To any of you who visited the blog on Monday, you may have noticed a little $10 iTunes gift card contest It was for whoever could name the other couples session that was posed on newspaper stands.

 Someone guessed Corrie and Jeff… However, they're leaning against… (hey, it's a technicality, don't be mad… I can't give EVERYONE the giftcard!) By the way, YOU MY BEST FRIEND GRIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Same with Christina and Micah…

…in front of… (and it's really not a couples session ) I LOVE THIS PHOTO!!!!

 also, in front of

 DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!!!!!!!! Pictured here are our GREAT friends Andrea and Ryan (to those who saw me speak at OSP Indy… this is the Ryan who came to help). 

To be completely honest, I'm a bit shocked that someone guessed it. This session isn't even on our current blog… so you would have just had to remember from the old days.  And yes yes yes, Libby remembered THANK YOU Libby for guessing… I was feeling REALLY guilty for making the contest so hard!!!! But usually our contests end within 15 minutes because I make them too easy! 

Another little tidbit about that session… it was our first everrrrr urban style shoot (we had JUST moved to Indianapolis a week before). This session inspired us in SO many ways… and it really was the foundation for the style that we shoot today.  Yeah, that's deep!

Thanks for playing!!!!!

Love

~bobbi

I think it may be time for a minor face lift of the blog…. 

Maybe we need SLIGHTLY bigger photos?

Maybe a new color scheme (keeping the orange, duh!)

A new watermark?

I'm probably over thinking it… and just bored I guess that's the graphic designer in me.  You can tell me I'm crazy… I won't be mad

Thanks guys for your help!!!!! 

~

 Please pay NO attention to the quality of this photo… Can you believe that the person who took that was a "professional"  Whatever… I'm cute

This photo was taken in August 1999… my freshman year of college at Indiana State University.  I was a Sparkette… AKA the color guard/dance team.  I mentioned that I was a part of the team a long time ago on this blog and my friend THE PHENOMENAL KATE MARTIN about had an attack… "I WANNA SEE A PHOTO OF THAT!" So, this is just for you Miss Kate

I would also like to take this opportunity to say… HOLY COWABUNGA TO HOW THIN I AM IN THAT PHOTO?!?!!?? JEEEEEZE LOUISE!!! I wanna be thin like THAT again!  My smile looks HUGE when my cheeks aren't so chubby.   I so so so so so so want to look like that. 

Okay, I'm going to bust out how much weight I've gained since then… and I canNOT believe I'm posting about it publicly… this is REALLY hard.. REALLY REEEEEEALLY hard.   Okay, so before I dieted last year I had gained a total of 58 pounds since then.  I lost 13 of that back then so now I'm still up 45 pounds.  FORTY-FIVE POUNDS!

I kinda slowed down the weight loss… aka, quit dietting   I've done fairly well at maintaining that but NOW IS THE TIME TO GET BACK ON THE HEALTHY TRAAAAIN!!!!!!!  Anyone out there want to diet with me?  Please?  PLEEEEEASE!?

Does this photo bring back any memories?

Once I lose more than 13 lbs… I'll do a new photo like the one you see above   Hey… it's the small stuff that gets me excited/movitated   I always LOVED coming up with what I was going to take a photo of every Friday to show my weight loss.  For those of you who have NO idea what I'm talking about… every Friday I would take a photo of something that weighed the same amount as the pounds I'd lost.  So, at my best I'd lost 3 5Ds, a 70-200, a 16-35 and a 24mm prime.  

This year… I'm going to do it exactly like we did it last year… anyone who wants to join me just let me know in the blog comments that you're in.   Then every week we'll do a total weight loss of all of us combined.  I'll be keeping track of it all here in a spreadsheet… yes yes yes, I'm a nerd with spreadsheets. The more the merrier… I'd LOVE to have you all on my team. 

Here are my goals (losing about 1.5 lbs a week)…

by Thanksgiving: -10

by Christmas: – 16

WPPI in Vegas (mid Feb): -24

my birthday, June 14: -45 

I know I'll never be a skinny girl… I never have been… and never will be… but being "not chubby" will be exactly where I want to be.  Know what I mean?

I'm SOOOO excited and INCREDIBLY motivated to get this done.  I'm also quite nervous.  Doing this publicly is quite humbling and embarrassing.  I don't want to fail in front of all of you.  I'm just a girl with insecurities, and I know I'm not alone.  I don't want to live the rest of my life paranoid about the size of my butt. 

Who's with me?!  DO IT!!!!!! I'll be reporting my first weight loss this Friday… AHHH I'M SOOO NERVOUS!

I flipping love our blog readers!  LOVE YOUUUUUU ALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!

~bobbi

PS.  Heather, where you at?

PPS… I know I know… I haven't been blogging as much as usual this month.   it's not because we don't have anything to blog WITH it's because we're shooting a lot and just don't have a chance to sit down at our computers to edit them. so yes, lots of new stuff coming soooon!

Hey dudes and dudettes….and grooms and errr..groomettes (that was a Mikeism… ).

Last year, you guys voted bobbi+mike as Best Photographers in Indianapolis! How neat to win that?! You rock!!!!! Given the amount of talent that's here in Indianapolis… it was a HUGE honor!!!!! It’s been such an amazing year for us… Wow!

Well… I’m sure you guessed it… the time has come again. If you guys think we're worthy let everyone know by voting at WRTV’s Indy A-list site. If you’re feelin’ it.. Be sure to leave us some comment love and tell all of your friends and family to vote, too. Okay okay… Now we’re getting a bit too excited.

Click HERE to vote 

I have to be honest with you… We LOVE contests!!!!!

Oh, and just an FYI… You have to sign up for a WRTV account to vote. Not to worry… It only takes about 20 seconds and I PROMISE they won’t spam you

Thanks to the best friends, family and clients in the world,

 ~bobbi+mike +

UPDATE: MILES MADE IT INTO THE TOP FIVE!!!!!!! YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!! NOWWWWWWW… we have to get him into the top TWO.  So, CLICK HERE TO VOTE AGAIN!  They're REALLY dragging this contest out! 

One of my favorite babies is doing quite well in a local Fort Wayne Indiana cutest baby contest.  Out of over 100 babies… he's in the top twenty… duh.  I couldn't resist getting the word out here… so go vote for him!  Though, he doesn't really need our help… he really IS the cutest baby!

Here's a photo we took last fall… wow, seems SO long ago!

and just to show you how BIG he's gotten… WOWZERS!!!

This one is my favorite photo of Miles EVER!  Great work Betsy!

So here's what I know about the voting process…

Miles has made it into the top 20 and throughout the week they are doing voting in groups to pair it  down to the top 5.  Miles' group votes today, Wednesday.   Voting is from  9 AM-6 PM… again, only on Wednesday.  You'll find baby Miles in group 5.  To vote… make sure you vote for "Miles K"  Oh, and the age you put in is YOUR age… not of the baby.     (you don't have to be an Indiana native to vote…)

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!!!!!!!

I'm ridiculous.  Oh well… this kid deserves to win.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH HIS CUTENESS?!

~ +

Back to regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow…

What am I saying when this photo was taken? To ANYONE who has ever been photographed by us (esp. on a wedding day) you should know. First one to get it right…. $10 iTunes gift certificate coming your way!

I’m looking for an exact quote

This shot wasn’t set up in the least! Nice capture Mike! I think the photo is so dang funny….

~bobbi+

UPDATE: CONTEST OVER!!!!!  The answer: “BRING IT IN TIGHT”

April got it! (danielle+justin’s day of wedding coordinator).  Jenny, recent bride, was SO close with her guess of “bring it in real tight”  So, I’m going to send $10 iTunes gift cards to both of you

YAY!!!! That was fun

We have the BEST clients/friends/family in the ENTIIIIIIIIIRE world!

~bobbi+mike

…. now back to work ….

After the great response to Bobbi’s post…with all the b-day wishes, I felt I needed to give something back (a laugh or two) to our rockin’ army of blog readers! Here are a few of my stellar senior photos…I wish the photographer been as honest as Bobbi and told me I looked like total dork and that we needed to try something different. Of course, you wouldn’t have these studly photos to look at!

My canon AE-1 I received on my 14th b-day…with my awesome sigma 70-230 (I think…). The camera stills works today, even after going 300 feet down a mountain side in Germany on a senior trip. Anyone interested in an e-bay auction? I’ll even throw in the premium, super high quality, razor-sharp, grade-A 800-1200mm f11-16 Quantary lens from the local Ritz in the mall I got when I was 18!

Here I am thinking I’m all hard with my Chuck Norris bag gloves (available at Service Mechandise, next to the kid’s section) sporting my massive guns…

So…dear blog readers, I propose we have another blog reader participation event. I’ve dorked out for you, now you get to share with me

Back in the day (ok, last year) we had a cheesy senior photo contest. Now, we’ve got about 10 times the traffic, so I’m expecting 10 times the photos! There will be a vote, and an as of yet undetermined, but very cool prize! Send your photos HERE.

+mike

Just an FYI A few were sent to me in e=cards… and there was no name associated with the m&m… so I couldn’t tell who it was from. Also, two of you I couldn’t get in touch with to send me a REAL photo It’s been kinda crazy with all of these emails the last couple of days… so I REALLY hope I didn’t leave anyone out. If for some strange reason I did… email me and I’ll add it

Without further ado… HERE THE ARE! (in alphabetical order) Oh… and if we shot or are shooting their wedding, you’ll find their wedding date information after their names. And one more thing… if you have a website… I tried linking (mostly other wedding photographers) At the end of the entry you’ll find the top 14 Which was SOOOO hard to narrow down because they were ALLLLL so goooood! SOOOOO… go VOTE for the best!!!

Aaron

Abe

Alden

Amanda

Amy

Andrea

Andrea D. (wedding: 6.02.07)

Andrea H. (wedding: 8.05.07)

Andrea R. (wedding: 9.20.08)

Anne

Dr. Annie

Betsy

Bobbi

Bobbie

Brenda

Brent

Cheryl (wedding: 3.08.08)

Crystal

Eric M.

Eric G.

Erin

Jessica and Family

Jacquie

Jamie

Jed

Jeff (father of the bride, 6.8.07)

Jennifer

Jeremy (wedding: 3.08.08)

John

Jon (wedding 10.13.06)

Josh (wedding 9.23.06)

Julie (mother of the bride 6.8.07)

Kai

Katie

Kim

Kristen (wedding 6.16.07)

Lauren (wedding 10.13.06)

Lynsey

Mark (wedding 8.04.07)

Mark K.

Megan (wedding 9.23.06)

Mike = HOT!

Mike I. (wedding 9.22.07)

My MOMBA!

Nataly

Nick (wedding 5.12.07)

Nicole

Oliva

Pia

The Ratliff Family

Robbie

Sarah Q.(wedding 10.31.07)

Sarah

Sarah Brown’s Dog

Scott

Tiffany B.

Tiffany I.

THE TOP SEVEN LADY M&Ms

Brooke (wedding 9.22.07)

Kari (wedding 5.12.07)

Lauren

Lindsey (wedding 9.14.07)

Marcie

Melissa

Tasha (wedding 8.4.07)

THE TOP SEVEN MALE M&M’s

Brian H. (wedding 9.14.07)

Brian P. (wedding 6.16.07)

John

Matthew

Mike B.

Mike D. (wedding 6.2.07)

Ryan (wedding 8.5.06)

Thank you guys again… wasn’t it FUN?! Now… VOTE!!! NOW!

~bobbi

As you can see… I found the NEATEST website EVERRRRR! http://www.becomeanmm.com You can turn yourself into well… an m&m You can pick ALL of the colors from the eyes, to your hair, to your shoes… EVERYTHING! You can pick the shape of your eyes, your smile and the length of your legs. ANNNND… my favorite part is the adding of “accessories” Our accessory is well… the camera. I saw things from soccer balls to luggage to bicycle helmets to fun belts There’s just so many ways you can really make the m&m YOU!

ATTENTION: PAST CLIENTS, CURRENT CLIENTS, FUTURE CLIENTS, OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS, PHOTOGRAPHY ENTHUSIASTS, FAMILY, FRIENDS, and well… ANYONE READING THIS BLOG!!!!! I was hoping that you guys would go to that website and create YOUR M&M and send it to bobbi@bobbiandmike.com. When you get done customizing YOU as an m&m just click download… then a larger version comes up… from THERE… right click, save image as it will save as a PNG, that’s PERFECTLY okay… just email me the PNG file I’m EXCIIIIIIIIITED! I hope you ALLLLLL particpate! I’ll put up a blog entry with all of your “photos” ISN’T THIS FUNNNN?!

~bobbi+

UPDATE #2: IT’S WORKING!!!! SO GO MAKE YOUR M&M’s RIIIIIIIIIIGHT NOW!!!!! I’m up to ten so, keeeeep sending!

UPDATE #3: We’re up to EIGHTEEEEEN! I’m going to post all of these late late late tonight and hold a little contest… the contest will be who’s M&M looks the most like them The ones that I have so far are HILAAAAARIOUS! I’m still trying to figure out what the prize will be so… stay tuned!