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Howell Photographic Arts
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Fashion for Paws

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Our host Pam with a few of the attendees and models of the Fashion for Paws fundraiser for the Humane Society. It was a great event with great fashion, great people, and some cute doggies to boot. I captured a few images … Enjoy.

Kaingaroa Forest

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Saturday morning in New Zealand I took a short trip out the the Kaingaroa Forest to see the Waratah 626 tree harvesting head in action. This is the largest head made by Waratah (a wholly owned subsidiary of John Deere) and will harvest trees up to 6” in diameter and 4 tons in weight. It is pretty amazing to see it fell a large tree, strip it of all branches, and cut in to length in a matter of seconds. Take a look at some of my photos.

Cox Plate Horse Race - Melbourne Australia

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I recently traveled “Down Under” and had the opportunity to take in one of their premium horse races, the “Cox Plate”. This is a legendary horse race in Melbourne, Australia that has been running since 1922. As you may imagine, it has a lot of the “pomp and circumstance” of the Kentucky Derby with a little bit of a “down under” flair. Here are a few photos of the horses, the race action, the people and the fashion.

Disney World Oct2013 - Day 2

edgeDay 2 at Disney world wasn’t “quite” as much walking. Again we had a great time in “my” favorite parks this day: Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Here are a few photos from Animal Kingdom. I have a few from the Safari Park, like the little Rhino above having fun playing in the mud, and quite a few from the Lion King “Musical”, my favorite “show” at Disney.

Disney World Oct2013 - Day 1

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Jackie’s now working at Disney World. Nick and Jackie’s boyfriend Jake joined me to do the Disney thing with Jackie.We walked 30,000 steps this day around Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. Had a great time.

Moline Volleyball

edgeStopped by Wharton Field House this morning to grab a few photos of Moline Volleyball. Take a look.

Bailey Senior Pictures

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I had a couple great sessions shooting Senior Pictures of Bailey.
One on location and one in the studio.
She is a doll!

Nick Senior Pictures

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Spent a great afternoon and evening with Nick, and his girl Molly, doing Senior Pictures.

Moline vs UTHS Homecoming Game

edgeLots of excitement at Moline’s Homecoming game Friday night. It was an exciting, up and down, drawn out, hard fought football game against UTHS. And it was so much more … what a great day of celebration:
See my photos for shots of:
I hope you like them.

Moline Homecoming Parade

edgeI guess I must be getting old when I know as many of the drivers in the parade as I do the kids …
Moline had their Homecoming Parade this afternoon and the whole town came out. Here are a few photos.

2013 Quad Cities Marathon

edgeI had the opportunity to shoot the Quad City Marathon again this year. It was a blast! The theme that I’d say was predominant this year was “EMOTIONAL”! I spent a lot of time at the finish line shooting finishers. The Relay Teams were excited and full of energy. The marathoners were different. A number came in completely spent and exhausted. Some had some left and had a kick to the end. The thing that got to me the most was the emotion of the first time marathoners when they came across the finish line. After all, they’ve been training for this moment for most of a year and a number of them just broke down. It was really touching and I really felt proud for every one of them. It’s so great to be close to the action. I tried to capture a little of it in photos.

Moline vs Alleman Football

edgeIt was a beautiful night in Augustana’s new stadium as Moline took on Alleman. Or should I say Alleman took it to Moline? I did get a few photos … check ‘em out.

Glow Run

edgeSeems like we’re coming up with all kinds of excuses to party. Here’s another one. The “Glow Run” in downtown Moline. The race started fairly informally with three waves of runners. Wave 1 - “Runners”. Wave 2 - “Walkers”, and Wave 3 - “Partiers”. I was surprised that anyone started in wave 1 or 2 since they all seemed to be “Partiers”. Check out a few photos of the evening.

Moline Football

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Moline High School Football! This is one of the few moments of celebration from Friday's game as the Maroon's just recovered a fumble. I uploaded a ton of photos. Enjoy!

MHS Booster Program

edgeIt’s fall, the nights are starting to get cool, and it’s time for Moline High School Sports! This year I had the privilege of designing the cover for the Booster’s Sports Program. Hope you like it.

I plan to get out to a number of games again this year. Come back here to see photos of your favorite Moline High School stars.

If you have a special request, drop me a note from the contact link above or direct to my email at JRHowell@me.com.

You can always click on the MHS “Category” to get a list of all the Moline High School events I’ve photographed. I hope you enjoy them.

And … the committee was generous enough to publish an advertisement for me in the program.

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See you at the game … I’ll be the one with the big camera ;-)


SHCC Cardboard Regatta

edgeWhat a fun Labor Day Weekend at Short Hills Country Club!!!

The annual SHCC Cardboard Regatta was another happening and we all had a blast. Enjoy some of the moments of the day.

Ruggles "Blue" Party

edgeAnother great Ruggles “dress up” party. This year the theme is “Blue” (in case you didn’t notice). It was another fun evening with great music, great food, great atmosphere and wonderful friends. Join me in remembering the evening in photos.

SHCC Staff Appreciation

edgeThis year we had even more to celebrate at our annual Staff Appreciation party at Short Hills Country Club. As always, we want to acknowledge our great staff and thank them for all they do for us. THANK YOU!

This year we also had some additional “virtual members” of our staff to thank. The staff from other clubs that came out to help us out in our hour of need as we recovered from the storm damage from June. Thanks to them we were able to get the golf course back in record fashion. THANK YOU!

Krista and Lynn pose here for a quick snapshot. A few others are here.

John Deere Classic - Final Day in 4 mins

edgeWatch the entire final day of the John Deere Classic from the edge of the 18th green in 4 minutes. I had a camera set up on one of the red stakes marking the water hazard and created a time lapse of the entire day. I interspersed a few photos from that area aswell. Enjoy!

John Deere Classic - 2013

edgeThe John Deere Classic kicked off this week … and I had the pleasure of helping the John Deere Classic Tournament with a few photos. Hopefully you’ve seen a few of these on the John Deere Classic Facebook and/or twitter feeds. Check out my photos on thelinks below.

Monday.
Monday included the “John Deere Pro Am”, the Executive Women’s Day, and the John Deere Classic ProAm Pairing Party.

Tuesday.
Tuesday included practice rounds, Callaway Club Fitting for Wounded Warriors, and the Youth Day Clinic.

Wednesday.
Tuesday is the John Deere Classic ProAm.

Thurday.
Round 1 of the John Deere Classic.

Friday.
Round 2 of the John Deere Classic.

Saturday.
Round 3 of the John Deere Classic.

Sunday.
Final Round of the John Deere Classic.

Larry Retirement Party / Coffee

edgeWow! 40 years working at John Deere and 40 years of marriage. Definitely something important to celebrate.

Congratulations Larry & Pat and best wishes as you move on to this next phase of your life!!

I captured a few photos from Larry & Pat’s party at their house.
And a few from Larry’s retirement coffee at John Deere.

SHCC June Party

edgeMike and Mary arrive in style at Short Hills Country Club for the annual “June Party”. Enjoy some photos of the evening.

Summerfest

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It sure looks like my friend Jenn there in the band “August”. They are performing as part of the “Big Gig” battle of the bands at Summerfest. Summerfest is a fun couple of weeks of music in Milwaukee and I try to get there with my friend Nik for a day every year. This year we saw a number of great bands and finished up with one of my all time favorites: Reo Speedwagon!!

Enjoy the photos.

SHCC Storm Damage

edgeWe were at Carlos O’Kelley’s for dinner since our power was out (turned out is was out for 3 days) when I received an innocent enough call saying “you might want to come out here and take a look”. It was Short Hills and I was SHOCKED when I went to see the damage caused by some “high straight line winds”. Well they were straight … straight across Short Hills holes 9, 8, 6, 4, 2, 3, 15, 17, and 13. What a mess it was as you can see in the photos I grabbed the next evening.

You could hear chainsaws running 7x24 for the next couple of weeks as our grounds crew did an amazing job cleaning it all up. You can hardly notice the damage anymore.

IVRPA - Selfoss

edgeI traveled to Iceland week to take part in the International Virtual Reality Photographers’ Association annual meeting. What a great opportunity to learn and expand my craft! I also get to hang out with the world experts in this area of panoramic photography. This pano of Selfoss, Iceland is an example. I sat down with Joosh Nieuwenhuijse, the author of PTGui (the standard program used to stitch together panoramas), drank some Viking Classic beer, and received some great one-on-one coaching on some of my challenges here.
This panorama is composed of 92 separate frames (5 rows: -60,-30, 0, 30, 60; plus a top and a bottom) with 7 brackets (-3eV, -2eV, -1eV, 0eV, 1eV, 2eV, 3 eV) for each frame. This means that this panorama starts out as 644 separate images …
A couple of the challenges I encountered with this pano:
1. The +30 and +60 degree rows were mostly clouds and sky. Since clouds move during the shoot, it is difficult to find control points in these images to use to stitch them together. Joosh showed me how to use the “Align to Grid” feature to overcome this issue. That worked great.
2. You may notice that my panos usually have a round logo in the bottom. I have historically used this technique to cover the hole that results from where my tripod was sitting. This one doesn’t have a hole in the bottom. That’s because Juergen and Markus Matern told me how to shoot the pano to eliminate this hole. I met Juergen and Markus in the Frankfurt airport on the way here. I couldn’t have had better traveling companions.
As you “pan” around this panorama you’ll notice the conference hotel (the dark gray box of a building), a local church, the Olfusa River, and the suspension bridge that is a landmark for this town of Selfoss.

Bealer Home Theatre

edgeI just visited a fantastic home theatre installation by one of my colleagues. This construction was a long time in the making, and is really fantastic. Now only does it look great, it sounds fantastic as well. Click the image (or this link) to see the entire room.
And … if you’re interested in something like this in your home, drop me a note and I’ll put you in touch with the builder. He’s considering consulting on projects like this or even doing complete buildouts.

Moline Tennis Sectionals

edgeCongratulations to Justin Rumey and the teams of Derrick Stabler & Will Wallace and Jed Wood & Puri Pranav for advancing to State. I was fortunate enough to capture some photos of their matches at sectionals. Check ‘em out.

Tenth Annual Kentucky Derby Party

edgeIt’s been 10 years that I’ve been having Kentucky Derby parties and I love every one of them. It’s always a great time to bring great friends together and, oh yes, there’s the most exciting two minutes of sports that occurs then. All ingredients for a fun party. Check out some photos of the event.

Moline Girls Soccer

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A great header save as the Moline girls take on the Normal Wildcats. Please browse photos of the Varsity contest here.

And … I have a few photos of the Junior Varsity game as well.

Moline High School Basketball Seniors

edgeCongratulations to the Moline High School Basketball Seniors celebrating their season this evening.
  • Drew Owens
  • Bryan Brinker
  • Vashaun Newman
  • Jake Viaene
  • Josh Larsen
  • DeCarlos Flores
  • Devin Struble
  • Derrick Stabler
  • Jed Wood
I am proud to have produced the “posters” for their banquet this evening.

Here are the Moline games I shot this year:

All-Stars: Boys Metro Basketball

edgeCongratulations to the Moline members of the Boys Metro Basketball All Stars:
  • Tyler Boscontine - Sophomore Guard
  • Drew Owens - Senior Guard
  • Brandon Vice - Junior Forward
  • Jed Wood - Senior Guard
  • Derrick Stabler - Honorable Mention

This year I had the pleasure of shooting at a few Moline Basketball Games:


and … I am proud to have produced the senior posters.


Regional - Moline vs Rocky

edgeMoline advanced to the second round of the Regional Playoffs to meet Big 6 Champion Rocky. As you can tell from the photo above, it was a pretty physical game. Here are a few photos of the evening.

Regionals - Moline vs UTHS BBall

edgeThe scoreboard is a little confusing as Moline is the home team and UTHS are the visitors in this first Regional Playoff game. So … as the cheerleaders and students celebrate the score is 50 to 47 Moline over UTHS with 20.1 seconds left to play. Moline came out victorious in this very competitive, exciting game. As a result Moline advances to play Big 6 champion Rocky next … now postponed to 2/27/2013. Here are a few photos of the Moline / UTHS battle.

Moline vs UTHS Basketball - Senior Night

edgeIt was Senior Night at Wharton Field House for the Moline vs UTHS Basketball game. And … ofllowing the theme, it was “Senior Citizens” Night for the SuperFans!

Browse through my photos of the game, cheerleaders, and seniors and their parents.

Moline vs Rocky Basketball

edgeThe Moline Maroons take the floor of Wharton Field House to take on Rocky. Moline was dominating for most of the game although they somehow let Rocky tie it up in regulation and go on to win it in overtime. It was a heartbreaker for the Moline crowd, but it was a great game. Here are a few photos.

Moline vs Alleman Basketball

edgeOne of my favorite basketball photos of the year …
Moline takes on Alleman at Wharton Field House. I also captured a few shots of the Dance performance at half time and a few cheerleaders. I hope you enjoy these.

Staff Family Portraits - Day One

edgeDoing my first photo shoot for staff families. I set up in the Short Hills Ballroom so I had plenty of space. Popped up two backdrops and 6 lights. And I’m ready …

Unfortunately, Mother Nature, wasn’t too good to me today … :-( Freezing rain and sick children kept most everyone away today.

The Elkins family had the first appointment today and they braved the weather and arrived a little early even. We had a great time and shot a number of photos. Check them out.

Moline MLK Tournament

edgeMoline is hosting the Martin Luther King Tournament this weekend at Wharton Field House. Here are a few photos of Saturday’s games. And … a few photos of Monday’s games.

Moline vs Rocky Basketball

edgeFriday Night Basketball in the Quad Cities. Moline takes on Rocky at Rock Island. The Sophomore game was a great game with many lead changes and was decided by a basket as Rocky came out ahead. Rocky dominated the Varsity game. Still, a fun evening and an opportunity for a few action shots. Check ‘em out.

MHS Freshman Basketball

edgeMy friend Ricky is coaching the Moline High School freshman Basketball team, so I thought I’d stop out and take some photos of tonight’s game. They pretty much dominated the game and I came home with a few keepers … I think. Here’s a few shots of the evening.

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