New Years in Maui

I thought I was done shooting weddings for the year but it looks like I will have one more. My friend JD and his fiance, Jackie, are flying me to Maui to shoot their New Year's Eve Wedding. I am so excited! What a great time to get away from this cold Midwest weather too. Stay tuned through the New Year to see some amazing photos of their wedding. They are such a beautiful couple! Thanks JD and Jackie. I look forward to photographing your wedding and surfing into the New Year!

Funny video from Chicago

Some of you may remember that I went to Chicago a few weeks ago to meet with Bob and Dawn Davis and help my friend move. As you know, moving is a lot of work so you have to find creative ways to keep yourself going. This video is hilarious and shows one of the ways we entertained ourselves during it all. Sorry about the bad quality but his was taken from my phone.

Nature photos

Well it is becoming winter now and the wedding season is slowing down. Here are some photos I took a few weeks ago at Botanica Gardens in Wichita, Kansas. It was a beautiful day when I took these and I hope they help you forget about the cold weather outside. Please leave comments for me. I love to hear from everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving

Be thankful for all that you have today. I am so thankful for my friends, family, my job, the joy the Lord has given me and many more things. What are some of the things you are most thankful for?

Forget about all your struggles and remember those things your thankful for today.
Eat turkey, watch football, and have awesome fellowship with friends and family.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

The Frohawk

My stylist did my hair a little different today. She gave me a frohawk. Is it me?

Liz and Tom 11.10.07

Last Saturday I was pleasantly woke-up by a phone call from my friend Denise Klee. She was sick and needed me to shoot a wedding for her in two hours. I quickly got up to get ready and out the door to the church. It was a beautiful stone clad church in the middle of Westport. Liz, the bride, was beautiful and had the most amazing dress I have seen. She was frustrated that Denise couldn't be there but once we started shooting I could really see her enjoying herself.

We did a 'first glance' at the front of the church where Liz came down the isle to see Tom, her husband-to-be, for the first time. They were so great together and you could see them both glow after they turned to see each other for the first time that day.

The reception was at The Clubhouse on Baltimore in downtown Kansas City. It's a beautifully elegant building. We were able to go out on one of the balconies and get some great shots with the Kansas City skyline in the background. The wedding was short but we got tons of great photos. Liz, Tom and both mothers were very nice and complimented me even though I was a last minute photographer at their wedding. Thank you all. Congratulations Liz and Tom!

New Horizon Ranch : Boots 'n Bling Benefit Gala

Saturday was a super busy day for me. After I shot a last minute wedding (I will post about that later) I then went to photograph a fund-raiser called Boots 'n Bling Benefit Gala for New Horizon Ranch. What a great organization and it was such a Godsend for me to get connected with these guys and volunteer my photography. I met a couple of the guys involved with New Horizon Ranch last week when I was at a bachelor's party. We started talking about it and Mitch and Nick invited me out to shoot some photos for them. I love to volunteer my time and talents to great causes and after saying all that I have to tell you what makes New Horizon Ranch so awesome...

New Horizon Ranch is an equine assisted learning facility located in Rantoul, KS. Through horseback riding they serve children with various physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities. Each week brings new opportunities for improvement in riding skills, communication, physical strength, socialization and interaction with the horses in an atmosphere that is both fun and challenging. They have nearly 50 volunteers and 20 riders right now.

The Boots 'n Bling Benefit Gala on Saturday was hosted at the Bohi Ranch with a western theme. We had a great meal provided by Nick Hunt. Each table was decorated for each rider that was represented at New Horizon Ranch. A silent auction and a live auction was given to raise money with everything from a Paris-style dinner for four to Garth Brooks concert tickets. Most importantly was recognizing the volunteers and the kids. A couple of the riders got to speak about how New Horizon Ranch has changed their lives and that was followed by a video that brought the experience to every table in the room. There was also great live music by to young amazing arists that played everything from praise music to Johnny Cash. I wish I would have gotten their names cause they were amazing!

I just love seeing people come together to help out others, especially our youth. It was great talking with Brian Miller (President/Founder) and listening to him share his heart and vision for New Horizon Ranch. If you would like to get involved or donate to New Horizon Ranch then click here to go to the website and get more information. Enjoy some photos from the evening...



Brian and Joy Miller with their beautiful daughter...


Brian, Nick and Mitch...


Mmmmmmmmm...








Eric earns "Rider of the Year"...

Broncos break five year Arrowhead drought

Some of you may not know this but I am a huge Denver Broncos fan. This makes me an outcast living in Kansas City. The Chiefs are in the same division as the Broncos so Denver fans aren't liked too much around these parts. Well, I had the pleasure of going to the Chiefs/Broncos game on Sunday. I gladly sported my John Elway jersey and listened to all the Chiefs' fans criticize me and the legend's name on my back. At the end of the game they all were silent. The sea of red calmly poured out of Arrowhead stadium as the final seconds clicked off the scoreboard. The scoreboard showed 27-10 as my Broncos were victorious in Kansas City for the first time in 5 years.
I had an awesome time tailgating with my friends. Rob was the only other Denver fan among us and we celebrated the victory. This was also the first game for Janak's son, Peyton. I think I converted him to a Bronco fan by the end of the game:)

Beer and Brats... mmmmmmm



The Shahs...



This one is my favorite...


I am a huge mullet fan and this ladies mullet was classic...


Before the game...


Oh yeah, he would have rather been wearing my jersey:)


Sweet victory!!! GO BRONCOS!

Slideshow with my brother and family

Here is a slideshow of the family portraits I did for my brother and his family a couple of weeks ago at the Indian Center in Wichita. It was fun trying to get expressions out of my brother. Especially when I had him look into his wife's (Lori) eyes. They both just started laughing. I still managed to get some great photos of them together. My nephew, Colby, refused to look at anyone in the eyes but he was all about me taking his photo when he was climbing the rocks. Then Candace, my neice, got her diva poses on. I taught her how to use my camera and she took a couple of great shots of me and my brother together. We haven't had our photo taking together for awhile. I had a great time hanging out with my family and we got some great shots. Enjoy the slideshow...

My brother and I...

Last week I went home to Wichita, Kansas and took family portraits of my brother's family. Above is a photo that my niece took of my brother, Jeff, and I. It is soooo hilarious how different we are! Jeff is the good 'ol country boy that often wears his boots and cowboy hat. He is often quiet and doesn't share a whole lot but will do anything for anybody. Not very emotional of a guy. Then there is ME... I am the complete city boy with my hair always highlighted and styled with my trendy shirts and whitewash jeans. I am always in for a deep conversation or making people laugh (usually you can't get me to shut-up:). I have also been told that I wear my emotions on my sleeve. Quite the contrasting brothers! Well, biologically we have different dads but he has been my big brother since I was born. I say that to help explain the huge physical difference between us... ME- tall and slender, Him- short and stalky!

My brother is so great though. He will really do anything to help anyone out if he can, and he often does. He has helped me with so many things in life. Jeff frames houses and runs his own construction business, Jeff Keith Construction. Being a gifted carpenter is like having a pickup truck... the people that know about it all want to be your closest friend. My brother has done so much for so many people and he has to be the best at what he does. I have worked with him for many summers in the blistering sun and noticed that he never says no and never cuts corners. He is much of a perfectionist at his work, like me. Oh wait, I guess we do have something in common haha. I love my brother and his family. He is married to his wife Lori and has a son (Colby) and step-daughter (my neice, Candace, that took this photo). I will share more photos of our shoot soon.

Family Portraits at the Nelson

I did another family portrait session for my friend Denise of Delaney Photography last week. Bruce and Sandy have three boys and we met at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to get some photos of the family and shots of the boys with their music instruments. The sky was a beautiful blue which gave a good background to some great photos. I think I got some weird looks when they saw me laying on the ground asking them to all walk toward me. That's ok though because they got comfortable with me and started making crazy faces for the camera. I even got some shots of Bruce and Sandy looking at each other like they were falling in love all over again. I love those shots! Thanks guys. I had a great time meeting and photographing your family.

This one is for the photographers...

For sometime now I have been wanting to share some of my photography tips with other photographers. This is my first blog post in doing that. I have seen a lot of flat black and white photos from many photographers. I wanted to share a trick in Photoshop that I use to help give a little punch to my b/w photos. There are many different ways to change a color photo to b/w. I generally go to Desaturate under Image>Adjustments. However you choose to change your photo to b/w is up to you but the second part is the most important part known as the Gradient Map. This will add the punch to your b/w photo. Start by selecting the Adjustment Layer Menu (the black and white circle at the bottom of the Layers Palette) and select Gradient Map. The Gradient Map window will appear. Double click on the gradient box and make sure that the white to black gradient is chosen in your presets. After that, make sure that you have the Reverse box checked then click OK. You will see a big difference in your photo now and a Gradient Map Layer will appear in your Layers Palette. From here you can adjust the opacity on this layer to decrease the amount of punch you want applied to your photo. If you need more punch you can duplicate the layer. Look at the before and after photos below. On this particular photo I applied two Gradient Map Layers. One was 100% and the other one was 50%. Look at how the second photo really pops with the added contrast and punch from the Gradient Map. I hope that this helps you bring out the best in your black and white photos!




P.S. I will be putting together some actions for Photoshop that will apply this effect along with many others. I want to see how many photographers out there would be interested in receiving these actions. Please leave a comment if this post was helpful to you and if you would be interested in receiving more photography tips on this blog. Thanks!