Monday, August 29, 2011

Tornadoes in Clark County

Last Tuesday evening, my editor and I were watching the weather on three TV channels, the internet, and out the front door as two tornadoes moved through Central Wisconsin. We didn't hear of damage until about an hour after the storm and it was a vague claim of a barn off the foundation with an even vaguer location. So i took off to look for damage, and hoped that I would run into someone who could point me in the right direction. I saw a pair of emergency personnel who were blocking off the road and asked them where I could find the damage. The pointed me the long way around because many wires were down and also told me that a home was destroyed. My first stop was a family whose garage was destroyed as well as a trailer home on their property. Their mother-in-law was actually in the trailer home as it tumbled through their year, across the gravel road and into the neighboring field. She was ok, but badly bruised and shaken. I got there about an hour after the tornado struck, and already neighbors, family and and random people had stopped by and were helping to clean up the damage.


Here is a link to the photo gallery on the Marshfield News-Herald website.

This home was completely destroyed. The family was able to get into the basement and were unhurt during the storm. Luckily, the tornadoes came through a very rural area of Wisconsin and no one was killed during the storm.

Here are some links to stories from our paper: Governor Walker Touring Damaged Area and Twister in Clark County.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Summer Sunflower

Last year I remember thinking that I wasn't sure if I would ever be too busy to post in my blog. Well...... times have changed, in a good way, and now I know the feeling :) I am going to try to post a few times this week and hopefully get back into the habit of blogging. But for now, as I wind down an evening of editing photos, I will just post one photo.  It is a sunflower. Ta-da!



Monday, August 22, 2011

Pre-Season Football Practice

I am back after a week-long vacation from my photo day job. The week before I left, I had to photograph the local teams gearing up for football season. (Yes, it is almost the end of summer, sad.) How does one keep three football practices a day exciting and the photos different? I am not sure, but I tried.

I am also really glad I never played football. I appreciated pre-season fall swim and diving practice where instead of sweating and getting beat up, we would a more chill approach and dance around to ABBA and make outfits out of towels.....  Not that our coach approved, but I was a diver and we were kind of on the other end of the pool on our own and you really had to yell at us for us to "hear." I think we even complained about doing sit-ups...







































All photos or copyright the Marshfield News-Herald

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Jenna's Senior Photos :: Central Wisconsin Senior Photography

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of photographing Jenna's senior photos. We started out at Jenna' family's farm near Mosinee and from there headed out all over the Marathon County to seek out the perfect field of flowers, bridges, river, and a dirt road for Jenna's senior pics. There was even a stop for ice cream at Briq's! Jeanna had a ton of super-cute dresses and was a great sport, even when there were swarms of mosquitoes swarming us! She even took out her pig and walked him for a photo! Thanks for having me photograph your senior photos, I had a blast!!



























Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Hub City Duathlon

This a post I did last week for Wisconsin Outdoor Fun, one of the sites I blog for at work.  I realized I hadn't blogged in a bit and am slightly bogged down by other things, so I thought I would share.  Not quite a photo post, but I have been busy editing photos and not so much taking them lately :) My summer, or at least July consisted of running, biking, and photographing.


Last Saturday I participated in the Hub City Duathlon in Marshfield. This was the first time for the event, and it drew over 500 participants! It was also my first time participating in a bike race and multiple sport race.

I was a bit nervous before the race, as I am before all races. In high school I would cry before my races in track meets. My coach would always yell at me before the race, “Schmitt! Shut up and run!” Yeah…. it was a problem. It also didn’t help my time when I was sniffling and crying as I ran my 400. One time I was crying really hard (this is ridiculous, I know) that I fell tripped and fell off the edge of the track. Thankfully, I don’t cry before races anymore. Anyway, I was curious if my training had paid off, although I hadn’t biked for about a week. I obviously wasn’t that strict with training. It was about 80 degrees too, so I was concerned about the heat. I usually try to bike or run before 8 am and if it is too hot, I run inside otherwise I get pretty wiped-out of the rest of the day. I also had never worked on transitions from running to biking to running. I knew it would be painful, so I just avoided it, ha!

The race started at 10 a.m. and I took off for the first two miles. I tried to pace myself and tell myself that it wasn’t “just” two miles. I think the first two miles was a bit longer than the second two miles, since my split for the first two miles was slower than the second split. After the first two miles, I felt pretty good, so I was pumped to bike.

I’m not sure of my transition times, but I did pause to get some water while changing out of my running shoes into my bike shoes. I was considering the bike portion a bit of a rest time, since I had no idea how to race on a bike. The bike ride was pretty fun though and once you get going, biking doesn’t take that much energy. The few hills weren’t too bad. I also really like to climb hills… which is kind of weird. I love biking with my fiance and racing him up the hills. Which is a bit mean, but I like to go all out on the hills. So, that is what I practiced on my bike rides, which worked for me on this race. My odometer/speedometer is broken, so I would also  just try to catch the person a few bikes ahead of me. What can I say, I am a bit competitive!

After the 15-mile bike, which I finished smiling, was the final two mile run. I think this run was a bit shorter, because I was feeling really  s-l-o-w, but my split was a few minutes faster than my first split. This second run was painful for me. It was after 11 am, so totally hot, and not that shaded. The heat was just rising off the pavement. Ew. I took off from my bike, with my legs more than a bit wobbly. After the first few steps, I cramped a bit and then realized that I should have worked on transitions, whoops!  After about half a mile though, my side-ache dissipated and my legs were a bit more stable. The rest of the run went well, and I was able to finish with a strong stride.

All-in-all, the race went really well. I got second in my age division, and eighth overall for women, which was way better than I expected. My running splits were about where my normal race pace is. My bike portion was 51 minutes, which was about where I planned. I think I am going to do another duathlon! Any suggestions?

My transition area. I chose a spot that wasn't congested so that I could get in and out quickly. Well, as quickly as it takes to drink water change shoes and catch my breath.
 Start of the race.
 Taking off for the bike portion.
 End of the bike!
End of the race!

The photos were take by my lovely fiance, except for the third one, which was taken by my co-worker, the Stevens Point Journal photographer, Doug.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tina + Jerry :: Stevens Point, Wisconsin Engagement Photography

The park is one of the best places to play, and that we did during Tina and Jerry's engagement photo session! We met on a Sunday evening at Iverson Park in Stevens Point. None of us had ever been, so we had a great time exploring the park, taking pictures and swatting mosquitoes. We checked out the swings, the many bridges and the ball park. It was a perfect summer evening in the park. It was also one of the hottest days of the year, but you wouldn't know it looking at Jerry and Tina. They were so fun and easy-going, I can't wait to photograph their wedding next August!