Casa for Casa Gingerbread House Competition

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to participate in the Dane County "Casas for CASA" Gingerbread House Competition. Dane County CASA (short for Court Appointed Special Advocates) is a non-profit group who provides volunteer child advocates to kids in abuse and neglect situations that need representation in court. Not a small task! They held this gingerbread decorating competition not only to raise money, but to build awareness about their organization. Bunbury & Associates Realtors sponsored a gingerbread house, and I and a few co-workers got to go decorate on Saturday.

In preparation for build, I decided to try my hand at fondant figures. I have a secret desire to be a cake decorator, and this was my chance to go all "Ace of Cakes" style over this gingerbread house! I found a recipe online for the fondant, made it, dyed it, and created these little guys. I can't wait to try and make a cake now!

Here are a few pictures of the finished gingerbread house. I posted a bunch of photos on the Bunbury & Associates Realtors fan page on Facebook, so check it out!

Here is a close-up of the front of the house and the little Santa, Mrs.Claus, and Rudolph figurines.


The little windows are made out of Graham crackers, and had the little elves and reindeer peeking out on the sides


Snow Angels!


Here's the back of the house:


And of course, since our real estate company sponsored the house, it had to be for sale!


Here's a picture of me in front of the house (along with a really excited lady in the background), after we won the children's choice award! All of the kids entering the mall were given a peppermint candy during the building of the houses, and they got to vote for their favorites. Ours had the most peppermints! It's cool to be chosen a winner by the kids - that's what it's all about right?


If you want to learn more about CASA, visit their website, or check out their page on facebook from the event!

There was also a record breaking 26 foot gingerbread man! Wow!

It was an honor to be apart of the event. I didn't anticipate the whole while we were decorating that we would have a crowd of kids and adults just in awe of what we were doing. It definitely got me in the holiday spirit! If you are in and around the Hilldale Mall, be sure to stop by and check out all of the gingerbread houses on display through the end of December!

Connor

I met Connor and his mom and dad at the State Capitol last Saturday afternoon. The last time I saw this little family, Connor was just a newborn, and now he was a big 6 month old! Time flies by so quickly! Luckily, our session was in the middle of a home Badger football game, so the state capitol was pretty much ours!

We had a hard time getting a little smile out of this guy, but it doesn't matter, he looks adorable just sitting there! Here are a few favorites from our session, and I can't wait to see him again at his one year old session!















Since it was such a nice day out, we decided to go outside and try playing in the leaves. No smiles, but that little hat is sure adorable!

Photo Workshop

After a year of being on the mailing list, this past Saturday I finally got to join the Blackhawk Photo Affinity Group for their monthly workshops. The Affinity Group is a bunch of photographers from my church who get together and share tips and work on a specific aspect of photography. This past Saturday we worked on shots with 2 constant lights (aka lights that stay on all the time). Here are a few of my shots, and for you photogs out there, a set-up of our lighting.



We were having fun with the old magazines at the news stand... there were bare ankles in this one!


The lighting set-up:




The lighting set-up. There is also a halogen work light behind the couch.


Here's Steve multi-tasking... us photogs are so talented!


One last set-up in the stairwell:


Here are a few more pictures of me modeling, and well, just acting silly. See, this is why I am behind the camera most of the time!

These are courtesy of Steve Salt:




Here's the lighting set-up for this shot:


And these are from Matt Kirk - transporting gear to our next location. Being a photographer is so glamorous!






Thanks guys for a great afternoon, I learned a lot!

Kyle & Kim - Engaged!

I met Kyle & Kim on a gorgeous fall day at the Memorial Union Terrace. I am still in awe that we were without jackets on November 7th - it made it's way into the mid 60's that day! I could get used to fall/early winter if that would be the case all the time. Since it was such a beautiful day out, there were so many people out and about at the Terrace, but we managed to sneak around and find a bunch of awesome shots. It was weird though, all the chairs were packed up for the season! So, even though our session found us at the terrace, there will be no bright, colorful chairs in this shoot - bummer!

Kyle & Kim brought along Miley, their just over one year old puppy with them. After a little up-chucking behind the boats due to nerves, she was rearing and ready to go! Oh well, that happens :) All in all, she did such a great job.

On to the photos! More of my favorites can be found on my facebook page, so check them out!

We started off with a little walk down lakeshore path, and we found this cool off to the side trail where some be-awesome (that is beyond awesome) light was making it's way through the trees!





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This is one of my all time favorite dog shots. She just came up and laid like this - how cute!






Thanks guys for a great afternoon, I had a really fun time! Can't wait for July!

More from the Terrace

Here's another little image I grabbed at the Terrace the other day. So fall-y (you'll have to excuse me, I've inherited my mother's "make up words" gene).

We are family!

I had a great time meeting this family on a sunny fall morning at the UW Arboretum in Madison. I would have never guessed when we scheduled our shoot a few months back for November that we would have 60+ degree temperatures! It was an absolutely gorgeous morning. Add a few cuties to the mix, and you have a recipe for perfect photos.

We started grabbing one of everyone together


This is one little cutie


All of that sitting in one place stuff gets pretty boring, luckily mother nature supplied us with the entertainment!


I think this picture is so cute, I want it for my Christmas Card :)


Sans hat


Brother and Sister....awwwwwwee.....


We ran around and played for a while




What beautiful sisters!


Thanks everyone for a great morning, I had fun!

2009 Holiday Cards!

Seriously - it's time to starting thinking about this already?! I am a firm believer in nothing Christmas before Thanksgiving, but I have seemed to throw that convention out the window this year. Seeing all the snowflakes and large ornaments hanging from the ceiling in Target have just opened up that part of my heart where Christmas is kept, and now there is no turning back! I am even *gaff!* considering putting up my Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, so that when we come back from visiting our parents it's all festive in our house. What have I come to!?!

:)

Ok, back to what this post was SUPPOSED to be about. I have released my 2009 Christmas Card Collection and have opened up the ordering for my clients. So, present and past Jenn Van Wyk Photography Clients, head on over to http://www.jennvanwyk.com/#/holiday-cards-home/ and check out the designs.

The cards are a flat, glossy 5x7 card complete with envelopes. All of the designs are the same price. After you place your order, you'll work with yours truly to pick the images and figure out any custom text. Easy peesy lemon squeezy.

So check one of those things off that Christmas list you've been building in your head :)

Here are a few of my favorites, but more are over on the website! Please note that these are not my images in the cards, they are from the designer of the templates.