Illustrations

Here's something different... a couple October illustrations...

It's All About the Shoes

This one's from a "media day" at the University of Northern Iowa. Media Days are these strange other-worldly type experiences. The universities invite the media to a one hour event where they can hear the coach talk about the upcoming season, and then the media gets to spend time with the players.
So... what that REALLY means is... 4 TV crews, 10 writers and 5 photographers meet for an all-out-to-the-death battle over the same 2 or 3 players. After I fought for my 3 minutes with this guy I moved on to the next one, only to come back and find him doing an interview by these really awesome purple chairs - that just so happened to match his ginormous shoes. I like his one. Yay purple! I hereby proclaim myself the victor in the "War of Media Day UNI" :)

It's me!

My dad requested a photo of me and my car. I set out in search of the perfect backdrop - corn! It took some serious searching but I somehow managed to find some corn in Iowa. ;) So here I am with my car and my guitar. I'm a little worried about driving the car in the snow. I drove over a puddle earlier today and the car very nearly got stuck, I can't drive faster than 40mph on gravel or the car starts driving itself (very badly!) and making right turns on wet roads ... well ... let's just say I'm really glad my brother took me drifting in his car so I knew what was going on! Like I said, I'm a little worried about driving in the snow. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Harvest

Soybean harvests are VERY dusty - my gear and I were covered in dust. I really had fun shooting this. The combine operator even let me have a ride inside! Looking down at the blades it was like watching popcorn popping. :)

...also... the Boston Globe used this image in their online photo gallery! How awesome is that?!

Silent City

This is a project that's all my own - it won't be published anywhere but here. Since I've been in Cedar Rapids, I've really missed using my own equipment to capture images - the cameras I use for work feel awkward, really dull, and the computer is horrible. So, on my days off I would grab my wonderful 5D and my 14mm lens and just drive to a spot and walk around. It was like spending an afternoon with an old friend, a welcome feeling here in this place where I really don't know anyone. There aren't any people in the photos and most are full frame. My goal was to show the devastating flood damage and my own isolation. So here it is... my work so far...

"Silent City" - an outsiders look at a devastated city

Boomtown

So... I've been really bad about updating my blog lately... these shots are a little old. They're from an event put on by the Iowa Pyrotechnic Association called "Boomtown." I have to say, it was the best fireworks show I've ever seen! They had fireworks of every shape, size and color - all perfectly timed to music. It was like the fireworks were dancing to the music. Very cool!