In the July issue of Charisma magazine, you’ll see that the cover story addresses some questions of eternal magnitute.  What you don’t see is that the cover image of Heaven and Hell was created on a much more diminutive scale.

Shot in my garage, a foot-tall block of selectively distressed styrofoam was used for the cavernous vision of Hell and a bag of cotton balls provided a platform for the figure entering the glory of Heaven (actually, that’s me standing in my driveway).

Working in miniature gave me versatility in changing the two landscapes on the fly and was just right for this project’s props budget, which was little more than the cost of the cotton balls.

If you happen to be in the UK this January, stop by a newsstand and flip to pages 6 and 7 in Photo Pro Magazine and you will find my little family gazing up at the space shuttle in an image I took back in August.
Big thanks to Terry Hope at Photo Pro for displaying the photo so well and also to my good friend and mentor John Moran for showing it to David Hobby at Strobist.com, who so graciously put it before an international audience on his blog so that Terry could find it.  I (heart) strobist.com.
This is proof to me that you never know were your images will go after the shutter clicks.

I recently spoke to a local camera club about my experience as a photojournalist working for daily newspapers over the last decade. Preparing for the meeting, I went through all the files I had readily available from my archives, and–WHOA–the flood of memories came.
I feel fortunate to be able to take photographs for a living, but an added bonus is the visual diary that’s been created without really thinking about it. At a glance I can see that I was watching an Elvis impersonator snuggle a nursing home resident on February 25, 2003. On April 1, 2004, I was riding in the back of a Humvee in Iraq (shaking in my bulletproof vest). November 2, 2007, was the day I shared a moment with a lovely lady named Nancy Lemmer as she saw her granddaughter for the first time. The woman in the photo above is Mrs. Blanche Cobb, who was 104 at the time that photo was taken on January 5, 2005. Her wit was as sharp as a tack.
It’s not always easy to see each day’s blessing, but looking back at the culmination of moments, I’m humbled by the privilege of being a witness to them all. Click here to see some of the images from the past decade.

My newspaper job has it’s frustrations, but today makes up for every city council meeting and illustration by committee I’ve ever had to do.  Doing an advance for the Sea and Sky Spectacular airshow, I had the wonderful opportunity to take a ride with aerobatic pilot Lt. Col. John Klatt in his Extra 300L Air National Guard plane.  It was a difficult place to shoot since I could only take one camera and one lens and I had to hold the camera behind my head from the front cockpit position and shoot blindly back at Lt. Col. Klatt, but I liked the frame above as he went inverted.  The Canon 15mm fisheye I was using gave the horizon a nice curve that I thought gave the illusion that we were in a low-Earth orbit.  It was a very good day to be a photographer.

The House of Heroes came to town today for a show at the Murray Hill Theatre here in Jacksonville, FL,  and I had the pleasure of doing an abbreviated 30-minute shoot before their set.  Some of the photos will be featured on their upcoming Christmas album.

I shared with the drummer Colin (pictured, center) that my son Isaac often bursts out in song to the tune of one their tracks.  He said his three year old does the same thing.  So you know, if you’re able to capture the musical interest of a toddler, you’re either on par with Barney the Dinosaur or you’ve really got talent and mass appeal.  I think HOH has accomplished  the latter (and could take down Barney with one a cappella harmony).

Any way you look at it, they have a great sound, and they’re awesome to work with.  Check them out here.

Calligraphy ink and compressed air were the primary tools I used for an illustration about adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  The pitch dark droplets spread into hundreds of veinous branches with each puff from the air canister.  I scanned several of the ink formations along with a few drips and splats and layered them in colorful variations over a portrait of my beautiful bride, Kristie, giving her best pensive stare.  For the record, she’s the most focused person I know.

Space Shuttle Discovery launch, August 29, 2009, as viewed from our neighborhood.  I love living in Florida! Get some explanation for this image at www.strobist.com.

Tim Tebow…Wow, what a great guy!  This is the third year in a row I’ve photographed him for the Florida Times-Union’s annual college football section, and he’s as unpretentious and gracious with his time now as he was as a freshman.

Click here for more about how the above composite was made.  It involved a milkcrate, a hip replacement and a pair orange and blue Crocs.

The “For the Love of ‘Trek’” portrait series was published in The Florida Times-Union today.  It was fun meeting so many people with a similar interest for Star Trek.  Hopefully, the new movie lives up to all the expectations.  View a gallery with outtakes here.

Working again with Jeremy Beasley Midnight Morning, Inc., I did a morning shoot with the guys from Red Letter Bullet.  Our location was the ruins of a roadside motel that looked as though it had been left to the weeds in the 1960s.  Click here for more from the shoot.