To my wedding clients! I am nearly done processing all the lovely photos and albums from 2008. Look for an email this week and next from me with your amazing album proofs. I love you all!

Josh and his brother Ryan wanted to get some photos done for their parents for the holidays. Josh brought along his fiancé, Erin, and we all met down behind Union Station in Kansas City near Jack Stack BBQ (the best BBQ in KC!). We proceeded from there and got a ton of fun photos on a very brisk Saturday morning. I hope you all like them.

We had to get some “couple” photos for the two of Josh and Erin, so here are a selection of those. Josh is a very tall dude and Erin is a bit vertically challenged. They are so cute together!

Josh contacted me as a referral from an awesome photographer, Heather Cole, who was already booked. Thanks Heather!

One of my long-time friends and clients is Nate Bock. He is a wonderful daddy and husband and is highly intelligent. Even now, with his doctorate, he still has plenty of study sessions. Nate used to be my student minister at my church when I was in high school! He made a move down to Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield, MO a couple years ago and has been building an excellent student ministry down there. He has two great staff members that I work with often, Julie & Erica. We all know who really runs the show, don’t we ladies?

I drove down to Springfield a few weeks back and we shot in the downtown area for some promotional photos to be used for various things. What a great little city! It just feels like home even when you visit. Here are some of my favorites from that sweltering, hot day.

Lastly, my favorite…although, not Nate’s.

Last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet the Mannix crew and shoot Jamie’s senior photos.  The whole family is absolutely beautiful and are a true-blue, genuine all American group of people.

This year, I got to shoot Jordan, who graduates in 2008. Jordan is a soft-spoken dude, who is kind and has a quick smile. The guy is built like a football player, because he is one. Although I am six foot tall, he towers over me! Jordan, his uber-cool Mom and I headed down to the Plaza which is one of Jordan’s favorite places. We had a fun time exploring some new areas down there and we didn’t even get security called on us this time. Pretty cool, huh?

My favorite!

Yes, I am the skinny, white, bald geek and Jordan is the strong, huge, tan, good-lookin’ guy. Rub it in. Go ahead.

I will add to this intermittently, but only if you all want me to. Let me know if you would like to see more of my old work. If anything, we can share in the humiliation and I can show you how far I am hopefully coming.

The first official From the Archives photo, #001:

I had the opportunity to shoot a local actor, soon-to-be model last week. Dustin McKamie went to New York a few weeks back for auditions with over a thousand other talents, including my good friend, DJ Rouse.

Dustin came back from the event having been voted Actor of the Year and Male Fitness Model of the Year by the judging panel. The funny thing is, Dustin hadn’t ever modeled before! Now, armed with a full Steller portfolio, he is on his way to L.A. to start his new career.

We shot down on the Plaza…yet again. I think I shoot there too often!…Anyway, we got everything he needed to kick-start his portfolio and had a blast doing it.

Notes: Shot natural light, Nikon D200 with 50mm 1.4, processed in Adobe Lightroom with my exclusive Steller set of presets (coming soon to photographers everywhere!). Touch-ups in Photoshop.

This was Dustin’s Headshot choice:

Cool it, ladies….just cool it…

Oh, and Stefanie is a super good pal with Jamie, another cool senior I shot with last year.

Adrian Zaragoza, Artistic Director at Beauty Brands on the Plaza, did her hair before our shoot. We promptly went out into the humid hotness of the evening and began the shoot! Boy, it was hot out. I was perspiring…no, I was sweating…like crazy (can’t wait for Fall!), but I didn’t melt, so I guess my mom was wrong about me being sugary sweet, huh?

Without further ado, here are the results from the joy that was Stefanie’s session.

And a couple photos for me…

We got to know one another, meeting at Starbuck’s on the Country Club Plaza and then meandering around exploring and having a good ol’ time. I hope the pictures show it. Let me know what you think!

Normally, I wouldn’t post a sultry pic like this first, but this was the first shot out of the camera! Hot!

Sticking out tongues!

His killer blue eyes make for wicked black & whites.

Hot!

Running!

Follow the arrows, bro. Follow the arrows.

Even their backsides are cute. It makes me sick.

As an experiment: I purchased a cool texture of iStockphoto and did some playing around. What do you think?

We added a cute little addition to my immediate household. Born May 8th and adopted last week. She is an Australian Shepherd and Golden Lab mix. She was the runt of the litter and is calm and sweet and loving. Her name is Madison (after the President…her brother was Truman and her sister was Kennedy). She is already fitting in with our routine and becoming a permanent fixture in our lives. I only wish the ever talented Erin Vey lived closer so she and Gracie could play!

My sister, Lacey (from a previous post), had her healthy baby girl! 3 hour, natural delivery with no drugs…yeah, she’s super-woman.

In the photos, you see Ruby only 24 hours young, still in the hospital. She is now a week or so old. In one of the photos, you see daddy’s proud hands holding his second daughter. I know exactly how proud he feels right now! Congratulations, Lacey & Danny and Lily!

Sneaky, sneaky! Anyway, we only had a few minutes to do these photos on one day (the 4th of July) and about 10 minutes a couple days later…The reason for the sneakiness is we are surprising my brother-in-law with the photos. We had to be very quick, we literally just shot the pics and ran back inside in a span of about 10 minutes. They were shot at my folk’s 400 acre farm.

Oh! And my sister is due in just a week or two.