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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Just a select few frames from the many that I took at the Air Show this afternoon. A great show as always.

There’s a local auto-restoration company who had this beauty parked out in front of their business. There’s really no better advertising for their services than to show the fruits of their labor. The sleek lines and curves, and the color are truly amazing.

We have been fortunate this summer so far. Normally it is 90-100 degrees, and drier than a tumbleweed. But we’ve had a good amount of rain and the temperatures have been hot, but cool off over night and in the early morning. The flowers, grass and trees are in full bloom in our yard. I found this little guy happily collecting nectar in the flower garden.

Had a lunch meeting today, and on my way back to my car, I passed by this set of chairs on the patio area of the restaurant I was at. The negative space aspect of this photo intrigues me. Instead of seeing the actual subject matter (people at a table) you only see their shadows.

Walking downtown on Phillips Avenue today, taking in all of the activities and set-up preparations for Hot Summer Nights this weekend. The streets will be filled with Corvettes Harley-Davidsons, and people. While walking along, I glanced over and noticed this cool reflection in the window of an office building. I like the distorted imagery in the glass, and the way the reflective colors appear in the glass.

On our last night at Cedar Shore Resort, I found this moon over the boats at the dock inspiring.

On the river, we hooked up with friends Jack and Joelle who have a house boat. It took a little coaxing, and seeing dad do it, but finally the girls put on their Brave Faces and jumped off the top deck of the house boat. It’s about a 15 foot drop, and was even a little intimidating for dad at first. These 3 shots are a sequence of one of Gracie’s many jumps. View Post

I’m still in the mood to keep it simple.

Words cannot describe how sad losing a 10-day old baby must be. To my friend, we are praying for you. The sunset today made me stop and think for a good long time. I hope and pray that God be with you, and that your little girl be with Him in heaven.

Gracie reading in the living room. Practicing my HDR skills.

Last night’s sunset was affected by severe thumderstorms north of us, near Brookings. The colors and cloud formations are pretty impressive.

In the main entry area of the Sioux Falls Convention Center is a piece of art by Dick Termes. It’s a large sphere, with illustrative renderings of well-known Sioux Falls landmarks. I was out at the Convention Center this afternoon photographically documenting some other areas of the facility. This angle really caught my eye as I passed by it. The second shot is looking down at a round mirror that lies on the floor below the sphere.

I’ve been experimenting with different lighting schemes the past month or so. Back in April, I found some success using hand-held flashlights, multiple exposures, and compositing. A couple nights ago I went back to the fire house after dark, and took new shots of our Ladder truck and Rescue truck. This is a collage I put together of the two trucks. The flag and flames are stock images. The phoenix logo I designed a couple years ago. This piece will be used as part of a framed collage of portraits of all the firefighters’ on the department. This portion will be at the bottom of the frame, with 35 cut-out holes in rows above for each firefighter’s portrait.

On our trip to Disney World, we also saw Japan. At Epcot’s World Showcase Pavilion.

I was so inspired by the gold reflective grid pattern, that I took it one step further.

Tulips are probably one of the most iconic of all Springtime flowers. But sticking your camera down below them in the flower bed to get a low angle, “daunting” shot, amkes them appear 10 feet tall, and gives them a different attitude than normal.

The clouds this Spring have been absolutely picture-perfect. This is the roofline and skylight at Scheels Sporting Goods on Western Ave. The sharp angles of the roof and geometric lines in the building contrasting with the soft, puffy, organically-shaped clouds is nice.

The clouds in yesterday’s photo hinted toward the weather that lie ahead.

Pretty basic idea. I just to have happened upon driving by this giant flag, and thought it was even more glorious against the cloud.

These old guys still have some kick, some get-up-and-go, some oomph.

We have an awesome view from our dining room, looking West. In the past 6 years, I’ve taken hundreds of sunset shots. The beauty of the sky as the sun sets never ceases to amaze me.

I like the distortion of the neon glow in this reflection on glass block.

Motion, light, beauty and grace.

If you live in the Sioux Falls area and were out and about this morning, you no doubt saw the thick fog. The fog creates a nice filter for the sun. Normally, it would be impossible to see anything but a glare if you’re staring into the sun. I like the contradiction between the name of the street and the rise of the sun.

Sunday morning, about 30 minutes before service began. Beautiful sunlight coming in from the Northeast.

Just a block off the main thoroughfare in a small Southern Minnesota town is this old church. It appears to be no longer used, but is still kept in good condition.

This is a detail from a block-long sign painted on the lumber building. The building and sign are 5 feet from the road, yet the lettering is 30 feet high. The sign has been there forever. I remember driving by it on our way to Northern Minnesota 30 years ago. It’s somewhat of an icon. Looking at it from a normal viewpoint, the closeup details are interesting.

Macro flower photography is good stuff. This detail of a lily is especially interesting. These flowers were for my oldest daughter’s birthday.

The old railroad bridge that spans the Missouri River between Pierre and Fort Pierre has been the subject of many photographs. It’s a very popular visual for the SD Department of Tourism. However, I like this view of the bridge. It’s a view that’s not often seen. This angle creates a great convergence of lines.

On the way to Pierre, I saw these cloud formations. I really like the line they create across the sky.

The rotation of the earth around the sun provides such unique lighting opportunities. Throughout the day, the shadows falling on this wall will change. By the time I got the raw photos downloaded and this blog post written, the shadows captured on the wall will have changed. The composition of the shadows on the wall, and the amount of light in the sky is a dynamic scene. A moment in time that will never be seen again. No matter how mundane the actual content in a scene, there’s always something deeper to be found.

Sometimes the things that sit right in front of your face nearly every day, have hidden beauty.

Here’s a detail from a 1962 Gibson electric guitar that hangs on the wall adjacent my desk. I love the red tones in the guitar and this image.