Archive for March, 2010

As many of you know, my 9 year old son loves to join me and shoot with me when the opportunity presents itself.  Over the last year he has started to attend local Photo Review meetings and enter competitions. Yes, he is competing againt adults as a 9 year old.

Each month, a topic is chosen in advance and every photographers needs to submit an image that meets that criteria.  This month, the theme was Abandoned and Decayed.  We both submitted images, but truth be told, I didn’t do too well.  He on the other hand, for the 2nd month in a row, received an Honorable Mention.  Not too shabby for a 9 year old.

The title of his piece was “Mom, I think we need a new roof”

He  shot 9 images and used Photomatix to create a HDR image.  From there, he used levels and curves to make it pop.  Yes, I might have stood over his sholder and shared with him how to do something, but these were his ideas and his hands doing all of the work.  And yes, I am proud of my little guy.

Rock and Roll Portrait

March 27, 2010

I was asked a few weeks ago to shoot the Georgia Healers (a Southern Blues Band) during one of their gigs.  While I am almost done editing them, this one just totally popped out at me and I wanted to share! I am not a music photographer but I enjoyed this night a lot; might want to do it again!  As always….more to come.

Last night I drove, what seemed like forever,  to a small city 30 miles south of Atlanta to shoot with some other photographers.  We had 2 great models that we worked with in both outdoor settings and inside.  Not only do I love getting the chance to work with models, but I also enjoy meeting and learning from other photographers. I always find that it is the small things that I pick up that makes me better at what I do.  Can’t wait for next time.

A sneak peak at one of last nights shots!

Last Sunday I was fortunate enough to be able to photography Stuart and Amy’s wedding.  While they are fun just by themselves, they made this event spectacular with the detail in their wedding planning.

To be honest, I have never shot a celtic wedding;  But I am not sure how many people have either.  I knew there would be a lot of color; and boy was I right.  Everywhere I looked there was red.  Red red and more red.  Just amazing.  To boot, they picked a perfect place, Callanwolde Fine Art Center in Decatur. The planner at Callanwolde, Khadijah, was so great.  She just made my life so easy.

It will take me a bit of time to go through everything, but I wanted to share a few images from the day.

Before I do that, I owe a ton of thanks to Nat Guname.  I don’t think I would have been able to do what needed to be done or capture the essence of the day without him as a 2nd shooter. Thanks Nat!

Each of the groomsman wore a kilt and appropriate attire.  Just amazing in the detail.

Nat and I were doing some portrits of Amy before the ceremony.  We had lights at the top of the stairs and at the bottom.  For one of the shots, I ran upstairs to adjust the lights.  As I looked down, I saw the below.  I yelled down (I know, not polite, but that is what I did) and asked Amy to stand still.  And the results speak for themselves.

Stuart has 3 amazing children from a previous marriage.  All were part of the ceremony and participated.  When we were doing some portraits of Stuart, one of them placed their hand on Dad’s shoulder.  And I had a vision. This is the result.  I love this shot.

Without question, this is my favorite shot of the day.  All of the groomsman getting ready for a shot and there was Stuart’s son looking up at him.  Just perfect and so touching.

While Larry may not look familiar to you, many of you do know him, you just don’t know it.  He is one of those Hollywood behind the scenes kind of guys.  But if told you “who” he was, you would know him or at least his work.  Simply put,  the words that you have heard on many TV shows have been his, not his voice, but the spoken words.

Many years ago Larry was a typical hollywood struggling writer.  He graduated from NYU film school, but was having the hardest time finding consistant work.  But with a bit (OK, a lot) of  fortitude, Larry’s success has finally come.   His resume now reads like a hit show wonder.  And to be honest, I think it is about to get bigger.  Larry has either written or produced for shows like Six Feet Under, Alais, Boomtown, Millennium. But this next Sunday, one of the most exciting projects he has worked on thus far will start to air.

I am not exactly sure how long I have known Larry, but my guess is we are at about 20 years or so.  Larry is one of those people that I consider one of my best friends. We may not speak every day, or even every month, but when we do, it is like not a day has passed since we last saw each other.  Each day when I come to my office, I get to see Larry, along with Bear, (Bear’s name is another story), in a photo from many years ago right after we all jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.  The smiles on our faces were as wide as they could get.

Larry and I have been through a lot together.  Truly the good bad and ugly.  That photo is certainly from the “good”.  A number of years ago, Larry was writing for a show and called me a few days before one of the eposides to let me know that he has a little shout out for me that week.  I was not sure what to expect, but when we watched it, I laughed out loud. Two of the shows characters that week were “Chris and Priti” (my wife).  Thankfully neither of us died in the show, but it was truly funny and one of those things that Larry will at times pull out of his hat.

A few weeks ago, I was in California and had the chance to spend some time with Larry.  Just as he was about to take me to the airport, I took 5 minutes and shot a few frames in his backyard by the pool.

If you have a chance and would like to see some of Larry’s work, on Sunday, HBO will start the 10 series show The Pacific.  Larry has written two of the episodes for this series.  And while I have not seen the final product, I can tell you that the previews look awesome.

Winter’s Spring Buds

March 5, 2010

I am so behind on my editing that I am completely ignoring the people part of my photography and going with the fun (and to me) easy stuff.  We had, what I hope is, our last winter storm come through Atlanta the other day.  The weather man said that we may get a light dusting of now, but we ended up with a more than a few inches.  Not fun.

I went out my front door and saw these buds blossoming on a tree.  I loved how the ice crystals formed around them  I think it once again proves the fact that you  don’t have to go far to get some cool shots (pun not intended).  Sometimes just out your own front door.

I received a call the other day from some local realtors asking if  I would help them with a new listing that they had.  It was a big deal for them and they wanted to make sure they could do the best they could.  They had been working with the homeowner for 2 years and felt they really needed to go all out for their client.  And for a $1.3mm house, I think I would go all out as well.

We spoke about what they were looking for and what they needed.  The project ended up taking a bit more time then I planned on, but I wanted to makes sure that they got it right and had a client who was thrilled with the images of their home.  Below are some of the shots that I took.

As a PS: yes, these are all HDR.  And no, I don’t think that is cheating. The goal is to show off the house right?  And I think these images do just that.