Category Archives: Portrait

The Archives: Edition Twenty

These pictures come from the following folder: Backup/Old My Pictures/Jones Soda

These pictures might come as kind of shocking. So I better give a small bit of back story.

If there was ever a chance for me to be a cult leader it was when I was the closing assistant at the Boone Outpost of the Evil Clown Empire. It was the peak of my charisma. It was the peak of the power of my sideburns. I was practically a town/county celebrity and for all of the right reasons. People did and said what I told them to and everybody wanted to be in my company.

However, I didn’t use my power, charisma, and sideburns to form a cult. At least not a religious cult. I used them to introduce my love of Jones Soda to the people that surrounded me and to get them to love Jones Soda.

Jones Soda, I say.

You see, I’m not a boring and uninteresting person. I’ve never been a boring and uninteresting person. I don’t surround myself with boring and uninteresting people. Therefore alcohol has never been and never will be an important part of my life. Actually it is no longer a part of my life period.

Sure I know plenty of people that place a premium on alcohol in their value system. I’m sure if I were them I would probably need alcohol to put up with being them too. But I’m not them, I’m me, and I don’t need to medicate away the pain of being me, because I am “amazing”, “wonderful”, my talent “knows no bounds”, and “the bringer of awesome”.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like to get together with a few chums after a hard night of serving what is laughingly considered food to some of the finest white trash in all of Boone County and have a few frosty cold beverages. Only the frosty cold beverages I enjoy are Jones Soda’s Green Apple Soda or their Fufu Berry or their Grape. All divine creations.

So it was on a hot, humid night that the 4 of us clustered into Action’s basement and made these 2 pictures with a webcam.

These two pictures existed because we were sending them to two separate places.

The first picture we sent to Jones Soda to show our love for their superior product.

The 2nd picture we sent to Hy-Vee (at least I think we did or we might have just sent a strongly worded letter that pointed out the economic impact of their poor decision) to show them exactly how we felt about a stocking decision they had made.

Jones Soda makes an energy drink called Whoop Ass! The Boone Hy-Vee decided to stop stocking Whoop Ass! because some old battle axe complained about the name of the product.

The Edge actually sent our letter on to Jones Soda and they rewarded us with a case of Whoop Ass! It was a monumental victory for the little guy!


Hy-Vee never re-stocked Whoop Ass! I’m frankly amazed that they are still in business.

Next week’s pictures come from the following folder:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Labels

Personal Photo Project of the Week #70

Last week I removed and disassembled the Friend Wall. It is no longer in existence. No longer do I have friends on my wall.

I replaced the Friend Wall with the 9 Emotions Project Wall. The centerpiece of this new “exhibit” is a 24×36 print of the picture below. A picture that was the ultimate goal of the whole 9 Emotions Project.


I picked 1 person for each emotion. I like to think that there are reasons why each person was able to best represent each emotion.

Joy and Cousin Amy

Cousin Amy lives the joy of a life where she was told a diagnosis of her child by their doctor and told the doctor, “I don’t think so.” Then she went out and proved the doctor wrong.

Sadness and Willy

After the events of the last couple weeks, there isn’t a reason to cover this one.

Anger and Derrick

As hard as it is to believe, Derrick was the single angriest man I ever worked with when we were employed at the Boone Outpost of the Evil Clown Empire. I have numerous stories of him in my mind throwing searing tools across the room and punching things and telling the Store Manager to do unbecoming things to his anatomy that most people simply wouldn’t believe happened. Although once he was off the clock, he was the Derrick that everybody else knows.

Amusement and Shannon

When I think of Shannon I think of somebody that is amused by the simple things in life. Of course, that is the best way to be.

Fear and Jesse

Back in the days of Saturday morning basketball, I saw this look on Jesse’s face quite frequently. Pretty much any time he stood between me and the basket this look crept upon his face as he knew he was about to get embarrassed.

Jealousy and Jen

This one doesn’t really fit. Jen isn’t a jealous person and has very little to be jealous about. She has a great husband, a great kid, a great family and great friends. Basically she has all the right ingredients for the recipe to a happy life. I’m guessing that perhaps this is Jen showing off some long dormant acting skills. Perhaps she should pursue a role in one of the area community theaters. I know Jen LOVES community theater.

Surprise and Sara

While Sara is one of the most intelligent and best educated people I know, she lives life in a manner where whatever comes down the chute next is a gift and she seems genuinely surprised by it. While that might now seem like it is a compliment, I think that this is one of the best compliments I’ve ever given anybody. To live life with such unabandoned joy is a great life.

Sympathy and Jill

Jill fits sympathy so well as she has one of the best hearts of anybody I’ve ever known. She would tell you (yes we’ve had this conversation) that it isn’t that her heart is better than most people, but it is the fact that artists (Jill is an amazing flutist) are lead through life with their heart. While this is true, it doesn’t alter the fact that the first thing you notice about Jill when you meet her is her heart.

Boredom and Jay

I’ve always felt that people that are “bored” are boring people. Jay is a lot of things, but he is not a boring person. However, that doesn’t mean that I’ve never seen Jay bored. Being the closest of friends with Jesse, Willy, and I he has been subjected to more sporting events than many wives and girlfriends. Usually this is the look that glosses over his face right before he taps out and goes home to do things that interest Jay.

I also asked all of my models to pick out who they thought did the best job with each of the emotions. I gave extra credit to the people who were able to pick 9 different people for the 9 different emotions.

Here is the feedback I got fed back. In the order it came back to me.


The 9 Emotions Project -Shannon
Shannon’s Pick

The 9 Emotions Project - Jill
Jill’s Pick

The 9 Emotions Project - Sara
Sara’s Pick

The 9 Emotions Project - Jen
Jen’s Pick

The 9 Emotions Project - Jay
Jay’s Pick

The 9 Emotions Project - Willy
Willy’s Pick

The 9 Emotions Project -
Jesse’s Pick

The 9 Emotions Project - Derrick
Derrick’s Pick

The 9 Emotions Project - Cousin Amy's Picks
Amy’s Picks

Next week’s Personal Photo Project with involve that most magnificent of creatures… the turkey.

Alice – 9 Months

Although I’m sure most people have seen these pictures by now, I have yet to post them here. What was tragically not captured digitally was Jon (who did an awesome job as a photo assistant) turning into a ghost at one point to act as a background. It will definitely be a lasting memory for me.


Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

Alice DeWaard - 9 Months

There are more pictures in the Alice – 9 Months Album in the store:

Alice – 9 Months

Next Wednesday will feature pictures of Logan running track.

Personal Photo Project of the Week #68

A brief word to explain these pictures. These are pictures taken with a pinhole camera with a trio of different filters. Although most of my photography is somewhat experimental, these are extremely experimental.

Often times I look at a picture and think, well that didn’t work. There are other times, I look at the picture and I think that didn’t work like it was supposed to, but it somehow works in a different way. These pictures I think work in a different way.


The Better
The Better

I’m not really sure where the ripple effect came from in these pictures. I think it was somewhere in the development process, unless I bent the film while winding it.

Here are a few more pictures from the The Better Series.


The Better

The Better

The Better

The Better

I don’t usually reveal where my picture titles come from, but I think everybody knows that they come from quotes that I like. I’m going to break with tradition slightly and reveal that this title comes from the following Ralph Waldo Emerson quote:

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

Next week’s Personal Photo Project will involve tulips.

Personal Photo Project of the Week #67



Must Be Truth

This is kind of a simple concept for a photo, therefore there aren’t many variations, but here is what there is:



Next week’s Personal Photo Project involves Jill and the pinhole camera. I’m not going to lie, there won’t be many (if any) fans of those pictures because they are very strange, but they exist and I like them. That is what matters.