Today

Its rather nice outside. I haven't went outside, or even looked for that matter, since we have been slaving away on sports photos. But just a few minutes I took a breather and noticed it was nice. Went outside and heck yea!

Some people might disagree with me; I will leave that all up to you. But I think today is a tad better than a few days ago...photo below:

Started GGSA

We started photographing GGSA last night. We are shooting again tonight, then G.O. Baseball next week. If you read this blog and are a part of GGSA/GO Baseball please call us and schedule your team if you haven't already.

Ken made it back from Florida yesterday. He left us to hold down the fort, which I think we did a hell of a job! He took a trip down to do some fishing.


Now that is one happy man!

In that old school house again

Just one though. Ken photographed this senior last week in an abandoned school house. Its becoming a hot spot:

Hope everyone enjoyed Easter! For the past 7 years my family hosts Easter for our good friends Brandon and Amber. And every year we both take a family photo:

Here are the kids after the Easter egg hunt:


It's finally getting warm outside. This time of year makes me want to be outside and photographing everything. Its going to be 73 degrees today! So, Im heading out to shoot...

Not much going on, so here is an Echo update

Here she is at 10 weeks old. Training is going so good. Thats all we do, sit, heel, down, sit, heel, down, etc... Man how fast they grow. Kat thinks I am giving her a complex since shes a girl but wears a blue collar. I do not see it.

Talk about a weekend

My family is wiped out... completely drained. Along with me having the craziest head cold yesterday, Carter and Crystal aren't feeling all that well either. Luckily this began yesterday because we had a super fantastic Saturday!

My son Adam wanted to play soccer at the YMCA, which has great programs for kids by the way. Anyways, it was his third game. We have been struggling to teach him the basics but he finally got it!
Coach wanted him to switch it up so he played the net. Talk about being bored.

He eventually got some action!


After the morning game and some chillin' time, we had CAKE!

Thats right, Saturday was Carters 4th birthday. Crystal made this fabulous cake. It is to resemble a toadstool from Mario Kart. She has some mad skills and we all agreed the cake looked fantastic. The carnage beginning:

The birthday boy. Notice the nice Koolaid smile:

We ended the party on a good note; Jade hung out and played with Carter and all of his new toys.

THEN, we added a new addition to the family:

I know, horrible lighting. This is all she gave me Sunday night. This little ball of fur is only 7 weeks and came from Arkansas (I always want to say Ar Kansas). Echo is her name and she is something. Stay tuned for a ton of photos.

Sleepless nights are upon me. I see new carpet in my future as well. Same goes for a few other things she might chew up. Its weird because I am so excited that none of that cares!

Highly recommend these

The earphones that come with the ipod are horrible. Our quest to find a nice set of earphones ended. Sennheiser makes a great set of earphones that sound great and feel good to wear. When my set finally took a dump I found a pair of these sitting on Kats desk. Man they sound good! Highly recommend them, especially if you work out and jam to your tunes!

Wedding update! Getting more excited every day. Currently we are scheduled to go to Sidney a few times, Alliance, Cheyenne, Torrington, and a few local weddings. We still have several Saturday's open. If you are looking for a wedding photographer email us at info at spectrumphoto.com and we will gladly help you out.

Is it hot?

For the past 4 months our department has been training on the Firefighter 2 class for the state of Nebraska. Its a huge class and the curriculum is less than 12 months old I believe. Gering is probably the 3rd or 4th city in Nebraska to have this class. Pretty cool.

Classes are every Tuesday night. Last night I took the camera and shot a few because we were working with live fire and foam application. I have been wanting to snap some real emotion fire photos, but usually when that happens I am actually working the fire, not snapping photos. So training is my only option.

Just glanced through the photos and these two caught my eye. Its tough to photograph because it was at night, but also because of the heat and water in the air. Not to mention a huge exposure gap between the dark firefighters and the bright fire and if you use flash the reflection from the gear just blows everything out. Probably one of the more difficult things to photograph.

Meet Stone...

A huge ball of loving fur.


My best friend Matt and his wife Reba got a new dog, their first "child". Matt also purchased a new truck so he brought both to the studio to show off. So mean...

The name Stone goes way back and such a long and stupid story that it wouldn't fit in this post, literally. Personally, Stone looks does look like a bear. Whatever the name Im sure you would agree with me that this dog should be on a Hallmark "I miss you" card.

Christmas - 6 days away

Amazing, just yesterday it felt like spring. Another year has gone by so fast. This has been a great year at Spectrum. We kicked it up big time with our wedding line. Not to mention we brought in a new gallery wrap line plus several new card designs. Im super excited for next year!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been in and out of the office all last week. My family received some bad news. My mother's sister passed away earlier this week. I have always looked up to my aunt Pat and her family. When we were young, Mike (Ross at the time), Jason, Andrew, Robbie, and the rest of the cousins would hike and play in the Wildcat Hills. We would dig huge underground forts into the side of canyons. It got pretty rough as well; someone was shot in the eye while playing BB gun wars. Man the memories.

Patty was a shining star for her family. My mother's family is so close and connected through their faith. Anytime they would get together they would laugh and share stories about their lives. I feel so honored to be a part of my family. We have a lot of love. Patty would always have a smile on her face. The past 6 months she has battled cancer. Patty gave it her all and fought for herself and family. It was a good fight. I will never forget her beauty and that great loving smile. She gave my family so much love and I will miss her dearly. I am so empathetic to Mike and Jason. We love you guys!

90% of my family at our reunion last June.

Aunt Pat.

Aunt Pat with Mike, Ayden and chunky Semper.

We will miss you dearly. Thank you for being a part of our lives for 65 years!

A different photo shoot

The GFD received a new truck and I just had to take some photos for the wall. Taken around sunset. I wanted to show off the command light that beds on the top between two dunnage areas. Its actually pretty sweet.

The truck has been put into service. It is the new rescue replaces an outdated 99.

WE HAVE A BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!

If you can, flood Ken's email with birthday wishes! designteam@spectrumphoto.biz. Do it!

Coach Pelini visits Gering

Thought I would try and do the video embed thing. Just testing out how it works.

Photo of the day

I do not know how we survived without Photobooth!

Slow photo week

Its been a while since I have updated the blog. This week is a very slow "picture taking" week. The whole team is SWAMPED with baseball/softball photos. Baseball went out yesterday, softball will be going out in the next day or so. Check with coaches for your photos.

I went to Bayard last weekend for my family reunion. We had a total of 102 people show up. The only two that couldn't make it was my cousins Kerry and her family and my cousin Jason and his wife (Kerry is in Minnesota and Jason is gearing up for another deployment to Iraq). It was a blast and huge success in part to my mother's siblings :).

Here is a shot at my grandparents whom I love so dearly. They have been married for over 60 years.


Ken is photographing a wedding in Sidney this weekend. I am heading to the same wedding with Aaron to assist with his video needs. Its going to be a blast.

Cake anyone?

As I mentioned before, this weekend was super great. My best friend Matt is in the Wyoming National Guard and has served 1 duty in Iraq so far. So I am truly humbled and greatful for everyone that has served our country. Every Memorial day we spend a few hours driving around looking at the flags and paying tribute. My boys love the flags:

Carter looking up at the flags:

Like I said, Crystal was quite surprised when she walked in and everyone screamed from the top of somewhere very high!:

Cake. Mmmmmm. How many candles are on there?:

The birthday girl!:

Thank you everyone for chipping in and making this weekend spectacular.

Ok, so whats on deck you ask? Baseball for starters. I will be shooting a wedding in Scottsbluff this weekend and I am super excited. We are also gearing up for seniors. Which reminds me, if you want your photos to be awesome, please call 308.436.4422 and ask Jeanne to send out a brochure ASAP!

Memorial Day

I hope amidst the BBQ's, the fishing trips and the family time, I hope everyone takes a moment to remember those who lost their lives fighting for our country. Same goes for everyone that is not with us.

Yesterday we had the best birthday bash yet, including a BBQ and lots of badmitton and hockey. It was Crystal's birthday yesterday and we held a surprise party for her. She had no idea! The coolest thing was her mother came down from Colorado. I should get some photos up tomorrow.

Until then, have a safe and awesome day. Its really cold here today. We planned on doing some gardening but its not going to work :(

Fighting Crime

During this whole remodeling process we have had a few photo shoots. I was at the park a while ago and was approached by a high school friend to take some photos of him and his dog. Of course I would say yes. Not your typical shoot because he wanted to use the photos for his supporters. We spent about an hour together Saturday morning.


Meet Officer Enlow and his partner Rony. Since I am also a firefighter with the Gering F.D, I am familiar with all of the Gering P.D. Rony joined us a few years ago and is one hell of a dog. A bit smaller than usual, but he is big in heart. There are 3 dogs in our immediate area. Hopefully we will try and get everyone together for a good shot.

In light of what happened this past weekend, I wanted to give regards, respect, and thoughts to every law enforcement person. I truly respect what you guys do and I thank you for your service to your community. There was a shooting at a local motel that involved a long time Gering resident and a law enforcement officer. My thoughts and prayers are with the families that were affected in Saturday's tragic accident.

Jelly Beans!

Ken took a quick trip to Denver yesterday to sit in on the Ed Pierce Captivated by the Light seminar. I was planning to go as well, but earlier this week my grandfather entered the hospital. Ken said the seminar had some good information, just not as personal as he expected.

He also brought back some gourmet jelly beans. We had to test all of them!


From Kiwi to Buttered Popcorn, there is like 20 different flavors. Some are off the wall. Here is Kats reaction after taking a bite of Baja Margarita!

So far, Spicy Cinnamon and Perfectly Pear is our favorite. Popcorn isn't suppose to be in a soft, chewy form. I think its kinda weird. But the most off the wall flavor so far is the Baja Margarita. I would not recommend it to anyone!

Happy Friday everyone! Im super pumped about my intimate wedding tomorrow. It will be my first wedding with the new 1.8 lens. Ill get some photos up asap.

Spring fever!

Around this time I am actually getting sick of winter. Can you believe that!?!?!? A few days last week we had some killer weather. It reached 72 degrees on Friday? The Sunday came around and it was snowing and horrible.

Saturday a buddy of mine wanted a field burned. So a few of us got together around 2 and stripped some of field. The wind died down and we were able to get about 50 acres burnt. Afterwards I went home and spent the afternoon with my boys in the backyard. Adam was so pumped he could wear shorts again!

The light was gorgeous Saturday:




The Sam. She is looking so old in this photo:


The boys decided to race trucks. Not sure who won, but I didnt have the heart to tell Carter he was driving his Tonka backwards. Besides, he would deny it and let me know how wrong I am. 3 year olds are always right you know...



Back to crappy weather. The wind is blowing and its staying in the 40s.

Another slow week

Literally, this is our last senior for the year:


Other than that, we have just been finishing up on orders. This is probably the slowest month for us. I will post up a few engagement photos tomorrow though :).

And, since is has been slow, my buddy Brandon and I headed to Sidney to my favorite store on the planet and pick me up one of these babies!


I am going to try real hard to learn how to blow a duck call this year. Before this year, I wasnt really thrilled about duck hunting. But a few buddies got me into it and I figured Im going to need a call eventually. My neighbors are probably really excited :).