Awesome Austin in Atlanta

A freaking awesome shot of my freaking awesome son, Austin.  We were in Atlanta for a few days and went to Centennial Park twice.  That place is awesome!!  I mean, it's not much.  Just some fields and a few spots to goof off, but for a 6-year old boy. . .and a 10-year old brain stuck in a 35-year old man's body. . .it's dreamy!!!

On the day I took this shot we went to a huge hill and I took pictures of Austin rolling down it.  He was hesitant at first because it was a pretty big hill.  Probably the biggest one he's ever seen, and definitely the biggest one he's ever rolled down.  Anyway, after I called him a girl for not wanting to do it, he finally caved and decided to do it then for 20 minutes he had the time of his life.

After rolling down the hill we went to a playground. . .that was pretty fun for about 8 minutes.  Then we went to this Fountain of Rings.  I think that's what they call it.  Two or three times a day they do this water show that kind of goes with some music they're playing.  It's pretty cool.  But while the music isn't playing you can just run around in the water.  Austin had the time of his life.  The water will stop for a second, and he would run into the middle where there's no water.  Then he'd try to run out again while the water wasn't shooting up.  He got grazed a few times by some water jets but he did pretty good.  At the point when I took this picture, he's celebrating because he made it into one ring from another ring without getting hit by the water.  Ahhh, to be a kid again.  I could sit there and watch him do that all day long.  I took a ton of pictures of him doing this and they're all freaking awesome!!  The look of pure joy on his face just makes my heart smile.  He's awesome.  I tell him that's why we named him Austin, because he's awesome.  I'm not sure when I'll break it to him that I wanted to name him that because it's the live music capital of the world.  Well, that and the fact that my great grandfather's name was Austin.

Which, by the way, some family members found some old family pictures so I'll probably be posting a few of those here in a few days.  There's a picture of my great great grandfather in there.  Pretty cool.

Thanks for listening!!

I'm back!! (I know you were worried)

Okay, there's a reason it's been almost a month since I posted anything.  Austin got sick, I got sick, Erika got sick, then she got even sicker and was in the hospital for 3 days, then we all went to Atlanta for 3 days. . .we just got back from that. . .it's been a long 3 weeks for us around here.  But we're all here, we're all healthy and we're getting back into the swing of things now.  Of course, Austin is on Spring Break this week, so my chances of getting an hour to sit at the computer aren't very likely.  But I'll try.

So my photography is about to start picking up here in a few weeks.  I'd love for it to pick up right now, but I'm so lazy I don't even update my facebook status for my photography page.  I mean, it's free promotion and I use it about once every 2 weeks.  Awesome.  I'm a marketing genius.

Thanks!!

Amelie Ruth

I love shooting newborns!!  I can never get them to stay asleep but they're so clueless as to what is going on, it actually makes taking pictures of them quite a fun thing.  There are times when I just keep the camera on them and wait for them to move a certain way or give off one of those little smiles. . .it's so fun!!

Beautiful Amelie Ruth in quite a pensive pose for her newborn session.

Amelie's mom loves this picture and so do I!!  This was one of those moments where I just kept the camera on her and just waited on something to happen.  A lot of times they'll move their hands around and if you snap at just the right time it almost looks like they're using their hands to communicate.  In this one, I was lucky and got the hands along with a little smile

A sleeping baby. . .does it get more beautiful than this?

You gotta love that the flower in her head is actually bigger than her head!!

She's looking at me thinking, "are you still taking pictures of me?!?!?!"

I love these mother-daughter shots.

You just can't describe the joy you get from looking your baby in the face. . .there's nothing like it!

And possibly my favorite shot!!  The look on Amelie's face is priceless!!

Heather's maternity session

This is exciting!!! My first post on my blog that is actually about a photo shoot. . .I've seen photography blogs that kind of post pictures while telling the story about the photo shoot, so I'll do the same here. . .

Heather called me (thanks to Elizabeth!!) about taking some maternity pictures.  She didn't think she wanted to do any but well, she realized she's quite pregnant and that if she was gonna do them, now was the time.  I think she called me on a Wednesday, and we took these pictures on Thursday, the next day.

I'm used to doing maternity sessions inside people's homes.  They're more comfortable there, she can take a break if she needs it, they've usually got some toys or blankets they want in the pictures. . .it's just usually easiest at their house.  Well, Heather and her husband live in Oxford, but agreed to meet me somewhere in Hernando so we could do these pictures. . .outside.

Anytime this is the first picture you take, you know it's gonna be a good shoot.  Heather is beautiful and having that belly just makes her that much more stunning!!  I know you women sometimes don't feel like it when you're far along in your pregnancy, but I PROMISE, this is an absolutely beautiful look!!  I love that pregnant "glow" that you ladies get.  It's awesome!!

And this is just a great shot. . .men always hate having their pictures made but Chris was quite a sport about it.  Always smiled, and didn't complain the whole time.  That's rare for men by the way.

Along the same fence line as the previous 2 pictures, but how can you not take 100 pictures by this fence?  Old, torn up, wooden, molded fence?  Hello?!?!?!

Then we drove down a little ways and I saw this really old building and when I saw Heather in her all black against this white wall, I had a vision.  This shot is that vision. . .I love this picture!!!

Awww. . .

Moving on to the next location we found a tiny gazebo that was just right for some pictures.

Wow, I couldn't resist taking this shot!!  Thank you so much Heather, for letting me take this!!  I love it!!  "THE BIG BOLD BREED". . .it doesn't get any better than that!!

Classic!!

It's neat to me how all that space on the right makes this shot interesting.

And the last shot of the day.

So thanks a ton to Heather & Chris for using me to take their maternity pictures.  She was hesitant to even go through with taking them, but I think after seeing these, she'll be glad she did.  I hope so anyway.  And hopefully they'll call me when it's time to take some newborn pictures ;) ;)

Thanks!!

a sincere apology

just a little quick note to apologize to all you faithful followers out there.  I can honestly say I haven't been lazy, I've just been busy.  And I probably won't have a chance tomorrow (today actually) to write again either. . .Maybe around midnight again tomorrow I'll set time aside to do this blog thing.  I swear, I was so good at doing it during the month of January before I even told anybody about it.  I don't deserve your friendship, but trust me, I've got a few shoots booked, and things are about to pick up and I'll be posting more soon.  Real soon.  And more pictures too. . .none of this one picture per post crap!!

Thanks!!

before & after

This is a typical example of what I would do to "fix" a picture.  Sometimes I change colors and add effects (watch for my next post), but generally speaking this is what I do. . .

I usually brighten the picture a little bit, boost the saturation, brighten the eyes and whiten teeth.  Sometimes I make dark spots under the eyes a little lighter, and sometimes I remove a wrinkle or blemish here and there.  I don't like to do too much to the eyes because a person's eyes define them, and changing them too much makes them look like a different person.  The wrinkles and "bags" that people have under their eyes generally can't be removed.  I mean, I can physically do it in photoshop, but it just doesn't look right (in my opinion).  Babies have these so called "bags" under their eyes.  Also, the skin below their eyes is a little darker than their cheeks.  So that's totally normal.  When you remove all that and make the skin under the eyes look just like the rest of the cheek, it just looks goofy to me.

So if you hire me, and I tell you that I'll "fix up" a picture or whatever, this is what I'm doing.  The picture on the left is straight out of the camera.  The picture on the right has been edited just a tad.

Thanks!!

just maybe

Sorry for not having a picture today.  And I'm also sorry that I posted almost every freaking day in January and I think I've only done 3 in February so far.  What a loser.  It's weird that L-O-S-E-R is loser, but P-O-S-E-R is poser.  I've got a million of them (thanks in most part to Gallagher).

I've been slacking really hard in the photography world lately.  I've got a shoot this weekend and I couldn't possibly be more excited.  When the weather picks up, hopefully business will pick up and I can use this blog to post what's actually going on in my photography world.  I'll be posting pictures of what I'm shooting instead of random pictures from 2005.  And maybe if I make a little money I can get some new business cards.  Maybe those business cards will have the address for my blog them.  Then maybe people will start coming to my blog (not that I don't totally appreciate your being here!!).  Then I could become more and more popular.  Then the promise that I made to my entire extended family at Christmas may come true.  What promise?  That's for another post sometime later.

Thanks!!