2018:: YEAR IN REVIEW

It has come to my attention that I’ve not posted in… 7 months.

Yikes. Sorry, guys… although I never really imagine more than one person reading these posts… sorry… guy?

2018 was a year with a lot of reflection and re-ordering of priorities, the discovery of some new creative passions, groundwork laid for future collaborations, amazing community, and of course, another year with my lovely artist wife and my two very strange but delightful young offspring (who just turned 8 & 10, respectively).

Unfortunately, it was also a year in which I generally sucked at blogging. Here’s one massive post of some of my favorite clients and images to make up for it!

Here’s the highlights:

GNAR

These two dudes bought a hammock company and hired me to do some marketing and lifestyle photography. I always have fun working with gnar. Look at these two. How could it be otherwise?

We came up with a mix of humor/concept driven shots and genuine contextual nature photos. Both were a blast! I love this company’s laid back, fun approach- and the hammocks are fantastic.

OZARK CHRISTIAN COLLEGE- lifestyle photography and more

I’ve had the privilege of working with OCC for the past couple of years, doing work for their alumni magazine, marketing campaigns, event coverage, social media presence and now, for a series of billboards. Here’s a handful of 2018 images:

DECADES OF WHEELS car museum

A huge chunk of my work last year was in collaboration with Decades of Wheels, an exciting and enormous endeavor in southeast Kansas. With plans to rotate a collection of 400+ cars ranging from classic to muscle to movie-famous, this museum is still in the works over in Baxter Springs Kansas. I had an absolutely

DECADES OF WHEELS BILLBOARDS

DOW launched a set of billboards that popped up all over the 4-state area- Seneca, Neosho, Joplin, Galena, etc…. it was pretty sweet to see my images all over town! Two fun facts about the images below:

-The 2nd girl down is my sister. pretty crazy- she and the other models all did a FANTASTIC job.
-the red car is the ACTUAL Monkees-mobile from the original tv show. No replica there… and I didn’t even know until I was halfway done shooting it. Talk about a jaw drop.

EDITORIAL WORK

I worked with a handful of publications, covering mostly food and people. The first couple of images are from FEAST magazine out of St Louis, featuring Joplin local food, which was an added bonus since I know and love these places! Shown is Kristen and her work at “Frosted”, our downtown bakery, followed by an image of the MSSU stadium burger (featured in FEAST’s statewide burger lineup) and then some images from my work with MFA Oil’s “Momentum” magazine.

TEAM PHOTOS/ CORPORATE HEADSHOTS

I do lots of headshots and staff photos for various businesses and organizations each year. I often come in to get both individual team member photos as well as full team photos. No, it’s not always the most creative part of my job, but it’s always satisfying to set a business up with quality portraits of their staff- a pivotal item for anyone’s marketing. And every now and again, something crazy does happen in this genre- like a team staff photo with a Steve-Jobs tribute theme, complete with matching MacBooks and black turtlenecks. Thanks for that opportunity, Cafe Connections…

JOPLIN HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS

I was officially added to the marketing team last year for Joplin Historic Neighborhoods, an organization focusing on the complete historical renovation of 3 of Joplin’s oldest and most iconic homes in the neighborhood of Murphysburg, not far from downtown Joplin.

This project is huge for our town, headed up by Brad Belk (Joplin’s premier historian) with work overseen by Michael Griffin, a historical architect who’s moved here for a several year time period solely to work on the project.

As the renovation progresses, I get the huge honor of being there for every step: every before/after picture (2018 was the year of “befores”), every bit of scaffolding going up, historical artifacts being uncovered, roof shingles being replaced, and documentation of the various team members playing their highly specialized parts.

My journalistic coverage has also included neighborhood events and specialty workshops sponsored by JHN, and of course, ongoing portraits of Charlie, the official ever-present Joplin historic neighborhood mascot cat.

PORTRAITS

Environmental portraits… be they headshots for actors, photos for artists, or captures of creatives- is always a favorite category for me. Here’s a random smattering of portraits taken last year. (In case you didn’t notice, humor is my strong suit).

TEACHING

Some of my favorite moments last year came from something still fairly new for me… teaching. I taught high schoolers for the second year in a row at Ozark Christian College’s Creative Arts Academy, then taught students in the fall for my first ever college-level photography class. Here’s a few candids from those classes:

PLACES

Here’s a quick set of architectural type work, featuring both interiors and exteriors of Joplin Missouri area businesses, including The Joplin Cavern, Stone’s Corner Pharmacy, ADC Dental, People’s bank of Seneca, AT & T, and Murphysburg historic homes.