Christmas Portrait Teasers

Here are just a couple of my favorites from the last two days with my family here in Monerrey…

Enjoy, and lots more to come!!

Wintery Wonderland

So last week, Winter hit us in Indiana pretty good with a half inch of ice followed by about 6 inches of snow and then temperatures below zero with wind chills that froze skin in seconds!

It was really fairly disturbing, especially since I was hoping for Al Gore to be right about all this global warming crap and we would have a mild winter instead of the same frigid four months we have had since thirty years ago when the Al Gores of the world were telling us that the next Ice Age was coming!

Anyways there were a few crazy moments that I decided to brave the cold and go outside to get some shots, especially on Saturday the 20th, the sun popped out for about ten minutes and with the snow and ice on everything, it was beautiful.

Here are some shots that I got…

Yesterday, Anna and I made our way down to Monterrey Mexico for Christmas with our family here, and I have been taking lots of pictures of my mieces and nephews, so be prepared because I am going to start posting some great stuff of some kids that are so cute you will just want them yourself!!

And the Family Holiday Photos Start...

Over the Thanksgiving Holiday, we celebrated Christmas with my Grandma and my cousin, it was a good time and we had some fun taking some pictures of the kids. Just thought I would share some.

Last week I was in Florida at a show in Orlando all week, and now I have come back home with one heck of a stinking sinus cold. Not that I am complaining about spending a week in the sunny 70′s but how did I get a cold down there and not here in the below zero windchill and snow?!?!?

Sometimes life just doesn’t make sense. Oh Well, In just two short weeks Anna and I are off to Mexico for the Christmas holidays in Monterrey with her family. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone and getting into some warmer weather for a little while. So here are a couple of my recent works of art…

This first on is of my family, mom, dad, brother Alex + his wife, Christa, sister Laura, and me and my wife Anna.

My cousin Bri and her daughter, Addison, named after the road that Cub’s Stadium is on (My cousin Jeremy is crazy)

And here is Addy’s little brother, Gavin.

Here is a random shot of my buddy Peter Ringenberg, we ran into each other shooting an event for Bethel College…

And last is a great shot of my wife that I did in B&W using Jeff Ascough’s Actions!! Isn’t she lovely!! (You have to sing it like that song)

Until the next post then my friends……

Some Good Memories

It being Thanksgiving tommorrow and all, I thought I would skim through some of my recent personal family stuff and I found a couple of shots from a two little family fishing trips this past summer.

The first was here in Indiana. One evening, we went to the pond down the road from my parents’ house at my aunt and uncle’s house right before I left for Mexico to get married as kind of a family outing before I started my new family.

I have so many great memories from this pond which we walked to all the time in the summer’s growing up. Fishing, Swimming, Shooting, and lots of mischief, no doubt.

But here are a couple I got with my old 30D and the 10-22 which really was a knock out lens for a crop camera.

The other trip was my bachelor trip up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is ” jus nort a da bridge and jus sout a hev’n!”

My family has been going to Big Manistique Lake since the 1960′s, when my Grandpa Conrad (pictured right with me, my brother and my cousins) first took my dad and his brothers and sister.

Ever since then we have been going mostly for the fishing but also because we are a family that honors traditions and we are a family that also vacations together.

So anyways, this time my Dad just took my brother and I due to the fact that it was a bachelor trip the weekend before my wedding. And we really had some great times!!                                                                                        

Photo by Peter Ringenberg

Here is one of my brother one evening out on the dock.                                                                                                                                                              

Dad and Brother with an evening’s catch!

And I love this last one of my brother with a walleye, those teeth are naaasty!

I really am thankful for all of the wonderful memories that I have throughout my life and the biggest one of all has to be my wife, Anna. She is the most wonderful helpmate that the Lord could have given me and I thank God every day for her and for all of the fun that we have and will have in the future together!

Photo by Josef Samuel

Happy Thanksgiving and don’t forget to ask yourself what you’re thankful for this year and then be thankful!!

Artist and Hunter

When you think of the typical artsy crowd, the usual creative design kind of person, hunting is not something that will typically enter your mind. Why is this? Why do I feel that because I hunt I may be looked down upon by some in the creative arts industry? Perhaps it is just my own paranoia with the hypocritical open mindedness I associate with Hollywood and so many others who preach the open minded idea to everyone while quietly shunning anyone who disagrees with them about anything right or wrong.

Perhaps I am getting to deep for a little blog posting but nonetheless, I felt that I just must share my wonderful success from this past weekend!

Not only did I turn the big quarter-century, I also managed to get my first buck while deer hunting with my family on Saturday morning.

I have hunted ever since my Dad took me through hunters safety course at the age of 12 and went out for the first time on the morning of my 13th birthday. It was that morning that I shot at and missed the biggest deer I had ever seen. Well to the day, exactly 12 years later, a huge 9 point buck, eerily similar to the one I missed on my first outing, came trotting around my blind about 8:30AM on Saturday 
morning. It presented a perfect shot at 40 yards and this time I made it count. Here is a picture of him.

There is something beautiful about hunting, about nature, about the art of the kill, about the order of it all. For those who have hunted I know that you understand, for those who haven’t…..don’t knock it until you have tried it, or at least that’s what the open minded policy should be…….

Fall is Gone

Today as it sleets/ices/rains/snows outside, I am yet again reminded of how quickly my favorite season passes.

Fall is officially over with the temperature dropping to 20 degrees (F) last night and the 35 degree temperature with ice and snow today I really am just now getting excited for the holidays! And that makes me think of my family in Mexico, because we just bought our tickets to go down to Monterrey for Christmas!

For those who don’t know, my wife, Anna is from Monterrey, Mexico and that is where her two sisters live and my two nephews and niece! (And my brothers in law, Tonio, and Mau of course) So here are a couple shots that help get me from visit to visit without missing them to much!

And just in case you were wondering….Yes, I know that I have some of the cutest niece and nephews around…

Retreating to my Youth

So this past weekend, my wife Anna and I chaperoned a youth retreat with our church. We tagged along to Five Pines Ministries for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We had a great time with all of the kids, just being a teenager again is sometimes a good reminder of how easy and carefree life used to be for us all. There were a lot of great moments, that I was to busy enjoying to take pictures, but I did manage to get a couple.

This poor kid dressed as Hillary in a suit, he was running around spouting political jargon, it was quite funny!

After a victorious run of the orange game, you know where you have to pass the fruit down a line of people using nothing but your chins…very funny

CoryB, the youth intern making sure his partner does not die…

Here is Danielle, giving me her most evil look she could muster…lacking.

A great one of Cassie, being Cassie

Now this ravenous beauty is my wife, what a stunner, even with a silly helmet on…

Really loved this one of CoryB…

Now Katelin did not like having her picture taken, but she couldn’t hide anymore once she was twenty feet in the air!

Awesome Fall colors!

Now this one is SUPER SPECIAL because my wife took it! I am trying to get her hooked on the photo-life.

Another classic Cassie…

My cousin Megan during our faux-model shoot

One last one of CoryB, I took this without looking through the view-finder and while walking, the focus is off but after some photoshop, I thought it had a really dramatic feel…

So that was my weekend, little sleep, one case of headlice, and lots of fun with some great people!

Fall, Fall, Stay Forever

I have quite a few engagement shoots coming up over the next weeks. October seems to be a favorite, with the changing colors of Autumn, the crisper air, football season. Everyone seems to be more upbeat.

This past Sunday, I had an Engagement shoot get rained out, I was bummed, it was supposed to be beautiful , I don’t know what happened. Anyways, we are going to wait and reschedule in  a week or two and hopefully the trees will be even more beautiful! (Just hopes it stays pleasantly cool, and doesn’t get cold!)

On a more personal note, I was reading a great note by a friend, David Cramer. He was discussing politics and religion and the dangerous mix that this can be. Most notably he was all to well, defying the conservative movement of republicans claiming God is on their side on all issues. His arguments were spot on. The Jesus that we base our lives upon, that we take our name, Christian, from is a far cry from any political party of today. He went on to talk of how Jesus stayed away from any political ties, and chose instead to set forth an example of how we ought to live as humans, as followers of Christ.

Compelling stuff that really goes against the modern conservative political regime.

Since I am a photographer, I certainly should not blog twice in a row without posting a single photo, so here are two from last month’s shooting at Bethel College.

Reflection

After Beto scored the winning goal in overtime against #17 Mid-Continent. Scott Terry, the goalie in green, has a wonderful expression...