Winter 2018/2019

I’m not even sure what happened to Fall this year. It was summer, then it was winter. Right now I’m cooling my heels for a few days between trips to the ATA and SHOT shows. ATA was last week in Louisville and I leave in the morning for SHOT show inLas Vegas for about a week.

Work has been steady and has filled nearly every day this year. I love being busy, and it makes the lazy days even better! I shot a lot of work for Realtree again this year. A lot of their new Timber camo that took me from some of the backwaters here near home, to the flooded timber in the Bootheel of Missouri and a bit further south into Arkansas. One of the early shoots for this pattern ended abruptly with me tripping over a submerged log and drowning myself and 2 cameras. One which was less than a month old. Thank goodness for insurance!

I’m looking forward to finishing the shows and getting a shooting plan together for the coming year. Looks like a lot of work with the “Regulars”, and a little non-endemic work too. Cant wait to get started! Heres a couple pix from the last little bit.

Summer 2018

What I thought was going to be a nice, relaxing summer, fishing, golfing, and just wasting time, has actually become nearly as busy as Spring and Fall! I guess thats a good thing though. I'm quite blessed to have the work I do, don't get me wrong. Once again I had a great time shooting for Realtree Fishing in the Keys. Key West this time. And I think it may now be my new favorite Key. Thanks to the great staff at the Doubletree, Key West, Capt Hunter Ledbetter, and Capt. Mid Quad, the trip was a complete success! A couple pix are below.

Other work this summer has involved our pup Finn, who actually just turned 1, and who, as I write this, is attending what were calling Duck Dog U. for the next month. He has so much natural talent and instinct, I think we're the ones getting trained. I've also spent some time shooting for Bergara Rifles, Traeger Grills, Vanguard Optic, as well as some new work for Scentlok. Some selected photos are below.

I'm just now planning out the Fall work schedule and Beast Feast, which is coming up quickly. I'm heading out for a short trip of a week, next week for some waterfowl work and will then pick up back at home and the KY farm with some early season deer hunting work, and I believe a little work for Lens Coat.

Late Spring 2018

Despite how many times I tell myself that I'm going to keep current with this blog, I always end up way behind. I'm spending the last couple of days here at the farm in KY and will be heading to south Florida and the Keys in the next couple days. I'll be shooting in the Keys several days, and plan to fish with a friend for kicks and goggles at least one additional day. There may be a round or two of golf thrown in there as well. Work here at the farm was a daily thing for about the last 5 weeks or so. Some of the work was for new clients such as American Landmaster, Scentlok, and Browning Trail Cameras, but a lot of it was for regular clients such as Realtree, Vanguard, Traeger, and Banded. There was also some time spent shooting some personal stuff and with Finn during some of his training times and play times. He's getting so big, and so smart! Below are a few of my favorite pix as well as a couple pix from an essay I shot for Petersen's Hunting, June/July issue, which went on sale earlier this month.

New Realtree Edge Camo

Realtree has at last, introduced their new camo pattern, Edge, to the hunting world. I think I had been shooting it for about the last 14 months or so. The reception has been outstanding! I was so happy to be a part of this project for the beginning, actually, I believe I was the only photographer shooting it for the release. While some of my images were used in the standard poster size version at the recent ATA show in Indianapolis, a couple of them were also part of a pretty extensive mural that covered the entire interior side of a pedestrian walkway between a hotel and the Indy Convention center, as seen below. It was really cool, and pretty humbling to see it al. The next big intro for it will be at the SHOT show next week in Vegas. I'm looking forward to it all, but a bit nervous too. I've included a couple additional pix that were popular at the ATA show last week.

Watching workers apply the pieces of one of my images in a different walkway to the Indy Convention Center.

New Year, New Work!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! 2017 was such a good year and it looks as though 2018 is going to be even better. I'm currently trying to pull together enough images for presentations at the ATA and SHOT shows in January. I know some of the work that will be featured is several images from Realtree's new camo, EDGE, which was officially introduced the other day. Seems like I've been shooting it for couple years now, but in reality, its been a bit over a year. This is an awesome pattern, so chameleon like in so many different environments, as you might see in the pix below.

There are still a couple of projects to finish up to wind up the year, but I've already found myself looking forward to some new projects in 2018! The new pup, Finn, is getting bigger everyday and will begin official "Puppy School", while we're in Vegas for the SHOT show. Later in the spring he'll attend a much more intense, and longer training course on duck hunting. Of course he has no idea about either of these events, but I have no doubt he will excel in both!

Been Forever, and Then Some!

It most certainly has been about forever since I've sat down and taken the time to write here. With a new website redesign emerging and a bunch of new work in the hopper, I thought this would be a good time to try and get started once again. I hope you can take a few minutes and look the site over, and give me a little feedback. Good or bad, big or small, it's all important. While there isn't a lot of it right now, video will be added as it becomes available. This was one of the things I really wanted to add to the site. Another feature that was long overdue was larger or full screen images. I sort of like the mosaic of the new galleries that turn into the larger images as well.

In the past year I was able to shoot for a lot of the same clients that I have shot for for years, but have added several new clients as well. You will see some of the work I've done for them scattered throughout the site. Some of the new work has been used by long time client, Realtree, but also used for Chevrolet, Nike, and Otter Box.

Realtree has broken into the fishing market with a new camo pattern and great fishing wear. That has has kept me pretty busy in the summer which traditionally had been a slower time. No longer I guess.

We're also about to take possession of a new lab puppy. No doubt you'll being seeing way too many pix of him in the near future!

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.

“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.”

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.”

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.”

“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.”

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!