New Work, New Partners!

Been a crazy good summer with more travel and meetings and non shooting stuff going on, but so good!  I'm excited to have begun work for Banded, (http://banded.com),  CVA, (http://www.cva.com), and Bergara, (http://www.bergarausa.com).   I'm so looking forward to getting into full swing with all of them.  It's going to be a tremendous fall season!  The shot above is one of my first for Banded.  I have also taken on the role and responsibilities as photo editor for www.realtree.com and their editorial content.  This is going to be really exciting for so many reasons!  I am going to be working with some of the best in the business and trying to add to their already incredible platform.   Wish me luck!  Currently there are several Fall/Winter trips planned for work and I expect to add a couple more to the list soon.  I knocked down a nice 10 point at the KY farm already and am looking forward to hunting more here at home as well as Iowa this winter.  It's going to be such a great year!

I'm also including a couple of recent pix from my Instagram feed.  Hope you like them.

This one is from Lake Eufaula in Alabama where I lead a couple of photography workshops.

This was from my tree stand in Indiana last night.

The entrance to the KY farm a week ago or so.

Underwater

My trip the the Keys earlier this year was the first time I really had a chance to use an U/W housing.  After some initial problems, I fell in love with it.  Upon returning home, I managed to find a gently used AquaTech housing for my Nikons and I had a new piece of gear!  The possibilities that I think this device can open up is nearly endless, or at least as endless as a normally land based photog can imagine.  I had a chance last week to shoot with a new model in a friends pool and I got to see first hand exactly how much fun this piece of gear is going to be.  I'm already scheduling the next UW shoot as I write this.  A few more pix are below.  Pay no mind to my friend and assistant for this shoot hamming it up with the model...

Eye of the Beholder

Recently, an artist/photographer friend of mine, Aaron Coston, (http://www.aaroncoston.com), took one of my original images and worked it to his hearts content.  The image became something quite nice, but also quite different than what I saw when I shot it.  It made me realize just how much interpretation there is in everything we see.  Aaron also made a short video of the PS work he did on the image and a link to it is below.  If I even knew 10% of what this guy knows, I could be dangerous!  Anyhow, the link and the 2 versions of the same image are below.  Which do you prefer, and why?  

https://youtu.be/nuX7N4UXt0A

Remember Me?

I'd like to say it seems like forever since I've taken the time to write something here, but the truth is, it has been forever!  So many thing have happened that I don't know where to begin.  Work through the late winter and early spring went well and has rolled right into late spring and early summer in KY, as has been the case for several years now.  I began an "Ambassadorship" for OtterBox and shoot for for some of their social media outlets.  I've also began working for a new client, Banded, which I'm enjoying immensley and started shooting again with Prois.  How could you not enjoy that!  Realtree is still provides a steady diet of work, as do a couple other longtime clients, so life continues to be very good.  Above is one of the shots from a shoot I did for Prois here at the farm recently.  Below are some other new, random images shot since the last time I posted here.  There is going to be a bit more work coming up in the country music industry again soon and also I believe, a bit more fishing photography.

After renting an underwater housing for my camera for a week of shooting in the Florida Keys for Realtree, I decided to purchase one on my own.  It feels like a whole new way of seeing things and opens so many previously unavailable subjects.  I know it's going to be a great addition to my normal gear.  I'll have to wait to post any of the the RT pix however.  Some of them are or will be shortly running in ads in some saltwater fishing magazines.  I'll also have a new mag cover to show you soon that will be on the July edition of a mag too, that was shot here at the farm.  I'll have more new stuff to share soon.

Snow

 

We got whacked by a pretty good snow storm in the Chicago area over the weekend.  They're saying #5 all time in the city.  Anyhow, the good news is all the snow makes for good pix.  The bad news is it can be difficult, if not downright impossible to get anywhere until some of the roads are cleared.  These pix got shot just a few yards out of the backyard.  Sort of making the best of the situation I suppose.  I'll be shooting more Realtree effectiveness stuff in the next several days here at home in the snow then heading south to Mississippi  to shoot for a variety of clients for a week or so.  Back home and off to Michigan for an RMEF banquet that Stacy and I are on the committee for, then flying off to SanAntonio, TX for a shoot for a few days.  Notice the next couple jobs involve WARM?  Yeah, that's not by accident...   Anyhow, I hope you like the pix.

New Use For My Pix

Realtree TVRecently Realtree has begun using several of my Max5 effectiveness photos in a TV spot for the pattern.  Giving it a "Ken Burns" sort of treatment, the pix sort of come alive, or at least have some perceived motion to them that makes them work pretty well I think.  And it certainly is a huge boost for this old dude's ego to see his photos on TV and on the big screens at both the ATA and SHOT shows recently.  You can usually catch them on any of the outdoor channels or in the clip below.  Hope you like it. PS  Please give it a couple moments to load entirely.  I'm still trying to get it to show up quicker.

Realtree TV

Max1 XT

 

Several weeks ago I made a trip out west to Utah but didn't really show too much from it except for a couple of non-hunting related photos of a friend, Kimberly Grimes.  The main reason for the trip was to make some photos for a new pattern being introduced by Realtree.  Max1 XT.  I'v never really spent much time out west or with the original Max1, so this was an entirely new experience for me!  I had a blast and the photos came out very well to boot.  The other day at the start of the ATA show, Realtree introduced Max1 XT with some of my images and will promote it even more at the upcoming SHOT Show in Vegas next week.  The hunter in the second image seems to all but disappear in the surroundings.  I'm excited and anxious to see how some of the images from the trip will eventually get used.  The few photos here are among my favorites.  I hope you like them.

On another note, it looks like the new work year will begin with a bowhunting shoot immediately after returning from Vegas, here at home, then directly out to Mississippi for some waterfowl hunting photography and then a bit further west for a job or two in Texas.  I need to get back to the farm in Kentucky to finish up a few days of work for Realtree and begin a new job for Prois, then it will be back down to Florida and the Keys!  Now that leg of the trip is most definitely going to be my favorite! You gotta know that there's going to be a bit of fishing and golf thrown in there as well.

Season is Drawing to a Close

 

With Christmas just around the corner, it looks like my shooting season is coming to an end.  I'm spending a last few days here in Kentucky to finish up a couple of jobs that need to be done, and then I'll be headed back home.  The ATA show is right after the first of the year and then a week later is the annual pilgrimage to Vegas for the SHOT show.  Typically I sweat and gnash my teeth for about 2-3 months in trying to select the right images for my presentations at these two shows.  This year, I'll be starting next week when I get home.  I'm not sure if the lack of time to change my mind will be beneficial or cause for failure.  Time will tell I guess.  Wish me luck!  Most of the work I've been shooting, both here in Kentucky, back home in Indiana, and out West is for projects that won't be made public till the upcoming trade shows.  However, as in Utah, I had the opportunity to work with a young woman, in this case Beka Garris, outside our  regular planned work.  She was a joy to hang with and has an incredible hunting ethic and tremendous drive for it.  Anyhow, here are a few pix shot during down time from our regularly scheduled shoots.  Hope you like them.

Kimberly Grimes

 

I had a chance recently to photograph a beautiful young woman by the name of Kimberly Grimes.  (http://www.kimberlygrimes.com)

She lives out west in some of the most fantastic terrain you could imagine!  Mountains, trees, rocks, enormous skies, all combining for an awesome few hours of photography.

Guns, Guns, Guns!

 

I had the opportunity recently to spend some time in the Washington DC area, shooting for FNH USA, http://www.fnhusa.com, and their catalog for the upcoming year.

I ended up making 2 separate trips to finish the job.  Man, I had no idea just how cool some of the guns they made really were!  Not only did

I get the chance to see these guns in use, I might have also had a chance to pull a couple triggers...  We worked with some of the local law enforcement

agencies, some of their pro competition shooters, and some military folks.  Saying it was fun was an understatement.  We had a blast, literally!

I've included a few of the photos that we shot that were cleared for publication at this time, but hope to be able to show you a few more in the upcoming weeks.

3 gun expert Dave Sevigny, above was just one of the terrific people I got to work with.  Dave even had a few shooting tips for me.  Below are a couple more pix

from the multi-day shoot.  Hope you like them!

I guess it's Been Longer Than I Thought

For lack of anything really interesting to say, I figured I'd just post some recent work to let you know I'm still alive and kicking!  Hope you like them.  

Arika

I had a great change of pace recently when a friend of mine from South Dakota, Arika Sanders, (www.arikajsanders.com), spent several days with me, shooting photos that were very unlike the photos I had been doing the past several months.  It was almost like a palate cleansing of sorts.  From sweaty guys in camo hanging in trees with guns and bows, to something quite the opposite.  We had a great time and I believe we are both looking forward to the next shoot.  Hopefully it won't take her so long to get here again!

The Louisiana Marsh

So often while travelling, we tend to gaze right over things that are smack dab in front of our face.Sort of like not seeing the forest for the trees, I guess.Last week I had the opportunity, thanks to Ducks Unlimited, to get a closer look at a place that has played an enormous role in so many facets of life, not only for the locals, but on the national and international level as well.The southern Louisiana marsh and Mississippi Delta is that place. As duck hunters know, or should know, this marsh is crucial to duck production, wintering and fattening well over 9 million waterfowl, primarily from the Mississippi Flyway, each year.However there is a lot more to this area than just ducks.Louisiana’s coastal marsh is responsible for between 30-40% of the annual, commercial seafood harvest in the United States.

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“Wintering waterfowl, along with shorebirds rely heavily on Louisiana’s coastal marshes for continued nourishment before making their trip back to the breeding grounds,” says Chris Jennings, Ducks Unlimited magazine web editor. “These marshes are critical for not only waterfowl and wildlife, but as storm surge protection for cities along the coast. The significance of the marsh is all around us – the cultural and economic impact of the marsh on this region and throughout the U.S. is astounding.”  

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Ducks Unlimited considers this area as one of their highest priority locations in North America.The reason being, despite all the wildlife relying on the marsh, the generations of families deriving their living from the marsh, and the health of the entire ecosystem, the marsh is experiencing huge losses every day.In about 2 generations, or 60-80 years, approximately 1 million, of the original 3 million acres of marsh have been destroyed and lost.The Mighty Mississippi is capable of dumping enormous amounts of sediment into the marsh, but in its current configuration, all this life giving sediment is lost by a river that plunges it’s nutrients far out into the deeper waters of the Gulf, bypassing and providing nothing to the shallow water marsh.

“What’s most important is that we need to let people understand that this is not a lost cause. There are steps we can take to stop the marsh loss,” Jerry Holden, Ducks Unlimited director of conservation programs for the Southern Region says. “Working with local and national partners, we believe that we can make that happen and reverse this trend.”

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The answer is simple: As with many of the world's major wetland systems, humans have dramatically altered the processes that created the Louisiana marsh. Sediment-laden flood pulses still travel the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, but we have successfully tamed the mighty river. No longer does the channel shift, due to extensive levee systems that contain the river from St. Louis nearly to the Gulf. In Louisiana, levees from Baton Rouge through New Orleans to the small community of Venice contain the river and prevent the wild shifts that create new marshland. (Dr. Tom Moorman "America's Marsh".)

Freshwater diversions coming from the river, of which there are a few, can pump some of the much needed marsh building sediments and nutrients into the marsh.These are like small, controllable channels that can direct small portions of the flow of the Mississippi into the marsh area and would not only provide needed nutrients, but would also actually begin rebuilding marsh in the area by depositing sediment.As great as that might seem, there are some local groups opposed to it.Oystermen and shrimpers both would most likely need to travel a small distance further to fill their vessels as the marsh grew.Oyster beds tend to grow in a band of brackish water that is neither totally saltwater or freshwater for several reasons.These beds would likely move to retain this particular band of water salinity as the marsh returned to its original size.The freshwater marsh would also push shrimpers a bit further out but the trawlers are regularly seen fishing in fairly close proximity to the current diversions.Seems like maybe the shrimp are benefitting from the additional nutrients floating about too.

“This all used to be land. Right where we are fishing is where I used to camp. This was not that long ago,” Capt. Joe DiMarco Sr. who grew up hunting and fishing the Louisiana marsh says. “It’s sad. There’s so many places like these that show up on our navigation charts, but they just aren’t there. It’s open water where land was last year.”

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“This is the greatest ecological disaster ever…ever,” Captain Ryan Lambert, owner of Cajun Fishing Adventures in Buras, Louisiana. “And it can be stopped. We are fighting to save the marsh – the ducks, the fish, the crabs and shrimp – and our culture.”

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More Snow

I've been working on a little project recently for CVA, www.cva.com, trying to graphically highlight their Nitride Rust-Proofing Process.  What a better way to do this than to show their Accura Rifle in use in the rain and snow!  However, counting on snow in late spring in Kentucky is a losing bet, to say the least. And real, natural, rain comes with its own set of problems, for instance exposing tens of thousands of dollars of electronics, cameras, and lighting gear to water.  The solution was to create our own weather, exactly where we wanted it and to be able to fully control it's intensity and location.  All these photos were shot within steps of 75 degree and sunny weather.  The entire storm encompassed about 100 square feet.  Hope you like them, and thanks to the models who braved the treacherous conditions!

Realtree Work

 

This year I have had the privilege to shoot a lot of work for Realtree.  The final pieces from that work has been showing up in various magazines and other locations recently.  Here are a few of those shots.  The Xtra Green photo was done last spring, while all the others were shot this year before everything greened up.  All of these pix were shot on our farm in KY.  Man I love my job!  Hope you like them.

Craig Morgan

Recently I once again I had the pleasure of shooting with Nashville country artist Craig Morgan at his home.  Being that this was our second time working together, we got into a good grove immediately and managed to make some great new photos for him.  The photos will be used by him for several different projects that he's involved in and should start popping up pretty quickly.  Hope you like them!  There's even a bonus shot of Craig and I...

The Keys

Here's a few shots from a recent trip to the Keys for a combination work/play trip with my buddy John Bond.  We spent a couple days on Islamorada fishing and goofing off!  Had a great time.  Looking very forward to getting back there.  Used to be, a long time back, I was there nearly every year.  Now it's been a lot of years since my last visit.  I'm hoping to return to the every year cycle.

Recently...

I had the chance to shoot a bunch of photography in a couple of states for both Realtree, and Ducks Unlimited over the last 2 months or so, using the new Realtree Max 5 camo.  This stuff just melts into it's surroundings.  Back before the new year, I had shot a bunch of work in and around cattails and flooded bottoms.  The new work here involved mud, milo fields, and flooded cypress trees.

Last week I took advantage of an opportunity to head to southern Florida and spend some time golfing around Fort Lauderdale, and fishing in the Keys with my buddy John Bond and his wife Judy.  Dang near like a vacation!  Loved every second of it and I'm already trying to figure out how to get back there again.   I also shot some work there that I'll post later.  I spent a couple days getting back to reality here in KY and will be shooting another job Sunday.

Turkey season is right around the corner and I'm expecting a bunch of friends and clients to be passing through over the next 4 weeks.  I'll be making a quick trip in a couple weeks to Nashville for a couple days to shoot with country artist and outdoorsman Craig Morgan once again, and can't wait to get there!  Craig is such an awesome, easy going guy to work with.

Headhunters TV

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a few days shooting with a couple of the best guys in the hunting industry here at our farm in KY, Randy Birdsong and Nate Hosie of Headhunters TV.  It was a pleasure to work with a couple of young guys that are so easy going and ambitious.  Their energy and creativeness during the shoot was infectious.  Most non shooting time involved a bit of live music, courtesy of Nate as well.  All in all it was a very enjoyable time and I'm already looking forward to our next shoot!

Winter Everywhere I Go!

Other than the annual trip to Vegas for the SHOT show, it has been dang cold everywhere I go.  Even the week in Nashville for the ATA show had temps hovering around the 0 mark.  We spent a week in northern Mississippi shooting waterfowl images recently which has temps traditionally in the 50's and above.  We spent the first 2 days there trying to break 4 inches of ice in the flooded and frozen fields with a Polaris Ranger, and the next several days being stuck in the mud in the same spots as the temps rose into the 40's...  Other than a couple of wonderful days near 70 here in KY during a shoot last week, the weather has been less than ideal.  Since those days last week the temps have once again fallen and we're looking at a high of about 35 today.  The other day we got another 2 inches of snow.  That snow is what the accompanying photos are from.  The forecast for home for the next few days has another major storm moving through that's expected to dump another double digit load of snow on Northwest Indiana that could snow totals into the upper teens by the time it passes through.  At least there's a bit of beauty that can be found in all of this.