Snow at last

It started snowing Monday night and by Tuesday morning there was a thick blanket of the white stuff over our mountain town. I got to spend the morning driving around town looking for people playing in the snow. Helen and Makynzie, both 9, were working on this fabulous snow fort complete with balconies and a tunnel leading from the front garden to the street.
I was driving through the Cheshire neighborhood when I caught sight of Wyatt doing the James Dean walking down the street with his cherry-red snow shovel. Just 11-years -old he was a little buddy on a mission. He was charging $10 to clear the snow plow berm in front of homes or $20 to clear the entire driveway. By 9:30 a.m. Wyatt had already cleared three drives. One day we will all work for Wyatt.


After Cheshire I drove out to the Nordic Center to see if anyone was cross-country skiing. The staff were moving snow like crazy to get ready to open on Wednesday morning.


On the way back to the newspaper I drove past Robin midway through her snow-shoe commute to work. I couldn't pass up stopping to shoot a few frames of her walking through the knee deep snow.
Not bad for a mornings drive around town. By the time I got back to the newspaper the Associated Press bureau in Phoenix was on the phone asking for snow photos. I love my job!!!!!!!

Emily

Miranda's friend Emily came to hang out at the house for the weekend. Her Mum, Mrs. Nelson was Miranda and Sam's teacher when they were in fifth and sixth grade so Emily is like a fourth daughter. I shot a few frames of her as I was walking out to a family shoot on the mountain.

Harley Heaven

Thunder Valley Rally is an annual event at Cliff Castle Casino. Lots of Harleys, chrome, leather and tattoos. I got to spend two days wandering through row after row of every type of bike imaginable taking photos of what I found.
On the Sunday everyone present got the chance to judge the bikes entered in the bike show. The paint jobs on some of the bikes were mind-blowing.
The best tattoo I came across was a little gardener pushing a lawnmower across the center of this guy's bald spot. He looked like the twin brother of Dawg the Bounty Hunter and when I went over to get his name, sure enough, it was Dawg. He wasn't a bounty hunter he was the Pastor of the Prescott Valley Church of God. He was riding with a group called Bikers for Christ.
There were lots of classic bikes as well as choppers like this one. As if the bike weren't in your face enough the Glock in the lock sent a clear message. "Don't mess with my bike".





Foghat played Saturday night. I love shooting at the casino's Stargazer Pavilion. It's a relatively small intimate venue. The weather is always perfect and everyone knows me so I have unfettered access.

Squish turns one

The birthday girl loved her new hat and gloves. Charlie is almost walking, lots of speed crawling and balancing next to coffee tables. She got naked to dive into her first birthday cake. When it's my turn next month I'm eating my cake with my hands too.

Rhys Rocks Downtown

My son Sam went to school with rhys' little brother Tieg so it felt like shooting a member of the family when we got together for his senior photos. Rhys said that he wanted to start out in his tux before changing into street clothes.
Rhys was an absolute natural. He was so comfortable in his own skin and was a dream to work with. When I edited through his shoots he looked more like a college senior than a high school senior.
The Mission Ice Cream mural is a photographers dream. I've shot everything from brides to hospital patients in front of it and everyone seems to own it in their own way.


I always try to incorporate hobbies, sports or other interesting aspects of seniors lives into their portraits. It seemed like Rhys has been fencing since he could walk. His father wrote a book on fencing and used Rhys and Tieg as models when Rhys was eight so shooting him in his fencing gear seemed like a no-brainer.




Flagstaff seems littered with little nooks and crannies that seem custom designed for photo shoots. Some photographers build elaborate sets in outdoor settings at their studios to get this kind of look. I'm lucky enough to have historic murals, abandoned buildings and mountain backdrops all within a couple of blocks.

Jordan

When I was a lifeguard at NAU I taught Jordan swimming lessons and CPR now he's a senior at Flagstaff High School and a standout on the football team. I shot this photo to run with a story in The Arizona Daily Sun when Jordan was named the All City offensive player of the year.

Sleepless in Flagstaff...

My daughter Charlotte was sick all week with an ear infection from a yucky cold that was punctuated by ectoplasm sneezes and lots of difficulty breathing. When she gets sick like this my wife Amy soothes her to sleep. When it's my turn I often resort to driving her around town. Something about riding next to me in the front seat of a truck with a quarter million miles on the clock seems to help her get to her happy land of dreams.
It was 3 a.m. and I was driving up San Francisco Street when I glanced through the window of the Mad I and saw this girl dozing in a booth waiting for a ride home. The image of her resting against the bench seemed such a poetic reflection of my weary drive through the town I love with my own tired girl. I grabbed a camera, shot a few frames and meandered home through the empty streets.
I'm thinking that this will be the first image of a new personal project.

Mud Angels

Bria discovered that mud angels are way cooler than snow angels. She and her sister Miranda had a big muddy adventure in our front yard while I was off photographing the livestock auction at the Coconino County Fair. One day this will be our new front lawn but for Monday it became the muddy mosh pit for two very happy girls.

A rare breed, the five-year-old trouble hound on the scent of mischief...

Angel 4

I spent the morning with my friends at Guardian Air shooting Angel 4. It was a bitter sweet assignment as the new chopper replaces Angel 1 which went down after a mid-air collision with another medical chopper on approach to Flagstaff Medical Center last month. Seven people died in the crash including a Guardian Pilot and Flight Nurse. I have shot for Guardian for the past seven years doing everything from calendar shoots to ride-alongs on rescue missions. The pilots, flight nurses and paramedics are all heroes in my eyes going into harms way to help those in distress. I'll never forget watching Rocky, a flight nurse, start an IV on a patient who had been injured in an ATV accident as the helicopter bounced around the sky on the way to the hospital.
I had two great pilots help me with the shoot by putting the chopper wherever I needed it. After making some images on the tarmac at the airport JD flew me over to Flagstaff Medical Center and dropped me off to get some approach shots from the landing pad.

Ken and Jen

Ken, Jen, Bryce and Daisy live in a great straw bale house surrounded by flowers. Ken and I used to work together as lifeguards in college years ago and bump into each other every couple of years. We had a great afternoon taking photos as Ken, Jen and the kids relaxed around their home.