The Stories Behind the Pictures

I’ve always enjoyed hearing what was going on while a picture was being taken. Hearing about how a dog kept coming up to the photographer to play fetch while he was trying to take the picture. Stuff like that. Here are a few stories behind some of my pictures:

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Icelandic Horse : Prints Available

Beautiful horse standing still in a field with a castle in the background

The above is a picture of a beautiful Icelandic horse. These are amazing animals that actually seem to pose for you for long periods of time. It must have been wonderful taking this picture, right? What a peaceful scene. Well, the truth is, I was behind a barbed wire fence shooting these horse pictures. I wanted to get as close as possible, but I didn’t want to get stuck by a barb. I carefully placed my hand and camera on the fence, avoiding the barbs, and then moved in close and rested my head against the top wire to take the shot. Which was all fine. Except for the fact that the fence was electric. It sent a pretty major jolt right into my head and practically knocked me over. For those of you who are wondering, YES, I did say a bad word and, YES, I did say it three times and, YES, loud enough to scare the horses away.

The above is a beautiful silhouette shot of my wife. She danced ballet when younger and so I had this idea of silhouetted ballet shots at sunrise. We got up at 4:30 am and went to the lake and proceeded to get some great shots, including this one. Unfortunately, she was a bit out of practice doing the ballet jumps. After this shot, she landed hard on her ankle and I had to practically carry her back to the car. But, it’s a great shot, so well worth the trouble of carrying her back. (hint: that’s a joke)

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Sunset on the Farm : Prints Available

Colorful sunset silhouette of an Illinois farm

This barn was off of a highway in Illinois. I had noticed it before and my wife and I made a special trip out there to shoot it at sunset. My wife stayed in the car to read and I ran around shooting for about an hour. Our battery must have been a little low, because the dome light basically drained the battery completely and the car wouldn’t start. This wouldn’t be a big problem, except that it was dark and I had no idea where in the world I was to even call for help. We were stranded for about two hours. I eventually had to run a mile or so in the dark (with the state trooper on the phone) to find a mile marker and get someone out to help.

Before taking the above picture, I set my camera bag down and didn’t zip it because then I would just have to unzip the bag again to put my camera away and that’s a lot of work, right? I took this shot and had so much fun taking it that I forgot the camera bag was unzipped. I picked it up and my $2000 lens fell out of the bag onto a pile of rocks. Yes, there was glass on the ground. Yes, I said a bad word. Fortunately, the glass was from a $100 filter I had placed over the lens for protection and my lens survived the fall. I vowed to never again set my camera bag down without zipping it and have kept my vow.

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Rustic Window : Prints Available

A cabin window hidden in the middle of a forest of Birch trees

I had heard about a group of birch trees in Vermont and really wanted a birch forest shot during my trip to New England last year. I actually drove 5 hours roundtrip to take the pictures. When I got to the forest, it was completely overgrown and basically useless for picture taking. I had heard about a barn in the forest, but that was also surrounded by overgrown trees. All I got was the shot of this window. Five hours roundtrip for a picture of a window. But, this turned out to be one of my favorite shots from the trip.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the glamorous world of photography!

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