Angie and Mike's Blog

To celebrate Angie and her 30th birthday today, I took her to Kansas City this past weekend. We shopped at Legends, stayed on the Plaza and got all dressed up for dinner. Here we are in our hotel room before we headed out to McCormick & Schmick's Seafood restaurant. Happy Birthday, honey! You don't look a day over 27! :)

Labels: Angie, Birthdays and Holidays, family outings, Kansas City, Mike

It wasn't my intention to let this blog go dormant for a couple of months. Heck, even this "new" post is already old. In September, Angie and I took a three-day getaway to Los Angeles. We made a couple of drives up the coast, watched the sun set from Santa Monica Pier, met Mickey Mouse at Disneyland and took in a Dodgers game. Click here to see all the photos!

Labels: Angie, baseball, California, Mike, On Location

I spent a good portion of the July 4th weekend splitting some firewood with our neighbor. We now have a nice stack behind the shed. As a recent groom commented on Facebook, you wouldn't normally expect to hear of a photographer spending a summer weekend playing with firewood. That's true but it sure was fun to get out and do some hard work. Having said that, I don't foresee opening a tree-trimming business any time soon.

Labels: Mike

We took a few days off around the Memorial Day weekend and set out for Cincinnati. We made it all the way to the El Dorado rest area before we had to stop and change a diaper.


That made Maddie very happy. That and we were only 30 miles into a 2,000-mile journey.


At the next rest area, we stopped for a feeding.


Then, in Kansas City, it was time to feed ourselves. We also took time to feed Maddie.


Still a pretty happy camper!


But getting tuckered out as we pulled into Columbia, where we’d stay for the night.


The next morning I had breakfast with Gerik, a former newspaper colleague. We didn’t actually work at the same paper but had the (mis)fortune of working for the same company. He suggested the Broadway Diner.


Aren’t those some killer pancakes?


The place is pretty popular.


Driving through St. Louis we caught up with this car from Johnson County. I’ll seldom claim Johnson County as being a part of Kansas but when I’m in another state I usually get pretty excited to see another car from Kansas. I especially get excited if it has a dog sticking its head out the window!


We used a backroom at a small gas station to feed Maddie in rural Illinois.


This is eastbound I-64 entering Kentucky. The westbound lanes are on the top deck.


Downtown Louisville.


We detoured to Elizabethtown because Angie likes the movie so much. I like it, too. Afterall, it’s about a roadtrip. We got there too late to tour the Coca-Cola museum and were disappointed that we couldn’t find any quaint, local places to eat in the downtown. So we ate at Shoney’s near the interstate. It may be a chain but at least there isn’t one at home.


Aaron holds the tickets to our Reds game as we prepare to enter the stadium on Saturday.


The view of the plaza and downtown Cincinnati from the upper deck concourse.


Another view of downtown Cincinnati.


Aaron, my Little Brother from Topeka who now lives in Cincinnati, went with us. It was the first time he’d been to a Reds game. It was also the first time I had to look up to him as he’s grown to more than six feet tall.


Great American Ball Park from the upper deck. Our seats were just off to the first base side of home plate and while it looks far away in this shot, they were really good seats.


This was Maddie’s first Major League baseball game so we took a self-portrait after the game. I saw my first Major League baseball game in Cincinnati when I was nine years old.


I’m not sure how Aaron can see anything through his hair.


I had hoped that “Great American Ball Park” was an original name but it’s not. Turns out it’s an insurance company. Still sounds cool, though.


On Sunday, we went to the zoo, which we’d heard ranks up there in the top three or four in the country. It was a neat experience but we can see more animals at our zoo and not have near the walk or number of visitors to deal with.


Trying not to get too hot while waiting for the train.


The train ride was nice. It reminded me of the train rides we’d take at Joyland.


Maddie started to get a little cranky, as did we, so we made it a short visit to the zoo.


But we made sure to see the polar bears first.


And Angie wouldn’t leave the zoo without seeing the chimpanzees. She insists they are my cousins.


Of course, the real reason for the trip was to see Uncle Chuck. He’s my dad’s older, and only, brother. He’s got three kids, two of whom I don’t think I’ve ever met. I’m sure Angie’s got cousins she’s never met but her family is so stinkin’ big. On the Shepherd side, though, there aren’t very many of us (not counting the chimps) so I wanted them to meet Maddie.


This is Libby. She’s 13 and my second cousin. Her father, Scott, and I are first cousins and 17 years apart in age. I guess its only appropriate that Libby and I are also 17 years apart. She did a great job holding Maddie.


The last time I saw Libby she was a playful six years old. At this rate, the next time I see her she’ll be in college.


Maddie was is good spirits all weekend, despite all the driving we did. Here she’s pretty happy to be out of her car seat. Because she’s a Christmas Eve baby, and because Christmas is Angie’s favorite holiday, we decided to stop in Santa Claus, Ind., on the way home.


In Santa Claus, it’s Christmas all year long.


We also stopped at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, a family-owned ice cream shop along the original Route 66 alignment in southwest St. Louis.


Now, I don’t know of a dog that wouldn’t like ice cream but that’s not an insult to Ted. It was really pretty good stuff and I’m not even a big ice cream fan.


There weren’t as many photos taken on the way home as there were on the way out. We were just too pooped. I don’t think we were home an hour before Maddie and I fell asleep on the couch. And Harley was glad to see us, too. She’d been at Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd’s house while we were away. Right after Angie took this photo she sneaked out of the house to Target. We didn’t even hear her leave.

Labels: Aaron and Callie, Angie, Cincinnati, Family, family outings, Maddie, Mike, On Location, Route 66

Karen and I photographed Lori and Derek's wedding last weekend on Lori's family's farm near Windom. Her father, Jim, is the fourth generation to farm the land in western McPherson County. Lori's brother is next in line to take over guaranteeing that the farm will remain in the Nelson family for many more years. While scouting locations after the rehearsal dinner, we happened upon this old red barn which just happened to be near the house that Lori grew up in. And the chair? It was just sitting in the middle of a nearby basketball court as if it were waiting for other to show up for a game of horse. We repositioned it and I showed Lori how I envisioned her posing. Of course, she did a much better interpretation than did I. Thanks, Karen, for snapping this frame of me in a (somewhat) compromising position.

Labels: Crossover, Heartland, Mike, On Location, work

I spent the past weekend playing wedding photographer with Karen at Erin and Shane's wedding in Lawrence. I know Erin through her sister, Rachelle, with whom I went to high school. They first contacted me nearly two years ago to talk about wedding photography. I'm so glad they bought into our style and vision for wedding photography! As we were waiting for the shuttle bus to take the guests from the chapel to the reception, I gathered everyone behind the newlyweds for a fun group photo. Go on over to the Heartland blog to see a preview.

Labels: Heartland, Lawrence, Mike, On Location, work

Our neighbors, Andrew and Tori, invited us over for dinner and Wii on Sunday.


I was a bit shy and stayed behind my camera while Angie rocked out with Andrew.


Meanwhile, Tori entertained Maddie.


And Harley tried not to get stepped on by Meeko, Andrew's boxer.

On the way home, Angie reminded me that her birthday is coming up soon. "(Nevermind) a watch!" she said "I wanna Wii!"

Labels: Angie, Bella Vista, Friends, Harley, Maddie, Mike

Angie accompanied me to the medical school today for the opening reception of my exhibit "Keepers: A Collection of Newspaper Photographs." It's up through Feb. 27. It contains 20 of my most favorite images from my newspaper days. I was asked by the medical school's art director last summer to consider doing a show. It was a bit stressful trying to get it put together at the same time I became a new dad but the warm welcome I received today made it all worth my while. Let me know if you're interested in seeing it before it comes down.

Labels: KUSM-W, Mike, work

My co-worker James made this caricature of me today and titled it "Mike's Typical Weekend." For the past couple of weeks thats certainly been the case although I'm not really sure about the overalls!

Labels: KUSM-W, Mike, work

I teamed up with Heather Essian to photograph Karen and Erik's wedding yesterday. On their way out of the reception following the last dance, the happy couple stopped by our work station for a self-portrait. To her credit, this is the only frame Karen, the founding partner of Heartland Photography, shot all day. There's a brief preview over on the Heartland blog and I'll be adding more as I editing throughout this week and next.

Labels: Crossover, Heartland, Mike, work

As of 9:48 this morning, I'm officially 30.

Labels: Birthdays and Holidays, Mike

Northwest tailback Andrew Etheridge (22) sprints to the endzone ahead of Bishop Carroll's Michael Peters (30) in a game Saturday at Maize High. This was the second of two games I covered for The Eagle this weekend. This one didnt make the paper because as dominant as Northwest was in the first half it came out flat in the second and was easily defeated.


A nice defensive play on Northwest's part saw Deangelo Grim (8) break up a pass intended for Bishop Carroll's Joe Brown (34) in the first quarter. Again, this one didn't make the paper, either, although it did find a home in an online gallery. Maybe I'm old school, but a photo has to make it in print to count.

Labels: Eagle, Mike, work