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On Thursday night we hosted a holiday party for all of our full-time employees. This year has been a busy adventure with a lot of unexpected hurdles as well as numerous blessings. Our team is AMAZING! We feel so fortunate to be surrounded by such caring, passionate, fun and energizing people. Thank you to all y'all! We're looking forward to a fabulous 2009!


Tasty Treats that Rachel LaCour Niesen and Melissa Roth concocted


Jeremy and Melissa Roth, LaCour's studio and production manager | Rachel LaCour Niesen and Jessica Hill


Toasting the Team


ShootQ Code Poet Laureate Jonathan LaCour weaves a story


ShootQ Code Poet,Ryan Petrello and his wife, Brittany.


Jonathan, Ryan and Will Godfrey DJ up some geek-inspired holiday music. Serve up some 8-bit Jesus for your next holiday party. It's Christmas songs made entirely from classic Nintendo game tunes!


ShootQ Genius, Travis Schreer and ShootQ's newest team member, Adam Linke, Director of Sales.


Adam Linke and Jonathan LaCour


Andrew Niesen and the ladies of LaCour and The Decisive Moment


Travis Schreer and his partner, Jessica Hill


Adam Linke scaring the kids


Melissa Roth and Jenn Linke


Too much wine and Mark Adams and Adam Linke turn the beautiful evening into fight night.

Humans love to create.

We have an uncanny, universal desire to make our mark.

It's why we photograph and paint. It's why we build towers and businesses.

One of my favorite shows, MadMen, dedicated a recent scene to the concept of human creativity. The scene lingered in my memory for weeks.

Two characters are discussing a Kodak marketing campaign about memory and legacy. Harry says to Don:

"I've always been fascinated by the cave paintings at Lascaux. The bison get all the attention, but there are also these handprints, tiny by today's standards...It's like someone is reaching through the stone right to us, saying "I WAS HERE."

These cave paintings are among the earliest known works of art. They were discovered in 1940 near the village of Montignac in central France when four boys stumbled into a cave. Inside, they found paintings that were nearly 17,000 years old.

Secluded cave walls bear real imprints of humans who created the most beautiful Stone Age art. Something about these ancient human handprints is magical.

I remember when I first saw them. My Art History professor turned off the lights and projected an image of tiny handprints onto the classroom wall. The class was hushed, as if we were hearing a sacred secret.

Why does something so simple impact us so deeply?

I think it's because we are witnessing a tangible legacy left by fellow humans who responded to their desire to create. They made their mark. They reached through stone to tell us WE WERE HERE.

How will you make your mark?

It's been a long time since I wore a little black dress to a wedding.

This weekend, Andrew and I enjoyed the rare honor of being guests at a wedding. Our dear friend, Andy Silk, married his beautiful bride, Julie, in California.

Andy was a groomsman in our wedding and has been a constant source of encouragement and laughter since our college years at The Missouri School of Journalism. Working late on deadline at the newspaper or in the darkroom will always be some of our favorite memories. But no memory of Andy will be as fond as the image of him waiting at the front of the aisle to marry the woman he chose as his life partner.

Andy and Julie, we are so proud of you! Enjoy these photos from your day. Thanks for letting us shoot while enjoying California wines!

Official Photographer Joe Photo workin' hard!

Amazing photojournalist and college friend, Jason Redmond

Please keep ShootQ Grant winner Sherrlyn Borkgren in your thoughts and prayers as she tells the stories of women and girls whose lives have been scarred by warfare. I spoke to Sherrlyn before she departed for Africa, and she was hopeful about her opportunity to shed light on individual stories in the midst of a dark period of civil unrest.

The tension in Congo has increased and news reports share stories of innocent civilians fleeing refugee camps in search of safer havens. Sherrlyn's unflappable optimism and spirit of service inspire us! She never underestimates the power of compassion and hope.

We are confident that her journey will inspire you to get involved and serve the global community. Thank you for supporting documentary photography and ShootQ's vision to empower photographers.

You can follow Sherrlyn's journey through her BLOG

This post is syndicated from the ShootQ Blog. CLICK HERE to comment.

We want to share more of our photographic journey with you and give you the opportunity to experience more of our vision. We selected some of our favorite images from our personal archives and are offering fine art, archival prints for purchase for a limited time. These images are mostly from our travels, which have taken us throughout the world. We plan to offer even more images in the future.

** Click to View the Gallery