Blooms & Butterflies!

Round 2 at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. This weekend I went with a friend to the Blooming Butterfly Exhibit at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. In addition to butterflies, the Bolz Conservatory included goldfish, waterfalls, lush tropical gardens (including a tree that looked like it belonged in a Dr. Seuss book- look for the tree with the fuzzy pink ribbon-like streamers), and small flightless birds.

We also wandered the outdoor gardens to see what new blooms had popped open. Check out our adventures below.

Blooms & Butterflies

A Walk Down Willy St.

Williamson St. in Madison is better known as Willy St. It's neighborhood-y, eclectic, and interesting. Restaurants, stores, galleries and houses-- all interspersed. I took a walk on Sunday night to give you a tour of this character-filled neighborhood. Hope you appreciate it as much as I do!

A Walk Down Willy St.

No Sitting Still

Madison is not a town that sits still in the summer. Unless maybe it's to take-five and people watch. There is something for everyone. Farmers' market? Check. Festivals? Check. Concerts? Check. Biking, hiking, and swimming? Check. Check. Check. Two major events this weekend in Madison were: Paddle & Portage and Maxwell Street Days. Here's a glimpse of what I saw while galavanting around Madison.

Summer in Madison

Scavenger Hunt Anyone?

This weekend, one of my friends got together a team to participate in the American Cancer Society Photo-Scavenger Hunt Fundraiser. There were about 6 teams participating in the fundraiser. We had 4 hours to find/accomplish a list of 70 items and document them with a digital camera. We had a short list of rules. Items that began with a verb we had to be "doing" and all others just had to be in the photo, with at least two team members. We were also instructed to stick close to State St., which is the main street (filled with restaurants, bars, and shops) connecting the UW-Madison campus with Capitol Square.

At first we thought "this is going to be a piece of cake. 4 hours? We can get this done in half that time." We were off to a strong start, finding a triangle in the parking lot just outside Logan's (the sports pub that co-sponsored the event). Ragstock proved to be a jackpot- rainbow suspenders, leg-warmers, wigs, ugly sweaters, and a big pink gorilla. We then moved on the the bookstore where we found Jesus, a judge, a dog in clothes, and cartoons. Next we popped into Hawk's which turned out to be an unexpected goldmine. We kissed Abe (someone had a tattoo of Abe Lincoln!), played a game, danced, played bartender, had a pink drink & a green-bottled beer, found a baby in a bar, and got fed by a stranger. We then moved on to a handstand on State Street, finding something with a tail and a ladder with a megaphone. After that we headed to the birthday bar (the Nitty Gritty) to track-down a birthday girl or boy, a bartender with flair, do a human pyramid, and arm-wrestle the biggest guy in the bar.

It was on our way to Bascom Hill to roll-down a hill that we realized we were two hours into it, and still had half of the items to check off of our list. And some were proving to be much more difficult than expected to find. So, one of our team members jumped in the lake at the terrace for a quick swim, and we picked up our pace to try to "get back in the game." We found an unusually small space, dog off a leash, did the BW3s Blazing Hot Wing Challenge (thanks Scottie!), cooked at a food stand, found a pink elephant, an arrest (fake), hand-puppets, a tutu, got a crowd at a bar to do a sing-along with us, popped some 'champagne', and got an umbrella in a drink.

Needless to say... WE WON! Well, how could we not with two scavenger hunt aficionados? The winners were actually divided up into two categories: the most combined points (points for cash & points for scavenger hunt items), and the team with the most scavenger hunt items. We were the winners in the second category, with 65 or 66 out of 70 items. Those purple reusable grocery bags we won will be a lasting tribute to the crazy & fun four hours we spent running around Madison on a 90 degree summer day. Overall, the scavenger hunt raised over $1000 in just 4 hours.

I've posted some of the highlights below (click on the picture, and then use the slideshow feature in Picasa). Just two things of note: 1) all these were taken with a small digital point and shoot, a Sony CyberShot (not my Nikon DSLR)-- too much running for a big camera! 2) In addition to the ones I took, photos posted from the event include those that my teammates & some good-natured strangers snapped-- they all deserve shout-outs.

Next time you have an opportunity to do a scavenger hunt, I say 'do it!'

American Cancer Society Photo-Scavenger Hunt Fundraiser

Independence Day

Independence Day Weekend. Strangely enough, at 5:30pm when I wandered over to James Madison Park, there were very few people camped out in anticipation of the well-loved Rhythm & Booms Annual Fireworks event. After a while, I moved on to the Memorial Union Terrace. Here are a few snapshots of the afternoon/evening.

Independence Day Weekend

For Sale or For Hire?

Will I follow you, your family, or your pet mongoose around with my camera? The short answer is yes. But what you see is what you get.

My style is more artsy than it is traditional, more informal than formal. So, that's what you'd be asking for, if you asked me to follow you around or set up a time to play in front of my camera. If you're still interested, I'm all yours. Send me an email and I can give you information on my rates.

If you're interested in purchasing anything, send me an email. I'm just starting to work on notecards, framed prints, and prints on canvas.

July, July

July seems like a good month to try new things. So, I decided to start a blog to go along with my photography adventures.
Here are a few photography albums to begin browsing, if you've got a little time. Stay tuned for more!

Just a note: the photographs look best if you view them in the slide-show format.








scenes: night, day, & in between. People, places, things. Mostly random, opportunistic shots. All of these photos were collected in the last 3 years. Some with a point and shoot, others with my new "fancy" camera.

scenes: night, day, & in between

Garden Spells: An homage to a book I stumbled across a couple of years ago. Olbrich Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin is spell-binding. Check it out if you have the chance. I highly recommend it. It's a scenic spot for a picnic with friends or a great place to catch up on some reading by yourself. It's also just a nice way to enjoy pretty flowers, without having to do all the weeding that goes along with keeping up your own garden.

Garden Spells

Legends & Myths: Describes New York in a nutshell. It's an amazing place. Legends are created, and myths are propagated. There's so much to see and do, and on such a grand scale.

Legends & Myths