This post is somewhat bittersweet as these pictures were taken before my Mom’s diagnosis and while she was still being treated by the incompetent doctor. However, I want to remain positive and since things are progressing positively, there is no reason to dwell on the negative.

When she saw these pictures she was surprised by how thin she was in them, so we will be retaking these pictures again in the Spring after she has been able to put some weight back on and before Johnathan leaves for the Air Force.

Probably sometime around the time of Onion Ring Night.

As you may recall, I like to check in on some statistics every 100 posts or so to see how things are doing in popularity. However, this statistical check-in will mark the end of an era. I am officially retiring the Snapshots Gallery and the Artistic Gallery.

The advent of the store has made them obsolete and why bother with galleries where you can’t buy anything, right Andree Jauhari, Marla Gorshe, and Jennifer Wohlgemuth of Minnesota! Right. Right?

Therefore, the only gallery that will remain is the Store. Check it out:

So here are the final rankings of the 10 most popular pictures in the Artistic Gallery. For the record, these are heavily skewed by spammers:

1. 669 Views


2. 497 Views


3. 410 Views


4. 375 Views


5. 352 Views


5. 352 Views


7. 351 Views


8. 350 Views


8. 350 Views


8. 350 Views

Here are the 10 most popular pictures from the Snapshots Gallery. Data heavily skewed by spammers.

1. 2010 Labor Day – 915 Views


2. Jesse & I Netting My Trees – 643 Views


3. Derrick & a Gunderburger – 245 Views


4. Tailgating Games – 229 Views


5. Baier & I at Chiefs Game – 169 Views


6. Shannon & I at an Inebriated Saints Show – 89 Views


7. Shannon in Backbone – 54 Views


8. Holding the White Trash Elixir – 49 Views


9. Brandon Tailgating – 45 Views


10. Gunderburger! – 43 Views

Here is the list of the ten people that have contributed (in some way shape or form) to this blog the most in the first 1199 entries. Plus how many entries they have been in since we last looked at these numbers. Plus where they were the last time we looked at these numbers.

1. Jesse – 174 – +9 – 1
2. Jay - 165 – +13 – 2
3. Shannon – 153 – +6 – 3
4. Derrick – 138 – +14 – 4
5. Jen – 124 – +16 – 6
6. Teresa – 118 – +9 – 5
7. Sara – 112 – +15 – 8
8. Willy – 110 – +8 – 7
9. Vest – 95 – +14 – 9
10. Carla – 84 – +10 – NR
10. Mom – 84 – +17 – NR

Who are the 3 greatest movers outside of the Top Ten?

1. Dad – +16
2. Jill – +14
3. Evie – +6

Thanks to this group of friends and family for their consistent efforts in aiding me in my photographic pursuits, either through assisting, modeling, inspiring, listening, or just being around a whole lot. I couldn’t do what I do with out them. And so many other people too!

The following images came from:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Real to Life/Black & White

Real to Life was 1 of the many photo “business” names I have considered over the years.

I’m guessing at some point I considered these to be some of my best or most interesting black & white pictures.

Sugar Ray Hiatt


1 of the first black & white pictures I ever took.


This picture was taken with APS. Remember APS? I didn’t think so.


This dead tree was near the Grand Canyon. I always liked the idea of photographing dead trees. Don’t know I’ve ever taken a good picture of a dead tree.




Brandon and Johnathan during Easter


The Old Nuclear Library Photo


Clinton, Iowa


Also in Clinton


Best Dog Ever




Rick Poore’s hat, glasses, and cigarette. If you look closely you can see Rick and Paul Golden in the reflection. Me too.

Next week’s folder:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Real to Life/Color

This also seems to be a pretty random collection of photos. Some of these pictures were taken by Teresa.

These pictures come from:

Backup/Old My Pictures/New Photos

Sadly My Photoshop Skills Haven’t Improved


This is the 1st picture I ever had accepted to the State Fair.
















This autographed picture was given to me by Steph. Simon Estes pulled it out of his trunk when she asked for it.

Next week’s folder will be:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Photoshop

Seems like most of my folders have a subfolder named New Folder. This New Folder contains some pretty random pictures. Some of these were taken by Carla.

This week’s folder:

Backup/Old My Pictures/New Folder

Next week’s folder will be:

Backup/Old My Pictures/New Photos

There are 3 very special people that were born on July 12 and they are each worthy of their own individual birthday photo tribute. So I will start from youngest and go to oldest.

Here is my photo birthday tribute to Logan:

It is time once again for me to to do a random look at some of the statistics on the website.

First up is what are the 10 Most Popular Images in the Artistic Gallery.

This one is actually somewhat of a shocker. A picture of Brandon has went from nowhere to be the most popular picture and the long time reigning champ Outburst of the Soul has fallen all the way to a tie for 6th Place. Although admittedly, I think spammers might have something to do with the rather large shakeup in the standings.

1. Brandon Senior Picture


2. Johnathan Senior Picture


3. Battered School Bus – Hamlin, Iowa


4. Self-Portrait


5. Jen Between Sets of an UnHingd Show


6. UnHingd Publicity Still


6. Outburst of the Soul


8. 1900


8. Becca – Senior Picture


10. Abandoned Piano – McCallsburg, Iowa

There has also been quite a shakeup in the Snapshots Gallery Top Ten.

Here are the 10 Most Popular Pictures in the Snapshots Gallery:

1. Me White Trashing It


2. ISUCFVMB


3. Alexis Cheerleading


4. Shannon and I at an Inebriated Saints Show


5. Jesse and I with the World’s Largest Cheeto


6. Logan’s Tree-man


7. Jesse and I at the Surf Ball Room


8. Jesse Endorsing the Bob’s Dog


8. 2010 ISU Spring Game


10. Shannon Reading Map at Backbone


10. Jesse and I in Clinton

Finally, a look at the Top Ten People to either contribute or be written about in An Artist’s Notebook.

1. Jesse – 163 – (+20)
2. Jay – 151 – (+7)
3. Shannon – 146 – (+6)
4. Derrick – 123 – (+6)
5. Teresa – 109 – (+13)
6. Jen – 107 – (+6)
7. Willy – 101 – (+8)
8. Sara – 96 – (+8)
9. Vest – 80 – (+19)
10. Dawn – 73 – (+9)

Wondering who the biggest movers were outside of the Top Ten?

1. Dad (+19)
2. Carla (+14)
3. Jill (+10)

In case you were interested in what the standings looked like 100 posts ago:

These pictures come from the following folder: Backup/Old My Pictures/Family/2004 McHose

I think these pictures are fairly self explanatory.

Next week’s folder will be: Backup/Old My Pictures/Family/Teresa & Ernie

These pictures come from: backup/Old My Pictures/Family/2004 B&W

One of the things I take from these pictures is that I have progressed in my knowledge of lighting quite a bit.

Plus I owned a pretty terrible scanner.

Next week’s folder: backup/Old My Pictures/Family/2004-McHose

These pictures are from: backup/Old My Pictures/2005 Calendar

I’m pretty sure these are the files from the 2nd year of the calendar, although it is possible that it was the 3rd or 1st year of the calendar. My records on such things are spotty at best.

In the early days of the calendar I made “individualized” calendars, but I only made 3 calendars back then, so it was somewhat easy to do. That is why there are more than 12 images in this folder.

These pictures would have been taken in 2004.

Until “Outburst of the Soul” this was the most popular picture I ever made. To this date, I believe it is the only picture I’ve ever taken that inspired a musical composition.






This is the first digital picture I ever took.






This picture was taken in Tulum near Cozumel. It was also fairly popular in its day.


This picture was taken between Upper Cullen Lake and Middle Cullen Lake in Minnesota.


This was the 1st (kind of feels like the last) picture I had accepted to the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. Apparently I’ve regressed as a photographer since this photo, the peak of my photography “career”.








I once had this terrible idea called the Beaver Machete Project. I’ll probably have to explain this later, but I’m going to buy myself a week or so to think of a good excuse for why I thought this was a good idea.

Next week’s look at the archives will be: backup/Old My Pictures/Animals

A cursory glance of this folder reveals very few pictures of animals.

Small bookkeeping note, with this Journal Entry, Teresa becomes the 6th Person to be featured, mentioned, or alluded to in 100 entries. I’m sure she’ll put that on her resume.