Sno-lotta fun!

It was dubbed snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snOMG! and my personal favorite, snOprah Winfrey. Call it what you'd like, it was forecast to be one heck of a storm. So when the editors at AnnArbor.com asked me to do a time lapse to show the amount of snow we were to receive, I knew I had to think out of the box. My initial reaction was to measure the snow with a yard stick. After realizing how boring that idea was, I quickly settled on a garden gnome, cause, what's more appropriate than a garden gnome?

After some ingenious troubleshooting, my friend Katie Bronson and I got Gnomey all snug and secure in his temporary home. Here he is at 6p.m. just before the snow began to fall.

And again, after the snowtsunami. Even though we didn't get the 15 inches we expected, Sir Gnome was still
buried up to his neck around 10 a.m.

For the photo nerds out there, the time lapse was shot at 1 frame per minute every minute for 16 hours. Aperture priority at f/5, ISO 500. All light is ambient, with the help of a back porch light to camera right.

Watch the time lapse below!

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Two weeks in review

Where have the last two weeks gone? One minute it's Christmas and the next we are half way through January! Since the last few weeks have flown by, I thought I'd give a mass update of the stuff I've been shooting for AnnArbor.com.

Let's start with where I began the new year, in Jacksonville, Florida for the Gator Bowl.

It was nice to leave the snow and cold of Michigan for a few days!

But then the real work began. A Michigan alumni group threw a huge pep rally in downtown. It was pretty cool to see how many Michigan fans came out to support the team.

My favorite photo from the trip.

The two sides of Rich Rod, the hopeful and then the reality of it all. Shortly after Michigan's 52-14 spanking at the Gator Bowl the head coach was let go.

Speaking of coaches, meet Michigan's new one, Brady Hoke.

Coincidentally, I covered Hoke while working at the Star Press as he was the head coach of Ball State's football team. Look at all the media!

Current BSU head coach Stan Parrish and Hoke's daughter Kelly chat after a press conference.

Let's change sports and move on to Michigan basketball. A couple of action shots from a game last weekend.

And a cute moment between sisters as they wait for high fives from the team after the game.

What goes perfect with football and basketball? Beer! But I don't have any photos of beer, so photos of cars will have to do. This past Monday was the press preview for the North American International Auto Show at the Cobo Center in Detroit. (It's been a manly few weeks!)

If a press preview promises anything it's media.

And I mean A LOT of media! From all over! I heard people speaking Italian, German, Japanese, French you name it!

I think I'll end this marathon of a post with a beauty shot of the Ren Cen in downtown Detroit. It's been a busy few weeks and I can't wait to see what's up next!

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A handmade Christmas for Mom

Back in September I had the great idea to make a quilt for my Mom as a Christmas present. I was struck by a flurry of inspiration and apparently a bout of amnesia, blocking the memories from my previous quilt making endeavors. Hey, it's September, that's plenty of time to sew a quilt from scratch and with no pattern, right? The short answer to that is yes, plenty of time for stitch ripping and cursing up a storm! It seemed like a good idea anyway and in the end I think it was worth the effort.

Here is a short photo essay of the life of a handmade quilt. Hope you like it Mom!