So I’ve been really busy in the middle of moving to a new apartment! Which, of course, means that I haven’t had time for a lot of pictures. So today I’ll leave you with one of the funniest videos I’ve seen this year. It’s completely nerdy, but also extremely entertaining and clever. I hope you enjoy it!!!

It’s called “The Font Convention”

Back in May, Steve Vickerman, the owner of a small business called Name Rings, got in touch with me about updating his web site. His old site was outdated and had not been properly brought up to date with new security standards. So I designed his brand new logo and brand new site for him, got new cart software installed on a new server, updated his security, and helped him get the whole site running! We went live with it last month, and finally have gotten all the kinks worked out! I really like how it turned out, I think it is clean, simple, and functional.  We have plans for the future to add pictures with models and flash work, and I’m looking forward to see how things go for him! Check it out!

Just 1 quick picture today. I went to a picnic on Saturday, and a bunch of friends started a baseball game.  The skies were so dramatic, I just had to capture a shot of the game underneath the incredible sky!

You may have read my post a few weeks back where I decided to definitely go from the ranks of doing just freelance jobs to going for being a professional photographer! I have been continuing to make steps towards developing a brand for myself, and a “store front,” as you will.  I am not all that interested in being a studio photographer, and so my store front right now is the web! To that end, I have just designed a brand new logo and launched a new commercial site for myself!

I am still not quite done developing all the sections of the new site, and am nowhere near finishing the galleries, but I decided to go live with it already because it is already much better than what I had up! If you’d like, Check it out!

This past weekend, I finally had a chance to get away from the routine of every day life and go camping! It was a very relaxing trip. It rained on Saturday, but a couple of in-house geniuses set up a tarp over the fire just before it started raining, which made it so we could all sit around the fire all day in complete dryness! Aside from a mild complication of my cotton sleeping bag touching the side of the tent in the rain, and therefore soaking the bottom foot, it was otherwise a very nice camping trip! I came back relaxed and ready to attack my week! Here are a few shots I took.  Of course, the pictures are a little heavy on the adorable Rowdy, but he’s just so adorable I couldn’t help myself!

When we pulled up to the campsite!

The Jore Fam, getting ready to relax.

Rowdy had such a blast on this trip, even though at times he got himself stuck!

Another dog on the trip with us, Mini!

Noemi and Kobe

I found these little colored dots in many places growing all over the leaves. They certainly were beautiful, although I don’t know if it was healthy for the tree or not.

We found time to play some volleyball, and after the game Brad and Pablo tried to play a little “soccer volleyball!”

Pablo enjoying the fire!

I am very excited! I have decided to go for being a professional photographer! I will be launching a new website within the next month!

Also, I have upgraded my camera to a Pentax K20D! It has a 14.6 megapixel rating, great color, and a lot of great features! I am very excited to begin doing jobs with it! Here is a picture of it with its battery grip!

And here are a couple of pictures I have taken with it so far! I am really enjoying playing with this new camera. The colors are amazing, and the resolution is incredible. I hope you like them!

The weekend before last I spent some time with my friends while I was in Cloquet, MN, and we headed out to a nearby state park, Jay Cooke State Park. My friends made sure to tell me to pronounce Cooke “cookie.” Were they teasing me? Probably, but how do I know?

We had a lot of fun!  We followed a small stream up a long ways and found some very interesting waterfalls and fascinating rocks that had been eroded by hundreds of years of steady water flow. We also found a set of walls going up a hill that we weren’t able to figure out? Who knows! This first shot is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

This is us walking up the riverbed just enjoying ourselves, looking for interesting rocks and little waterfalls.

We found these old stone walls. They weren’t part of a building, as they were every so often about every 20 feet all the way up a hill.  Maybe bridge supports? We just don’t know! We did know they were old. One of the pictures you can see a tree growing off the top of the stones! It didn’t even have any soil and the tree looked several years old!

Megan and Tiffy found a log balanced on little hump and found that they were able to use it as a seesaw.  None of us could believe that it worked as well as it did.  Here they are having fun!

We found some honeysuckle growing along the river.  I had never had it before! It was very sweet and delicious!

I ran across this hilarious list while browsing today.  Apparently, Kelloggs has seen fit to create a product called “Lego Fun Snacks.”

An annoyed parent had this to say: “I just spent the first three years of my son’s life trying to get him not to eat blocks, and now you’re telling him they taste like strawberries.”

The comedy geniuses at Woot.com have created a list of the next products the geniuses of Lego Fun Snacks are likely to create next:

1. This Bag Is Not Not A Toy: the plastic bag with candy coating on the inside!
2. Need A Ride?: the board game where you make new friends and get into their cars!
3. Zooper Zapper: the panel that lights up and plays cool sounds when you stick metal things in its little slots!
4. Gummi Mr. Yuk!
5. Retina Spy: the sunglasses that reveal secret messages when you stare directly at the sun!
6. AntiFreeezz: the neon green high-sugar energy drink!
7. Get The Lead In candy paint chips!
8. The Scorchin’ Organ: the toy piano shaped like a stove, with keys that look like heat coils!
9. The Candy Pharmacist play set!
10. Ye Olde MatchTowne: the toy village where every citizen looks like a match!
11. Caliber Creamer: the toy gun that dispenses whipped cream!
12. NASCAR Racing Scissors: the faster you run, the bigger the fun!

Ha! credit Woot Blog.

This past weekend, I spent an afternoon out at my friend Laina’s place! I had to visit her when I found out she had just gotten a pet raccoon! She found her cat outside playing with something, and she found a brand new baby raccoon, so young its eyes hadn’t even opened. She adopted it! Her other pets get along great with it, the dog even snuggles up with it! He is a curious little guy, and so cute! When you rub his neck, he chatters/purrs. And he kept climbing up us.  Another thing I thought was cool is that raccoons don’t have “paws.” They almost have hands! He had 5 separate toes, and would splay them open as he tried to climb!

Matt must have been hungry! He kept trying to catch a chicken! He failed miserably, they are fast when they want to be!

Shanrell didn’t have too much success either!

Last night, my brother came over to visit me.  He has a woodworking business, Krema Designs, and he is trying to get started and get his name out there right now, so I was helping him work on some promotional materials in Photoshop.  Then he says to me, “Hey, you should quit playing with this toy and go out into the living room and play with your new toy.” I was confused, as I really haven’t bought anything recently.  He tells me again to go out into the living room, so I do and find this beautiful hardwood chessboard on my coffee table! I was ecstatic!

He made it completely by hand, made of maple and oak! He wanted to give it to me for the help I have given him in starting his business! I wouldn’t have accepted money, but this? Oh yeah, you know I’ll take this.

Really, it’s pretty amazing. The pictures don’t do it justice at all! He is now working on 2 exotic wood chessboards for a show he has next weekend. I can’t wait to see them!