D90: Informing the Wife

Being a space-cop, Mitch had jurisdiction in many different countries, including Canada. He took it upon himself to fly up to Cardston on his space-cruiser to notify Chester's wife of his untimely demise.

He found Chester's wife Becca at the local park, where she normally had lunch. When Mitch told her what happened, she broke down in tears, half in disbelief over what she'd just heard. It wasn't uncommon for Chester to be gone for a day or too on business, as he'd been taking on more responsibility in recent months.

As Mitch tried to calm the grieving widow down, he noticed two mysterious men nearby shaking hands. When the men saw Mitch, they quickly departed in opposite directions. Mitch gave Becca a ride to her sister's home, and then he set off to find these mysterious men.

Manual: Page 163 - Language
Ummm... yeah, I keep it on English.

Images:Drew Gardner
Drew is a tog in the UK, and has some stellar artistic work.


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D89: The Investigation Begins

Investigating the gruesome death of Chester led Walter to a business park in Montana. Chester's credit card had been used hours after his death at a local parcel delivery business. Walter was interviewing Hank, the delivery supervisor; and John, the store owner.

Both men fully cooperated with Walter and answered all of his questions. Walter was a little suspicious of Hank, as he seemed a little short-tempered in response to some of Walter's questions. Walter later learned that Hank was involved in a altercation with another officer, claiming that the officer had struck Hank for talking back during a routine traffic stop.

Unfortunately the store didn't have a security camera, so Walter was at a dead-end. He hoped that Mitch was having better luck up in Cardston.

Manual: Page 130 - Print Set
Never really had a reason to print directly from the camera. Plus I like to review everything in Lightroom first!

Images:Annie O'Neill
Annie has some awesome wedding & engagement work. I also like her "Studio on the Go" idea.


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D88: Murrrder At the Border

Chester was a good family man. He worked hard, paid his taxes, even went to church. Unfortunately, that just wasn't enough. It was getting harder to make ends meet, and his wife Emily was expecting their 5th child. In an effort to bring in a little extra cash, Chester had been smuggling cheap prescription meds into the United States.

Living in Cardston, Alberta, Chester was close to the Montana border, but checkpoint security had been increased since 9-11. He made his smuggling runs on a silenced snowmobile 34 miles to the west. As he crossed into Montana, Waterton Lakes National Park became Glacier National Park. His contact had a secluded cabin in Glacier which proved to be invaluable for their transactions.

This would be his last trip...


A local helicopter pilot spotted the body while he was flying tourists on a tour through Glacier. He immediately radioed for police assistance, and relayed his GPS coordinates.

As Mitch pulled up on his Space Cruiser 2000(also equipped for snow travel, strangely), Walter radioed the helicopter and told them to call off the search. Whoever had done this was long gone and they weren't going to find them today.

It appeared that the victim had been killed with a single, clean blow, only feet from the Canadian border. There was a single set of snowmobile tracks, and nothing else. How could this have happened?

Manual: Page 129 - Hide Image
This option may or may not have come in handy once or twice. :)

Images:John Cornforth
John's images are just breathtaking, plain & simple! Take some time to browse through his work. He recently had one of his humpback whale pictures make the cover of Alaska Airlines magazine.


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D87: The Players

Today is the beginning of my Lego series, so I decided to introduce everyone.

On the learning side, it will be good practice with custom white balances, lighting, framing, etc. I've already started developing some presets in Lightroom & Photoshop, so its great practice.

Rather than just do a series of images, I decided to take a more unconventional approach. Follow along to watch as the drama unfolds!

Manual: Page 123 - The Menu Guide
Another "cheat" day, but I'm starting to run out of pages. Getting closer to in-depth testing!

Images:Kia Bondurant
Wow. Looking through the amazing senior gallery, I realize how badly I want to take the plunge and open a studio space. Hopefully this summer will allow me to do that.


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D86: Voices

When I awoke this morning, snow was lightly falling and calling my name. I quickly got ready, grabbed some coffee, and headed out the door. I've been wanting to take some shots in the cemetery this winter, but the snow has not been sticking very well.

As I arrived at the cemetery I noticed the snow was cooperating perfectly. I decided to leave the warmth of my truck and do some walking.

There was an overall feeling of warmth and reverence as I wandered up & down paths through this vast resting place. At one point I swear I heard soft voices singing a song in the distance behind me. When I turned around the singing stopped. I can't explain why, but I didn't feel creeped out at all. I had this strange sense of acceptance of this event that I could not explain.

As I continued my journey, I came across a headstone with this written on the back:

I wondered what his story was. What kind of man was he? Why didn't he have any children of his own? Does anyone come to visit his grave?

I hope my own headstone will have more than "uncle" on it. I'd like to think that I will have little ones running around one day, to carry on my legacy.

Some headstones were covered in snow, as if asking for a little privacy. Others stood alone, seemingly watching guard in solitude.

Below I've included a few other shots from this morning.







Manual: Page 122 - Deleting Individual Photographs
Once in a great while I'll get bored between shoots and actually delete my test shots.

Images:David Wittig
I really like David's b&w wedding work.


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D85: The Best Laid Plans

"We're going to the Sundance Film Festival today? Perfect, I'll pack my camera bag!"

A spur of the moment road trip combined with a picturesque ski-town promised to be quite a photo op.

As it turns out, I was more concerned about enjoying myself on my 1 night out of town than toting camera gear around. If I had an extra day to spend in Park City, I would have definitely spent more time behind the camera. Maybe next year I'll go down for a few days.

In the end I had a great time, and some great stories came out of the trip.

Manual: Page 121 - Protecting Photographs From Deletion
This is a feature I've only used once. With larger format memory cards, I've never had a reason to delete photos in-camera.

Images:Emilie Sommer
Emilie has some fantastic photo journalistic wedding galleries.


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D84: Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Smug

My roommate & I ventured down to Park City, Utah today for the closing weekend of the Sundance Film Festival. Smug was the dress-code, and we played it well. Never have I been to a place where a stocking cap, scarf, and sunglasses indoors were almost required.

We hit up galleries, restaurants, bars, the whole works. If there was something going down on Main Street tonight, we probably stopped by.

I've NEVER entertained the idea of living in Utah. Never ever. However, Park City is already starting to grow on me...

Manual: Page 170 - Television Playback
I only really use this when we have family get-togethers.

Images:Annette Biggers
Annette is from Triple Cord Photography, and is an amazing talent. I think their website is absolutely fantastically designed. Just Wow.


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