During our trip home to Seattle, we took a little time out to get some family pictures of my sister Eva, Andy and my two-year-old niece, Lucy. Isn’t she the cutest thing?!

Last week Jen and I had the chance to fly to Seattle to visit my family. With my family being spread all over the country, it’s rare when we’re all in the same place at the same time. But Aug. 4 was my Dad’s 60th birthday, so we had a special reason. We had great ambitions of doing a bunch of hiking while we were home, but we were greeted with unusually hot weather (like 95-98 degrees), which limited our activities. Plus, after going on our first hike, we were also forced to face the fact that we weren’t near as fit as we had imagined. These are some pictures on our hike past Eunice Lake on our way to Tolmie Peak. It was a 6.5 mile hike with about 1200 feet of elevation change. Half of that climb came in the last mile. Normally you could go at your own pace, stop and take a break, have a snack, etc. However, we faced deer flies as big as my head and were swarmed by blood-sucking mosquitos anytime we stopped. But we pressed on and somehow we finished. This photograph (which is actually about seven photos stitched together), made the trek worth it. Either way, it was a fun day with the family.

I’ve known Scotty since he was seven years old, so it goes without saying it’s been an eye-opener to watch him prepare for his senior year at Lincoln Southwest High School. Scott asked me over a year ago if I would shoot his senior pictures and since school started this week, we figured we had better knock this out before football season started. Scott, who is a budding photographer himself, said he wanted some graffiti backgrounds and we were able to find some awesome “urban art” in downtown Lincoln. And of course, when you’re 17, you have to have a picture of your car, right? So we found a quiet country road and waited for the perfect sunset. Mission accomplished! Good luck with your senior year – don’t forget to study.

As luck would have it, we had a little break in the heat on Thursday, which made for a great evening to shoot some new family photos for my friends Jason and Kim and their gorgeous kids, Hayden and Tommy. I can’t believe how fast these kids grow! Last November, I shot Tommy’s new-born photos (this was before my blog was up, so I’ve posted a couple of those below). Obviously, he’s grown into a little boy, while Hayden is now three going on 12. I always have an absolute blast when I hang out with her and her family! Thanks guys for a fun evening

And a flashback to last November….

I bought a brand new camera and lens on Saturday and I’ve been dying to take it for a test drive. I had great intentions of getting some images of tonight’s sunset, but I had the air conditioning on a bit too high. What does that have to do with anything? Take your camera out in the muggy heat after hanging out in the chilly AC and you get one big foggy mess. No worries, I still had some fun playing around. It was definitely nice to get out for a little drive. Thankfully I managed to hit the deer that kept jumping out in front of me.

Friday was one of the biggest days in University of Nebraska history. The University officially moved from the Big 12 Conference and became a member of the Big Ten Conference, effective July 1, 2011. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this move, especially once it comes time to travel to some of these great locations. Nebraska at Ohio State, Nebraska at Michigan, Nebraska at Wisconsin… Those should be great. Not to mention a border war with Iowa. My wife comes from a family of die-hard Hawkeye fans, so the holidays could be interesting. Since Huskers Illustrated’s next issue isn’t scheduled to come out until August, we published a quick digital edition for our readers. I’ve embedded a copy below for you to see. Press conference rarely produce interesting photos, but I love this shot of head coach Bo Pelini, so I used it as a two-page spread in the magazine. It should definitely be an interesting year in the Big 12.