Unfortunately, I had an email issue yesterday that went un-noticed the entire day. So if you sent me an email that came back as rejected by the server, please resend! Only my kemper@kempermillsfant.com address was affected. Sorry about any confusion.

 

Maybe I’ll be Roanoke’s Best Dog Photographer when it comes time for Roanoker Magazine to publish its annual listing of Roanoke’s Best! Will they have to create that category?? Make it so.

Jack continues to be an exemplary specimen and amazes me more and more every day. He is now slowly adapting to more time in the crate even though he spends very little time in it. For the past few crate sessions he didn’t whine upon leaving the house or returning and seemed to have weather his stint pretty well. I tried to film it again yesterday just to see how much barking went on when I wasn’t here but I forgot to erase the last movie and the card filled up in 5 seconds!

Now, Jack is getting to see a lot more dogs out in the park and he loves that. It amazes me how well dogs of different sizes play so well together. A friend of mine and I went over to the dog park (ugh…Roanoke, you can do better there!) last week and his dog Bailey was a lot bigger. That didn’t keep them from having a great time even though Jack got his butt kicked more than once. In fact, we kinda got OUR butts kicked when we happened to be standing in an unfortunate spot once or twice! Two dogs running at about 15 mph can pack a pretty substantial punch to the unobservant.

Now, I am anxious for Jack to try swimming since the weather is warming up. He has these awesome webbed feet that are sure to make him pretty swift in the water. I’m kinda wondering whether it’s a good idea to let him take to the Roanoke River though. Those “Don’t eat the Fish” signs kinda freak me out a bit. So, Jack, don’t eat any fish while you’re in there!

 

The Couple	Annie and Trey
The Ceremony	Virginia Tech War Memorial Chapel
The Reception	The South End Zone Club – Lane Stadium

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calm, cool and collected

 

 

 

I love this image…..what a beautiful bride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A truly beaming bride…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have to love a bride who will jump out of an airplane. No matter how involved I am in the job at hand, I always love listening to the toast because there is usually some little delicious nugget that makes me laugh or smile. So, it really wasn’t a huge surprise to hear that Annie is a bit of a dare-devil and leader of the pack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s never a party ’til someone takes their shoes off…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, from my Hokie Bride and her Hokie Photographer, a tribute to every one who ever wanted to have all of Lane Studium stand up and cheer as they took to the field.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course all of lane stadium was only three people….but whose counting :)

 

 

Annie and Trey, thanks for making me a part of your very special day. Many happy landings in all you do!

 

 

Kemper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took the paper recycle out tonight and was watching Jack dig in one of the sunflower beds. It’s the bed that caused rampant speculation in the neighborhood last year as to exactly what I had “planted” in my back yard. Nooooo……not that :)

The bed happens to be about 7 feet long and three feet wide and kind of oddly placed at a right angle to the house. But instead of pushing up daisies, it pushes up miniature sunflowers all summer long. This year’s crop will be awesome because I harvested all the seed last year to replant. Sometimes that will result in the plant reverting to the original cultivar, so maybe I will get a mixed bed. Who cares, I just like ’em hanging around. I love the texture of the seed head, so I photograph them right up until they dry up to nothing. Such a sturdy plant and so full of cool curves and textures.

Won’t be long!

 

What is the emotion of color? How do colors play a part in making us feel the way we do about whatever it is we are looking at? I painted a room in my house bright yellow this winter, and that was a real challenge for me as I’m really into the more subdued earth tones right now. So this room really contrasts with the rest of the house for the time being, but it makes me feel really good whenever I walk into it on a cold sunshiny winter day. I can see the other rooms from this particular room, and I think that adds to the appeal of this little haven. Kind of like my spot in the sun. But I wondered how it would change my feeling about this room if every room in the house were painted the same color. I think it would take away considerably from the emotional impact of walking into this particular room.

So, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and exploring the relationships of color within the boundaries of a single image. Nothing earth shattering, but it is fascinating how a particular color has a relationship with those around it, and changing those relationships has a significant effect on the emotional impact of the image.

 

Ran across this little jewel today and just thought I would have to pass it on. It is hilarious and I found myself laughing out loud throughout the whole thing.

So many times I run across something that makes me stop and think “Is that really art?”. I try not to be pretentious about art because I realize that not everyone is entertained or stimulated at the same level; and it rarely entertains me to have to listen to some lofty condescending prattle that often comes from some artist trying to bolster their own ego by putting others down. So, I found this to be hugely entertaining. I love the monkey pretending to be Bob Ross, and the Printmaking Dog is totally lovable.

So is IT art? I think so.