Congradulations Hope!

My sister-in-law passed her Florida Bar exam! Her family had a blow out for her with all the friends and relatives and lots of kids running around. They had a ton of fun, I had a ton of fun photographing them.

Check it Out!

Mary Kay Portraits

I had an amazing weekend trip to Gainesville. I went up to see some of my Mary Kay ladies again and to a photo-shoot for the "Gator Connection" unit. I always leave Gainesville exhausted and completely recharged at the same time. These are some really fantastic people, I look forward to every trip.

What was exciting about this trip was I had a great mix of make-over portraits, families and children to photograph. I love kids, they are so much fun and I laugh a lot when I'm photographing them. I also get a lot of hugs which makes it even better!

Take a peek at some of my favorites!

Fiction

I haven't read fiction since I was in college. My wife and some of my friends will often tease me because I am a non-fiction only reader. I love histories, biographies, and theology. I spend a lot of time reading. It brings a lot of creative energy and new ideas into my life and that is invaluable.

Recently I was shopping with my assistant and she pointed out a book to me as a suggestion for a graduate gift. It was a book about a diver with a Christian Publisher. She thought it would be a very personal gift coming from me because of my love of diving. I wanted to read it first before I gave it to a student.

I finished it a few days ago. The book is Deep Blue by Tom Morissey. It turned out to be a fantastic book. I had some reluctance to enjoy this book because it was fiction, but I was able to get past that as the plot and characters drew me in.

Maybe that means I'm growing. Maybe that means I needed something different in my diet to break things up a bit. Change is good. I might even be willing to try another one, but not right away.

I also finished The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Two very different types of books to be reading side by side. I've read the Case before. Very compelling book with much to offer for someone who is alwaqys digging deeper, asking questions adn pushing farther in their faith. Strobel is a very compelling author and presents a great depth of material in an intriguing framework with many references to his work as a journalist at the Chicago Tribune.

Kristen and Yancey's Album

I've been working on this album design for a while now. Soon I'll be amaking a sample album from this layout. Kristen and Yancey were such a fun couple to work with. Their zest for life and beautiful morning wedding made for a natural choice for a sample. Since I changed labs and albums I've wanted to update my samples. I'm pretty close now. Soon I'll have it in hand. I can't wait to show it off!

My Wife is Amazing

My wife is amazing! I am so proud of her. In the past two years she has been teaching full time, serving in our church, being nominated for the top ten of teacher of the year and working on her masters! This weekend she crossed the finish line! I could bust...

Microsoft Future Pro Photographer Contest

Home - Microsoft Future Pro Photographer Contest

This looks like a great way for a young photographer to get a good start in their career. This is the first year Microsoft has taken on this contest. For someone right out of high school or in college this could be the big push you need to get things really rolling. $20,000 buys a lot of camera gear and could be great money to start a busniess or fund a long term special project.

Kaitlyn's Journey

Kaitlyn's Journey

This is a post and a prayer request. The above link is to a blog from a friend through Open Source Photo. Eric is a great photographer and dad. His beautiful daughter has been diagnosed with Leukemia. Visit his site to see what her status is and fall in love with her. Please keep their whole family in your prayers.

Welcome to 30 Hours Famine

Welcome to 30 Hours Famine

This weekend I'm taking 30 hours of my life to stop eating and start helping others. The statistics are chilling. 29,000 children die every day from hunger. Every $30 I raise this weekend through your support saves a child's life for 30 days. That's a fantastic return on your investment and mine.

Visit World Vision's site above and give generously. If you give because you saw it here, plese drop me a note so I know.

Swamped! In The Best Way...

I have been one busy guy lately. I wanted to catch you up just a little bit on all that's happening.

Saturday I photographed a fantastic 25th wedding anniversary and vow renewal. It was so beautiful. Cross Creek Ranch in Dover is such a beautiful venue for an event like this. There is just a beautiful charm to the whole place. It was fitting for such an amazing family. I love having the opportunity to be a part o the best days of people's lives. Hank and Machele were so cute and they must be doing something right to have 3 beautiful kids too. Friends and family from all over came to share the celebration with them. I was really honored to be a part of it.

Sunday, I Photographed the final performance of People of the Passion. Very powerful. I am so amazed at all the talent that my church is blessed with. Everything was done in house - musicians, singers, actors, lighting, video, scoring of all the instrument, writing of all the narration and scripting the action. The whole enchilada. I was blown away.

Here's my final slide show.

Also, I had the awesome opportunity to lead worship and speak at all three services this past Sunday. What an amazing opportunity. The student band and all the students who lead worship with me were awesome. It's so very cool to see how the church responds to them. Teenagers aren't perfect, but they are amazing worshippers. I love being with them.

Monday night I had a great opportunity for Chick-fil-A. They were sponsoring the kick off of an All Pro Dads group at one of our middle schools. The event was very cool and I had a chance to see some other great dads and learn some myself while I was photographing the event.

Here are some of my images from the evening.

The People of the Passion

Wow! My church is doing a world premier of an original musical this weekend. Brad Trumbull, our keyboard genius wrote this amazing musical based on a sermon series our senior pastor, Jerry Van Dyken shared last year. I was blown away when I went to the dress rehearsal last nght. You have to come see this. Very, Very Cool! Go see the slideshow with a few selects from last night. I wish I had some of the music to add to the background of the show. Maybe when I shoot the final performance.

Tampa Open Source Photo Road Trip

Last night was awesome. Tampa, Orlando and Miami area photographers from Pictage gathered for an awesome night. We shared ideas, swapped stories, shot together and stretched each other creatively. I especially enjoyed getting some to the Open Source Photo people together. This is an amazing and talented bunch. Here are a a handful of selects from the evening.

A Day on the Train

Friday was an awesome day. I went on a 4year old preschool trip to ride the Florida Gulfcoast Railraod Museum. This is a working train - "A museum on wheels" as tehy explained. Very interesting and a lot of fun and very cool to see the world through their eyes for a while.

Take a minute and ride the train with us.

Quiet Times at St Simons Island

I came back from an amazing weekend with some kids from church on Monday. When I'm away on trips like that I always make sure I get some time every morning to be alone with God and get spiritually prepared for the day. St Simons is so beautiful at sunrise that I couldn't resist using part of that time to make some photographs of God's hand at work in the beauty of our world. I think He makes the world so beautiful so we can see a peek at His beauty.

Green Beans

My Neice isn't certain if she likes grean beans or not.




Sometimes they are good...





Other times not so good!

Play ball!

My son and I took in a Yankees game on Tuesday afternoon. What a great day. Hanging out with my kids is awesome. Being a dad is the best thing ever. I highly recomend it to all married men.

One of the players rolled a ball to him over th dug out during the game. he was so excited that we had to spend an hour and a half in the back yard with him cracking them off the tee at me and me relaying them back to his sister to tee it back up.

By the way, thanks Brian! Awesome seats!

Children Around the World

I spent last Friday in Pre-school. What a fantastic way to spend a morning! So many bright shining faces and even more laughter.

Visit the Slide Show for More of the Fun!

Architectural Shoot

At the end of last week I had a commercial shoot for a large local sign company, Sign Star. Awesome people to work with and I learned a lot about the sign busniess in the process. I spent the day with Danny, who is a really amazing guy to know and work with. We have a lot of the same thinking about busniess. It's all about relationships. By the way, thanks again for lunch!

I don't do a ton of commercial work these days, I've been focusing on weddings and portraits. It was a real joy though. We covered a lot of territory (3 Counties) to get a good cross section of their work to use in their brochures and trade show booths. Soo we will begin redecorating their offices with some large prints.

Here's some of my favorites from the day.

Senior Portraits

I had an amazing shoot this weekend and I wanted to share it with you. I like to spend as much time as possible with a person as part of a sitting. It gives us a chance to really get to know each other and connect. It makes all the difference in the world as far as the images go. When I was done shooting I was just shy of 200 images into the sitting. That's a good feeling. Here's the slideshow of some of my favorites...

Jordyn's Senior Portraits

Gallery page

Just an update on my update...

My new gallery page is finished. I wanted to have a gallery that really represented the depth of what I do. I found out that is difficult because I do so many different things within photography. I'm somewhat an addict when it comes to photography. Take a look.

http://www.mccrystalimage.com/gallery/index.htm

Reading Reading Reading

I read a lot. I mean A LOT. It's kind of funny that I had to graduate from college before I realized that I love learning. Just a short time ago I diswcovered audio books. Now I am usually listening to a book on my ipod and then reading an actual

book as well. It's a nice way to keep new informationgoing into my brain.

I just finished "The Big Moo" by Seth Godin. Awesome book. I've already listened to it twice. It's a great way to get thinking about change and innovation in my life. Last week while I was discussing the book with a student at my church she reminded me that I needed to re-read "The Dream giver" by Bruce Wilkinson. I will start that tonight. Another fantastic book!

Strangely enough I recently found a stuffed cow on my desk. Thank you to my Big Moo supporter who ever you are.

By the way, pray for David Jay, he is in Brazil on a mission trip to bring water purification into the villages in the rainforest. Very cool. Hopefully his luggage with his malaria medecin catches up with him soon