One of my favorite things to attend is an airshow.  This year's NAS Oceana Airshow was my first as a Veteran and it certainly brought back a lot of great memories on top of providing an opportunity to capture some great photos.

A summer thunderstorm brings the distinctive smell of rain on hot pavement, the whipping cooler wind, rolling thunder, and ultimately a beautiful lightning show.  Until recently I had never attempted to photograph lightning.  Like many folks, I have seen photographs showing the awesome power of lightning, and after years of seeing these photos I decided to finally try my hand at photographing lightning.

Post production of photos is, and has been, a key part of a photographers work.  In the past photographers often spent hours in the dark room developing film, and they often employed techniques that would effect the final image.  Today the same holds true, except most photographers use digital post processing software.

Photoshop is a powerful tool and can be used to help create amazing images; however, it can also be overused and caused photos to look unrealistic.  Some photographers will take post production of photos to the extreme removing every blemish, recoloring hair, smoothing facial wrinkles, replacing missing, and so much more; it's actually a very unfortunate.  These things make us who we are, and while we may not like the wrinkles or graying hair they are part of us.

I think most kids regardless of age find joy in playing in the mud and getting dirty.  Lately, one of my favorite things to do is watch my son play in his "mud pit" in our back yard.  He digs, he creates, imagining everything from road construction to digging for dinosaur bones, and the joy he has doing it reminds me of the simple pleasures of my childhood doing similar things.

This series of photos "Mud Play is Fun Play" is all from one day.  One day where he played for hours in his mud pit; one day where his silliness and creativity was awe inspiring.  Not only did I enjoy creating these photos, but I just simply enjoyed watching him be completely silly and enjoy getting as dirty as possible.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of creating senior photos for Chad.  A good family friend connected Chad and his family with me when they were disheartened by the senior photos they'd received from the school's senior photo photographer.  I was more than happy to help Chad and his family out by working with them to create some senior photos for them that they would be happy with.