Does this institution accept doubloons? Arrrg! Transfer to me checking. And hurry up! A Deadliest Catch marathon be on.
Author: Shane
Hey everybody!
Making a Murderer
Okay, I’m just going to address the elephant in the room and say that I do not know Teresa Halbach. It seems exceedingly likely that I am related to her (there cannot be that many Halbachs in Wisconsin) however I don’t know my Grandpa’s side of the family very well, and I don’t know any Halbachs in Manitowoc.
Does anybody in the family know how we are related to her? Aunt Sue maybe?
For those with no idea what I’m talking about, Netflix recently released a show entitled “Making a Murderer” about the murder of Teresa Halbach up in Manitowoc. Apparently everybody in the world is watching it, and I’m getting about 3 or 4 messages a day asking me if I’m related. Even worse, there are a significant number of people who just assume that we’re related, and are not bringing up this show to me because they’re worried it’s an upsetting topic.
The show is AMAZING and everybody should absolutely go and watch it immediately. I admit that I haven’t finished it yet (this baby has really put a cramp in our tv watching, let me tell you), but it is one of the most enthralling things I have seen in a long, long time.
I have to admit, every time someone says “Halbach” or it shows “Halbach” on the screen (about every 30 seconds or so), it throws me. Double that since it’s small town Wisconsin. Every interview, every recorded phone call sounds like my relatives from up nort’. It is like watching the twilight zone, or like someone made a documentary just for me. Freaking me out, believe me.
But the show itself is insane. Look, every documentary I’ve ever known anything about has been complete and utter bullshit. I absolutely assume this one is the same. I know they are trying to make it look like Steven Avery is innocent (or at least leave some doubt in your mind), and I don’t for one second lose sight of the fact that it’s a documentary and they are trying to shape a certain story. I’m sure they are leaving things out. Despite their best efforts, Steven Avery does not strike me as a guy I’d like to be friends with.
But all of that aside, O.M.G. this story. Manitowoc, I am looking some serious side-eye at your policing up there, geez o pete. Even if Steven Avery is guilty as sin, that does not in any way detract from from the absolute disaster of the way this case was handled. Even if Steven Avery is guilty, it’s not hard to imagine someone who isn’t guilty getting railroaded the same way. Brendan Dassey, for starters.
Anyway, everybody in the world is watching this show, and for good reason. Go watch it. Then come back here and talk about it. No need to worry about bringing up a sore subject.
The Best Photographer in the World
I had mentioned previously that we had shipped our kids off to a friend’s house while Alex was busy being born. It just so happens that that friend is the best photographer in the world, and we had already arranged for her to take pictures of Alex in the hospital. So it worked out perfectly that she was able to capture the kids meeting Alex for the first time!
This is just a sample of the pictures, but I don’t think I need to tell you how pleased we are with them because you can see them for yourself. They are so wonderful, and such a great documentation of that day.
Sara and I take a lot of pictures, and we know our way around a camera. But there is absolutely no contest between what we do and what Erielle does.
Erielle also took family portraits of us not too long ago. I posted these on facebook, but not on the blog. What is interesting to me is that these pictures are a totally different style than the pictures of Alex. I like how Erielle is able to capture more than just the image. She really puts the *emotion* into the picture. You can see the excitement as the kids go to the hospital, and the tenderness as they meet Alex for the first time. In the family portraits you can just see Ollie’s goofiness, or Evelyn’s sweetness, or just some sort of something that shows the soul of our family.
You just don’t get that sitting in a JC Penny’s.
When Sara and I got married, we spent a significant portion of our wedding budget on our photographer, because it was so important to us. To me, pictures are so much more than a souvenir: a good photo is a memory and a work of art all rolled up in one. It’s a window into that moment in your life, but a window opens out onto something much, much larger. It’s not just documentation that you’ve been there, but it’s all of the sights and sounds and thoughts and feelings and everything that lead up to that one moment in time. Well worth spending money to do it right.
I can’t tell you the number of compliments we’ve gotten on these pictures. More than one person has pulled me aside to tell me how much they enjoyed them, including one person who said, “These are the best family portraits I have ever seen.” (I’m biased towards the subject matter, but still!)
Who wouldn’t want to hang those on their wall?
Here are some of my favorites (you can see many more pictures of us on Erielle’s photo blog here)
I would unabashedly recommend Erielle Bakkum Photography to anyone looking to get photographs taken, of babies or of anything else. She is wonderful to work with, and knows how to get the most of out kids. She knows how to frame a shot, she knows how to make the camera do what she wants it to do, and she knows how to edit the pictures afterwards. The results, quite frankly, speak for themselves.
Alexander in Pictures
Shane Halbach 