An illustration and a shout out

An illustration for a story about the incredible surge in purchasing gift-cards for Christmas gifts. The tree references the logo from the Gunflint Wilderness Camp in Minnesota--where I spent many carefree summers living a simple walden-esque life, and the concept borrows from Laurie Skrivan...staff photographer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, great friend, and endless source of inspiration/information/laughter.

War Widow

and the five-day old son, her husband never met.

prep basketball from above

lots of this on the winter schedule. round one.

Saturday Night Lights

Prep football playoffs, Morris, Ill.

Breathing a sigh of relief!

Images 9 and 10--the series is done. In print on Friday.

Image 8

nine and ten to follow. headed out to shoot football playoffs....

Propaganda and the photo column

A recent photo column for the paper, here is the text block:

Once upon a wartime, Uncle Sam wanted YOU (!) to join the U.S. Army. He still does, but if that doesn’t fit into your life plan, you can fire away at Osama bin Laden right here in McHenry County.

Jaison Glawe of Woodstock works the “corn cannons” at Stade’s Dairy Farm in Johnsburg. “I’ve been here from the beginning,” Glawe said of the game. “I’m a regular carny. Shooting at bin Laden, well, I dunno, I guess the makes the whole thing a little more bearable.”

The cannons essentially are tubes, that use compressed air to shoot the hardened ears of corn into the sky, across the field, and hopefully right into the target.

Hitting the giant head is harder than it looks. I watched for nearly an hour as people cycled through, firing hundreds of shots on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Of the hundreds of shots I witnessed, two made contact with the target. The prize for nailing the Captain of the Axis of Evil? An extra ear of corn.

image no. 7

more basketball portraits

six down, four to go.

I shot all five boys inside the barn, so I'm going to try and shoot the girls outside the barn. There is less stuff to climb on, so it may not work. That and the weather will need to cooperate...

basketball portraits

Three down, seven to go. When finished the paper will showcase 5 boys and 5 girls--the top ten basketball players in our coverage area. I'm lucky to have an editor who carves out time for this kind of fun. All portraits shot at a barn belonging to a family in McHenry County. I fell in love with the location one day while driving around and the family has been very accomodating. They even have a basketball hoop inside the barn!

Ballet Snacks

"Whoever thinks dancers don't eat doesn't know what they are talking about" ~ Sarah (in purple)

Fall Festival

a maze of hay...

Painting...

Kristen has been painting for 15 years.

one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

Lots of prep sports this time of year. Girls HS swim meet.



prior to the meet, the girls did this weird thing to their suits. No room in the paper, but I thought it was funny.



I've yet to nail this water-streaming-down-the-face image...came close but couldn't really get there.



Shooting butterfly is the easiest swim picture. But here it is anyhow...

soccer--my one true love...

Late afternoon light and a (rare, but) beautiful fall day in Chicagoland, made for a lovely assignment. Oh, and this highschool had a tower at midfield...just a few yards off the sideline. Lucky me.

Haunting.

Was a little difficult to make the scene spooky, since the volunteers were building the haunted house (train cars, really) mid-day.

Apparently, snow is optional.

Ski jumping on plastic. Who knew?

why I love McHenry County

It's amazing to work in a county where I cover everything from charity polo matches (horses, not water) to tractor pulls to shootings...my very first polo match. I wish I had brought lights.





I really wanted this image to work...umbrella, guy talking, horses in background and I just couldn't get it to come together....argh.

construction.

soccer in good light is a good day.

a very strange skill

The Wonder Lake Water Ski Show Team.

the diner is alive and well

Bill comes twice a week to Kathy's Diner for toast & coffee.

the football tabs

these are from pdfs of the football previews for each county. it was nice that the images had room to breathe. no complaints here.

Chicago Minute Men

Who knew that McHenry County, Ill. would become such a center of debate on immigration? Thank you, NYTimes.

Different County, Different Concept, but still football

This time I shot all five in a day. The weather didn't cooperate for the outdoor location so I shot in an airline hangar.

Runningback.


Offensive Tackle.


QB.


QB.


Tight End.

image no. 5

Runningback.

More Football

Well four down, one to go...

Linebacker.


Offensive Tackle.