Sign I'm putting on my door tonight:

JD is pretty excited after learning he will be wearing his favorite number this coming season.  He couldn't have it in high school since the jersey that it was stitched upon was much too large for him.  He didn't get to wear it on his summer team either because someone with a longer tenure on the team already had it.  Those obstacles no longer exist and now JD will once again get to proudly wear #27.

It's a shame that Monday's have to ruin a perfectly good weekend.  I'm looking forward to the day when the day of the week doesn't matter any longer.  Less than 6 years if I so choose.

Another successful fireworks show lit up the sky in Peculiar, MO this weekend.  I spent most of Saturday helping a friend set up his show that he didn't get to shoot back in August due to the burn ban.  We set up in a cow pasture and put up a pretty good sized show.  We could have used a few more hands to get done faster but we made do with what we had and I think the majority of the product on hand went up.  I'm sure the cows won't be producing milk for a little while!

Jodi and I spent Sunday working on business related things.  She finished up a couple photo orders we had pending and they are now ready to go to the lab.  We had a couple things we needed to design for a client and those projects are always a bit stressful because you want to meet their expectations right from the start.  I suggested a design to Jodi and she did a great job creating what I had envisioned.  Once finished, I sent a photo of the design to the clients and they immediately responded that they loved it. I spent the rest of the day reviewing potential vendors for some new product offerings for our studio, creating a referral incentive program for our clients and watched a little TV, something I don't do much of.

JD called late in the evening and we spent a half hour or so with him on speakerphone getting to catch up with what was going on in his life at SIUE.  He said they had their team and individual pictures taken for use on the website and the media guide last Friday.  He said he was in the front row for the team picture.  On Friday they had another three mile run and if you didn't make your time you had to run another three miles.  Well, he still isn't where he needs to be so he got to run the additional three miles after a 5 minute break from the first run.  So did most of the others.  We're looking forward to having him home for about 11 days in the middle of November for Thanksgiving break.  He's looking forward to coming home as well.

It looks like a great week of weather here in KC.  I told Jodi I wanted to do something we haven't done before so we're going to take the dogs to the dog park in Liberty and let them run around and play.  I know they'll enjoy the extra room to run and they'll get to play with other dogs too.

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I don’t know whether to be outraged or just crack up laughing at this story, but the UN-affiliated Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe announced that it plans to send monitors to America next month to watch over our election. They want to make sure no conservative groups commit voter suppression or intimidation or violate any election laws at polling places. Of course, they were invited here by liberal groups, who have suffered terrible intimidation in the past, such as Tea Party members swinging bats outside polling places. Oh no, wait: that was the New Black Panthers. Maybe they mean Republicans violating laws like letting felons vote in Minnesota or dead people vote in Chicago. No, wait, those weren’t Republicans, either.

Oh well, at least we can rest easy knowing that our elections will be eyeballed by the same people who insure fair elections around the world, in places like Iran and Venezuela. Maybe they can even get some help from members of the UN Human Rights Council, like Nigeria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China. You know what, come to think of it, I don’t think we really need the UN monitoring American elections. But I do think America needs to start monitoring the money we spend on the U.N.

 

Let's talk about religion for a minute.  Americans need to understand that in Islamic countries, no other religion is tolerated, period. The big misunderstanding is that Islam is NOT a religion, personal and private unto oneself. It is a system of government with religious interpreters dictating policy. It is a theocracy. And this type of totalitarian government demands that the populace conform, or else. It is simple: either convert, or pay a tax, or leave... or die.

I'm really pleased at how successful our Senior Portrait Photography business is going.  I personally enjoy seeing the reaction of the parents when we show them the images we created in a custom slideshow on our 55" LCD monitor.  The last session we had, the dad admitted to tearing up during the presentation.  I'm glad that what we're doing is bringing out that emotion in the parents.  It also shows when they write the check! 

This Saturday, I'm helping a KCAP member set up a fireworks show that he does every year at Halloween.  There will be some other club members there to help as well and we're going to fire the show with a wireless firing system.  It should be a decent size show and there is a big party going on as well.

It's a cool and blustery day here in KC.  This afternoon, we will be doing a mini-session with a client at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.  As windy as it has been the last day or so, I wonder how many of the leaves remain on the trees.  It's a beautiful place to take photos as the grounds are extremely well kept and there is quite a bit of architecture and design to incoporate into the photos.  I hope the wind dies down a bit before the session.

I just saw a tweet from JD that said at 6am, they were out for a 3 mile run in the rain.  He told me the other day that he's already shaved 2 1/2 minutes off his three mile run time.  He also said that the 6am workouts are pretty tough but he says he feels stronger and he's motivated to keep doing the best he can.







 

Here's a couple more images from a recent Senior shoot. Click on image for larger view.

The last week or so has been quite busy for us as we split time between putting the finishing touches on our studio and doing senior portrait sessions.  My legs are dead tired and one of my knees is giving me some trouble from all of the bending, squatting, running up and down stairs, etc...  Such is the price we pay I guess.

We're really pleased with how our sessions are going and the comments from our clients have been very complimentary.  Our last two shoots have been at Loose Park, a popular KC destination for photographers and their clients.  We've been turning heads at the park because we show up with out utility wagon full of gear and our clients clothing.  We use studio lighting on location and we have a pop up changing tent that our clients use to do their clothing changes in.  We've had other photographers comment on how well prepared we are and what a great idea the changing tent is.  We even had one family approach us about doing their photos based on how much gear we bring and how much effort we put into our sessions.  Guess the extra work is paying off!  Not to mention it justifies why we charge more than the "Craigslist and Facebook fauxtographers" out there. 

We like to give our clients sneak peaks on our Facebook page prior to them coming to the studio to make their selections.  We don't show them the very best images as we save those for the viewing session, but it does give them an idea as to how some of their photographs look.  Here's a couple we posted last night from a session last week.



We have a couple Senior portrait sessions scheduled this weekend.  We will be doing both at Loose Park, a beautiful park near the Country Club Plaza.  Like most areas, the park was hit by the drought and has lost some of it's color and beauty but there is plenty of photo opportunities there and I'm excited about getting to shoot at a new place. 

JD called me yesterday to tell me about how he's been working with his head coach on his slider.  He told me he has learned how to throw a "real" slider.  He has always thrown his curve and slider with a knuckle on the ball.  He says the way he throws it now, it bites much harder, he has more velocity on it and it has late break.  He said the Coach loved it and called it "filthy".  JD said he was able to throw it for strikes right from the start and coach said to keep working on it and he'll have something special come Spring. 

He has been "enjoying" the 6am workouts that started this week now that official scrimmages and practices have ended.  They'll do conditioning and strength training 4 days per week throughout the fall and winter as they prepare for the 2013 baseball campaign.  It can't get here soon enough for JD, and us.

We had a fun weekend at Casa de Williams as Jodi's mother, aunts, sister, cousin and great niece came to KC for a girls weekend.  They spent their time shopping and visiting and we made sure that no one went hungry.  We all went out to dinner on Friday evening and then Saturday morning, after several of us went to the neighborhood garage sales, Jodi and I cooked a large breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, and french toast.  We only snacked in the afternoon and then I grilled pork steaks to go with baked potato's, butter noodles, green beans, deviled eggs and cornbread. 

Here's the breakfast crowd:

After dinner, we celebrated Aunt Lonna's birthday with cake and gifts.  Here's Lonna with her goodies.

While they went shopping on Saturday, I put the bonding primer down on the basement floor so it would be ready for the epoxy the next day.  After everyone left on Sunday, I applied the epoxy while Jodi sprinkled the flakes into it.  It appears to have turned out really well.  Now I need to put the baseboard up and do some small paint projects. 

As promised, more about last weekend in St. Louis.  My mother was hosting a family dinner on Thursday evening and it appeared we would not be able to make it on time.  Fortunately, Jodi was able to leave work early and we were able to surprise my mother.  I enjoyed the food and visiting with all of my siblings and their spouses.  It was nice to get together "just because".  Usually our gatherings are for holidays or special events.

The feedback from our fireworks shows has been nothing but positive.  I'm quite proud that a suggestion I made a year ago at our club shoot last fall came to fruition and was so successful.  We are now talking about our club doing a show there every other year to show what the pyrotechnicians on the west side of the state are capable of. 

We were happy to get to spend some time with JD over the weekend as well.  I only got to see him Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon but Jodi was able to spend more time with him and that was good for her.  They went to lunch and did some shopping with some of her relatives and then he came to watch the fireworks shows as he does every year.  He doesn't want to do what I do but he really likes coming to watch.

Our photography business has really picked up and we have quite a few sessions booked between now and the end of the month.  We had a pre-session consultation with a client last night and we were pleased to hear that they really like the natural look of our photography and that is why they chose us.  The Senior said that a lot of the images she sees makes the subject look fake, or plasticky like a mannequin.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of photographers out there who aren't very good at photo retouching and that is the result.  I guess some folks like that but that's not what we sell.  If you can't see the texture in the skin, they've gone overboard with the skin smoothing.

Jodi has family coming in this weekend and I will be the lone man in the house.  Her mother, sister, two of her aunts and a cousin are all coming in for a girls weekend.  One aunt and the cousin are flying in from Phoenix.  They are calling it an "invasion".  I know Jodi will enjoy having them all here and so will I.  I like fixing breakfast and grilling for company.  I have work to do also so while they go shopping and running around, I can get that done.

Barack Obama after his first debate with Mitt Romney. 

I'm back from St. Louis, tired and sore.  It was well worth it though.  Our club put on a pretty spectacular show and we were told it may have been the top show of the night.  It was a lot of work as we spent at least 20 hours while there prepping and assembling the show.  I wound up leaving the park at 1am Sunday morning, after arriving at 8:30am the day before.

Here is the video from the show.  For best viewing, click on the word Youtube at the bottom of the video screen.  Once on the Youtube site, click the icon at the bottom of the video that looks like a gear and then choose 720p for the video quality setting.

I'll post more about our weekend in St. Louis later.