Ben and Krystin's Wedding

Nick and Kristin's Wedding

Gary and Angie's Wedding

Scott and Erica's Wedding

Dave and Jamie's Wedding

Kyle and Melissa's Wedding

Ben and Callie's Wedding

The Steam Engine in Sheldon

I remember back in 1976 when the Bicentennial Freedom Train came to Sheldon and a good friend of my named Dick Bauer had me shoot all sorts of photos for the Sheldon Historical Society. Today was my second time for taking train photos. This is the largest working steam engine in the country and it was all sorts of fun taking photos of it.

Micah and Whitney's Wedding

Isaiah and Ashley's Wedding

Izzy

Izzy is Bryce's new matlese puppy. Izzy is 11 weeks old! Watch the little movie so you can meet Izzy!

Chris and Nikki's Wedding

More Alaska News

This first photograph was taken at Katmai National Park. The park ranger told us that each bear eats about 20 salmon per day. It was fun watching the bear catch the salmon.

I am not sure but I think these salmon are called "Pinks". We saw them in many streams in the area's that we visited.

This is another boat photograph that I enjoy. I am pretty sure that I took this at Whitter, Akaska.

Road Trip to Homer, Alaska

Today we drove to Homer, Alaska. Homer is located at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula. This old boat was in a harbor out on the Homer Spit. I have really enjoyed taking photos of boats on this trip. I assume it would be like someone from Alaska coming to Iowa and having fun taking photos of tractors!

This is a Russian Orthodox Church located in Ninilchik, Alaska. I don't know anything about it except it is a very cool looking church! A local person told us that they have services there every other week.

Photography in Alaska

This is a minute and a half of excitement in our lives when we took a Beaver Float Plane to Katmai National Park in Alaska to photograph bears. The plane held six passengers, plus me in the co-pilot seat and the pilot. As you can see in the movie, I really had the best place to sit! Joan looks a little nervous, don't you think?

The flight was 20 minutes long and landing was just as exciting as taking off.

Empty Farm Buildings

We went for a drive with my parents and I thought this was an interesting set of farm buildings which is located near Dickens, Iowa.

Bill and Lori's Wedding

Eric and Becky's Wedding

New Thoughts

This is really interesting.... I posted two new wedding videos just yesterday and now they are both gone! I am sorry if you came to the blog to see them but I don't understand what has happened to them!

More Wedding Updates

I am so happy to report that the blog site is working just fine once again. I think the tech department at the company that makes the video's fixed it for me! A very big thank you goes out to them!

The first photo above this is of Eric and Becky. Their wedding was held in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The second photo is of Kyle and Kari. Their wedding was held in Le Mars, Iowa.

Wedding Update

I have been having all kinds of trouble with this blogsite and it refusing to let me post new video's. I am trying to correct it but I have not been doing very well with that.

The first photo in this group of photos is Alec and Becky. They got married in Carmel, Iowa. The second photo is of Josh and Crista and they got married in Laurens, Iowa. Josh and Crista had their reception in the Events Center at the Clay County Fairgrounds. It was beautiful. The third photo is of Barry and Lori. They got married in Sheldon. The next photo is of Kirk and Kim and they also got married in Sheldon. Brady and Tina are next and they had their wedding in Sioux Center, Iowa. Joe and Ashley are in front of the beautiful Catholic Church in Remsen, Iowa which is where they held their wedding. Remember my opening statement about having trouble with the blogsite? Well, in the process of working on this problem, I have deleted Joe and Ashley's video so I will post it again!

Alec and Becky's Wedding

Josh and Crista's Wedding

Barry and Lori's Wedding

Kirk and Kim's Wedding

Brady and Tina's Wedding

Joe and Ashley's Wedding

Wedding Movies Update

The first photo is from Ben and Nikki's wedding. They got married at an outdoor wedding at Village West at Lake Okoboji. The second photo is from Shawn and Sarah's wedding. They got married in Minneapolis. The third photo is from Laryl and Lindsie's wedding. They got married in Sheldon. The fourth photo is from Rusty and Cathy's wedding. They got married in Hull. The fifth photo is from Dave and Michelle's wedding. They got married in Des Moines. The last photo is from Heath and Heather's wedding. They got married in Le Mars. All of these weddings have some short movies just below this that I hope you will enjoy watching. We sure have fun making them!

Ben and Nikki's Wedding

Shawn and Sarah's Wedding

Laryl and Lindsie's Wedding

Rusty and Cathy's Wedding

Dave and Michelle's Wedding

Heath and Heather's Wedding

This will be the last series of photographs taken when we were in Miami this past February. These were taken at Fairchild Gardens in South Miami, Florida. I enjoy going to Fairchild Gardens so much because it is what most people think Miami looks like! I see Miami as a city instead of this garden but I still enjoy the look of the garden.

The photo on the bottom is of a Common Iguana. This Iguana was about 3 to 4 feet long. They run all over at Fairchild Gardens. I think they view them as a problem but they are so non-Iowa that I love to photograph them. This was taken with a Nikon D3 and a 300 mm lens at 5.6.

The photograph on the right is a very cool reflection shot taken at Fairchild Gardens. It was also taken with the Nikon D3 and a 300 mm lens at 11.0.

The photograph on the upper left is of some beautiful folige at Fairchild Gardens. I took this as a color file and then used photoshop to make it into a black and white photograph. We are in the process of getting a large print of this made to hang in our home! This was taken with a Nikon D3 and a 50 mm lens set at 5.6.

The Lighthouse at Bill Baggs State Park

While in Florida, one of the places that we always enjoy visiting is the lighthouse at Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscane. This was my best day for taking photographs of the lighthouse. The only beach where I can stand to take the photograph is north of the lighthouse and so it means that taking the photograph is almost always into to the sun. This day, as you can see was a very cloudy day so I knew I had a chance for a good photograph. I used my Nikon d3 with a 28mm wide angle lens. The lens caused the lighthouse to lean just a little bit but I still like the photograph.

Ilana Yahav - Sand Fantasy - Video Clips

We attended the Kendall United Methodist Church this morning while we were visiting in Miami. Since it is close to valentines day, they played this beautiful video which is like nothing I have ever seen. Click on this link and then click on the video called Love 2008. I think it is one of those things that you will watch over and over and say, how does anyone do something like that!

Enjoy

Ilana Yahav - Sand Fantasy - Video Clips

Joan and I are currently in Florida visiting family. Yesterday we went to Fort Lauderdale and I took some photos of a kite boarder. This was being done on what I would call the public beach right near all the bars. What fun it was to photograph him doing jumps while being pulled by a kite! This was a place where you could rent the equipment and take lessons if you wanted to. Let's just say that this didn't look like a sport I could do... I used my Nikon D3 and my 400 mm lens for these photos. I used f/14 for a big depth of field.

On Friday evening, a friend and I went to the Barnes Bull Riding event at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa. They had around 40 cowboys attempting to ride a bull for 8 seconds! If you have never seen an event like this, I would highly recommend attending one. I took photos with a Nikon d3. I used a 400mm lens, an asa of 4000 and .60 second at f/5. The Tyson Events Center has great lighting so I was able to stop the action quite well!

Barnes Bull Riding Competition

This is really great stuff! Be sure you watch this.

Coffee Table Books

This is the time of the year when many of the couples that we photograph bring us their selections for their coffee table book. We spend a lot of our time designing and preparing the books for them. These are a couple of panoramic pages from a wedding that we photographed at the Art Center in Sioux City, Iowa. This is a circular building with glass on at least three sides so Joan and I went to the Art Center and took practice photographs two days before the wedding so we could end up with images like these. Both of these were taken with a Nikon D2x in natural light. A 24 mm lens was used in each case. The building made the bottom photograph look like it was taken with a fisheye lens but it was not.

Be sure and check out the movie from Brett and Erin's wedding! The wedding was on New Year's Eve so there many fun photographs. I really like the photographs of Brett and Erin having fun with the plywood guitars at the dance. Be sure you check those out!

The Wedding of Brett and Erin

I am sure that some of you think we must spend every minute taking photos but that is not true. Last Friday I spent the day in Minneapolis with our grandson. We went to the 40 foot climbing wall at the REI store. It was so much fun to see him climb up to the top and ring the bell. No, I didn't even thing about trying it. Every climber needs an encourager, don't you think?

The photo on the left is from Brandon and Marcia's Christmas wedding in Le Mars. The center photo is from J.D. and Melissa's wedding in Le Mars and it took place during a snowstorm. The photo on the bottom is from Brett and Amber's wedding in Alton. It took place on a beautiful fall day. You can view movies from any of these weddings by clicking on the movies posted below this.

The wedding of Brandon and Marcia