Angel Wings

The kids were in the pool yesterday, and I had this little lady swim toward me and come up out of the water quickly. I was trying to capture some splash because I think it makes a pretty cool effect in a photo. What I captured is the water running off of her arms in sheets making it appear as if she had water wings. A really cool capture, and the face is priceless. The kids had fun, I got some great pool shots.

Thank you for looking.

Pre-order a Pie!

Sometimes I am just sitting somewhere and I see something that I think would be a cool photograph. Today I was sitting in the parking lot of a Bob Evans waiting to meet a friend, and watching storm clouds roll in. I knew the sign was to my left, but didn't give it much thought. At one point I looked over and saw that the sign read: "Pre Order a Pie for 4th of July" Clever rhyme marketing. I wanted to photograph the sign, so I waited for this grouping of clouds, that you see in the background, to get in a good position. I shot this with my Blackberry, and adjusted the contrast and saturation in Lightroom. Then in Photoshop I removed a lamp post that was in the frame. I like taking photographs of signs, especially if there is neon lights. Plus, Bob Evans makes some pretty darn good sausage gravy!

Thanks for looking.

Spencerville Covered Bridge

This Sunday I get to shoot three models, and a 1932 Ford Roadster using this bridge as a backdrop. I am pretty excited about this shoot. I'll post some photos after....stay tuned!

Charlie - A Yankee!

Last night was my nephew's last baseball game of the season, so I took my camera and snapped over 200 shots. Of course, many of them looked identical, since baseball is a game of repetition. After I filtered out some of the duplicates, I still had over 160 photos. I decided it might be fun for my nephew to have some baseball cards made for him. I hope he gets as much enjoyment out of them as I did making them...but, I guess that might not be possible. I love capturing the shots, but I love the other side of photography, too. The editing and creating a finished photograph is by far my favorite part of doing this. Now if I could only find a way to show clients the finished products before I take the pictures because usually those smiles are bigger and more natural than when the photo was captured.

Emily

This shoot started out a little rough, but ended beautifully. Emily, like a lot of people doesn't like getting her picture taken. But, as you can see, she takes beautiful photographs. Here are a few of our favorites from the session. She did wonderful, and I hope we'll get the chance to do it again.

A Friendly Visitor

This moth or butterfly, not sure which, visits us nearly every time we sit out on our deck. It's not shy either, it's landed on our heads, arms, and it flutters around our faces. There are a few of these living near our home, and it's interesting watching them chase each other around. This is the only one that comes up close to us. Sometimes it's neat living in an area with lots of trees and other vegetation. We get a ton of creatures creeping, crawling, and flying through. The racking of the leaves in fall is quite overwhelming though.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Wedding Details

A couple more shots from a wedding that I was the second shooter for. Photographing the details of the wedding was my favorite part.

Father of the Bride Dance

Weddings are full of very special moments, and as a father I think that the father/daughter dance, is what I am looking forward to the most. My oldest daughter is 10, so when I get to dance with her at her wedding in about 20 years it will be one of the best moments of my life.

From a photography standpoint, weddings present their own challenges in getting the perfect shots. Receptions tend to be dark, so a flash must be used to capture the memories. When shooting with a flash you can easily get sharp unpleasing shadows, and very bright, almost washout out points in the photo. Of course, white dresses and flash can be a huge problem. A balance of light and shadow is required to not make the dress look like a big white nothing in the middle of the photograph. This picture has pretty good light; you can see the father's black suit, but I didn't wash the beautiful wedding dress out. This is one of my favorite pictures from this wedding.

Thank you for looking.

Product Photography

Back in February I was hired by a local company to shoot products for their website. Today the website went live, and I very excited to see my work displayed on their website. Please check out their website, and my work at: www.rainwearonline.com

Perhaps this can lead to new opportunities in product photography.

NASCAR at Michigan

I visited Michigan International Speedway today with my brother for the NASCAR race. The racing at this track tends to get spread out, and there isn't much passing taking place; it's still a pretty good time. In the hospitality village, my brother got to meet driver Elliott Sadler. I had got to meet him last October when I helped build a house for Habitat for Humanity in Birmingham, and he did claim to remember me. But, I can't imagine the amount of people he meets. He's a pretty down to earth guy, and was probably just trying to be nice. I did appreciate it, though. We did the pit tour and the rain held off, so all in all it was a pretty good day. I didn't get sunburned like I did in Indianapolis a couple weeks ago. Here are eleven photographs I captured today. Please enjoy, and share with your friends.

Thanks for looking!

Rain Drops

It was raining pretty hard, so I tried to get a good shot of rain drops splashing into the water collecting on my front walk. I got as close as I could without getting my camera soaked, and tried to frame up a good photo. I snapped a few good ones, but I think I like this one the best. I would like to capture some lightning, but I have very tall mature trees in my yard that block most of the sky which is great for shade, not so good for capturing lightning from my property.

Thank you for looking, and please share my blog with your friends.

Who's Ready For Some Football

Hockey will be ending soon, baseball won't be exciting until September (by then the Cubs will be eliminated, sad), and we're only a couple months away from the football season. Will the Colts rebound from their loss in the Super Bowl? Can the Saints repeat? Will my beloved Buffalo Bills have a winning season? These are all questions that will be answered...soon. Most of you know that I love sports, and like to photograph various sports related things. This football was sitting on our picnic table just begging me to take it's picture. I opened my aperture up to 2.8 blurring the background beautifully, and turned this black and white. I love it.

Thank you for looking, and following my work.

Photos With New Lens

Wow, I just got a new lens today, and I am impressed. The aperture opens to 1.8, and it creates stunning photographs. Here are some randoms I shot today in my yard.

Loxton Family

Here are some photos from today's session with the Loxton family. It was cloudy and windy, but the rain held off. I am pretty happy with the results.

Thanks for looking.

Daddy's Boy

In an ongoing effort to capture images of father's and their child in ways that most are used to seeing mommy and child, I give you this photograph. You see tons and tons of photographs with mommy's holding their baby, and I think it should continue. But, it should be just as well documented that daddy's love their baby as much and mommy does.

Perhaps it is unmanly for daddy to pose in such a vulnerable way as to show love for another person, or maybe photographers have overlooked this bond for too long. While photographing babies, I don't ignore mommy, but I do try to create photos that dad can show off with pride. It gives them the "that's me and my boy," feeling. I love this capture; there is nothing to distract onlookers from the closeness of this father and son.

Thanks for looking. Do you find it odd or refreshing to see daddy's gently holding their son or daughter? I welcome your feedback.

Tucker

When I was hired to do this shoot, the client said that I didn't need any backdrops; I didn't know what to expect. But, then I arrived at the house and saw the colors that she had put in each of the rooms, and the way she decorated...I was impressed. Tucker is sitting on the coffee table holding a toy airplane, and you can see the colors just in the corner of the room that acts as a backdrop. The oversize clock with the roman numerals and the purple curtains against the olive wall adds character to the photo. I absolutely love this photograph, and I look forward to the opportunity to shoot in this client's home again. Every room has character to offer for tremendous backdrops.

Thanks for looking.