Welcome! My name is Ben and I am a photographer based out of Coon Rapids, Minnesota. For those who don't know where that is. . .I am about 20 miles north of Minneapolis. I created this blog to give you an insight into what I have been up too. Make sure to check back often as I try to feature photos from recent weddings and other photo shoots that I do.
It was such an awesome night out, so Grace and I went out to goof around in the street on her bike. I have been going out with her whenever it’s been nice out and teaching her how to move the pedals with her feet. She’s actually getting pretty good at it and even knows how to go backwards now too. At one point she got going really fast and took a turn a little too fast. I was amazed when she was able to pull out of it and avoid wiping out. Here are some shots of her tonight.
Thanks to all my friends for helping me out lately. Some of you know that my little girl, Hannah, has been having a hard time lately. We are going to see a surgeon at the U of M’s pediatric specialties clinic next Tuesday. For more detailsjump over to my personal webpage, but we could use the prayers that things work out okay for Hannah and she gets better soon.
Since I am sometimes away from my computer/phone for extended times during the day, I will do my best to get back to all emails and voicemails by the end of the day. Thank you for being understanding.
here are a few quick photos from this afternoon. She has so much hair compared to Grace (who was nearly bald for her first year of life). I am so excited right now and I can’t wait to bring her home tomorrow. I have a ton of photos, but I’m only going to post a handful right now. I’ll have a full gallery setup in the next few days.
I got the welcomed wake up nudge from Rachel this morning at 3:20am. . . “Ben, I think you need to call Gerhardt and see if he can come over and watch Grace. I think my water just broke.” It didn’t me long to get out of bed and into action. Thankfully Gerhardt answered his cell phone after only a couple rings and drove over within 20 minutes. I called up my parents to give them the heads up and we hit the road to the hospital around 4:40am. It is just about 6am right now and the adrenaline buzz is starting to burn off now. Rachel’s dilated to 4cm and having minor contractions. It will probably be a while before things really start progressing, but who knows. I will be updating my personal webpage on a regular basis, so check back there often.
Well today is the due date for Rachel to give birth to our second daughter. This morning I was reflecting back to the days before we had Grace. I remember being in almost surreal state of shock at how much this little child will change our life. Looking back, I hadn’t even scratched the surface at what was to come down the road. There was a fundamental shift in my life’s priorities and values. Two years ago, all I could think about was epic mountain bike rides and full day session out on the lake windsurfing. Going out at night with Rachel and not coming home for hours was not uncommon either. Now that’s not even on my list of things to do. When I was a punk highschooler and thought I knew everything, I’d look at my dad and wonder why he worked so much. Now that I am a father, I can completely relate and it has made me feel a bit ashamed of being that nieve teenager not so long ago.
All this makes me think . . . How much will my life change again with the addition of another person to our family? One thing is evident to me. No matter the costs, I am positive that I will become a better father and husband as a result
~Ben
I shot a couple really impromptu shots a couple weeks ago with Rachel and Grace. I’m hoping to get some time tomorrow to do some more planned out shots showing Rachel at full term.
If you scroll down a few blog entries, you can see that I had shot a few engagement photos of Melissa and Erik this past fall up in Brainerd. The few months between that shoot and their wedding two weekends ago have just flown by for me to say the least. Anyways. . . On the 17th January, I had the pleasure of escaping to the north woods to shoot their wedding. Melissa must have done a lot of planning, because everything was really thought out and gorgeous. They had rented a cabin to relax in and this was no ordinary cabin… it was pretty much the coolest cabin I have ever been in. We shot a bunch of photos and spent a fair amount of time playing around there. Since Rachel was very pregnant and two weeks away from our due date, she decided to sit this one out. So I called in my friend Robby McCabe to give me a hand. We drove up Friday night and crashed a hotel in the area so we’d have a good nights sleep and a fresh start to the day. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and were settling in for the night when I came to the sudden realization that I forgot my shoes at home…200 miles away. I look at the clock and it was 10 minutes past when all the stores close…hmmm (I was actually freaking out since all I had were bright white running shoes). About 15 minutes into my freakout, I get a call from Erik saying that the timeline was going to be bumped back a bit in the morning and not to come at 7:30am like I was planning. Talk about Awesome!!!. So I had plenty of time to get some fancy new shoes and get over there without missing a shot. Nothing like a little drama to keep you up at night. I can bet that I will never forget my shoes from this day forward.
I have put together a fun slideshow of their day, so check it out!!
2008 was a crazy year for us and I mean that in a good way. Rachel and I met a lot of really cool people and made some new friends out of it. We also really started to define our style and pushed the limits on our abilities on a couple projects we worked on. Rachel dove in headfirst into the business side of things last June and has been a huge help. Her creative talents fill in some voids that I have and its nice to have the support from her. I have had the last month to more or less catch up on a lot of editing and sorting. I am about 70% done with all my 2008 projects and I hope to wrap everything up by the year end so I can start fresh in January. This weekend I will be shooting a wedding for my friend Laurie. The reception and the bulk of the photography will be over the Edinburgh USA Golf club. I shot a wedding back in May here and it is a fantastic venue. Since Rachel is VERY pregnant right now, I asked my friend Robby McCabe to come shoot with me. He has helped me out on a few occasions in the past and it will be great to work with him again. He is also going to be helping me on a wedding up in Brainerd in Mid January.
Britney and Zack met up with me for a fun engagement shoot during what I thought was probably the last week of autumn color. We were chasing the light in the early evening and had a blast walking around the riverfront area. We even stuck around for a little night bit of night shooting. Look through these photos makes me miss the warm weather as we hunker down for a long cold minnesota winter.
