Defining Moments

~~~

Last month I entered several shots in the Harvest Farm & Preserve photo contest. Final winners were announced today, and I’m proud to announce that one of my images was the overall winner! I was quite honored considering the quality of the other prints in the running. Incidentally, if you don’t know about Harvest Farm & Preserve, you should click on the link and check out their site. It’s a pristine green space right in Iowa City, that I didn’t even know about until recently. Doug and Linda Paul and family are doing a great thing by keeping this land natural and undeveloped. My winning image is posted below, and you can see a larger version, plus some others I submitted, by clicking HERE. Ten contest finalists had their images printed and framed, and they will be on display in the spring at the Englert’s Doug and Linda Paul Gallery, and I believe most of the prints will be for sale.

Also, I am a little behind in blogging my senior sessions this year, but I decided to brag about myself first. Expect more posts in the coming days.

~~~

A poet and one-time Iowa resident, Deborah Ager, contacted me late last year. She had seen one of my Photernal images and thought it would work perfectly as a book cover for her upcoming poetry volume. A few months later, I am thrilled to have the book in hand, and there is a photo below! Deborah lived for a time in Lamoni, Iowa, and her poems, those which I have read so far, feature strongly the flavor of our state. Her book, Midnight Voices, is available HERE, and the original photo was posted on Photernal HERE.

~~~

Several local groups showed up at the Coralville Reservoir this afternoon to raise money for the Special Olympics by jumping into the freezing water. Well, it wasn’t actually freezing, but rather, a balmy 44 degrees. One of the participants, a Coralville police officer, was nice enough to save me a spot in the Sheriff’s boat, so I had a great vantage point to shoot the action. It was pretty cold out there, and my hands are still stiff and numb, but…..I guess I won’t complain, since I stayed dry. There are a few pics below, and a gallery of larger images HERE.

~~~

This was a really fun project which I did late last year and have been meaning to post about since then. The University of Iowa Biochemistry Department was updating their web site and wanted me to do some photography and design artistic headers for the individual faculty pages. I did all the faculty portraits. Then I spent some time in labs photographing equipment, spaces, and data. I combined my photographs with some data submitted by the investigators to design something unique for each faculty member, which reflected their own areas of study and showed off recent work. I’ve included some favorites below. Go HERE to see larger versions for the whole department and click on the thumbs to get to the research pages.

**I should note that while the individual faculty thumbs are also my portraits, the group photo at the top of the page is not.

~~~

I did some dress rehearsal shots for City Circle’s production on Arkansaw Bear. It’s a really good show for kids, and there will be performances at the Iowa Children’s Museum through March 15th. Click HERE to see a larger version of this photo at Photernal.com, and be sure to click on the link to the gallery in the text below the image!

~~~

I haven’t shot anything like this before, so was thrilled to have the opportunity. There was a controlled house burn in Shueyville this morning, for purposes of demolition and a training exercise for the firefighters. A new friend on Twitter invited me to come along, and I’m glad I did. Thanks, Tiffany! More HERE.

~~~

I’d like to take a few minutes to discuss headshots. In our current culture of internet and social media, practically anyone can benefit from a web presence. And when you put yourself out there, whether it be on a business web page, a Facebook or Twitter profile, a dating site, a blog, or a billboard or business card, you need to have a quality headshot. It seems like a lot people do the headshot as an afterthought, and just get a friend or family member to take a quick snapshot with a point and shoot camera, or worse yet, a mobile phone. It’s so commonplace it almost seems acceptable.

I believe that all of your interactions in advertising and on the web can be improved with the right kind of headshot. It isn’t just models or actors who need nice headshots. They can help everyone. They also don’t have to be a stiff, bored-looking mugshot against a brick wall or a Sears photo backdrop. Your headshot needs to be tailored for the purpose and context in which you will use it. It should send a message about who you are, highlight your individuality, be well-lit and -posed, and reflect how you look on your best day.

I create many types of headshots at my studio: fun, professional, edgy, attention-grabbing, or any and all of the above. Several examples are featured below, and you can see some people choose to have more than one type of shot done. My headshot services include business card or web banner design, and an in-person or phone consultation to make sure we get the image(s) you need for your purposes. I am running a special on my headshot sessions through the end of March. Call or email today to schedule yours!

~~~

I drove to the reservoir this evening to get my daily shot for my other photo-blog, and I got several good frames, so I thought I would post a few here, too. These are all long exposures. I decided to get in one of the shots myself. It’s a 30-second exposure, and I was only standing there for about 15 seconds of it, which is why I look a little ghostly. You’ll have to click over to Photernal.com to see my favorite shot from today.

~~~

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to photograph this event for the Englert Theatre last night. Ashton was giving a press-conference and using the screening of his new movie, Personal Effects, to raise money and awareness for midwest flood relief. I thought he was very thoughtful and intelligent during the Q&A. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me…he IS from Iowa, right?

Demi was along to support him, but stayed very much out of the spotlight. I did manage to grab one nice candid of her, looking on with obvious pride as Ashton took questions.

~~~

I have committed myself to taking at least one photo each day. Every day.

For the rest of my life.

No biggie, right? Haha, it’s been 41 days so far, and while some have been challenging, it has been a very rewarding endeavor, and promises to only get better. I am doing this as a personal challenge, and to push my boundaries photographically. I think it will help me grow artistically if my camera is never far away from my hands, and consideration of light and composition are never far from my mind. It already has benefitted me, in fact, even after a short time.

This is not a portrait project, although it will occasionally feature portrait work. This is a wide-ranging exploration of what might be possible through photography and digital processing techniques. I invite you all to follow along and enjoy whatever images come out of this. Expect to see people, animals, abstracts, still life, nature, and….well, pretty much anything that occurs to me to photograph! Click HERE to go to Photernal.com, and if you enjoy following the project, tell your friends!