Home at Last

Feels good to be back home again. Unfortunately it's just a pitstop for a longer trip that will include even more states and about 6 weeks. The warmer weather down south and the anticipation of work from new clients is exciting but leaving the family for that length of time is not going to be easy. I'm sure that by the time I get back home in mid May I'll feel like a stranger in my own house.

Enough whining though. In a few days I'll be heading to Kentucky to the Knight and Hale "Compound" to do some more portrait work for them and Pradco. I love work like that. I can envision what the final image will look like before I start, but I get a kick out of the sideway glances from subjects and bystanders as I set up the lighting and backgrounds. the 6 foot diameter reflectors that "Pop" out of a much smaller pouch always gets a reaction.

From there it will be 3 or 4 weeks of shooting set-ups and ads for several new, and old clients at our farm in Eastern Kentucky. I have a few friends and family members that will drop in to do some turkey hunting as well from time to time. The time here I think will go quick with the constant activity. As the season ends in early May, I'll pack up and head further south to Columbus, GA and meetings with the folks at Realtree. I've never been there and I'm anxious to see what the place looks like.

The plan is to head back north again to Nashville, TN. hopefully picking up a bit of new work there as well. Tony Smotherman who lives there, and I have been planning some fly fishing and striper fishing for a while now. We may even make a run to Iowa or Misourri for a last minute turkey hunt. And no trip to Nashville would be complete without at least one night on Broadway. Sort of like a night cap for the trip, if you will.

Almost Home

Well, I can add one more state to the list of places I've been, Alabama. Been there twice actually in 4 days. It's not exactly what I expected it to look like, but I guess I never really had any idea of what to expect. I also didn't get to see very much of it, only Decatur. Oh well. I did discover some great BBQ, a place called Whitt's. Tony got sick for 2 days after our lunch there and blames them, but heck, I was fine.

The reason for the trips to Alabama were to shoot some portraits of Phil Phillips. Phil is the host of Wildlife Point Blank and is an awesome hunter, and all around good guy. The photos were shot in the PRADCO studio there in Decatur. They turned out great but they aren't ready to be posted just yet.

During a portion of the time between trips from Nashville and Decatur, Tony and I did a bit of cave exploring, if you will. That's where the photos from this entry come from. This was the first time I had been in such a small cave. I guess Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the only other cave I have ever been in, and that was probably 35 years ago. This particular cave on Tony's property was really cool, and seemed to go on forever. It was about 6 feet wide and 15 feet tall the entire way and at one point dropped down in a spot where an underground creek crossed!

I'll spend a few days here in Kentucky getting things ready for the upcoming turkey season then it's home to pick up the wife and head to a dinner in Michigan and then back home for Easter with the family. Man, I'm going to sleep good next week, I hope...

2 Down, 1 To Go!

The first shoot in Nashville went well. Got to meet and spend several hours with singer Tyler Farr. Managed to shoot a few hundred photos as well. We ended up shooting Tuesday afternoon along Harpeth River just outside of town. Turned out to be a great location for this shoot. With the help of the Travelin' Hunter, Tony Smotherman, it all went pretty smooth. It's funny how you can arrive at a location you've never seen before and fairly quickly get a feel for it and what might work as far as photos go. This river was one of those places that was just waiting for a subject to be photographed nearby.

The second shoot of the week was part 1 of a 2 day shoot. Tony Smotherman, the face of Knight Rifles Born to Hunt TV was the first subject for a really, really, cool ad campaign that Knight is putting together. They were looking for some really dramatically lit studio portraits, all in black. Although it took quite a while to dial in the lighting scheme to get just what we wanted, the resuts were teriffic! Everyone was thrilled with the results. Sunday afternoon in Alabama I'll be shooting hunting personality Phil Philips in the same basic set-up. Hopefully it will go as well as Tony's shoot.

Early April we've been booked to shoot some photos of hunting pros at a private lodge in Kentucky. It should be a blast by the sounds of it. Actually it sounds like a lot more fun than work, but we'll see. Immediately after that it will be time to get into turkey hunting and turkey photos, 110%! I am so looking forward to it. I'll spend most of the season at our farm in Kentucky and have several friends drop in throughout for a couple days of chasing long beards. Little do these friends know that many of them will be required to model for a few hours before hunting. I think most of them will get over it pretty quickly....

On the Road Again....

Monday should find us back on the road heading south for a bit of work and some warmer weather. On Tuesday we'll be shooting some promo photos for country music artist, Tyler Farr. Wednesday we'll be shooting photos for a new ad for Knight Rifles of their TV show, Born to Hunt, host Tony Smotherman. We'll actually be shooting their other host, Phil Phillips later in the month in Alabama. Thursday I have a meeting and portfolio showing at PRADCO in Decatur, Alabama. This is an awesome opportunity for me. Friday, Tony and I will be shooting photos and quail at the Sawbriar at Big South Fork, (http://www.sawbriarhunting.com/), near Knoxville, TN. The weekend has been left open and hopefully that will allow me to find a couple of comfortable honky tonks on Broadway back in Nashville.

Despite my pessimistic opinions of the Max 4 shoot in Illinois last week, they were actually received pretty well. One of my favorites from the shoot is above. There is still a lot of work to be done to get the outfitting business in Kentucky running. I know I'll have to spend some time there soon tying up a bunch of loose ends. Turkey season there begins around the middle of April.