Packing the gear to shoot another April wedding today, this at the iconic Story Inn — one of the most beautiful, and one of my favorite, locations in South-Central Indiana.

What an honor to share my work with so many couples….

This entire business has been built on treating every client as a new friend, as a shared part of one another’s lives. When I first sketched out my business plan I knew I wanted to hit the mark where the best price (pricing for the client) meets the best quality photography meets the best service. To do the right thing for the client shoot-after-shoot-after-shoot, rather than to maximize earnings. Seven years later that remains exactly how the business operates: I get the most satisfaction from folks excitedly saying “Thank You!!” rather than from maximizing income. Though, paradoxically, because our service, quality and price are excellent, the business attracts more-and-more clients…. I’m proud of being Midwestern, which at its core, I believe, includes being a genuinely good human.

Five photo shoots this weekend and on Sunday afternoon I still got to watch one of the best sports (life) events of all time….. Perfect weekend in Bloomington, Indiana…..

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Photographing weddings is an remarkable experience. There’s so much emotion throughout the venue, and nearly limitless small moments of interest. Someone said to me this weekend that it looked like I was in an interactive video game, as I was bopping up-and-down, side-to-side, turning this-way-and-that…. I thought that was about as apt a description of eight hours of a wedding photographer’s day as I’ve yet heard!

(A really fun video game, I might add….!)

April has been non-stop already, and I’m shooting a 10-hour wedding today, and am filled-to-the-brim with four more weddings, plus several senior pictures, professional headshots and a book cover by month’s end!

Thank you, Bloomington and South-Central Indiana. What a thrill this is for me to be helping so many people in such a meaningful, always-interesting, creative and fun livelihood.

When I shot SeongHyun in my studio this week I was again reminded — being in a world-class college town — of the beauty of working with people from so many different countries, with so many fascinating perspectives on their time in Bloomington. It’s always a wonderful one-on-one conversation about influences, aspirations, plans and goals. I enjoy immensely the opportunity to talk with everyone as we work together.

On the ledger of life, time spent photographing a professional comedian absolutely should not be counted as “work”.

Travel & Leisure Top 25 winery in the U.S., and the largest privately owned winery east of the Mississippi River. We’re proud to have Oliver Winery in our wonderful town, and I’m delighted to have been hired to photograph their newly-renovated tasting room.

People tell me all the time that I smile a lot. It’s true. I do. I absolutely love this career.

As I work on images I most often listen to podcasts. I’ve found several that have become instrumental to me. I’ve always loved — LOVED — learning, and acquiring knowledge is so much more readily available now than it has ever been in world history. Learn, share, give, appreciate and feel enormous gratitude for this wholly unique lifespan we’ve been blessed to live.

I think often about how to most optimally prioritize life. We all have various obligations, hobbies, interests, goals, etc, of course.

For me, after family relationships and physical health (and pugs! pugs are the best!), I put travel at the top of my priority-setting.

There’s nothing in life that compares to planning travel, looking forward to travel, actually traveling and then, yes, going through photographs upon returning home from travel. I love it all, immensely.

A trade-off for me is that travel obviously cuts a large path through about five months a year of my business. Fair enough. I’m delighted (honored, even) to work seven months to explore/enjoy the country/world for five. We all look back, we all look ahead…. I want my memories and dreams to forever include the fascinating places I’ve been blessed to wander.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

Dalai Lama

One of the highlights of living in Bloomington is the joy of watching all of the Indiana University sports teams. Being a lifelong runner, I’m so drawn to Cross Country and both Indoor and Outdoor Track. Everything about running is appealing to me (and has been a significant factor in molding my personality), and I love watching the athletes experiencing the highs and lows of the sport. Many of the best photographs come from moments just before, and just after, competition.