I spent a total of 8+ hours at the local rugby tournament on 3-29-08 of this year. The blistering cold wind masked the suns rays and I ended up with a spectacular cocktail of windburn and sunburn. All in all it was worth it because the photos turned out great! The Winona State University Rugby team initially contacted me to come take photos for their team but during the down time I decided to shoot the other teams just because I enjoyed the game so much. In the past I had never really followed Rugby at all but as it turns out I love the game and the non stop action. A fellow photographer came to the game but wanted to watch the National Championship Basketball game as well so he brought a power inverter and parked his car right next to the field. I like to think that he drew a bigger crowd around his trunk than some of the fields at times. All in all it was an amazing day!

Lately I have been looking through my archives a lot for inspiration to try and get back to my roots. I have always enjoyed the challenges that working for Winona State provides but some of the projects I have to complete are not as fulfilling as my own personal projects. As often as possible I like to step outside of what I am comfortable with and try new things to challenge the way I think creatively.

In this case a real estate agent sent a photographer to one of my friends houses to take photos for the listing online and the brochures. While the photographs were probably adequate to some they certainly were not going to get people to come look at the home. In general the photos were washed out by the mid day sun and taken from odd angles that could have been chosen more carefully. In the end my friend asked me to come in and try and take some photos that showed the house literally in a better light. One of the keys to online listings is having wonderful photos that will catch someones eye and get them to consider making a visit to an open house; This is especially true with high end homes in todays housing market.

This photograph is not your normal run of the mill picture of the inside of a Church. Following in Shutter Scripts footsteps I decided to broaden my horizons and challenge myself again. This image is a series of 6 HDR images that have been stitched together to form a 2×3 Panoramic photo of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart here in Winona MN. The Cathedral recently remodeled the entire inside of the church and I have to say the modern amenities and accessibility is a welcome change.. Not to mention is it simply gorgeous. For those of you that dont know HDR is a special photographic technique to capture as much detail as possible in an image. In this case the end result is an amazingly sharp 28 megapixel image. The file on my hard drive while I was editing it was over 4 Gigabytes in size but now saved it is a little over 337 megabytes in size. I posted the image a little bit larger so that you can see just how much detail there is in the highlights and in the image itself.

HDR imaging is accomplished by taking three pictures at different exposures and blending them together in a program like photoshop. This gives you the maximum dynamic range possible. This technique is not always applicable because of the need of a tripod and a still subject. Newer video cameras employ a similar technology where the lens actually splits the light and sends it to three sensors one for red, blue, and green. These 3ccd cameras have a much better image quality than most with just one.

One recent assignment from Winona State put me and my new assistant in harms way as we attempted to photograph students playing on the racquetball courts during class time. Initially the instructor had us above in an observatory style overlook where the instructor could give feedback and watch from a safe distance. Photographically speaking it was very very uninteresting. Both Chelsey and I decided to hit the floor and see what we could come up with. The students were thrilled to have us there and some even put on a show for us. I had a few close calls with serves and spikes but we both managed to come out unscathed. A photographer on a forum I posted these images on gave me a little insight when he said ” It’s not the ball you need to worry about… It’s the racquet…”. After the fact I realize that it would be awfully hard to explain to the doctors at the hospital how I got the gash in my head… I hope you enjoy the image and please take the time to leave feedback if you care to! Thanks again!

As promised here is another wedding gallery to share with friends and family. I had a lovely time with Erica and Josh and want to thank them again for their hospitality. Best wishes in the future!

Thankfully spring break has been a blessing in the sense that it has provided me with much needed time for rest and recuperation. Part of that process has been hanging out with friends but the biggest weight off of my shoulders is getting to work ahead on some of these projects that have been nibbling at my toes for the last few months. I will continue to update my website with more pictures and galleries as I can but there is only so much I can do at one time. Next on my list is compiling a gallery for all of the sports photos I have taken in the last 6 months. And for those of you who don’t know it would amount to almost 25,000 still frames. Of course I wont post them all but there are plenty that fit into my favorites category. I am very excited for this summer and the opportunities a head and I cant wait to work with you all more. Thanks for your support!