Hi everyone-

Yesterday, which was day three of SNOWMAGEDDON 2010, everyone was home so we got to play a little, have a nice lunch and take a few pictures before I headed in to work for the night.

During all of that I was outside trying to expand the road and driveway back to its normal size with the snow blower. While I was outside Cree decided that it would be nice to get all "beautiful" for daddy.

So while I was gone her and Tonya painted her nails and she put on her pretty dress that I got her recently in Nashville. When I came in she very daintily showed off her beautiful dress and nails to me.

Of course I had to get a few pictures. However she wasn't really in the mood for any posed "pretty" pictures. This was more of a fun goofing off kind of day.

So here's a few from our 5 min photo session. They were all lit with natural light from the kitchen door. I was actually outside kneeling on the deck and Cree was in the house. I wasn't able to come in because I had on my fire gear which was full of snow from my little project. But it seems to have worked out ok.

Have a great day!!

Hi everyone-

Anxiously awaiting the snow's arrival here in PA today. They say it's a sure thing but you know how that goes. I suppose we will get some snow but more than likely not as much as I would like to see.

But looking forward, I wanted to share a video with everyone of my High School Seniors Portfolio. It is definitely time to book for these sessions. So drop me a line or ring me up if you have any questions or would like to schedule a shoot. Also for those of you who do not fit the HS senior demographic (lol) please pass along my information as sessions will begin to fill up soon!!!

Hope you enjoy the video! Have a great snowy day!!

Hi everyone-

I know this post is a bit late but for those of you who follow the blog regularly you know that life has been a bit crazy lately and that the blog has had to take the back burner for a while.

But as the new year moves on that will definitely be changing for the better. I have some big plans for some changes this year!!

This video is a look back at 2009 and many of my most favorite images. I hope you enjoy it!

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Here is a little video created from Carolyn and Floyd's Engagement session a few months back. We had a blast shooting these image. We shot in and around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania using the train station and State Capital as back drops. As well we shot at some local parks and Carolyn and Floyd's home.

Hope you enjoy, have a great day!

Hi everyone-

I'd like to start off today's post by saying happy anniversary to my wife Tonya. We have been married for 8 years today. Tonya has truly been my best friend since the day we met. It's because of her and her unbelievable support of everything I take on that I am able to spend so much time creating the images that I post here daily. Thank you so much for your support and love, you mean the world to me! Happy Anniversary!! I love you!

Today's post is a selection of image of Dora who we shot at the HP Video Production studios in Knoxville. Jim Johnson and his crew there were great. We spent a full day shooting at his state of the art facility.

The first set of images is the result of what was probably my most complicated lighting set up of the entire week. We placed Dora in a director's chair and used a total of 5 lights to create ambient light as well as to light Dora. I'll post an image after the series of what the ambient conditions were.









So in the next image you can see kinda of what the area we were shooting in looked like in normal lighting. The area was pretty crowded with equipment. I wanted to have that as a central part of the image but not to dominate it in a busy way so that it took over. I wanted to create a nice environmental portrait of a TV or movie star on the set.

We light Dora with a beauty dish with a sock on it. It was camera right just a touch off center. The remaining four lights were used to light and create shadow in the background. Two of the lights were "hot" lights being used for some video taping. The other two were strobe heads that we placed. Both had honeycomb grids on them to focus the light where we wanted it to go.
There was on hot and one strobe on each side of Dora in the background.

It took us quite a while to get everything positioned correctly and create the look I was going for. That involved moving the lights we were setting up as well as relocating the lights that were used as props in the background to create shadows, control hot spots and create a visually pleasing arrangement in the background.

Hi everyone-

We'll i have finally returned home.It was a LONG 30 hour drive over 2 days but I am glad I did it and got home ahead of schedule! I was very excited to see my girls and I think they were excited to see me too...lol

I slept in with Cree yesterday and then spent the rest of the day just hanging out with her and Tonya. It was a great day.

Now starts the unpacking and photo editing. Good thing I am still off from work so I have a lot of time to start catching up.

While I was in Yellowstone I shot a lot of images of the Arnica Fire. On my first night in the park I decided to try something that I had not done before. So I set up the camera and shot a time laps sequence of the fire from the Alum Creek area of Hayden Valley.

I shot 100 images 1 second apart. The video below is a 16 second clip made up of those 100 images. This is something I think I want to play around with a bit more.



Today's images were also both shot in the Hayden Valley. I noticed that both times snow and cold temperatures were predicted the buffalo came from everywhere and gathered on the valley floor.

Since I don't think they were given a forecast I think there is something that they can sense that we can't. I'm not a biologist so I can't explain it or back it up with anything other than my observations.

With the cold temperatures that descended on the park last week slow moving and standing water began to freeze. In the first image two buffalo make their way across the frozen marshy water. Not only did they have to deal with the freezing water but the very muddy ground beneath it. Many of the buffalo struggled to get through.



As I was shooting the buffalo images the sun began to set and the wind was picking up and blowing pretty good. Out of the corner of my I I noticed several buffalo coming over a hill to my right. It was a perfect spot to shoot them. The light was right, the wind was blowing and they stopped to pose like we had worked it all out ahead of time.

After posing for a second they seemed to get a bit too interested in me and starting heading my way, in a bit of a hurry. That necessitated a hasty retreat behind the truck and then around the truck as they passed by and crossed the road.

Have a great day!