LOCOMOTO DESIGN/FX It's been on my mind for years - a treasure trove of pictures that needed to see the light of day...and trying to blog about moving through the archives of over a decade of images...it reminded me of the end of "Raiders of The Lost Ark"-- an enormous warehouse, and this found treasure,  hidden away in a box, tucked among other boxes. I didn't want a good part of the visual treasure I've mined over the years to stay tucked away on hard drives, forgotten like Indy's ark -

It just seemed like the right time. As my oldest son reaches his senior year, I've been nearing the time where I get asked "do you have pictures of...?" to which I respond 'You know, I probably do!". I picked up my first digital camera in 2000, and haven't looked back since. I've documented years of recesses at Wilshire Park school in Saint Anthony, MN until my own sons moved on to the next grade level. Middle school bands and plays. High school performances of all kinds and nearly every YMCA Voyager's event for close to 8 years.

It's not that I "just like to take pictures to take pictures"; I live for the narrative thread that holds a story together. A common comment on what I shoot is that you often can see beyond the image, to the action of thinking. If that's the case, then I've done my job in telling the story of life - your life.

Of course, there is a commerce part of the story too...I've given away thousands of pictures over the years, provided countless Facebook profile pictures, and shared some of what I've captured. The reality is that it takes a lot of time (and a healthy amount of gear) to document our community's life and spirit, and I've appreciated the support when I've been hired for senior pictures, family portraits, headshots, etc. It validates what we do as creatives, and rewards us for the years of practice it takes to capture life in a way that lives. 

A frame at a time.