This girl’s name is Angie, and she is a super sweet, affectionate, calm American Pitt Bull Terrier who gets along wonderfully with other dogs and people of all ages! She is going to be staying with us for a little while as she waits for a new home.

We are fostering through a local rescue called Fur Kid Rescue that loves and works primarily with tough breeds – bulldogs, boxers, pit bulls, bull mastiffs, etc. We are so excited about this rescue because we love these breeds and also because the owner, Jennifer, takes great care with the dogs she’ll adopt. She does a wonderful job finding sweet, adoptable dogs that defy the traditional stereotypes of the “bully” breeds. And most importantly, she does a wonderful job finding awesome homes for them.

Anyway, here are a few photos from a trip we took today with our two boxers to a local lake to swim and relax! Angie is still timid right now, as she’s been moved around so much lately. But, she’s adjusting her temporary home, and we can’t wait to see who she’ll get to go home with!

Brad and I stayed in a small town called Strasburg for the long weekend. We found a country inn that allowed dogs (of course!), and we just had a great time away from the city and work. Strasburg was actually Erin (the bride)’s hometown. It was a beautiful little town – founded in 1733 with many historic homes and American-flag lined streets. It was surrounded on all sides by miles of Amish farmland, which we enjoyed exploring more than anything.

Here are a few photos from our trip.

Photos from the beautiful wedding to come soon!

This is just a simple “good morning” from me and the boys… Brad’s out of town this week, so it’s just the three of us around here!

Have a great day everyone.

Aaand a little spit bubble for the road…

Yep. This is how they spending their morning. But come to think of it, this is how they spend every morning!

I can just hear Tuco saying “let us sleep, mama! Enough with the photos!”

I am so, so excited for them to arrive, and in honor of this fun Pittsburgh weekend, here are a few photos of the city from downtown and from the side of 279 (yes, Brad wanted to kill me when he saw i pulled over there to take photos!).

Ahhh beautiful Pittsburgh…

Don’t be too impresssed… I am not milling my own flour or anything super-earthy like that. I am just putting wonderful store-bought flour into my mixer, hitting “go” and watching it knead. Not very complicated.

For any of you who enjoy baking and want a REALLY, really easy bread recipe, here’s mine. I have been making this recipe constantly ever since my friend (and sweet neighbor!) Chrissie introduced it to me. The recipe comes from the book pictured below, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Hertzberg and Francois. This recipe does not require lots of time in the kitchen, and it’s totally delicious!

So, here you go!

Here’s the introduction to the recipe:

“It is easy to have fresh bread whenever you want it with only five minutes a day of active effort. Just mix the dough and let it sit for two hours. No kneading needed! Then shape and bake a loaf, and refrigerate the rest to use over the next couple weeks. Yes weeks! The master recipe makes enough dough for many loaves. When you want fresh-baked crusty bread, take some dough [from the refrigerator], shape it into a loaf, let it rise 20 minutes, then bake! Your house will smell like a bakery, and your family and friends will love you for it!”

Here are the ingredients you’ll need for whole-wheat bread (there are also recipes for white, sourdough, rye, etc. in the book):

6 2/3 cups whole wheat flour (get King Arthur – the good stuff!)

1.5 tbsp granulated yeast

1.5 cups lukewarm milk

1.5 cups lukewarm water

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp salt

5 tbsp oil

1/2 cup honey

*note* for softer bread, you can substitute some bread flour for whole-wheat flour. I think a good combination is 4 cups whole wheat flour and 2 2/3 cups bread flour. I make 100% whole wheat for our daily sandwich bread and make the combination when I make dinner rolls.

The recipe is very simple: first you dump everything in a large (5-6qt) bowl except the flour. Then, add the flour little by little while mixing with either a spoon or dough hook. I used a spoon until yesterday and it worked great, just uses more muscle-power!

Here’s the best part: after you mix the dough, you don’t knead! You just leave the bread in the bowl to rise! (or transfer to another bowl if you need to use the mixer bowl for something else)

Let stand and rise until the dough almost doubles (since we usually keep our house at 60 degrees, this takes three hours at least!). Yes, it’s true. We live in antartica.

After this, you can either use the dough immediately or refrigerate to use later. The dough is sticky and is much easier to deal with after refrigeration! So, I recommend mixing the dough and letting it rise at least one day before baking. Then, stick it in the refrigerator and it’s ready to grab whenever you need it.

On baking day, shape the dough and use it however you want. I make loaves and rolls, but I prefer the rolls as they are softer and seem to stay fresh longer.

Lightly grease a pan and sprinkle with cornmeal (to prevent sticking) and form rolls with the dough.

Cover pan with a towel and let the bread stand again for 2 hours (white bread only stands for 20 minutes but wheat bread is heavier and needs to sit longer).

Finally, set the oven at 350 degrees and bake for 25 minutes, or until tops are brown! When I bring the rolls out, I usually brush with a little butter and salt. Just adds to the yumminess!

*note* the farther apart you put the rolls on your pan, the better! As you see from my photo, they stick together after rising if they are sitting too close on the pan.

Let me know if you give the recipe a try! It has definitely become one of our favorites!!

Here it is all put together:

Ingredients:

6 2/3 cups whole wheat flour (get King Arthur – the good stuff!)

1.5 tbsp granulated yeast

1.5 cups lukewarm milk

1.5 cups lukewarm water

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp salt

5 tbsp oil

1/2 cup honey

*note* for softer bread, you can substitute some bread flour for whole-wheat flour. I think a good combination is 4 cups whole wheat flour and 2 2/3 cups bread flour. I make 100% whole wheat for our daily sandwich bread and make the combination when I make dinner rolls.

Instructions:

Mix yeast, salt, honey, oil, milk and water in a large bowl or container.

Mix in the flour using a spoon or dough hook attachment.

Cover bowl loosely and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours or until dough doubles.

Use dough immediately or refrigerate to use later.

On baking day, lightly grease pan and sprinkle with cornmeal to prevent sticking. Form rolls from dough and sit a few inches apart on pan (they will rise and stick together if they are too close).

Bake 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until tops are brown.

Brush with butter and sprinkle with a little sea salt (optional).

Enjoy!

Introducing…. the Milla C. Photography office!! We are now downtown at 239 4th Avenue in the Investment building, and I am absolutely in love with this office. I think it represents our business well, and it’s such a warm place to meet clients.

Here’s the inside of the office:

The window overlooks PPG to the left and Market Square to the right. I get to watch the construction AND the best thing is, I’m less than a block from MOES!!! (this is also very dangerous for my waistline…)

If you are ever downtown and want to come say hello, please give me a call. Perhaps we could take a trip to… Moes? It’s true, I am obsessed.

I just finished going through an application process with a small group called the Foundation Workshop Forum. This is a small group of photojournalists made up of some of my favorite photographers in our industry. The absolute best.

The forum is meant to be a meeting place for people who have already attended the foundation workshop or intend to, and the application process consists of 40 members of the group voting on your work/participation in the group. Now that I am a member, I can take part in photo critique, photography discussions, and fun parties whenever everyone is together!

I am sharing this with you because I want you as clients, friends, forum members, and fellow photographers to hold me accountable to this goal of having more experienced photographers give me feedback on my work on a regular basis. I want this to be a year of incredible growth and improvement in my technical skill and my ability to tell a story through photography, and I believe that critique is an important part of this.

So, I am pursuing critique in 4 ways this year:

1) I am going to post a few photos from each wedding for peer-critique on the forum
2) I am going to pay for a 2-hour mentor critique on the forum (1-on-1 portfolio critique from seasoned wedding photojournalist) at least twice a year, hopefully more.
3) I have already asked a few experienced photographers from our area to give me feedback on my work this year.
4) And finally, after prayer and discussion with Brad, we have decided to start putting money away for the Foundation Workshop in 2011. This is a week long critique-based workshop that focuses on mentoring and assignment-shooting for wedding photographers. According to the testimony of others, it is a difficult but rewarding week. And, I am totally excited about it.

Anyway, here is a video about the workshop in case any other photographer friends would be interested in taking part. It was shot and edited by Vladimir Chaloupka, and he gave me the “okay” to post it here. Even this short video is inspirational – I really can’t wait to be part of the workshop itself.

After attending WPPI, I have 2948 goals for this coming year. But, to keep things simple, I’ve narrowed them down to 24 and left room to add extras later!

So, here is my list of goals for the coming year. I will blog about them as I check them off the list! (and actually, I’m cheating because a few of these I’ve already started blogging about!)

1. Launch the new wedding gift registry for clients. (done!)
2. Have friends over for dinner at least twice a month, even during the busy wedding season
3. Order 2 large, beautiful standout and/or canvas prints for my office
4. Complete 1 month of eating only real food (nothing processed)!
5. Make critique an important part of improving my photography
6. Train for a half-marathon
7. Serve Brad in a different fun way every month
8. Start outsourcing some of my brain-numbing work
9. Order 3 more incredible sample albums to show clients more beautiful story-telling possibilities
10. Learn to make 3 really good, reliable curry dishes
11. Make a personalized video/introduction for my website
12. Get to know a different Pittsburgh photographer every month over coffee or lunch
13. Read 4 books about running a business (not photography!) Any suggestions are welcome!
14. Cut my e-mail checking, facebooking, and blog reading time to twice/daily
15. Make all our bread for 1 month
16. Take one weekend every month without turning on my computer. No email. No facebook. No blogs. Nothing.
17. Search for inspiration outside of the photography world and post it here
18. Take one weekend-long hiking/camping trip
19. Improve my website SEO
20. Shoot an engagement session in the wide open fields of PA Amish country – mmmmm…
21. Streamline/write down my editing workflow so I don’t waste so much time
22. Get a 1-hour massage. From a professional.
23. Start a blog series about other vendors I’ve enjoyed working with
24. Find comfortable yet cute shoes to wear to work on wedding days. Once again, any suggestions are welcome!
25.
26.
27.
28.

What are your goals for this year?

And just as an aside, here’s a preview of what’s to come next week on the blog: an adorable 1-year celebration with not one, but TWO birthdays, twins Madelyn and Nolan.

While I was in Las Vegas, two friends and fellow photographers (Mary and Caryn!) and I went out to the desert/canyon area to take some photos. It was really wonderful just spending time with these two girls, but in addition, we got some very fun updated photos to use on our websites/blogs/facebook/whatever! The first photos I’d like to show are of my friend and fellow photographer, Mary. I met Mary through a luncheon for Pittsburgh photographers, and we have been wonderful friends ever since. She was my roomie at WPPI, and we have been brainstorming ideas from this wonderful conference ever since!

And on a sidenote, for you photographers out there who see yourself in “competition” with others in your area, I can’t encourage your strongly enough to change that viewpoint – friends working in your field are such a wonderful blessing to have. We ask each other questions, we offer encouragement, we send each other work, we give each other new insight and ideas, we have delicious meals together, and we always provide each other with fun photos… :)

Here are a few favorite photos from our desert photo shoot! Photos of Caryn to come in a few!