Alaska

I love getting to travel.

In 2015, for our 10th wedding anniversary, my wife and I traveled to visit her grandparents in Alaska. I didn’t really know what to expect for our trip, but had always heard it was quite beautiful.

Near Denali National Park

We didn’t really have much of a plan while we were there, but knew we wanted to visit as many locations as we could.

My wife grew up in Alaska till she was 9 and knew some key locations she thought I would enjoy. One of those locations was Hatchers Pass and the Independence Mine. It was a fun little excursion and the hike was worth it.

If you know much about Alaska you know there are parts of the year that the sun is up all day, while other parts of the year the sun barely rises. We were there in June and the image below was taken at at nearly 11 PM. Kids were still jumping on a water trampoline just to the left of this area at 2 or 3 in the morning.

My wife’s grandpa was a veterinarian and often traveled by plane. One particular day he offered to take me for a flight and this is just one of the many images I was able to capture out the window as we flew between the mountains and over glaciers. It was quite amazing to be able to see it all from the sky.

This last photo, is of “The Nomad.” It’s an abandoned boat that was left decades ago by Joe Redington Sr., a mushing legend and the founder of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. I know a lot of photographers love to get photos of it and wish I had more of an opportunity to visit it up close.

I’ve got many more photos from our trips, but I’ll share those at another time.

San Diego | Paul McCartney

A few years ago, my wife and I were on a trip to San Diego. On our last night there, we decided to go for a walk to a pier that was relatively close by. As usual, I wanted to take my camera gear as we were far enough away from the city that I thought I could get a cool cityscape shot.

We finally arrived at the location and I started to shoot a few of the photographs I had walked there to take. Shortly after I started, we began to hear music coming from the arena and my wife quickly looked up, who it was that was playing.

Little did we know, but Paul McCartney was playing a show that evening, and close to the end of it, his pyrotechnics started to really light up the sky.

I’ve always thought these images would be cool hanging on a wall somewhere or being showcased alongside someones Paul McCartney memorabilia. They’ve never been printed, shown, or displayed anywhere other than on my Facebook page.

To close out the evening, Paul started singing Hey Jude. Even though we were quite a ways away, you could clearly hear the song that was being sung.All the others around us that had come to watch the show from a distance, began to sing along as well. I don’t know that I’ll ever get to experience anything like this again.

Callaway County Humane Society Fundraiser

Last year I got a message from a photographer friend of mine, asking if I would be interested in helping photograph a fundraise for the Callaway County Humane Society. In a nutshell, people can bring in their pets and have them photographed with Santa for a $10 donation.

I’m not sure how many people we actually had come in this year, but we were at Buchheits in Fulton, MO from 10-12.

You never really know what to expect from these situations or how busy you will be, but it’s always fun to see the reactions kids have to seeing Santa and adding in animals is a whole extra level of challenging.

I love doing event photography whether posed or unposed. If you find yourself in need, reach out and we can discuss possibilities.

Drone Work

I love getting to fly my drone. Every time is a unique experience and you never really know what something is going to look like from the sky. I was recently in Medford, WI and took the drone out for a few short flights.

The lake was still partially frozen that day and the Mavic Air 2 was able to manage what little wind we had that day. I will say, and you can’t see it in these images, but you really need a polarized filter to help with the reflections and sun glare off the ice.

I’ve not been many places where I felt comfortable enough to turn off the safety features and put the drone in sport mode. I ran it up about 300 feet, put it in sport mode, hit record, and took off. You can see in the video below, what it looks like to be cruising 40+ MPH at 300 feet.

Christmas at the Depot

This past weekend, I was blessed to photograph Santa at the Fulton Depot along with families and kids that came to visit.

Grae Studio purchased the old train depot in Fulton, MO, and has been renovating it. They do a fabulous job decorating and creating a space that anyone can come out and enjoy.

It was my first time photographing this sort of event and I absolutely loved getting to meet everyone and see the joy on (most of) the kid’s faces.

I know many of the places that photograph kids with Santa result in just one, maybe two, images from each engagement. I tried to really capture a few for each family that showed the overall experience.

Seeing a setup like this gives me a lot of great ideas for doing some mini-sessions. Perhaps I’ll have to schedule something soon.

Next weekend is photographing Santa with pets for the Callaway County Humane Society at Buchheit (formerly Orscheln) in Fulton, MO from 10-12.

NCAA D1 Championships in Stillwater, OK

This past weekend, I was able to travel with the Fulton High School cross country team as a chaperone on their trip to watch the NCAA D1 Championships. Not only was it a great experience because I got to hang out with the high school cross country kids, coach, and other chaperones, but it was a little of a trip down memory lane.

I ran this course back in 2002 when I was in college and it was one of my favorite courses. It was so incredible to be able to watch these elite athletes compete.

Watching the race between Katelyn Tuohy and Parker Valby was quite interesting as Tuohy really seemed to set back and just wait for the right time. She ran such a smart race and was able to win by over 3 seconds.

Charles Hicks did somewhat of the same thing as he followed Nico Young and Drew Bosley through much of the race but bested them in the second half. Regardless, these men are incredibly fast.

MSHSAA Cross Country State, Class 2

I originally was attending this race because a fellow cross country runner from high school has a daughter that was racing. It was much colder than the day before and these athletes had to contend with the differences.

In both races, the winner took off fast and didn’t really have to fight too hard to keep the spot. They just had to run their race.

Watching these races I had several different thoughts cross my mind. First, I ran for a class 2 school, but my son runs for a class 3 school. The fight to get better at these smaller schools is much harder as you don’t always have the depth of other athletes to really push you.

Secondly, being a former collegiate cross country runner and USATF certified coach I couldn’t help but think, “I wish I could work with some of these kids, I see so much potential.” It’s not that they don’t have qualified coaches, we just all see things differently and smaller schools tend to have less in terms of financing to help bring in coaches with lots of experience.

Regardless, I love watching the smaller schools race too. These athletes put so much into it and to make it to state is a real feat. I’m already looking forward to watching them race again next year.

If you want to see more shots from class 2, check out this link: alancombsphotography.passgallery.com/r1CmOTL78wSfY

If you have tried any of my other links and can’t get any of them to work to access the class you would like to see, email me at alan@alancombsphotography.com. Sometimes cookies cause issues and prevent the galleries from loading correctly.

MSHSAA Cross Country State, Class 3

I have to say Class 3 is probably my favorite class. There are some incredible runners in class 3, but my son also attends Fulton High School which is currently a class 3 school. His teammates Emery Mayfield, Carter Meyerhoff, Noah Thompson, and Kai Foster all got to compete in the state meet, which is why you will find way more photos of class 3 than any other race.

Both races were quite incredible with Connor Burns putting quite a lead between himself and second place while Alexandra Volkart also ran a smart race and beating her competitors in the second half.

Class 3 really does have some great competitors and I’ve been blessed to engage with several athletes and coaches.

As I am also a coach of the Fulton Flash, which is a member of the Central Missouri Athletic Circuit, I’ve had the privilege of getting to see some of these kids race before they ever made it to high school.

If you have a few free minutes, I’d encourage you to check out the rest of the images at alancombsphotography.passgallery.com/uFsXhKm1aGytg

Feel free to share the link with any coach, school, athlete, etc. We are blessed with a lot of great athletes.

MSHSAA Cross Country State, Class 4

Going into the state meet, I didn’t know many of the runners from class 4. We have followed Elyse Wilmes from Father Tolton for the last couple of years as she is in the same class as Fulton (where my son races). However, this year, the Father Tolton women’s team got moved up because of the strong wins at state and they once again did amazing things as a team this year.

I didn’t get to personally shoot much of the women’s race as I was covering the awards portion of Class 5. However, my beautiful bride got out early to start catching the women’s race. I’m pretty sure she captured way more of both of the races than I did. Not only that, she had to have captured all of the runners in this class.

We captured so many photos this race and if you look back through them, you can really see the story unfold of both races. These athletes are quite incredible. Check out more of the images at
https://alancombsphotography.passgallery.com/2vV107u7tPn9s

MSHSAA Cross Country State, Class 5

I’ve been chasing cross country runners all fall. This year, I requested a media pass through MSHSAA to be allowed the opportunity to photograph the event as a professional photographer.

I’ve followed Sage Wilde, Ian Kemey, Tyler Harris, and Andrew Hauser for the last couple of years as they have all put out some pretty great times on the men’s side. Grace Tyson, Natalie Barnard, Carolyn Ford, and Mae Walker didn’t disappoint on the women’s side either.

These athletes continue to impress year after year and I love being able to capture these moments. I know I can’t possibly photograph every runner, but we did try to photograph a large number of them.

If you would like to check out more images from this year’s state meet visit my link here.