The View From The Box

quote of the day

2011-07-29T09:55:00.001-04:00

"To improve your stride, look at your shoes. To improve your soul, look at the horizon."

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setback

2011-07-24T20:14:00.001-04:00

This is the last photo of my knees while they're a matching set...

Back at the beginning of May, I played an outdoor soccer match, as I had done every Wednesday night since the weather started warming up. I played ok, as usual. Drove home, as usual. Took a shower, worked for awhile, went to bed. As usual. When I woke up on Thursday morning my knee would barely support my weight and hurt like hell. I figured I'd managed to tweak something and vowed to stretch more before Sunday's indoor match.

I'm not the most gifted athlete in the world, but I do have a couple things going for me...I have a high tolerance for pain and I heal quickly. So when Thursday came...then Friday...then Saturday...and the knee was only feeling worse, I knew something pretty major was up with it. Of course I kept playing, but the next time out on the pitch, I found that I could go fine in a straight line, but every time I tried to cut or turn, the joint opened up and let out a really horrible pop. That settled it...I called the Shelbourne Knee Center. Dr. Shelbourne had repaired both of Kelly's torn ACLs and having seen him work and seen how seriously they approach rehab and getting the patient back not just to functionality but to 100% competition ready, there was no question who I was calling.

I met with Dr. Urch, the other surgeon in the office, and within 30 seconds he diagnosed my torn meniscus. We thought it was a relatively minor tear, and decided to put off surgery until the fall. Back I went to the soccer pitch. Problem was, the tear was getting worse. I thought i could play through it...I've finished matches on broken legs, after dislocating fingers, and on too many sprained ankles to count. This was different though...I didn't trust the joint, and worse, I couldn't tell from the feel of it when it was going to give out on me. So after two or three matches playing at about 60% I was frustrated and called Dr. Urch back to schedule my surgery.

After meeting with Bill, the rehab coordinator, I learned that the normal recovery time for a menisectomy was six to eight weeks. My goal...four weeks.

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season of change

2011-03-09T11:00:00.001-05:00

Ok I'm going to wax religious for a bit, so if that's not your cup of tea feel free to skip on to the next post. Don't worry though, I'm not going to beat you over the head with a bible or any other such silliness. I might make you think a little bit, though, so if that's not your cup of tea either, feel free to move along at your leisure.

While I don't fashion myself an overly religious person, I am a cradle-Catholic, went to Catholic elementary school, and even taught for two years in Parochial schools. Most of the time if anybody asks I tell them I'm a "spiritual agnostic"-- I think there's a higher power of some sort, but I truly believe that any attempt by Man to discern the nature of that higher power is very nearly futile.

So with that semi-contradictory nature in place, I do try to observe the spirit of many Catholic rituals. To be honest, I don't feel the need to go to Mass every week. I feel much closer to God closing my eyes on a sunny day and feeling the warmth of nature pushing through my eyelids or feeling my body respond after a good long run, than I do sitting in a dark building full of people reciting a bunch of words they probably don't even understand. What I do try to honor is the spirit of the faith--helping humanity and improving myself as a person.

So anyway, today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Growing up I was always told that I had to eat fish on Fridays and had to give something up. As to why...yeah never really got a clear cut answer beyond "it's a sacrifice". This morning I had something of an epiphany. I was always told to give up sodas or chocolate. I realized that if I just gave something up like that, it wouldn't help me. All it would do is serve to make me miserable and grouchy for six weeks. God can't possibly want me to be a crab to my family like that. Why not use this time not so much as a Catholic thing, but use the time to continue my path to becoming a better person. I chose to "give something up" that will be very difficult for me, but in the end will actually make me a _better_ person, not a _worse_ person, than I was before. I'm choosing to give up stress for Lent. It will definitely be a challenge for me, and I will be giving something up that is detrimental to my mental and physical health. And in the end, I'll be a better person. Sounds like that's more following the spirit of the season than giving up Hershey's.

Oh...and I hate fish. Luckily I really like cheese pizza.

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growing up

2011-02-23T18:34:00.001-05:00

Molly finished her second-ever chapter book that she read all on her own. She loves to read every night before bed.

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like a cheap steak

2011-01-28T07:37:00.001-05:00

When I was a kid, I wanted to be tough. Being a child of the 80s, I got most of my ideas of what tough was by watching movies. Jean Claude VanDamme and Schwarzenegger tended to be the most-often rewound VHS tapes (well, all were second to Top Gun, but that's a different story entirely).

Anyway, I got it into my head that if I stretched and could punch things I'd be tough, so around I went punching (okay, tapping) my wall and trying to kick things as high as my head (okay, more like waist level). I also spent a fair amount of time pestering my dad to get me a set of free weights. He not so politely declined and pointed me at the snow-covered woodpile in our back yard and told me to move it over five feet, and I'd be in shape. Bear in mind we heated our entire house with a wood furnace...the woodpile was seven feet high and three hundred feet long. I not so politely declined his counter-offer and went on pestering.

In the meantime, I sat warm and cozy in the house and played video games (and watched those movies!). And got softer and softer.

In college I finally found athletics and realized that I love being a jock. Over the years I've gotten interested in more sports, most recently running. As I've run over the course of this winter, I can feel my thirty-seven-year-old body getting stronger and tougher. Six months ago I'd have to stop several times during a one-mile trot, gasping and wheezing the whole time. Now, it's nothing at all to me now to layer up and go out for a quick three mile run in the middle of a 15F snowstorm. I've dropped several pounds, added a lot of muscle, and don't feel the slightest bit nervous about being on foot several miles away from home now. Though the end result is vastly different from what my thirteen-year-old self envisioned as tough, I finally feel for the first time in my life that I'm not the soft blob I used to be. Well not entirely anyway. I'm shooting for my first half-marathon this spring and still have quite a bit of training to do.

this is my church

2010-11-20T13:48:00.001-05:00

My dad was an interesting character when it came to religion. It's taken me until several years after his passing that I think I really see who he was when it came to his beliefs. On one hand, my dad was a devout Catholic. But maybe without even realizing it he knew that the Church is a construct of Man, and as such comes with all of Man's flaws. He found a way to truly commune with God, though, and he chose to live his life in a way that allowed him to express that and experience that. For him, he was always most at home and closest to God when he was out in the woods, surrounded by nature.

Lately I've started this quest for personal transformation that I wrote about earlier. I'm trying to live a more "zen" kind of life--decluttering physically, emotionally, spiritually. One of the biggest things that's helped me with that is running. Good lord, I never in my life thought I'd be a runner, but over the past couple weeks I've found myself out on the trails at 9pm, 15F, with a flashlight and half a dozen layers, including a full-face mask. It's just that it's so clean, so purifying, to be out on a run, knowing that my mind is emptying and my body is strong enough to take me miles away from home and then miles back. Feeling the sun on my face or seeing the stars wheeling above while I pad out the miles. I've been doing some reading about running, (saving that for another post) and I'm really seeing what the true hard-core runners feel...I'm exhausted at the end of a run, but totally exhilarated and spiritually refreshed at the same time.

Whether it's just simple endorphins or something deeper, Dad...I see what you mean now.

Location:Greenwood,United States

transformations and good chi...an introduction

2010-11-14T08:33:00.000-05:00

A year ago if you had told me what I just did, I would have laughed in your face and called you nuts. As I write this, I'm sitting here on a 40F Sunday morning, looking out at cloudy November skies, and cooling down from a 4.3 mile run. A run. Running. I always saw people out jogging and while maybe I didn't laugh at them, I kind of almost pitied them in a way. They always looked so miserable, especially on days like today, headbands wrapped around their ears, the rest of their face windburnt and red, layers upon layers of clothes to keep out the winter. I'd buzz past them in my nice warm car, probably sucking down a large Coke or a vanilla latte or something, and wonder what on earth could possess someone to just go running down the street.

Somewhere in the back of my mind it may have occurred to me that there was a disconnect in my thought process somewhere, since I considered myself an athlete, playing soccer at least two nights a week in leagues full of people ten years younger than me. But in all that, I never saw the point of running just for the sake of running.

I'm going to try to get back to blogging...I know it's been a long-assed time since I wrote anything more than a facebook post or twitter update, but there's definitely something to be said for sitting down and putting out a few paragraphs. I'll try not to bore you, I'll try to find something profound to say at least once in awhile. You see, I'm undergoing a transformation. Running is the catalyst, but it goes so much deeper than that. I'm seeing life in a whole new light these days.

Back From Vacation

2009-09-06T12:49:00.001-04:00

Last week we took our first vacation in about six years. It was a week of a lot of firsts-- Molly's first trip on a plane, first vacation, first time seeing the ocean, etc. What a great great time!!! I'm just now starting to wade through all the hundreds (literally) of photos that I took, so hopefully I'll get some galleries put together soon. I know I'm definitely going to be putting together a book and some fine-art prints for sale of some of the landscapes, but that's probably a few weeks (at least) off, as they're going to get a pretty extensive processing before they see the light of day, and I've got two wedding shoots to finish up first.

Big Changes Coming...

2009-08-01T08:47:00.001-04:00

Just an FYI...

I'm at the start of some major overhauls to pretty much every aspect of our web presence. First, the main whiteshark photography site (http://www.whitesharkphoto.com) is going to change drastically. We're switching to an all-flash-based design. Not sure yet when the cutover for that will be, but this change will make it much easier for us to update content on the main site and gather metrics about visitors so we can see what we need to improve on.

Second, we're switching our content / ecommerce provider from Exposure Manager to ZenFolio. There are several reasons for this switch, but most are on the back-end to help provide images back to the team easier and quicker. On the front-side, our visitors will notice a much nicer, cleaner interface and more importantly, some new products!

So look for these changes coming in the next month or so. We're very excited and can't wait to see these changes go into place...

Soccer Schedule

2009-07-22T08:51:00.002-04:00

Nothing to see here. ;-)

Sorry for the totally off-subject post, but just needed a place to get a calendar up for a soccer team that I play on.

John and Ann -- Teaser #2

2009-06-03T21:25:00.001-04:00

Time for another teaser!!

Mr. & Mrs. Whelan... the teaser

2009-06-01T20:24:00.002-04:00

Still in the midst of editing John and Ann's wedding, but thought I'd toss this image out there (mostly to drive them nuts while I work on the rest of the photos)...

The Run to the Cup

2009-05-21T11:29:00.001-04:00

I'm sure those few of you that are actively following the blog are wondering where the heck the Clark Cup photos are! Well truth be told, we've just been so busy processing them, going to the next shoot, and handling all the photo requests, getting a few up on the blog has been a somewhat low priority, especially considering the full sets have been up on the galleries for quite some time.

Rather than break them down like we usually do, I'm just going to post a whole series of our favorite images from the homecoming and celebrations...

That's it for now! See you at camp in a few weeks!!

Home-Ice

2009-05-04T09:39:00.002-04:00

The finals have come to Indy for the first time in several years. I'll be honest...I'm kind of burnt out on hockey by this time in the spring. It's been a long run, starting at the summer camp in June, then the team picnic in September, then kicking off the season in October.

By April I'm ready for a break.

But if I'm still standing in the box in May it's a whole different story. If I'm in the box in May it means we're playing for the Clark Cup. No, it's not Lord Stanley's Cup, and though the locker rooms are smaller, the equipment not as new, the will to win is still burning.

The Fargo Force was in town, and again if I'm being honest, I think we all took Game 1 for granted. I know I did. To use my exact words in describing it to my co-workers... "We'd beaten the snot out of Fargo three of four times we played them in the regular season." In my head, we were already lifting the Cup and starting the celebration.

And then the Fargo goaltender stood on his head and put on an absolute clinic in net. This was a Fargo team that was worlds away from the hapless expansion club we saw back in October. Not nearly the offensive weapons that we have, but the old sports cliche really is true-- 'Offense fills seats; defense wins championships.' Fargo shut the Ice down in front of their net, and crashed the hell out of our net. Eventually it paid off, and the Ice skated off 2-1 losers in the first game.

game two
The Ice came out determined to play their game instead of Fargo's in game two of the series. Home-ice-advantage nullified, this was going to be an out-and-out war.

Gone from the locker room was any kind of joking. No laughter. No pre-game giddiness. Just adrenaline, focus, and lots of taped-up playoff injuries.

Back after a night off was Sebastian Geoffrion, and he brought his normal style of game...

After two of the most brutal, hard-hitting periods of hockey I've seen in four years in the box, the Ice's offense finally started to fire on all cylinders, and we came out with a 5-2 win. Next up, games 3 and 4 in Fargo later this week, with a game 5 if necessary back in Indy on Sunday afternoon.

Time to Use the 'Force'

2009-04-29T08:26:00.002-04:00

I think this photo pretty much sums it up, yeah?

Two powerplay goals against in the first period and this is how Phil Wilson, reporter for the Indianapolis Star, described the mood: "A humbling two-goal deficit after one period of hockey had the Indiana Ice locker room silent. Some players stared at the Pepsi Coliseum floor, others gawked at the ceiling. Doubt crept in, for a few moments." (LINK)

The second period brought out a different Indiana Ice team, though. Here are a couple shots of the period that turned the season...

And by far the coolest tradition in any sport. These guys spend the better part of a week trying to find new and exciting ways to kill each other on the ice, and at the end of all those hours of sweat and aggression, they line up and shake hands, from the players all the way through the ranks to the trainers. I absolutely love the handshake line. I wish I had been able to be there to shoot it, but this was Kelly's game from start to finish; I was at soccer and then home with the tot.

And finally for now, the post-game celebration in the locker room. I'm glad the guys had a moment to enjoy this accomplishment, but Mike Cichy pegged it... "It's still unfinished right now." We've got one more series to win. Look out Fargo, the Ice is coming...

Game 3

2009-04-28T08:43:00.001-04:00

If the game were on ESPN, the commentator would say something that was supposed to be witty but said absolutely nothing. Something like, "While it's not a must-win game for the Ice, this Game 3 is almost a must-win," or, "The Ice really need to grab this series by the scruff of the neck tonight."

Game 3. Series tied 1-1. Winner goes into a situation of needing to only win one more to head to the Clark Cup Finals against Fargo.

I usually try to duck into the locker room prior to warm-ups for a few minutes to say hi to the guys and pick up a cup of coffee. Usually the locker room is pretty raucous--loud music, guys grab-assing and joking around, the usual dudes' locker room kind of mentality.

This was the locker room before Game 3...

Quiet. Tense. The guys have a laptop loaded with music to listen to while they dress. A song ended and no one got up to start another for several seconds. One of the guys walked through in a towel. Nobody tried to yank it or snap him with their own towel. I'd never seen this team with their game faces on so early. I knew we were in for a battle.

Kind of like a shot shattering a pane of glass behind the goalie, this is something you see in the NHL from time to time, but I've never seen it in the USHL. One of the Ice players did this. With a shot.

And the big hero of the night...Max Cook with the game winning goal and first star of the night.

Nice to see the local media finally taking an interest in the Ice, as well. Several of the local network affiliates were out shooting some footage of the game, and Fox-59 stayed around to interview the coach and players.

Way too fast

2009-04-27T08:37:00.003-04:00

(Lookit my little south-paw writing!)

<<sigh>> I know it's cliche. I know it's maudlin. But I know it's my little girl, and she's growing up way too fast. I remember like it was yesterday the night she was born. The doctors telling us the labor was too long and she was having difficulty breathing. Me spending five exhausted minutes at midnight next to this tiny, gasping being before they put her into the pediatric ICU ambulance to transport her to a Level-4 NICU forty minutes away. Finally taking her home a week later, happy and healthy, if still a little tired.

Now here we are, four and a half years later and she's writing, reading simple words, and throwing the most hideous tantrums when she wants a pudding cup for dinner instead of the chicken and green beans we made. She's a decent photographer (for a four-year-old), a budding computer geek, and just got her first iPod (mom's hand-me-down) yesterday. (Kidz Bop 15 all the way to the zoo!)

I can't even put into words the roller coaster of joys and worries and achievements and moments our Molly has brought us.

Playoffs, baybeeee

2009-04-21T13:22:00.002-04:00

Heard a good quote the other day that sums it up. I forget which coach it was, but after getting absolutely demolished in his first NHL playoffs game by a much lower-seeded team, the coach was asked about his team's preparedness. He said something like, I had no idea. I thought I'd been running them hard for the last three weeks and they were ready. They'd been playing at 100%. I had no idea that they'd need to step up the intensity _another_ 20% beyond that.

Yeah. That's playoff hockey. And it's come to Indy, not in the form of the NHL, but in our USHL Indiana Ice. Finishing the season 3 points out of the top spot in the league and better than any team in the other division, the Ice were ready to hit the ice and make a statement after an early playoff exit last season.

Still, that extra 20% is hard to come by when it's 70 degrees outside and the season started the _last_ time it was 70 degrees outside, with a full winter in between. The Ice's first round best-of-five playoff series against the Cedar Rapid RoughRiders went the full distance, finishing with a 7-6 shooting gallery in Cedar Rapids. The series winner was scored with 00:15 (that's fifteen seconds) left on the clock.

Here are just a couple of our favorite photos from the two games played in Indy in the first round series.

!! Geek Alert !!

2009-04-15T12:21:00.003-04:00

My almost year-long flirtation with the dark side (or with the side of goodness and happiness, if you listen to my buddy, Whelan) is over. I sold my 24" iMac and went back to using my custom-built (read: 'home-built') server/workstation. Installed the 7057 build of Windows 7 and moved in. Well, moved in with a 'minor' upgrade. ;-) Instead of the previous 22" HP monitor, I got a pair of matching 23" Acers. Mmmmm, prettyyyyyyy.

This series of photos is of the monitors going in. Got another series of the wall-mounts (mmmm, prettierrrrr).

Note that you can still see the old HP on its wall-mount. I'm considering picking up a cheapie video card and running it as a 3rd display. What do you think?? I've got an open PCI-E16 slot in the beast...

Bunny-day happiness

2009-04-15T12:07:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I've been a bit absent again lately. Several things have been going on. One, work has been absolutely kicking my butt with business. All kinds of deadlines and projects and the usual conflux of crazy. Two, I dislocated my right index finger a couple weeks ago, so it's actually been pretty painful to type or even run the mouse (and god help me, Call of Duty online is absolutely out. I tried playing a few matches last week and my trigger finger is so slow and painful I got my arse handed to me. Repeatedly. I finally shut it down, quite saddened).

So really, that's been about it. I'm going to try to blog more words, and more pictures too. I realized after reading some friends' blogs and getting thoroughly hooked on Wil Wheaton's blog that I really do miss writing. I used to write all the time--non-fiction, poetry, short stories. Then over the years just kind of fell away from it. I need to get back to it and find my voice again. Anyway, enough sentimentalizing.

Recent goings on include getting up at the crack of oh-my-god-it's-still-dark-out to eat chocoate and hunt easter eggs. Here are some photos of the kid, all suited up in her easter best (actually, it's last year's easter best, since the dress she picked out this year (and just HAD to have) she won't even put on for five minutes in the studio since "it's itchy, Dad!". Grr.).

Slurp

2009-04-15T12:06:00.001-04:00

20090412_18, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Two things...
1. Quick shutter-finger.
2. Peanut butter.

Bennett

2009-03-17T08:37:00.001-04:00

2009-03-14_0239-2, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Saturday night I had a rare opportunity. I went to the game and took the night off. It felt _very_ strange to walk around with Molly and share a snowcone with her and just sit and _watch_ the game. No camera, no running around, just being a fan. We had an absolute blast. With me being as OCD as I am, especially about photography (Ask anybody, I'm kind of a photo-snob), it's a testament to Kelly's skills that I feel totally comfortable handing her both cameras and letting her do her thing. She didn't disappoint, either, as she came up with a whole string of awesome shots. This is one of my favorites, as I think it really captures Brett's intensity when he's between the pipes. As a goalkeeper myself (soccer, not hockey, but still just as crazy), I can recognize and imagine what's going through his head as he's up by one goal in a hard-fought game two weeks before the start of the playoffs.

2008-2009 Team Photo

2009-03-17T08:29:00.001-04:00

2009-03-16_0001, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Always a fun day when I shoot the team photo. It's kind of like yearbook day back in high school...the big push to the end of the year is here, but the end is in sight. It's kind of bittersweet in a way, as we've spent the last seven months getting to know these guys and photographing them at the games sometimes three times a week. Knowing that many of them are off to college or other teams next year is sad, but at the same time it's been a great season, and we're looking forward to a great playoff run in the next month or so.

Kelly @ the game

2009-03-14T22:35:00.001-04:00

2009-03-13_0139, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Hot wife's new hair at the Ice game. Kickin' vest was for 80s night at the game. Buddy and fellow photographer John Whelan in the background.

Pepsi Coliseum

2009-03-14T22:27:00.001-04:00

2009-03-13_0081, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

3-shot stitched panorama taken from the crow's nest, about as close to the rafters as you can get in the Coliseum.

KJ's new hair

2009-03-11T18:21:00.001-04:00

20090309-WS2_3239-2, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Well I guess it's not new, but there's less of it! :-)

Pack the House Night

2009-03-10T14:09:00.001-04:00

2009-02-28_0061-2, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

One of Kelly's photos. As usual, I think I get great stuff and she chumps me with one of her first snaps!!

Another of Rain

2009-02-19T15:15:00.001-05:00

20090214-IMG_9795, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

aka 'Weasel'

It's Raining in our house

2009-02-19T15:14:00.001-05:00

20090214-IMG_9799, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

We've been thinking about getting a dog for quite awhile, and this little girl just fits right in. Well, except for the fur. The mountains, and piles, and heaps of fur. She's a shepherd-husky mix and in the middle of dropping her winter coat. Holy cow our vacuum cleaner is getting a workout!! But how can you not love that face?? Her name is Rain, but Kelly and Molly have already re-christened her 'Weasel', which personally I like a lot better.

Defence in Depth

2009-02-19T15:04:00.001-05:00

2009-01-31_0134, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Great shot of just how stacked the defence (yes, I know I'm using a 'c' in defence, thank you firefox spellchecker!) can become during a penalty kill.

So I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out!

2009-01-20T18:40:00.001-05:00

2009-01-17_0182, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Yeah, it's one of the most often discussed aspects of hockey--the fighting. At some point every year or two a big discussion comes up about banning fighting in the sport. If you ask me though, the sport would be lesser without the fights. I'm not trying to say that I like the violence or want to have the world thinking that everyone can solve their problems by beating each other up, but within the context of the sport, fighting must really be understood for what it is, and that's _part of the sport_. Very rarely will a hockey player fight because he's pissed off at another player (though that does happen). More often the fight happens to serve a very specific purpose--to send a message to the other team, to repay a cheap shot that the ref might have missed, or simply to fire up a team that's down and give them some spirit. No matter what the reason, the hockey fight is an integral part of the sport, and I love that though we have referees, they can't see everything at once and the sport still has this mechanism for self-policing.

About the photo: Another of Kelly's photos, this is Sebastian Geoffrion, grandson of Bernie Geoffrion, an NHL Hall of Famer who played with the Canadiens and Rangers for years. Check his story out on Wikipedia sometime, it's a really interesting read!

The Swede and the Russian

2009-01-20T18:27:00.001-05:00

2009-01-17_0053, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

So this is how the guys warm up before a game??

Biggie!

2009-01-18T14:50:00.001-05:00

2009-01-16_0119, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Hey, it's everybody's favorite big blue...ummm...whatever he is!

New Faces

2009-01-18T14:47:00.001-05:00

2009-01-16_0077, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

The Ice picked up a couple new players in the past week. Mike Cichy came to the Ice and made an immediate impact, picking up a couple goals in his first home game.

Thanks to a separated shoulder and a sick kid, John was stuck at home for this game, so all of the Jan 16 photos are courtesy of Kelly.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T21:57:00.001-05:00

20090101-DSCF7747.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Yeah, speaking of Zac and his party, there's the man of the hour (and looking quite dapper in his new suit!).

New Year's Eve Party

2009-01-04T21:53:00.001-05:00

20090101-DSCF7743.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

After the hockey game at Conseco, Kelly and I changed into our party clothes and headed up to Zac's place to ring in 2009! This is at the stroke of midnight.

Saved!

2009-01-04T10:07:00.001-05:00

2008-12-31_0362.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Brett Bennett making a really nice kick-save.

Kelly @ Conseco

2009-01-04T10:01:00.001-05:00

2008-12-31_0226.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Kelly doin' her thing at the New Year's Eve Ice game at Conseco.

Max Attack

2009-01-04T09:49:00.001-05:00

2008-12-31_0109.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Okay, it's a cheesy post title, but hey, my coffee hasn't saturated my brain tissue yet! This is yet another of Kelly's shots, one of Max Cook trying a wraparound. He didn't score on this opportunity, but it was a great scoring chance.

Gwiddy-sticks

2009-01-04T09:47:00.001-05:00

2008-12-31_0039.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

One of Kelly's photos, a shot of some of the players' sticks lined up in the hallway outside of the locker room.

'Fito

2009-01-04T09:46:00.001-05:00

2008-12-31_0081.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Chris Palifito, starting goalie, during the pre-game introductions. This is one of Kelly's 'signature' shots from Conseco.

New Year's Eve @ Conseco

2009-01-04T09:44:00.001-05:00

2008-12-31_0198.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with shooting Ice games in Conseco Fieldhouse. On one hand, the arena is first-class. Maybe not an NHL-caliber venue, but at least good enough for AHL or IHL. On the other hand, the place is just massive and there's no easy way to get around, so shooting a game there is three hours of climbing stairs and waiting for elevators and running down long underground tunnels.

Still, the lighting is superb once you're tied into the big strobes and have figured out where the fall-off areas are (the regular lights are surprisingly yellow), and as I said, the place is just beautiful.

This is a shot of Sebastian Geoffrion's first fight of the night. He ended up with two fights on the evening.

Bob Wikman, 1924-2008

2008-12-20T07:57:00.001-05:00

Photo 33_edited.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

I'll miss you, Dad.

OOF!!!

2008-12-12T14:51:00.001-05:00

IMG_9535.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

This, friends and neighbors, is why spearing is a 5-minute major penalty in the game of hockey!! :-)

Was in the box as usual last Friday night. Check comes over the boards and into the box with me, and I look down to see the blade of a hockey stick jamming me in the side. I had a split-second to think 'Oh man, that's going to bruise' and then the guys were pulling themselves back out of the box and were on their way.

This photo was taken three days later.

A Noted Absence

2008-12-10T16:16:00.001-05:00

It's a strange thing, how fluid time can be. Strange how it can slip through your fingers without your even really realizing it. Strange that your kids grow up so fast. Strange that your parents get old. Strange watching parents and friends die.

It's been a very weird few weeks, which at least partially explains my absenses from the blogging world. My father has been very ill for several months, and everyone in my family is coming to grips with the fact that his journey is nearly at an end. (Strange also that no matter how close someone is to death, we still grasp at euphemisms and metaphors for the actual final act to avoid actually talking about or saying the word 'death'.) We've all come to make our peace with the situation in different ways. My mom wants to see him no longer suffering through the constant surgeries, the growing weakness and mental instabilities. I want to remember him the way he was, independent and strong and seemingly all-knowing. My four-year-old daughter, Molly, wants to know that he'll be in heaven taking care of the baby we lost last year.

And just as we were preparing ourselves for this loss, and taking solace and comfort in our friends, we lost one of those friends. Mike Schupay, the president of the Indiana Ice and a good friend, passed away quite unexpectedly the day after Thanksgiving from a heart attack. He had handed Molly a hockey puck at the game on her birthday not even a week before.

So as you can certainly imagine, lately it's been a struggle just to get out of bed in the mornings and get moving for work. By the time I make it home it's even more of a struggle to take care of the usual household chores, much less anything extracurricular like blogging or getting the Christmas cards ready to send. I hope to improve on my productivity a bit in coming weeks…get caught up over the holiday break.

We'll see. In the meantime, keep my Dad in your thoughts, if you would. I'm going to miss him terribly.

Another of Wayne's kid

2008-12-04T20:31:00.001-05:00

2008-11-29_0058.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

I think this is my favorite shot of the night.

Wayne's kiddo

2008-12-04T20:29:00.001-05:00

2008-11-29_0048.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Just had the opportunity to photograph my buddy Wayne's little girl. She's about 15 months old and cute as can be.

Thoughts and Ramblings

2008-12-04T20:22:00.002-05:00

Well as usual I make all the promises to myself to keep up on both of my blogs, and of course it goes longer and longer between posts. I whine about how busy things are, and truly they are. On average I have about a half hour a day to do everything that needs to be done, after paying the bills and doing the laundry and processing the photos and finishing up stuff for the day job and... Well you get the idea; I'm sure nearly everyone out there is about in the same boat.

I'm still doing photography as much as I can, which isn't nearly as much as I'd like lately. Hockey games and the odd family portrait here and there are about it. I'm still loving being back in IT full time though, so it's just a trade off. I just wish there were about 37 hours in the day.

Anyway, as usual I hope to post more, if not commentary then at least photos piped through from Flickr. :-)

Peace out for now, all you good people!

2008-10-17_0336.jpg

2008-10-31T08:23:00.001-04:00

Calendar update

2008-10-07T15:30:00.003-04:00

FINALLY got time to sit down for ten minutes with my code at home and start in on some badly needed overhauling / retooling of the main website. First priority...fix the calendar. Not only was it outdated, it was a royal pain in the arse to update. Google to the rescue!!

Now if you check out our availability calendar, you'll see an embedded Google calendar that will automatically update as we book dates or dates become unavailable because of hockey playoffs or something similar.

Yay, go me! Now I have to find time to install a Lightroom plugin that will let me push photos directly to the galleries on the website. Why oh why do I know so much about HTML and Javascript coding when I have never in my life been a programmer?!?! :-D

Classic!

2008-10-02T20:51:00.001-04:00

2008-09-21_0009.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Of course, we're never going to abandon the classic great hockey photos. I was amazed to grab this shot so quickly into the start of the season. This was taken probably ten minutes or so after the game started. Took both of us a bit to get the timing back and shake off the rust, and we still shot heavy as hell (over 500 images at a preseason game?!?!), but by halfway through the first we were nailing almost all our usual great shots.

Black and white

2008-10-02T20:49:00.001-04:00

2008-09-20_0279.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Kelly and I _LOVE_ black and white photography. I recently had to go back through several weddings to choose favorite photos for a slideshow, and nearly all of the photos I chose were black and white. We're shooting a different format at the hockey games this season, so look to see more black and white stuff and different crops posted here and available in the galleries for purchase.

A different look...

2008-10-02T20:47:00.002-04:00

2008-09-20_0222.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Great thing about shooting at the Ice Skadium is the different views we can get as compared to at Pepsi. One of our main goals with the team photography this season is to try different things to bring an artistic view of what the boys go through throughout the season.

Drop the puck, bay-beeeeee!!!!

2008-10-02T20:46:00.001-04:00

2008-09-20_0019.jpg, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

That's right, it's hockey season again!!!!!!

These first few shots are from the Ice's home preseason games at the Ice Skadium in Carmel. Saturday night kicks off the regular season with games at Pepsi Coliseum at the Fairgrounds.

Johnna & Mark

2008-07-14T18:24:00.002-04:00

Bzzzzz. Bzzzzzz. BzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. I think I woke up hearing that sound for a week after this wedding. ;-) A gorgeous summer wedding on the family farm, a huge tent in case it rained (good call!). An awesome couple. And of course, their million or s guests, only a couple hundred of which where invited. Almost as soon as Kelly and I got out of the car we were beseiged by gnats and small flies. They didn't bite or anything, but there were clouds of them around every guest! Eventually as the night wore on they dispersed, but there was quite a bit of fanning away flies going on for awhile. The bridal party were all troupers, though, not even blinking during formals!! And thanks to some spotty thunderstorms and Johnna's grandparents' beautiful pastoral scene, we were able to get some stunning photos.

Natalie & Josh

2008-06-08T10:58:00.002-04:00

From the day we signed off on the contracts for this wedding almost a year ago, we knew that we wanted to spend some time at Monument Circle in downtown between the wedding and reception. As the final week before the wedding arrived, we all watched the weather reports. I remember checking weather.com's 10-day forecast and groaning when I saw the first report for Saturday--70 and thunderstorms. A couple days later the report was still basically the same. Four days out from the wedding the report changed to hot and windy with probable storms. Two days out from the wedding the report changed again to cloudy and a chance of storms. Friday night brought tremendous storms, including some tornadoes across the area. As I loaded camera gear into the back of the car on Friday night I tossed in the biggest umbrella we have and a spare set of clothes.

Then Saturday--wedding day--dawned. Sunny and clear. Josh and Natalie got their wish, and we got some fantastic photos...

2007-2008 Indiana Ice BOOK Now Available!!!!

2008-05-12T08:47:00.001-04:00

Indiana Ice

2007-2008 Photo Re...

By Photos by John & K...

Click the above link to be taken to our Blurb bookstore, where you can purchase the 68 page, full color, hardcover photo retrospective of the 2007-2008 Indiana Ice home season!!

Update...

2008-04-24T21:26:00.002-04:00

Well, we're home from the hospital. What a week we've had!! Kelly is feeling better, but it's going to be a long road back. The doctor estimated that she lost up to 75% of her blood volume!!! Yikes!! She's doing as well as can be expected, just gets tired easily.

Thank you so much for the tremendous outpouring of support we've received from our friends and fans. It's been truly amazing to see how everyone is so willing to step up and help out. It really does restore my faith in humanity!! :-)

Prayers and positive thoughts

2008-04-21T14:33:00.002-04:00

I'm not huge on sharing all the details of our private lives online for the world to see, but this impacts our business to some extent, so I wanted to put it up here to bring all our extended network of photo friends and fans up to speed, as many of you have inquired on Facebook and through email if everything is okay.

Our family has had a rough time of it over the past month or so. My (John's) dad has been hospitalized for colon problems (pre-cancerous polyps) and has had to have two surgeries and several procedures to clear up polyps, remove infection, etc. He's slowly getting better, but at 83 it's a matter of three steps forward and two steps back.

Then, this past weekend, Kelly developed some problems and had to have emergency, life-saving surgery. She's going to be okay, but it was kind of a near thing for awhile. She'll be in the hospital for a week or so; the doctors are top-notch and she's expected to make a full recovery.

In the meantime, I'm spending a lot of time at the hospital and away from work, so please bear with us for a couple weeks if phones or emails go unanswered or photo orders are a couple days behind.

Johnette & Mike |

2008-04-17T08:25:00.004-04:00

Johnny-W...flyin' solo at this wedding! That's right, Kelly had the night off, so I got to spend the evening with Johnette and Mike and share their wedding day with them. We always get along well with our couples; part of the screening process we go through is to make sure that we'll all be comfortable with each other on such a long, hectic, emotional day. But rarely do we find a couple who we are instantly comfortable with and feel true friendship with almost immediately. I was so comfortable around these two, it was easy to get amazing photos of their day (and of course it doesn't hurt that they're both gorgeous!).

2008-03-25T13:25:00.002-04:00

Hodges Family |

One of the most fun (and high-energy) family photo sessions we've done. We don't do a lot of on-location shoots, so it was great to get out and stretch our creativity. We had a blast with Jason and his family, and got some awesome photos.

2008-03-20T10:41:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter!

Molly's spring/Easter photos...

2008-03-12T20:05:00.003-04:00

Jenn & Joachim...Expecting |
We've known Jen & Joachim for several years from soccer, and it's such a thrill to see their family growing! I knew I was getting some good shots, but I was still left speechless when I saw these finished...

2008-03-03T09:59:00.001-05:00

March 3, 2008 4:00 AM PST

Photo industry braces for another revolution

Posted by Stephen Shankland | 1 comment

Think of it as digital photography 2.0.

In the last decade, photography has been transformed by one revolution, the near-total replacement of analog film cameras by digital image sensors. Now researchers and companies are starting to stretch their wings by taking advantage of what a computer can do with sensor data either within the camera or on a full-fledged PC.

Some elements of this new era, which researchers often call computational photography, are refinements of existing technology. For example, some cameras can wait to take the photo only when subjects are smiling and not blinking, in effect placing the shutter release button in the hands of the subjects rather than the photographer.

But more dramatic changes could shift the definition of a camera more dramatically. One major area of research, for example, uses computational processing to create a 3D representation of a scene rather than just the two dimensions of traditional photography.

"There's a shift in thinking going on," said Kevin Connor, who manages professional digital imaging products for Adobe Systems. "People are starting to see the broader possibilities and where we can push things...People are realizing that maybe we shouldn't just be trying to make the best traditional photography experience."

What changes will the new era bring? It's hard to say for sure, but if history is anything to judge by, it'll be a rough but fun ride. On the unpleasant side, I expect market disruption, accelerated product obsolescence, and customer confusion. But I also anticipate genuinely exciting technology that could open up new creative and practical possibilities.

Digital photography 1.0 already has meant hard times for the photography industry. The film business expired almost completely overnight; Polaroid closing its film plants this year is only the most recent example, and Konica Minolta, a venerable camera maker, sold its camera assets to electronics giant and image sensor manufacturer Sony. People can share photos online rather than mailing prints. And camera makers no longer have years to recoup research and design investments in a particular model: although SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras hold their value reasonably well, compact cameras have a shelf life not much longer than a banana.

Early phases
Depending on your definitions, you can argue the computational photography revolution already has begun.

For example, editing software can correct camera lens flaws such as barrel and pincushion distortion, which makes parallel lines bow outward and inward, respectively, or chromatic aberration, which causes colored fringes along high-contrast edges. But that's generally a largely manual process.

At the 6sight conference in Monterey, Calif., last year Adobe's Connor showed computational photography techniques that lets a photo's depth of field be expanded or changed, or the photographer's vantage point be shifted. You can see Connor give a demo of that in the video at right.

More sophisticated possibilities are emerging. Hasselblad's high-end cameras come with software that can perform what it calls Digital Auto Correction, which fixes chromatic aberration and various other problems based specifically on the setting of the lens when the photo was taken.

Because it's a tough computational problem, though, and there's only so much horsepower in the camera, Hasselblad relies on post-processing in software to perform some of the fixes. In essence, the computer has become an extension of the act of pushing the shutter-release button.

Another early area for computational photography involves using a computer to combine multiple photos into one composite shot of the same scene.

Two well-established examples are panoramas and high-dynamic range (HDR) photography. With panoramas, computers can stitch multiple photos together to create a much larger view of a scene than a camera could take on its own. Taken to its extreme, work such as Carnegie Mellon's GigaPan project can produce images gigantic enough to get lost in, at least figuratively.

HDR is more complicated. With it, photographers take multiple pictures of the same scene at different exposure levels then use particular software to produce a composite image that doesn't suffer the common problems of blown-out bright areas and murky shadows. With HDR, photographers can create an image that shows both a cathedral's brilliant stained-glass window and its subdued stonework.

HDR is a painstaking process today. But that might not always be the case. Panasonic is working on an image sensor that takes three separate images of the same scene for better dynamic range. And it's certainly possible that a camera itself could take several images, align them, and create its own HDR image.

A more radical example is merging multiple images to take the best of each. For example, the high-end version of Adobe's Photoshop CS3 can convert multiple pictures of a tourist attraction, each picture cluttered by visitors, into a single scene with the ephemeral humans gone. In one sense, it's fiction, because the moment never happened, but seen another way, it's capturing some of the essence of a scene.

Another way multiple images can be combined is by using MotionDSP, whose software can be used to help intelligence agencies and movie-phone videographers get more out of their imagery. The technology relies on the fact that multiple frames of a video captured the same subject matter, and processing that can produce an image of higher fidelity than what any individual frame possesses.

MotionDSP CEO Sean Varah said it could be possible for a camera to take a burst of five or six images, then computationally combine them into a single, higher-resolution shot. "I think camera guys would love to have that in the camera because they're always trying to sell you a better camera or keep the price point up," Varah said.

Software that can sharpen edges in digital photos has been around for years, but more sophisticated processing is possible, too. MIT researcher Rob Fergus has been working on software to deblur photos marred by camera shake, analyze photos to infer exactly how your camera jiggled when you took it, then back out those changes.

Go deep
It's the 3D realm where some of the more dramatic changes appear. Stereo photography, otherwise known as stereoscopy, has been around since the Victorian age, but that technique relied on taking two images of a scene and letting the human brain reconstruct a 3D image.

Research under way now could let the camera, or a computer afterward, understand the third dimension. That could be useful as a way to help the camera figure how best to focus and expose the a shot. More dramatically, it could lead to three-dimensional hologram shots, assuming somebody crafts economical way to view such data.

One 3D idea comes from Stanford University, where Keith Fife and colleagues have created a camera image sensor that can gauge depth. That sensor works by using hundreds of tiny lenses over the sensor pixels; by comparing the subimages from each subarray of pixels, a computer can judge how far away various features are.

A related technology, from start-up Refocus Imaging, produces data files that can be processed to focus the camera after the photo has been taken. It also can be used to deliberately bring a background into focus or to blur it so it's not distracting.

Essentially, Refocus Imaging substitutes a computer for camera optics. "Computational optics is the next frontier...We can process in software to do what the hardware usually has to do," said Chief Executive Ren Ng.

Making that change could mean the centuries-old, highly refined, sedate optics field could be replaced by breakneck computer industry rates of change.

"You get the ability to scale performance much faster--a curve that looks like Moore's Law," the famous and largely accurate observation by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that computer chips get double the number of transistors every two years.

The Refocus Imaging technology is based on a concept called the light field, a much richer description of light entering a camera. Capturing the light field requires very different processes from conventional cameras, but Adobe thinks it will be built in.

The array of subtly different images of the same scene that Adobe's plenoptic lens produces.

(Credit: Adobe)

"If light field photography becomes much more prevalent, which we believe will happen over time, we think will be much more convent to have it built into your camera," Connor said in a recent speech at the 6sight conference on digital imaging. "We're trying to be a catalyst to get this to happen."

Adobe's plenoptic camera lens can help create a 3D representation of a scene.

(Credit: Adobe)

Adobe also is working in the new domain. It's been showing a prototype camera with a "plenoptic" lens--one made of many smaller lenses. A computer processing the subimages, each with a slightly different perspective, can reconstruct 3D attributes.

Adobe, seeing things in perspective to its image-editing business, envisions a tool that could let you edit only areas of a photo that were close to the photographer. For those who have struggled for hours with detailed masking operations to separate foreground from background, that sort of idea probably sounds like a potential godsend.

But such technology currently exceeds the power of ordinary computers, Connor said in an interview: "It's definitely more computationally intense than the stuff we're typically doing in Photoshop."

But as so many industries have discovered, it's generally a bad idea to bet against Moore's Law.

2008-02-25T14:56:00.001-05:00

2008-01-29T15:58:00.001-05:00

Oh I so want one of these!!!!!

January 29, 2008 7:11 AM PST

Sunex to show off Superfisheye lenses

Posted by Stephen Shankland

Sunex's 185-degree Superfisheye lens costs $799 for Canon and Nikon SLRs.

(Credit: Sunex)

LAS VEGAS--A California company called Sunex wants to make it even easier to photograph your toes inadvertently.

At the Photo Marketing Association trade show here, Sunex plans to show off its new Superfisheye lens whose 5.6mm focal length provide a view encompassing a 185-degree span.

The Superfisheye lens costs $799 for Nikon and Canon SLRs with smaller sensors. It's got a constant f/5.6 aperture. The price includes software to "dewarp" the peculiar fisheye perspective into the rectilinear view humans are more comfortable with..

Sunex builds lenses for applications such as security and automotive cameras, but now it's trying to appeal to amateur and professional photographers, too, the company said.

2007-11-26T18:31:00.000-05:00

Michelle & Ryan | How can we possibly go wrong photographing a couple who kicks off their reception with the Purdue fight song at full volume?!?! Another great couple, another gorgeous wedding, and some more killer photos (little pat on the back there). For a couple used to the sun and sand of L.A., a 38* evening shooting on Monument Circle was a bit of a culture shock, but as usual the photos were worth it in the end!

(Yes, those are top hats...and canes...and monocles!!)

2007-11-26T18:25:00.000-05:00

Beth & Dennis | I've known Beth for several years, and it was such an honor to be asked to photograph her wedding. The day was cold, foggy, and pretty low-key. Small ceremony, small reception, very nice! Kelly and i love weddings of all sorts, from the big flashy limos to the small folksy gatherings like this one. We got some amazing photos of Beth and Dennis, and we look forward to seeing what their future holds.

2007-11-22T20:40:00.000-05:00

Family Portraits |

We've spent most of today watching this great marathon on a new channel that we get on Directv. I forget the name of the channel. Ovation or something like that. Anyway, it's "Photography Week". All kinds of great documentaries on famous photographers. Really got me inspired. So after Thanksgiving Dinner and Molly's birthday party today I started making a series of family portraits. All of these shots are by me except for the one of me (Kelly took that one).

The birthday girl, three today!

Mom...

Dad...

My Mom...

My Dad...

2007-11-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

The Dread Pirate Molly...Aaarrrrggghhhhh / Okay, how cute is she?!

2007-10-22T17:59:00.000-04:00

Drop the Puck, Let's Play Some Hockey!! /
I love fall for a lot of reasons...the weather is cooling off...the trees are beautiful...I have snow to look forward to... But most of all, I think, I love fall because it's the start of hockey season!! Kelly and I are entering our second season as the official team photographers of the Indiana Ice, and it's fantastic to get back in the penalty box and shoot some hockey!! We picked up right where we left off, as did the Ice, starting a perfect 3-0-0 at home. I think our photography is getting better and better all the time (at least I hope so!). Here are a few photos from the first couple games...

Molly is officially a hockey fan now. She's come out to two of the first three games, and is quickly winning over the crowd as an unofficial "Chill Girl" cheerleader.

Saluting the fans after another win...

2007-10-22T17:52:00.000-04:00

Miranda & Donnie / A little late getting this post out, as the wedding was a week ago! Holy cow how time flies!! I flew solo on this wedding, as Kelly was needed for the Ice's home opener. Miranda made a gorgeous bride, and Donnie was quite the dashing groom. Had a fantastic time, and they had an awesome DJ, one of the best I've ever worked with. And of course, I got a lot of great photos!!

2007-10-08T13:58:00.000-04:00

The Sanders Family / I had the opportunity to photograph this family last year about this time, so it's awesome to see them again (and their new addition!). It's October...last year we were in sweatshirts. This year it was just over 90* when we had this session. Ummm, global warming?!?! Anyway, sticky hot day aside, I got some gorgeous photographs of Chad and his family.

2007-09-30T16:49:00.000-04:00

5-0 Baybeee! / Ahh, my first Saturday off in months. Great fall day in college football season, and there's no better place to be than tailgating at a Purdue game. What makes it even sweeter is that this was no ordinary game, but Purdue-Notre Dame. What makes it even better than that is that this was a 4-0 Purdue team at home against an 0-4 ND team. Oh the sweetness and joy was in the air, my friends!!

My buddy Jason and I had a blast tailgating with a group of friends. Of course, I would be remiss as a photographer if I didn't have a camera somewhere on my person to catch some of the events of the day!!

(Yes, that is Grover and Oscar the Grouch partying with the group!!)

("Skinny's" job was to irritate the ND fans.)

(Best. Grill. Ever.)

2007-09-24T09:19:00.000-04:00

Jenny & Matt / While Kelly and I still have a few weddings left in 2007, Jenny and Matt's wedding was the beginning of the end of 'the season' for us. This was the last wedding of a string of pretty much consecutive shooting weekends since early June, so while we're looking forward to a Saturday off, we were also really psyched up to push ourselves and get some fantastic photos for Jenny and Matt. Great day, beautiful sunset, and a really great wedding!

2007-09-24T09:16:00.000-04:00

Molly...Almost Three / And since we had the studio lights set up again for the first time in awhile, Molly just had to come in and get her time in the limelight, too!

2007-09-24T09:07:00.000-04:00

John, Leah, Emma, and Michael / It's been awhile since I've had the chance to do a family studio session, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I got in there and started the session. Their session was scheduled to be about 20-30 minutes and get a dozen or so photos. An hour and nearly a hundred photos later, we were all tired of the flashes but we had some awesome photos!

Some of my favorites...

2007-09-17T21:29:00.000-04:00

Amy & Bryan / This wedding was a big change-of-pace for me personally as a shooter. It was a subcontracted wedding, so not Amy and Bryan weren't a couple that I met with personally and booked. As I got to know them throughout the course of the day, though, I realized that they were the same type of people that we typically book, so I knew that I was going to get some fantastic photos of them. I had the opportunity to shoot with Scott Cleveland, a photographer who I've known for a few years through an online professional discussion forum. It was a bit odd at first shooting with someone other than Kelly, but Scott and I worked great together and were doing the dance of staying out of each other's shots and making sure we had everything covered like we were old hands at shooting together.

As always, I had a blast and got some truly awesome photos. The reception was at the Fountain Square Theatre. Kelly had shot there a few weeks ago and warned me about how dark it was in there. I made sure to bring my big strobes, which gave me plenty of light. Once the technical details were sorted out, I could really start to appreciate how unique this venue is. And then, of course, I started playing around without the big strobes. :-)

Some photos...

Grandma's excited...

Lacing up...

Seeing each other for the first time before the wedding...

My 'arthouse' shot of the night...

Fountain Square Theatre...

My buddy...

Scott's pose, my angle. Yeah, I'd say we work well together...

2007-09-13T16:15:00.000-04:00

Amanda & Eric / You remember how a few weddings back I said it was nice to have a kind of laid-back reception, but that we love a good party-reception too? Well guess what, this was a great party-reception! It's not very often that I end up dancing, but at the end of the night I found myself with no camera in my hand and trying not to make too much of a fool of myself. ;-)

Party aside, this was a great wedding. We had a beautiful ceremony under the tent. Some people think that rain ruins an outside wedding, but as long as there's a tent I kind of like rainy days like that--there's something very soothing and special about the soft rain overlapping the sounds of two people sharing their vows.

Here are just a few moments from the day...

The beast is done!!!

2007-09-02T14:37:00.001-04:00

New computer, originally uploaded by whitesharkphoto.

Asus P5K-Deluxe motherboard.
Intel Core 2 Duo 6750 CPU, 64 bit.
700w power supply.
Diamond Stealth 512MB video card.
300GB SATA system drive.
Dual 1TB SATA RAID arrays.
Antec full-tower case with three-layer noise and thermal shielding.
Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition.

And I built it myself (with some help from my buddy, Jason).

So that's where I've been for the past week. It's been up and running, since the 2nd day of the build, but getting 500,000 photos (about 3/4 of a terabyte) migrated, along with installing all our application software on the new machine, has taken quite awhile.

Now I can finally get back to work (well, mostly. The data still has another two days to migrate!).

2007-08-29T08:05:00.000-04:00

Policy Update \

Updated Policy Regarding Requests for Photo Edits
Effective Immediately
__________________________________________________________
Please note the following change to our policy regarding requested photo edits:

As we process a wedding photography imageset, we will continue to process all photos in the wedding imageset to our high standards of basic post-production. That includes at a minimum: adjusting white balance, exposure, contrast, color balance, and tonality to the RAW image prior to jpg processing. We will also continue to create several artistically enhanced photos to fulfill our creative vision of those selected images.

The client may request additional creative enhancements of up to ten (10) individual images. Enhancements requested beyond those ten will be billed at the rate of $20 per edited photo. An ‘enhancement’ consists of any adjustment to the image, including but not limited to: color adjustment, re-cropping, touch-ups, or application of an artistic effect (soften/glow, black-and-white, sepia, focal-color, etc.).

2007-08-20T14:27:00.000-04:00

Marie & Calvin / It's August in northern Indiana. I grew up in northern Indiana, and I tell you what...what I remember most about August is bugs, heat, humidity, and the occasional thunderstorm. So someone pretty high up must've known that Marie and Calvin were planning an outside wedding for about three hundred and fifty of their friends and wanted to have some nice weather. In the weeks leading up to the wedding it's been a string of unending 90s. Then August 18. Slight overcast and 65*. I actually wore a jacket for the first part of the day. Wow.

And what a fun couple. How can we not love someone that was kind enough to bring us Tim-Tams all the way from Australia!! But aside from that, we had a spectacular day following Calvin and Marie around and documenting their wedding.

And of course, some photos...

'The Living Cross', where Calvin and Marie saw each other for the first time on the wedding day...

2007-08-19T19:49:00.001-04:00

Ch-ch-ch-changesssss / Just a heads-up to those of you that are shopping around and keeping an eye on us in consideration for your wedding photography. We're about to implement some pretty comprehensive changes to our entire wedding photography schema. So if you like what you see from us, please be sure to give us a call or an email asap to lock in current rates and package offerings. :-)

2007-08-16T12:27:00.000-04:00

Johnette & Mike's Engagement / We ventured out into yet another steamy evening to do these photos. Johnette and Mike are an awesome couple; it's not very often that I find myself joking around like old friends with people I've only met a couple times, but they're just so relaxed and comfortable with each other and in their love that it felt like photographing our best friends.

2007-08-12T12:36:00.000-04:00

Megan & Scott / Okay, I'll toot my own horn with this post. I am the champeen of the universe! :-) It's 12:30pm on Sunday. I just got done processing over 1,100 photos from the wedding I got home from last night at 10:30pm. I haven't slept much, but I just couldn't wait to see these photos!

So...Megan and Scott. Great ceremony at St. Louis de Montfort church in Fishers, then we went halfway across town to possibly the most beautiful shooting location in the Indianapolis area, the Gardens at the Lilly House at the IMA. I'd shot out there once or twice before, but never ventured very far into the paths around the gardens. Even with all of us dripping in the 95* heat and humidity I'm so glad we stuck it out and went exploring down the trails a bit...

Then it was on to possibly the most technically challenging reception shoot I've ever done. It was at the Music Mill. Very cool place, but it's a normally dance club / concert venue, so the lighting was really challenging to work with. By the time the reception got started, though, I was seeing and understanding how the lighting was affecting my equipment and I ended up with some amazing photos...

And of course, what's a reception without some genuine polkas from a real-live accordion?!?!

2007-08-10T07:15:00.000-04:00

I knew... / I knew I shouldn't have tempted fate by complaining about the weather. No sooner did I toss up that post the other day than I walked into the kitchen and noticed that I didn't feel the blast of arctic happiness when I walked under the ceiling-mounted HVAC vent. No. Oh please god no. I ran into the den and jumped on the couch, where usually you have to have a blanket even when the rest of the house is sweltering. Uncomfortably warm. Oh huh-uh, this cannot be happening. It's going to be 98* again today. Run to the thermostat. Yep, still set at 71*. House temp is 74*. As I stood there watching it clicked up to 75*. Then it skipped 76* and went right to 77*. I let out a weak little whimpery scream of terror. Our AC was broken.

Right now it's just after 7:00am. The AC has been totally down for about 16 hours. I'm bleary-eyed and miserable. I slept with nothing but a sheet covering me last night with the ceiling fan on high and a box-fan blowing directly at me. Wait, check that. I say 'slept' but what I really mean is I tossed and turned and spent the entire night rolling back and forth on the bed trying to find the cool spot on the sheets and flipping the pillows over to get the cool side. I think actual 'sleep' might have entered into the equation for...ohhhh thirty, maybe thirty-two minutes. I'm one of those people who just cannot sleep unless it's about 65* in the house (or cooler...we have a programmable thermostat and in the winter we regularly let the house drop into the 50s at night). So you can imagine just how much fun it was for me to try to sleep when it was 87* in the house at 11:30pm.

There are times when I really loathe summer in Indiana. Thankfully the AC guy is supposed to come sometime between 10 and 2 today. He gets that thing fixed, I told Kelly to break out the jackets because I'm going to make it snow in the house.

2007-08-08T14:51:00.001-04:00

Is it October yet?? / Rant of the moment. My little Weatherbug widget on my desktop just clicked over to show that it is now 98* outside with enough humidity to make it feel like 105*. Oh my good gravy I'm so ready for a nice blustery October or November day. 45* with a dusting of snow in the morning...now that's heaven. I hate getting out of the shower and already being sweaty. That's just not fun.

2007-08-08T14:08:00.000-04:00

Is it over yet? / A riddle for you today... The day you used to look forward to all year is now the day that you wish would never come.

Any takers?

Yeah, today's my birthday. Big 3-4 today. Kelly was teasing me and saying that she had to buy the super-sized box of candles for my cake this year. Har-de-har-har. I'm finally understanding how people can look at their birthdays as just another day. I woke up this morning and did all the things I usually do--got Molly's breakfast, started some laundry, got the trashcans in, started editing some photos. I don't feel any older. Well okay actually today I do feel a bit older--I played two games of soccer last night in 98* heat. I was sick most of the night and some of this morning from overheating. But I did score a really nifty back-heel goal in my first match with my new team, so I'm not complaining too loudly.

Anyway, that's really been the extent of my birthday. No real presents--we had our large-format printer die on us earlier this week, so we had to drop almost a grand on a new Canon Pixma Pro9500 (which is a gorgeous little piece of printer). I may get a good steak tonight or something, but other than that it's business-as-usual around here. :-)

2007-08-06T12:16:00.000-04:00

Ashley & Travis / Oh where do I even begin with this couple. Let's see, how about this moment...

Or maybe this one??

Does that give you a good idea of the tone and mood of this day? Yeah, I thought so. Usually it's the bride and groom's faces that hurt from all the smiling throughout the day and our feet that hurt from all the standing and shooting. At this wedding it was our faces that hurt from all the laughing and joking around. Our feet? Well yeah they still hurt, but the keg of Woodchuck in the back room at the reception helped to soothe that problem. ;-)

Here are a couple great moments from the day...

Getting ready to see each other for the first time...

Portraits...

(Sorry Travis...two pics of Ashley and only one of you...she's just a lot prettier than you are! ;-) -J)

Rings...

Others...

2007-07-31T07:23:00.000-04:00

The photographer on the wrong end of the lens / It's so rare that I actually get to be in a photo I just had to post this. One of the main reasons I became a photographer is because I think that overall I look like...well...let's just say I don't photograph well. Which again just reinforces how good a photographer Kelly is becoming. Or maybe Molly is just so cute she can overpower my un-photogenic-ness. ;-) Either way, here I am with Molly in the back yard last night.

2007-07-30T12:55:00.000-04:00

Brandi & Eddie / July. Indiana. 4:00pm. Outside. I don't think 'hot' really describes wearing a black shirt, long pants, and about eighteen pounds of camera draped around your neck while trying to do formal portraiture outside in the sun. I just kept trying to remind myself that the guys were wearing full tuxes and just had to be worse off than me. Actually the heat itself wasn't terrible...only about 85F or so. But being July it was so humid that there was a haze hanging in the air.

But oh my gosh did we get great photographs.

I haven't the foggiest idea how Eddie is looking so cool and suave here, knowing how sweaty I was.

And as usual, I thought I nailed the killer portrait of the day when I was doing some solo stuff with Eddie before the ceremony (looks kind of like Robert De Niro, doesn't he??) ...

But then we start pulling cards around 11:30pm after getting home from the wedding, and I see this on one of Kelly's cards. Quite possibly the best flower-girl portrait I've ever seen. Okay, no 'possibly' about it, I LOVE this shot.

I'm amazed every week at how much Kelly is growing as a photographer. She consistently gets the great shots, and with this one showed me just how much a different crop can make one of our more 'stock' shots new and fresh again...

And finally, a couple other random shots from this rather sweaty, but very memorable wedding day...

PS: One last note. Brandi had the coolest idea I've ever seen at a reception. They did a traditional anniversary dance, but instead of giving the last remaining couple (the couple that had been married the longest) a flower or gift or whatever, Brandi surprised them by giving them her bouquet. How unbelievably cool. I like tradition and the bouquet-toss is neat, but this just blew it away. Everybody was tearing up. :-)

2007-07-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

Toe Update / I know my snazzy black toe is the subject of much conversation (yeah, right), but since it is attached to my foot, it kind of sticks in the front of my mind. Anyway, update. Went to the doc this morning for an unrelated checkup, and figured I'd ask him about it. He took one look at it and said, "Yeah, that's definitely broken. We could send you for an x-ray, but either way I'm going to tell you the same thing: Ice it and it'll heal in 6-8 weeks."

Still looks pretty ugly (sorry, no picture goodness this time), but I've played (soccer) on it twice and volleyball on it once, and while it hurts like hell when I kick the ball or land from a jump, it's otherwise not a big deal. I'm wearing shoes again, and overall just kind of ignore it.

2007-07-25T07:57:00.000-04:00

Leah & John's Engagement Photos \ Some recent engagement photos. This was actually the first time I'd met this couple, and it was fun getting to know them throughout the hour or so of the shoot. We managed to sneak in our photos between the threatening clouds, thunderclaps, and bursts of rain showers. It's challenging to shoot in conditions like this, but a lot of the time we can get a couple absolutely awesome shots if the clouds start to break a bit.

2007-07-23T20:58:00.000-04:00

Brittany & Jeremy // Oh my goodness what a fun couple!! I don't know that we've ever photographed a couple so rooted in their faith, their community, and their family as this pair. Brit sang a song to Jeremy during the service and I think I was the only one that got photos of it...Kelly was too busy crying! (Just kidding, I know she got some shots of it, too.)

I love a good party-reception as much as the next guy, but I must say, Jeremy and Brittany's reception was a great change of pace. Very low-key, lots of family and friends hanging out and getting reacquainted, an overall focus on two families joining together. Awesome, absolutely awesome. There was no booze, it didn't run all night, but the 'events' of the afternoon were some of the most spirited and fun we've had the chance to photograph. I especially loved the bouquet toss...lots of girls having a great time!

Kel and I wish this happy couple nothing but the best in their future!! :-)

2007-07-19T13:01:00.000-04:00

This is a rec league?!?!? \ I know I've mentioned it before, but for the uninitiated Kelly and I are gonzo soccer players. We'd play every night if we had the time (and money for league fees). As it is we only play in two leagues currently, and pick up a third league once or twice a year.

Well this past Tuesday night we were playing in our over-30 league. The league we play basically for fun and exercise. There's no trophy, there aren't even t-shirts for the league winners. So in other words, we're out there to kick a ball and get in a good sweat. Some guys, though, don't seem to understand that concept as well as we do. There's one guy who has kind of ehhh-so-so skill, but always seems to go in one step too far, and leads feet-first into every tackle. He regularly bowls over four or five people a game. I've been in goal against his team and gone through him a couple times on balls that were clearly mine. So the other night I'm subbing in on another team to get an extra game in, and playing the field instead of in goal. Ball is just hopping across midfield, and I go to clear it deep. All of a sudden there's six feet and about a hundred-eighty pounds of guy plowing into me, kicking and flailing away at the ball. And totally missing the ball, but beating the everlovin' snot out of my foot. Basically he kicked as hard as he could square into my toes. I've never...never...taken a hit hard enough to jam FOUR of my five toes. I can't even fathom what in the world he was trying to do as I was already on my follow-through finishing the kick when he clobbered me, but this is the end result...

I don't think it's broken. Nothing's really sticking out at an odd angle, and I can move it a little bit. But it's swollen to about twice the size of my other big toe and looks pretty funky! Molly calls it my 'boo-boo toe'.

2007-07-17T12:22:00.000-04:00

iHeart my iPhone / So yeah, I succumbed to the ad pressure and snagged an iPhone. Actually I rationalized myself into it; with as much of our business being on-the-go, it makes good sense to have a fully-functioning internet portal strapped to my hip wherever I go. Plus the big screen and on-board storage make it a spectacular in-situ photo viewer.

I'll admit, I had some serious buyer's remorse, and almost packed the thing up the day after I got it. iTunes is a nightmare to sync correctly with Outlook, if for no other reason that it's got Apple's typical so-simple-it's-almost-too-simple interface. Come on, give me something to check when the thing doesn't work. Don't just pop up an error dialog and tell me it couldn't complete the operation. Give me an error number, a log file, a script line error, a debug option...something. The fact that I'd already loaded it with photos and music made me keep it another couple days, even with no contacts and calendar sync (which was another BIG reason why I'd gotten it in the first place--the ability to keep connected to my main Outlook-based calendar on the road). Finally, after much searching on the web and numerous attempts at reinstalling iTunes and repairing Outlook, I found that the problem was related to some Plaxo contact-management software I'd given a trial run on several months ago. When the software converted my calendar, it basically corrupted it to a version that Outlook could read, but nothing else could. So I created a new profile in Outlook, imported my recent emails and my old calendar information from the database, and voila, iTunes synced up on the first try.

So long story short, my iPhone experience is one of growing love. Did I freak out and think this was the second coming of the technological Jesus? Nahhh, not really. It's most definitely a first-generation device (no on-board games, no installation of new ringtones?? Come on, apple!), but it has grown on me to the point where I don't really miss my Razr anymore. Lost an address on the way to a dinner party? No sweat, open up the browser and hit up whitepages.com. <bing> Oh there's a new email from that wedding photography contact we had last week. What's that, you want to see some wedding photos. No problem, I've got our 'top-50' right here, let me run the slideshow for you.

Yeah, it's definitely growing me...

2007-07-14T20:17:00.000-04:00

Brad & Tori Brad and Tori are a testament to the lasting power of love. They've known each other for more than fifteen years. They were apart for a long time and then love brought them back together. Wow, talk about destiny, huh?!

Photography-wise, this was an...interesting...day. ;-) We were supposed to do the majority of the portraiture before the wedding, but a couple of traffic-locked groomsmen had us sitting around before the wedding and scrambling after. As always though, I just rolled with the punches and rocked through everything on a shortened timeline. The reception was awesome--great dinner, awesome toasts, very cool location (The Indianapolis Yact Club on Geist). Here's a sampling of some of the photos...

2007-07-13T07:54:00.000-04:00

Nick and Jenny...

What an awesome couple, and what an awesome day. We shot this wedding at the Mavris in downtown Indy. John Mavris is a treat to work with, and the venue is just gorgeous. The lighting can be a bit challenging, as there are a lot of deep, rich colors, but once we got the feel for what our cameras were doing, this turned out to be one of our best shoots in a long time.

2007-07-13T07:45:00.000-04:00

Oh my god I need coffee. We have (had) one of those little one-cup coffee maker things, right? Well the little cup-insert thing that holds the coffee while it brews broke the other day. So I pull out our ancient 10-cup coffee pot. Open it up to dump in some freshly ground coffee, and -- oh what's this?! Whoever put the pot away last didn't bother to empty out the old grounds. Hmm, when was the last time we used that pot...Christmas when my parents were visiting, I think. Ewwwww. The innards of my coffee pot had become a rather unsightly science experiment. Take everything apart, scrub it like crazy, send the whole thing through the dishwasher overnight.

I actually had a nightmare last night that the coffeepot still wasn't clean and I couldn't have coffee this morning.

Got up this morning...absolutely dragging...all I want is a cup of coffee. Put everything together, it's nice and clean, yayyyy! Dump the last of my coffee into it, run the machine. When I go to pour a cup, some...thing is sitting in the pot. Looks like a chunk of something that I didn't get scrubbed out had floated its way through the system. Oh, the humanity!!!! Now I have no coffee...again.

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2007-06-18T12:28:00.000-04:00

Formula 1 USGP Day 4 (Race Day)

Oh dear god yesterday was an early, early day. After being out for qualies, and seeing the little note at the bottom of our parking tag that said gates open at 7, and they recommend arriving no later than 8, we figured it might be a good idea to get up early, grab some coffee, and try to get to the track around sunrise. Amazingly enough, we did just that. We were sitting out on the mound running along the turn 8-9-10 complex by around 7:20am.

The race started at 1:00pm.

It's not quite as bad as it sounds, though, because they have several support races throughout the day to pass the time and help keep the fans pumped up. Here's a photo (from the Porsche series race) of two of the cars getting into each other.

By lunchtime it was well over 90 degrees F. Track temp was at an unheard-of 60C. Yeah it was a wee spot warm out there!

Finally!!! The lights went out and the race was on! Typical of many F1 races, the race was won from the front row. The real joy in an F1 race for a true fan is not really so much who wins the race, but the experience of the entire weekend, the lead-up to the race, the qualifications, the testing, the teams and aero configurations of the cars. The race itself is, in some ways, anticlimactic. There was a hell of a battle for first, though, and what made it even more interesting was that the battle was between teammates--Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, both from team Vodafone-McLaren-Mercedes. Hamilton ended up on top in the end, taking his second win in eight days (having previously won the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal).

Here are some more sights from race-day at this awesome spectacle.

On the victory lap...