Saturday Football - Greyhounds and KC Chiefs

This blog is going to consist of imaginary quotes. I'm going to write what I think the person in the photograph is saying/thinking!

"Coach told me to rip someone's head off...that's what I did ref! Go blame coach!"

"I'm about to do the splits and it's gonna hurt!" OR "I hope that guy isn't looking at my butt!"

"I wonder who that photographer is...he sure is handsome."

"Crap! I forgot to catch the ball again!"

"Dwayne Bowe!!! I said catch the ball! Moron....why did I take this job?"

"Maybe I should have become a hurdler....we suck!"

Tyler - Senior 2010

Tyler is indescribable. He's a self-professed ladies man. Confidence is not an issue with him and it shouldn't be. Since he and I share the same last name (cousins) it's hard to deny that his genes have a history of awesomeness.

Alright. Enough of that. It's getting deep in here.





Freddy, as he is known to family and friends, came to have his senior portraits done about a week ago. He had the idea of doing a few at a cross near his high school. So, we grabbed some cowboy stuff and hiked up the hill. Fortunately we had shot everything else before the cross shots because we were both covered in sweat by the time we had reached the summit. His hair was a mess...ending the rest of the photo shoot.

Lacey & Stevi

The regional magazine, SHE, is prepping for its 4th issue and asked me once again to shoot the cover. I've already provided photography for the first 3 issues and was excited when they told me this issue would be about parenting.

I contacted Lacey about doing a shoot with her 1-year old daughter Stevi. They were excited to do it so we made arrangements for the shoot to be on a Wednesday. A week before I moved the shoot to Thursday for some reason. Lucky for us we had the best day of the summer - cool temperatures with a nice breeze. It felt like Fall already!

We shot for about 45 minutes and didn't have one bad shot! Believe it or not, I did absolutely ZERO photoshop work on Stevi's eyes. None!!! They are as real as can be.


Watch out mom and dad...she's going to be a cutie!

An Epic Lightning Storm

The song It's Electric comes to mind when I look at these photos. Lightning has always fascinated me and I'm not sure why. Usually it's a bolt here and a bolt there...but not often does it spread through the clouds like these photos show...at least not in Southeast Kansas.

So, when this storm popped up after a senior portrait session Wednesday evening I set up my tripod and started making images. After about an hour I had a few that I was proud of...these include the first three on this blog.

I had in my mind, though, something a bit more dramatic. It would require a LOT of luck and very little skill....something I'm pretty good at pulling off.

Around 10:30 p.m. I set up my tripod about 2 feet from the side of a highway and started watching for lightning. Unfortunately it appeared as if the storm was moving away and I wouldn't get a good shot. About the time my wife said it was time to head home, I clicked the shutter and let it expose the sky. Right as the long exposure was about to go off a semi and trailer passed through the bottom of the frame and the lightning exploded above it. That's how I got the bottom frame...and it's my favorite by far!

The Wedding of Brittany and David Swan

Patience!!!! You'll have to settle for wedding details for now. The rest aren't ready for viewing yet. :)




Soon enough I'll post images of the bride and groom and their bridal party. It was a rainy day until ceremony time, when it thankfully stopped raining and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. They were a beautiful couple...easy for a photographer!

Clayton - 2010 Senior

Clayton is a senior at Jayhawk-Linn High School in Mound City. If he looks tall...he is....to the tune of somewhere near 6'5" and 8'9". I'm not quite sure. All I really know is that I'm 6'3" and he skies over me. He's full of complete awesomeness and I had a blast shooting him in some of Fort Scott's coolest places, including a rooftop, an abandoned loft and a dying barn.

Falling from the Sky

Let me start by saying that photographing a meteor shower detracts from the awesome display of something so extraordinary that it's not really worth the effort.

Now to the important part.

Tuesday and Wednesday nights were spent watching the annual Perseids meteor shower from my driveway in Fort Scott USA. It was a bit too bright to really see a good show but I saw around 30 those two nights...that was good enough for me considering I was in bed by midnight, which is when the show is supposed to really get started.

Laying in my chair and watching the sky was relaxing and insightful. Too often we all get caught up in GO GO GO, especially myself. I never take a break...this was a great way to do that and really feel how small we are. I might even go back out tonight around 2 a.m. to see how it looks at that hour.

Allen County Volleyball

WOW! What a group!

I've yet to see them actually bump, set or spike a ball but the Allen County Community College volleyball team seems to have their %^$& together. I arrived late (This never happens, I swear!) and would have fully understood if my head was ripped off and used for spiking drills. This, thankfully, never happened.





Right off the bat we headed to a little garden area and shot in some great light. Shortly after we ended up in an alley with a phenomenal brick door and cool door to shoot in. Up to this point everything was going great...nothing to really write home about but still cool nonetheless. My head about exploded though when I found out we were going to be shooting in a nearby bar!!! That was a first for me and even though there was not much light, we used some cool posing and really rocked the joint out. This is when I fell in love with the team...it's hard to really impress me...but for some reason I knew they were a bunch of cool cats worthy of the title of GROOVIEST TEAM EVER.

Up next was a trip to the courthouse (not to jail thankfully) where we attempted to do some shots of the girls all walking toward the camera and failed miserably. Shhh....we made up for it shortly thereafter at an old rail bridge with some cool graffiti, including a pictorial of a monkey.

She says "I DO"

If you're reading this, then you probably aren't at the wedding of one of my favorites models, Brittany. Brittany has been a friend of mine since I was in high school...and she would have probably been in middle school at the time. She's obviously gorgeous...but she's even more beautiful as a person and I couldn't be happier for her today as she says "I Do" to her groom, David. Best of luck to them!

This is one of my favorites! I strive to capture "real" moments rather than pose everything. It's a great image that shows her personality.

Ryan & Elizabeth - Engagement Session

Placing a finger on the date I first met Ryan is hard. One might think that because he's such an unforgettable fellow, that it would be impossible NOT to remember when my life was changed on that day his bright, shining self shook my hand.
Ok ok...enough of that. Cousin CK and Ryan have been friends FOREVER. At least as long as I can remember. For that reason, I have known Ryan for quite some time obviously. We've shared grandma's noodles together, watched baseball together and cracked on CK a few times.
I only recently met Ryan's fiance Elizabeth - via facebook of course - when they asked me to photgoraph their wedding this fall. Last weekend we met up in Blue Springs, Mo., for an engagement photo shoot. We had a blast and I think the photos show that.

The One & Only....KyBird

Kylie said she wanted fun photos and Kylie gets what Kylie wants. After a quick session with her Nikes in an old warehouse, we headed out to my favorite waterfall and lit that place up.

I've always wanted to try some fun wet hair photos...this image happened sort of by accident as she was practicing an upcoming shot. Turned out perfectly! The shot below is what happened due to the intense practice sessions from the shot above!


After wrapping up the waterfall shot, we went looking to use the last remaining rays of sunlight and found this cool location to use the sunlight to silhouette her.

THE NOISE FM

The Noise FM will soon rock your ears like they've never been rocked before.

It's been several years since I first met the boys of noise..they were then called the Pond Monkeys and I covered them fairly extensively when working for the newspaper. These days they are known as The Noise FM. Their sound is fresh and awesome....pick up their CD now! Or see them on tour in Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Timbuktu, wherever you might be...they will be there soon.

Alex called me a week or so ago to set this up and to be honest, I didn't have many ideas. Luckily, these guys are both pretty creative and they came flush with ideas.