Roadtrippin' Day 3:

Here's part 3 of our trip last weekend.  We saw that funny Senior Center sign in Emmetsburg on Saturday, and decided that on the way home we would stop by every town that we came to and try to find something funny or unique in each one.   That goal turned into "let's drive down Main Street of every town" and actually was quite fun.  We discovered that each small town has it's own vibe, and it was pretty cool to try and figure it out. 

Here's a little bit of what we found along East 18:

This dandelion? is about the size of a baseball... by far the biggest one I've ever seen.

The appropriately named "Goodies Ice Cream" stop...

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Roadtrippin' Day 2:

I called this post "Day 2" because Day 1 was Tara and Josh's wedding, which hasn't been sorted through just yet.  We spent the weekend in northwestern Iowa, mainly because of shooting the wedding, but also because we brought our kids along.  We found a God-send of a baby-sitter for during the wedding, and then Saturday was family day!! 

At the wedding, we ran into the parents of one of our bride's from last October. They live in Chicago, so we were surprised to see them in Okoboji.  Turns out, they have a lake house nearby. We told them we had our children along, and they asked us to stop by for a visit. So, the kids got to go on their first boat ride ever!  Jackson had a blast on the boat... still not sure about Alana. :) Terry and Trudy... Thank you for letting us drop by! You helped to make our family weekend special! 

I think she was tired, but this was her face pretty much the entire ride.

Back at our hotel, we rode the escalator up and down... up and down... up and down...

Now, we're in Emmetsburg, and came across this little car shop on our way to the Pizza Ranch for supper.  There were 2 men, and lots of really old cars sitting around, so we asked if we could take some shots. I didn't really take pictures of most of the cars, since it was pretty dark in the shop, but we got a few.

I have to post this, because our 4yr old, Jackson, took it all by himself. 

This is Mike, the owner of the cars and drinker of the beer...

This sign cracked us up, and sparked a mini-adventure on Day 3 which I will post very soon...

The aforementioned Mike told us about this park, so we got rid of what energy was left after a long, busy day.

It's all in the eyes.

I have to share this picture.  It so accurately portrays our two children and their personalities... We've got Alana's huge eyes and gentle spirit, and Jackson rockin' the Tigger shirt with a crazy-man face in the background.  

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Believe it or not, but our first senior session is tonight!  We had a friend from church create two new backgrounds for us, and she totally rocked them, so we're pretty excited.  

Our Kids... finally!!

They're cute. We know. You can't imagine how difficult it is to try and stay humble with kids this good-looking! :) It's funny how a roofer has a leaky roof, and a mechanic's car leaks oil, and a photographer doesn't have pictures of their own kids... in fact, their Great-Grandmother in PA mailed us money to send her a picture of the kids!!! Isn't that horrible??!! Our relatives have to bribe us! But, Alana turned 2 yrs old last Friday, and we had an excuse to get her into the studio for some photos. Of course, once we realized that large canvas gallery wraps were inevitable, we had to take some of Jackson as well. 

This what we get when we tell him to just do whatever he wants. :)

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I'm trying something new with putting the images on our blog.  I hope the loading time is faster and that we won't have any more of those hidden pictures.  That's annoying, I know.  Hopefully I remedied that. 

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This is hilarious to me... I read an article yesterday about how the Earth will be sucked into the Sun's gravity field in 1 billion years and will burn up our oceans and we'll all die.  Which, if that's true, then whatever.  The funny part is that they say there is a way to stop that process.  All we have to do in the next couple hundred million years is, and I quote, "tame an asteroid to swing by the Earth every few thousand years".  I laughed out loud.  I think we watch too much TV.  Even if it was possible.... it still sounds hilarious.  Tame an asteroid.

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Man down...

My apologies for not posting this week... I came home to a dead Power Mac.  So, it's off to the doctor tomorrow for a checkup.  The computer, that is. 

We had a most wonderful enjoyable learning experience at the Portrait Life studio the past week. Jeff and Julia are top-notch all the way through.  From personalized folders, to the soothing water wall, they made us feel welcome and at home. Thanks guys!

We weren't able to attend our State convention this week because of being out of town, but we sent some competition stuff anyways. And because a couple of you asked, Jodi got 1st place with one of our guest book albums, and I got two 1st place's with our wedding and senior marketing pieces.  We also got 6 honorable mentions, but that's like kissing your sister... doesn't do much for you.  Maybe we'll have to skip that convention every year, because we seem to do better when we're not there. :)

The Year in Review

2007 was a breakout year for Gehman Photography.  The year was filled with highlights and lowlights, accomplishments and growing pains.  At the close of another year, we take a moment to look back and remember the good stuff, and learn from the not-so-good.  

January:

-- The GP blog receives its first comment.  There is much rejoicing!  There is someone reading the blog! 

February:

-- We won our very first First Place award at our Iowa Convention.  

--Jodi and I hosted our first Photoshop Class, teaching the basics of retouching and enhancements.  We would seriously consider teaching another class if there is enough interest.  Email me if you are interested.  I would teach PS CS3 and the class would be open to non-local photographers only.

March:

-- We had the opportunity to travel to Ghana, Africa.  We want to go back someday... it will always be in our hearts and minds.  There are some memories and faces that are etched in our mind forever, and hopefully our lives are different because of them.

 

April:

-- We had the pleasure of going to Kansas for a wedding and staying at a friends ranch.   It's cool how each part of the country has it's own beauty, even though there are vast differences.

--Our main computer hard drive crashes.  All our images are backed up, so nothing is lost!  One of the first of many opportunities to praise God in hardships this year.  It just goes to show that even the best computers are not perfect, and if you are a photog reading this.... there is nothing so urgent as to keep you from backing up your images. 

May:

-- Jodi gets stung in the eye by a bee or something during outdoor wedding pictures.

June:

-- In the weather category, Patrick and Erika take the prize for the hottest wedding of the year.

--  GP launches it's brand new website!  Thank you BluDomain!

July:

--  I traveled to Denver, CO, with my church youth group for a week of working with the homeless.  Another event in my life that will not soon be forgotten.  I'll never forget Curt, who told me that he is homeless but he takes the money from his part-time job and buys food for other homeless people.  

--  Both Jodi and I were honored to be in my brother's wedding in July.  We got to experience a photographer from the other side of the lens. :)  Actually, it was fun to be part of the wedding experience without having to work!

--Jodi and I were driving separate to a wedding one Saturday, and on my way there, my car's engine decided to overheat.  Well, I was going past my friends automotive shop, so I swung by for some coolant.  He informed me that if I moved my car off the spot, I would not make it more than a few miles due to a serious leak.  He had a loaner car ready to go and I made the wedding on time. :) 

August:

-- High School Senior season started for GP, breaking ground for my favorite blog feature called "A Bit About Me" where seniors told you about themselves.  

--Nicole becomes our nanny and Jodi and I begin our slow journey towards catching up.

September:

-- In an effort to play to our strengths, GP adds a Family and Children's photographer, Hannah, and a media manager, Brandon.

-- Our main computer does not respond one morning.  We take it in for repairs and are informed that $15oo should cover what they thought was wrong.  After further review, they discovered that nothing, in fact, was wrong with the computer and it responded fine to every test they ran.  We leave the computer store with a bill for $60, thank the dear Lord.

October:

-- We traveled to Chicago for a wedding, and Jodi tries her first Starbucks.

-- We discover that the Wii is a great form of exercise.

November:

-- We shoot our last wedding for the year bringing the total to 29.

-- We book our first destination wedding for next year!  Mexico, here we come!

-- GP answers all of your questions in "A Bit About Us".

December:

-- We enhance our business skills at the SuccessWare meetings in VA.

--  I had a photograph place 4th in a contest with the ultra-famous Jesh de Rox.  Thank you all for voting!  Now you know which one was mine. :)  Sorry.. I wanted to be fair.

-- Winter sets in.

--  Jodi's brother is married!

--  GP gives away an iPodtouch

-- Jodi and I start our weight training routine.

-- I figure out that to make a diamond like this "◊" you hold the shift+alt+v combination, and that to make the Apple logo , you hold shift+alt+k.

Obviously, there is much more than we could ever put on this website that we experienced this year, like when our 3 yr old learned to ride a bike without training wheels, or when our dog mysteriously disappeared, or how I had geese and squirrels looking in my office window, or all of the special people that we were able to meet this year.  We look forward to making some changes in 2008, and seeing new cities, new countries, and new faces.

God bless in the New Year!