you better start swimming...

a few snaps from the trip mush and i took to the sculpture garden at the walker in minneapolis. nice day...

he's got "the cancer."

but hopefully not for long...
as long as he manages to not eat sodium or iodine for three weeks and the radiation does its job, my cousin mike should be back to "normal" soon.

but he'll still have a heckuva scar.

when old man winter comes to town.

to complete the brookings winter experience, we got stuck in a snow ditch (but were able to push out) on our way to a small-town bar that we used to go to when we were kids. these bruce locals let me take their picture while they were drinking coffee. in hindsight, i should have maybe worked the situation a bit, but we had steak to eat and beers to drink.

the rural alberta advantage

uff da.
i nearly forgot i had one of these things. i suck.
back before christmas, two of my favorite people decided to leave the big apple and visit family back in south dakota, so i braved the cold and buzzed up there.

ryan and julie picked the coldest-ever weather to visit. my breath froze to my beard instantly. the wind was constant, as were the four-foot high drifts every morning in front of his dad's house.

still, it was a good trip. i don't get to see them very often, and i don't go up to brookings much.

good times.

if i should fall behind.

so i was cleaning up my desktop yesterday and found some pics i took around the holidays... so now i can have a few updates. we'll start with a couple cute photos of my friend's kids. well, lucy the beagle is not really a kid, but she is still lays on mike like a baby.

you can't start a fire without a spark.

spent some time with a a convenience store last night. the poor reporter had to spend the whole night there, which coincided with the first seven hours of his birthday. his present from me was a lottery ticket. keep your fingers crossed that his luck improves.

of course, none of this has anything to do with this photo, except that the lighters were sold at the store.

they crossed the yukon river and found the bonanza gold.

another leftover from the gator bowl...

don't get caught on the wrong side of that line.

just got back from the gator bowl. there were lots of guys like this clown on the sidelines. what a dumbass...



for those keeping score at home...
1. knee pads when you don't kneel
2. monopod for a tiny lens
3. assistant when you use two camera bodies
4. hat AND sunglasses
5. boat shoes

i'll have a blue, blue, blue christmas.

i got a pretty awesome new shirt for christmas...

a good man is hard to find.

my co-worker rudy smith retired a few days ago. he is a great guy and has taken some fantastic pictures over the years. we had a story about him in the paper. he has seen some crazy things over the years.

also, check out some of his pictures.

this gun's for hire.

i spent part of my christmas photographing a little girl who had a heart transplant a few weeks ago. it's really a shame i couldn't have spent some more time taking pictures of young max.

the weak lies and the cold walls you embrace.

survived another football game in norman. there is a part of me that wishes i could have photographed the old nebraska-oklahoma football rivalry in the big eight. but that stadium down there is just terrible to work in. very little room on the sidelines. and if your cousin's stepfather's uncle once walked barry switzer's dog, you, too, can get a sideline credential.

but i digress. the highlight for me was stopping at the okc bombing site. since it was a 7p game, we had some time to kill in oklahoma city. we stopped at the murrah memorial. it really is a nice place to walk around. great lines and a reflecting pool. i bet it looks amazing at dusk.

but mama, that's where the fun is.

an interception return came a little close to me. i have always been a fan of the "duck" method, as opposed to the "run away" method. maybe i should rethink that practice... although i did not get touched on this play.

through the wind, through the rain, through the snow.

i was sent out to western nebraska to put myself smack in the middle of a snowstorm.



unfortunately for me... not much snow.

i woke up thirsty the day I died.

my friend sarah tells me this is a swan. i am taking her word for it... shot this back in july when they were draining the olympic trial pool water into this pond. this was better than any other image i took that day. doesn't say much, eh?

all tomorrow's parties.

i am trying to catch up, people (well, the five people who look at this)...
these are back during my trip to rapid city to visit the soderlins. ryan cooked up this huge hunk of beef, which should surprise no one who knows him...

it turned out fantastic, which should also not surprise a soul.




also, ryan surprised me by pulling out "beer christ," which was my graduation present to him back in the last millennium, circa 1997, i think. this was shortly after "piss christ" got some headlines. to me, this summed up parts of ryan's personality. i spent a number of hours on it, actually. glad i did. it has aged well (it pry helps that ryan keeps it in a closet, which is truly where it belongs).

i got a union card and a wedding coat.

worst-ever parade? the labor day parade. also what made it worse is a spent 45 minutes on that assignment and four hours on a labor day birth shoot, which was supposed to go display. i bet all you newspaper photogs out there know how that turned out in the morning paper...

i thought this shot was kinda funny, though. you would think someone would have noted this before the parade started:

roll me away.

on the way to the husker game.

i will fix your rack if you'll take old jack, my dog.

i am sure if robbie robertson would have met mona the cat, he would have written about her instead of a dog...

my friends ryan and julie picked up this cat at the shelter. worst cat ever. not only does she pick fights with the other cat and keep me up at night, she steals money.


on the other hand, i did get to spend a day with my favorite dog, babe. she has gotten a little bit more gray then the last time i saw her, but still a pretty dog.

her brother baron, is a heckuva guy, too, but not pictured.

it was a night like this forty million years ago...

when i was visiting ryan and barb in rapid city, i made ryan go up to dinosaur park to take my picture on the mountain. i went there when i was a little kid. still pretty cool, man...


photo by ryan soderlin