software fills in when mother nature won't

Brad and Cari asked me to come to Chicago last week to capture their family, and of course I was happy to oblige ... Lee had been my first boss in Chicago many years ago, and we've stayed in touch (especially when he decided to convert to Macintosh). When he found out I was going to be in town, we quickly coordinated calendars.

The plan: get some nice family shots in the fall splendor that is Chicago in late October.

The reality: the trees hadn't really turned yet -- it was as green as July for a hundred miles.

What to do in that situation? You lean on the fine products made by Adobe, and tone down the leaves that forgot what month it was.



Cari must have known I am a Beatles fan, because the four of them looked extra sharp in black turtlenecks and jeans ... it looked like "Meet the Beatles" in many of the shots. People ask me all the time about how to dress, and my answer is always the same: A family's style and personality comes out in how it dresses, so just be yourselves and everything will turn out fine.

Paul (left) was feeling a bit under the weather during the session, but you'd never know it from the results. He and John both were right on the entire time, and I really appreciated their spirit and energy.



I always ask families to make some sort of goofy face for me -- it lightens up the mood and reminds us all why we're doing this (to have fun) ... The boys did not disappoint.



I smell a holiday card cover!

fall colors with hailey and ryan

Fall is my favorite time of year — football is in full swing, evenings turn crisp ... and the leaves come out in full force! I grew up in eastern Ohio, in the foothills of the Appalachians, and October is the most gorgeous time of year. Hailey and my mom share a birthday, so I packed up the convertible and did the Great American Road Trip to capture the events.

Ryan is eight months old and already more than 20 pounds. One thing we learned — keep his belly full and he's all smiles. Of course, being allowed to play in the leaves and grass didn't hurt either.



Hailey's third birthday was a few days away. She's old enough now to understand parties with pizza and birthday cake. All you had to do was think about cake and you'd hear about her party.

My sister put Hailey into her birthday dress. Naturally, Hailey wanted to play on the slide a thousand times ... once she got that out of her system, she showed us her Steelers touchdown celebration. And naturally, the Steelers lost later that week.

Ryan is such an agreeable subject. Most eight month old babies are. I did get a few shots of him eating grass; we were a bit too slow to stop him ... as I said, Ryan needs to eat. A little fiber now and then is a good thing, I suppose.



And of course, I couldn't resist this wonderful shot of Hailey and her mom. It seems like yesterday that I was pulling her hair and generally making her life miserable. What else is a big brother for, after all?

But now, watching her with her family, I get an amazing feeling of pride and love. As I pressed the shutter, you might have noticed that I had something in both of my eyes at the same time. :)

sunday afternoon, in the park -- i think it was the 23rd of september ...

Minneapolis has been flirting with autumn for a few days now, and the family wanted to get a little of Mother Nature's color in their shots. There's a very nice path leading down to a stream, so we headed there first.



The boys were rather good models -- patient, willing to try unusual requests from the photographer -- and of course Little Melanie was the star of the show. It's obvious that her brothers adore her ...




As the fickle September sun made forest shots next to impossible, we moved back to the park for some family candids. It was a great combination -- cloudless sky, crisp autumn breeze, and incredibly good looking subjects!

end of summer

end of summer, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Fall is coming on fast here in Minnesota, and our dog, Trotter, is running out of days for swimming. Trotter loves the water -- I have to meet him with the leash in knee-high water, or I'd never catch him when it's time to leave -- and Amina and I try our best to get to the lake when the weather cooperates.

We went to Riley Lake in Eden Prairie around 6:30 p.m., and the first thing that struck me is that sunset happens much earlier than it did just a week ago. Luckily for Trotter, another goldendoodle, Riley, came with his dad not long after we arrived, and the two dogs pretty much wore each other out for the rest of the evening.

To this day, I marvel at how much energy dogs have ... but I guess if my life was spent taking naps all day long, I too could probably muster up enough energy to run around in the sand for an hour or so with a good friend.

trotter and riley, originally uploaded by pr9000.

heading south, originally uploaded by pr9000.

sunset, lake of the ozarks

sunset, lake of the ozarks, originally uploaded by pr9000.

I realize that Rinkes Photography is geared toward child and family photography, but I just could not resist sharing this great shot of a dramatic sunset over Lake of the Ozarks a few weekends ago. Amina and I went to visit friends there who own an amazing boat yacht -- I swear, it was nicer than my house! And their hospitality was top notch as well ...

But the highlight of the weekend (aside from a midnight cruise) was the glorious sunset Friday evening. All afternoon it rained ... it poured ... and somewhere an old man was snoring ... but eventually the clouds broke and we headed out to dinner.

I couldn't miss with Mother Nature showing off like that.

hailey and ryan

, originally uploaded by pr9000.

sleepy, originally uploaded by pr9000.

My first, and my favorite, child to photograph was my niece, Hailey. She'll be three in October, and of course her uncle and aunt will be home to eat some cake with her ...

She has a little brother, Ryan, who was born on Valentine's Day. His mom did a great job -- she had Hailey on our mom's birthday, and had Ryan on a holiday that nobody ever forgets. Uncle Paul won't ever miss a birthday card for these two.

We were home for Easter this year, and captured brother and sister sitting on a window seat. Hailey was very loving with her brother, who just slept a lot (as babies are wont to do). Hailey was eating some of mom's awesome nut roll cookies, and we really couldn't convince her to give them up. So there were some crumbs to Photoshop when I got back to my office.

Here's a shot I took of Hailey when she was no more than four months old -- her mom brought her on her first airplane ride, up to Minneapolis. We posed her all over the place, because at four months she was just very obedient Play Doh ... she could be placed anywhere, dressed any way, and she just sat there and took it in stride.

I'm sure her mom wishes that was an option now. :)

hailey, originally uploaded by pr9000.

hungry hummingbird

hungry hummingbird, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Sometimes, when you're taking pictures, you're so myopically focused on the subject at hand -- in this case, hummingbirds that have found our backyard feeder -- that you fail to see what's actually going on in the frame.

The backstory: Amina had been doing some research earlier on the laptop, because she was intrigued by the hummingbirds' behavior of chasing away other hummingbirds who came around hungry. Turns out they are very territorial, which would explain what I saw a few minutes later ...

As I sat on the deck, trying to blend into the vinyl siding and shoo away the dozens of bees buzzing this time of year, I had one eye in the viewfinder, and the other scanning the horizon, as these little guys are fast -- they come and go with such speed that you can literally blink and miss them.

So I got the shot (the rest of my photostream is here) and came inside to throw them into Aperture. I have a good view of the feeder from my seat; as I was cropping and color-correcting, I noticed something: A bee was eating from the feeder, and as the hummingbird approached, the bee chased off the hummingbird! This happened about three times before the bee left, and the hummingbird was then able to eat.

I wasn't looking, so I didn't see it, but I'm sure it was happening the whole time.

I think nature photographers go through this all the time. Patience and the ability to see with both eyes are critically important. Maybe I'll build a duck blind on the deck, if Amina will let me, and hang out all day tomorrow. :)