Here it is, command central of Kracke Photography, in all it’s frighting, messy, craziness. I know where everything is, I think… ; – )

We are looking forward to sharing all our amazing events from 2011 and the beautiful events that will happen in 2012.

Happy New Year!

Peace and Love

Julia and Kurtis

Cheers!

We are very excited to have Jennifer Chamberlin Lewandowski
demonstrating easy and beautiful wedding day makeup tips and techniques.

Jennifer has 20 plus years specalizing in hair and makeup
and is an Mary Kay cosmetic extraordinaire!

We will have some wine, food and a photo shoot
so you can remember the amazing look for your wedding day.

This is a free event but there are a limited number of seats so RSVP by August 18!!!

julia@krackephotography.com

See you there!!

Instead of giving up she has started her own foundation – Drummin for the Cure – The Stout Foundation - geared towards raising money for breast cancer with the ultimate goal of having a metro-wide drum line competition. How AWESOME is that?

She is a high school marching band teacher and is the percussion line director. Today is chemo is #4, tomorrow is the pep rally at her school and Sunday is the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Her kids (drumline) will be there performing for her and for all the other folks at the race. I am photographing the whole week with her. ; – ) – More pictures later of this amazing week!

Rome, Em and Julia and Em's 4th Chemo - taken with the cell phone.

We stopped for a beer and saw this bottle of The Kraken Black Spiced Rum…. The bartender gave us a taste… wow! You could light your own breath.

The Kracke with The Kraken… Yes we are photo dorks!

The second day we got up early, mainly because 7 am Portland time is 10 am our time, we headed for the coast and spent the entire day there! Here I am with my feet in the cold Pacific ocean.

Kurtis wanted to see the beach where they filmed part of the Goonies, so we headed out to Cannon Beach to find the rocks. They are known as the Haystack Rock and the Needles but they will be known to us forever as the Goonie Rocks. The tide was low so we were able to se the amazing tide pools that surround the rock. (don’t know who those people are in the picks….)

Kurtis in front of the Goonie Rock…. You can’t see it but he is grinning like a little kid.

We stopped some other photographers and asked them to take our pick. (we are both grinning like little kids)

Next we went up to Astoria to see the Goonie House and have some lunch. (Yes we are big Goonie dorks.) ; – )

Then it was back down the coast and stopping at a few beaches along the way.

This was our view at dinner. We found an amazing little restaurant in Oceanside called Roseanna’s Cafe. I had the best little clams! hands down the best! and Kurtis had salmon that was to die for!

We got back to Portland really really late and woke up really late so there was only one place to go…. Stepping Stone Cafe, Ever seen Man vs Food??? On his stop in Portland Adam stops by for Mancakes…. 13 inch round and at least one inch think pancakes!! We only got one and couldn’t finish the whole thing.

I promise we did do more then just eat in Portland. We spent the entire day down on the river at the carnival and Sunday Market. We bought a few great pieces of outsider art and I got a great bag. Monday was the wedding. One word…. BEAUTIFUL!!! The pictures will be coming soon!!

So the day after the wedding we went to a Portland institution… Voodoo Doughnut! (also seen on Man vs Food) …. Promise we really really did more then just eat!

This was my pick. Voodoo Doll Raised yeast doughnut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake! (characteristics of Voodoo Dolls are all different)

The Bacon Maple Bar Raised yeast doughnut with maple frosting and bacon on top! (how can life get any better?)

Kurtis’s pick was the Diablos Rex Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting, red sprinkles, vanilla pentagram and chocolate chips in the middle!

Texas Challenge Giant Doughnut equals 6 of their doughnuts in size. If you can eat this doughnut in 80 seconds or less…You get your money back!  We didn’t even try to eat this is 80 sec… We actually only ate 3-4 bites and gave up.

So what is the best thing to do after eating Voodoo Doughnuts and buzzing around on a sugar high??? Go for a 12 mile hike in the Columbia River Gorge!!! It was completely worth the leg cramps, sore feet, rain soaked pants to see Tunnel Falls. (I – 84 exit 41, in case you were wondering.) Yes, we truly went for a 12 mile hike the day after we shot a wedding, three hours there, two hours back….yup, 5 hours of hiking.  I know, I know…. what were we thinking! ( I have no idea either…. I blame it on voodoo doughnuts!).

Around the 6 mile mark the trail comes across a huge waterfall, so instead of ending the trail some very strong outdoors type folk dug a tunnel behind the falls. It was AMAZING!!!  So here are some of the pictures from that walk…. OH, and a BIG BIG THANK YOU !!!!!! to Laura and Dan (the bride and groom from Portland) for the AWESOME wedding favors!! Umbrellas with their wedding logo screen printed on them. They came in so handy on the hike!! You guys are the best!

Yes that is one big, old tree!! The trees, mountains, gorge, everything was beautiful

For the most part the trail was fairly easy, mostly up hill there and in some spots the trail narrowed a bit  - the wire guide rail always makes you feel safe. ; – )

I was AMAZED by the trees and loved photographing them.

This is one of the campsites (lower right hand corner) We want to go back and camp for a few days.

This is one of the few teaser waterfalls they have on the way up to Tunnel Falls….. I would see it and think “Oh, Thank God we made it!!” just to be jinxed and have to keep walking.

This is my favorite tree picture. These trees were planted after a huge forest fire in 1902. Just breathtaking.

This was just before we got to the falls. Just beautiful beyond belief!

WE MADE IT!!! WE MADE IT!!!! (insert major fan fair!!) See the dark thing in the middle of the picture. That is the tunnel. We put our hands on the wall of the tunnel and could feel it move and tremble from the power of the waterfall.

again…. THANK YOU,  THANK YOU,  THANK YOU FOR THE UMBRELLAS!!!

We will get the wedding pictures up soon and share the wonderful day that we spent with Laura and Dan.

Cheers,  Julia and Kurtis

Found this article on gizmag.com The Dissolvable Wedding Dress!! It was created by students at Sheffield Hallam University.

It’s a very interesting twist and idea on green wedding dresses. …-  just don’t spill your champaign on it! ; – )

“Aiming to address the issue of “throwaway fashion” and its impact on the environment as landfill, students at Sheffield Hallam University have combined fashion design with engineering to create a dissolvable wedding dress that can be converted into five different fashion pieces before being dissolved in water leaving no environmental footprint.

The success of low-cost retailers has driven down the price of clothes in the UK leading to an estimated drop in price of 25% in recent years. This has led to a 40% increase in clothes purchases to more than two million tonnes per year. Of this, 74% will ultimately end up in landfill making textiles the fastest-growing waste product in the UK.

“The students wanted to challenge the notion that a wedding dress should only be used once and aimed to explore modern society’s attitudes towards throwaway fashion,” said Jane Blohm, a lecturer on the fashion design course at Sheffield Hallam.

“In order to reduce fashion’s impact on the environment, the fashion industry must begin to challenge conventional attitudes and practices. The exhibition demonstrates what could be possible when design and scientific innovation combine forces.”

The wedding dress was chosen as an iconic representation of the “wear once” philosophy that pervades modern fashion. Polyvinyl alcohol, a biodegradable substance used in washing detergents, is knitted into the dress fabric which allows it to dissolve in water leaving no impact on the environment. But not before it can be reprized as five new fashion garments, each representing a stage of the transformation – assuming that perspiration or weather hasn’t made Swiss cheese of the dress already of course.”

The designs were featured in the exhibition “A Sustainable Marriage” displayed at the Sheffield Hallam University Furnival Gallery.

Max with the first view of my camera. He wasn’t too hip to the big black thing in his face.

Max being distracted by the birds out the window… totally for got about the camera in 2 sec flat.

Max at his best. He had a ton of mats on him when we got him from the shelter.
We ended up cutting them all out so now he looks a bit like a rag-a-muffin but it fits his personality.

Max is not as out going as Trouble and still like to hide when we come home. Isn’t to hip to loud noises, fast movements or big cameras in front of him, but day by day he is getting better and trusts us more. He LOVES Trouble and they have been playing non-stop for the past 3 day’s. Apparently they are training for the kitty olympics and the best time for them to train is 3 a.m. – 6 a.m. I think they are training for the marathon, long jump, wrestling (possibly even sumo wrestling) doubles tennis and all around gymnastics. The bed has been the perfect launching point for the long jump and gymnastics training.

When Max gets a little more used to the camera I will get some pictures of Trouble and him together. You would think they were long lost brothers they way they love, fight and play with each other.

Cheer and enjoy!

Tonia and Kevin

After many months of a quiet, kitty free home we decided to get another cat. Well… actually 2 cats. Our neighbor Dee is buying a cat for Kurtis for his birthday. He wants an orange, long hair male cat, we have looked and looked and looked and can’t find one. If you know of one that needs a home let us know! But in the mean time here is kitty number 1….. Trouble. That is the name he came with. Trouble. I don’t think it will stick but we will see. If you want to read the whole story click here. If not, no worries just enjoy the pictures of Trouble.

He spent yesterday afternoon at the studio, exploring every inch of my office.

The girls arrived 30 min after Trouble. He jumped into Hayley’s arms and gave her some love

Day 2….. Sleeping position 1

Sleeping position 2

Sleeping position 3