Will

Before we go any farther, let's just get this out: I LOVE the fuzzy hair. I also have a feeling that in 15-20 years a special girl (Melman?) will come along and thank Will's mom for not slicking it down for these pictures.


Will was a good sport. He even ate a little nature to pacify himself.

Hey there chicky baby - like my ride? He's got this flirting thing down!

One big smile + two little teeth

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Lyon Family - On Location

Mom and the girls thought it was time to update the family portraits. We set up the gear and snapped a few shots in their gorgeous house that they've all pitched in to remodel. Even the dog was invited.

Great ladies. Great smiles.

I think I'll send the girls my dog for boot camp. Jo Jo was very well behaved and attentive. But seriously - what a cool family!

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Erlacher Family

We had such a good time in the studio taking pictures and these three were awesome! I promise you that baby Eric is well cared for by his big brother and sister.

Jada said, "You want him to smile? I can make him smile - watch this!"

Collage Time!

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Tristan + Brooks

These two handsome boys were in recently for some "brotherly love" pictures. We started in the studio, but they seemed to sense that if they ran around enough we would just head outside. Tristan had many great camera faces for me!

They're both looking at the camera - at the same time! As soon as we started outside, Tristan realized he could see his reflection in the camera lens and spent quite a bit of time tracking his movements. How can you not love that?

Hey, good lookin'!

Brooks is quite the charmer. Watch out Mom!

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Beautiful Families Make Me Smile

I really hope the pictures that I took of Celena and her kids do them justice. They are awesome people with great big smiles. Dad wasn't able to join us for this session, but we've got some cool ideas planned for him at a later date (he's a firefighter who loves hunting, how much better does it get?). For now enjoy Mom + Three!

Aren't these colors amazing? For not really coordinating a "matching" look I'd say this is perfect. Everyone is wearing something they like and everyone looks great! There's something about taking pictures right at your home place that puts a person at ease.

"Girl Talk" - I'm sure I'd get the eye roll for that, but the bond between sisters is so cool. I hope they continue to get along well through high school!

Mr. Preston was full of great ideas - and we took his picture a lot! There were a lot of cool ones, but this is my favorite of him.

"Reverse Psychology" - we were having trouble getting genuine smiles so I told them to be serious for a while. Tricky, tricky!

I LOVE this - and so will Preston's future wife and kids. I promise.

To see more pictures of this family and the other posts from today, visit our proofing site at www.csquaredphoto.zenfolio.com

Gracie - Blonde Beauty!

Gracie turned 1 a while back and Mom thought it was high time for some updated portraits. How can you help but love a little girl with golden curls in the polka dot dress? She's definitely feminine as she crawls onto stools, into baskets and eats weeds. :)

Let's see how we did.

Hello beautiful!

She really put the miles on running from one end of the studio to the other. It inspired me to look into wireless transmitters for the strobes. New toys for Kim!

This might be my favorite. Mom said, "Where's Dad?" and this was Gracie's reaction. She turned toward the street and started screaming for Dad - it cracked me up!

Thanks for a fun session Gracie. I'm glad the apple juice didn't stain your pretty dress. Gage found a few abandoned Smarties leftover from your session that he quickly snatched up today. He says thanks for sharing.

Jacob Turns 2

Jacob visited the studio recently for some 2 year portraits. Here's what I learned: he'll stop and smile at the camera for bribes. His mom and I used fruit snacks, Smarties, juice boxes and bubbles. We had a great time at your birthday party and I enjoyed taking pictures with you too.

This is how it went down.

When Jacob first came in for pictures, it was rainy and drizzling outside so we started in the studio.

I think we sneaked out during the only break in the rain all day. It rained all afternoon, so I was thankful for the shots we captured. We threw rocks and apples, blew bubbles and ran all over keeping up with Jacob. What fun!

I love his expression in this pictures and how the colors of the building work with each other. He was even a good sport about putting up his hood for a few shots.

Jacob REALLY enjoyed picking this fruit off of a tree and launching it as high as he could into the air. If I was 7 feet tall or allowed on a stool, I would have caught the best expressions, and probably a few pieces of fruit in the forehead.

Thanks for a fun morning Jacob! You certainly kept me moving to stay with you. I can't wait to play again soon!

Jordyn - 1 year

I am going to attempt to play catch up on the blog today so be prepared for cute baby overload plus one great looking family shoot. I'll probably keep the narrating minimal as I have loads of help at the office day. Gage is here both today and tomorrow while the baby sitter takes a much needed break before school starts up again in about 10 days. So far today we have watched bits and pieces of three different movies, had a snack, played with the white board and made a tent out of boxes, furniture and a photo backdrop. Two hours of fun for everyone!

On to the pictures

Look at this cutie!! With two older sisters to keep her in check, Jordyn is 100% girlie. Its always exciting to try and keep a toddler still in the studio long enough to click a few good pictures, but she did awesome.

Peek a boo - Mom did a great job of finding smiles over the back of the chair. Definitely a high energy kiddo!

A quick step outside and we found great mid-morning shade and freshly cut grass.

Who could resist a back shot with an outfit this cute. Thanks to Jordyn and Mom for a great session - I hope you enjoy your pictures!

Klitzke Grandkids

These two cuties were visiting their Grandma and Grandpa and were treated to a portrait session. Ethan told me that he loves having his picture taken, so I knew immediately that I was dealing with a pro. He didn't disappoint.


I think Jordan could read my mind - those cheeks are squeezable. These kiddos kept things lively as Ethan led the crab walk, bear crawl and dinosaur prowl.


A look at their best dinosaur faces.



After we finished up in the studio, the rain had subsided so we headed to the park. Miss Jordan LOVED the swings. She's great at pumping her legs!

This was toward the end of our park adventure and I wanted to snap a few more quick before his cheeks got any redder and the sweat pooled on his forehead. He was working hard!

And last but not least...

Carrie's Sneak Peak

I know the next week will be super busy so I'm not sure I'll be able to dig into the pictures of these two gorgeous girls much until after Boss Cowman. Since their Mom is oh-so-cool and took good care of us in college I thought I'd quick edit a few for a sneak peak. We had a great time at the park in Spearfish and the girls had all kinds of ideas about what they did and did not want to do (playground good, looking at the camera AND smiling not good). However they are just too cute to not get a few good shots.

Big sister is full of energy and ran every place we went. She was in the water, demonstrated how all of the playground equipment works and rolled through the grass all the while avoiding too many direct glances at the camera.

The two girls (seem to) get along great. Their parents will have so much fun watching them grow up together and develop the bond that they already share.

Little Sister is very serious. She did, however stare at the camera a lot, trying to figure out what in the world what happening. Cotton dresses on baby girls are so cute and how about that necklace?

There you go Carrie - hopefully enough to tide you over until I can get to the rest of them. Honestly, I was just so excited that I had to share a few with you. The rest will be up in Zenfolio as soon as they are ready!

A Little Ribbing

For some reason I can't get the picture of this week's Deal of the Week ad to upload correctly, so we'll have a text-only blog today (sorry I'm so boring). Even though its already Thursday the deal this week is good enough to act on quickly. We have 40" Toshiba LCD TVs on sale for $699 this week. That is a $100 reduction over the normal price. Hurry in and pick yours up today! (time to start filming commercials with that stellar sales pitch)

New at The Current Connection is a selection of TV stands in stock to hold your audio and video components and the big screen, if you so choose. We also have wall mounts on hand so if you're looking for a project over the 4th of July weekend, we've got all the goods available today. We are open all day Thursday and Friday.

We started the week with a whirlwind of activity. Rodeo entries opened on Friday for events in Faulkton, Fort Pierre, Interior and Wall and took a steady stream of call-in entries on Monday. A fair amount entered online, but the first two weekends in July bring the cowboys out in droves, trying to cash in on prize money in their respective events. On Tuesday, we pulled in some more extra help as I headed to Belle Fourche for some photography projects. I took pictures of the Miss Rodeo South Dakota contestants for the photogenic portion of their competition, and of Miss Rodeo South Dakota herself as practice for the "big time" in Las Vegas this fall. They are some gorgeous ladies and while we printed the photos in Belle that afternoon for judging, I haven't had a chance to get them off of the camera and posted for your viewing pleasure (soon, I hope!). I also met up with a good friend from college to take pictures of her two sweet girls at the park in Spearfish. We had a great time and I headed home just as it was starting to rain - perfect timing. Jack was out of town on service calls for a good share of yesterday and returned to Lemmon just in time to catch up on late entries for the rodeos. Needless to say, we've been busy but its very exciting at the same time. Believe it or not, next week will be even busier with three of the largest rodeos of the season to enter, and Boss Cowman activities beginning mid-week.

The "ribbing" comes from the member of the family who refuses to leave my side...alone. I've been getting lots of kicks and punches to the rib cage lately as the little guy likes to remind Mama who is in charge. Three months and we'll see what sort of personlity comes from a big kicker. Gage was a mover, but not as much of a kicker and definitely not as hard. I can't imagine having another high-energy mover and shaker but we'll take whatever comes our way. Gage still thinks we should name the baby JB Mauney after his favorite bull rider, but not James Burton (JB's real name).

In other Gage news, we spent last Saturday with cousin Carter hitting up rummage sales and riding horse. Its nice that the boys are finally to the point of wearing each other out - much easier on the rest of us. We did have Wrestlemania Smackdown a bit but they seemed to enjoy rough-housing with each other. On Sunday we were able to take in the Dakota Zoo for a few hours and he still enjoyed the bear and tigers the best. He also "baa'ed" at the camels and was pretty certain the antelope were, in fact, deer.

Gage is enjoying spending time with his "rodeo entry babysitter" and her family and even took in his first baseball game with them. He talked about it for days, but it may have more to do with the pound of gummy worms that he ate than anything else. His extra time away from Mom and Dad has made nighttime a challenge once again and he ends up camping with us for a good share of the evening. We hope to spoil him with attention this weekend just in time for Grandma and Grandpa Franken to spoil him with everything else next week.

Here's wishing you all a safe and fun holiday!

Computers, Rodeo and Shingles

Our deal this week is Dell Desktop Computers. They are decent systems for a reasonable price. These come with a DVD burner, keyboard, mouse and speakers. We have systems with both 19" and 23" LCD flat panel monitors included.

Watch for next week's deal - its a good one!

Rodeo season has picked up and today we are handling call-backs for the Irene Rodeo that's coming up on Friday and Saturday. The next two weeks of entries are the biggest of the year with three large rodeos each of the next two weeks as cowboys and cowgirls head out for the 4th of July circuit. It will an exciting time for our phone operators and hopefully safe and profitable for the cowboys. We will definitely make it to the Boss Cowman Rodeo performances in Lemmon and are hoping to make it to Ft. Pierre on the 4th of July to spend time with Jack's sister and family during their celebration.

Besides the major bathroom remodel (we have a toilet and tub!) the remaining supplies for the exterior renovation have all shown up; last Friday, Saturday and Sunday the boys shingled the house. Adam and Jack worked all day on Friday and Chuck joined them Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday to finish up. It looks great! We are very excited to finally see progress outside. Next, Jack will be carefully removing the cement asbestos siding and prepping to install new windows and asbestos-free house coverings. Let us know if you'd like to help - we're glad to feed you in return! Stay tuned for pictures of the progress.

You can expect one more blog today - Danessa's senior pictures. I'll get to it between rodeo entry call-backs this afternoon. You won't want to miss them!

Danessa's Senior Portraits

With only hours to spare, the sweet new gear arrived to get Danessa's pictures done right. Danessa and older sisters Danika and Dantae had a great time scouting locations on their ranch and helping set up the shots. I'm pretty sure I was spoiled into thinking I will always need two assistants. We had a blast and got some pretty neat pictures.

When I talked to Danessa's mom earlier in the week to ask if they had any locations in mind she said there was just an awful lot of junk laying around. Perfect!! Junk is cool and I hope to have my own someday :) For the shot above we worked with some foliage growing on one side of an old house, currently used for storage. Classic senior pose - check!


Then we shot a few pictures by an old windbreak. For as smiley and happy as she is, Danessa can do serious pictures! I think it was harder for me to maintain composure than her - she rocked.

I realize that this picture probably won't make the yearbook, but I couldn't help myself. Besides being related, I was also Danessa agriculture teacher for several years and this face I saw many times. In true youngest-child fashion here's her "It Wasn't Me" - hehe...

It seemed like a central theme throughout the afternoon and evening was a mixture of "Glam Danessa" and "Ranch Danessa". She is one hard-working ranch girl who loves to ride horse, break calves and shear sheep (right?) but also loves getting all glammed up for rodeo queen contests, prom and special events. Here's a sneak peak at next year's prom dress!!

I took a ton of pictures with the horses, and this one is by far my favorite. We hope to try a few more toward the end of summer but we'll leave those ideas as a surprise. I couldn't get over how awesome her blue dress looked in the bright green grass. So cool.

Definitely one of my favorites. This is a road that Danessa probably travels several times a day between "places" on the ranch. How cool is it that she'll be able to show her friends and family where she grew up by using pictures like these? It makes me want to go home and take some of where I was raised.

And this - a little attitude, right?! What teenage girl hasn't been told to take off the heels or flip flops and put something a little more practical on? Just because its cool, doesn't mean it is a good idea. Except in this case...

Thanks again to Danessa and sisters for being troopers! We took pictures until there was barely any light left in the sky and we had been eaten by mosquitos. But (I think) we all had a great time and came away with some pretty cool images.

Note to other seniors interested in pictures for this school year - I'll be taking some time off in September/October so if you want summer foliage (the green stuff) we should book sessions before school starts.