Ahhh... Spring!

Spring is here, and all is just ducky. I couldn't resist the chance to get that in there. Been keeping busy near home trying to run down some new shots of baby wildlife for the files. How is it that a week old duckling can outwit me on a 1 acre pond? Still trying to track down a fawn as well. That's not going quite as well though. More to come, I hope.

Looks like I'll be heading back to Iowa again this winter, (the week of Dec. 6th), to hunt during the Knight Rifles Invitational Hunt. This will be my third year. The first year I managed to take a really nice, 140" deer on film that made a nice TV show. Last year I managed to blow a shot on the biggest deer I have ever seen while hunting. He was about 170+" and all of 75 yards away. A sapling at 10 yards that I never saw, threw itself in front of this lucky buck, thus giving it's life so I could be haunted for the rest of the season. Oh well, He'll be bigger this year and I'll look harder for those evil saplings.

Enough time spent on cold thoughts. The Keys are looming soon and so are the Great Smokey Mtns. Cades Cove specifically. A friend told me about all the opportunities for photography here and it has not left my mind since. Another friend I mentioned it to told me that all, real, professional photographers know about Cades Cove. He said he figured I already knew. That makes me think that maybe he's telling me I'm not a real, professional, photographer just yet. We'll see. I'm heading there the middle of June.

A New Day and a New Destination

Maybe summer will never get here. The nights are way to chilly for this time of year, but then again a week ago I was complaining about the heat and humidity in Georgia. Maybe I'm never satsified. It won't be long till I'm tossed back south, but this time all the way to the Florida Keys. I love the KEYS! Almost as much as Nashville, maybe more. I'll be spending a week shooting Rich Tudor and Tom Rowland, hosts of the TV show Saltwater Experience, (http://www.saltwaterexperience.com/) near their base in Islamorada, FL. The main reason behind the trip is to bolster my photography with saltwater fishing in anticipation of the ICAST show in Vegas, in July. (Talk about hot!) With any luck, a couple of newer clients may jump on board with a bit of work in the Keys to make it really worth while.

Going through all the images from the 6 weeks on the road recently has really become a mind numbing task. I'm not sure how many times I've seen some of them, and probably wouldn't be too disappointed if I didn't have to see them again. Disc of images have been burned and sent on their way to the proper clients and all is well. There are a few more that need to be finished though. The next tasks here at home will be getting started on a DVD slideshow for the ICAST, and a final outline and selection of images for the outdoor photography seminar I will be doing later this year in Tennessee.

The picture above was shot since I've been home at a local state owned marsh and hunting area. For whatever reason, I've had a few nights where sleeping past 4:30 am is not going to happen, so I've tried to make the best of it and hit some local spots that I don't get to often enough. I was able to make a few nice photos here that may eventually end up on my website. Speaking of which, there are going to be some changes on the site coming soon. Nothing too drastic immediately, but the keen observer may begin to notice something here and there begining next week.

6 Days on the Road...

More like about 5 weeks on the road if you really want to be accurate. A 14 hour drive on Saturday begining in Columbus, GA, and ending at my front door brought my first, real, working "roadtrip" to a close. Overall I think it was rather successful. But that didn't mean it didn't have it's share of let downs too. As you may have read earlier, my cameras, actually my card reader went to hell. Overnight shipping is a wonderful thing even though I did lose several days of working. One particular 2 day job went to pieces in a matter of 3 e-mails and 2 hours. One of many high points was some unexpected "rush" work for one of my regular clients. It couldn't have come at a better time.

A meeting in TN at the Sawbriar Hunting Lodge landed me a gig of hosting a day long Outdoor Photography Seminar. I'll have more details later but we're thinking of having it in the early fall. Another meeting at the offices of Jordan Outdoor Entrp., (Realtree), found me eating my first crayfish, mud puppy, crawdaddy, whatever you want to call it. I don't think I'll be having a meal of them anytime soon. Some of the folks in attendance did seem to enjoy them more than a bit as the foot high pile of sucked crayfish carcasses attested to. I think I'll save my next craws for the lake perch, as it was meant to be. I did get a chance to see one of my first images shot for Realtree in a layout for a hangtag. That's the "tag" that "hangs" from the sleeve or waist of clothing with the Realtree pattern. I never knew it had a name either.

Currently I'm in the midst of getting about 5000 images shot over the last few weeks organized and into the hands of clients. I can probably have them done in a week or so but 6 months seems mch more likely. Next major trip will be a week in FL in Islamarada shooting, yep, fishing. I should be ready to get there in a week or two. Hopefully this trip will provide me with enough photos to put together a short DVD slide show for the upcoming ICAST show in Vegas. It will be my first ICAST. Other trips still out there are Sioux Falls SD for the POMA conference, maybe a hunt for antelope in WY, a consumer hunting show in Memphis, TN and very likely another trip to Nashville for a bit of work and some striper and fly fishing.

The photo above is one of my favorites of the trip. In it is 3 generations of Bailey's, Bob, Steve, and Curtis. Curtis took the long way around in explaining his latest turkey kill to his grandpa.