all the latest! It's been very busy around here with Adam photographing weddings almost every weekend, prepping for baby, a great visit with my mom & some special friends (more on that later) and we had a baby shower!!

WE HAVE COMPLETED THE NURSERY!! Woo Hoo! It was a great team effort all around and we managed to transform our office into Hayden's nursery! Adam was tasked with painting over our formerly red office, replacing ceiling fan, putting the new furniture together (thank you moms!) and trim board for the beadboard I put up! My mom was a powerhouse of energy and did the curtains, bedskirt and pulled it all together! The quilt on the wall is a gift from Colleen and matched perfectly! Lots has been added since Nursery 1.0 and pics of Nursery 2.0 will be added as soon as we unpack everything from our baby shower!

Wow they grow up fast!

2007-04-26T18:54:00.000-04:00

For those of you in the inner circle of trust, you know that Jenn and I got our puppies back on New Year's. This is what they looked like then....

Well, they were just under two months old when that picture was taken. Now they are a little over six months old and this is what they look like now.....

Yup, they grow up quick. These guys are 35 and 45 lbs already. They have spent the last couple weeks getting rid of their baby teeth and getting real adult teeth. That was quite an experience (we found a couple teeth on the kitchen floor). All in all it has been a wonderful experience and I can't imagine life without them...

Spring has really sprung!

2007-04-26T13:14:00.000-04:00

Well here it is.....

We are at 23 weeks today and all is going well on the pregnancy front. Adam took these pics yesterday at the request of my mother - She is in DC and was getting very frustrated that we have not been sending regular belly updates! It is large and in charge and due to get about a pound larger every week for the next 4 months!!
Can you imagine!?! I certainly can't!
We have been so fortunate thus far to have an easy and peaceful pregnancy! I would like to put a special request in for that to continue throughout the rest of the process! Our last ultrasound showed Mr. Hayden James at just over a pound and looking very handsome! He is already a busy little man practicing karate chops, kicks, forward rolls etc. Adam can finally feel the baby move from the outside so that has been really fun!
Nursery planning is in full swing - full of bright colors and airplanes :) The crib should arrive today! I can't wait for it to all come together!
Ooh - special thanks to Sarah for the Happy Mom tank top!! We will try to keep the baby updates coming!
Jenn

Spring has sprung

2007-04-23T19:20:00.000-04:00

It is that time of year (at least in Georgia) where Spring has finally arrived. I know there are still places that have snow, sorry Dave and Sam, but down here the weather is 75 and sunny. My father has planted some irises in the back yard and today I thought I would brag about them on his behalf. Now I am not a huge flower guy by nature, but even I can appreciate the beauty of this flower. It's too bad they don't stay like this all summer. So this post is for my dad, so his love for irises can be shared throughout cyberspace!

Vancouver was a blast!

2007-04-06T23:31:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have never been to Vancouver I highly recommend it! What a wonderful, beautiful place. I had gone up to Vancouver right after WPPI for a hockey tournament. Besides the fact that the Canadians kicked our butts, I had a great time. And for the record our team did beat the other team from Seattle... EVEN though Vancouver is a mere 200 miles north of Seattle, it feels more like Europe. The first thing you notice after clearing customs is that virtually all of the taxi cabs are hybrids. Eat your heart out Al,, Vancouver is pretty darn green. The second thing you'll notice on your highly efficient cab ride in to the downtown area is the city buses are running on electric wires.

Let's take a moment to appreciate what else surrounds this town; a temperate rain forest, fantastic skiing, and more fishing than I could do in a lifetime. We visited the Capilano suspension bridge on our last day in Vancouver and wow was it amazing. Here are a couple pics..

Paris

2007-04-05T11:31:00.000-04:00

What's not to love? This is a picture I took of the Eiffel Tower. Why bother with expensive flights, and passports when you can go to Vegas and see the same thing. Ok, fine. It is only half the size of the real Eiffel Tower, but you can eat at the top of this one.. The nice thing about Vegas is they have a little bit of everything. If you miss NYC you can always stay in New York New York. They even have a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge outside the front of the hotel. You may ask what is the point of all of this? Well, we recently spent a week in Vegas for the annual WPPI convention and had a fantastic time. I spent most of my time working the Pictage booth meeting hundreds of photographers from all over the world! Jenn spent most of her time hanging out with other photographers and shopping for websites for The Decisive Moment. All in all it was a great trip and we can't wait to do it again next year. Best of all we had a fantasitc time hanging out with Mark, Erin, Andrew and Rachel. Here are a couple of more pics...

Hoover Dam

2007-03-26T11:36:00.000-04:00

Wow. Hoover Dam is an amazing engineering marvel even by todays standards. It stands over 700 feet tall and makes you dizzy when you look over the edge. :-) I had never been to Hoover Dam before and since it was on our way to Sedona we had to stop. It is located about thiry five minutesw outside of Vegas so next time your at the casinos and want to take a breather I recomend getting out of town for a couple of hours and checking it out.

We are off to Sedona to see our friends at LaCour!

The trip begins...

2007-03-26T11:28:00.000-04:00

I meant to post this last week but the thunderstorm that rolled through Sedona, knocked our Internet out for a couple of days. But we are in the middle of a whirlwind trip to Sedona, Las Vegas and Vancouver.

Sedona is absolutely beautiful. Arizona is always a beautiful place to visit but this is the first time Jenn and I have spent some time in Sedona. The red rock landscape out here is a photographers dream. We got so caught up working on business stuff with our friends that we neglected to take advantage of all the hiking and outdoor activities Sedona had to offer. Of course that just makes us want to head out there again! Thanks to Rachel, Andrew, Mark and Erin for their hospitality and generosity in having us come out and spend some time with them in Sedona. This was the view outside the patio.

Well Back to work for now, but I will post some pics and fun stuff in Las Vegas shortly...

A DOG'S (lake) LIFE

2007-03-15T23:00:00.000-04:00

The pups are adjusting to lake life pretty darn well -now that the weather is getting warmer! It only took a couple days for them to decide to brave the lake. Foto is taking it slow and just wading but Fiona is doing her best to doggy paddle - mostly she treads water and Adam and I hope we don't have to jump in and save her!

They have definitely taken to the relaxing side of lake life too! While Fiona prefers lounging on the hammock, Foto can be found sipping a cool one out by the grill! We have been working hard on their training!

As it is getting warmer it certainly reminds us why on earth we chose to live way up here. It's great to look out at the lake everyday and we are looking forward to being able to use it! We still wish we were a bit closer to friends and a social life in Atlanta - but we also can't complain! The nice part is that summer at the lake usually brings more visitors our way - we can't wait!

We hope warm weather is shining down on you - wherever you are and we look forward to sharing a cool one with you by the lake in the months ahead - especially Foto!

Our Trip to DC

2007-03-07T22:46:00.000-05:00

We had a great trip to DC to see family and celebrate my first 29th birthday this February! We spent a week in the capital and had a great time with friends and family!
It went by way too fast!
Here are some highlights! The puppies met their huge cousin JACK, I was pampered with all the girls (mom, Kim & Brit) at a spa day where we had mani-pedis, facials, lunch and massages! I could so do that once a week..... Adam went with the boys to a Capitals Hockey game, we saw Steve & Natalie and finally met their adorable PUGS, I went MATERNITY clothes shopping, my "HOLLYWOOD" bag from Sarah arrived, I had a great Bday party at my favorite Seafood restaurant in DC AND enjoyed a Disney Princess ice cream cake that my niece Morgan helped me pick out.
The time with my niece, nephews, siblings,Memee and folks was awesome - I miss them constantly and don't get to see them often enough!
Click Here for a slide show of our adventure!! ENJOY!!

Back Dating...

2007-02-13T10:17:00.000-05:00

I documented the first snow fall that we have seen since being donw here in da South! Now it's not that Ihaven't seen my fair share of snow, it is just a much bigger deal down here when it does actually snow. I would say it measured less than 3 inches or 7.62 cm if you are from Spain (Hi Maite and Esteve). Now 3 inches was enough to cancel school in the area for 2 days. And just for the record it all melted the first day.

Tripod

2007-02-11T08:08:00.000-05:00

Here is another ultrasound update. By now, Hayden is about 3.5 inches long and as you can see from the second picture there is little question he is boy. I am thinking he knew we were peeking into his world because when we got our first glimpse this time around, he decided to spread his legs and show off the goods. I was quite impressed. :-) The first picture is an overall view. We are very excited that he appears to be so healthy and very active! For the second time viewing him, he was stretching and dancing, posing, and sucking his thumb. It is hard to believe the first trimester is coming to a close. The exciting part is that Jenn will now supposedly start to get more of her energy back. She is currently sleeping as I am writing, so I'll believe when I see it. Now that we are 99% sure the baby is a boy, it is time to start building the nursery! Jenn has been shopping around for just the right paint colors to move our office and make room for a cozy little boys bedroom. Details on this development to be updated later.

THE BIG NEWS THE BIG NEWS

2007-02-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

Hello Family and Friends
Well the time has come to officially announce that Adam and I are having a baby!!! We informed immediate family over Christmas by adding a positive pregnancy test ornament to the tree! I didn't stop to think about the difficulty of explaining that to my nephews after the fact but it went over pretty well!

We are due August 22 and are currently in our 12th week! So far everything is going well - other than a few rough weeks of nausea and being SO tired all the time! We are super excited! Adam is adapting to his role of dad to be wonderfully and goes to every appointment!

I am looking forward to a summer of trying to keep cool floating my giant tummy in the lake! We will keep you up to date on all the exciting developments - the first of which is shown in the pics - this is our 2nd ultrasound! The nurse said she would bet her paycheck that it is a boy - but we aren't painting any rooms just yet! Adam of course is over the moon at the thought of having a son!
The whirlwind continues - nothing like going from 2 to 5 (including the puppies!) in a matter of months. We are so excited that we can finally share the news with everyone!

Much love!
Jenn

Puppy Love!

2007-02-03T23:25:00.000-05:00

I know I know all we talk about on our BLOG is our puppies but they are SO adorable - what do you expect! They are growing SO fast we are afraid to blink! Potty training is coming along at a snails pace but at least we are moving in the right direction.... and leaving a trail. It is truly the biggest test of patience we have ever been through.....so far. Other than puppies life is full of work work and more work. The Decisive Moment is doing great - churning out this summers wedding albums at full speed! Adam is crazy busy with his new job as well but its nice to have some company in the office during the day. Adam just celebrated the big #33 this past week! We celebrated with friends and family through the weekend. It looks like it could be a pretty exciting year ahead! We took these pics with the pups today - nice to have a sunny afternoon after a lot of cold and even SNOW!

Much love!

Jenn

Shameless plug

2007-01-26T07:36:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share a slideshow of a wedding I shot recently over the Christmas holiday. They were a lot of fun, and it is nice to be able to share a little bit of what I do with family and friends. Click here to view the show.

They're in love!

2007-01-25T13:56:00.000-05:00

This is a quick puppie update. The nice thing about getting 2 puppies at the same time is that they always have a playmate. These little cuties are inseparable! They always sleep together, play together, eat together, and get in trouble together. I am rounding the corner and am actually starting to love having 2 dogs.

Stay tuned for the a HUGE blog posting coming this Friday or Sat. :-) You'll love this one.

Till then...

Filler

2007-01-25T12:09:00.000-05:00

I have learned quickly that it is easy to get comfortable and not post so often. Well, I am here to change that. Sorry to everyone that has checked back since the 1st and have seen nothing new. Jenn has been slammed taking care of the rapidly growing puppies and cranking out wedding albums. And I have been slammed at work and shooting on the weekends. Jenn and I and Jean just shot a wedding this last weekend down in Tallahassee, FL. Yes it was at FSU, and Jenn was very happy to be back on campus. :-) Jenn was kind enough to introduce us to some of the finer cuisine on campus like the infamous Gordo's. FSU alum will understand.

Finally, here is picture of the bride to be in FL. Hindu ceremonies are so beautiful. They are also very long. This was a 16 hour shoot over 2 days.

They are here!

2007-01-01T09:18:00.000-05:00

They have arrived! Here is one of our first photos of Foto and Fiona. They are very cute. But that cuteness level is offset by their bladder size. The first night we had to take them out every 1.5 hours. Last night was much better, but I am still recovering from lack of sleep from the first night. They are cute though aren't they? Fiona is a Goldendoodle and Foto is a F1B Labrodoodle. He is the least allergenic dog we could find.

As evidence to my previous statement, here is a picutre of my mom handling one of our cuties and she had no ill effects later following her first puppy encounter. We were all pretty happy to see her have a good puppy experience.
Bigger and more earth shattering events to be announced shortly stay tuned. :-)

We are adding to our family!

2006-12-22T10:52:00.000-05:00

That's right! As soon as we return from Christmas break we are picking up two little puppies, Foto and Fiona. Foto is a black & white Labrodoodle, and Fiona is a honey brown Golden Doodle. Jenn has wanted puppies for a long time and i have finally caved! We will post pictures as soon as we get them. As for our friends that have allergies, these are the least allergenic puppies around, so hopefully they will not discourage any of you out there from visiting. :)

Almost Christmas!!!

2006-12-22T10:47:00.000-05:00

The blog waves have been quiet all week with hurried preparation for Christmas. The Fraser Family as well as Don & Colleen are all making the treck down to Orlando for a week of fun and family bonding. It should be a lot of fun. We will get to see Chris and Britt with their kids and Scott and Kim with Sean and Stew! Jenn & I also get to enjoy a week off of work. This Chirstmas season has flown by this year. We are excited to see everyone in FL!

Work and play....

2006-12-12T16:56:00.000-05:00

For those of you that know what we do, you also know that our work is usually our play. I thought I would share some pictures that a wonderful photographer and I shot together at a recent bridal shoot. Jean Shifrin has been a photojournalist for over 25 years and is really great to work with. If you want to see more of her work click here . Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the slideshows of Jenn's show, so here is a slideshow of the recent bridal shoot I mentioned just a moment ago.... Click here.

1st Posting

2006-12-12T09:04:00.000-05:00

I know that this is not the most original title for a 1st posting but hey, what do you expect. We are excited to announce that we now have a blog for friends and family to access and get up to date information on our lives and what state we are currently residing in. This week it is back to GA after Jenn and I spent that last 2 months in Daytona Beach, FL. Why Daytona Beach you might ask? Well, Jenn was cast in a musical called "The Million Dollar Quartet," click here for more info . Here are a couple of slideshows that we put together from Daytona Beach. They take time to load so be patient. :-)

Click here to see the rehearsal slide show.
Click here to see the performance slide show.

That's all for now.

Adam