Pottery

Meet Jeffrey Goard. I met him in Bishop Hill in Illinois. Jeff is the Potter/Curator of the Bishop Hill Colony Pottery. I was lucky when I met him, because he was emptying out his kiln. It takes him 3 weeks to fill the kiln up. Every last week of the month he starts the kiln and his pieces will be in the heat for 15 hours. Jeffrey told me that during the summer he always has people waiting at the kiln; they help him to empty out the kiln and shop at the same time. Most of his pieces never see the store, because the people buy it from him right away. Needless to say, we took one of his beautiful bowls home to Colorado that was still warm from the kiln.

Birds nest in my suitcase

Can anyone please come up with an idea to get rid of this mess? Every time I travel, my hotel room looks like an electrician on vacation. -- All the chargers and cables I have to bring with me are on the floor and it seems to be getting worse. It's like a birds nest. I need a charger for my cellphone, my laptop, my camera, my iPod, my wife's cellphone, my wife's iPod. Most of the time you are lucky if you find two outlets in your hotel room. I don't want to come up with this old phrase, but I have to: We fly to the moon, we have wireless everywhere, but we still need a different charger and a different cable for every electrical item that travels with us. When will someone come up with the idea of one charger with one cable... or may be wireless charging? Is this too much to ask for, or is there a cable lobby out there that fights my idea?

Home for Thanksgiving

My wife Tammy and I are in Toulon/Illinois right now - home for Thanksgiving, for my wife at least. It's a great tradition even for me and being a German. I love Thanksgiving and the idea of having the family together at least once a year. We arrived on Saturday, a little earlier to catch up with the family and have a little downtime after a busy year.

Today we paid Fred J. Sams a visit. Sams is host an vintner at Indian Creek Vineyard Bed and Breakfast. The Vineyard is located on an old family farm, which has been in the family since 1836. Fred was born and raised on this farm. He started with the Vineyard in 1998. Over 8 acres are in grapes now. All are very tasty as we can say now after a good wine tasting. My favorite one is the Stark County Red - made from the Chambourcin garpe. Aromas of Cherries and black currants are the characteristics. That's what the paper says. To get the real taste, you have to come down here and taste it yourself.

Spring has come?

Veronica, der Lenz ist da (Veronica, spring has come) was a very popular song in Germany in the 20s and it still is to the present. If a woman in Germany introduces herself with the name Veronica, you can be sure someone will start to sing this song. It's a "German thing" and you don't have to understand it. All the Veronicas in Germany don't think it's funny anymore so don't try. - Why do I tell you that? - Oh, I had this senior photo shoot last weekend at Denver City Park. It was a girl and guess what her name was... Veronica. So now you also know what song was in my head on my way to the shoot. - You are right, that song. The temperatures on Saturday were far away from spring. It was a sunny morning and it was very cold. It didn't even help to get warmer when I was introduced to Veronica's friend at the shooting - her name was Veronica as well. The shoot went great and the three of us had a lot of fun. Actually the two Veronicas liked the story about the German song, even though I refused to sing it to them.



Because we were right in the middle of the park, there was no place to change clothes. We had to improvise with my equipment. It worked as you can see.

It's all about memories

Recently I was thinking, when did all this start?... me with the camera in my hand. It started when I was 13 years old. My best friend had a camera and of course I needed a camera myself. I was begging my parents to give me a camera for my birthday. Thinking back, that was a big gift to ask for. My parents raised 3 kids and money was an issue for them at that time. My dad was a police officer and my mom didn't have a job. Being a teenager, I didn't care. I wanted the camera so badly. I don't even know anymore what drove me more: that my friend had one, or that I already felt the photographer inside of me that wanted to come out. Honestly I think it was my friend's camera. On my 14th birthday, when I unwrapped the gift box I found a camera inside of it. I was proud and very happy. Of course I thanked my parents for this wonderful gift, but today I feel I didn't thank them enough. Growing up I soon realized what it meant to them to spend that much money for my birthday gift. I know now that there were 2 other kids who expected the same from them.
I called my Dad today to say thank you again to him and my mom for this wonderful gift on my 14th birthday. It changed my life. I honor this every time I push the shutter. So it is about memories, but not only the memories I capture when I shoot weddings, also my memories of how everything began.
Thank you, Mom and Dad!

Moments in 2008

The end of the wedding season is always the start of reviewing all the photos I shot during the year. It was a great season. I met a lot of wonderful people. All the weddings were so much fun. I was honored to create a lot of many memories for my clients. Watch this little movie and see some of my memories I will carry with me from 2008.

Name change

I started my business 4 years ago here in Colorado. Someone told me at that time I need to find a name. So I came up with pixelarts, which I thought was appropriate since I work 100 percent digital for almost 10 years now. Over the years I was'nt really happy with the name, also my business was growing. This month I decided to make the change to Hardy Klahold Photography. Below you can read my official media release:

pixelArts is now Hardy Klahold Photography

Hardy Klahold is changing his company’s name from pixelArts photography to Hardy Klahold Photography.
Morrison, Colorado (hardy klahold) November 10, 2008 -- 4 years ago Hardy Klahold launched his company pixelArts photography. His approach to wedding photography was as a storyteller that captures the right moments and creates wonderful memories that last a lifetime.
pixelArts photography, located at 16118 Mountain Bluebird Way, Morrison 80465, Colorado, is changing its name to Hardy Klahold Photography this coming fall
The studio first opened in Morrison in March 2004 and focused mainly on wedding photography. Over the years, Hardy Klahold was able to create with his unique style a brand that is well recognized by brides and leading wedding consultants throughout Colorado. In over 80 weddings Hardy Klahold has proven his 28 years of experience in photo journalism.
Hardy Klahold has over 28 years of experience in photography. Trained in Germany, he is an international award winning photojournalist. Hardy builds memories of love as he tells the story and captures the emotions in wedding photography.
After working for leading news agencies overseas, he moved to Colorado in 2003. He launched his company in 2004. Because of his recognizable style, owner Hardy Klahold decided it was time to change the studio's name to reflect that.
Klahold said in a press release,"It seemed obvious that I created a style that brides and leading wedding consultants recognize and like. This is why I decided to change the studio’s name to reflect that."
Hardy can be reached at hardy@hardyklaholdphotography.com.

Grandkids

I love to take photos of kids. Sometimes they are so funny, it's hard for me to keep the camera straight. A good example was the photo shoot with Bailey, Elizabeth, and Carson. Her Grandma Charlene needed an update of their photos. Carson was the tough one during the shoot. It was hard to keep him in the picture, he constantly found something more interesting to look at.

Interview call

On Tuesday I got a phone call from the local radio station in my hometown in Germany. They asked me what is going on in my area on the election day. The phone call came in the evening, the time difference is +8 hours, so my Interview was part of the morning show. It was quite an exciting experience that lasted about 10 minutes. Although I wasn't able to vote, because I'm not a citizen of the United State, I played my little part telling people somewhere outside of the United State what is going on in my neck of the woods.