If you were anything like us when we were kids, you thought going to A&W and having hot dogs and root beer from a yellow plastic tray that hung on your window was the greatest thing ever!  The only thing that we found cooler than the fact that we were eating in the car was that in order to get them to bring us our food we had to press a button and talk to someone we couldn't even see.  (Ok, ok, we really, really loved the tiny little glass A&W root beer mugs we got to drink out of and even take home!  I think there is still one floating around my family somewhere and I swear one of these day's I'm gonna snatch it!) Awhile back Tim, Lucy, and I got in the car and picked up Ryan to go do one of my favorite things ever, walk around Detroit and take pictures.  For some reason though, we just weren't feeling it that day.  We ended up driving around aimlessly.  All the way down Fort we drove, out of Detroit and into down river when all of a sudden I did quick u-turn.  I almost passed this abandoned A&W type restaurant with all of the speaker boxes still standing in sad rows, all leaning, with all their guts hanging out.  Sometimes it doesn't matter if you spend hours not finding anything if in the end you get just one great shot, it always seems worth it.  Now, I'm not too sure that they were as excited as I was, but I love falling down, old, broken, and used things.  They have a history and character that makes for great photographs.

Enough of me already!  I'm tired of the top post on the blog being pictures of me...ughh!  There are so many things that I would like to post about.  I really need to be better at posting more often!  So lets push me down a bit in the blog and look at Heidi and Mike for a bit! While we were in Cleveland to see Radiohead we were walking around the city.  I of course brought my camera.  Being that Heidi and Mike were with us, I thought it would be perfect to do some couple shots of them.  Heidi is great at being a model.  She's done it before and is very willing to pose and move around without feeling too silly.  Michael was a different story!  He wasn't quite as into it as a photographer would like the model to be, but I have been known to be persuasive.  I was able to get him to cooperate for a bit. Here are some shots I did get and liked...

When they were warming up to the idea and posing was making them laugh, I was able to grab this very genuine laugh.

I loved this door way, the doors were beautiful!

I have a feeling Mike gets this look from Heidi quite a bit :)

...and one of the beautiful Heidi by herself

Tommy is the youngest of the four of us. The baby. While all of us are smart and talented, he really blows us all away. T-toe Brown, as we sometimes call him, has so much artistic talent in so many different ways it's amazing that it can all fit into one package like that. He can draw and paint, and do it well. He is hilarious and cracks us up all the time. Recently we told him what a great storyteller he is and he thought we were crazy, but he is. He can entertain and captivate an audience like nobody's business. Did I mention he's funny? So funny. And he is an amazing musician. Self taught. He sings, and writes his own music. Truly amazing.

If you want to check out some of his songs go to his myspace page Lee Jr

He's also the drummer in Cowboy Messiah

I took some pics of him randomly at our BBQ a while back and thought I'd share some. The first two also include my wonderful, lovable, hug-able, cuz, Ryan. (My family is fantastic. I am very lucky!)

My friend Andy is a graphic designer and we have a similar taste in all things visual. Recently when our mutual friend Erin was choosing the picture for the birth announcements of her new baby, Andy and I both picked the same picture giving her reasons that she said were scarily similar. When Andy passed by all these old TV's lined up on the curb for the garbage he saw a great picture and took me by there. Just as we were about to leave, the owner of the house and the TV's came home and we were able to talk with him and get a little bit of his story. He had recently retired and was in the process of cleaning out some of the things that he had been collecting over the years. He told us how when he sees these TV's out for the trash somewhere he would have to pick them up because he couldn't stand to see these perfectly good TV's being wasted. Well, he had gotten to a point where he realized that he just wasn't going to do anything with them. He was hopeful that someone would take them from his curb. By the time we got there, the smallest, a blue TV, the one he knew would be first to go, had been taken. He is also an amateur photographer and was proudly wearing his Nikon around his neck. Those of you who know me, know that this is a man I can relate to! Tim and I are never too proud to pick something great out of the garbage. Our living room is sporting a great 1950's RCA in a pale wood casing and a Victrola connection, courtesy of a curb in Ferndale. And you all know how much I love my camera!

The black and whites are all lined up in the front. The three TV's in the back are color.

I have been anticipating seeing Radiohead live for many, many years. They don't play in Detroit, so I've been waiting to be able to see them out of town somewhere. They were playing in Cleveland this past Monday and this time, I was there! We arrived at the Blossom Music Center early Monday evening in order to hang out in the lot for awhile before the show started. I was able to grab some pretty decent pics in the lot before hand. Inside the show was a different story, I was so mad at myself for not taking my camera and the iPhone just wasn't cutting it in the low light. The shots I tried to take inside of the show just didn't turn out that great. What really, really sucks about this, is that the setup of the show was amazing. They would have made for great pictures. When will I learn? Kicking myself again now.

This seems to be a running theme in my life, I think that it will be better not to have to worry about my camera, and I am mad at myself just about every time! I now vow to myself to just take the damn thing everywhere. It's better to have it and not use it, then to want it and not have it.

Anyway here are some really fun ones from before the concert. On most of them I used some Photoshop actions (TRA, love them!) to change tone and coloring, etc. But there really wasn't much other editing. I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the camera on the iPhone in good light.

Check it out:

Wesley, I love you! (isn't this effect that makes it look old fun?)

Brother Jones, caught singing a tune

the gang

Heidi and Mike, don't you just LOVE that back lighting, I love it!

and another, great face Heida

I was so in love with the light that I decided to do a lil self portrait session. This one is not the most flattering, but it was too funny not to post!

Little did I know that Heidi was sneaking into all the pics!

oh look...there she is again!

...and again...

Me and Timmey, he makes me a little crazy sometimes :)

The fold on the bottom of my pants was pretty big, they all found it kinda funny and were trying to use the cuff as a pouch to transport things. This one is completely unedited, this is exactly how it came outta the phone. Love the motion. Not too shabby!

Tommy always wears the best smelling deodorant. We all know this and are very willingly to smell his armpit whenever he asks us to. Here's Michael doing just that. He was not, however, the first that night. (This one is also straight outta the phone.)

Tim and I have zero decent pictures of ourselves, so I figured I take a few of us while I was at it.