ESession - Derek+Amanda

Had a great finish to a really, really busy three days with Derek and Amanda. Like I said earlier, it was a gray, dreary day, but the sun started to peek out by the end of the afternoon. Almost to the point where it made photography a little tough. We had to be looking for some good shadows towards the end of the session. The light just seemed to fall right again as we wrapped up on the HWY 14 bridge over the Little Cannon River with the Gopher Hockey sweaters on. Great light, great photos and a great time with Derek and Amanda.

I am really excited to be a part of their wedding next spring!!

Ann Sviggum Family

My good friends the Sviggum's had some family down from the cities and over from Wisconsin for a family shoot. It was kind of a gray, dreary day, but great for shooting. We had talked about doing shots in the river, but I was concerned that it might not have much for light. I brought down two SB24's and fired them with PocketWizards at 1/16th power to fill the light in just a bit. I think you'll see it ended up perfect. These river photos have not been retouched at all. Sometimes things just come together!!

Krystal+Andrew's Wedding

Just a picture perfect day in Cresco, Iowa with Krystal and Andrew. It was an amazing day and so laid back and fun. Their families and friends were just great to spend the day with. I was again blessed to be a part of a special day for two great people.

Enjoy the photos.

New Website Look

Well it's finally done. As testament to the truly pathetic social life I lead, I was sitting the dark unfinished back room of a 120 year old creamery in the middle of the quiet Friday night finishing up the final touches on the new website. And maybe you even got to the blog through the site!?!

It's got an opening splash page which gives you some options: The New Site (cool), the old site (still love Smugmug), The Blog (here you are) and The Proofs (your photos). The new site has got a contemporary, professional look. More serving as a display than for functionality. The proofing part of the site I did through a new company called Photo Cart. That's the more functional place and where existing clients will spend more time. I went this way because I really want to have the tangible photos in my hand when it is my craft. This is my artwork and I want to personally deliver the prints that matter. Smugmug is great for fulfilling orders, but I never get to see the final product. They have done a wonderful job in the 3+ years I have been using them, but I just needed to make the art more my own. I will still use them for some galleries and a place to back up photos for sure!

Well, check it out if you haven't been there. It was nice to have some feedback via Facebook only a few minutes after the site went live...encouraging that there are some more of you out there that sit at a computer on a Friday night!!

The Schliep Family

Great to have Fred, Carrie and the girls stop by for a couple hours on Friday evening. We had some great weather and some great shots.

Enjoy.

First Legit Sit

Finally got out for a legitimate "sit" Sunday night. I DID go almost ceremoniously on opening morning and sat in a blind for a couple hours. There is so much cover in the woods that I just wanted to be on a field edge where I could see a little bit.

I setup on the south side of an alfalfa field that, though only 150 yards off a gravel county road, is very secluded. You have a climb a hill and get 15 feet off the ground to even get a look at it. This is the field right in the center of the aerial photo below. The field to the west is corn and the field south of the gravel is beans. They travel from the river to the south and up into this field to feed in the evenings. Looking at the photo, there is not much cover, but the elevation change is significant enough that the deer can travel in relative seclusion. I knew that it was more of a scouting trip than anything as I just wanted to watch that field and see where the deer were coming into it. I have seen a couple good bucks in this area through the late summer. Both of those buck I thought were in the 145-150" range and I have seen them in the last couple weeks after shedding velvet.

I was facing north 30 yards off the alfalfa with a ladder stand in a big oak tree. Had a southwest breeze which was not ideal going in, but worked out in the end. 13 does and fawns came into the field from the west and slowly meandered down the field and were only about 40 yards away by dark. There was one more deer that came out really late, but the edge of the field where they were entering was about 125 yards to my west. Likely a decent buck, but we'll have to keep watching again.

Though there are not lots of trees, there are some good oaks and I am going to move that stand more into the southwest corner of that field where the deer are entering. There is a large cornfield off the west end where they are coming in from. I had a big owl come and land on a branch close to me which was very cool. You could clearly see the yellow in it's eyes. That alone made the night a winner. It was a great night at the end of an 80 degree day.

Here are a couple trail cam photos from preseason.
One on the edge of a small CRP field and another from a
river crossing on the Little Cannon River(post later).

First Legit Sit

Finally got out for a legitimate "sit" Sunday night. I DID go almost ceremoniously on opening morning and sat in a blind for a couple hours. There is so much cover in the woods that I just wanted to be on a field edge where I could see a little bit.

I setup on the south side of an alfalfa field that, though only 150 yards off a gravel county road, is very secluded. You have a climb a hill and get 15 feet off the ground to even get a look at it. This is the field right in the center of the aerial photo below. The field to the west is corn and the field south of the gravel is beans. They travel from the river to the south and up into this field to feed in the evenings. Looking at the photo, there is not much cover, but the elevation change is significant enough that the deer can travel in relative seclusion. I knew that it was more of a scouting trip than anything as I just wanted to watch that field and see where the deer were coming into it. I have seen a couple good bucks in this area through the late summer. Both of those buck I thought were in the 145-150" range and I have seen them in the last couple weeks after shedding velvet.

I was facing north 30 yards off the alfalfa with a ladder stand in a big oak tree. Had a southwest breeze which was not ideal going in, but worked out in the end. 13 does and fawns came into the field from the west and slowly meandered down the field and were only about 40 yards away by dark. There was one more deer that came out really late, but the edge of the field where they were entering was about 125 yards to my west. Likely a decent buck, but we'll have to keep watching again.

Though there are not lots of trees, there are some good oaks and I am going to move that stand more into the southwest corner of that field where the deer are entering. There is a large cornfield off the west end where they are coming in from. I had a big owl come and land on a branch close to me which was very cool. You could clearly see the yellow in it's eyes. That alone made the night a winner. It was a great night at the end of an 80 degree day.

Here are a couple trail cam photos from preseason.
One on the edge of a small CRP field and another from a
river crossing on the Little Cannon River(post later).

Senior Sessions - Alex & Danielle

Had a couple great sessions with Alex (Saturday morning) and Danielle (Sunday afternoon) this weekend. It was such a gorgeous weekend and just great to be outside.

We got some great shots on both excursions up and down the valley.

Please enjoy the photos. You can certainly check out more on the website or my Flickr page.

Senior Photos - Ben

Had a great time with Ben on Thursday afternoon. We cruised around on a great fall day and got some great shots. Ben's got a really funky guitar that we did some cool stuff with. I used a little off camera flash. I got some virtually instant comments on my Flickr page, which was cool and must mean someone else thought it was cool. Here's a little slideshow of some of the shots. I also have them on my site here.

The Keller Family

Good times with the Keller Family. BJ and I went to high school back in the day and now have reconnected in the past couple years. I was so glad they had stopped by the state fair last year. We finally got a chance to get together in Sogn Valley and had a great shoot. It was a beautiful day and we had some great smiles!!

The rest of the gallery is also on the website.

Enjoy the photos.

The Steberg Boys

What an adventure with these two troopers!! Here's a summary of the evening:

"Hey that's a big hill. Let's climb up it."
"Okay."

It was a great time and this first photo captured it. Once getting to the top of the hill there was a lot of awe and wonder even from such little guys. It was pretty cool.