Do you like to have fun? We do, especially with our photos. We wanted something a little different than the average blog out there, so along with our super talented Blog designer we came up with a Favorites section - or "Wiebner Faves" as we like to call it. What is it you ask? more »
Well, under each photo, you will see an "I Like This" box. If you really like that image, if it tickles your fancy, or makes you laugh, or just plain old makes you smile - go ahead - check it. We know you want to. Each time that box is clicked on a photo, it adds to the running tally for that image. The top 14 favorite images on the entire blog will be shown as thumbnails in this section. Just so you can see the most popular images of all time on the blog. A little something out of the ordinary - it never hurts to be different!
Also, blog posts can be favorites. Now that we have comments available, you will see a little bar meter at the bottom left of each post. Once the meter hits a certain number of comments, its automatically promoted to a "Wiebner Fave Post". :) Something else just for fun!
Are you ready to advance your business? Education in our industry is important to us. The more photographers that are aware in the industry the better it is for everyone. Won't you join us in making our goals a reality? We participate in various workshops, seminars and speaking engagements. Listed below are various engagements - some are our own workshops, others we will be hosting or speaking at. If you wish to participate, please drop us a line or click the link to find out more info!
I find it incredibly difficult to write about us when put on "The Spot". "I need a 500 word bio about you and Joel, now!" Who can do that? How do you make your own personality shine in a few words, let alone that of two people? Well, I am going to give it my best shot. If you really want to know about US - who we really are - read the blog below. We really try to keep it updated as often as possible, and hope that our fun, casual personalities shine through in the words you read and the images we capture for our clients. The blog below is our way of communicating our lives - both personal and professional - with clients, friends, family and colleagues. We believe strongly in using words and images together to communicate our passion.
I am going to keep this short and sweet - Joel and I were meant to be together - to live, love and be happy making photographs. We were both photographers before we met over 9 years ago - we met behind a camera, and continue to feed off of that energy. We are a rock solid husband and wife team and we wouldn't want it any other way - we work together 24/7 and never tire of each other. We have had our business since November 2000, and have thrived on photographing weddings as our main photography genre since 2002. We love what we do. We like to think we look at the world in our own way - not photojournalistically, not traditionally, not artistically. Just as a Wiebner. If you like what we see, then you will like us too. Oh and don't forget to comment in the blog on our two little darlings - Haydn and Zane - they are pretty darn cute little Wiebners. Enjoy! - Rita
So last Sunday, October 11th we walked in the 20th Annual Humane League Tailwagger Trot. We were so excited to participate! We have been supporters of the Humane League for years, and we adopted 3 of our cats there. This was our first year walking in the Trot, and we raised as a pack, a little over $400! Our goal was $500, but we came up a little short. We were still thrilled that we raised what we did. The day of the trot was perfect, and we all had a lot of fun. Check out the photos of the Wiebner family!
Here's Zaney with our adopted best friend, Icarus the Italian Greyhound.
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Here's me and my boys, Haydn and Zane along with Icarus, or "Icky" as we call him for short. :)
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Zane petting Bacon, the walk's mascot.
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Bacon up close!
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The walk started at Clipper Magazine stadium, and Cylo was out having fun with the dogs.
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Icarus wasn't too crazy about Cylo petting him!!
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How many greyhounds can we get in one photo? Our friends Diana and Jim also have 2 Italian Greyhounds,Lola and Gracie (they are in the one in the purple sweaters) and they walked with us in our pack. While waiting for the walk to start, we saw a gorgeous brindle Greyhound. They all decided it was time to sniff each other!
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Just as the walk started down Prince Street - a huge group of motorcycles rode by. There must have been at least a hundred of them!
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On our way!
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Joel took a pic of all of us...
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Finally some grass time at Buchanan Park at the end of the walk.
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Refueling with some yummy soft pretzels!
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See, Joel was there, he was just behind the camera the whole day. :)
Sob, cry, sniffle, sniffle. Our baby is in Kindergarten!! This past Tuesday, Zaners went off to Kindergarten (and Haydn started 2nd grade!). I feel so completely and utterly old now. Not that we haven't been looking forward to this day for the last 6 years (with our crazy self-employed photographer schedules, we couldn't WAIT until they were both at the same school, on the same schedule) - but now that it is here, I feel like they are so big and growing up so fast! This past summer was a whirlwhind with opening the new studio, and we didn't get to spend nearly enough time with either one of them. Now school is upon us, and Kindergarten and it's just too much! Joel says I am having a hard time with it. :)
Zane was sooo pumped and ready to go to Kindergarten! It made it real for me when I saw him come out of his bedroom that morning in his uniform. I almost started to cry. He looked so handsome and grown up. And then with those two missing front teeth, he is just so darn cute. He is my little goofball and was making funny faces as we walked to school. Once we got there, he was noticeably nervous, as you can see in the one photo with his arms crossed. I think that was his only moment of weakness. When we returned to pick him up, he was at recess and was having a wonderful time! We were able to go into the classroom and take some photos. He loves it!
Now to make me feel all extra weepy - click HERE to see Haydn's first day of Kindergarten just 2 short years ago! Wahhhh!!
Here are my boys, so handsome and grown up!
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Look at those teeth! - Oh and don't forget the ears! :)
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Here's my silly boy, always making some goofy face!
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The moment of weakness. Not sure what to do or where to go...
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Into the classroom they go! Zane leads the pack. He only has 12 kids in his class - only 4 boys! :)
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At recess!
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This was hanging in the hallway when we went inside - they must have taken it when he was in for testing back in the spring. Look at that long hair!!
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Ecstatic! And he made a new friend, Andrew, that sits right next to him!
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Here he is with one of his friends, Vivienne. Viv and him have been playing together all year - her older brother Oliver, is in Haydn's class.
In case you haven't noticed, today is Earth Day. Some of you may ask, "So What?" I used to be one of those people. It was just another holiday marked on the calendar, that we never got a day off school or work for. As I have become a (somewhat) more responsible adult, and have had the fortune to be educated by a dear friend, Joel and I have started a journey to becoming more earth conscious. Since last September, we have really taken some baby steps to fulfilling the motto, "Reduce, Recycle, Reuse" I know we have a long road ahead, but we are pleased so far with these little steps we have made. So what have The Wiebners done to become more green? Here's the start of a list that I hope will continue to grow and grow and grow...
Things we have done at home:
1. Stopped using paper plates and disposable cups. We used to be VERY wasteful with our meals. Almost every meal we were eating on paper plates and occasionally using disposable plastic cups, just so we didn't have to do dishes. (Laziness I know!) Now, we don't even buy paper plates for the house and eat every meal off of our ceramic plates, and with our reusable cups. Don't look at my dishpan hands!
2. Started buying recycled paper products. For the paper products that we do need at home, paper towels, tissues, and toilet paper - we buy 100% recycled products. Some people ask, "Are the recycled products really that great? Do they rip or tear easily?" I love them. Seriously, I really don't need the strongest paper towel in the world, or the quilted toilet paper - I am perfectly content and happy with these products. We also buy most of these products in bulk to help cut on costs. Amazon is a place we purchase from often - I would like to patronize a local place that could sell these things in bulk, but haven't found one yet. If anyone has any suggestions - leave it in the comments below!
3. We planted our very first vegetable garden. We are so excited about this! We were at our favorite local coffee shop, Chestnut Hill, a few months back and saw a flyer for Home Grown Edible Landscaping. We hired Tasha and Will (another husband/wife team!) to transform our poor excuse for a backyard (we live in the city so it is only a small 10x10ish plot) - into a beautiful organic vegetable garden! We are so stoked about this and Will and Tasha worked hard the first week of April to get it all done and most of the plantings have been made. We can't wait to have fresh vegetables throughout the summer. It will help cut down on our produce costs, plus it will be so educational for the boys. We couldn't be happier. Prior to deciding on the garden, we were considering a crop share with Lancaster Farm Fresh - Organic Farm Cooperative, but decided we wanted the experience of growing our own garden. I always had a garden growing up, and it was something I wanted to share with Haydn and Zane. Joel now has the bug, and wants to move to a farm. :) Really, he just wants to have goats. :) Oh yeah, and Will and Tasha installed an automatic watering irrigation system too, for us busy folks, that are always on the go in the summer. Now I won't forget to give our veggies a drink!
4. Eating organic as often as possible. This was actually one of the first things we started doing. Some good friends of ours were all organic eaters and were opening our eyes to the benefits. We have been slowly converting over the last 6 months or so, and now just about all of our groceries we purchase are organic. We even went through the pantry one day this past winter and cleared it out completely of non-organic things, and donated the food to the Water Street Rescue Mission. We haven't gone back since! It's a little trickier shopping organic, as a lot of stores do not have huge organic selections. If anyone local has any favorite stores that I have not listed below - please share! Also, I may do a future post on some of our favorite organic foods. But for now, these are the places we shop at currently (Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are also very awesome, but those stores are an hour plus away from us:
• Miller's Natural Foods, an Amish-run store in Bird in Hand, PA that sells bulk foods, and has a large organic section. We get a lot of things here such as: dried fruits, raw honey, maple syrup, raw cheeses, etc.
• Rhubarb's Market - this is in Lancaster and is a small organic store that is a little pricier but has a lot more of the organic brand name products.
• Central Market - now one of our favorite places to shop, it contains many stands from local farmers - and has 2 organic stands - Cuton Organics (Tom is a hoot!) and Green Circle Organics. There is also a grass-fed beef stand there that we purchase a lot of our meat from.
• Giant Foods - This is our "big" grocery store locally, and we use it only when we need to, but specifically the one in Lititz, has a very large organic section - several aisles worth, that we have not found at any of the other Giant locations in the Lancaster area.
• Savemart - This is a great place to go for organic beauty and personal products. They have the largest selection in the area (that we have found) of these items.
5. We purchased a food dehydrator and a juicer. Ok, so WE didn't actually purchase these ourselves, but were lucky enough to have generous family members that gifted us these items for Christmas this past year. It has been great making our own fresh organic orange juice and dehydrating foods that we can eat as snacks. We have even made our own organic dog treats!
6. Our pets also eat organic. :) Sometimes people forget about their pets. With so many recent recalls on pet food products - its super scary out there. (A good read is Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine) Our dogs and cats also eat organic now. Organic pet food is easier to find than you think - just about every pet store in Lancaster has some. Why shouldn't our beloved animals eat healthy too?
7. We stopped using plastic bags. For any kind of shopping, we now use reusable/recycled bags. The only thing we still use plastic bags for is picking up the doggie doo-doo - but even those are at least bio-degradable. We found those at Petsmart.
8. Using steel water canteens. This one we are still working on, but we try our best to use our steel water bottles and fill them up at home before we go somewhere. It keeps us from having to stop at a mini-market and grabbing a plastic bottle of water. We also put a filter on our faucet at home, so we now have fresh water coming right out of the tap, and no longer need to buy gallons to put in the fridge. Stop the plastic waste!
9. Cut back on the "stuff". Our lives revolve around stuff. There is cool stuff to buy everywhere. This is something I have always been a sucker for - especially for the kids, and we are seriously trying to cut back. The kids have so many toys - and they hardly ever play with them! We have stopped buying things for them every time we go somewhere. We are also working on cleaning out a LOT of those unused toys and will be donating them to a shelter or Salvation Army.
10. Making smarter choices - TV, Movies and Books. Joel and I LOVE movies, we are junkies. We have been trying to put that love to a different use, and have been watching more documentaries on our food system and the planet. Some of our recent favorites are: King Corn, Super Size Me, and An Inconvenient Truth. We also have the entire Planet Earth series, and have watched several of those episodes. I am excited to complete the series. As for TV, we watch a lot more Animal Planet, Planet Green, National Geographic, etc. than we ever have before. I don't know if it is because of all of this, or if it is just because our tastes are maturing as adults. Regardless, I love it! And with books and magazines, we have been delving into books about eating organic and about the planet. It's all so exciting!
Things we have done at the business:
1. Purchasing recycled products. We have been making conscious efforts to purchase recycled paper products - from paper towels to printer paper to paper plates. Also, other office supplies such as pens - there is a wide selection of recycled pens readily available at office supply stores.
2. Reusing boxes and packaging materials. We get so many shipments in - all of the boxes we reuse to ship our client's products. The packing material also - the bubble wrap, packing peanuts etc. We save it all and it goes right back out to our clients.
So there it is. The start of it all. I know we have a long way to go, but we both feel really great about these things we have done so far. If you have any ideas to share, please leave them in the comments below! We would love to hear from you! And because we can't have a blog post without some photos - I pulled some great photos of The Wiebner family over the years enjoying our lovely earth. :) Have a wonderful Earth Day!
The first few photos here are of our new garden! Thanks Will and Tasha!
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Camping Memorial Day Weekend 2008 in West Virginia with Joel's brother and his wife.
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The boys in the cornfield, sometime in '08.
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Camping at the beach - summer '08
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Arizona - Spring '08
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Joel sledding in the snow :) Winter 2007
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Indian Echo Caverns - Spring 2007
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Las Vegas, NV desert - photography convention 2007
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Salton Sea, California - August 2007
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Joel in Atlantic City - summer 2007
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And going WAAAY back - some never before seen images on the blog. Cape May vacation 2005
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And even further back (look how little the boys are!) - spring 2004 at Shenk's Ferry Wildflower Preserve.
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Where on earth have we been? Monday, January 26, 2009
Hold the phone, stop the paper, and look out - the world is coming to an end. I am actually making a blog post. It's only been like what, 3 weeks!? 3 WEEKS! Dear lord, has it really been that long? I can't believe we are only 5 days away from the end of January already. Seriously, where has this month gone? A little recap on what has been going on this month -
Jan. 1st - We hid out in the house, eating lots of pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. We stuffed ourselves full of this PA Dutch tradition.
Jan. 2nd - First illness of the month - Angus went to the vet for the first time. He was in a lot of pain and being mopey - Dr. Corey our awesome vet at
Manheim Pike Veterinary Hospital, thought he overextended his neck. Probably due to spazzing out when he was on the leash multiple times. (we later find out it's something else!)
Jan. 3rd - We photographed a "surprise" wedding, photos to come in the near future.
Jan. 8th - MY BIRTHDAY! and we take all 4 of the cats (yes four) to the vet (again!) for their annual checkup. That afternoon Joel surprises me with the fact
that I can get whatever I want for my birthday. Saving some funds, and because I just ADORE animals - I told him I wanted another dog, so Angus would
have a buddy to play with. We proceeded to look at shelters all afternoon. We ended up at the Berks Animal Rescue League, and found our sweetie, Icarus, the Italian Greyhound. He is about 7 months old, and was part of a group of puppies from a puppy mill. He had never really had much human contact, wasn't housebroken or trained or anything. We had our work cut out for us! We couldn't take Icarus home that afternoon because we had to bring Angus to the shelter to meet him and make sure they got along before we adopted him.
Jan. 9th - After getting the kids to school, we took Angus up to the shelter to meet Icarus. They loved each other from the first moment they met, and home we took Icarus. The adoption process took a long time, we were there until about 11 AM or so. Until we got back to Lancaster, we had to pick up Zane from school. We then stopped at the pet store quickly and grabbed a few things we needed. Icarus arrived home to the Wiebner household around 2 PM. We had only had him 3 hours. The first thing he did? 5 minutes in the door, he jumped off of the couch and broke his leg. Yeah, for real! Broke his leg real good. Off we rushed to get Haydn from school and over to the vet we went yet again. X-Rays were taken and it was definitely broken - a cast was put on, and Icarus comes home to his new house with a brand new shiny broken leg. :(
Over the next 2 weeks, the timeline gets a little fuzzy. Haydn came down with the flu, and Zane had multiple problems with his asthma. I also was sick (thanks to Haydn!) for several days last week. To top everything off, Angus, the poor guy - was rushed to the PETS emergency clinic this past weekend. He had gone lame in both front legs, and was running a high fever. When we had first adopted him, we had found a tick on him, and before leaving the shelter, they removed it and did a blood test. It was of course negative and I found out that it can take a few months to be able to see if he has Lyme's Disease. Well of course, this past weekend they did another test at PETS and that was what he has! The poor guy. We now have him on antibiotics (for a month!) and pain meds.
Needless to say, it's been a pretty wild and crazy month. Between the veterinarian and the pediatrician - I think we have paid their incomes for the month! I am really hoping that things are finally turning around - they say when it rains it pours, but seriously, this is ridiculous. We are hopefully back in the office every day now and will be blogging a lot more in the coming weeks. We still have several portrait sessions to blog from before Christmas, as well as a December and January wedding. We have been doing some engagement sessions this month too, in the midst of the craziness, and will have images from there. And of course, I want to do like a mega post on all of the personal things we have been up to!!
For now, I want to show ya'll this really awesome site I found. Joel and I have been really into learning about and finding Eco-friendly and organic products, so we found this great company on Etsy that makes THE most awesome dog coats, collars and leashes! Go check them out and buy some stuff for your favorite poochie!
So I know it has been incredibly long since we blogged - yeah like over 3 weeks! This has been the longest we have neglected our wonderful little blog. Accept our apologies please! We were super-slammed in the 2-3 weeks before Christmas - filling client orders and getting weddings edited for our clients. We are currently on Christmas break - spending some much needed time with our kids, but we wanted to get some photos up here! Joel took the Wiebner pup to the park today and got some great shots, so I thought it would be a good thing to have up here until we get back to the office next week. (We still have a TON of portrait sessions to blog and a wedding or two, so stay tuned!)
Anyway, meet Angus. :) He is a bouncy, hyper, talkative little 11 month old puppy we rescued from the shelter back at the beginning of November. There was much debate over his name - his shelter name was Scamp, which none of us really liked. Then for like a day, I had wanted to call him Wiley. (Cause he looks a LOT like Wile E Coyote, ya know?) But Joel didn't like it, and since the puppy was for him for his birthday, he ultimately won out and finally got to name someone in the family Angus. (He had tried to do this with both of the boys and I vetoed it both times! Angus for a son, really? Couldn't have it!) So I am ok with Angus the puppy. It has stuck now and he is full of good energy. He is a terrier mix - the vet thinks a schnauzer mixed with some kind of terrier. But he is the cutest thing! We love him to pieces and he is the perfect dog for our family - he doesn't shed, and is even starting to get along with the cats. ;) His only fault - and it's a big one - he barks his head off!!! Like all of the time and at everything! He gets super excited at everything and just barks, barks barks. We are working on it though, and are hoping he outgrows some of it as he gets older.
So enjoy the photos of the newest Wiebner - I gotta go eat dinner, I'm starvin!
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