...And Baby Makes Three. Five if you count the cats.

Wow, it's been awhile since I've written a post! Life has just been so nutty lately that it hasn't been high on my list of priorities, which instead have consisted mainly of preparing for Baby K's arrival, working on the move to our new place in the 'burbs (which we're finally done with, thank goodness!), and dealing with a diagnosis of gestational hypertension, which caused me to go on modified bed rest for the final days of my pregnancy.

Originally Baby K was due to come on May 13 - however, with the hypertension coupled with a false labor I had a couple of weeks prior, my doctor had a feeling that he'd come early. Turns out she was right!

On April 27, after 21 hours of labor and four hours of pushing (which my OB said was a "superhuman" effort) our son Owen Stewart came into the world.

7 lbs., 11 oz., 20.5 inches long. 100% adorable (not that I'm biased or anything).

:)

More updates to come, so stay tuned!

FLASH! Ahhhh....Savoir of the Universe!

*Yes, the subject is a reference to Flash Gordon, a pretty obscure Queen song. I figured it fit the topic of this post quite nicely. :)

I've been meaning to buy the Nikon SB-900 Speedlight for quite some time, but kept putting it off and renting it instead since my photography style typically calls for natural rather than man-made light.

However, I do realize that in certain instances (especially for weddings and receptions) natural light alone won't cut it. As an early birthday present, Brian decided it was high time for me to stop being, as he calls it, "overly frugal" and bought me the newest version of the flash, the Nikon SB-910 Speedlight.

I won't bore you with the specs, but rest assured this flash is pretty supafly. The best feature, IMO? If you have a remote flash trigger (like a PocketWizard), you can use it as an off-camera flash. Plus, if I choose to buy/rent another flash in the future, this one can act as a "Master", controlling another off-camera flash for ultimate lighting control.

Take a look. Isn't it pretty? Pretty sure Brian's got a decent shot at winning "Husband of the Year" in 2013.

:)

Wow.

That word pretty much sums up my life as of late. Here's a not-so-short summary. You have been warned. :)


The car.
I still remember when Brian brought home the Saturn in the fall of 2007. I was so angry at him because, although it was a newer car than the '78 Porsche he had previously, it had a manual transmission! After a few half-baked attempts at learning stick on the Porsche that included lots of stalling and screaming for my life, I let Brian drive me around in the Saturn like a little old lady who never bothered to get a driver's license.

Fast forward to fall 2009, when we moved to Ohio. Since Brian was in school full-time, and I needed to get one of those job-type things to help support us, I no longer had a personal chauffeur to drive me to and from interviews. So, I finally buckled down, had a heart-to-heart with the Saturn, and conquered my fear of driving stick.

After a rocky start, and despite all of the car's quirks (like only half of the dashboard lights working, no back-up lights, a clicking sound whenever you turned on the heat and/or air conditioning, etc.) we became great pals. I felt a strong attachment to that car and drove it with pride, despite its inherent ghettofabulousness.

You can imagine how heartbroken I was to discover recently that the car no longer idled. I won't bore you with the specifics of what went wrong, but after not being able to fix it after two months (!) in the shop, we knew it was time to let it go. With a new part-time job for Brian starting in January and a baby on the way, it was time to get a new car.

Although the new one is pretty and works far better than the Saturn ever did, I still can't help but miss the car that taught me how to drive stick. That drove us to Disney World and back. That wore three different state license plates throughout its life.

R.I.P. Saturn. We love you and we'll never forget you!

Photo courtesy: Brian Kaster (aka the bestest best husband ever!). And in case you were wondering, the handicapped signs were put up AFTER we parked there (no joke...gotta love Chicago!). At least the city didn't slap us with a ticket!

The roof over our heads.
Our former landlord, who we really liked (and trust me, he loved us in return!) sold the building we're living in to a couple who don't speak much English and had zero experience being landlords. Very long story short (trust me, it's full of drama and lots of frustration), let's just say that we can't wait to move out after our lease ends into a house in the 'burbs. True that I'm not thrilled about moving away from the city, but I am excited to be closer to family, friends and some fresher air.


The cats.
They're still fluffy and crazy, as always. :)

Shortly after returning from Christmas, however, we noticed that Sokka's appetite had decreased dramatically and his ribcage was starting to show. For a cat that would chase us down and consistently wake us at 5:30 in the morning begging for food, we knew something was amiss. We brought him to the vet to get it checked out and a few days later got the news that Sokka has diabetes.

We're not quite sure how it happened (he used to be a couple of pounds overweight, which we gradually fixed, and kept him pretty active) but of course pregnancy hormones plus my natural predisposition to worry led me to blame myself for letting him get to that point. After a talk with Brian (who is great at talking sense into my oft-non-sensical brain) I realized that it likely wasn't my/our fault, and all we can do at this point is to help him feel better.

So now we'll get to discover the joys of living with a diabetic cat!

Sokka, taken a few months ago (I didn't have the heart to photograph him while he still looks like "skeletor cat"). I'll post an update pic after he chunks up a little. :)

The baby.
After the morning sickness finally subsided in early-mid December, I took a few weeks to simply enjoy feeling like a human being again instead of the pukey, food-hating zombie I was for essentially three months. It's been a blast to feel the baby starting to move, and it's amazing that it's now full-on kicking and rolling around in there!

We journeyed to Evanston on New Year's Eve morning for the anatomy scan, a detailed ultrasound that is essentially a guided tour of the baby's many parts and my uterus. For a majority of the scan the baby was pretty stubborn, which proves that there's some of my genes in there somewhere!

When it came time to locate "the goods", the baby miraculously had no problem showing us the parts, and we found out that we're having a BOY! And we're so stinkin' excited...although I think Brian is more relieved that he won't have to suffer through what he calls "Pony Princess Cartoons".

...whew! Now you know why it's taken me so long to post anything. Life's been pretty crazy lately, and it's only going to get crazier in 2013. It's time for me to pick back up my camera and start clicking away again.

Let's do this!

Brooke & Travis: Family Session

Brooke and Travis have what I like to call "personality plus". They are a heckuva lot of fun, and know how to live life to the fullest. Plus they're totally in love with each other and their cute little pup George. What's not to like? :)

Last weekend we met up with them for a day of photo fun in beautiful Port Washington, Wis., a picturesque small town right on Lake Michigan. In the morning we did a family session and in the afternoon we did a bridal/trash the dress (which will be featured in an upcoming post). Even in the unexpected morning chill, they were total naturals in front of the camera, which made my job super easy.

Afterwards we went out for breakfast at a local joint and chowed down on corned beef hash, among many other breakfast delicacies. And later, we introduced them to the wonder that is Kopp's frozen custard. Noms.

For this session I rented the 35 mm f/1.8 and the 85 mm f/1.4 lenses. And let me tell ya - even though I'm still in love with my 50 mm, I found myself using the two shiny new lenses more often than not.

Gah! Look at those eyes!! And check out George's stylin' sweater!

Look: George has "Yoda" ears! :)

Awwww. :)

Stay tuned for a post on their bridal/trash the dress session!

A little slice of my life.

Many of my updates lately have been all about photography. Which is swell and all (since this is, after all, a photo blog) but I have a tendency to neglect the portion that tells my story. The entire name of this blog/business is Laura Kaster Photography, and it's about time I focus more on sharing the "Laura" portion of the equation. I actually meant to post this last week, but got a wicked bad stomach virus (I turned into what I like to refer to as "Exorcist Laura" - not fun).

So, in no particular order, here's some fun non-photography stuff I've been up to lately:

A month or so ago, I went to Goodwill to drop some stuff off that had been taking up space in our apartment. After dropping them off, I made the mistake of entering the store and impulse-bought a papasan chair and a cute lamp and lampshade. Well, the lamp wasn't exactly cute at that point (it was painted what I like to call "Grandma Pink") but it definitely had potential. 

A couple of weekends ago I decided to awaken that potential and spray-painted it a nifty blueish-turquoise. It was way easier to spray-paint it than I thought it would be! If this whole photography thing doesn't work out, maybe I could rescue ugly things and spray-paint them back to life. Watch out Etsy artisans, you might have some competition!

In case you're wondering why I took photos of the lamp in our kitchen, it's because we live in a garden apartment (aka an apartment on the ground level, quite a common occurrence in Chicago), so we don't get a ton of natural light. In our kitchen we have these fantastic glass squares that let in a ton of light, hence making it the ideal place to take well-lit photos.

Which is why this photo also features my *clean* dishes and my knife collection.

In case you haven't noticed, Pumpkin is a Persian and is quite fluffy. During the bouts of 100+ degree weather we had over the summer, the poor girl resorted to sitting right in front of the air conditioner to get some relief from the brutal heat - I figured that was a pretty big hint that it was time to get her shaved.

Since all of the groomers I found in Chicago were hoity-toity and super pricey (or could only groom her on a weekday), Brian and I decided to invest in some electric clippers to shave Pumpkin. We figured it couldn't be that difficult - after all, if the people in the YouTube tutorials we saw could do it, then by golly we would have no problems doing it!

...yeah. We were wrong. So wrong. Even lots of treats and promises of catnip couldn't get her to sit still.

Don't get me wrong - we did shave her. Just....not all the way. Her hair has grown out a little so it doesn't look as silly any more, but still. You can tell that it's cut like when a five-year-old decides to cut their own hair with children's scissors.

Of course Pumpkin decided to be Little-Miss-Sassy-Pants and was very uncooperative for the camera for once in her furry life when I tried to capture the last remnants of her haircut. Brian theorizes that it's because she's getting older and more resistant to my demands requests...which of course makes me sad, because I don't like to think of my cute little fluff balls as "old".

Word to the wise: even though it's super-cute, if a cat presents you with her belly, do not give her a belly rub. In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar: "It's a trap!"

I *almost* got this in focus! If only she weren't so darn sassy!!

The recent more temperate weather in Chicago is getting me really excited for my favorite season: Fall! Crunching leaves, crisp air, pumpkin-flavored and themed everything, Halloween (Brian and I are planning on dressing up as Han and Leia from Star Wars - yes, we're nerds and we're proud of it!) apple picking, spooky stories....I could go on and on. 

And let's not forget about my favorite sport to watch! Football season is starting (yay!) but a majority of the first few Packers games are either on ESPN or NFL Network (boooooo - we don't have cable because we're cheap). Brian and I really want to go to a game at Lambeau this year, especially since the last one we went to was in 2010. Which is way too long ago for my liking.

...so we're going to the season opener against the 49er's. YAY!!

This photo is courtesy of Sherah G* Photography. Pretty much sums up our relationship: Brian's somewhat normal, and I'm kind of crazy. ;)

That's about it for now. Until next time peeps!

New *Borrowed* Toy: 35mm 1.4/f lens

One of my many photography goals is to try out some new lenses to test their capabilities and to see if I could work them into my repertoire. Since I'm too frugal to actually buy new lenses at this point (especially since the ones I'm looking at are $1,500+ each!) I rent them for a far more reasonable rate from my friendly neighborhood camera shop.

One of the many lenses on my list to try out was the 35 mm 1.4/f lens. I got a bit frustrated at a past wedding when my 50mm 1.4/f didn't do the job in confined spaces, so out of desperation I used my kit lens - which still provided some great pictures, but I would have preferred using a prime lens. 

All in all, I enjoyed testing out this beauty of a lens, which allowed a larger field of view as well as the ability to get up close and personal with my cats. Very versatile and just so darn cute. And the bokeh is to die for! :)

...drat. Now I want one....

And now some test shots with this beaut:

Brian and I blundered into Taste of Lincoln Avenue, which really wasn't as tasty as I was hoping. At least I found some cool looking signs at one of the craft tents.

I made cupcakes for my dad's birthday. He's 61 years young.

The cupcake cups were supposed to be turquoise and polka-dotted. Turns out that red velvet cake batter bleeds through them like permanent marker on a white sheet of paper. 

Lesson learned.

And for once in his furry life, Sokka was a pretty willing modeling subject! 

Awwwwww you can see the freckles on his nose. 

:)

Make New Friends...But Keep The Old.

Normally when I move to a new place (which I've done a few times in my life so far), I tend to make new friends easily. I think it's because I'm an adventurer at heart, and as such I befriend people who can help guide me on my journey. My Sherpas, if you will.

After I returned to Chicago last summer, I became my own Sherpa (or perhaps even the prodigal daughter). I had a general idea of how to get around, where to go and what to do. As such, I've been something of a hermit when it comes to meeting new people.

To overcome my minor self-diagnosed case of "hermititis", I've been reconnecting with some of my old pals that still live in the area. One of these friends is the lovely Sherah, whom I originally met shortly after I moved one block away from my old house when I was about 7-years-old. She acted as my Sherpa to the new neighborhood, guiding me to new friends and experiences I just didn't have on my old block.

 Sherah & I, around age 9ish. Ignore my short hairdo...*buries head in sand*

It was a major bummer when she moved away a few years later. Slowly but surely, we lost touch. Years passed, and we both went to college, met cute boys, married them, and had babies. Well, she had a baby anyway....I adopted cats. :)

Through the wonder of Facebook, we reconnected. Then I found out she, too, was a photo nerd. So, when I finally decided for sure that I wanted to take this whole photography shindig to the next level (along with taking nice photos of Brian & I), I knew just the gal to call to get the job done.

Visit her blog here - you know you wanna!

Sherah and I today...isn't she just the cutest pregnant lady ever?! 

{Photo is courtesy of Sherah G. Photography}

Stay tuned for some updates to the blog with some of the lovely photos she took - you're gonna love it. I guarantee it!

A Challenge. Or Goal, if you will.

I'm an underachieving overachiever.

Yes, I know it's an oxymoron. Let me explain through a typical example of how my mind works:

After making grandiose proclamations of "I'm going to book 100 weddings in 100 days!" or "I'm totally going to buy a new camera body for $2,000+!", I quickly become overwhelmed trying to reach these nonsensical and far over-reaching goals and give up any hope of reaching them.

To nip this self-destructive habit in the bud, I decided to try a different approach: creating a list of photography biz to-dos. I work really well with lists - if I can cross off action items I have a sense that I've actually accomplished something. Even if they're small (like, "Comment on two photo blog/discussions this week"), over time they do add up. At my full-time job, I have about three different lists going at one time to keep my projects organized, and it works wonders for my productivity.

It ain't fancy, but it does the job!

As they say: slow and steady wins the race!

Cat cat attack!

Usually when Brian or I are cooking, Pumpkin and Sokka stroll on over and watch us from the dining room - we have them trained to not enter the kitchen (although they attempt to "sneak in" anyway). While most cats would be off on a red velvet tasseled cushion gazing imperiously over their kingdom, our cats follow us around like a couple of begging puppies.

Last Saturday, while I was waiting for some muffins to bake, I decided to document it. Because it's just so darn adorable that our cats love us so much.

And trust me - the feeling's mutual.

:)

Of course Pumpkin had to come and instigate - she gets quite jealous if I pay more attention to Sokka than to her. Unfortunately all I could capture with the camera was her fluffball of a tail, since she was running too fast and I was using the 50mm/1.4f lens.

Happy Saturday!

There's a certain...SPRING...in my step.

It's Spring.

Which means that Flowers are sprouting up EVERYWHERE.







Pumpkin and Sokka are obviously thrilled.




I have determined that Lake Michigan is definitely one with the awesome.


Happy Spring!

New Look, Same Old Photog

Well, I finally got around to re-designing my business logo, because let's face it - the last one was a lame-o version that I came up with in about twenty minutes to have something better to look at than the default Blogger header setting.

This logo is definitely more "me" - classy, fun, with a hint of quirky. I'm hoping all of you will agree. :)

And FYI...I designed the logo all by myself. Little known fun-on-the-farm fact: I fancy myself a pretty nifty graphic designer. I actually took almost every design course that my college would allow back in the day - nice to know I haven't completely lost my touch!

Keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks for more updates, as well as some photos from a wedding I'm shooting one week from today!

That's Life.

I have way too many things on my Bucket List, including but not limited to:

- Buy a hammock and sleep outside under the stars.

-Travel the Middle East...on a camel.

-Go on a date with Johnny Depp (I have the full support of Brian, no worries!).


One of the items I've been meaning to cross off for quite some time now is to drive to a remote location by myself just to relax and enjoy the scenery.

So, I made reservations at an inn in Northern Wisconsin (Bayfield, to be exact) and made the eight-hour drive up all by me onzee in our aging Saturn. I enjoyed the simple pleasure of just wandering around the quaint town, framed with the majesty of Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands. I chose a lakeside room, and let me tell ya - it was well worth it.

Here's some photos from my first day (you can click on the photos to view them full-size):

The view from my room. I got to wake up to this. :)

It's like they already knew me! I heart Milanos....

The next day (following a failed attempt at going on a ghost hunt...but that's whole 'nother story) I hopped on the ferry to check out Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostles. After arriving on shore, I was struck by how quiet it was - sure, there were some cars and people, but for the most part it was peacefully silent. You really forget just how many background noises there really are in urban life until they suddenly disappear.

Supposedly the island can "cast a spell" over you - I definitely felt relaxed and at peace, but I don't think I had adequate time to truly experience the "Madeline Magic" that everyone was talking about.

Photo-geeking note: you can totally tell when the sun comes out from behind the clouds. ;)

The view of Bayfield from the ferry.

Okay, so this place (called Tom's Burned Down Cafe) has a bit of a story with it. Supposedly, there used to be an actual building there (it was a bar), but it burned down. Instead of closing the place for a few months to rebuild it, the owner just put up a tent and served drinks the next night, and all the ones after that, like nothing ever happened.

Seriously, this place was a trip. I wish I could have been there while it was open, but here's a glimpse of its zaniness:

These were embedded in the floor. Crazy.

While I was there, I had a few epiphanies:

1.) I've been worrying way more about other people than myself. For my sanity and health, I need to lay off.

2.) I worry too darn much in general. Again, need to slow my roll.

3.) Life's too short. Enjoy as much of it as you can. Take chances, make mistakes, get messy, and never be afraid of failure.