I am currently working with a mission team from Thanksgiving! Lutheran Church in Bellevue to purchase and ship drilling equipment to Southern Sudan. Our hopes are to aid the people in this region in drilling wells so they have a constant supply of safe drinking water. The theme of our mission is "Living Water". Simply put we are trying to bring living water to these people in Sudan who vitally need it. My role in the mission group is to provide graphic, video and photography support.


Recently I have been tasked to design a label to be placed on 5 gallon water jugs for collection of donations. Going off this theme of Living Water I had the idea of water drops falling into a pool of water for the back ground of the image. I had a lot of fun with this one (though I kind of made a mess with the water). Here are a few of the images I came up with. The bottom image is the design I came up with for the water jug. All images were taken with a Canon 5D, 100mm 2.8 Canon macro lens and two strobe lights (though I utilized the model lights not the strobes).

Over the weekend a buddy and I went out to take some pictures of deer. I brought him to a spot where I have always had good luck. We walked around for about an hour and did not see anything. We saw plenty of tracks but no deer. After a while we ran into a man walking his dog. He told us that right over the next hill was about thirty deer. We hurried our gear over to where the man pointed and there were indeed plenty of deer. Our count however was over fifty. Below is an image of a small cluster of dear centered around a tree. This is just a small portion of the deer, a majority of them were spread out on the sides of the frame. I also included a black and white landscape I took that day. All images were taken with a Canon 5D and a 100-400 mm Canon L Series lens.

Over the last week my boys and I have been doing a little experimenting with table top macro photography. We tried several different techniques. The kids had a lot of fun with our creations. They referred to our experiments as making planets and galaxies. I thought it was awesome to see their faces light up when they saw the pictures I came up with. Here our a few of our creations.

Well cabin fever is setting in and I am finding myself daydreaming about being out in the field taking pictures. Specifically I am dreaming about Sandhill Cranes. These magnificent birds will be coming to Kearney, Nebraska in a little over a month. I go here a few days every year to get images of the cranes. Last year I got some of my best photographs of the them. But photography is like a drug and when you get a solid image it just makes you want to take more. That is where I am at right now siting at my desk just itching to get my photography fix filled. Here are a few images of the cranes from last year. These images were all taken within a two hour interval. The last picture is my favorite. I had been trying for three years to get a solid image of a crane dancing and playing with corn stalks and I finally nailed one last year. I would love to hear your feedback on these images so let me know what you think.

Winter Shots

This weekend a few friends and I went to Louisville to pick up a vintage refrigerator. While there we stopped by Louisville State Park for photos. Though the frost was not as good as it was on Friday it still was very beautiful out. Here are some of the images I came up with.

Well over the Holidays I pretty much put my cameras down and spent most of my free time with the family. I did however take pictures of the kids. Here are a few of them. The first is of my oldest Tristan. I got the hat for him as a Christmas gift and he loved it so much he wore for 3 days straight. The next is of my youngest Landon. This is his 7 month picture. He is getting really good at sitting up on his own and crawling around everywhere.

Last Friday a group of friends and I went to Squaw Creek in Missouri to take some pictures of eagles. Every year during the first two weeks of December bald eagles come to this location to fatten up on fish and geese before they finish their migration to Alaska. I have been coming here for the last three years, braving the frigid cold, trying to get a solid picture of an eagle in flight. Thus far I have been unsuccessful. I have many images of the birds in flight but there has always been something wrong with the shot. Usually the shots have been slightly out of focus or soft because of movement. It is rather difficult to get a tact on image of something moving when you are using a zoom lens. To add to the difficulty your lens sometimes focuses on other objects in the image such as branches. This year was different. This year I scored numerous choice shots. Here are a few.