perseverance

This lady was a preacher for a decade before her house burned down. She lost three of her children in the fire and spiraled into a 10 year long depression. After reemerging about five years ago to lead a local church with about 20 regular parishioners, her home was foreclosed on; she had refinanced it four times to keep her church open. 'It's not what you have that makes you,' She said. 'It's what you possess on the inside. And nobody can take that away.'

Merry Christmas!

From all your friends in the Rausch family!

Guns Galore

This is a just one portrait of the many in a series of updates we're doing on people we've covered over the year. This guy got his question 'Where do you stand on gun control?' asked to two of the candidates at the first YouTube debate in July. Everything about this guy was amazing, and I mean everything. From the 1970's carpet, to the childhood photos on the wall (he lives with his parents) to the two ATV's in the driveway. . . this man was the quintessential Midwest. Thanks for looking.

portrait mania

This couple has been through way too much. The met a mutual friend's wedding, got to know each other via MySpace while he was in Iraq, and after he was almost killed by a road side bomb she has stuck with him. Then, just a few months before their wedding his two younger brothers were killed in a car accident. They were married three weeks ago, and are moving to Texas, where he is still undergoing treatment to fix his arms and legs. Man that's heavy.

drown your cats

the iconic image. I call it, 'Justin Cook: 1, Snow: 0'

let it snow

Snow, sledding, skiing, ice skating, not to mention canceled assignments. . . Drown Your Cats Weekend was a massive success. This is a shot of two brothers digging their driveway out after the storm hit. More to come from Drown Your Cats.

The First Amendment

. . . was excersized today in the form a protest against the showing of 'The Golden Compass' at our local movie theater. It was really friggin cold. I liked this frame, though it has no value in a journalistic sense, it's how this entire day has felt thus far. So I'm calling it art. Enjoy. And if you don't, then you just don't get art man.

what do you do with a D3?

Take a picture of your dog.

I think this says it all

fire

A home burned down tonight, injuring three firefighters. I shot the family, but man it was hard to just do my job. This is what I turned in of the house.

when all else fails. . .

go with the mood. Or as close to a mood as I could get.

I don't get it

but man it was fun to shoot. Crazy polar bear water skiers; it was about 30 degrees out Saturday morning.

lovely lady

This woman is a good person. In this shot she's getting one of her five foster kids (all under the age of 10) ready to go to church for the evening. Note: she also is taking care of her mother, who has late stage Alzheimer's.

Thems the breaks

Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time. And sometimes you swear really loudly in an unprofessional way.

oh and this one too

I'm not sure about this one. Any thoughts?

diddle squat

is what I've been doing the past few days. So without further adieu, here are a couple I pulled out of the vault.

The first set is a package of a race/walk I shot a while back. They're okay.

The second one is from a haunted house. I really love the people who work those.

Sportrait

I've never been good at them, but this one was okay.

Ballet

Who doesn't love it?

Happy

Thanksgiving.

Why?

Because it's my blog and I can, that's why.

opening day spoils

It was a cold opening day, though that didn't detract from the hundreds of people who hunted and turned out to see the trophies on the buck pole.

blessing of the hunters

Another outtake, this time from the blessing of hunters at a local church. It included this first time hunter.

an outtake

my finest moment

I think this frame speaks for itself as the crowning glory of work over my lifetime.

Portrait Bonanza

This gentleman is an 80 year old minister whose parish is anyone who calls his beeper. He's on duty 24/7 and often drives hours to meet with sick and dying people. Oh, and he was a missionary in Liberia for 12 years. This man was a pleasure to work with, and though I don't know that I fully conveyed all that in this portrait, I feel like it was one of the more successful ones I've shot.

straight from facebook

"In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you."

Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)

a remnant of summer

An Iranian family was swimming at a local beach with some kids from the area. Their father was teaching them to catch minnows with a plastic bag. I shot this one about two weeks ago, when it was so unseasonably warm. It combines my two true loves: children and weather features.

queen of the cute kids

I blow even myself away sometimes. Maybe I should just quit the photo-j thing and become a professional cute kid shooter.

Slice

A frame where the photographed is clearly aware of the photographer can reveal more of the nature of both than any other shot.

I like it

And that's all that matters. . .

Predictably Sad

Some shots from the game yesterday.