We went to Watertown on Saturday to photograph Josh and Amber's wedding at Grace Lutheran Church. We met old friends and made some new ones.

After the ceremony, we went to the Watertown Event Center for the reception. We LOVE the event center's huge screen. We were able to plug into their system for the slideshow of the wedding day.

Here are a few images taken from the slideshow.

Enjoy.

We've updated the featured wedding gallery on the main website.

We will be updating the rest of the pictures over the next few days.

Here's a sneak peak of Macy and Taylor's images from a session we did at Falls Park in Sioux Falls. More to come later.

You could call Rachel's style "Ecletic". Dig those wild socks!

We were at the diamonds last night cheering Rachel and her teammates on. It was very warm.

For a little guy, Dillon sure doesn't have a lot of fear. Mom and Dad were patiently waiting for Dillon and his siblings to finish playing in the park after the softball game.

Dillon loves to come see us. Even if Mom is just stopping by to say "Hi", Dillon will go straight to the dressing room and get out his favorite toy tractor and start farmin'.

The Pekas sisters came to see us months ago. They snuck out of the house and came from Sioux Falls early one morning as part of a surprise for their mom.

Mom got her presents a few days ago so we can finally show off a few images on the blog.

Lexi's birthday isn't quite here yet. Mom brought her in early for her 4 year pictures.

We've got a new cool video slide show from Matt and Ashley's wedding on our YouTube channel.

You can check it out on our YouTube channel HERE.

We love all babies, but happy babies make our job easier. Braylon loves smiling...as long as he isn't on grass.

Here's Tristan's announcement card.

Here is a sneak peak of Adam and Brittany's engagement session at Falls Park.

We were in Flandreau to photograph Chet and Stephanie's wedding at St. Simon and Jude Catholic Church. After the ceremony we headed to McCory Gardens in Brookings for a few pictures before going to the reception at the Old Sanctuary.

Here are a few images from the reception slide show of their wedding day.

Enjoy.

Last Sunday, Dacey and I met up with Greg, Lynda and Garrett for some fun on the water at Lake Vermillion. Dacey had a blast and Garrett took a turn on the tube too.

Audrey came in a while back for her one year pictures.

We listened on the radio Thursday night as the weather service issued a tornado warning for Lake County. Dacey and I stopped at the Lake Madison Lutheran Church on the way home from Madison to take some long exposures. We set the camera on the roof of the car to steady the shot.

Dacey did an excellent job of capturing the glow of the sun's last rays as the storm passed to the north of the church heading east.

This morning, Emma and Joseph teamed up with our Rachel to build a tower out of ALL of our Legos as Mom and ElizaBeth picked out Ava's pictures. The tower stood on it's own before crashing to the ground.

We went to Wilno last Saturday to photograph Jaclyn and Dayton's wedding.

Wilno is small...VERY small. Everything revolves around a beautiful Catholic Church. We love country weddings: no traffic to deal with and all you have to do is walk a hundred feet or so to find wide open vistas to shoot in.

Here are a few images from their reception slide show of their wedding day.

Eliza is 2 years old and very full of life.

Here is her Birthday Club magnet.

We photographed the Thompson family a while back. They took advantage of our complimentary family session that came with Dax's senior pictures. We did Deidre's senior pictures just a couple of years ago. Deidre is now our swim teacher so we can get faster in triathlons.

Here is their 16x20 composite.

Softball is a very big deal in the summertime with local teams traveling to tournaments every weekend.

At the Baughman diamonds, the fast pitch girls teams were in action on Wednesday night. Here Sonia Seitz gets ready for the pitch for the Trojans.

Here's Nathan's Birthday Club magnet.

We are still busy with softabll, baseball and T-ball team pictures. If you haven't scheduled yet there is still time.

What in the next few days as we catch up on blog entries.

We were in Humboldt the first Saturday of June to celebrate Mike and Kim's wedding.

Here are a few from the reception slideshow of their wedding day. Enjoy.

Another couple of magnets for our BIrthday Club kids!

We absolutely love our albums from Vision Art. Each one is unique and uber cool. We just were not happy with any other choices. Vision Art is top of the line and we think that our customers are worth it.

To see Matt & Kari's engagement slideshow click HERE.

We are at the ball diamonds several evenings a week. It's fun getting pictures of some of the kids we know that are playing.

Tuesday night's Madison Daily Leader had this image on the front page. It's still exciting getting pictures published in the paper even though I've had many, many images in the paper before.

This image is straight out of the camera except for a curves adjustment in Adobe Photoshop.

A few more images taken from the reception slideshow of the wedding day.

Here are a few images taken from the reception slide show.

Melissa was ready, but Chad was running just a few minutes late.

The couple's first moments as they see each other dressed up for their wedding day is very special with lots of emotion.

Melissa was absolutely beaming on her wedding day. I've never seen her so happy. She was waiting for Chad to turn around as ElizaBeth fluffed out her dress for her entrance.

Dayton and Jaclyn's wedding is less than 2 weeks away.

To see their engagement images on our slideshow site click HERE.

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Chad Lade. Our Melissa's wedding was Saturday, so we can now show off some of her bridal images.

There will be more images to come from the wedding tomorrow.

Melissa, we can't wait till you get back. Have fun on the honeymoon.

We love it when our friends bring their little ones to play with us. Here are a few favorites.

Summer is softball season. During June, our social life revolves around our kids' softball games.

We are only a few days away from Melissa's wedding. For some odd reason, Melissa thought she should take a few days off in preparation for her big day. So we are trying to get caught up without her around. Caitie will be covering for Melissa over the next two weeks.

We thought we would give Mom a sneak peak of Nathan's 7 yr old pictures. Nathan came in just this morning. We were hoping for better weather but we did get some outside despite the cold and drizzle.

Today the Town & Country Shopper came out with our senior ad on the front page.

I think it looks COOL!

The Town & Country Shopper is delivered to households in the Brookings area.

One of my photographer friends had a bunch of "What if?" questions for me tonight.

We don't worry about customers being unhappy. Our job is to take awesome images. We take the worry away. Senior pictures are not something to be dreaded, but an event to enjoy and remember. A trip to a studio should not be looked on like a trip to the dentist. (Sorry Dr. Hansen)

If you head out to the Field of Dreams in Madison, you can see the outfield fence covered with signs from supporting businesses.

We are proud to have Black Studios as part of the fence.

Liberty turned one year old not too long ago. Here is her birthday magnet.

Our Baby Plan includes 3, 6, 9 and 12 month sessions as well as newborn if the parents plan it ahead of time.

Here is Liberty's Baby Plan panel.

Sports teams pictures will be coming back faster than ever this year. We are going for a week turnaround time.

And yes that will still include retouching.

We took Rachel's team last night. By this afternoon, we had sent the files to the lab. We should have them back on Friday.

Have we got a surpise coming for the MHS class of 2009!

If you had your senior pictures done by Black Studios, we are giving you a 5x7 of you receiving your diploma. We will be getting the pictures back from the lab in a few days.

If you didn't have your senior pictures done by Black Studios, you can still get a picture. You have to call the studio and talk to Caitie, Melissa or ElizaBeth.

We also have 4x6 prints from 2008 graduation...FREE!

Yes, we LOVE Spring! Everything greening up again sure cures those Winter blahs in a hurry.

Raena came in for her birthday pictures a little while ago and we headed outside and took advantage of the warmer temps.

Here is her Birthday Magnet.

Little Miss Attitude...aka Claire has us wrapped around her little fingers. Claire just celebrated her birthday.

Here is the image of her Birthday magnet.

My friend Jim put it this way when I told him that we were doing a triathlon: "Are you out of your mind?!?!"

We began this journey a year ago last January with Justin Brenner. After he graduated, we moved on to Adam. After Adam moved to Iowa in December, we started training with Lisa.

The triathlon started in the Madison Community Center pool with a swim of 6 laps totalling a distance of 300 yards.

Swimmers did a staggered start every 20 seconds. Your starting position depended on your estimated swim time. ElizaBeth started a few minutes earlier than me.

Swimming laps has always been a struggle for me. Nine days before the triathlon, my time for the 300 yards was 12 minutes. I was almost at the end of the long line of competitors when I started. Many people tapped me on my foot. I then had to stop so they could go around.

My swimming time was dead last, but I did improve my time more than a minute faster than ever before.

The transition from the pool to the bike wasn't very fast for me. I staggered out to my borrowed bike and tried to dry off the best that I could. It was 45 degrees outside with a stiff north wind blowing. I put some sweatpants over my wet swim trunks, put a long-sleeved T-shirt on along with my shoes and socks. I was tired from the swim and biking 9 miles was not my idea of fun at the time.

ElizaBeth had purchased a new bike a few weeks before the triathlon so she had a clear advantage over me. I had borrowed a bike from Kip and it sat tall.

In town riding was easy. Once we turned north on Hwy 81, the hill and wind slowed our progress to a crawl. After three and a half miles we got to turn around and take advantage of a tailwind while dodging traffic. That hill that gave us so much trouble on the way back we cruised down in top gear.

Transition two was from the bike to the run. I didn't notice the wet swim trunks any more. I was too tired.

The run at the end was only two and a quarter miles, but after nine miles of being on the bike the legs did not want to go very fast.

ElizaBeth had started the race several minutes ahead of me and she did everything a bit faster. She finished the race at one hour and twenty minutes.

Here I come toward the finished line...All 255 lbs...yes I was in the CLydesdale division.

I have to admit that I walked several times during the run. I wanted to finish strong. In reality, the faster I got to the finish line, the sooner I could sit down and relax. No car was going to pick me up and haul my butt to the end.

Did I mention that we had a prom to take pictures at in the late afternoon in Howard?

We headed home, unloaded the bike and soaked in the tub for a while before heading out to the prom.

On Sunday, we felt great. No pain. No soreness. Nothing. I was surprised. Don't worry: Lisa made us suffer on Tuesday and Thursday. Ibuprophen is my friend.

It's always fun to open up the Sunday paper and see someone you know get recognition for a job well done.

Congratulations to Tony Fiegen and Chad White for being named Argus Leader Boys Basketball Co-Players of the Year.

We photographed bith Chad's and Tony's senior pictures and then went on to cover the State A Tournament for the Madison Daily Leader.

Here is one of Tony's favorites from his senior session.

Here is one of Chad's favories from his senior session.

Branden brought his two sons in for Dylan's one year birthday session as a surprise for Mom. We were able to send home a few prints right away for Branden to give to his wife.

Ryan watches after his little brother pretty well. They help each other get into mischief.

Mom was very surprised and she came in later in the week to order her choices.

You might recognize Branden as your favorite plumber. He owns Dakota Plumbing a few miles from Rutland. He has done quite a bit of work for us at the studio.

We've been on the road lately. First for the State A basketball tournament in Rapid City and then down to the Tulsa area for UBOX.

UBOX stands for the University of Box. It's a three day, intense workshop put on by the best senior photographers on the planet, Gary and Pam Box.

We left very early Saturday moring for the 10 hour drive to Tulsa. We hit freezing rain just north of St. Joseph, Missouri. The rain turned to heavy snow and heavy slush on the road. Each time we thought we were ready to stop, the weather improved a little. We were down to 25 mph at one point south od Kansas City. The bad weather added three and a half hours to the trip. Cars and trucks were along the highway were in the ditches and stuck in the mud and snow.

Ten inches of snow we still on the road Sunday morning at ElizaBeth's Aunt and Uncle's house in Sand Springs. Most of the major roads had been plowed already. By Sunday night the snow was gone.

If you are a photographer, UBOX is where you want to be. Gary and his wife Pam teach business principles, posing and lighting, and efficient workflow over three days at their studio. All I can say is WOW!

Too many times, photographers get stuck in a rut. We believe in getting better through more education and avoiding the rut in the first place.

We can't wait for the senior season to begin to put everything in action.

Last night, the Madison High School student section was full of togas.

I wonder what tonight's championship game will have them wearing.

A couple of images from the State A's.

To see more images, see today's edition of the Madison Daily Leader.

Mom brought Audrey in for her 9 month session.

You might guess that Colter's dad likes John Deere.

Here's Colter's Baby Plan Panel.

Keri brought Peyton in for her 4 yr old pictures. We've seen Peyton on a regular basis since she was born. It helps that Mom works for us part time.

Here is Peyton's birthday magnet.

Yes, we are still taking senior pictures!

What could be better than a boy and his dog...that really really loves him?

We did a short outside session at John's house on a much warmer day than when he came to the studio in Rutland. It's amazing how much difference 35 degrees makes!

Print competition is fun. It helps you grow as a photographer. When you win, you get a plaque with your name on it. Above and beyond the first place plaques are the Fuji Masterpiece Award and the Kodak Gallery Award.

We have one of each.

Some people relax by watching high school basketball games. I kick back taking action pictures of the local teams.

Kayley Maas had her season end early last year with a broken leg, but that didn't stop her from coming back this year. Kayley was one of our seniors this year.

Jon Gehrels seems to always be around the ball. Jon was another one of our seniors this year.

This picture like the one of Kayley before it, was in the Madison Daily Leader.

Look at the crowd in the background. You better come early if you want to find a seat at a home Raider game in Rutland.

Some nights are just golden for photography. Last night was one of those nights.

Here's one of Jeremy Jensen going up for two against Duebrook.

Here's the test print. The final size will be a 40 in by 60 in wall portrait.

Ainsley's birthday magnet.

It seems just like yesterday that Mom brought Jack in for his 2 year pictures.

Jack is a fun guy. He's always happy and quick to smile.

We've added a few video slide shows on our YouTube Channel. Check it out HERE.