Month Top:

The second flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket lifting off on October 4, 2024, powered by two Blue Origin BE-4 engines, flanked by two Northrop Grumman GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters.

Members of the press had the distinct privilege to place sound-activated cameras near Vulcan at liftoff. Having shot launches from this pad many times now and using the winds predicted that day to plan for remote camera locations onsite to allow for opportunities like it, as the heavy-lift rocket ascended from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral, it rose out of the dusty plume just at the right moment.

Month Bottom:

Kayaking down the crystal-clear waters of Silver Springs with a Canon EOS R5 and a 15-35mm lens inside an Ikelite protective housing, I found myself in the perfect spot to capture this gentle giant gliding beneath me. The manatee, effortlessly drifting upstream, seemed completely unbothered by my presence—just another visitor passing through heading to its aquatic home and warmer water, upriver.

It’s always a bit nerve-wracking submerging thousands of dollars’ worth of camera gear, knowing that even the smallest leak could turn an incredible moment into an expensive mistake. But when everything goes right and you end up with a shot like this, the thrill of capturing nature’s beauty up close makes the risk feel just a little more justified. Moments like these remind me why I love photography—moments like this can be fleeting, but captured thoughtfully, are preserved forever.

Month Top:

In September 2024, SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon lifted off with two open seats. NASA decided earlier that month that it was the safest option for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to return home to Earth uncrewed.

After launching successfully, Boeing astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams became part of Expedition 71/72 and 72/73 during their time on the orbital outpost.

They were originally planned to come back to Earth in February 2025, but SpaceX delays to bringing online the next Crew Dragon spacecraft in the lineup have delayed their return, the Crew-10 launch, and the handover period between them to late March 2025 at the earliest.

Month Bottom:

A once-in-a-lifetime sight, made even more special by sharing it with the ones who matter most. From the first sliver of darkness to the breathtaking moment of totality, the Total Solar Eclipse of April 2024 was nothing short of cosmic perfection. As the moon slowly drifted into place, obscuring the sun and casting an eerie twilight over Central Indiana, time itself seemed to pause. The world quieted, the temperature dropped, and for a fleeting moment, day turned to night in the most surreal way imaginable.

In the company of my family, we stood together in awe, watching the corona shine brilliantly around the lunar silhouette—a celestial reminder of the vastness of the universe and our small yet significant place within it. It’s rare to witness something so grand, so humbling, and yet so unifying. We’re such a small piece in this grand dance going on around us. This was more than just an astronomical event; it was a memory etched into the sky, the memory card, and into my mind forever.

Month Top:

From the roof of NASA’s historic Vehicle Assembly Building: In this single, 30-second long-exposure image, I captured the Polaris Dawn crew lifting off aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 rocket.

After the rocket left the frame, I carefully lifted off the 10-stop neutral density filter for the second 15 seconds of the exposure to allow the light of the 9 Merlin 1D engines to shine upon the surroundings and fill in light around the launch pad. It is a technique I’ve worked on more and more with each night launch and the elevated perspective of the VAB roof 525 feet above the ground really provided a unique opportunity to do more than just “take” a photo.

Month Bottom:

Firefly’s ‘Ride The Lightning’ Mission soars aboard the Alpha rocket from SLC-2W at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Positioned approximately 150 feet from the base of Alpha, this camera was angled nearly 60 degrees upward, focusing on the sky rather than the horizon to capture the full scale of the rocket’s ascent. Much like January 2025’s Month Top, the winds on launch day played a significant role in shaping the scene. As the vehicle roared to life and climbed higher, the plume billowed out in just the right way—almost perfectly obscuring the launch infrastructure and towers behind it.

This natural framing, created purely by the elements, gave the shot a uniquely cinematic feel. With the sheer force of the exhaust contrasting against the deep blue sky, the moment felt both raw and meticulously composed, a perfect blend of power and precision. Sometimes, the best shots aren’t just about planning—they’re about how nature and technology align in an instant. 

Month Top:

In 2024, I had the unique privilege to witness more than a few launches from the roof of NASA’s historic Vehicle Assembly Building. Boeing’s Crew Flight Test in June was one of those.

I’ve witnessed more than 200 launches of “things” (spacecraft, pathfinder payloads, commercial satellites, moon and mars rovers, etc) and witnessing these machines go is nothing short of amazing, but only a distinct 16 these have been crewed launches. Each time it is people atop these machines, it is just a completely different level of impact felt when watching them zip off into orbit.

Month Bottom:

As Starliner made its way out of Boeing’s integration hangar at Kennedy Space Center, members of the media gathered to witness the long-anticipated rollout. The spacecraft, perched atop its transporter, moved steadily toward the launch site—a crucial step on its journey to space. Every few seconds, an orange beacon on the transporter would pulse, momentarily casting a warm glow against the cool tones of the night.

With a slow enough shutter speed, a panning motion, and a steady hand, I was able to capture this contrast in a single frame—where the deep blues of the spotlights illuminating Starliner blended seamlessly with the rich amber flashes of the warning lights. The result? A dynamic image that not only freezes the motion of the rollout but also visually tells the story of the spacecraft’s careful journey toward its next mission.

Month Top:

The first flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket (Cert-1) lifting off on January 8, 2024, powered by two Blue Origin BE-4 engines, flanked by two Northrop Grumman GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters. This was the first time Blue’s BE-4 engine flew aboard a vehicle and did so with 100% success.

I’ve shot many Atlas V rockets in most all configurations so far, but I did not yet know much about the wrath of the Vulcan rocket. So I set my sound-activated cameras for the first flight of Vulcan a bit further back and spent this mission researching my next moves for Cert-2.

Cert-1, as its name suggests, is the first certification flight to prove out its capabilities for ULA’s military and commercial customers. The mission launched the Astrobotic ‘Peregrine’ lunar lander, which went on to have some fuel issues and though it didn’t land on the Moon as intended, the Astrobotic team conducted a masterclass in public communications throughout the mission, learned a ton and inspired the public along the way.

Month Bottom:

Each May, I have the privilege to head back home again to Indiana and capture Purdue graduation photos. As part of this, I get to also spend some time visiting with family. On May 10, 2024, right after dinner with my parents ended, I noticed that there was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the northern lights (aurora borealis) from Indiana. I convinced my Mom to take a drive with me up to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, throw out a beach towel, and look up at the sky. For the first 30-45 minutes, it just looked like a normal night sky. All of a sudden, and not far from when we were thinking of calling it quits, the sky lit up in green, yellow, and purple lights—something I had only seen faintly before and a memory with my Mom I will never forget.

Month Top:

(Top 2) Firefly’s ‘Ride The Lightning’ Mission soars aboard the Alpha rocket from SLC-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Middle: Alpha’s ‘Noise of Summer’ mission lifts off 20 minutes after local sundown rising into the orbital sunlight and flying off into the night, completing the Venture Class Launch Services contract demonstration for NASA.

Month Bottom:

Much like the Polaris Dawn long exposure earlier this year, I applied the same dynamic ND filter technique to capture this launch in a way that balanced brightness and detail. By first letting the rocket streak through the frame with the ND filter in place, then quickly removing it to expose the rest of the scene, I was able to prevent the image from being completely blown out while still allowing the fiery ascent to etch its path across the sky.

Had the filter been used the entire time, the result would have been an overly dark frame. Without it, the entire frame would have been overwhelmed by light. But by carefully timing the transition, I was able to let the rocket itself “paint” the scene, revealing details in both the launch pad and the surrounding environment while preserving the brilliance of the vehicle’s trail.

This is what makes long exposure photography so compelling—it’s not just about freezing a moment in time, but about sculpting light, shaping the exposure, and creating an image that captures the energy and movement of spaceflight in a way the human eye could never see alone.

Month Top:

As the sun rises over the horizon, Jacklyn stands ready—a towering presence against the morning sky, soon to play a vital role in Blue Origin’s New Glenn booster recovery. The golden light and cool blue clouds reflects off the calm waters, blending nature’s beauty with cutting-edge engineering. In this quiet moment before the action, the ship arrives to Cape Canaveral for the first time as a symbol of progress, waiting for the day it will help bring rockets home.

Month Bottom:

With a totality duration of nearly four minutes, I had a ton of time to enjoy the moment with family. I spent about 30-40 of those seconds behind the camera capturing the progression center images as well as this one: a single, 800mm exposure of the Sun just beginning to peer around the limb of the Moon.

The pink arches you see are called solar prominences. These, sometimes several Earth’s in height away from the surface of the Sun (yes, Earth as the unit of measurement there) are belts of plasma and gas streaming out from cooler, stormier regions of the Sun’s surface. Witnessing this eclipse, as well as the one in 2017, really cemented in me how small we are in the universe.

Month Top:

POV: You just woke up and remembered you’re responsible for catching New Glenn.

From this vantage point, Jacklyn looks less like a ship and more like a massive bullseye for a falling rocket booster. The deck is prepped, the mission is clear, somewhere in the near future, a 18-story rocket stage will be making a high-speed, calculated return right to this very bullseye.

No pressure, right? We’ll see if New Glenn aces its first attempt at this on NG-1 in January. Hope the station-keeping thrusters had their morning coffee that day.

Month Bottom:

Here’s one of the local residents in my neighborhood—just your typical Florida alligator, casually hanging out in his element. He’s usually seen gliding through the water or chilling on the banks like this, blending in with the surroundings. His pose this one morning made it just so I thought it would be a cool inclusion into the calendar this year, but he’s been around for a while and seems to enjoy the quiet life just as much as each space coast resident does. (at least when the rumble of a rocket launch isn’t shaking the windows)

Month Top:

Falcon Heavy is the most powerful, operational rocket in the world, capable of generating over 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff—equivalent to 18 Boeing 747s pushing at full throttle.

Having delivered some incredible science payloads, it was bound to do so again with the launch of Europa Clipper.

Set to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, this spacecraft will search for signs of a hidden ocean beneath its frozen crust—one that could be teeming with life. If there’s anywhere in the solar system where extraterrestrial life might exist, this is it.

With it, I wanted to create a bold picture to represent this search. Falcon Heavy was due to launch in the middle of the day where bright sunlight generally (outside of cloudy days) creates an environment to shoot really fast shutter speeds and closed apertures, while still recovering shadow detail.

Falcon Heavy and its Merlin 1D engines are bright, much brighter and more visible than methane/liquid oxygen or hydrogen/oxygen engines. If you’ve ever had the chance to witness a Falcon 9 launch in person, it almost looks as bright as the Sun with the nature of its RP1 propulsion. It’s the same reason a candle is brighter than a gas flame – tiny, white-hot particles in Falcon 9 / Falcon Heavy’s exhaust versus hot gases (steam) with engines like the Space Shuttle Main Engines/RS-25s (hydrogen), Blue Origin BE-4 (methane/LNG), Relativity Space Aeon-1/R (methane/LNG) or SpaceX Raptor (methane/LNG).

Using this midday Sun to my advantage, I found the camera settings to shoot as dark as possible without losing all shadow detail (sky / foreground / rocket) but as bright as possible without losing all flame / engine plume detail beneath the rocket.

I love color photos and the information shown about a scene, but after flicking the photo to black and white, I loved it even more—putting it at the top of September 2025 in Portfolio Edition II of my yearly wall calendar.

Month Bottom:

I captured this photo during the same kayak excursion that I captured the manatee on, earlier in the design of Portfolio II.

Here, pointing toward the morning Sun, we happened upon a shallower area of the riverbed with these seagrasses flowing in the downstream current. Because it was shallow, the surface was also calm. I pulled the camera up from under the surface to see this and put the camera back under the water , waiting for the surface to again calm alongside the edge of my kayak.

After a few moments of playing with aperture, focus, and shutter speed to get the right blend of sharpness/brightness, as well as waiting and finding the right reflection, I spammed the shutter for a few seconds to get this frame of the seagrasses that manatee was likely heading upriver to eat 😀

Month Top:

Vandenfog—I mean Vandenberg, is known for its cool, foggy marine layer sliding in over the relatively warmer land and obscuring the night sky. The launch of Firefly’s Alpha rocket during the Noise Of Summer Mission on July 3, 2024 was no different. Launching about 20 minutes after local sundown, you’d have thought it was the dead of night if you were standing there at the launch pad.

This was the first Firefly mission where I worked with the technicians to obtain at-height access to the lighting towers around the complex to place sound-activated cameras. After several relevant safety trainings and certifications obtained for working at height, I securely mounted this camera to one of SLC-2’s light masts.

The foggy morning created a really neat, somewhat eerie vibe in the photos that resulted. The first few frames from the camera were too dark to utilize, and the frames after this were too bright to utilize. The fog almost created this band of usability in the middle where the rocket was bright, not too bright, but dimmed slightly by the fog as the light made its way to the camera.

Month Bottom:

During Firefly’s Ride The Lightning campaign, California’s central coast was blanketed in days of rainfall. Still, the Firefly team persisted. Arriving to the pad one night, the rain was misty and light enough, that hiding the bright light of a generator behind the payload fairing lit up each dot of rain coming down like a Firefly as the team took refuge under the payload fairing.

Month Top:

Starship’s first (April 20, 2023) and third test flight (March 14, 2024) were plagued by foggy and cloudy morning skies. This frame, from the third test flight had Starship entering the cloud deck before the Raptor engines’ tail of fire could clear the launch mount.

But, the cloudy skies allowed the pinky-purple colors of the plume to really shine through.

Month Bottom:

Where I first picked up a camera and started my journal as a professional creator / communicator started at Purdue. So I try to always come up with a pretty picture to dedicate one of the month tops/bottoms in one my Portfolio calendars to it. This year, Portfolio II gets that dedication in November 2025 with a photo of the Engineering Fountain.

Originally dedicated in 1989 as a gift from the Class of 1939, the Engineering Fountain has been a prominent landmark in the “fountain run” tradition, where students sprint between the various campus icons.

Month Top:

Mission: Cert-2 (Flight 2 of Vulcan)

Company: United Launch Alliance

Engines: 2 x Blue Origin BE-4 (methane + liquid oxygen), 2 x Northrop Grumman GEM-63XL (solid rocket booster)

For Cert-1, I captured the “blue smiley face” created by the interaction and plume phenomena of the twin Blue Origin BE-4 engines (see Month Top, May 2025 of Portfolio Edition II)

I wanted to capture it close up and in higher-resolution and from a better perspective. Having the knowledge of where the wrath of Vulcan sends its plume of solid rocket exhaust with various wind conditions, I decided to play a little more fast and loose with one of my nicer camera / lens combos to accomplish this.

Looking more ‘face-on’ at the rocket, I would be able to see the full smiley face phenomena as well as be able to see into the nozzles of the relatively-clear BE-4 exhaust too.

Utilizing the exposure values I did, plus a little bit of brightness from my Cert-1 imagery, I was able to combine all prior learnings into this latest shot of the business end of Vulcan. (nicely highlighting the Northrop Grumman SRB’s, not overexposing the BE-4 engines, and still having some shadow detail left to recover in the dark blue sky of that early-morning liftoff (a handful of minutes after sunrise).

Month Bottom:

Mission: Ride The Lightning (Flight 4 of Alpha)

Company: United Launch Alliance

Engines: 4 x Reaver

I made this picture by affixing the camera quite close to Alpha (Google Maps distance measuring tool says ~70ft). Activated by rocket sound alone, the four Reaver engines roared to life and began to trigger the camera taking successive pictures as Alpha took to the skies.

Similar to the first photo in this calendar on January 2025’s Month Top, as well as March 2025’s Month Bottom, at just the right place during those successive photos the cloudy plume began to rise up from the launch mount and obscure the launch infrastructure.