faqs.

What kind of camera do you use?

I am so incredibly lucky to have unlimited access to Mike’s photography equipment. He is so generous with it and has been extremely patient with me as I have learned how to shoot manually on a DSLR.

We primarily use a Canon 5D and a Canon 5D mk ii.

What type of lenses do you use?
Primarily, we use a 50mm f/1.4. We adore that lens! You get such neat bokeh with the prime lenses and they're way nicer to haul around while traveling (or shooting a wedding). The images are sharper and clearer since the lenses are designed for a specified focal length.

We also use a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens (L series) - we used it in some of our Vancouver photos. It takes beautiful photos, but is pretty bulky to lug around. It's a great medium range lens.

We also just bought a 35mm f/1.4 (L series) and a 85mm f/1.2 (L series). We're so excited to start using them more!

What do you use to edit your photos?
We use Photoshop CS5. When we edit photos, we often play around with the levels, dodge and burn the photos, and sometimes add fill layers.

How do you make your photo collages?
They have been such a happy revelation to me. For some reason if you make collages in photoshop and upload them normally to blogger, it automatically shrinks them. Lame! I found out how to do this on powered by pastries formspring (a place where you can ask blogger related questions )

1. Make a collage in photoshop with whatever spacing you want. I usually have my collages have a width of 700px so they are a consistent width on the blog. You might be able to make a collage on a free program such as Gimp. If you have questions about how to make the collage itself, there are countless tutorials online which will help you along.

2. Upload collage to flickr.

3. "View all sizes" of the collage.
If not already selected, click on "original". in your case, this will be the 700 px image width. *Unfortunately, you have to have a pro account to access the original size of the photo on flickr*

Right click on the photo and SELECT "copy image location" (for some reason, this only works on firefox)

5. Go to blogger and and make a new post:
Instead of using blogger's image grab application, just enter the following and paste in your url from flickr: (sorry - I wasn't able to paste in the actual url into this post, it screwed things up.)

 

Does your blog name come from a Weepies song!?

Yes! Well done! From the song, Slow Pony Home, to be more specific. I just love the line, "I held so many people in my suitcase heart". I feel like I hold so many people dear in my heart from all over world - it really does feel like a suitcase heart!

How did you meet your fiancé husband?
{warning! long answer ahead!}
Mike and I have sort of “known of” each other for a long time. We actually went to the same school briefly when we were youger, but we don’t remember each other at all. After high school, he would hang out in a group with my really good friend Kari. So I would hear about Mike, but I would never to talk to him. We would be at parties together, and I always thought he was really cute but I was too intimidated to ever strike up a conversation with him. It turns out, he’s actually just a bit shy.

In May 2009, Mike (an electrician by day) did electrical work on the gazebo in my Mom’s backyard. I remember standing in my kitchen, looking out the window and thinking, “How weird. Mike Severloh is in my back yard!” At one point he was doing some electrical in the front entry way just as I was leaving. We both said, “Hi!” to each other, but nothing else.

Around this time, my Mom’s friend (who also is the wife of Mike’s boss – crazy connection!) took me aside and said, “Janis, I think you and Mike Severloh would be an excellent match!” I laughed really hard, and said there was NO way that would ever happen. I could not fathom him ever being interested in me.

In December 2009, Mike randomly added me on facebook. I thought it was kind of funny at the time, we could have been facebook friends for a long time before that since we’ve known of each other for so long, so I wasn’t sure why he decided to make it happen at that moment. He says he added me completely on a whim.

In any case, he found the link to my blog and started reading it. He says that’s when he became interested in me (so funny! I remember I was pretty embarrassed when I found out he was reading it. I was taking pictures with a crappy point and shoot, and here he is, a professional photographer reading my blog!). He started commenting on my blog (see his first comment here!) and messaging me on facebook, which sent me into a spiral of excited emotions – could he maybe be interested? But I told myself, ABSOLUTELY not! No way!

We ended up crossing paths at a Christmas party a few weeks later and having our first real conversation. I had a little too much to drink and began to tell him convoluted stories, repeat myself, and inform him that he was going to get cancer for smoking a pipe! My friend KD told me she thought I absolutely blew it. I was so mad at myself!

Somehow, he found it charming and not tacky! My friends and I invited him to our New Year’s Eve murder mystery party (see here). We were astonished when he said he could come, I was sure he would have somewhere cooler to go on New Years Eve. Just before the party began and he arrived, my friend Kari told me that her fiancé speculated that Mike liked me. I was shocked and became incredibly nervous. During the course of the Murder Mysetry game, I was incredibly mean to his “character” and pretended that my character was in love with this other guy (? Why am I so awkward???). At one point, Kari even asked me, “Janis! Why are you being so mean to Mike?!” I had no answer…

Luckily, I regained my senses after the Murder Mystery game and was nice to him the rest of the evening. Kari maneuvered it so Mike and I sat on the couch beside each other (what are friends for?) and we chatted the rest of the evening.

I still wasn’t sure if he was interested, but a few days later he asked me out for coffee. I died and thought my heart was going to explode. We went out for coffee, which ended up being a nine hour date. Seriously. We lost all track of time! We started dating three weeks after that and our relationship has become hands-down the best thing that has ever happened to me!