Lake Nokomis

When I think 'summer,' Lake Nokomis immediately comes to mind. A friend introduced this spot to me last year, and it quickly became a regular thing to drive over late at night, sit on the dock and watch the planes flying low over the lake as they land at the airport. There is a Caribou Coffee which stays open late, and a tiny little ice-cream shop whose lines go out the door on a hot night. The mosquitoes do think that they own the place, but it wouldn't be a Minnesotan lake without them. It's a good little spot to meet the girls for a Sunday afternoon, to watch the sailboats come and go or to simply sit with toes dipped in the water, doing a little talking and dreaming.

Minneapolis: Minnehaha Falls

Summer seems to be the season for couch-surfing. Each year someone in the family is borrowing a mattress or a couch, and this summer it is the the nursing student turned South Dakotan's turn. And having a sister sleeping on your couch naturally means late night conversations, Netflix marathons, a fair number of Angry Orchards, and having someone to rope into weekend jaunts around the Twin Cities.

 One particular Saturday, our goal was to do a bit of exploring, even though we had stayed up till 4:30 a.m. the night before discussing the usual: work, life, love, and relationships. The humid weather, glorious air-conditioning and lack of sleep made it hard to work up the motivation to go anywhere. After a few rounds of hitting the snooze button, however, we eventually filled up our travel mugs with hot coffee and made it out the door.

Our first stop was a street fair that actually wasn't being held till the next day. Note to self: don't believe everything you read on the internet. We switched gears and decided to go to Plan B which involved picking up the third sister for more coffee. The slight problem there was the fact that she has an adorable tiny son, which translates into you having a 19% chance of her answering her phone. The tiny tot won out, so Plan B went quickly to Plan C which involved, "Well, now what do we do?" Thankfully Minnehaha Falls happened to be on the way home so we stopped to people-watch and hike along the Mississippi River. And because Mom instilled in us a love for Winnie-the-Pooh, we couldn't help but partake in a few rounds of Poohsticks...

Nataleigh: Minneapolis Portrait Session

This beautiful woman set off to continue graduate studies in Belgium this fall, and before she left, we decided to capture a few images set in one of her favorite haunts: the Stone Arch Bridge in Nordeast Minneapolis. Her vibrant soul and lovely smile made my job an easy one!