Killbuck Creek

My first bird isn't an exciting one, but I promise it will get better.


In my attempt to actually BE Stephen Haas I went bird watching yesterday for the first time. I figured I should give it a try. It was mostly nice just to be outside. I went to a habitat that I've seen on my way to work several times but never stopped. I had never seen anyone out there and it was right a long the highway. Now I know why know one ever goes there. One, there is no easy access to the place. It's apparently sponsored by Ducks Unlimited, but I can't find anything about this place. It hardly even mentioned anywhere on the web. It's called Killbuck Creek. The most information that I can find on it is that it drains into the Kishwaukee River. Maybe I should do some research on it and either do a story or at least create a wiki for other enthusiasts.

The biggest reason I wanted to stop is because I know I've seen a heron there before. No herons today. I'm surprised there's any birds there at all because of all the traffic noise. Nothing peaceful about it. All I got to see was Canadian Geese, ducks, sparrows, and Redwing
Blackbirds.

If I'm going to continue to do this I really need to get a Nikon P series camera with a digi scope. I don't know how Stephen does it with his 70-200. I can't get close enough to them to get any really good photos. Oh well, that's why he's Stephen I guess.

*Added later*

I actually came into work today and the store was completely rearranged. We had a ton of new stock. Oddly enough in the new stock was a Promaster 18-36x field scope with attatchments for slr cameras. It's going to work out perfect for me I think. It's probably not the best thing in the world, but It's going to cost me 1/8 of what it would to buy a new point and shoot and a Nikon scope. Stay tuned for more blogs to come...

Newspaper Goals

Nalla pokes her head out of my Coors Light box on Saturday March 17, 2007.


Here's another ferret picture for you. I haven't had a big chance to do much photographically this week. I did set up a self-portrait and had Shawn help me at work with it, but other than that it's mostly just been playing around.

Tomorrow starts the search for a printer so I can get some prices on starting my own weekly community paper. My goal would be to eventually put it out a couple of times a week. I want a graphically based paper with strong community content featuring mini essays and regular local news. I would provide free classifieds to begin with and charge only for the commercial advertising. I want to start off by selling just enough to cover my costs and turn a profit later on.

My goal isn't to make a huge profit. It's to provide the well needed journalism for this community. I think I could sell many of the ads myself if I had a prototype of the paper and have someone design the ads for me. I could design the paper to start and maybe hire a designer later on. The great part about designing a weekly like this is that I could enlist the help of some colleagues not in the immediate area to put it together and email me the design back. For a fair price obviously.

Oh by the way, Creative Vision Photography will be listed in the paper as their highlighted business of the week. I about started laughing when they called me the other day. I'll throw up a shot of the article after it runs on Tuesday or I'll link to it. Don't expect much out of it. I did the photo for it more of a survey than an article. This is the exact reason I want to start my own paper.

Fun in the Tub

Caption goes here

I've been looking to shoot more often so I decided to shoot bathtime with the ferrets the other day. I'll have a few more pics of them from time to time now. Basically when I have nothing to shoot you'll get to see the ferrets.

I got a chance to go to IBOP this weekend sponsored by IPPA (Illinois Press Photographer's Association). It was really nice to get back to a setting where people really cared about photojournalism. It just made me realize how much I want to shoot again. I'm thinking about trying to start a new blog and possibly posting to The Photo News. Clark Brooks talked with me a lot and got me fired up about possibly starting my own weekly newspaper. I think I might start seeking out some ideas this week on my day off.

I shot a few photos at IBOP that you can look at if you want. I also won a 512 High Speed card while I was there so double word score for me.

There will be a new blog of mine up soon. I'm planning on starting a Rochelle Community Blog. Name and specifics to be determined at a later date. I got the idea from a small section that Steve Jessmore from Flint did, only mine will be online based to begin with. It's something I would eventually want to incorporate to a paper.

Last thing to mention is Creative Vision Photography is going to be featured as business of the week in the Rochelle News Leader next week. So I got that going for me...

Strobing

My buddy Kyle from work wanted some pictures of his tatts so I hooked it up. Canon 10-22, 1/250 second f/11. 1 Canon 550EX to the right with a softbox and 1 SB-24 behind him.


We were just a little bored at work today so I decided to bust out the strobes and play around a bit. Here's a few other photos if you're interested. I was fairly pleased. I can't wait until I get to the chapter in my "Skin" book where they talk about black and white toning.

I hope to try and get some more strobing photos soon. Now that I've actually started playing with it a bit it's got me a lot more interested. I'm officially up to 3 Nikon SB-24 flash units and 1 Canon 550 EX. Luckily I have Strobist to help me out a bit with some ideas.

Shawn decided to start a seperate blog about his coffee shop so I may decide to start one based solely on creating a studio. I'll decide on doing that a bit later. Tonight I'm going to start a list of items I need to get in order to do a studio though. If you need a wedding photographer hit me up. I also put an ad in Tuesday's paper. I'll take a pic of it and post it.

Oh, and Steph and I have a website on The Knot's website. Check it out and sign our guestbook.

Tough Day at the Office

Can you say Superbowl Shuffle!

Without this work would have been a huge bummer today.

Just because I could.

As you can see it was a rough one around the store today. When the hardest part of your day comes from trying to hook a VCR up to a projector and then literally having customers come in and hand you a paper and say I want everything on this list, you know you're going to have a pretty easy day.

I think after the Bears game started there were maybe a handful of customers to walk through the door. No worries off my back though. I got what I needed sold for the day, enjoyed bits and pieces of the game, and even finished my little ring light flash project. Didn't work as well as I would have liked so I'm going to try again. This time I'm going to take a bit more time on it and try to figure out why I can't get the bottom half of the circle to fill up as much as the top. If you have any ideas let me know.

Other than that, look for some new photos on flickr too. I'm just in the mood to shoot random stuff lately so who knows what will pop up. I may go to the paper tomorrow on my day off to see if they have anything for me to shoot. I won't get paid for it, but at least I'm still shooting. I feel so out of practice lately and have a loss of creativity.

Oh, the photos above were shot with a 10-22 Canon Lens. I want one so bad. I'll blog more about some other equipment I want tomorrow, but my eyes are falling down as I type so it's probably time to put on the Simpsons and fall asleep.

Marlin Stoneking-1937 to 2007

Marlin Stoneking - September 19, 1937 to January 07, 2007. Beloved husband, father and grandfather.

I got some bad but relieving news on Tuesday. My grandmother called me Tuesday to tell me my grandfather had died. As sad as this news was it was a relief and a blessing because my grandfather had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease or a stroke for about 2 years now.

No one is completely sure which was the problem because Alzheimer's can only be diagnosed after death and through and autopsy. My grandmother as far as I know opted out of an autopsy. My grandfather also died on Sunday and I didn't hear until Tuesday.

It's hard and complicated to explain. My family doesn't really have the most normal communication skills nor is our family life very normal. My mother and my uncle refuse to talk to my grandmother and have for years. My cousin doesn't talk with her father and he hasn't been allowed to see his newest granddaughter who is now 6 mo. old.

I'm not here to air dirty laundry though. The only thing I can say is that I felt bad for my grandfather. Because of the family issues, the only people at the service were my grandmother, my cousin dave, his mother and step-father, my cousin kirsten, one of my uncle's and his girlfriend, my father, and my sister.

It's not that no one cared for him. In fact, grandpa was kind of the glue that held most of us together. People just felt they couldn't get along during the ceremony and one of my cousins didn't even know about it because he was in Cancun on vacation and no way of getting a hold of him. My grandpa deserved better than that. He had a lot of friends and a lot of people who cared for him.

Anyway, I left work on Wednesday night. I drove to Alpha. Spent the night and took off for Nashville at 7:30 am. Made it by 5 pm. Ate at Outback with my grandmother, father, sister and cousin Dave. Spent the night with Dave and grandma. Drank with Dave until 12:30 am. Woke up at 6:30 am. Services were at 11 am in Pegram, Tenn. about 70 miles away. Ate at Cracker Barrell after the service and drove immediately home. Got caught in freezing rain. Finished the drive home the next day. Drove from Alpha to Rochelle. Showered and went to work at 2:15 pm and returned home by 5:30 pm.

So that's my end of the week wrap up. I have a few pictures from the gravesite if you wish to take a look. At least I have the day off tomorrow. Hopefully I can do something productive with it. Last thing I would like to tell you about is the poem my grandma had my dad read at the ceremony. It's called "The Dash." I felt it was very fitting.

I'm BAAAAAAAAACCCCKKKKKK! (inshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifert voice of Kyle from Southpark)

Congratulations Ed and Carol. So many people I know are getting married now. It's about as contagious as the flu.


Okay, so it's been awhile. I'm not that exciting therefore there hasn't been that much to write about. I'm stuck in a quandry of whether to find a new job with a university so I can go back to school, stay where I'm at and continue to pay bills, or go for the gold and start my own business.

I'm just so confused. If money was no problem I would definitely start my own business right now, but as that's not the case I just need to do some sidework I think and see how that goes. My portraits seem like they're getting a bit better. I read a book on posing last week by Jeff Smith that helped me a little bit I think. I think I may go back and get his book on Lighting. I thought I had lighting down pretty good, but everytime I think I have a hang on it I find a small glitch.

I think sometimes I get too down on my own work. I know there's a time to be critical and a time to just be satisfied, but I'm having a hard time finding that fine line. Either way, here's the portraits I did the other day with Carol Hendricks and her fiancee Ed. (Sorry, I don't know Ed's last name.) I promise to get a few more posts here and there from now on. I'm almost done with the Wills Chiropractic site too. At least I feel accomplished. My next blog will be on the how cool my Nike+ shoes and sensor are for my iPod.

Portraits Abound

White backdrop, $20. Light, stands, umbrellas, and backdrop holder, $250. Love after over 55 years, priceless.



I had to shoot some portraits for Steph and I tonight and do some for a girl she works, Carly with and her daughter Brenna tonight. We did them out at her grandparents house because we didn't have enough room in our apartment. On a whim I decided to go ahead and take her grandparents portrait while I had everything still set up.

This was my favorite picture that I ended up with. Along with the one of Steph and me. I hope Steph and I are young enough and still as much in love as Jim and Audrey are at 73 years old too.

I've been going full boar photos lately. I'm really excited to have the motivation to do a lot of work. I'm really pushing myself to come up with a plan to possibly open my own portrait studio eventually. It may still take a year or two, but I would really like to work for myself if I never work for a paper.

Even then I would still like to work for a paper. It could give me the time to do what I want when I want. I can make my own hours and dictate my own wages by how hard I work. I'm really going to push an at home portrait studio this next year. Another one of my many goals for the new year that I'm working on. I only completed half of last year's but at least I got those.

I also have some stuff from the basketball game the other night where I got to use my White Lightning for the first time in a while. First time for a basketball game too. It was so funny to see how many people freaked out because of the lights. None of them had really seen a lighting system like mine before. I'll add them after the paper gets published on Tuesday. I don't want to step on any toes.

Typical Day Off

Steph looks very cute with her snowman. One of these days she'll get sick of being my model.


I just wanted to play with my strobes tonight even though I don't have my radio slaves yet. Nothing too new in the works right now. I spent my day off the same way I always do. Breakfast at Olive Branch, laundry at the laundromat, exercise, video games, and then television. I unfortunately missed 'The Office.'

To those of you who don't know, Stephen got engaged this week. Congrats to him and Mallory. They're getting married about 3 weeks before mine. He's making me look really bad because he's getting married earlier than me, but I've been engaged for over a year.

I actually got to listen to my photography history class podcast today. I'm really getting down with it. I'm hoping I get the book for the class that I wanted for Christmas. I'm not actually enrolled, but I can follow along with it and email with questions just like I was participating.

I also signed up for satellite television today. I'm excited to actually have shows to watch other than Will and Grace, which is on right now by the way.

Snow Day!

At least I accomplished something on my snow day.



Today was a snow day from my job. I didn't get plowed out of my apartment until 4:30 today. It was kind of nice because I got to play my game all day and watch movies, but I wish I would have done a little more with my day. I should have gone out and shot more photos of snow related things for the paper, but I just didn't have the motivation to go out. Who knows if they would have used it anyway.

One thing good is that the apartment is pretty much spotless. Steph and I took a trip to the video store and rented Me You and Dupree. It was a pretty good choice. A lot funnier than I thought it would be. The guys that did the soundtrack for it were awesome. I looked them up on IMDB and found they had actually done a lot of good soundtracks.

I think my favorite was the use of the band "The 88." I heard this band on another soundtrack a long time ago and forgot about them until now. If you get a chance check them out.

I also filled my day with watching a few more episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Charlie Day has become one of my favorite comics.

Thanksgiving Going to the Dogs

Faith gets in on the Thanksgiving festivities Thursday.

It was so nice to have today off and spend it with Steph and her family. Normally when I have days off they're not on the same days as Steph. Tomorrow starts the craziness. I'm not sure how this is going to go for work.

People are absolutely insane on Black Friday. I will be glad when the holiday season is done. I enjoy the money, but it's just such a hectic time. I can't even imagine what the few days before Xmas will be like.

I really wish my radio slaves would show up from Ebay. Gadgetinfinity is where I bought them, but they can only ship to the address shown on Paypal. Since it was listed at my old address in Charleston it went there. I don't know where they package is now. I really want to play with the couple of strobes I have.

Well I'm going to get ready for bed now because all the food has made me sleepy and Steph is getting up at 3:30 am to go shopping. I KNOW, INSANE!

Recovered iPod+Photos+Day Off= :)

I know it's b/w and I said I was going to stray away from it, but I couldn't help myself

Good news for me today. I found my iPod. Well, okay, I didn't actually find it, but the guy who lives below apparently picked it up off the ground the other night. I went door to door with a flyer this afternoon to look for it and sure enough he had it. I thought it was gone forever. I have to admit being a pessimist I thought someone stole it out of my car, but it looks like I was absent-minded once again. Either way, it's back and I can continue listening to podcasts.

My day off was pretty typical other than that. I worked on the Will Chiropractic website a little. The basics are finished up. Now all I need to do is create all the individual pages. It's going to be pretty soon that it's up now.

I also took pictures at Wills Chiropractic Ladies Night at Hickory Grove Conference Center. It was a really nice turn out for them. I'll post a few more pics from it when I get them. I tried to cover like a news event as much as possible, but this photo kind of caught me off guard. I've been really considering doing a photo story dealing with elderly people. I don't know my angle and I don't know how I'll go about approaching the story, but hopefully I can get some input and suggestions. I was really hoping to go with an Alzheimer's angle simply because my grandfather is suffering from it.

Either way I loved the beauty of this picture. It's not overly done. It's simple and the lines and the glasses say so much to me. This is also the first time I've really used my own camera since it came back.

My battery grip for it is sitting at the camera store. Now I just need $160 to buy it. My stroboframe is also there. Stephen also took my idea and made it his own by adding the lights behind the droplets. I think we both wanted more of each other's photos. I wanted more lights to get his effect and he wanted more droplets to get my effect.

P.S. Random Thought: If you haven't heard the new Plus 44 album check it out now.

Raining in Rockford

Rain drops collect on the corner of a window in Lundgren Camera store in Rockford Ill., on Friday November 11, 2006.

My camera finally came back earlier this week. A little more expensive than I had planned, but I had a small glitch with my pop-up flash. I don't ever use my pop-up flash, but I can't stand to have something wrong with it, so I paid the extra $80 to have it done. The sensor clean turned out pretty good too. I haven't had a chance to try it on my macro box which will be the real teller because of the all white background, but I'm happy for now.

Unfortunately the picture above is not actually from my camera, but another one from the store. I really like the macro feature of the Fuji F650 camera we have in stock. It doesn't work as well as a 100mm Macro lens, but does the job for the most part. I actually made a black and white version of the same photo, but I put the color one up on here because I feel I rely on black and white too much.

I bought a few of the radio slaves from Ebay the other night. They should be here in a few days. I'm so excited. I can't wait to use them. I'm going to try a few portraits with Steph whenever I get them.

The other big excitement of the week is I got to go skating for the first time in forever. Now that I finally have insurance at work I'm not scared of breaking my arm needing some stitches. Maybe I'll actually make some friends down there or get some cool photos at least. Unfortunately it's now cold as hell so there will be very few people down there. ***Sighhhhh*** So goes my life.

Getting Things Done Actually!

Give me some suggestions for improving this picture please. I like it, but want to add some flare. If nothing else constructive criticism never hurt me.


My camera is being cleaned in Chicago because of all the dust spots, but that means I've actually done some work. Not having my camera around has forced me to get some work done. I'm finishing up the sorority photos this weekend. If Herff Jones hadn't messed up my shipping address once again I would have them completely done.

Secondly I finally edited my stuff from Lindsey and Kristi's wedding as well. After I finished that stuff I was able to start working with IMovie HD. For being a free program it works pretty smoothly. Obviously I would like to have Adobe Premier, but beggars can't be choosers at this point.

Thirdly, I was able to work on the Wills Chiropractic site a little bit that I'm helping them build. It's nothing super fancy, but since the average users will be 55+ years old I think it will work pretty nicely.

Lastly, I edited Dana's photos from our last session about 2 weeks ago. I think her senior pictures are turning out pretty nice. Right now I have a solid 3 or 4 that I really like. I need to come up with at least 1 more for me to be happy. I think I'm going to plan a winter one with a heavy black and white influence. I need to find a really cool old stairwell though.

I'll throw up the link for the movie I made as soon as it's done rendering for the web. As soon as the site is complete I'll put that link up too.

The drawback to not having my camera right now is that I'm actually in the mood to try some creativing lighting stuff. I need to order my eBay slave remotes though so I can play with them. I always want something more, but is there anything wrong with that?

Foreign Substance on the Lawn

I woke up yesterday morning to find a white foreign substance on the ground. Since it's not winter yet I know it can't possibly be snow. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



I think someone dropped their cocaine all over my lawn. It could also be a white confetti plane that exploded over the whole upper Illinois area. I just know that I can't possibly be snow because it only snows in the winter.

Where to start? Well, I've been busy. Mostly lost in my own world lately. That's the Harry Potter world I mean. Yes, I'm a dork. I've decided to completely quit denying it. I'm on the 4th book in about 3-4 weeks. I have 2 more to go, but this one is 734 pages long. I'm doing my last wedding of the season tomorrow and then the camera gets sent off to Canon ASAP to be cleaned and checked. I'm going to cry when I have to send it out. At least when I get it back it will be dust free. I've come to the conclusion that I really need to get another camera for backup. I just don't know if I want to get the 30D or the XTi or if I want to go balls to the walls and save up for a Mark II. Christmas hint to everyone. If you have about $3000 sitting around throw me a bone.

Derek's wedding was 2 weeks ago. I got some more really nice stuff from his wedding. Maybe not having my camera around will mean that I can edit all that stuff and some of Lindsey and Kristi's stuff finally so I can get both of them their wedding gifts.

I went to Jon's bachelor party in Crystal Lake last night. We started out and went to Giorgio's followed by a club called Crystal's at the Holiday Inn. I had a blast. It was nice to hang out with some guys. Just wish the club had more ventilation. You never notice things like that until you're no longer a smoker.

I'm going to post some galleries of stuff I've been working on soon. I have some product shots that I worked on for Steph's office, but more importantly I need to work on the website I'm building for them and my own site.

Shit, is what I really need is a photo job.

Geese in February-Obviously I'm Bored Tonight

Here's the pic for the day. Just another archive photo.



I just wanted to play with the sepia filter in Photoshop CS. Actually does a really nice job in my opinion. I may look at another few methods to switching it. I'm still trying to figure out how Stephen makes his black and white pop like it does.

I've had more requests for weddings now. The question to myself is do I go ahead and book them now or wait. The wedding's not until April, but my boss wants me to lay off doing weddings as I'm required to be there on the weekends. I'm not sure what to do because I can rake in a grand in a day doing them, but I can't upset my boss. I also would like to find another job by then with a paper so who knows about that even.

Or do I say the hell with it, and open my own studio and do it full time. Opening a studio could be so freaking scary. Not knowing where your paycheck will be coming from. Sure it would be nice to work for myself and there would be times where money would be rolling in, but when it would be lacking how would I handle it. I'm a person that likes a sense of security. Honestly, if I didn't have a lot of college bills it would be much easier to start, but I have an obligation to get those paid off. *sigh* So many choices....

Back with the Boys

This kid is one bad motha. Tony Gullli is quite possibly the United States most photogenic guy.



Just wanted to throw up an old archived photo. I started going through my old photos on my day off today and absolutely loved this one. I don't think I've ever taken a bad photo of him. Eventually once all photos are up I might make a gallery of just Tony Gulli.

Anyway, I went down to Charleston the other day to shoot bid day photos. I had a great time. I did 6 of the 9 houses at school. Everything seemed to go as planned. Now I just have to hope for a lot of orders.

After working it was time for a little R&R with the boys. It was really nice to see all the guys. I have to congratulate myself for hanging with everyone even though I don't drink all that much anymore. I made it until about 1:45 am when it was definitely time to pass out.

I hadn't played flippy cup in over a year but don't worry. I brought my 'A' game all the way from Rochelle. (Even though I was on the B team.) It was no contest. I did however lose my voice from screaming 'Chug and Flip' from the top of my lungs. Always a good time.

Sometimes I need reminded that it's not about the camera and more about seeing the situation. This picture was taken with a $150 camera.



Just throwing up a quick photo as an update. I went to play some pool the other night with Steph, Julie, her new boyfriend Ryan and Laura. Had a great time and got to know Ryan quite a bit. Him and I actually have a lot in common.

Nothing new really going on in my life right now though. I have a wedding coming up in a week. I should have an update on the website soon after then.

I'll also be giving an update on my reading excursion soon as well.

Starved Rock

I love Starved Rock



I finally made a trip to Starved Rock the other night with a few of the guys from work. I haven't posted in a really long time so I figured I would at least throw up a new photo or two for the one person who probably looks at this.

I also started playing with an 87A infrared filter. Check out the photo here. Unfortunately, we only have one for a 56mm lens and no step or step down rings that fit my lenses so I did this. I stepped it down to a 49mm. Then added a Step up ring up to 56mm and then added the 87A on top of that. Not very effecient but funny none the less. Never realized how long you have to expose a photo for when using it.

I'm really excited because I got my new 50mm f/1.8 lens today. The crispness is amazing. I'm in the process of updating my website. It will probably take some time and a few more jobs to be able to put up examples but I'm working on the layout of it right now. As soon as I get a basic layout I will post it. Anyone with photo sites they look feel free to pass them along so I can get ideas.

I will try to update tomorrow. As if you cared!

One quick mention too. If your into podcasts check out Stephen Haas new podcast at www.jg-tc.com. I've already started subscribing to his blogs over iTunes. If enough people support his podcast and complain to his boss maybe they'll get him some equipment for better recording sounds. Good job on the first though Stephen.

Lindsey is Officially an Old Man.

Congratulation Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey Thompson.



Steph and I left for Zion after she got off work Thursday night and we headed up to Zion, Ill., for my cousin Lindsey's wedding. The first night was obviously the rehearsal and hanging out with friends and family.

We stayed at Country Inn and Suites the first night. Lindsey, Scott, Jason, and I stayed in one room and Christy, Brittany, and Steph stayed in the other room. It was a really nice time. Lindsey and I stayed up until about 3 am just talking about all the crazy things we used to do as kids. We go over these things every time we get together, but it never fails to entertain us for hours. There's things that I completely forget until he brings it up and then it seems like it was just yesterday.

The next day we got up, got some breakfast, and got ready to go over to the beach resort. We got checked into our room and started getting everything ready for the ceremony and reception. I felt so bad for Lindsey. He was trying to take everything on himself. The groom shouldn't have to be worried about those things. He's got enough on his mind as it is. Everything got settled down though and the ceremony went wonderfully. Christy looked beautiful.

My best man speech went well. I left out a few things I would have liked to say, but when you're in front of everyone and nervous you can only do so much. I know I made at least one person cry in the audience, but it doesn't really count if it's my fiance. (She cries at almost anything.)

The rest of the ceremony was great. Our side of the family controlled the dance floor from beginning to end. What can I say, we like to dance crazy and drunk. All in all, everything was awesome. Couldn't have asked for a better time or a better day. I'll be adding some more photos as i get them edited. It's going to take me a little time, but I'll make sure to update.