Lauri Stumph Photography Blog » Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota based natural light newborn, children’s and senior photographer. Also serving Shell Lake, Rice Lake and Spooner Wisconsin.

I can’t believe I don’t visit more often because the smells, heat and humidity of the Cowles Conservatory at the Sculpture Garden is an amazing break from the rain/sleet/snow/mud/dryness/brown of winter in Minnesota.  It reminds me that summer will be here at some point…not palm tree type summer but green summer which is good enough for me.

(f2.8  70mm 1/800  ISO200)

            (f9.0  24mm  1/200  ISO200)

Photo 36 - Playing with my Lensbaby and a few daffodils.  I love the smells, feeling and colors of Spring.  Only four more days officially!

My friend Ted and I headed downtown to St. Mark’s church to take some photos on one of those warm days a while back.  I was taking them for fun, he was taking them because he had to write a 15 page paper for his architecture class.  *snicker*.  While he borrowed my wide angle (it was the least I could do after I talked him into the Nikon D300 that I know he doesn’t use enough), I walked around with my little, but favorite, 50mm.

(50mm  f1.4   1/100   ISO1600)

What is that, velvet?  (sorry had to say it!)

(50mm   f1.4   1/50   ISO1600)

(50mm   f2.5   1/60   ISO5000)

(50mm   f2.5   1/200   ISO5000)

I’m so happy I decided to become a part of Giving is Awesome this past holiday season and am amazed at how much the idea has grown!  I’m still waiting for it to warm up a bit before I have my Giving is Awesome session but am looking forward to it!  Please read below for some more information about how the founder, Kristin Kalp, is trying to grow the idea…with the help of a contest, Microsoft and $50,000! 

Giving is Awesome was founded in December of 2008. It was a simple premise: photographers give a portrait shoot and products to a family who deserves it, but can’t afford it. In the twelve weeks since then, over 530 photographers have donated over $550,000 worth of custom portraiture to families who couldn’t afford it. Artists in places as far flung as Australia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Mexico joined in. Giving is Awesome is also featured in this month’s issue of Professional Photographer magazine, and we’re looking to continue to spread the word about giving. Lenovo and Microsoft are sponsoring the ‘Name Your Dream Assignment’ contest, which grants $50,000 to the photographer who wins to shoot whatever/wherever they would like.

What better way to spread the word than to load 12 photographers into a tour bus and hit up cities with Giving is Awesome shoots? The blog traffic generated by the tour would easily reach 50,000 photographers per day, thus multiplying the number of photographers who sign on for the 2009 version of Giving is Awesome. (The goal: 15,000 photographers for the 2009 edition.)

…but how would we decide who to shoot for those tour bus Giving is Awesome giveaways? Why, we would rely on our friends at ConKerr Cancer, an international charity, to provide our subjects: children currently living with cancer. We’d be bringing awareness of both utterly smashing organizations to light, spreading the photographic love, AND rockin’ a tour bus! Now we’re talkin’!

What if this project doesn’t cost $50,000? Easy! ConKerr Cancer receives the funds to purchase cameras for their chapter coordinators, less the expenses of the tour. This allows the impact of the tour to go much further than the people on the bus, or even the photographers associated with Giving is Awesome. It’s the ripple effect in its truest form, giving sparking giving sparking giving.

For more information about the organizations mentioned: http://www.givingisawesome.com & http://www.conkerrcancer.org

DIG IT? GO VOTE! Click that little ‘pic’ button in the upper left of the assignment details, when you get there. (You’ll have to register to do so, but I promise it’s worth it! Pretty please, vote?)

http://nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/givingisawesome/giving-is-awesome-tour/

Finally trying to catch up, with at least a few, for project 365.  I do have more photos but just can’t seem to keep up with posting them! 

Photo 30

Basement renovation is in full swing.  I just hope it doens’t last too long.  As in more than a couple months.  Wishful thinking I know since aside from the serious stuff like electrical and HVAC, we’re doing it mostly ourselves. 

(f2.8  1/160  ISO3200)

 Photo 31

Photos like this are seriously like pulling teeth.  But photos of the girls are what we have the fewest of and I really need to make an effort to do a quick one every now and then. 

(f3.2  1/250  ISO400)