New Crime Scene Processing Class at Balanced Exposure

I'm excited about a new class I'm offering at Balanced Exposure... Intro to Crime Scene Processing!

Students all know that I had worked in Law Enforcement in the past and that I have an Evidence Technician background.  I'm also a court-qualified expert witness in both Forensic Photography and Forensic Audio since 1990.

I figured with the popularity of TV shows like CSI, there might be some students who might like to try their hand at processing a mock crime scene... just like I did both in real life and when I was in college study for my degree in Evidence Technology.  Well, I was right!  Plenty of students have signed up for the class and will try their hand at dusting for fingerprints, collecting physical evidence and photographing it too.

All of the supplies for the class arrived today and I've been having fun dusting for prints.  I've processed plenty of items of evidence in the past.  It sure brings back good memories of the things I used to do.  I'm looking forward to sharing that experience with my students!

Medieval Times - 1-12-14

I had a chance to visit Medieval Times yesterday to take some promotional photos for my upcoming field trip classes to the castle in February and March.  Our knight was the red/yellow knight who  won the final fight sequence!

This is not an easy photo shoot!  It will challenge my students in terms of their ability to figure out good exposures and also their abilities to focus manually.  Lots of movement to shoot, varying lighting conditions and other things to watch out for.

During the hand-to-hand fight sequences, a tightly knit net is brought up to protect the audience.  Trying to photograph anything through this using auto-focus is next to impossible.  Manual focus is the way to do it!

I'm looking forward to seeing how well my students do at this show.  Come join me in February and March for the field trips!  To read more about the photo field trips, click here.

Willow Creek North Shore Church

Lately, I have been attending Willow Creek North Shore church in Northfield, IL.  While my family has typically attended much smaller churches over the years, it's been a change for us these past few months trying a much larger church.

I must say that the Willow Creek North Shore church's worship team is always great.  Highly energetic and musically interesting, the team adds a lot to the worship service.

It's a little hard being in the congregation and not contributing my own musical talents to a worship service.  For many years, I had been one the worship leaders for the churches I've attended in the past.  But my teaching schedule today at Balanced Exposure often limits my ability to do much more than just attending church.

If you have not found a church to attend and are looking for one, check out Willow Creek North Shore.  They have Sunday morning services at 9 AM and 11 AM.

The images above were taken with a Lumix DMC-LX5 point and shoot camera with manual settings.  I was sitting way in the back of the auditorium.  Not bad for a small camera, but obviously not as clean and crisp of an image compared to what I could have gotten with my trusty Nikon D4!

New Year - 2014

Happy New Year, everyone!