Andrew Niesen

This is what happens when Andrew finds some rare down time! After 62 flights in the last year, we are finally home for awhile. I have missed the warmth of our home and am so thankful for a restful holiday season with family and friends...and our cat Lola!

It's crazy, but the LaCour crew managed to find a spot in our calendars where we could all be in the same town at the same time and not have to work non-stop. So we converged on Wells, Maine. Eric Laurits invited us up to his cottage - along with Chris & Katie Torres - where we've had a blast playing marathon games (4+ hours) of Monopoly, visiting lighthouses, singing a capella and vocal percussion, eating homemade tortellini, antiquing, playing basketball, solving puzzles, drinking beer, wine, coffee, hot apple cider with delightful mulling spices, hot cocoa and Bailey's.

Garrett, Joy and Graycen Nudd were supposed to come, too, but alas, Graycen came down with a cold at the last minute. Miss y'all!

On Monday we ate, according to Reader's Digest for the past 20 years, the best hot dogs on U.S. Highway 1 from Florida to Maine. Flo's Hot Dogs. Simply amazing. I bought a crate full and am taking them home to Georgia with me. Oh, and how about Congdon's Doughnuts. Mmmm... tasty!



On Tuesday, David and Linda Murray invited all of us to their studio in Kennebunkport and then to their amazing home right on beach in Goose Rocks Beach. David cooked everyone mussels and we walked out the side door onto the beach for a leisurely afternoon stroll. We insisted that J Sandifer and Emilie Sommer play hookey from work and come down and visit, too! And we also got to meet and hang out with John Santerre, who shoots weddings with David Murray and also produces multimedia work with the VII agency. Such a beautiful, relaxing day, surrounded by such fun people!



We'll post more soon! We have a ShootQ party today in Portland. Can't wait to see everyone!

**CLICK HERE to check out Eric's much more thorough blog with more great photos and fun stories, including photos of Andrew and Seventeen Magazine!

With several clients and some of our favorite photographer friends living in Southern California, we decided to make a trip out there this week to check in on everyone.

Mark and I spent three days driving around Orange County and Santa Barbara. The first day, we were fortunate to have a lunch date with the ever-busy Dane Sanders.


That evening, we joined our wedding clients Lizzie and Charlie McNairy for dinner. You may remember Lizzie and Charlie from their small wedding earlier this year in Laguna Beach. They had called us on a Wednesday, and got married two days later, that Friday. It was an exciting, whirlwind wedding we'll never forget. Anyway, their wedding album had recently arrived from Queensberry, so we brought it out to them and looked at it with them after dinner.


The next day, we got to visit with the wonderful Becker and Jessica Claire at Becker's studio. Becker has one of the sexiest studios I've ever seen. Lots of browns and animal prints, and candles everywhere. We had a great dinner afterward with Becker, Jess and Becker's studio manager Kathleen. We couldn't resist a classic Becker tongue-out shot!


And Wednesday was DJ Day! After lunch in Santa Barbara, David Jay invited us over to his now-famous Freedom House. And I must say, it is everything we had heard it was. I couldn't stop looking out the big windows at his breath-taking view. DJ was a fabulous host and even made us some espresso before we settled in to geek out over various new programs and photo gadgets.



The trip was rounded out Wednesday night by dinner in Hollywood with one of my best friends from high school, John Crawford, an artist and pro photo retoucher. If you've been to any movies recently, then you've probably seen some of his work on numerous movie posters and such. Check out some of his work and give him a call if you have a picky client that wants some pro retouching. Here's John and me with one of his hairless cats.


Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and good times!

It's late and, as usual, I have an early flight to catch.

Instead of sleeping, I'm thinking about ambition and purpose. I am drawn to ambitious, passionate people who are hungry to achieve an audacious goal. They are wholly committed to a vision and are willing to work like trojans to make their vision a reality.

In order to contextualize my drowsy thoughts, I tried to think of my first memory of being inspired by this brand of ambition and purpose.

I immediately recalled the day my brother showed me one of the earliest Macintosh computers. Hidden inside that unassuming beige case is something surprising and spectacular: the individual signatures of the Macintosh creators. My brother and I stared at them, picking out familiar names like Steve Jobs and Steve "Woz" Wozniak.

I love the implication of this subtle detail. Since the Macintosh team considered themselves artists and took great pride in their creation, it was appropriate that they sign their work! Steve Jobs came up with the idea of having each team member's signature engraved on the plastic case, so they appeared inside every Mac that rolled off the production line.

Years later, Steve Jobs delivered a reflective speech to the graduating class of Stanford University. My Dad sent me and my brother the entire transcript. My favorite part is this quote:

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

I believe that ambitious seekers like Steve Jobs love their work and don't even consider it a burden. Their work is an artistic, joyful, fulfilling, highly organizing principle of life. By viewing work this way, it's possible to remove the ultimate creative block: money. What we want to do is what we're meant to do. By working hard to follow a vision, money comes, doors open and work seems like play. Creativity lies within a paradox: Serious art is born from serious play.

We have recovered from our annual Halloween party. This year, we went all out and decorated our home so that it was the brightest (or darkest), but nevertheless scariest house in our neighborhood. I sampled sections of the audio track from the DVD of The Shining and played the eerie screams and spooky sounds from speakers on our porch. The creepy mutterings of "redrum, redrum!" echoed throughout the neighborhood all night.

And the party, whew. What fun. We had a "Goth" theme, so most of the partygoers got to relive their angst-filled high school days.


Here's a photo of Erin and me - before I put my makeup on.


Here's Rachel creeping everyone out.

I can't show a picture of Andrew, because nobody would ever hire us again if images of him in his costume were leaked to the public.


I'm vain, so here's another picture of me (this was taken by David Banks).

And what really cracked me up is that two people dressed as ME for the party!


Ella and Robin actually dressed as Me and Erin.


Our neighbor, Hutch, dressed as me, complete with a pink scooter! (The real me and the Robin me are riding on the back!)


And here's Jenn Fraser-Linke, Adam Linke and their swashbuckling son, Hayden.


There were cobwebs all over our house. This is Ella's sister, Ada, entrancing everyone with her rendition of Thriller. If you ever get the chance to see her dance, you'll be blown away!

For a Real Halloween Story, you have to read this article that my friend Kane Stanley wrote about a trip that he and I and a few other friends took 9 years ago to Haiti and the Vodou ceremony that we went to on October 31, 1998.

**Click Here to read the story.