In light of the Superbowl only a few weeks away, I wanted to post some of my own NFL pics !!

I am so blessed to have the sweetest younger brother, who also happens to be the place kicker for the Seattle Seahawks football team! He surprised me over my Thanksgiving visit with a press pass to the Seattle Seahaws/Washington Redskins game. Let’s just say it was awesome!! Nerves mixed with adrenaline mixed with the excitement of joining and watching my “little” brother on the field produced some great pictures. All my senses were heightened when looking through the view finder in the event that the ball might come in my direction and I would quickly have to get of of the way of 200 and 300 pound athletes. It was truly a wonderful opportunity and something I hope to pursue more when I have the chance. There is no better view than from the sideline with unlimited access. Thank you, Steve, and go Seahawks!

My last free weekend of the summer before the crazy wedding season that is enveloping my life this fall was spent with great friends doing some really fun stuff! It was early August, and we drove down to Point Look Out State Park on friday night. It’s the perfect lovely quick get away vacation spot- 2 hours south of here (DC) and right on the water where the Chesapeake and Potomac river’s split. We set up camp down there, and whipped up a little camp fire to relax and sip some wine by. Saturday we hung out at the pet beach with our dogs who ran free and wild all day, swimming and galavanting through the sand. After a long hard day of relaxing, we boiled some shrimp and had yummy shrimp tacos and smores by our fire. It was a beautiful sight…though since I was taking a day off from photographing anything, we don’t have any photos. HOWEVER, we do have photos of Sunday when we packed up camp and jumped up to Solomans Island where we rented a Pontoon boat and an inner tube for playing out on the Patuxent river (a small river branching off of the Chesapeake). You’ll see photos of myself, my dog Nala, and our friends, Greg, Ru & their dog Bodhi. Enjoy- there are some classic action shots!

I am so lucky to have the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market every Sunday morning- year round! Farmer’s markets just make me feel soooooo good! Knowing where my food is coming from and knowing I’m supporting the local economy is great and all but- the best part is just how absolutely delicious the food I get from the market is!! And when I go, my imagination goes wild! I start getting very creative and whipping up recipes and huge extravagant dinner party meals in my head. So I figured it would be a great thing to share some of these market dinner recipes with you!! This will hopefully be the first of many posts because I love doing it, and when you are eating fresh and local foods, it’s not hard to make them look and taste good with out much fuss! Luckily, my favorite time to go is in the summer when there are fruits, veggies, and flowers galore! Here we go!

The last few weeks they have had squash blossoms at the market.This is awesome for many reasons. One is because you don’t see these in the groccerie store….like ever…Two is because the one and only time I’ve had squash blossoms was in a little town on the west coast of Italy- and if that’s not a great memory to bring back then I don’t know what is.

So inspired by the squash blossoms, I decided to fry them up one week, and then to test another recipe stuffing them with cheese, the next…

Fried Squash Blossoms:

Ingredients:

1.  12 Squash Blossoms
2. 1 1/2 c. Corn Starch
3. roughly 1 c. milk or more depending
4. 1 tbs garlic powder
5. 1tbs salt & 1tbs pepper for seasoning
6. enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your pan about an 8th of an inch
7. Sea salt crystals for post fry.

To Create:

1. Mix the corn starch with the salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl.
2. Pour the milk into the bowl, stir in just enough to slightly dissolve the corn starch and create a thick milky liquid
3. Stuff the blossoms individually with the cheese mixture
4. Pour the olive oil in the pan and turn on the heat.
5. Have a clean plate with a paper towel on it ready to place the cooked blossoms on when they are done.
6. Once the oil is hot, start dipping the squash blossoms into the bowl of starch and milk- being sure to coat the blossom fully- then put the blossom into the pan. You can do a dip and place- dipping each blossom and then placing it into the pan one by one.
7. Once one side of the blossoms are brown, turn them over to brown the other side.
8. Once the blossoms are  done cooking (fully brown) then take them out of the pan and place on the plate with the paper towel.
9. When all the blossoms are on the plate, sprinkle some sea salt over all of them for extra seasoning.
10. Place them on a serving plate, and they are good to go!

Cheese Stuffed Fried Squash Blossoms:

Ingredients:

1.  12 Squash Blossoms
2. 1 1/2 c. Corn Starch
3. roughly 1 c. milk or more depending
4. 1 tbs garlic powder
5. 1tbs salt & 1tbs pepper for seasoning
6. cheese
7. enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your pan about an 8th of an inch
8. Sea salt crystals for post fry.

To Create:

1. Mix the corn starch with the salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl.
2. Pour the milk into the bowl, stir in just enough to slightly dissolve the corn starch and create a thick milky liquid
3. Pour the olive oil in the pan and turn on the heat.
4. Have a clean plate with a paper towel on it ready to place the cooked blossoms on when they are done.
5. Once the oil is hot, start dipping the squash blossoms into the bowl of starch and milk- being sure to coat the blossom fully- then put the blossom into the pan. You can do a dip and place- dipping each blossom and then placing it into the pan one by one.
6. Once one side of the blossoms are brown, turn them over to brown the other side.
7. Once the blossoms are  done cooking (fully brown) then take them out of the pan and place on the plate with the paper towel.
8. When all the blossoms are on the plate, sprinkle some sea salt over all of them for extra seasoning.
9. Place them on a serving plate, and they are good to go!

On my weekends off- of which I have very very few- I have been going on some fun and wild adventures. One weekend in July, I spent white water rafting down the New River in West Virginia. I went with my friend Ashley and we stayed at the Adventures on The Gorge camp resort – we had a blast! It took Ash and me 6 hours to get there from DC on friday evening. We set up camp and basically passed out as soon as everything was set up. The next morning we woke up bright and early and jumped out on the river with the Rivermen Raft Company. Our guide, Brian Bell, was a blast- he kept us safe and let us have a load of fun swimming down the river, navigating the rapids, river surfing and even jumping of large rocks…Oooo I would do it all again in a heartbeat! After rafting, we enjoyed our time at the camp resort, eating a yummy dinner and partaking in back country dancing to the live bluegrass music by the Half Bad Bluegrass band (Brian- our guide-is their guitar player which made it extra fun).

Sunday morning we were sad to leave but we packed up the tent, and went on our way stopping in Fayattevill, WV for breakfast, and Lewisberg WV for a coffe and a little antiquing. We then drove down part of the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to stop at a couple vineyards for some afternoon wine tasting south of Charlottesville, before heading back to DC. It was an action packed, super duper, heart warming, fun filled weekend! I’ve got hopes to do it again soon!!

Enjoy!

I’ve always been conscious about the environment- for example, I’ve done what I can to recycle, I’ve picked up trash when it needs picking up, I’ll try to bring my bags to the store rather than using paper or plastic, and have tried to live with the motto- leave places cleaner than when you arrived. I think a lot of us have done at least that and a heck of a lot more. It’s something I care deeply about and think it is something we all have to be conscious of this day and age. It’s such an important concept to live by so that we have a bright and beautiful future ahead, both for us and for future generations as well. An undisturbed, clean and pretty world is pretty place to photograph and I want to keep it that way!

One thing I began to realize as I entered the world of photography, is that it isn’t the most ‘green’ or organic business in which to partake. However upon doing a bit of research and getting my head in the game, I’ve found that there are a bunch of fabulous companies who are beginning to work towards helping us photographers create more world friendly packages and services. First- and probably most obvious of the steps, was the transition to digital- which means, less film, less printing, fewer developing chemicals, fewer film canisters and plastic film containers etc. So because I like to think of myself as pretty environmentally conscious, I’m making efforts to create a green and organic photography business. This way we can all feel good about having our photos taken and printed and not worry too much about how big of an imprint we are creating on the world- at least when it comes to your pictures yay!

Some of the steps I’ve taken so far include: using album, printing and packaging companies (Coutour Books, Leather Craftsmen and Macro Fine Arts)  who use and create gorgeous recycled products for my clients so we don’t have to worry about killing more forests, or creating more waste. Going green with thank you notes and cards for my clients by using a fab company called Paperless Post. And finally, using less paper in packaging the client DVD’s by using rad tin cases. I’ve even got one pretty much completely green and organic package that includes a fully recycled, simply beautiful, cotton album, and a bad ass bamboo print. All of my other packages are at least made out of 50% recycled materials and are also quite incredible.

Another cool step I’ve taken and will continue to take is antiquing. Why antiquing you may ask? Well it’s something I never really considered to be fun or wanted to do, however I was undoubtedly so wrong, it’s crazy. There are some amazing pieces and vintage props that I have recently stumbled upon and plan to incorporate into my newborn, baby and children photography. I love the feel they give to a scene and the best part is- the props really are re-used antiques- they don’t just look like them!!

Lastly here is one thing we can all do- along with reducing, reusing and recycling- if we are DC or Chicago residents, there is an excellent program called Live Green. You can join for a tiny fee as I did today and get discounts all around town at local businesses who are making major efforts to become eco- friendly. So if you use those companies, you can rest assure that you’ll be helping to make the world a better place and it doesn’t take much effort at all Double Yay!!!

Kate Haus Photography Wins 2011 Bride’s Choice Award from Wedding Wire!

Here’s the official Press Release:

{Washington, D.C.} – {January 31st, 2011} – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Kate Haus Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding Photography!

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Kate Haus Photography stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Kate Haus Photography for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Kate Haus Photography is among the very best Wedding Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at Kate Haus on Wedding Wire.

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire.com, the nation’s leading technology company serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 local wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives local businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. Businesses that join the WeddingWire Network appear on WeddingWire.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), ProjectWedding.com and Weddingbee.com (both part of eHarmony), and Celebrations.com (part of the 1-800-Flowers family of brands, NASDAQ: FLWS).

It was awesome! The sweetest, most fabulous Victoria Gaither (the Newslady) invited me to come talk on her radio show about what I do: photography. It was really great, we talked about how I got into it, why I do it, gave some tips on shooting and a lot of other fun things having to do with taking photos. You can find a link to the entire show and download it for free on itues! Just click on the link below:

“Advice on taking Great Pictures: A Conversation with Photographer Kate Haus” Show Date 08/31/2010

below is the link to the plug on Victoria’s site:

Check out this awesome article about why Jumping is so fabulous in photographs This is one of the reasons I love having my clients jump!

The Joys of Jumpology

By ROBERTA SMITH