Freedom!

I have been keeping my two youngest dogs in the bathroom when I am gone for a long periods of time in the day. They have been chewing at the door, little by little each time. Today they finally broke through...

Moomers Ice Cream!

Moomers, a family owned and operated ice cream shop, was voted number one ice cream place with Good Morning America. The shop is nestled in the country side of Traverse City, next to the Plummer’s family farm where the ice cream is all started.
The family owns numerous dairy cows which they milk twice a day. The milk is picked up by a tanker truck and homogenized. When the homogenized milk returns, the ice cream making process begins. Moomers ice cream is all homemade in the back of their shop. They have over 100 different flavors which they make in their kitchen, with twenty of them being available daily.
Moomers is open 10 out of 12 months a year.

Out of the ordinary

The other night I went out with some friends to a bar called KilKenny's in Traverse City. I wasn't really paying much attention to the people outside of our little group but one of my friends pointed out this guy, sitting alone and writting something onto a pad of paper. They said I should go talk to him, jokingly, probably didn't think I would. The guy was probably in his mid to late twenties. He wore a black beret and a black peacoat. But I walked right over to him, sat down and asked him what he was working on. He was scetching out a comic. After a few minutes of conversation, I came to find out he had a series of these comics with the main character being a guy called "Barf Boy." I didn't really understand the story of any of these but he was very into his work. And he was also sober as a rock! I told him who I was and what I went to school for and told him that this whole situation of him coming to a bar every night, not drinking and coming up with these comics would make a great photo story. He didn't like the idea. It was a good experience for me! I realized that I am capable of making people comfy enough to talk to me and tell me things about their lives they normally wouldn't tell a stranger!

The photo of the opossum was taken in Mount Pleasant. Bradley, Stella and I went on a lovely walk and we found a dead squirrel, then this dead opossum and then a little mouse that Stella thought would make a nice afternoon snack, but we did not let her enjoy it... I normally wouldn't photograph dead animals but it was so random that this opossum was lying next to this tree, dead, with no signs of being hit. It must have had a very cold night :(

The photo of the frozen bay was taken in Traverse City. You can see that the water level is still low but the bay finally reached a rigid enough temp. that it was able to freeze. There were two swans sitting out there but I didn't have a long enough lens to capture them. Dang it...

MPPA 2009

MPPA is an annual event for the photographers of Michigan to come together and share with each other their photography and enter in a competition under various categories. I have been going for the past three years and this may have been the best year so far. I have made many new friends and one of my best gal pals OWNED CPOY! Go SMILLA! :) BFFs haha! Anywho, the following video is my third assignment for JRN 521. It wasn't what I was exactly shooting for but I think its a fun video and if I had never been to MPPA, I think it would encourage me to go... Congrats to all who entered and won an award, new and old! Yea! Since it is for educational purposes, I used a copyrighted song. I was also up until 8 in the morning trying to get this finished by 10 and the crazy thing is, I'm not extremely tired...