FFA State Convention II

One more great day of convention photos. It was a great event and a pleasure to shoot again this year. Congratulations to the outgoing officers on a year well done and best of luck to the newly elected State Officers who I really look forward to working with this year.

2008 MN FFA State Convention - Day 1

I have the pleasure of shooting the MN FFA State Convention again this year. This is an event attended by over 4000 high school students from all over the state. The FFA (formerly Future Farmers of America) Organization is one close to my heart since my wife is employed by them as their leadership coordinator. It is a great organization that promotes leadership among young people in an awesome way.

This first main event that I shot was the Change Lives seminar encouraging chapter leaders to pursue careers in education. These shots were at the Cargill Building at the University of Minnesota. It was a fun group of leaders from high schools and the University of Minnesota. This was also the event that I did some previous design for in the logos that you see below.

Random Stuff

It's been kind of weird week in the way of the camera. I haven't had it out of my bag much. I think the pathetic Minnesota "spring" has subconsciously affected all of us. It has given me some more time in front of the computer monitor (which I also enjoy) getting some editing done. Here is the final announcement for Luke's graduation:

Today the sun came out and it was amazing how it made you just feel better. I was outside with my son Cameron who just turned one year old last week. It was great to be outside and play in the rocks! That's what he likes to do. That also involves throwing and eating the rocks. I had forgotten in my old age! Here are a few shots from our little rock adventure. I was glad to have the camera out again!

Finally Some Sun!!

Well here in Minnesota we've waited and waited and waited for spring...and this afternoon, we're not quite sure, but it might have shown up!! I got outside with my new Cabelas camo hat and played in the rocks. That's going to be one of my favorites! Then we got in the stroller and went for a long walk. Sogn had that "I've-been-waiting-six-months-for-this" kind of look on his face the whole time! It was so sunny and warm. I even got to put sunscreen on my cheeks.

Mommy and daddy have been really busy lately trying to figure out where to move to. We have some folks lined up to rent our house so we need to move. We all have our favorite places, but they might not be where we end up for the time being.

I am being a real chatterbox lately. I know exactly what people are talking about when they talk to me and I really, really want to talk back, but the words just don't come out quite right yet. Not too long though!!

My first trip to Cabela's

I can't believe that I am already one year old and my dad hasn't taken me to Cabela's!?!?! Well, maybe he has but we don't remember it. Needless to say,

IT WAS THE BEST!!!

I loved all the deer heads and that mountain was so cool with the bears and moose. I was even able to do my usual counting "One and...." - t-t-two. I am pretty good at that now. It was really cool to see all those fish in the tanks too. You can walk right through and see them all.

Pretty safe to say that I will be back over and over for many, many years to come!!

Kirsten's Proofs

Just finishing up on the proofs for my last senior package for the class of 2008. Kirsten's exposures, though "resting" for the winter, really turned out great. I had a little work to do on her proofs, but things turned out wonderfully and I am sure those prints are going to be great as well.

Amidst the post work on these, I discovered some great techniques in working with skin softening and slight retouching. I have gotten pretty reliant on converting a layer for CS3's smart filters and then applying a slight surface blur. Stick a mask on top of that and then softly brushing back in the areas where smoothing is needed from the blur. The Smart Filters is a great option, because you're never stuck with too much or too little of the softening. That is especially nice when you sit down with the client to see what their thoughts are.

Here are some of Kirsten's photos. (click to see larger)

Gpa Gary's Birthday

We got together tonight for Gpa Gary's birthday at the House of Coates. I ate my usual french fries and even got to order a grilled cheese. Gpa got one of those cool music cards that played "The Gambler". I am getting pretty good at dancing now too. I really liked that card.

We all gave Gpa an iPod for his birthday and it had lots of music and pictures and videos of me already on it. There is a photo gallery for my two cousins who are coming in July and September and then one for my brother/sister who is coming in October.

My First Birthday

Where has the year gone!?! It is already my first birthday and no one seems to believe that I am a year old already! We had a great party today at the farm. Gma & Gpa Schliep, Gma & Gpa Addington, Jess & Joey, Linds, Josh & Wyatt, Great Gma Sylvia, Eric & Kecia, Great Gpa Clarence, Chris, Alice, Noah & Jacob Lodermeier all joined us for a great time. Mommy made a bunch of great food and I even got to dig into a cake all by myself...that means I also got to take a bath!!

I got a lot of nice new toys like tractors, trucks and a basketball hoop. I got a swimming pool for this summer and a lot of cool John Deere tractors! All of this action today has me pretty wired and I didn't take much of a nap today. I am sure that I will sleep good tonight!!

I also found out that I got something else for my birthday according to the doctor yesterday...an ear infection in both ears! I went a whole year without one, but now it's no big deal. I got some great pink medicine that I really like and I am feeling a lot better today!!

Thanks to everyone who joined me for my big day. It was so much fun to see you all. There is a whole gallery full of photos right here. I can't wait until next year!!!

My First Haircut

As you could probably see from some of my photos, my hair was getting a little out of control. I had some serious wings coming out on the side and was getting some "hockey hair" in the back. Mommy and daddy held out until close to my first birthday to get it done.

It actually went pretty well. I got it cut at the same place and the same barber that daddy gets his cut...our bathroom and my daddy!! Mommy held me on her knee and we read a couple books. The way I read these days, I am pretty actively looking around on the pages, so my head was moving quite a bit. That's going to be daddy's excuse on the bad spots anyway!! Daddy was lobbying to leave the back to grow long so I could have a mullet like he used to have, but mommy said "NO WAY!!". All in all, it turned out pretty well and makes me look like a little boy.

I am getting excited for my birthday party this weekend too. We're going to the farm on Sunday and it should be lots of fun. Mommy has been doing a lot of cooking, baking and cleaning getting ready. I am pretty excited.

Seniors 2008 Wrap Up

Haven't shot too much besides a couple shots of Cameron and Wyatt outside with our April 1st snowman we made yesterday! That was a true April Fools joke getting a snowstorm here in MN. We didn't have school yesterday because of it. So that gave me a nice chance to get caught up on a few jobs. I have been nailing down many of the 2008 senior photo projects.

This was one from Derek's shoot this fall. He is getting ready to have his open house and we did a set of three invites from his photos. This was definitely my favorite of his images. I think that the invite turned out pretty decent too. The shot was taken in his garage which was under construction at the time. It was a bunch of sheetrock, new cement and cinder blocks. A simple one-strobe setup to camera right with a 36" umbrella and that's it.

Early Spring Snowman

Well a very unexpected April Fools joke occurred in the last 24 hours! We got a bunch of snow. So much snow that daddy got out of school early on Monday and didn't have school on Tuesday! We went to the farm early this morning to hang out with Wyatt while Gpa and Gma are gone in Las Vegas. And daddy got to stay all day with us. So we made a snowman! It was starting to melt really fast though, so we quick took a couple photos. I have a little bit of a cough coming on so we didn't stay outside too long...and because of that I cried when we went in! I just love being out there!

I was crawling around at Gma's house when mommy noticed that I got real quiet across the room. Mommy wondered what I was doing and she came to check it out. I had a ladybug in my hand and gently handed it to my mommy!