november 2009 (best of)

I had a great day with my Dad. He took me to the airbase so I could get some pictures of airplanes. I suckered him into bowling. We shared three games, a pitcher of beer, some stories, and some laughs. I snapped this picture without telling him. I ended up printing it out to give to my parents as part of their Christmas gift.



I really just found this so funny when I was told about it. I packed the Holga before leaving the house knowing I'd shoot this. The camper in the background was icing on the cake.



I'm a sucker for pictures of long, winding roads. I also like fog. I don't tend to like being roadkill, but I took my chances since this was taken on a cold Monday morning. I hadn't seen a car on the highway in a while, plus behind me was a pretty straight stretch. I figured I could risk it.



This is a fun little waterfall. The hillside to get to it is an adventure all its own.



My mom actually called and told me about this church. I like that my parents are so supportive of my photography obsession. She even said I should stop and shoot this on my way home for Thanksgiving. I was already rushed to get home in time for lunch after work, so it was nice she was basically telling me I could be late if I wanted to stop.

october 2009 (best of)

I'd never been shooting in the fog, so when Brian Cormack suggested we go I figured it was worth a try. It was a soggy night, and I had a lot of fun shooting something new. Above is the Arkansas State Capitol.



One of the drawbacks of my hobby (for others not me) is I tend to get distracted and show up late to things. If I have to be somewhere on time it's just best I leave the camera at home. The shot above was taken at Lake Conway while I was on the way to a Halloween function at a friend's house. I went exploring to find a good spot to shoot the awesome sunset and ended up being a tad bit late.



I love the Lost Valley. It's such a beautiful area. I made two trips there, before the leaves fell. There's so much to explore along the one mile trail and in the area around Lost Valley.



Here's a shot of Lower Eden Falls in the Lost Valley. This was one of my first decent black and white conversions. It's still something I struggle with.



I had wanted to shoot the moon for a while, but I only have a 55-200mm lens. It doesn't really do the moon justice. Well on this night there were lots of fast moving clouds. I figured I could get something interesting with the clouds. I sat in my front yard with a tripod, camera, and beer for about 30-minutes. It was just enough time to freak out all of my neighbors.

september 2009 (best of)

It was hard to pick just five shots from September. I took a vacation to Illinois and Indiana during this month and came away with a lot of shots I'm proud of.



The main reason for the trip was so I could finally go to Wrigley Field. I took the Holga along with black and white film loaded, to capture the timelessness of the place.



What a view! I timed going to the Sears Tower/Willis Tower at dusk. I was hoping to get a nice sunset. Lucky for me the sky played along. Chicago, isn't she lovely?



My mom was obsessed with going on a sailboat ride. Did she wants to sing, "I'm on a boat!?" Did she want to see some uber cool views of the city? No, she liked the name of the boat. "The Tall Ship Windy." My name is Windy. The boat is Windy. Ha. Ha. It worked out though. I tried to plan this for near sunset as well. I wanted some cool pictures of the skyline.



While exploring Indiana I happened upon the small town of Nappanee, Indiana in the middle of their annual apple festival. I took my mom back the next day, because she loves that sort of thing.



This was taken on the way back home from Indiana. I'm glad my mom wasn't too worried about getting home. She didn't complain at all that I stopped more than a dozen times before even getting out of Indiana.

august 2009 (best of)

This was taken in Monroe County, Arkansas. It's part of a plantation that's being remodeled.



One of my favorite shooting locations so far as been this abandoned high school in Helena, Arkansas. The place was full of things to photograph and it was a ton of fun to explore.



Speaking of cool places to shoot, this is one of them! This is 217 feet above the River Market District in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was a breathtaking view.



Collins Creek in Heber Springs, Arkansas is really cool. It's beautiful and it runs year-round. I spent a few hours splashing around in the water getting some cool shots. August was a fun month for shooting.



This was taken the same day as the trip to Collins Creek. This is from Woolly Hollow State Park in Greenbrier, Arkansas. It was the perfect end to an amazing day of shooting.

july 2009 (best of)

This is one of the risks I took with the Holga. This is actually a modification where I fed two rolls of 35mm film into a camera meant to take 120 film. The results were great considering I used electrical tape, foam from a swimming pool noodle, and pieces of felt to create this mod! This was actually taken at a firework stand in Vilonia, Arkansas as my dad and people that worked at the stand fought a brushfire about 300 feet away! I reasoned they had it under control. Luckily they did...



Ahh, music photography. I love it. Most of the shows I go to don't allow cameras. A dSLR is too large and expensive to try to sneak in. Luckily the folks at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville, Arkansas didn't mind. I was able to get this shot of the singer from Heartless Bastards that I'm rather proud of.



Another shot from Big Dam Bridge! This is actually three shots blended together to create ghostly people.



I took a trip to Blytheville, Arkansas with my parents so we could visit family. It turned into a walk down history lane for me. My aunt and mom took me around and showed me some of history of Blytheville. My parents both grew up and dated in this town, so it's packed with history for me. The shot above is taken inside an abandoned Dry Cleaners where my dad's parents first met!



The roadtrip picture. For me this is what roadtrips are like as a passenger. You look out the window and the rearview a lot. This was also taken during the trip to Blytheville.

june 2009 (best of)

I make so many mad dashes after sunsets. I was actually out practicing portraits with Tillie, and it was shaping up to be a nice sunset. I abandoned the shoot and her and I took off after the setting sun.



My mom brought her new puppy over one day. I figured it was a good reason to practice using my new fixed 50mm lens. The puppy just wanted to play with me and had no interest in photography. She stared howling because she was sad I kept pushing her away. This turned out to be my most "interesting" picture on Flickr and currently still is.



I love old Bugs. It seemed fitting to get a picture of this one that's abandoned in Casa, Arkansas.



A cool church I found near Perryville, Arkansas. This was the first time I'd used a texture.



Enter Miss Holga! This is from the first roll of film shot with my fantastic plastic Holga camera. Adding film to my photography obsession really did change things. I started taking a lot more risks and got more confident.

merry christmas charlie brown

I haven't had the most enjoyable holiday season. I even refused to put up a tree at home. I did put up one at work. The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. I sit right next to one of my best friends, Tillie. Her and I had planned a hot pink tree with lime green ornaments. When we went to get this tree, I found the Charlie Brown tree and I was in love. You see, I've always been more of the sarcastic and cranky type. Tillie is very happy and energetic. So for the past month her hot pink tree has sat next to my Charlie Brown tree. Our personalities proudly displayed through holiday decoration.

Work has been a bear and almost everyone up there is cranky. I've taken to saying, "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!" anytime someone is cranky. It started because of my tree, but seemed to fit because Charlie Brown was always so gloomy. It's morphed into a cuss word substitution that's caught on and others say it now, too. It's sort of funny.

No matter how cranky I get, Tillie doesn't tend to give up on me. Anyway, I went to lunch with her today and she gave me a Christmas gift. There was lots of cool stuff including the ornament seen above. The "sprinkle, sprinkle!" is an inside joke, but it was the first thing that made me wish I had a tree up at home to put it on.

I guess the whole time I was turning "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown" into a cuss word, I forgot the end of the story. Sure Charlie Brown was sad. Sure Charlie Brown had a crappy tree, but his friends saved the day. Remember? They all took stuff from their tree and made his better. Then they all stood around and sang together. I guess maybe it isn't always that clear cut, but sometimes we all do end up with a Merry Christmas after all, Charlie Brown.

Merry Christmas, Tillie!