Kayleigh, Jackson and Lyla
Before our recent family vacation to Memphis, I hadn’t met me new niece Kayleigh May except through other people’s pictures. One of my goals while out there was to get my sister-in-law/bro-in-law some great pictures of the kids and especially Kayleigh. Kayleigh’s big brother is named Jackson and of course, my daughter Lyla, their cousin, also wanted to be in some pictures. Okay, WE wanted her in them. Parents, sheesh. The first little shoot I did with Kayleigh was unplanned. We were at a playground late in the day with the kids and I saw this little grassy area out [...]
A tree in the wind
(click to see a bigger tree with a nice black border) Time for a nice little break from all the storm photos! So sometimes you get shots on purpose and most of the time it seems they come from unplanned moments or complete accidents. While I was in Kansas awaiting a line of storms to move into my vicinity, I sat at a pull-out and took a nap. I hadn’t slept but two hours in the last 30, so I was beat. I woke up about 30 minutes later and of course had to use the restroom. There was a [...]
A lightning photography tutorial
(exif: canon eos 5d mark ii, canon 85mm 1.8, iso 100, f/7.1, 30 sec – Click for a larger view – Taken this summer in Arizona) Whenever I post lightning photos, I usually get a few questions about HOW I shoot them. What’s most surprising though are the ones I get from fellow photographers. In the last few days I’ve received a few questions that can basically be summed up like this: “How do you get the timing right?” The other one I get is whether or not I used a lightning trigger. I’ll address that later in this post. [...]
Up in the Air
(Click to see the image full-sized or so it fits your monitor) It’s another Movie Title Wednesday and this one comes from the sky and a Southwest Airlines window seat. I can’t tell you how lucky I was to sit on this site of the plane…the other side I believe didn’t get to see the action in the clouds that I did. First off…Up in the Air. A fantastic film starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. It’s such a brilliant film and really tells the story of what it’s like for some of these guys who are constantly [...]
First lightning of the year
I knew it would work out this way. After spending three days driving 2200 miles stormchasing the midwest…and getting essentially nothing…all it took was a vacation to Memphis and standing outside on the patio to get my first real lightning shots of the season. I did get a few in Nebraska two weeks ago, but they were from pretty far away and don’t really measure up to my standards *tee hee* I actually did take my bro-in-law’s car and drove about 1/4 mile down the road to a more open area to get the shot above, but most of the [...]
Storms from the air
Oh I’m on vacation, need a nap, don’t want to be on the computer too much, but I took a couple of shots of some severe weather in the midwest as we twisted and turned in the air to avoid all of it. No matter what I see on the ground…there is something so majestic about flying close to a towering thunderstorm. It’s hard to compete with that. If someone gave me the power to fly, I think that would be the first thing I’d do. Find me a storm and fly alongside it. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
The Dark Tower
(click the image to view full size for your resolution, or if you have a humongous monitor, see it larger!) Ah yes…rain in Phoenix. It’s always awesome. I can be completely “blah” about photography for whatever reason…long days at work, tiredness, blue skies, no motivation, you name it. But rain arrives, stormy skies ensue and suddenly nothing can stop me from getting out and exploring the world. If you’ve followed me for long, you may have seen a shot or two of Chase Tower in downtown Phoenix. I didn’t go down there last night with the intention of shooting it [...]
Scott, Karen, Ryan and Megan
Back many years ago, we attended Hope Covenant Church for a bit of time. We made some friends there, connected with people on Facebook, etc. Fast-forward to this past fall and a family that we knew there wanted some family portraits done, so we visited downtown Gilbert and got some shots. Then a second Hope family, a group of musicians, hit me up as well. Well, Scott, Karen, Ryan and Megan make the third family from that church to come out and do a shoot with me. I’m so totally grateful for all of these people and the way they’ve [...]
Forrest Gump
(Click to see the spooky house larger in all its spookiness. Looks better with a nice, dark border) For any new readers, it’s Movie Title Wednesday on my blog, where I try to link a photograph I take to a movie I’ve seen…and enjoyed. Definitely up there in my Top 10 All-Time Movie list is Forrest Gump. Heck, it’s impact on our culture was big enough to warrant an actual sign on the highway that Forrest Gump “ran” on during the movie (see Kristi’s photo). It was a movie where I felt like I kind of sat there with my [...]
A Kansas sunset
(Click on the image for a larger-than-normal view…also makes the wheat field a bit more visible) There was something special about this sunset. I don’t know what it was, but when I was crouching down in front of this wheat field, I was in awe. Here I was, in western Kansas, in a place I’d never been before, in the middle of nowhere, not a sound but chirping birds, not a car to be seen…witnessing something beautiful. The irony is that this was our last gasp for a storm on Wednesday before it was time for me to go. My [...]
Mike is a Phoenix Wedding Photographer based in Arizona and can be contacted via all the normal methods and then some.