From point A to point B

Starting to wrap up the photo work for some senior portraits. Here are a few pieces that I’ve done so far.

Gracie found a little quiet time during the pre-Christmas craziness, to curl up with a good book. There’s some thing about the ambient light that the Christmas tree adds to a room that I really enjoy his time of year.

Starting the retouching and printing of my first set of Senior Portrait packages. These turned out great!

Last year my oldest daughter created “old fashioned ribbon candy” Christmas tree ornaments to sell to our neighbors, friends, and family. She donated 100% of the proceeds to the Children’s Miracle Network to help with children’s cancer research. She sold them for $2.00 each. Her goal was to raise $100. She raised just over $430. Now, both my girls are getting involved, and are continuing the effort again this year with a new charitable organization in mind: Feeding South Dakota. These are prototypes of this year’s ornament. These are a little more involved, so they’ve decided to raise the price of each ornament to $3.00 this year.

Coming home from a shift at the Fire Department, the sunrise was especially exhilarating and inspiring. A simple image of Fall’s beauty and grace.

Had an awesome time shooting Part 1 of one of my 2012 Senior Portrait clients. It doesn’t get any better than this: A good-looking kid, with an awesome photogenic hobby, Motocross. One Word: Cool. Thanks for being such a great sport, Mason and letting me shoot so many frames of your jumping. I could’ve stayed there all afternoon. I can’t wait to shoot the rest of our planned locations and studio shots!

Today, my philanthropic daughter delivered a cashier’s check for the total of all the donations she received for her Christmas ornament project. Her original goal was to raise $100, by selling 50 ornaments. She smashed that goal and raised $431.38. Her younger sister donated what she could from her piggy bank, pushing the total over the $431 mark.

I love the holiday season. Today, I got to spend a little time in my youngest daughter’s 3rd grade classroom helping her make a “Gingerbread House.” Although it was actually graham crackers over a milk carton base, it was a ton of fun to work on with her!

My oldest daughter is creating “old fashioned ribbon candy” Christmas tree ornaments. She has a wonderful caring heart. Her goal is to make a whole bunch of these ornaments and sell them for $2.00 each. She will be donating 100% of the proceeds to the Children’s Miracle Network. She would like to help with children’s cancer research. I’m helping her effort by making an informational flier for her philanthropic endeavor. I am continually flabbergasted by the thoughtfulness of my kids.

Our youngest attended a birthday party sleepover this past weekend, and created this little guy at the party. The clay is sort of a foamy type modeling material. The plastic feet base came with the kit. Totally cool. I have never seen anything like it. Great work kiddo!

Another stormy night in Eastern South Dakota

This afternoon, I had a senior portrait consultation. While there, we did a few test shots for an idea we have of shooting portraits while jumping on the trampoline. To get an idea of how it’ll look, I had Nick jump a few times. I snapped 3 quick shots. This is one of them. I think when we actually shoot these for real in a few weeks, we’ll have a lot of fun, and they’ll be great!

We had a quick rain shower roll through earlier tonight. This double rainbow lasted for about 10 minutes. Luckily, I was able to capture it. Looks like the pot-o-gold can be found at our neighbors’.

Ah Memorial Day. The unofficial Beginning of Summer. Many families around the U.S. spend the holiday enjoying the outdoors. Our family is no exception. It was a gorgeous day; a gorgeous weekend.

We started into the weekend with a list of chores to do around the house that have been nagging at us for months. We indeed did get a few things done over the course of the weekend such as: remodel a bathroom, till and plant the garden, dig and cement a post for a basketball hoop, mow our jungle of a yard, fit in a Monday afternoon softball practice, and a few other small chores. But the most memorable part of our weekend was the time we spent together exploring and hiking at the Palisades State Park. The girls have been wanting to go see it for a while now, and there really was no better time like the present.

This is a panorama of our neighborhood, looking out from our driveway.

I just learned this morning that my 10 year old daughter won first place in a photo contest! For her winning entry, she’ll receive a $200 U.S. Savings Bond. The contest was hosted by the South Dakota National Guard Youth and Family Program. The theme of the contest was “Family and Patriotism.” My daughter came up with the concept and took the photo. The only help I gave her was getting the camera settings set up (my professional digital is a little unwieldy), and helping her convert the digital image to black and white (the black and white was her idea). It was all her own creativity that made this photo. She came up with the name of the photo: “Grandfather Salute.” The photo is of me in my dress blues, saluting the grave of my father. My dad was in the Air Force in the late 50′s and 60′s. I was born on an Air Force Base in northern Michigan. My dad is the main reason I joined the Air Force, and have served in the Air National Guard since. This is truly a proud moment!

My wife is a wonderful pianist. Every so often she treats me to a little music. Tonight she played some Billy Joel while I enjoyed a glass of wine.

This is a photo of my youngest daughter quietly, contentedly reading to herself. I was sitting next to her on the couch as she read, enjoying the sight of her in such a relaxed state of mind. It inspired me to pick up my camera, and get back into the mindset that even the small things are worth stopping for and taking notice.

Our oldest turned 10 this morning at 6:32am. Tonight we had birthday cake and pizza with our family. The big party with her friends is this weekend. One of her brithday gifts tonight was an “M” ear ring holder. As you can see in these photos, she has quite the collection of ear rings.

Interesting… As I looked out our dining room window this evening, I see the warmth of the sunset. If you didn’t know better, you could imagine this sunset at a warm beach.Yet, I know the cold Winter wind is howling out in the field. And a couple hours after this photo was taken, as I write this post I peer out my office window and see our neighbor plowing snow in his driveway. I guess after months of cold weather my mind is on a warm beach somewhere.

Another frozen foggy day + an F-100 static display = Old Cold Steel

The four highest points in the small town of Tea, South Dakota. From left to right in the photo are: The grain elevator, the older water tower, the large water tower, and the new radio tower.

The meteorologists were right! The big storm of the 2009 holiday season is upon us. It’s been snowing and blowing for the past 36 hours. It finally let up a little so the girls’ could get out and play. There’s a 6 foot high drift right in front of our door.

The fog yesterday hasn’t really burned off. Fog is supposed to be a pre-indicator of heavy precipitation. If so, we may see a very white Christmas this year.

A thick overnight fog froze into beautiful crystals that covered everything this morning.

Even though the place is open, and I’m sure it a hot, happening joint I found the empty street an interesting contrast to the “Open” invitation.

These gals are ever vigilantly watching over the streets of downtown, waiting. Patiently waiting. You might say they have a certain “State” of mind in this photo.

Thanksgiving 2009: Uncle Al carves the bird, Gracie eagerly awaits at the kids’ table, and the marshmallows are toasted to perfection on the sweet potatoes.

Despite a month or more of transition, things are somewhat back to normal. For now. New desk, old utensils.

My youngest daughter drew this about 2 years ago, inside one of my note pads. I just ran across it again. I know that as a dad with two girls, I am in for a heaping helping of teenage girl emotions ahead of me. I hope that as they get into those awkward years, they remember how they saw themselves when they were 5.