my son...

sounds weird but it feels right. meet grayben andrew nolen.



i love this little boy more than i ever imagined i could love my own biological child. we had less than 3 days to prepare for him but now that we have him it was too long. i know the rest of my life will be about this guy so i'll spare a long blog post now. he is just about the cutest & sweetest thing i've ever seen. sleeping like a champ as i write. i cannot say enough good about adoption. it can be hard but it is hands down the most incredible thing i've ever experienced in my life. grizzlies in yellowstone are still up there though.

much much more to come.

montana wildlife...

i have never before been to a place that i felt genuine concern for my life and those around me. it's unlike anything i've experienced... it's no estes park. hiking in glacier you actually have to think about bears because they really are there and really can jack you up if you don't know what you're doing... and sometimes even if you do. so we spent our whole trip both hoping we would see a grizzly and also hoping we never saw a grizzly. there was one day in particular that josh and i hiked almost 5 miles in to a frozen lake. i've never felt more vulnerable & humble by creation. not only was it beautiful but it was eerily void of civilization. we were in something else's territory and i don't mean the US government. thankfully josh is far braver than i am and we made the trip anyway. i will never forget that feeling of isolation & insecurity. it was great. thankfully we didn't see any bears on our hikes but did see them while we were driving. some of the photographers below worked freelance for national geographic.


i think my wife already posted these pics. this was actually about 2 miles in on a hike. the ranger said we were more likely to see a bear than a moose in glacier... he's only seen 4 in 2 years. we saw 6 in 3 days. this guy was literally 30 feet from us at one point (the moose not the ranger... the ranger was literally 3 feet away... it was amazing). it reminded me of the opening scene to "northern exposure" where the moose just strolls through town like nobody's around. he was totally chilled out trying to take a swim. flying out to washington the guy next to us told us how ferocious moose are and to never get close to them... doesn't he look tough?

erin has wanted to see one of these for a long time. this one decided to come in the car with us.

elk that we thought was a caribou.

if you live in the east & most of the west, black bears get all the glory. when you get into grizzly country, black bears get treated like teddy bears. this one was asleep in the tree which completely debunked my theory of climbing a tree to get away from one.

marmot

it is actually where the deer and the antelope play.

it wasn't hard to see a buffalo in yellowstone but this one was huge and just walking down the road.

honor among thieves....

alright, quick neighborhood check

# of times i called the police in 3 years living in helena: 0
# of times i called the police in 8 months living in bluff park: 2

2 nights ago stokes and i were watching a movie when we heard something banging around outside. i let attie out (like that would do anything), turned on the floodlights, and went back to watching the movie. next morning i walk out front to find one of 2 pieces of our yard furniture missing. what?

why would someone want to steal 1 bench from my yard and nothing else? maybe i scared them off. maybe attie bit a chunk out of their leg and they ran away screaming. or maybe as the police suggested it was just a neighborhood kid pulling a prank. if that is the case, i hope when they got back to their home or tree house or prison cell they tried to sit down on our bench. it was only ornamental. if someone ever tried to sit on it they would end up on the ground.

sad part is it was my great granddad's so it does have some sentimental value. my wife therefore tried a different approach to achieve justice by writing them a note should they come back for the second piece of furniture. i guess some thieves do have a conscience.

tim mcgraw...

tim mcgraw (i will call him tim from now on) is one of those people who i really could care less about but knew i would regret it eternally... or at least a few years... if i missed the shoot. he really is a phenomenon. not the greatest singer but i think everybody knows that. what you may not know because i sure didn't, is that women would throw themselves at his feet if they could. i would actually hear sighs when the big screen would inadvertently get a shot of his chest or booty. seriously i think a lot of folks paid to look at him... and $75 a pop at that.

i don't know if it was the mix but it looked and sounded like "the dance hall doctors" could have kicked a few physicians out of the practice. seriously there was a point where at least 2 of them stopped playing and i could tell no difference. i bet there were 27 of them... or maybe 8. somewhere in there.

i'm being careful not to give tim any real props (besides his chest & booty of course) for this reason. i used to like country music , a lot. somewhere in the mid to late nineties though it started turning into something very different. i won't blame tim entirely but "indian outlaw" is on my list of "songs that changed country music for the worst". also on there would be the tractor's "boogie woogie choo choo train" neal mccoy's "wink" & joe diffies "welcome to earth third rock from the sun". i mean really, do these sound like country? the problem is now there's no turning back. i have to listen to X Country (xm) to hear any true modern country songs now. tim you owe me $12 bucks a month.... you can split it with joe diffie. anyway, i digress. tim is a superstar who married up and is worth seeing (depending on your gender) for various reasons. mine was because i was certain faith hill (i call her faith) would show up.... she didn't.

my living room....again

it occurred to me as i was prepping this post that the last 6 months of my blog have mostly been about my house. so keeping with the theme, here's my living room.



i'm about to shoot for a company that specializes in commercial VR photography. i had to do a trial run using some new panoramic equipment. i thought it was super cool... at least enough to waste my time on a blog post.

sheryl crow...

today sheryl crow has no idea who i am. shocking, right? well at about 9:10 last night she did.


erin and i were lying in bed talking about the concert last night and it hit me. for a brief moment in time... maybe just seconds, sheryl crow knew who i was, what i looked like, and what i did for a living. kind of fun. i've had some cool opportunities lately that have put me in contact with some fame. people who would never remember me nor care after the show (or during the show for that matter) but during those 3 songs i was on their radar. does this sound psycho? sorry, i think it's cool.

anyway, i've got to write a review of the show and am using my blog to prep. overall it was a great show. she is a far better singer than i would have imagined and her stage presence was really second to none. as a former stage lighting tech, i appreciate the lighting more than most but hers was truly impressive. only downside for me.... wait there were a few. we got there at 7 being told she started at 7:30 only to find out she went on at 9 and had an opening act. what's worse? her opening act was shawn mullins. what? spent $10 on a snickers and 1 piece of pizza then almost got into a fight trying to break up a fight between a disgruntled middle aged man and a few young women. seriously the man was going to fight the women. then he wanted to fight me for stepping in. crazy thing was most people were on his side! go birmingham. anyway, we stayed the whole show which really was great and left looking over my shoulder in the dark parking lot. all in all an eventful trip. here's the pics.




this was actually the first song... "God Bless This Mess" which was really good. when you only get three songs and the first one has the lighting of my closet, you get a little antsy... but i really like the feel of this one.

moving on....

the other day i was at a shoot with another photographer. she said, "i think i know you. you shot somebody famous." certain she had the wrong person and certain i had never photographed anyone famous i said "who michael warren". she said no so i went down my short list of potential candidates. apparently my friends act of congress are more famous than the pop phenom. congrats guys!

so anyway i get a call the other day from one of the guys in the band. he kindly informs me that my photos will soon be replaced. turns out they've gotten in with ryan russell. i don't know ryan but he's shot a lot of folks. he is certainly one of the top entertainment photographers in the area.... so i guess if i'm going to be replaced, it's a good thing it's him. i look forward to seeing what he comes up with. it will not doubt have a yellow tint.

all that got me a little sentimental and i realized i never posted anything from that shoot. so 7 months later i present act of congress... quite possibly the last time you'll see these pics.