I have so many things to be thankful for that I think I’d fill several pages worth of things. On the day after Thanksgiving I’m reviewing photographs and memories from yesterday and the thing I’m most thankful for is family.

Thanks to my bride for getting up at 4am and cooking the most amazingly tender turkey.

Thanks to my brother and his family for driving many miles to spend the holiday with us.

Thanks to our parents for bringing dishes to pass and being a part of the celebration.

Thanks for my cousin Chris for stopping by (even if he wrote his name in the dirt on the back of our van.)

Here are a few photos from our Thanksgiving celebration. The first is my favorite. Sparkie knows exactly where to sit during the meal.

Camera Wars with my brother

This last one is my nephew. Is he a football player or a Baby Gap model? You decide.

Baby Devin joined us in this in this world a week ago and I had an amazing opportunity to capture him at three weeks old.  No flash, no surprises, just natural sunlight and some parents that love him. These new parents have no idea what is ahead of them, and that’s the most amazing part of it all. I had a great time listening to them talk about their experiences at the hospital and all of the new things they are learning already about parenthood. We had to take a break from shooting due to a gift in the diaper, and dad was the one that took the baby away to change him. This boy has some amazing parents and he has no idea how lucky he is.

Sometimes I go location scouting before a photo shoot.  It’s a great opportunity to view the world photographically and to take my time seeing images before they happen. Sometimes I love the serendipity of finding a great location while I’m walking around with a couple, but a larger group of people requires a bit of planning and foresight. Sometimes I purposely take only the iPhone with me on a photo walk because it really forces me to concentrate on lighting and composition. Below is one of the photos that I took with my iPhone while location scouting for this shoot.

And here’s the resulting image that came from it:

This next shot came to me during the walk as well. I liked the spacing of these trees and the high grass.

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year for photography. The leaves, the temperature, the sunlight is lower in the sky. Everything about it is great, except for the unpredictable weather. Two days before this family portrait session it rained and rained, and I wasn’t sure we would be able to make it work. However, on Sunday morning the sun came out and it turned out to be the perfect day for photography.

One step at a time up the stairs.  Sparkie the wonder mutt would take one or two steps and then pause.  Take two more steps, and pause.  One step, another, until she reached the top.  My dog’s getting older and she may not be around in a few years.  Turns out she went all the way upstairs to get a stuffed animal in hopes to coerce me to play a little chase around the house.  It’s a game we play where I tell her to give me the stuffed animal and she runs around the table hiding from me.  I could never catch her a few years ago, she was so fast.  Today it’s quite easy to catch her, but I let her get away a few times to keep the game going.  It sounds like the house is coming down when we play this game.  Think about it.  Here’s this grown man running around the dining room table pounding his feet on the floor chasing a dog all for a stuffed animal.  I’m sure it’s quite funny from an outsiders perspective.

She’s sitting right next to me as I type this occasionally letting her eyes divert up to me to check and see if I’m ready to play.  The stuffed animal sits on the floor right next to her mouth in case I try and go for it.

I think it’s time to play chase the stuffed animal with Sparkie.  Here I go……