Upcoming fun-nes

On Tuesday of next week, Mike and I are heading up to Arizona for a 3-day long shoot of a brand new hospital. It is not open to the public yet so we will have the run of the place.
This is my first time attempting to travel with all the equipment we will be taking with us.

I don't have a final tally on everything yet but so far it looks something like this:

2 camera bags, 3 cameras, 6 lenses, over 30gb of CF cards, two laptops, an external hard drive,
10 light stands, a tripod, a monopod, 2 bogen superclamps, 2 justin clamps, about 12 speedlights, 8 pocket wizards, lots and lots of gels, a truckload of rechargeable batteries, 2 battery chargers, 2 soft boxes, a Lumiquest box, a boom arm, an empty sand bag, tripod case, and our clothes.

It will be interesting getting all of this through airport security!!
We will get a tour as soon as we arrive and are fed, then its work time until about 7pm that night.
Early to bed and up at 5 for a 6am sunrise shot, working all day and again a late night. Then another sunrise shot (unless we get a good one the first morning - I'm crossing my fingers).
We will finish up around 2pm on the third day, drive to Las Vegas airport and head home to crash and sleep all day Friday.

Busy busy busy!

Last weekend I shot a church event put on by the young singles department. It was an "Amazing Race" event. Teams picked a country to "dress up as" then started out in the same room, were given a puzzle to put together, and on teh back of the puzzle was the first clue. From there it was off to travel all over Downtown Dallas, Plano, Richardson, and Carrollton.
I got some fun photos and the event ended around 2pm.

Here are some of my favorites:


Putting together the first clue


Playing in the fountain


Here come the teams, fresh off the DART


Finding clues in the fountain


The food challenge had some not-so tasty treats


One unlucky team member eating dog food


Zero Gravity challenge


Zero Gravity Challenge


Flying High


All the participants, volunteers, and staff that stuck around till the end


3rd place team member heading home

That's it from me for now. Stay tuned for more. Hopefully I'll have a few minutes here and there to blog about our trip to Arizona!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!
R.

Babies - they make everyone smile (well almost...)

I agreed to act as "photographer" for a friend's "baby's first birthday" party.
Didn't realizing that there would be a whole pack of little rugrats running around! But I quickly settled in and got a few great photos.

Here is my favorite (ironically not of the birthday girl...)



Shot through a play house window.

Kicking Off a Personal Project

In a previous post, I mentioned how I covered a reunion of Neonatal ICU children.
This was truly an eye-opening experience for me as well as a moment of inspiration.
I met so many kids that day who had lived through unbeatable odds, or through incredibly difficult conditions and situations. It was really like standing in a room full of walking miracles. Some of the kids were probably barely out of the ICU while some were well on their way to having a normal childhood by now.

After editing some of the images from that day, I came upon the idea to do a personal project on some of the kids who have been through the NICU. The goal was to find out the story behind these kids and to take their photograph. Last week my idea became reality as I had my first shoot for the project. Now I was planning on saving these images until I had shot a few more, but the more I look at the images and the more I think about the story behind it - I just can't wait any longer. I know it is a lot to read but I want to share it with you.

I would like for you to meet Ryan Holliday.

Ryan is 2 years old. His parents noticed something different about him when he was born. His father thought his head was shaped a little differently than normal. They thought it may have just been their imagination but their fears were confirmed. They discovered something was wrong with him when he turned blue while the nurses were giving him his first bath.

They soon found out that Ryan had been born with Pfeiffer Syndrome. This is a genetic mutation which results in a fusion of the skull bones. This meant that Ryan would have to undergo surgery to open up his skull, allowing his brain to grow. This is a pretty rare mutation, occurring in only one out of every 100,000 children born.

Fortunately one of the nation's top specialists for this surgery is located here in Dallas and Ryan was able to get the surgery he needed and be on his way home after just a few days.
When Ryan was about 15 months old the tiny bones in his nose were so squished together that his nose quit functioning and he was forced to get a tracheostomy tube to help him with breathing normally.

Fast forward to today and Ryan has had 7 surgeries already. Every 6 months he has to go back to the hospital for an MRI of his skull. If it reveals that the brain needs more room he has to stay and get his skull cut open, an 8-10 hour surgery. This will continue until he is 18 years old and the brain stops growing.

When he is 5 or 6 years old he will go in for a midface surgery. The goals of this surgery are to move the midface out more helping him with breathing; to move the jaws out to help chew; to alleviate any teeth crowding; and to help his speech. After he has had his first midface surgery his nose should be open enough to support the consumption of oxygen and he can have the tracheostomy tube removed. When he is 14 or 15 he will have another midface surgery. After this second midface surgery his eyes should look more normal as well.

For every surgery Ryan has, it sets him about one month behind the development of other children his age. As you can imagine, after having 7 surgeries in 22 months Ryan is a little behind on the average toddler. However his parents have taught him to sign a few things so that he can communicate with them. He is also starting to say his first words which is a huge encouragement.

His parents have tapped into the amazing resources provided by the internet and have met other parents with children who have pfeiffer's as well as children who are dealing with this syndrome. One of which was a 19-year old college student. There is every reason to believe that Ryan will develop into a handsom young man with normal intelligence and normal life expentancy. All of this has helped to encourage the family quite a bit in their journey.

Despite the difficulties that he faces and the challenges that come with Pfeiffer's syndrome, his mother remains very optimistic. Ryan is as playful and full of life as any kid I have been around in my life, which is amazing when you think about all he has had to go through.

These photographs do two things to me every time I see them. First and foremost they make me want to go over to Ryan's house and give him a huge hug.
The second thing they do is challenge me to not take the little things for granted in life.

Thank you Ryan

Traveling Circus

What a day today turned out to be. It started at 6:30am and is still going strong.
I participated in 4 photoshoots today. 2 of which I assisted, and 2 of which I was shooting.
I visited 7 cities total today.



I started out at the "L" position, then drove to the "I" position. Then to "C", to "I" again, then on to "E" and "F", then back to "I". Then over to "H" and back to "I". Got back on the road up to "J", then "K" and finally back to the starting point of "L". All told that is over 220 miles driven today!!!

Needless to say I'm pretty beat down after all the shooting, planning, traveling, and all the in between stuff. It was a good day though, as it reminded me of how lucky I am to be doing what I love and to be able to have the freedom to move around so much during the day. I definitely would prefer a day like to day to a 10 hour day at a desk in some office building.

I tried new things today, which included gaffer taping a flash and pocket wizard to a ceiling and riding in the back seat of a cop car (there is absolutely NO space back there, no wonder people always look so miserable when they are back there!).
I am shooting some more tomorrow but for personal projects only so there isn't much pressure. The last shoot of today was for personal stuff but we only had about a 30 minute window to shoot in and my equipment was not functioning properly for some reason.

Anyway, I'll quit boring you with text and jump to an image or two :-)



PUMA EC 225
Auto Pilot & Aircraft Condition Monitoring System
I've also been having some fun playing around in HDR a bit... I thought this was a prime candidate to try that out with:



These were from a ribbon cutting ceremony I had the privilege of shooting in Grand Prairie.

I am usually not one for kids - I mean I am pretty afraid of them in general. I'm sure that will change but for now I don't know what to do to make them stop crying so I live in fear of that moment when they start. But today I saw some of the most adorable babies I have seen in a long time and I actually enjoyed the experience.


Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 | 1/80s | F/1.4 | ISO 100


This girl's eyes just grabbed me as I was working the room and I had to go back and get my 50mm f/1.4 to shoot some more "up close" portraits.
She, along with most of the other people in the room, was an Nicu baby - which means she spent some time in intensive care after being born either prematurely or with complications. Those eyes are so huge and untainted! There is just something amazing about a baby's eyes.

I think that's it for now. I'm pretty tired from the day but I did want to share some images with you!

More to come!