Fall Colors '09

One of my favorite places in Colorado is Breckenridge. It's a great town that Lisa and I try to visit at least once a year. We just got home after spending a few days there and got to see the start of Colorado's beautiful Fall Colors. Here are a few pictures I shot when we took a day trip over Independence Pass to Aspen. If you can, I would highly recommend getting up into the mountains either this weekend or the weekend of Sept. 26. It's going to be amazing up there!

Take a listen...

Take a listen to the new Imogen Heap album "Ellipse" - it releases next week but you can listen to it right here, right now before you buy it. She's an innovative and very talented singer/songwriter...at least in my opinion!

Senior Portrait

Last Friday was d-day. Or maybe I should say, "P-Day" - "P" for portrait. As in Senior Portrait.

As an amateur photographer I've been able to capture some pretty cool pictures. Around Memorial Day sister-in-law, Lori asked me if I would be willing to take my niece's senior portrait for her. I accepted and then proceeded to feel my stomach tie itself in knots almost immediately. As a friend so readily pointed out to me, I must've been crazy to accept the assignment. There's a lot of bad that could've resulted from the whole experience – angry parents, a disappointed niece, a family rift. Of course if I pulled it off I'd be rewarded with gratitude from the parents, appreciation from my niece, and the family...well, things would be business as usual with the family.

So here they are...Savannah's Senior Portrait pictures. She hasn't chosen the one she's going to use for her yearbook picture yet but these are a few of what she has to pick from. And, if I may say so myself, I think I did an ok job for my first time as a portrait photographer!

Amateur Photographer

I've been making moving pictures professionally for nearly 24 years. Over the past year and a half or so I've tried my hand at still photography and have become painfully aware of the differences. I'm still very much an amateur photographer but I think I'm developing a good eye.

Yesterday I bought a Canon EF 50mm lens. This is my first lens that has a fixed focal length (for all the non-photographers reading this, it doesn't zoom). I made the purchase because my niece has asked me to take her senior pictures for her and it came highly recommended by the young lady in the camera store. Quite honestly, this project scares the crap out of me. The vast majority of my picture taking experience is wildlife or scenic shots. Portrait photography is sooo much different in sooo many ways. Plus, these will be the pictures that she'll have to commemorate her final year of high school. No pressure! The good news is she wants her pictures taken outside and I do much better with natural light.

I took these pictures after buying the lens so I can start getting used to how it shoots. One is a Lily I spotted blooming in our front yard and the other is my friend Lee, the aspiring painter.






















What do you think? Do I have a shot at making her happy or will I suffer the wrath of a 17 year old for the next 9 months?

One in a Million

I work at Compassion International. Today we celebrated a major milestone, our 1,000,000th concurrently sponsored child. My team and I put together this video for the occassion.

One in a Million


The millionth sponsored child, Fellow, is from Togo, the newest country that Compassion works in. His sponsor is Jang Mi-Ran, an Olympic gold medalist in womens weightlifting, is from South Korea, the country where Compassion's ministry started in 1952.

It took 57 years for Compassion to reach the 1,000,000th sponsored child mark. We're estimating we'll hit 2,000,000 within the next 5 or 6. The sad part is that's a very small number when you're talking about children living in extreme poverty around the world. Will you help us reach one more?