Did something a little different this go around. Trying to be a little more creative/interesting in presenting photos, so here is an awkward terrible headshot collection! Click the image for a more awesome view of all them heads!

Peace
- KS

Today’s title is from “Needle in a Haystack Life” by Switchfoot from their album Hello, Hurricane.

Great work Chris!

And congrats again to the bro and his gal.

Peace
- KS

Today’s title, and the song used in the video, are from the song “Go Do” by Jónsi from his album Go. Love that song.

Yup, crazy! I don’t have any pictures during the ceremony since I was standing. There were a few other photogs taking care of that part!

Eric attempting to play air guitar instead of paying attention!

This sequence was getting more and more awkward. Fortunately, clear heads prevailed. None of the above are clear heads.

If you guy ever get engaged, married or just want pictures taken, I’m in. You guys are just too hilarious not to have your personalities captured on silicon.

Grand ‘ol time! Lookin’ forward to see what the others got.

Peace
- KS

Today’s title is taken from the song “Lovers in Japan” by Coldplay from their album Viva La Vida. Favorite TapTap Revenge song

Wedding time! Early in July I second shot a wedding with the ever turbo Robb Davidson. This is from my take, Robb got all the good stuff (‘cuz I was hauling the light around).

Yup, that’s Robb’s patent-pending camera toss move.

My little brother is getting married tomorrow! Crazy style.

Mantreat 2010 was last weekend, expect a set or two from that soon.

Peace
- KS

Today’s title was brought to you by the song “Runaway Car” by Mat Kearney from his album City of Black and White. Lovin’ this album.

Rain on the car window, on Beverly Road overlooking I-90 at 4am

Localins will know that we’ve had quite a number of strong storm systems in the Chicago area of late. I love ‘em. Can’t get enough of them. Well, on Friday I ended up crashing in bed much earlier than usual, must have been a weighty day. I woke up at 3:00 am to the sounds of a storm starting to roll in.

Crashes of lightening and bellows of thunder that just make me giddy with excitement and awed at the display of power.

So I did what any photographer would do, jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera from my car and started walking towards Congdon Avenue in Elgin. I got about half way down the blog and decided I needed a trash bag to keep my (weather resistant) camera dryish. By the time I got towards the house, it was pouring like mad.

It was great. I was SOAKED.

(Camera was fine, woot for a 1D Mark III!)

I was hoping to get a lightning shot, but I just wasn’t able to get one and wasn’t really prepared. Tripods help a lot, as well as something to really keep the camera dry and the lens clear. After some attempts from my car on Beverly Road over I-90, the storm started to pass. This was what I came away with from the adventure. All-in-all, the 45minutes spent in the rain was fun enough.

More to this post, but it’s kinda emo. (okay, not really, but tis heavy.)

Well, I have a lot on my mind these days not many places to put it…

I turned 24 on one of the weirdest days I’ve ever experienced. Some things just are built up so much in your mind and then when they pass, it’s like they left a void, some empty place you used to process the most horrific of possibilities, I guess. And then when it passes and everything was just fine and life continued on unabated, it’s a strange and surreal experience.

Suddenly I was sick of California, could focus on anything again, needed to get back to work, missed my car… that kind of crap. It was like some switch was thrown and two weeks just disappeared. It’s really tough to adequately place my finger on it.

I get back and everything’s the same. Same frustrations at work, at home, in my heart.

And suddenly it’s almost July. June, where did you go? I usually enjoy the month of June. This one has been funky. Blegh.

Well, this is getting a little down, so time to double-clutch it into third gear…

I am starting a full-time position at Judson effective this Thursday (July 1st) and will be scaling back considerably from the job that has provided for me for over 5 years. The place that hired me as a silly 19 year-old and gave me the flexibility to still be in school while working, while still giving me an outlet for my tenuous love of math and algebra. It was a job uniquely suited to me and it still is strange to think about leaving. I’m still going to be around there now and then, especially since the shop is super busy through the summer.

At Judson, I’ll be doing what I’m already doing (managing the website judsonu.edu) but adding some more responsibilities and projects on top of it. For one, I’m on the planning committee for Judson’s World Leadership Forum in April where George W. Bush will be the speaker. Kind of a big deal, I’m excited. It’s also a job where I’m eager to know the ‘biz’ better and pick up some web development skills. At the shop, I was never really interested in learning too much more than what I did on a daily basis because I was not really interested in being there forever.

I hope this will also give me an opportunity to freelance for the newspaper more (part of what’s been missing the last 4 weeks).

I also finished my first graduate class (sorta, it was cross listed as an undergrad class…). Overall, I enjoyed it, even if it was kind of a joke in weeks 5-10 . I find that I do like writing in a journalistic style. I need more practice.

I’m actually planning on doing a few tech-related posts coming up. I love gadgets and technology and would love to start writing more formally about it. My friends are probably sick of being my knowledge-dumping-pit for my many interests.

First, up, I think will be a review of Sprint’s EVO 4G Android-based phone. I switched over from my iPhone and kind thing I’d like to write about it.

So yea, lots of words above. Well, only 775ish, according to my word counter in WordPress. But I bet it felt like more.

Oh, and php looks like a big pile of spaghetti with some semi-colons thrown in for good measure. I don’t much like spaghetti.

Peace
- KS

This post and its predecessor’s title came from the song “Never Knew” by The Rocket Summer from the album Do You Feel. And yes, it’s true. (oooooh, mysteeeeeriosssss)

Little sisters and my grandpa takin’ a gander at a sea otter. Cute little baggerts!

La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles. These are life-size statues of mammoths just outside the George C. Paige Museum. It both cracks me up insatiably and saddens me. Bye daddy!

Eric’s kinda short.

Oh noes! A meteor! Also equally hilarious and saddening. Good thing they were captured in stone/plaster for eternity/a few decades.

Mom discharged from the hospital after only two and a half days!

Whoop!

Okay… Well I’ve been back from California for a long while now. Despite the early set backs and last-minute surgery plan changes, everything went off without a hitch! The surgery only lasted a few hours and they were able to determine definitively that the tumor was not cancerous and was a benign tumor (still growing, but benign!). Crazy birthday.

The post-op was only a few days in the hospital and she was feeling pretty good afterwards, well considering. That anesthesia takes a while to fully leave your system I guess.

Lil’ brother Eric came in on Thursday the 3rd. Drove around LA. Hated the driving, wished to be back home.Travels home were okay, except I got stuck in the cliche seating arrangement on the airplane… Ugh.

Another, newer, image to come shortly with more ruminations. Stay tuned, as they say in the biz.

Peace
- KS

The weather here (near the coast anyway) is amazing. I can totally see why some people come here and never leave.

A panoramic! Click for a higher resolution version.

Not much else at this point! Still in limbo in surgery world. Been running around a bunch. So glad I still have a whole week left here.

Peace
- KS

Today’s title is from the some “For You My Dear” by Steel Train from their album For You My Dear. My current obsession (on so many levels!).

It takes a lot to really fake you and leave you bare
And I’ll never forsake you

You can stand on the edge till you find the pledge you made
Once upon your stolen seeds
But to hold the dreams and never believe you’ll leave all the schemes
That held you up inside

For you my dear
I can fall from heights

And it’s all I can do
As I slide to you
And brake when we fall

I give it all the best for the girl who rests
Shameless on the brink of broken dreams
And so I look to the floor for the one I adore
And in place is the face that shines so bright I believe

Don’t you turn away

Don’t deny what makes you
And in me you’ll see the one who’ll forsake you

Or part of the chorus of a song.

They are signs of God’s hand on my mom and dad (and family) along their journey to rid the world of brain tumors, one person at a time. Or something like that.

We later decided to coin the term “Owl in the Road” for any event of significance, an epiphany moment, or a “sign” (not necessarily a crop circle like in Midnight Shama-lamma’s movie).

As we go through this ordeal we try to look for God’s healing hand upon our hearts. Sometimes He speaks to us and comforts us through our relationships with other people, sometimes it is through events that make us gasp and say “No one but God our Creator could have done that.” Some call them “signs”, some say they are “just coincidences.” To us its an “Owl in the Road.”

This is an excerpt from the blog my dad is maintaining along this journey. Check it out here:

Owl in the Road: History and Current Events Relating to Dana’s Brain-a

Should be a good read, my dad’s quite the writer.

I had my own little adventures getting. I apparently book a flight for 5:18pm FRIDAY night, not Thursday. My mom’s surgery was scheduled for Friday. Smoooooth. Luckily I was able to get on a flight last night to still get to Cali before the operation. Whew! Second obstacle: waiting in O’Hare for 5 hours before the flight would take off. Fortunately DeeDee K. was on hand for entertainment! Thanks for making it an enjoyable wait!

So pictures. Here’s some.

Okay, I’d say more. But off for surgery!!

Peace
- KS

Been a number of weeks since I put up any journalism assignments. So here is a selection, this time around with comments!

Elgin's Brandi Hernandez (1) steals second base against Larkin's Lexi Smithberg (5) during their game at Elgin on Thursday, May 6, 2010. (Kevin Sherman | For the Courier-News)

I don’t have super good lenses for outdoor field sports. Need to spend a couple grand to get me there. As I like to say, maybe when I grow up. I have a 1.4x extender that I use for field sports, but it’s barely good enough. Sure, the action’s the important thing, but what separates a decent action photo from a good one is the background. I think the cars are really distracting. I’ve shot a baseball game recently too, but it’s just embarrassing to post any of those.

Shanon Gehrmann and her 19 week old son Brayden, left, and Meghan Consdorf and her six month old daughter Ashley talk during the New Mom, New Baby Support group at Sherman Hospital in Elgin on Thursday, May 6, 2010. (Kevin Sherman | For the Courier-News)

This was a fun assignment. The new Sherman Hospital (a fantastically neat facility) was just starting up these support groups for new mothers. It’s pretty much impossible to take a bad picture of a baby. Kind of an awkward room to shoot in though. The paper was looking for a shot of a specific nurse, but I also looked around and watched the interactions between the new moms. Was a pretty neat thing to see really.

Major General Freddie Valenzuela signs his new book "No Greater Love" for Algonquin resident Mary Chase (not pictured) at Barnes and Noble in West Dundee on Friday, May 14, 2010. Mary's son-in-law Chase Campbell, a Chaplain's Assistant, was recently deployed to Afghanistan. (Kevin Sherman | For the Courier-News)

This guy oozed awesome. An Army Major General (!) has been working hard to support Hispanic soldiers, created educational programs in at-risk communities and served for over 30 years in the Army. It was an honor to meet the man that work he has been doing is nothing short of incredible. I guess he is also listed as one of the most influential Hispanics in America. Like I said: awesome, oozed. He is also a great photography subject. He just has one of those faces that you can’t take a bad picture of.

My mom is having surgery this Friday (!). Her doctor is in California, I’m flying out on Thursday and staying until June 6th, so I’ll be there for my birthday. I’m a bit anxious for the operation, obviously. But there is a lot to be thankful for in this process: best doctor around (he pioneered the expanded endo-nasal surgery), minimally invasive, caught early and just seems like a lot of things are falling into place. I know it’s still brain surgery, but just seems like a lot is going right.

I’m also pretty excited to go to California.

But before I go, I have a ton of work to get finished, especially at the shop. I keep getting loaded up with projects that all have to be done yesterday, all in the week that I have a significant article due for my class and trying to get all set to leave. Oy!

It’s funny, God, you know. Despite how much it seems that I feel distant from him, he always gives me these little moments of excitement. Let’s see if it pans out this time around.

Peace
- KS

Today’s title is from “Cannonball” by Damien Rice, on his album O. I love the final chorus in this song. I’m a sucker for a song where the main ‘character’ learns or changes by the end of the song. I like the juxtaposition of things teaching us something about the opposite of it’s own reality.

Stones taught me to fly
Love, it taught me to cry
So come on courage, teach me to be shy
‘Cause its not hard to fall,
And I don’t want to scare her
Its not hard to fall
And i don’t want to lose
Its not hard to grow
When you know that you just don’t know