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.

Gracie found this little guy, and like kids will do, decided she wanted to keep him as a pet. After a night cooped up in an old milk jug, we convinced her that he would be better off back in the wild with his family.

The idea that a plant can grow from a tiny seed, into a large fruit-bearing plant in a matter of months has always amazed me. This is our 4th year of working the soil in our garden, which was initially a large patch of rock-solid clay. For the past 4 seasons, we’ve tilled-in compost, peat, and mulch. We now have rich, dark soil. Our garden has really been growing strong this year. The plentiful rain this year has certainly played a part as well. All of our plants are producing large volumes for harvest.

This morning, there was a thick coat of dew across the entire region. These photos are details from some of the plants in our garden.

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 took a little family road trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant in De Smet Friday night. If you haven’t been, it’s a good old-fashioned, low-tech family fun event. Volunteer actors audition for the roles of Pa, Ma, Laura, Mary, and the whole cast of Little House on the Prairie characters. Right after we rode the horse-drawn wagon, the girls got to pet the horses.

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.

I was out and about today, scouting for new outdoor locations for high school senior portraits. I stumbled across a group of kids taking it easy on the lake in kayaks. I like the various bright colors of the kayaks and the vivid colors of the sky and greenery.

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

The day started out a little gray and gloomy, but at least we didn’t encounter any rain. As the afternoon progressed, we finally saw the sun! We had a great few hours on the boat with our friends Dave and Stacy. This photo is of Maddie and Gracie on the tube behind the boat. View Post

We stayed at Cedar Shore Resort in Chamberlain, SD for the Independence Day holiday weekend. We drove there Friday morning, hoping for a day of fun and sun on the boat. Instead we had a gloomy, rainy day. This photo of Gracie looking out the window of our room at the wet, dreary day says it all. View Post

This is a shot looking down the 3rd base line as a girl makes a hit, at my oldest daughter’s softball game. View Post

Goodbye all my friends at HenkinSchultz. I will miss you. We had some great times over the past 7 years.

The Fire Department was called out last night to help with storm spotting. We watched for tornados for about an hour and a half. After an exciting night of storms and tornado warnings, we were in the clear. The storm split-up and moved to the south. This is a few frames from the tail end of the storm as it moves south.

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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.

Here’s some shots of the Main Street carnival blended together into one panoramic shot. This view is a nearly 180 degree view. The Police Station on the left, and the Body Shop on the right are on opposite sides of the street from each other.

The Great Thomas Midway on Main Street during Tea Pot Days 2009

Scenes from the Tea Pot Days tractor and truck pull Friday night.

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.

Two days ago, I posted the photo of the cows looking at the camera, as if they were waiting to have their portrait done. I was re-visiting the raw images that I snapped on Sunday, and noticed this one. I love the “expression” on this cow’s face. It compliments the story idea that the cows noticed their portrait on my blog, and came back to make a statement. It looks like he wasn’t too happy about the previous image. Interesting how something taken out of content can be so funny.

Civil War cannon at the South Dakota National Guard Museum in Pierre, SD.

On my way home from Rapid City, I stopped for fuel and a quick break in Chamberlain, SD. These guys were standing in a pasture right behind the gas station. I barely gave them a second thought, as I was in a hurry to get home. But as I was pumping gas, they kept staring at me as though they knew I had a camera in the car, and were begging to have their picture taken. Fine guys. Here you go. You are on the web. The next time you’re surfing the web, stop by this blog and let me know what you think.

This is a view looking down from the 8th floor of the Holiday Inn Rapid City. I was out there for State Fire School this past weekend. I like the geometry and repeating pattern of the floor from this angle.

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.

We tried 3 times to catch the fireworks show at Magic Kindgom, over Cinderella’s castle. Our girls were too tired to stay the first time, and we were rained out the second time. Finally, on our last night at Dinsey World, we were able to catch the show. It was well-worth the wait. We have memories we’ll never forget.

Disney doesn’t waste a single opportunity to immerse visitors in an experience. this metallic statue of Goofy sits right out side of Tony’s Italian Ristorante, where Lady and the Tramp have their famous spaghetti encounter.

Central Florida has some of the biggest grasshoppers I’ve ever seen. They are literally 4 or 5 inches long! Come to think of it… We were staying on a military-only resort. Maybe they’re secretly testing out a new form of advanced robotic weaponry. Hmmm….

The City Hall building at Magic Kingdom just before the park closed for the night.

To get anywhere at Disney World, we rode our Resort’s bus. Sometimes we’d have some down time while we waited for the bus to leave.

The iconic sphere at Epcot. Inside is the ride Spaceship Earth.

Part of the show at Festival of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom Disney World. Everyone else at the show was using their point-and-shoot cameras with the flash. This one turned out nice because of the slower shutter speed that captured the motion of the twirling flame. I love how the glow of the flames lights up the crowd.

Acrobatics at the Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom Disney World

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

We took a family vacation to Disney World. This is our flight to Orlando. We’re somewhere over Georgia.

Air. You’ll notice that it’s not free here.

This old barn has been sitting on the North end of Tea for years, slowly decaying. This is the end of it’s time, as well as the end of the day.

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

Meet Robo-Elvis. He’s a 22 inch high, Hound Dog singin’ machine. Literally. Robo-Elvis was conceived by my 9 year-old daughter for a school project. The assignment was “Junk Robots.” the kids had to build robots out of things found around the house. (Yes. The Elvis Sunglasses were lying around the house…)

Robo-Elvis has a mini-cassette recorder that plays “Hound Dog.”

When asked what Robo-Elvis’ occupation? Lounge Singer. Teacher’s Lounge Singer.

Great work, Maddie!

These shots were taking at my youngest daughter’s birthday party at Suburban Lanes. Each of these shots on their own aren’t extraordinary. But the sequence is fun!

This is a simple hill on a golf course… But the compressed view of the two hills and the way the clouds shadow the far hill is pretty cool. I just love the way nature creates its’ own design.

The old Stewart Sign in downtown Sioux Falls

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.

Yesterday’s photo contrasted the flat lines of the roof with the soft, billowy clouds. Today, we see a flat-bottomed cloud contrasting with a curved roofline.

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.

I’ll be the first to admit that I know very little about antiques… But I found this oddity at a local antique shop.

I had some fun this morning setting up and doing some lighting tests in the studio for a photo shoot later this week. We are going to photograph a baby holding a milk container, looking as if he’s playing in a puddle of spilled milk. To make the “milk” we mixed up some Gloss Gel Medium and white acrylic paint. We poured the acrylic mixture onto a piece of clear plastic in the form of a spill, and let it dry over the weekend. Then this morning, I cut away the plastic sheeting, and set up my lights. With a little bit of adjusting the highlights and shadows, it looks pretty convincing:

As I was working in Photoshop on minor adjustments, this idea popped into my head. Could be a good image for a milk campaign.

Nothing too extraordinary about this shot… It was captured with the camera on my cell phone. Of course, THE event that I SHOULD have had my high-performance camera… It was in the car. Nice.

Ironically, I do like the low-res quality of the shot. The lights become the important element in the shot. Everything else is just a blur. It’s also interesting how the light is blown out in the middle of the ring. You can’t tell, but there’s a guy juggling flaming torches. It was a great circus this year.

We’ve been living on Gilligan’s Island since Easter, when our girls received the entire 3 season series collection on DVD. Every chance they get, the girls sneak in an episode or two. Today our youngest, Gracie sculpted these little guys. C’mon, you recognize them. It’s The Skipper, his Little Buddy Gilligan, and The Professor! I couldn’t resist taking a couple snapshots of these guys on their “set”. I think they’re adorable.

Nothing like cute creativity to interrupt the flow of “Lines” and “Angles”. I couldn’t be happier to have the series interrupted.

I must be itching to do some graphic designing. Yesterday it was lines. Today it’s angles. I seem to be noticing more basic graphic design principles in everything. I found this one while driving through main street in Tea, SD. Of all the mundane things… It’s a basic telephone/cable junction pole.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll start a Gestalt-based photo theme.

Coming back from lunch today, I pulled up next to our building and looked up at the bright blue sky. I like how the sharp angles and lines in the building, along with the telephone lines slice into the smooth blue sky. After downloading the photo, it reminded me of a cover shot for a magazine, so I added the “Lines” copy along the right edge.

I’ve been a little remiss about posting to this here blog. It’s been over a week since my last post. I write this as an apology to myself. This blog’s only purpose is to prompt me to look for interesting things as I travel from point A to point B, pick up my camera, and shoot a picture every day. This blog gives me someone to answer to. I’ve neglected this goal recently.

My day job is divided primarily between photography, design, web site design/production, and a little video production thrown in for flavor. Normally, these 4 disciplines weigh themselves out, and I get a nice balanced mix of tasks. However, for the past few weeks the web production piece of that pie has crowded out the others. So, instead of looking through the lens of my camera, I’ve been staring at lines of code. Considering this, it came to me that the lines of code create a rhythm that is interesting. It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in looking at the “facts” of web code, and forget to step back and look at it with fresh eyes. Once I realized that, I picked up my camera and shot this image on my computer monitor.

OK, OK, I admit it. This is a sorry post. This morning I had a photo shoot for Burger King, and this is one of the shots from the session. I don’t normally like to post these types of shots; not the most creative for an “Art by Accident” themed blog. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great looking ice cream cone. And it’s going to look great on the in-store posters and signage for Burger King. But there’s only so many ways to photograph an ice cream cone before it melts.

That said, I do like the “floating” effect of the cone over the white background. Kind of surreal. And, if anything, it makes my more creative stuff seem really edgy.

This is a shot of Truck 7 at the Tea Volunteer Fire Department. The image is a composite of 9 separate shots. The only light used to light the truck in each shot was a hand-held flashlight. Interesting effect…

After family dinner, I took a stroll with my camera and found this little guy having his own Easter feast.

I got some new software today, to process HDR Photos. This is the result of an image accidentally getting placed in the HDR-mix. It resulted in an interesting image that I’d call a “Happy Accident.”

This is a detail view from one of the lockers at our fire department. Many of the fire fighters on our department have small personal mementos in their lockers that personalize their space, and let everyone know what they stand up for.

Friday’s post was reflective of the anticipation of Spring. However, over the weekend we experienced a let down.

As the weekend ends, we keep our hopes up of a new, warmer day.

Today seemed like a good day for a conceptual series. These are scenes from a park, where the feeling of anticipation of the warm sunny days of Summer are in the air.

While out for lunch today I stumbled across this unique perspective.