TJ and Maggie's Wedding - Beautiful

Last weekend I had the privilege to photograph Maggie and TJ's wedding. What a beautiful couple. Their love for each other and for God were so evident throughout the entire wedding. Also, there was a wonderful sense of fun that ran throughout the entire day. Their friends added a great spice to everything with laughter and a certain joy of life.

To see the entire wedding's photographs, visit my proofing site.

Washington Monument

I found it difficult to see the monument without a framing element this time. Every time I looked at it there was something in the foreground that told a part of the story of who we are. Washington is such a beautiful and diverse place. Everywhere you look there seems to be contrasts of style, status, ethnicity and culture. I love it. If you haven't spent any time in Washington, make a special trip. It is well worth it.

Wilderness Clean Up Project

While up in the area I have been able to work in some amazing areas. I spent the last 2 days in Green Wood Farms Park. This is a beautiful place in Prince William County, Virginia. It is a large and undeveloped parcel that was donated to the PWCPA. I was part of the first team to go in to go in for cleaning up the litter from the roads and communities surrounding it.

I was amazed that someplace so beautiful could be a dumping ground for so much trash. We rolled out 2 truck tires,12 bags of cans, bottles, plastic bags, milk jugs, etc, a 3 foot section of I-Beam, two sign posts, a seat from an old jeep, some broken auto parts, a bar from a weight lifting set, a vent from a stove, a scooter, a basketball hoop and bike that were too buried in silt for us to remove and a number of items we never really identified. It was a beautiful day, the work was hard, but the location was beautiful. I'll take that any day.

Beautiful Day in Washington D.C.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Washington. The weather is clear and cool. It was a great day for walking and exploring and enjoying the city.

This city is what inspired me as a student to become a photographer. It is so rich in history and visual details that it just came to life in front of me as an 8th grader on a spring break school trip. I didn't even own a camera then, so I borrowed cameras from everyone else on the trip. It was a bit overwhelming. This is my second trip back to D.C. as an adult. I seem to find more and more with each visit. I will have much to share later when I have a chance to build slideshows and make more finished images.

Key Largo Slideshow

I have been taking groups of students from my church to Key Largo for the past 9 years. This was our 10th trip. I really love it down there. We have so many amazing memories that have been made there. I have some favorite places that I love to bring kids to experience. I have seen so many kids over the years become overwhelmed by the beauty of the area and start to key in on the voice of God there. It isn't magic, it's simply the process of stopping the world long enough and listening.

While we are there spend time snorkeling on the reefs, exploring Black Water Sound on a sunset cruise and in kayaks, swimming, laughing, telling stories and building deep friendships. Each night is capped with a time of worship and message that really help focus us all to see how amazing God is and how he created this place to show us how awesome He is. Of course, when you travel with a group of teenagers, there is also a great deal of silliness and even more eating...

These are my favorite images from this year's trip to the keys. I'll share the underwater images later when I have scans made from my film. (Remember film?)

Georgia Slideshow

The trip to Georgia was amazing. It is really beautiful up there and a different pace of life when you are away from everything at home. A nice change. It's also nice to be back into my normal routine and workflow. As normal as it ever gets at least. Last week I was in the Keys and Thursday I leave for Washington D.C. No rest for the weary...

Here is the short form slideshow from the Georgia Trip. I'll share the Keys trip soon as well.

Key Largo

I am spending an amazing week in the Keys. Every year I take a group of the teenagers from my church down here for a retreat. It is so beautiful here that I can't ignore God's voice saying how much He loves us.

While we are here we stay at Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort. This is my favorite place to stay. The staff is amazing, the boat crew is top notch and the atmosphere is so relaxed. I've been bringing groups here for almost a decade now. Once you find the best you stick with it.

I will post my images from the whole week later, but for now here is on of my selects.We have had some amazing afternoon storms coming across Florida Bay that are just so cool to see them build and then race toward us with so much power.

Georgia Aquarium

Our Trip to the Georgia Aquarium was amazing. This is the largest aquarium in the world. This is the viewing window into the 6.1 million gallon main tank that holds an amazing array of sealife including three whalesharks! Amazing...

I Find Art All Around Me

Did I mention I have trouble relaxing. I love what I do. Wherever I am, I’m looking and usually finding amazing beauty that I am moved to capture. This vacation is going to yield an amazing portfolio of fine art images. I created this on Lake Carter fishing and boating with my family.

Next week I’ll post a slideshow with the highlights of the whole week a great combination of family and art, sometimes both...

Amazing Beauty

I love to find places where I am surrounded by beauty. I carry my cameras with me everywhere I go. It’s a habit I developed as a journalist, you never knew when a story would develop. It is a good habit that has paid off for me in so many images that I would have missed if I wasn’t willing to hike a mile in a cave with a full pack of gear.

This is Ruby Falls just out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Well worth the deep walk... even if you are claustrophobic like I am.

Life is Good

I haven’t ever been all that good at taking down time. I really love to work. I always have. My wife is very dedicated to trying to help me relax and enjoy life. To that end, we are in Georgia for a week of vacation. I will have so many images by the end of this week. Here's a sneak peek.

Erin and Bob's Engagement Session

What a cute couple. When I was discussion ideas for where to shoot their e-session they chose a park close to home. Their community is an important part of their relationship and wanted to have it as the backdrop for their portraits.

Visit my online proofing page to see the entire session.

Jake's Birthday

Kids are amazing. Their ability to let loose and have fun astonishes me. I almost want to be a kid again...

Images I Love

I am always reviewing my work. I am a bit obsessive about growing as a photographer. It is one of the best ways (if not the best) I have of expressing myself and I value it immensely.

As I go through and review work I find times when I am just amazed and others that I want to burn negatives. (I only did that once in college after a particularly difficult semester shooting black and white 4x5 landscapes.)

This is one of my favorite images. Photographing at the Florida Aquarium can be quite challenging, but the images are amazing if you are diligent.

This wedding was so beautiful and having the unity candle off to the side and wrapped in votive candles just set an amazingly beautiful mood. I was able to sneak around the side with my 10.5 mm lens to make this image. The light was just beautiful.

If you like the online version you should see the 16x20 in my portfolio...

Storage Solutions

I’m pretty obsessive about my data. I have the negativess from my first wedding in 1998 still in storage. The idea of losing a single image scares the pants off of me.
 
Because of these things I have been a religious person for back ups in multiple places and media. The size of my archive is getting insane though. I am having to make a big change in how I handle things.
 
I have two of these

Fantom G-Force MegaDisk

s on the way. Very cool desktop RAID solution. Each is 1 Terabyte configured in a redundant RAID 1 so each one has a duplicate of itself internally on a second disk.
 
The first will hold old archived projects and the second will keep up with my present workflow.
 

Along with these I will continue to do my regular DVD backups as well. Doing all this makes certain I am in good shape for the long run.

 
Because I’m uptight, I’m working on a 4th location for stored data. (yes, forth, the third is my online server for the lab) Soon I will be expanding my online server space to incorporate a full backup of all my files on a secure server in another part of the country.
 
Yes, I probably need therapy, but I don’t ever want to tell a client or myself I can’t print something because the file is gone.
 
(This year I started giving my wedding clients DVDs of the finished images this year as another level of protection.)

Children's Musical

I have to say that my church is really cool. There is always something happening at

First.

Yes, we have our ups and downs like any group of people, but there is a lot of good stuff going on.

We fell in love with it our first Sunday about 12 years ago and have been up to our ears in it since then. Being involved is the very best way to have fun in a church. I don’t think I could just attend a church and be happy - it’s just not how I was raised.

This past weekend was our Children’s Ministry musical. I love to see these kids using their gifts. See what they did above in the slideshow.

Christina and Drew's Album Design

I released the predesign for Cristina and Drew this morning. As I said before this was a beautiful day. Their personalities were really evident all day in every little detail. I love the storytelling possibilities when I do an album design like this. I find that I am designing a bit in my head when I am shooting. It gives an extra level of involvement and expression for me. I love it.
 

Christina and Drew's Wedding

Another beautiful wedding. Christian and Drew are such a sweet couple. I am always honored to be a part of such important days in people’s lives. I met them for the first time about a year ago and was so pleased to be included in their plans.
 
The slideshow above is available through i-Tunes as a pod-cast. If you would like to share these moments with friends, feel free to download it to your ipod and carry it wherever you go.

Mollie's Senior Portraits

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I’ve been crazy lately between shooting, editing and trying to live a normal life and spend time playing baseball in the yard with my kids. I’ll catch you up on a few photographic highlights.

Senior portraits for me are an all day affair, or pretty close to that. I like to spend time with people. No clock running. No maximum number of poses or changes of clothes. It’s the kind of photography that I want to do.

Mollie and I spent a good portion of a day a week or so ago making some incredible senior portraits. After portraits at the house in a few outfits and with her violin we headed south to Bradenton to use my favorite beach (Coquina on the South end of Anna Maria Island) as a backdrop for some more images.

On the way we had to stop at one of my other favorite places, the shake pit for a bite to eat. If you are ever on Manatee avenue in Bradenton, FL, you need to pay them a visit....

You can visit the rest of her sitting online on my

proofing pages

.

Kyle's Senior Portraits

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I did something for Kyle that I don’t do very often. Do two sittings in one day. Luckily Kyle and Mollie have known each other for a hundred years (ok, maybe they haven’t been alive that long...) and they were willing to go tag team with me for the day. It was a lot of fun for me to bounce around a bit while shooting and by the end of the beach session they were both really adept at holding my reflector panel for me.

Just like Mollie’s portraits, you can see Kyle’s on my

proofing page

.