M-I-Z-Z-O-U oops!

Been too long since my last update, and I sincerely apologize for that. It’s been a pretty busy few months, and just haven’t made the time to update the blog.

However, I had the fun assignment of covering the ESPN Thursday night NCAA game between Missouri and Nebraska. MU was undefeated going into the game, although being ranked 24 in the AP Poll, and Nebraska was ranked at 21.

It had rained most all day, and that situation didn’t change all during the game. And although I’ve got rain covers for myself and my gear, it still was pretty miserable to shoot. On the flipside, the rain did make for some cool shots!

Below are a few of my favorite ones, but many more Random shots are on my website here!

And one of my shots made ESPN’s headline shot on the NCAAFB page from the game:

Although it was wet, chilly, and crowded, it was a really fun game to shoot. I really wish MU would’ve pulled out the win (they blew it in the fourth quarter, losing 27-12), but…it’s a ‘rebuilding year’, right?

Several more of my shots from the game can be found here on my Random Photography website. As usual, thanks for looking, and I’ll hopefully update again soon!

Myla – SUPERSTAH!!

It’s been a really, really busy last month or so, and I’m lovin’ every minute of it!

But, I wanted to share with you all a way cool shoot I had recently with Three Dog Bakery. This company is sooo cool! I love working with them, everyone from the corporate office to the store on the Plaza are awesome, incredibly creative, and just FUN people to be around.

Well, for their Fall and Howl-O-Ween treat promotions coming up, they asked if our Great Dane Myla would like to be included in the shoot – I checked with her agent, and discussed it with her, and she “greedily” agreed.  So, here’s a first look at the in-store poster that will be in all of the Three Dog Bakery locations soon:

Treats for Tricks

So, Myla was a very good dog, and on her best behavior and did her tricks for everyone,

Pure talent

and then she got what she really wanted:

MMM! Bat Cookies!

and:

More Treats!

Don’t these treats look good enough to eat?  They are, actually. They are made from all-natural ingredients, so they not only look great – they’re healthy for your dog! (I have to admit – I’ve tried a few myself, and they’re pretty tasty…)

And, here’s a few photos that will be ‘shelf-talkers’ highlighting more of the groovy goodness at ThreeDog:

Overall, it was a great shoot – lots of fun, and Myla had a blast!  I wonder if this explains why she’s been sneaking glances of herself in the full-length mirror lately?  Think it’s going to her head?

If you get a chance, check out Three Dog Bakery’s website, or visit a store near you, and treat your four-legged furry critters to some delicious goodness that’s also healthy for ‘em!

Myla (SUPERSTAH!) definitely approves!

More treats, please!

There’s never been a better time – than RIGHT NOW!

It is my great pleasure to introduce you to my very first guest blogger!  Meet  Cindy Augustine, owner of Kazoo Marketing.  Cindy is a Strategic Media Planner/Buyer, with over 10 years experience in the industry.  She has assisted clients with their paid media campaigns from coast to coast, and works with all mediums, including traditional and online.

Additionally, Cindy is the president of The Freelance Exchange of Kansas City, THE resource for marketing, advertising, copyrighting, photography, printing, and most other disciplines of freelance talent for the entire metro area.

I asked her to write about how there has never, ever been a better time to advertise – that may seem counter-intuitive, because in a down economy one of the first things businesses do is to stop or cut back on their advertising budgets. WRONG!! Listen to what Cindy has to say:

“You don’t have to go far to hear the economy doom and gloom, and for those of us in advertising, it isn’t much different.  Some recent stats I have read in the last day alone:
•    Time Warner experienced a 34% decline in 2Q profits.
•    Television spending as a whole is down 17%.
•    Currently, the Boston Globe is losing $1 million dollars a week.
•    Radio revenues are expected to fall 15% in 2009.

But in those dark clouds, there are some silver linings.  As someone who assists clients every day with their paid advertising, I can attest, there are some great deals to be had out there.  Now IS the time to advertise, not only because it will help you outlast your competition, but because you can get more for your money.

What should you look for when negotiating your next campaign?  Well, to be honest, it will vary from medium to medium, but here are some things to plan for:
•    Look at what you were paying previously, and ask for a 10%-20% price decrease.
•    If you were in the habit of buying broad rotators in broadcast, negotiate better placement within programming that is chosen specifically for your target audience.  Or, in the case of a medium like print, ask for placement in a highly read section of the publication at the same cost of a run of press ad.
•    Get some perks!  In exchange for your money, ask the media outlet for some additional benefits.  Maybe it is color added to your print ad at no charge.  Or, get your product on air in an early morning news program.  Radio stations in particular are always looking for sponsorship partners.  Leverage your media budget not only for good rates, but also for some things that usually cost additional money.

OK, this all sounds great, but how do you actually accomplish this?  I do this every day, so I have a few tips for you.
•    Be honest with the media outlet.  Tell them you are working with a limited budget, and let them know specifically what your goals are.
•    Talk to several people.  The more folks you can bring into the negotiation process, the more you will get in the end.  Do not give away confidential information, but let the vendors know the basic types of things you are being offered in the packages you are looking at.  This will give them an idea of the things you like, and give them incentive to sweeten the deal.
•    Do not shy away from a commitment.  The longer you are willing to commit to a media outlet, the more they will be willing to come down on rates, etc.

In the end, however, chose a media partner who still fits with your target audience and helps you achieve your goals.  Just because someone gives you the best cost or the most added value, doesn’t mean they will result in the most sales.  Analyze the media proposals thoroughly, but don’t ever lose sight of your customer or your company’s goals.”

These are excellent tips and advice from an expert in the field. There really has never been a better time to advertise than RIGHT NOW!  So, check out her website, send her an email, and take advantage of  ‘hungry’ media outlets by marketing your business-now more than ever before. Smart businesses that capitalize on times like these will only come out stronger when the economy recovers, and ones that don’t will be left scratching their collective heads.

Don’t wait – do it NOW!

So, are you gonna do a blog, or WHAT ???

Well, that’s what I’ve been kind of asking myself lately, because YES, I want to keep updating my blog, but I’ve had quite a busy couple of months that I’ve kept pushing this update back further, and further, and all of a sudden I realize it’s been FAR too long since I’ve updated.  So, as a way of apology to the couple of devoted readers of my blog (hi Mom!), here’s an update to tell you a little bit about what I’ve been up to the last month and a half.

One of the most FUN shoots I’ve had lately, and some of the coolest shots, was for a company called Three Dog Bakery. If you’ve never heard of them, just ask your dog.  I’m sure he or she has heard of them. And if he or she hasn’t, then they’ve not been paying attention to the neighborhood bark-wire.  It’s a great company with their headquarters here in Kansas City, and we had WAAY too much fun shooting their new line of Summer Treats!  Many, many thanks to Teri and Sarah for making the stuff look (and presumably taste) great!  Here’s a couple of the shots from that session, which are now in all of their stores nationwide:

Yep - all dog treats (except the flowers and ants!)

YUMMY! (yes, people can eat them too)

MARATHONS!

Here's Betty!

Lots of marathons.  One darn near every weekend in different states.  From Chicago, IL to Grand Rapids, MI, to Denver, CO, to Traverse City, MI and now Deadwood, SD – it’s marathon season.  And I’ve photographed all of  ‘em, working for Action Sports Images.  Good times, lots of travel, and racking up the frequent flyer miles.

Um...yeah. Marathoner. In Denver. Mile High City. Go figure.

Speaking of speed….

Indycar

Photographed the Indy Car races at the Kansas Speedway for the Associated Press.  Indy car is fun to shoot – great colors, interesting drivers, and man, do those babies fly!

And, of course Danica Patrick….’nuf said.

Danica Patrick

Also had the opportunity to photograph a former NY Mets player, who then went to the Royals, and consequently suffered a series of nearly fatal illnesses. This was an assignment for the New York Daily News.  His name is Ed Hearn, and his story is really incredible.  This very gentle, very friendly and accommodating gentleman is truly an inspiration for everyone, and I highly recommend reading his book and visiting his website. Thanks very much to Ed and his family for allowing me into a little part of their daily lives.

Ed and family

Ed's championship rings, worn by his son.

Also had a couple of aerial jobs lately, one of which involved both air and ground photography for an engineering firm.  It was a completely gorgeous day, and perfect for flying.  Here’s a couple of photos from that awesome shoot:

Brush Creek to the Plaza

Brush Creek

I’m very grateful, and it’s always a blast these last few years to be chosen as the photographer for the Great Dane Club of Kansas City’s annual show held in Kansas.  I LOVE shooting these shows each year, and I get to spend the entire day (or two sometimes) around the most wonderful breed evah!!  Here’s two shots from this year’s show – check out my website for more!

Best of Breed

And, of course, more Royals games – several in the last month or so.  What the heck has happened to this team???  Wow…I mean, they’re not sucking as bad as previous years, but come on!  We were doing sooo well.  It’s like all the talent has just been drained out of ‘em.  I know – it’s still a long season, so I’m hoping they’ll come back around and start the winning again.  I was kind of getting used to starting to think about maybe we might have a team this year.  Not completely giving up hope – yet.

Our "White Knight"?

Yeah - he was safe at home.

Academy Award material here - that pitch wasn't THAT close!

OK….this isn’t nearly ALL I’ve been up to in the last month and a half, but some of it.  I wanted to share a few photos, check in, and let y’all know that I’m still around.  And making a commitment to try, try, TRY to update a little more often.

Thanks for reading this RANDOM sampling of what I’ve been up to lately, and I really hope you’ll check back soon for more!

Spring football??? MIZZOU!

Ouch.

On a rainy day in April (today, the 18th as a matter of fact) I headed to Columbia, MO to the University of Missouri to photograph the annual Black and Gold football game.  Spring football!  Can you tell which sport is my favorite?

Although the weather for the first half of the game wasn’t great, it was good to shoot some football again and see some of the newer players on the field.  Here’s a few of my Random selects from today’s game.  By the way – MU won.

Ouch. Again. Wide receiver Jonnie Fields looses his hat on this tackle.

Wide receiver Jerrell Jackson can't quite hang onto this one as linebacker Luke Lambert has the pass coverage

Possible starting quarterback Blaine Gobbert hands off to tailback Derrick Washington

Who knows how the Tigers will do this season, but it sure was fun to shoot some football in the spring!

Yankees v Royals – a few favs

Since I photographed the entire Yankees v Royals three games this past Fri-Sunday, I thought I would do a quick blog update and post a few of my favorite shots from the games.  No logical order or anything – pretty Random – just some I liked with some decent action.  The Royals got off to a rocky start with losing the first two games, but the Boys in Blue made up for it on Sunday with a 6-4 win, and a very exciting eighth inning!

Hope you enjoy the shots, and thanks for looking!

Safe at Home

still safe at home!

New bat, please?

Missed that tag

In respect and honor

Royals Opening Day at the New K! – 2009

Been a while since I’ve updated this blog, so I thought it was high-time to do it, and since yesterday was a big day for Kansas City and the Royals baseball team with Opening Day 2009 in the newly renovated Kauffman Stadium, I figured I’d share some of my photos with y’all!

It was a great day for baseball – nice and mostly sunny by game time, and with the new amenities and facilities at The K, it seemed like the sold out crowd was mostly in a festive mood.  The New York Yankees were in town for the opener, and they always draw a big crowd, but it did seem like there were more Royals blue shirts than Yankees gray this year.  How about that?

Here’s some of my photos from the pre-game, as well as a few during the game.  Unfortunately it was not a very action-packed game, and the boys in blue ended up losing to the Yanks 4-1, but overall it was a fun opening day experience.

Royals Dancers??  Yep – they had ‘em.

The new Party Deck ontop of the new Rivals Sports Bar proved to be a very popular spot at the New K

A military fly-over before the game was provided by the crew from Whiteman Air Force Base

Royals starting pitcher Sidney Ponson

Yankees starting pitcher Andy Pettitte

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter

Royals designated hitter Billy Butler did seem a little bored with the game at one point.

Overall, even though the game outcome wasn’t great for the Royals, I thought it was a successful day for Kauffman Stadium and Kansas City.  Great job to all of the hard-working folks “behind the scenes” that made it go as smoothly as possible, and I think a fantastic experience for the fans!

Underwater time

A whale shark swims directly above a viewing port

OK.  Well, sort of underwater.

Been a while since I’ve updated, and I thought it was high time!  I’m currently in Atlanta, Georgia to photograph the American String Teacher’s National Orchestra Festival and conference.  We arrived last night, then went and checked out our venues today where we’ll be shooting.  Then this afternoon got a chance to tool around the city a bit and we decided to take a trip to the Atlanta Aquarium.

It was awesome! There are a lot of really cool areas there, but one of my favorites was a huge tank that had about a bazillion different species of fish in it, all swimming happily and curiously around.  Even though there was a very large crowd there, with a little patience there were plenty of areas to view the fish.  There was also an area that you can walk directly under the tank, with a circular, glassed in ceiling:

Walk-through tunnel at the Atlanta Aquarium

There were some amazing fish there, including these guys – meet the Weedy Seadragon!

A Weedy Sea Dragon is curious about my lens!

We saw lots of other cool fish – not sure exactly what kind these guys are, but they looked like they were having a good time!

Another shot of the large viewing area, with a whale shark and manta ray

Whale shark and manta ray

If you’re in Atlanta, I highly recommend going to the aquarium – it really was awesome, and a great way to spend a few hours marvelling over the cool fish and animals there.

I’ll be posting more of the shots from today on my Random Photography website in the next few days, so be looking for them there!

Atlanta Aquarium

Rockin’ roadtrip – Finale

Hangin' out at Deadhorse Point, Utah

A few more random shots from the rockin’ roadtrip, then a bunch of goofy golf shots

A look at Deadhorse Point, Utah, through a circular polarizer filter

An arch with a bird soaring through – somewhere, Utah.

Check out that form!

We actually got back from the rockin’ roadtrip on Feb 16th, but I’ve been too busy playing catch-up since then to update the blog.  So, in honor of the wonderful weather, good company, and lots of miles and fun, I thought I would re-start the entries with one final one from Arizona.

We played 4 rounds of golf in three days – then had to shoot the Lost Dutchman marathon the day after the last round.  The weather was just incredible the entire time we were there in Arizona – perfect for some golf, so golf we did!

Yep – that one went in.  Too many of ‘em didn’t, or at least not soon enough!  I can’t really say that I embarrassed myself with my game, but could’ve played better.

That one went in ‘da hole’ too.

Never gonna find that one...

Unfortunately, I also spent a fair amount of my time on the course like this:

Da beach

and this

Ignore the golfer - look at the mountains!

But, overall, we had an awesome time – great courses, great weather, and some good times.

Being a full-time freelance photographer, I spend the majority of my time behind the lens, and rarely post photos of myself.  I thought it might be kind of fun to post a few of my bad golf form on here, and open it up for any of the comments and criticisms that may show up if any golfers are reading.  Mainly, though, I wanted to share with you all some of the really beautiful scenery on these courses we played on.  The view on some of the holes just basically took your breath away.  They were awesome.

Big thanks to my best buddy Mark Coffey from ActionSportsImages for really making the trip possible, and to my friend Aaron Lindberg for (wisely) deciding to not play and just shoot photos of us so we can really see how goofy we look!

Thanks for looking, and more blog updates to come soon of some recent shoots, and some cool places I’d like to tell you about!

rockin’ roadtrip – part deux

Wednesday was a busy day!  Started out with some sunrise photos of beautiful Monument Valley in southern Utah.  What a great way to watch the sun come up.  These are just some of the awesome sheer rock formations that are scattered around this area.  They are gorgeous, and just simply awe-inspiring.  And, as you can tell – we were just darn happy to be here:

My friends Mark and Aaron

Then on the way south, this horse decided that the grass might just be greener on the other side of the fence, and greeted us with a “what the heck are you guys doing” look as he was having his breakfast:

Onto one of my favorite places in Arizona, and one that it seems a lot of people don’t know about – Horseshoe Bend.  It’s a really awesome place near Page about a 3/4 mile hike off the main road, but it’s well worth the trip.  Just south of Lake Powell, the Colorado river makes a complete U-turn around this point, and the view from the top is breathtaking.

As you can see, there are no barriers, walkways, or anything to keep you from falling, so be careful if you go!  But, I highly recommend it – it really is an incredible site to see.

Next stop was the Watchtower viewing station, and several other stops along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I’ve been here several times, and it never ceases to amaze me.  The Grand Canyon is really one of those places that you just can’t describe adequately – you’ve just got to experience it for that “wow” factor.

my Tourist pose

Then, the road rolled on to our “landing” destination in Apache Junction, AZ for a couple of days of photos and golf before the work begins this weekend.  Thanks for looking, and more updates to come from the Rockin’ Roadtrip!