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We just downloaded the most precious images of my grandson Gunther’s first Christmas. After enjoying their own first Christmas morning they spent the afternoon at a friend’s house in Anchorage – with lots of friends that don’t have immediate family in Alaska – it’s so comforting to know they all stick together like family there.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying the hustle and bussell of the busy holiday time.  I have been playing Santa to make sure everyone that needed their reprints, proof books, albums, holiday cards, etc  got them in time for their family celebrations.  One of my couples came in from out of State today and stopped by on the way home from the airport to pick up their magazine style proof book albums. Except for one large bridal album that didn't make in in time – everything went as planned. My hat's out to my great lab that worked double-time to get everything out in record time!

Now I can enjoy getting everything ready for our own holiday celebration here on Christmas Eve – I look forward to a full house and a great roladen dinner- in the German tradition.

Have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy Holiday!!  ENJOY!

The heavens have been active this month with phenomenal active displays of the northern lights or “Aurora Borialis”. Dec 14th was a huge geomagnetic storm around the world with Auroras as far south as Arizona – and we were lucky to see a little bit of them right here in Michigan!
We were coming home from a holiday party in Saline that night (in the boonies away from city lights)- and noticed the many shooting stars and then  awesome green spikes dancing on the northern horizon – WOW – They disappeared before we could get any good shots – I tried – but without a tripod I got a great green blob! (about 11:30PM or so) We called Tracy and she was going crazy with awesome lights in bright greens and reds dancing all around the skies – 360 degrees. She could see them from her windows.  It was only around 7 PM so they planned on photographing later when it is usually better – but unfortunately the clouds rolled in.

Want to see what other photographers around the world documented on Dec 14th??? – this is an awesome photo gallery site with quite a few images form Michigan and surrounding states, Arizona, New York, Alaska and terrific ones for Finland and Norway.
http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01dec06.htm

 I love this site out of Fairbanks Alaska that gives a full Aurora for cast so you can see who in the worls has a chance of seeing them.

http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast

Lots of info and links if you are fascinated by this phenomena like I am.

Tracy and Rick in Alaska were fortunate to see them dancing in the skies 2 more times since then and did get some great images. Wow!

You can see her images – she posts faithfully to her Flikr account at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spicegirl
I did brighten these up slightly in Photoshop – without adding any colors that were not there. (like a longer time exposure) These were taken right from her property.

 December 21st was the winter solstice and Tracy and Rick had a party at their house to celebrate.  They all get excited about this because starting now the days will all get a little longer each day instead of shorter.  That day the sun rose around 10:30AM and set around 3:15PM. Even then the sun only rises a little above the horizin. They have just had a lot of snow but temps as high as in the 20′s!

 

On December 14th we traveled to Saline to celebrate the holidays with our “Photo Chix” friends – its so great to have a group where we can share and compare and support each other.

We hope you are enjoying the holiday season. We have been very busy with the production involved in making sure all that is needed  for Christmas or Hanakkah – in the way of uploads, proof books, some albums, reprints, cards, etc – will be out in time. For the most part most albums recently designed will be worked on after the Holidays.

Don't forget there is a 10% discount until the end of the year on any reprint orders placed through the event proofing site. It is not too late to still order any last minute photos – these are great Holiday gifts – what could be more personal!

We have been doing quite a few Holiday cards.  The Stylart cards are very popular – these are creative fold over cards that in most cases include an actual photo that is inserted into the design.  Take a look at the possibilities: http://www.wallyspicephotography.stylartstore.com

We also have the great slim line cards available through my regular lab – (These may be a little quicker to get to you at this point) See these designs at: www.mydigitalproductsonline.com

Happy Holidays

Wally & Julie 

Hope you are enjoying the holidays and the joys of this busy season.

We did some family images of our own immediate family here also. This is Julie and I and her sons Aaron and Steven.

My daughter Tracy and her husband Rick are great photographers themselves and it was Rick’s idea to photograph with the real bear skin run and moose antlers. Interesting & creative! Gunther is about 5 weeks old in these.

Julie photographed the Ciak family at their house on November 26th for some great Christmas family images.

Julie photographed Renee and Tony’s wonderful family last Sunday.  We used Claude’s studio again – he’s been great about letting us rent the space and was a big help to Julie with the photo session overall. Everyone had a great time.