Friends, it makes me positively giddy to share this one off the 101 list with you all. If you are a wedding photographer, you know there are a myriad of wedding and style blogs out there on the Internet. I’ll be honest and say a LOT of them overwhelm me. So many stylish shoots that can make me think I’ll never be that good as a photographer. And I’ve come to realize that the pressure to submit and be published on these sites can be its own kind of internal stress. While I wanted 2011 to be a year I became more proactive in submitting my work through a vendor like Two Bright Lights (which I have yet to sign up for but have heard wonderful things about), for now, I am just happy that—in reaching out on my own—I’ve helped get two of my favorite shoots from this year published on two blogs I think are both perfect for them.

Today, the awesome Kat of Rock n Roll Bride has published the Beatles-infused wedding of one of my favorite couples, Lauren and Ben. In response to Kat’s question about what made their day rock-n-roll, I wrote: “Ben is in a Beatles band (a darn good one at that!) Had he never been touring in the states with his mates in spring 2010, he’d have never met Lauren. And if he’d never met Lauren, well, he would have never serenaded her on stage on their wedding day. Now, if that’s not rock ‘n’ roll with a British tie-in, I don’t know what is!”

View the full post of their wedding over on Rock n Roll Bride

And, back at the end of August, the LOVELY and sweet Lydia of the fabulous Ever Ours published the fantastic engagement session of Jennifer and Chris. Ooh this couple! Love them so much! And just you wait for next week—I’ll be blogging their wedding in TWO parts. You won’t want to miss it!

View the full post of their engagement over on Ever Ours

To Kat and Lydia, THANK YOU SO MUCH for helping me reach a goal like this. You both work tirelessly (as do so many other bloggers out there) to make the work of those of us blessed to be featured on your sites look SO GREAT—not to mention exposing it to so many others. I appreciate you both so much!

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

In what’s become my version of “The Living Room Remodel That Never Ends,” I’ll share that I’m quite proud that, over the summer, I crossed off another goal for the 101 list while, at the same time, making another baby step in the progress of putting a period on the end of this sentence: “In 2011, I remodeled my living room” —- right now, the only thing that will fit there are a few of these: ………

One of these days, I’ll come back around and show you the final results. When I don’t have this thing in my life called a busy season. When my husband has the time to help me hang the last of the artwork and the curtains. And that shelf that I know, when I tell him I want it to go above the TV, is going to be met with a giant eye roll (as in, “Seriously, AREN’T WE DONE WITH THIS YET?”)

The best thing about this project has been letting it go. Of the idea that was in my head, anyway. I walked around with a vision for this room for almost two years. It drove me nuts with its possibilities. Then, while it was in progress, it drove me nuts with all the decisions I had to make—is this the right couch? The right throw pillow? The right wallpaper? Now that all I have left are finishing touches, I seem to be content to just sit on things a while longer. I’m almost ready for that “.” But for now, well, I’ll live with this …….

PS – The frames are all from IKEA, the prints all ordered through WHCC (and while these photos make them look a smidge washed out, I promise in color they’re gorgeous!) Ahhh…I love reliving my travels with this wall!

PPS – Yes, I’ve noticed the prints on the far right in the top photo are a smidge crooked. I mean, I AM Type A, after all!

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

Earlier this summer, when Nick and I were up in Michigan for the U2 concert, we spent a day on the lake with our friend, Layne, who just so happens to have an incredible speed boat. A speed boat equipped with everything necessary to water ski.

I should share with you all that when it comes to water, I’m an even bigger wuss than usual. It’s like, who wants to voluntary get water up their nose? And hellloooo, contacts? Water? Totally do not mix. But I was determined to beat my scaredy cat self into submission and DO THIS THANG. So after seeing Nick conquer getting up on skis (pffffttttt….show off), I convinced myself that, cold water and all, I was getting in (you should have seen Nick’s face when I told him I was going to do it — I don’t think he could have been more surprised if I woke up one morning as Heidi Klum).

I gave myself three attempts. The first two passes I barely got my butt out of the water before wiping out (the first time, I foolishly held on to the rope for about 5 seconds before realizing, Hey Gail, maybe giving your nose an enema isn’t such a good idea). But on the third, I managed to make it to the standing position. I was only there for a few seconds, but it was enough for Nick to get it on camera. And that, really, was all the proof I needed to cross another one off the 101 list!

(Sidenote: Please don’t feel like you have to watch this — the first 1:00 is me giving Nick and Layne a ridiculous number of false starts before my blink-and-you’ll-miss-it accomplishment…I just wanted to post it here for posterity’s sake!)

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

I think it was six? maybe seven? years ago that I first attempted to grow an herb garden. Notice the key word here being “attempted.” I failed MISERABLY at keeping those little plants watered and within a few weeks, they were as dry and crumbly as burnt toast.

After one too many times at the grocery store, lamenting how I am that fool shopper who buys WAY overpriced fresh herbs (I can’t help it — fresh is SO much better than dried!), I decided this year I’d have a go at it again.

I even waited a few weeks to see if I could keep these guys alive long enough for my investment to pay off. And what do you know? SUCCESS! We’ve had fresh basil for one of my favorite Pioneer Woman recipes, fresh dill for salmon fillets on the grill and fresh rosemary for sides of diced red potatoes (which I love to add a little kosher salt and olive oil with the rosemary, then bake at 350 for 30 minutes–SO much better than fries!) Now I just need to cook more recipes that’ll make use of the oregano, parsley and cilantro and find a perfect pesto recipe for all that basil, and I’ll really be making the most of it!

Gardener’s confession: We were lucky to get a lot of rain for a few weeks shortly after I planted all of these herbs. But then, we had a SUPER hot spell, which happened to fall when I was traveling a lot around the end of June and start of July, so I came home to find that my once abundant mint plant (at left) and the tomato plant I’d planted both were goners. Sigh…. From a green to a black thumb, what can I say?

Anybody else out there planting summer gardens? Have any summer recipes to share with their favorite herbs?

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

Good heavens, when’s the last time I checked in on my 101 in 1001 list? Too long, right? (Not that you all are keeping track, but I am. And I like to pretend I’m having a conversation with you guys, so that’s why I asked.) I thought I’d revisit the list and see if there were any goals I could check off easy enough. A few I need to get to blogging because while I may have tackled them, the blog doesn’t know that yet!

For this project, I wanted to go out on a limb and try my hand at cooking Indian food for the first time. When it comes to Indian food at restaurants, I pretty much stick to one or two courses I love the best. But I’ll be honest and say I haven’t eaten Indian all that much. Nick, never at all. So I knew I was brave asking him to eat MY version of this ethnic cuisine first. I told him if he liked what I was serving him, then I KNOW he’d love what he’d be served in a restaurant. So here’s to trying new things, buying new spices and traveling the world from our dining room table. Oh, AND crossing another goal off the 101 list!

I decided to make the Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Tikka Masala because it seemed like a fairly easy recipe to follow and well, because it’s Ree Drummond, you KNOW it’s going to be good. Here’s a peek at the ingredients—chicken breasts, yogurt, tomatoes, butter, onions, garlic, ginger cilantro. Please ignore those bottles of vitamins on the window ledge—it’s the only way I’ll remember to take them every morning. (And thanks to my recent stress fracture, my doc has me taking calcium supplements marketed for 80-year-old women…I’m getting old I guess!)After sprinkling an assortment of spices on the chicken, you’ve gotta slather them in the yogurt before putting them on a cooking rack in the oven. To all you vegetarians out there, I apologize for this next visual: A sample of the spices you’ll need — I had the cumin and coriander, but the garam masala was another thing all on its own. And of COURSE the local grocers wouldn’t have it in stock, so I kept it in my Amazon cart and the next time I was placing an order for a few things, threw one of the tins in there with it (it was only a few bucks) Here’s the point in this project where I asked my husband to take a few shots of me cooking. He’s snap happy, firing away, but of the 20 he took, would you believe these are the only two of me he actually got in focus? I know what you’re thinking ’cause, see, that look on the left there? That’s my own look of disbelief. This is why he doesn’t shoot with me That nifty tool to the right there is my Pampered Chef chopper (I love it so much I even blogged about it last fall). That thing is AMAZING at chopping up ingredients for a course like this — ginger, garlic, onions. Check, check and check! The recipe called for broiling the chicken, which I was hesitant to do because I always feel like when I broil something, it goes from done to charcoal briquette in about 30 seconds. I was hovering over that oven like nobody’s business!

Here’s the point where you start to get what I call the “mush” going. This is the garlic, onions and ginger sautéing on the stove with the diced tomatoes. It’s at points like this where I think, “Is this gonna taste good? I mean, it kind of looks like dog food.” (Now I’ve probably grossed out vegetarians AND pet owners—my bad!) Ahhhh…let’s add some of that heavy cream, shall we? Now it’s starting to look like the Indian food I love to order! The secret to the kick in this dish is lots and lots of red pepper (I wrote that and said it in my head in my best Julia Childs impression at the same time). At this stage of documenting this project, I’m beginning to realize just how hard it is to cook and take photos at the same time. Hats off to you for making it look so easy, Pioneer Woman! Tossing in the cilantro with the chopped up chicken and now it’s really starting to looking yummy! While all of this is going on, I was trying my best not to burn the basmati rice I had cooking on the stove. For some reason, while I usually ace cooking projects in the kitchen, I fail spectacularly in two areas: cooking rice and warming up soup. We have tossed out three pans in our 5 years together as the result of those two things. Oh, and the secret to that yellow coloring? The addition of tumeric to the boiling rice. So THAT’s how they do it! And, finally, VOILA!!! (can you use a French cooking term to discuss the merits of a yummy Indian dish? ) More than anything, what made the work of this dish worth it was the fact Nick went back for seconds. Can’t wait to try this one again!

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

Whew, I am happy to cross this one off the list! Actually, that makes it sound like it was more work than it was, when really, I LOVE to share new music with friends. I’m constantly scrounging around on the Internet for tunes (my bookmarks list for music sites? Like, whoa…) and I love that more and more artists are embracing the Internet to share their latest singles and to wait for the buzz to spread about their talent.

A few thoughts about this project:

• The playlists I created were mostly what I found new-music wise that particular month on the Internet and, by what I found, I mean “what-I-found-for-free”. As I said above, so many artists nowadays have accepted that sharing their music through mailing lists or sites like thedownplayer.com or Pitchfork.com is the way to grab new listeners. And so, much of the music (I’d say 90 percent) on these mixes I made over the past 12 months was found through these means (there is also a slew of music bloggers out there that offer up sneak peek stuff— just like in photography, as you start to follow some, they introduce you to more and well, that’s how your Bookmarks explode! Two of my favorites: Pretty Much Amazing and Get Up, Stay Down)

• I’m someone who is OK with the idea of sharing music with the assumption that I GIVE BACK TO ARTISTS TOO. If I love a track I hear from a new artist, I’ll listen to more and then purchase the album. I’ll tell lots of my friends about it. I’ll post a video or MP3 file to my Tumblr account. To me, that’s the whole point of this free economy we’re living in in this Internet era (this book is great on this topic). This music mix journey has (much to my pocketbook’s chagrin) introduced me to at least one new album a month and I love seeing the names of new artists spread as more and more people talk about them through social media. Mumford & Sons, anyone?

I love, too, the power of music: to make a day better, to lift you up, to give you goosebumps, to provide a soundtrack for your life. I read a quote somewhere that said, “Music is what feelings sound like” and I COULD.NOT.AGREE.MORE.

So here’s to looking back over the tunes I discovered since last April (coincidentally, my first playlist recipient was one of my BFFs, Betsy; I’d always try to time a recipient getting a mix with their birthday month—worked out pretty well!) If you’re a music lover who might like a mix from me in the coming year, leave a comment (with your birthday month too!) and I’ll see if I can make that happen. ‘Cause this mix stuff? Well, I’ve been doing it since I had to put songs on cassette tapes off the radio, so I won’t be stopping it anytime soon!

And if you want to listen to a compilation of the music I sent to friends in the past year, here’s 30-plus tracks to give you a sample!

Oh, and a shout-out to one of my dear photo friends, Jess Z. (also a playlist recipient!) We got together recently and Jess gifted me the sweet notecards you see above, telling me, “I thought these would be perfect for your mixes you give people”. Isn’t that sweet?! LOVE HER! )

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

After my grandfather died in 2008, I was filled with a lot of regret. I had never taken the time to capture his personality the way I wanted to. Sure, there are snapshots of him in the years leading up to his passing, but I never took his portrait the way I should have. There was an afternoon shortly after he’d had hip surgery a few years before he died; I stopped by his house and brought him a bouquet of sunflowers and we sat together for over an hour as he told me stories. I can still vividly remember that day: his booming voice, the way light flooded the enclosed porch. So why didn’t I record those moments with a video camera to preserve them forever?

Because I had these regrets, I made sure to add video-recording my grandmother sharing stories with me on to the revised 101 in 1001 list I made for myself last March. And so, on a hot August day in 2010 shortly after Nick and I had got back from our European vacation, we made the annual trek up to my grandma’s lake camper. While Nick was out fishing, I spent an hour asking my grandmother all sorts of questions (and because I was worried I’d run out of ideas to ask her, I made sure to bring along a copy of the Proust questionnaire for inspiration). And then I asked to take her picture. My grandma played along; she knew why I was doing this, I’m sure.

Now, as I sit here and look at the images I took of her, the video I made (and edited together to share with all my cousins after her funeral), I am beyond happy I took the time to do this. That, this time, as much as it still smarts to lose a grandparent, I have these memories I can hold on to of her final year with us.

Whether you are a goal-setting type or not, I have to say you must do something like this with your loved one(s)—be it older parents, grandparents, in-laws. It’s so easy to let time get in the way of a project like this, but making it happen will be a gift you’ll give yourself forever, I promise you.

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

In the world of books, I can think of a few titles that have ALWAYS been daunting to me. Two of which—War and Peace and Anna Karenina—share the same author. I have no idea why I chose as hectic a month as this has been to finally decide to get over my Tolstoy intimidation and dig in to one of them. But I did. And, like a runner who finishes a marathon, it feels GOOD to say I managed to finish it. I might have limped along a bit in those last 20 pages, but the finish line of seeing THE END was so close I knew I couldn’t give up. And my other motivation? No WAY was I carrying this book on a plane with me to WPPI. Reading it was akin to an arm work-out!

I must share that this novel has haunted me for a few decades now. It’s no surprise to those who know me that I am a VORACIOUS reader. Have been ever since I was a kid. And when I was about 10 or so, I  became determined to read every book that was on the “Accelerated Reader” list at our elementary school’s library. See, the books had point values assigned to them and the higher up you went, the more points you got (translation=the bigger the prize from the librarian’s cart). No. 1 at that list? ANNA KARENINA. I remember bringing the old banged-up edition the school had home and how it sat on our fireplace, untouched, until my mother decided if no one was going to read it, she might as well. Fast forward to adulthood, when Oprah made the book one of her book selections, and I finally bought the much-talked about translation of the novel. Only to get about 30 pages into it, stick a bookmark in the place where I left off and shelf it for the next seven or eight years.

I think when I put this one on my 101 list, I *knew* crossing it off meant I had to read this book. FINALLY. And what I loved about it was discovering that in no way was it as challenging as I had built it up in my head to be. Turns out Russians in Tolstoy’s late 19th-century Russia had a lot of the same problems we do today—family struggles, money problems, relationship issues. The character-driven stories of Anna and Count Vronsky and Levin and Kitty (and all the others I met in this brick of a book) will stay with me long after the knowledge I gleaned about 1870s Russian politics and farming practices.

How about you guys? Is there a classic novel that daunts you to pick up? That you’ve thought about reading 100 times and never got around to it? If anything, reading Anna has taught me that fear can keep you from something truly great. What a universal lesson that is …..

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

If you took a look at my inbox, you’d see that I e-mail myself. A lot. With subject lines that start with “Dont’ forget this link” or “You should post that to Twitter sometime”. You think I’m joking, right? But sadly, I’m a dork who’s totally not.

A few months back, I stumbled across a Facebook note written by the sweet Cincy photographer Jessica Cudzilo about how she’d created a Tumblr account to keep up on all the fun stuff that was inspiring her on the Web. A light bulb went off in my head and I was like, “I SHOULD DO THAT TOO!”

And so, I’m adding my favorite little tidbits from the big ‘ol Word Wide Web here, one Tumble (is that what you call ‘em?) at a time. More than anything, this is just a way for me to file away stuff that I love—music, videos, quirky photos, quotes …. the stuff that, if I spend more than 20 minutes online, I seem to be attracted to like a moth to a flame.

Here’s a peek at a few recent entries (and if you visit my page, you can find links for the videos shown here):

I put this one on my list last year because I could not recall the last SUPER FUN New Year’s Eve I’d had …in….ohhhhh YEARS. I’m pretty sure it was my senior year in high school. Which meant, this year, I really wanted to party like it was 1999 (because, literally, it was the last memorable New Year’s Eve I’d had … too many others were spent on the couch with Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest). I’d mentioned something to our friends, Nate and Amanda Reynolds of Turtle Pond Photography a few weeks back about how we should make a big spectacle of this year coming to an end. Go out on the town. Live it up. Wear sequins ’cause, apparently, they are HOT this year. So before too long, we had a group of us all ready to celebrate with Operation: Get Fancy.

And on that note of planning, if you get a gang of photographers together, laughter, chaos and documentation of the whole party is bound to ensue. As we locked in plans for the festivities (thanks to Bobbi & Mike for hosting!), I knew this was it. The kind of New Year’s Eve bash I’d been dreaming about for 10 years. And I gotta tell you, those last few hours of 2010 did not disappoint. Pretty sure I can coast on the memories of this night for at least another decade, it was that special to me….

We started off our night with a fancy dinner downtown in Indianapolis. Then a few drinks at a bar nearby. It was warm enough out (IN JANUARY) to enjoy our cocktails on the back patio, where, well, we HAD to take a few fun photos in this fabulous setting.

(On the left: Stefanie and Brock Childs of SB Childs Photography; on the right: Nick and I)

I love this shot — in the moment, Stef was trying to get us to snuggle, I was more than happy to cooperate because this night was shaping up just as I managed it and my hubby was whispering, “Gail, come on…are you serious?” Sorry babe…didn’t expect a photo shoot like this, did ya? Then it was off to Bobbi and Mike’s …. (yes, that’s Nate Reynolds on the right with a lampshade on his head…no, he hadn’t had anything to drink yet – he’s just silly like that!) Brock is not only an awesome photographer, but a bit of a baker. So he took it upon himself to whip up a themed cake for the night with his new fancy KitchenAid mixer. Of course, upon the arrival of Bobbi and Mike’s friend, Annie, of Annie’s Eats (Annie is a doctor-chef with an uber-awesome foodie blog with lots of yummy recipes; she’s got quite the following), we had to inform Brock that well….. he’d been shown up! My husband’s pretty dapper here, isn’t he? (People like to tell Nick he looks like Don Draper…I can see it here!) Bobbi with her best friend, Ryan Hunley of Second Street Creative. So happy I got to capture this fun shot of them. 5…4…3…2…1….HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Amanda and Nate ringing in the new year with pots, pans and a few streamersMaya and Pat Laurent are the proud parents of another little boy, Jude, who was just born in November. Of any of us, these two deserved a fun night! And finally, a peek at the photo booth fun that went down. Man, was this entertaining!!!!! Bobbi and Mike, thanks again for having us over and thanks, too, to all my friends who helped me make this goal of mine a reality (well, I’m sure you guys were pumped to have your own fun NYE too!)

Happy 2011 everybody! Here’s to an awesome new year!

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.