Sunday, October 19, 2008

Dana and Kyle - June 14, 2008

Dana and Kyle were married in a beautiful ceremony at Chapel Hill 
and had their reception at Shadow Lake. 

We also photographed their engagement session during the fall last year.





Kurtis was photographing Dana and they guys while they got ready.



I really like this picture..... Kurtis does such a great job of capturing the guys getting ready. 


Dana and the Best Man waiting for the ceremony and festivities to begin. 

(....I can't figure out blogger at the moment and don't know why this is a link..... it really isn't)
anyway....

Julia photographed the girls getting ready


It was realy really really humid and raining when the girls were getting ready to leave for the chapel. The best way for Kyle to keep her dress dry was to  stuff  it into a huge trash bag. The girls cut holes in the bottom of the bag for her feet....... too funny!



Kyle and her dad moments before they walked down the isle. 
Dad looked a little nervous.







Some of our favorite picks of the bridal party and Dana and Kyle. 



LOVE this one!





Great picture of the groom..... good job Kurtis!! 






First Dance - Dana and Kyle were so cute. They were all smiles and giggles all day. It was wonderful to photograph 2 people who are in love with each other so much!





More giggles and smiles....




Dana and the guys



Congratulations Dana and Kyle !!!!! 
All our best to the both of you for many years to come!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Zoey 1994 - 2008




I lost a very good friend today. My little girl Zoey died in her sleep this afternoon. Zoey and I had been together since I found her at the pool in 1994. She has stuck with me through college, graduate school, marriage, roommates, boyfriends, other cats, dogs and 12 moves. She was the alpha cat and let the rest of us live with her in the house. She was a fighter and goofy lady all at the same time. She loved to be scratched between her shoulders and have her cheeks rubbed. She preferred human food over cat food. If you ate anything with dairy.... cereal with milk, ice cream, yogurt, cheese... she was instantly your best friend and wouldn't leave you along until you shared. She loved everyone who came to visit... Kurtis and I always joked that she liked everyone else but us. There was running gag in our house that Zoey was for sale or for rent to a good home, but I wouldn't of given her up for anything. She was a sweet girl, slightly demanding and wanting things her way which we always gave into. She looked like an overripe banana as she was a tortoise shell calico, but her markings were beautiful. I have never seen a totri as beautiful as Zoey.

Zoey came into my life in the summer of 1994 when I was a life guard. Someone had abandoned her at the pool and two little girls brought her to the office. She didn't seem to be doing very well as she slept all day on my bag. I took her to the vet the next day and they couldn't believe that this little tiny kitten was still alive. She had a temp of 108, ear-mites, worms, fleas and was anemic. I had to give the poor thing 2 pills, liquid vitamin, and squirt goop into her ears 3 times a day for 4 weeks. I took her to school with me so I could give her her drugs and she slept in my shoulder bag all day. When she did bounce back she instantly became the queen of the house.

Her favorite things were fresh catnip and teasing the neighborhood dogs. She would play fight with Pleko (one of our other cats) and usually let him win, as he didn't have any claws but she would let him know who was boss. She loved to sit on the porch and sleep in the sun...... and that is where I found her this afternoon. When Kurtis and I went to brunch she and Pleko were asleep on the porch in the sun. Since we were not going to be gone long and there are not going to be too many more sunny day's left I decided to leave them be and shut the door. When we came home a little while later Kurtis opened the porch door and Pleko came bounding in. Zoey was still asleep. I went out to check on her, as I assumed she was soaking up the sun and found that she was dead. Curled up as if she was asleep.

My little baby girl... you are missed already and will be missed always.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Hunting Season and the Deep Freezers are on Sale!

I have been at Home Depot way too much lately and discovered this at the Victor HD.

Yahoo for creative people!





Wednesday, September 10, 2008

4th of July

I know, I know... it's Mid September... I am a little behind with the bog posting thing. ... We had our annual 4th of July party this year. We all walked down to the river to watch the fireworks and went all the way up to the front. Right where the do not cross tape is. They line the fireworks up along the river and as they are fired off they get closer and closer to us. You can feel the explosions in your chest and body. This is a video of the grand finale and a picture of the kids watching. Look at Johnny covering his ears.





More Kid Pictures

I updated the kid section of the website with Christopher. I photographed Christopher and his family, once a month for over a year. It was interesting and amazing to watch them, month after month. ... there are still more kid picks to come. (promise!)


Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Counting Crows Concert

Kurtis and I, with our friends Tom and Emily, went to the Counting Crows concert at Darian Lakes last month. It was, of course, amazing. If Kurtis and I were independently wealthy and could do what ever we wanted, one thing we would do would be to follow the Counting Crows on one of their tours. We love the music and try to see them every chance we get. Kurtis didn't think I could take my little camera in with me so I left it in the car...... everyone around me had their little camera's ...... except me.  : - (   I was dying to take a few pictures so out of desperation, and to get rid of the photo craving, I took a few shots with my cell phone camera. I have never used the camera on my phone before and truthfully didn't know how to use it. I was pleasantly surprised.  It took me a while (a month) to figure out how to get them off the phone. yeish.... sometimes technology and I don't get along. 

Here are a few shots of the Counting Crows. enjoy. 




Friday, September 5, 2008

The Blogging world

Blogger is amazing. I was looking at all the new functions and gadgets that you can add to your blog. We have added 2 and we need your help to make them grow. 

"Kracke Couple's Blog's"
I have stumbled across 2 blog site of 2 of our many wedding couples. It is really amazing to see them from this perspective. So if you are a Kracke Couple and you blog, let us know!

Heather and Michael


This is Heather and Michael's wedding blog. Amazing! Heather is an amazing DIY bride. She made almost everything for her wedding and blogged about it in detail. She also did an amazing job of showcasing our images from their wedding. The next wedding blog entry that I need to do is Heather and Michael..... i feel a little intemidated since she did such an amazing job blogging about her wedding..... I will do my best to give you all our side and version of their wedding although I know it won't compare to her amazing posts!!! 

Heather - you are amazing!

She also has a non-wedding blog where she keeps track of her and Michael's lives. It has been really wonderful to keep track of them and to see what they have been up to. 




Angela and Jeremy


Also, another amazing couple! Did you know they bought their own church to get married in?? Yea.. amazing couple! We have been very fortunate to befriend the both of them lately and have had a great time getting to know them.... We are mentioned in a few of Jeremy's posts. Jeremy is really interested in Photography so his blog has new photos daily. (I am NOT a big fan of spiders and hate to even look at them (even in pictures)  but Jeremy took an amazing shot of one at night!) Want to know what it looks like?   Check out their blog. 


"Followers"
The internet continues to amaze me on a daily basis! Followers is a little creepy but a good creepy and really amazing at the same time. If you follow "Keeping up with Kracke Photography" let us know! 

Cheers, 

Julia and Kurtis

Babies, Babies, Babies

Babies, Babies, Babies, everyone we know is having babies..... and they are all so cute! Many of our couples from last year and this year are having babies and I have been honored to photograph some of them. We photographed Lilly's parent's wedding last year so when they had Lilly this summer they wanted to get some photographs of her before she was over 1 month old. They had hired a baby photographer but the schedule didn't work out and the photographer had to cancel twice. Lilly's mom called me on a Saturday morning, explained what was going on and wanted to know if we took baby/kid pictures and if I would like to photograph Lilly. 

I was so excited and honored. I have been photographing babies, kids and children for sometime now but haven't really let anyone know about it. I guess it was just my personal project and not something I would consider work. (I still don't consider it work!) So I have decided to update the Kid section of our website and let it be known that yes, Kracke Photography does photography babies, kids, children, parents and children etc.....  I not done with the updates to the kid section but will be soon, (I promise) but I wanted to get the picks of Lilly out there so everyone can see how cute she is! 


Lilly at 4 weeks old.  





Lilly and Grandma

Lilly, Grandma and Mommy

Lilly and Mommy




Welcome to the world Lilly, we are so glad you are here!!!