February 8th, 2009 admin
Saturday brought temps in the upper 60’s which played perfectly into my plan for the fam to drive north to the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge. Located about 90-minutes north of KC, this is a place we discovered several years ago while on our way to Indian Cave State Park in Nebraska. Squaw Creek is best known for its large concentrations of snow geese, other waterfowl, and bald eagles. The refuge is a major stop-over for waterfowl, with more than one-half million birds in the fall and lesser, but still spectacular, numbers in the spring. While this time of year most of the birds have headed south for warmer temps, you are almost always guaranteed to see an eagle or two along with some geese.
We spent most of our time walking along this looong peninsula. Caroline and the boys stalked the Muskrats while I tried my best to keep up with the changing light. It blew me away how fast the light was changing – the series of photos below were all taken within a 90-minute time frame. Contributing to this was a front that was moving in and brought with it these incredible clouds.
Besides providing the boys a great outing away from the confines of the house, we successfully wore them out as evidnet by them both sleeping in past 8:00 AM the next morning.
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January 13th, 2009 admin
OK I promise this is the last picture of the kids. But to my defense they are the only ones around when I want to experiment with with my new photography toys. Plus it will score me some points with the Grandparents.
I’m really diggin the off camera flash stuff. In the case of the pictures below I had one SB600 speedlight on the floor behind Alex shooting towards the backdrop with an SB800 mounted on a stand shooting through an umbrella on the right. Pretty basic “lighting 101″ stuff I know…but I have to say I’m really liking the results I’m getting.
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January 11th, 2009 admin
It just became apparent to me that I haven’t posted any recent pics of Christopher. I assure you it isn’t because we haven’t taken any of him. We have been home with him for almost six months. While it hasn’t been without its challenges…which I feel has more to do with raising TWO boys than anything related to the adoption, the last six months have flown by.
Caroline and I both tell everyone who asks, Chris brought with him a BIG personality – one that cannot be described, only experienced. And to think we were concerned after meeting him for the first time that he might not be outgoing enough. We truly have been blessed once again with the adoption of a beautiful little boy.
All I can say is that there is no greater sound in the world than two brothers playing and fighting…
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January 8th, 2009 admin
Nikon D40x, 70-200mm, 1/400 @ 5.0, ISO 200
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January 6th, 2009 admin
Nikon D40x, 18-55mm, 1/30 @ 5.6, ISO 250
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December 22nd, 2008 admin
I’m finally getting around to looking at some of the images from our three trips to Russia this past year. The image above was taken from our hotel window in Cheboksary during our first trip. I really liked how the sun illuminated the birch trees in the morning.
I think I would spend about 15-minutes every morning looking out our window and watching as about a half doozen or so people would begin shoveling what was left of the winter snow and begin preparing the flower beds for the spring.
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December 16th, 2008 admin
Recently the entire family has been sick with either a cold or stomach flu. On top of that I have been working some long hours preparing for a big proposal and interview.
Alex was feeling better so i decided to grab him and head out to a favorite trail for a little walk in the woods…
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December 6th, 2008 admin
I finally got a chance to check out Alex’s Saturday morning soccer game. I brought the camera along to capture all the ACTION. After spending a good portion of the time shooting the mob of kids chasing the ball around, I noticed out of the corner of my eye the boredom being experienced by the goalies. I found it more entertaining watching the goalies pass the time until they got called up to play than the actual game. In the end I found the images I shot of the goalies much more interesting.
Now I know why they give the kids big baggy shirts – it helps the goalies pass the time.
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November 24th, 2008 admin
Just got back from a long weekend at HCR. Got a chance to catch up with good friends who for the most part I hadn’t seen in awhile. Rick moved to Dallas, Mike jetted off to Prague for 5-weeks, Daron and Lori, like me and my wife, are consumed with parenthood and work and Lorne -well there is no good reason why I haven’t seen him or his wife Angela.
The weather ended up being a little colder than predicted so most mornings were spent eating breakfast playin’ music and taking hikes around the ranch. We did actually climb a little Saturday afternoon.
Saturday night was the highlight of the entire weekend. After dinner we spent the entire night sitting by the fire in the lodge listening to Grateful Dead, playing the mandolin and guitar, drinkin’ Scotch and Bourbon (this is starting to sound like the lyrics from a George Thorogood song I know) and watching Lorne parade around in a Cowboy hat. Eric and Keith if you are out there – you were definitely in my thoughts and you were sorely missed.
It was great catching up and talking about all the challenges life happened to be throwing at us all. And while we all live separate lives, our challenges are not all that different…till next time.
Here are some pics from the weekend.
Rick
Mike
Lorne
Daron, Lori & Andrew
Posted in HCR, Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, Photography, climbing | 3 Comments »
November 10th, 2008 admin
Well I bit the bullet and bought a Nikon SB800 flash this weekend. Without going into a bunch of gory details…suffice it to say this now gives me the ability to control my other flash (SB600) wirelessly - Giving me alot more options when lighting a subject.
While I have alot to learn on lighting, Alex was kind enough and patient enough to serve as “the talent” while I played with my new toy. The image below was taken in our basement with the flash to Alex’s right. To control the beam of light I made a “snoot” out of a cereal box to focus the light, rather than have it flood the image. I ran across this technique while admiring the images of Nick Turpin that were featured in a blog post at Strobist.
While I’m not completely satisfied with the image, I already love the options this new capability now opens up for me.
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