LUNA

October 6, 2006 was a perfect night for shooting the moon. Not only did we have absolutely perfect weather—clear skies, cool temps, virtually no humidity—but as it turned out, the October full moon happened to be closer to the Earth than most full moons. The moon’s orbit around Earth isn’t a perfect circle, and so there’s always a time each month when the moon is closer to Earth than at any other time—called its “perigee.” Only on rare occasions does a full moon occur at perigee. The beauty of this, for a photographer, is that the moon was actually about 20% larger in the sky than normal. So, like I said, with perfect weather—and a perfect moon—I couldn't resist.

I had actually wanted to do this for some time, but I'm glad I waited. I feel like the results, had I done it earlier, wouldn't have been as breathtaking. I shot this with a tripod-steadied Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 lens, using its dedicated 2x teleconverter. When you take into account the 1.5x multiplying factor that my Nikon D200 imparts, I had the equivalent of a 900mm lens! You can see for yourself, the result was amazing.

I designed the poster you see above for my son, Jack's 8th birthday. He's a space nut and needed a cool new image to be the focal point of his newly decorated space-themed room. When I went to have it framed, the guys at the frame shop went nuts and begged me for copies of their own. I figured, why not make them available as limited edition, signed-and-numbered prints. I decided to only make 10 signed edition prints available, and naturally Jack got number 1.

So here goes, get them while they last. I have only 6 prints remaining available at $99 each (not including shipping). Each one is 16"x20", color, with a white border. The prints are made on 100-year archival satin photo paper, at 2880dpi, using an Epson 9600 printer with Ultrachrome inks. Trust me, these are fine prints. If you know someone who is a space nut, think about giving them one of these as a Christmas gift.

Daddy/Daughter Ball

The little angel standing next to me is not so little anymore. That's my daughter, Sarah. She's 10, but from these pictures you would never know it.

We went to a Daddy/Daughter Ball a few weeks ago. It was a complete blast. All of the little girls had on their fancy gowns, and all of the daddies were doing their best not to look awkward (with mixed results).

Sarah and I had the most incredible time. When the ball ended, I took her out for a steak dinner. She is such a great kid. She even shared my anchovies with me on my salad.

I love you, Bear!

Check out all of the pics here.

Cooper

This is the very last picture I ever took of Cooper. I shot it Saturday morning while he and my son, Jack were out playing in the yard behind my wife's mother's house in Knoxville. We were visiting for Thanksgiving.

Cooper was hit by a car and killed later that night. It has been one of the worst experiences of my life. He may very well have been the greatest dog that ever lived. My wife, Jordan and I agree that he was really a human who just happened to have four legs and a tail.

Rest in peace, brother.