D93: Mitch To The Rescue!

Mitch had been trying to call Walter with no response, and he was getting worried. Luckily his space-cruiser was outfitted with endless amounts of technology.

As he tapped into Walter's phone, Mitch realized Walter was in serious trouble.

Mitch snuck in while Hank was bragging about what he had done to Chester. Mitch quickly got the drop on Hank, and together they placed him into custody. Hank would be going away for a long time.

Having solved one of the worst murders in Montana's history, Mitch & Walter both received promotions. Mitch was now a space police chief, and Walter was the new police commissioner, replacing his retiring mentor.

Things seemed to be calming down. For now...

Manual: Page 181 - Technical Notes
Its Sunday, time for a cheat day!

Images:Joe Wigfall
Joe has some really cool shot of street photography in NYC.


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D92: Suspicions Confirmed

After running into a few dead-end leads, Walter couldn't stop thinking about the parcel delivery company. Something kept nagging at him, so he headed back to where his investigation 1st began.

Walter headed around to the loading bay to talk to Hank, the delivery supervisor he had met earlier in the week. The door was open, but everyone seemed to be at lunch. Walter poked around a little, and came across an open crate. It seemed to contain prescription meds.

What Walter didn't know was that someone WAS still in the building...





As it turns out, Hank was Chester's Montana connection, and also Chester's murderer. Hank got greedy and wanted a bigger cut of the profits, but Chester didn't want any part of that. Hank knocked Chester out, then took him into the mountains near the Canadian border. After dispatching Chester, Hank took the snowmobile and hid it near his cabin. Walter was the only one who knew the truth.

They were all alone...

Manual: Page 145 - Custom Setting 10: Exp Comp
I probably would have benefited from using the exposure compensation today at the ski resort. I'm headed back up in a few days and I think I'll try it then!

Images:Matt Mendelsohn
Wow. Just wow. Matt's "21 in 21" series is fantastic.


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D91: Misconceptions

Mitch finally caught up with the mystery men, after a short chase. He called in their ID's to have them checked out. They didn't speak any English, but their ID's listed them as Habib and Omar.

Eight years patrolling the galaxy left Mitch with a little paranoia. As it turned out, Habib and Omar were also no stranger to paranoia.

Habib and Omar had learned to be suspicious and fearful of authorities in their homeland. When they saw Mitch, running was more instinct than reaction. The fact that they didn't speak English wasn't helping get things straightened out. Luckily they had friends on the way.



Henry heard that his friends had been detained for questioning, and quickly located Mitch. Henry, along with Omar and Habib, were all archaeologists that had traveled to Cardston on a dig. Julie was an anthropologist serving as their translator.

As Henry smoothed things over with Mitch, Julie was arguing with Omar and Habib; likely scolding them for their behavior while visiting Canada.

This left Mitch with no leads on Chester's murderer. He could only hope that Walter was making better progress in Montana.

Manual: Page 164 - Comments
I've never really found a need for adding comments to photos in the field. Still, nice to know I have the option.

Images:Bill Frakes
Bill is a staff photographer for Sports Illustrated. He has worked all over the world and he has some pretty powerful images in his portfolio.


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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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