Ben Berndt Photography

Kim and Brandon’s Wedding 06.27.2009

Kim and Brandon put on a incredibly fun wedding and I had the pleasure of being e a part of it.  Since we have a 6 month old at home, Rachel can only go to a handful of weddings this year.  So I brought my friend Robby with to help me out.  Robby and I go back a few years and he has helped me out on a lot of weddings.  So it was nice to have a friendly face and to not have to worry about bringing anybody new to help me this year.  Kim had also wanted to hit up a few of my favorite spots in the Minneapolis area and we got some fantastic shots to show for it. Check out the slideshow below to get a quick peak at a handful of their photos

A huge thanks goes out to Kim and Brandon and I hope you two have a fantastic life together.  You both seemed to be truly passionate about each other and I pray that continues for each of you.

~Ben

Britney and Zack’s Wedding

A Saturday back in mid June, Rachel and I went back to our hometown area for a wonderful wedding. Britney & Zack planned a great wedding out at a local farm that had a cool barn that was modified to be a fantastic location for a big party.  We really love when couples see each other ahead of time and set aside time for photos without a lot stress and rush, and we really really love when people are fun and laid-back like these two were. We even were treated to a nice sunset to end the night with. They had fun, we had fun, and I hope you have fun with this slideshow of their big day!

Kevin and Chrissy

In mid May, I got some of the new Pocket wizard remote flash triggers that do full Ettl and had been having some issues with them.  I had learned some work arounds that actually worked well, so I wanted to do a “practice” shoot with some friends to put them through a real life test.  They worked pretty good and only had a couple times that I had to pop the batteries to start from scratch with them.   I’m not 100% confident with them yet, so I will probably mix them in my more laid back shoots.  Pocket Wizard is a great company, so I’m sure they will release an update soon to resolve the IR noise issues that nearly all Canon shooters are having.

Here are a couple shots we took.

Kacey and Aaron’s Engagement shoot from this past winter

This past winter I met up with Aaron and Kacey for their engagement photo’s down by the Lake Harriet Bandshell.  You never know how things are going to go when it comes to cold weather sessions, but the besides a strong wind coming off the frozen lake, we were blessed with a great day.  I am going to be shooting their wedding this upcoming October and it looks like it will be a ton of fun.

Adventure: A Week in the BWCA

Last year we started a fun new tradition that takes me off the grid for a week in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I absolutely love this wilderness area and I go up there twice a summer now to get away from everything. This year we had planned on going up in a group of 6 (3 canoes), but one of the guys had a family emergency and had to back out last minute. So we scrambled to find a solo canoe to supplement our other 2 tandem canoes.
The crew consisted of: (Right to left in photo)

• Myself
• Robby (partner in crime at a lot of my wedding shoots)
• Jason (my brother-in-law)
• Clint (Gerhardt’s Cousin)
• Gerhardt (my best friend for many years)

We had a pretty smooth trip up from the cities and the weather was pretty much perfect for the first day. When we planned the trip, we underestimated the length of one of the lakes we were to paddle across at the end of the first push. We ended up paddling for about 2 hours more then expected and were forced to really push hard to find an open site to camp the night. It was a pretty nice site and had a great view of Winchell Lake.  That night we had two seperate moose encounters. The first was a Mother/Calf pair that came ashore very close to our campsite and the second was a teenage size moose swimming across the lake directly in front of our site.   Robby and I persued the swimming moose across the lake and was able to get a great view from about 50 feet behind at all times.  Robby and I were hanging out at the site and we saw what looked to be the beginnings of a great sunset developing.  It had been clouded over up to that point,  so we weren’t expecting much and had most of our gear in their waterproof bags. So we gathered up our stuff quick and hit the lake to get a decent view.

The landing area of the first campsite we stayed on

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The next morning we voted to move on and try to get a site another lake over.  The lower site just around the bend from the portage landing was rumored to be a primo site, so we got up early to get a jump on everyone else. While we didn’t get on the lake quiet fast enough as there was a big group just landing at the portage before us.  We quickly caught them and found out they didn’t know how to pack well since they were having to take 2-3 times to bring everything over the portage. We had our gear slimmed down enough to allow us to bring everything over in one pass (canoes included).  So we pretty much just landed our canoes, loaded up and passed them over.  We scored the primo site and then did some cliff jumping to rinse off. Sure enough, about 30 minutes after we had claimed the site, the other group came paddling by to see if it was available.  I was feeling pretty happy about our awesome portage skills.

(L To R) Me,  Gerhardt, Robby

Me taking a long dive off a tree on top of the cliff

We loved the site so much that we decided to layover there for 2 days.  Glad we did because the weather really started to whip up some rain and wind for those two days.  It was pretty sporatic, so all it did was make everything a little bit more varried and entertaining.  I don’t remember this much, but according to Robby. . . I woke up in the middle of the night freaking out and touching the floor of the tent since the rain had formed a small lake under the tent.  I asked him if he felt the water on his side of the tent, he said nope and I yelled “FANTASTIC!!!” and then went back to sleep.  I really don’t remember this at all, but I don’t doubt that it happened.

A few shots of the site:

Gerhardt taking in the view on a hammock

The only dry place outside the tent and the hammock was this giant rock.

Gerhardt getting his line wet.

Notice all the rain in the canoes. . . Yeah it came down in sheets overnight

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We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do.

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A few shots from the views just from our site

One of my favorite shots from the trip.  Gerhardt and Clint were out doing a little fishing at Dusk as the sun set behind the thunderstorm

I love the symmetry and the clouds in this photo.  It looks much more impressive when seen at full size

I believe these are lady slippers, but I wasn’t certian at the time since I had never seen one in the wild before.  Gerhardt and I had been out exploring the island we were camping on and stumbled on a group of 6 of them.

Redwing Chill and Grill

A couple months back I hooked up with a few riders to take some shots on a new Downhill Mountain Biking course down in Red Wing, MN.  They have worked hard to create a pretty awesome trail with some great features.  In addition to the great session,  we had a nice grill out where many a brat and RedBull was consumed.  When I got home I found 3 ticks, one of which was hanging out in my hairline (nice and plump too). Good day none-the-less

My Daughter Grace and her new Trike.

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.

Photos!!!

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.

~Ben

It’s a Girl!!!!

At 3:14pm today Rachel gave birth to Hannah Faith Berndt.

Weight: 7 lbs 10oz

Length20″ 1/4

Everything went about as good as it could go. Once the girls are sleeping, I’ll upload some photos.

~Ben

We are at the hospital !!!!

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.

~Ben