Wiregrass Christian Family,

K-LIFE and Other Stuff

On Monday afternoon, July 21, I had an assignment for Wiregrass Christian Family Magazine. Hi Katy and Laurel! You're getting blogged!

The assignment was multifold but we would do all of the photos at Katie's (the editor of Wiregrass Christian Family magazine) house, where they were having a HUGE gathering of teenagers from the Dothan area, called K-LIFE. For more on K-LIFE hit the link. It's a dynamic gathering for youth, geared toward developing the spiritual side of their lives. I would highly recommend it for any teenager that's interested.

Before we started with the K-LIFE photos, I had a couple other photo tasks to complete for the magazine. First, I met Andie and her two oldest boys Luke and Benjamin. They would be looking at an ABC Creative Memories album that their grandmother, Pat Wood made for them. The album uses different pictures and stickers to correspond with each letter of the alphabet. They use these pictures and stickers to learn the alphabet and by extension, how to read. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Next, I met Connor, a college aged guy. He would be our model for a photo that Katie needed--he would be opening a care package from home, as if he were off in college land somewhere. I remember when I was in college, it was always a blessing to get stuff from home, especially food and money!

After Connor and I finished, another model named Jane was waiting for me to get some shots of her cool boots for an ad for Eagle Eye Outfitters. If you like outdoorsy clothing and accessories and you haven't been to Eagle Eye, well, all I'm going to say is, you should go there as soon as you finish reading your post. Susan and the staff at Eagle Eye are great, and they have tons of great stuff in there. Plus, their warehouse on Brannon Stand Road across from Mt. Gilead Baptist Church is open on Saturdays.
Back to Jane......Let me just say that Jane was a natural. I gave her hardly any instructions on what to do and we got some GREAT shots. Stephen joined a few minutes later to model some sandals, so we photographed Jane and Stephen together, and then took a few images of Stephen (or Stephen's feet) by themselves.



When that was done, it was time for K-LIFE. This is just unbelievable. Katy and her husband David open their house, their lake, their jet skis, their horses, their trampoline and their kitchen (among other thing), to dozens of youth every Monday night during the summer. I won't add much about K-LIFE (no spoilers here again) other than to say I wish something like this was around when I was in high school.

Walt and Dixie

and
Trey and Tonya

I think Walt and Dixie just became the family that traveled farthest to have me make their portraits. Of course, they didn't travel all this way JUST to have me create their family heirloom but still, they traveled all the way from the middle of Colorado. They were visiting their friends Trey and Tonya, who were spending a week at their family's condo at Pinnacle Port, on the beach near Panama City, FL. My relationship with Trey and his family goes back nearly thirty years, when Trey was around four or five years old and I was a teenager. Wow.

I've done portraits for Trey and Tonya several times over the last few years. In fact, they're one of my most loyal customers and it's always a pleasure to work with them. Their kids, Coleman and Cassidy, have literally grown up in front of my camera. They're lots of fun and SO easy to work with. (Trey and Tonya, you should be proud of those kids. I think they're GREAT!) Trey is one of the funniest guys you'll ever meet, and Tonya is a true sweetheart. They make a good couple.

This was the first time I had met Walt and Dixie. As I mentioned they had come all the way from "the middle of the mountains in Colorado," as Walt so eloquently stated. He told me the name of their hometown and when I looked it up on a map, sure enough, it was in the middle of the mountains in Colorado. Maybe I can get an invite sometime...I love the Rocky Mountains. Walt's wife Dixie is a longtime friend of Tonya. In fact, Dixie used to live in the Dothan area many years ago and that's where they met.

When Tonya told Dixie that I would be coming down to the beach to create some family portraits for them, Dixie wanted to schedule a session for her family too. So, I made it to Pinnacle Port around 6 p.m. and we got straight to work with Walt and Dixie and their three beautiful children. We went up among the sand dunes and sea oats, we moved to the water's edge, we went back to the dunes and then finished up on the wide, flat section of the beach. Walt even pitched in to help by holding my reflector while I was getting some images of the kids. Thanks, Walt! I only wish you could have helped with those irritating sand flies (or whatever they're called)!

We took some cool photos of Walt and Dixie's youngest child, Trent. Trent got a little fussy one time and Walt was gently tossing him into the air and gently catching him and it seemed to do just the trick for Trent because he had the biggest smile on his face. I asked Walt if he thought Trent would like a couple more tosses--I wanted to get some photos that would make it look like Trent was flying high. Check it out!

We also got a few really nice images of Walt and Dixie together. So many times, parents want to get portraits of their kids but they forget to get images of themselves at the different stages in their lives as well. I was glad to get these photographs and hope they'll cherish them as much as the family portraits.

We finished up with Walt and Dixie and it was time to get to work with Trey and Tonya and their kids. Tonya teaches middle school and she knows how to organize things. She had a couple of poses that she especially wanted and we got right to work on that. She had seen an image we created for Trey's stepsister at this same location and was curious about how and where we had done the photograph, so I showed her where it was. Of course, she wanted to use that location too.


After that, went went down to the water's edge for a few more family photos. We finished the session a few minutes after the sun disappeared below the horizon. Just before we stopped for the day (and just before the sun completely set) I grabbed this photo.

One last note about today's session: It was great to have my dad along with me for the session. He found out earlier in the week that I was going to the beach and asked if he could come along. I said, "Sure, it would be great to have you." He bought a Canon EOS 30D last year and wanted to try it out at the beach. So while I was working on the portraits, he was working shots of the sea oats, the clouds and whatever else grabbed his attention. We had lots of good conversation during the drive time to and from the beach and I'm glad we share a common interest in photography.

After finishing the photography session, Tonya suggested that we (Dad & I) try the new Five Guys Burgers, located in a new shopping development nearby. So we headed over toward Five Guys and when we got there, the crowds were unbelieveable. I mean, there were people EVERYWHERE and it was a Thursday night. Since we had an hour and a half of driving ahead of us, we decided to try Five Guys on another, less crowded day. Instead, we stopped at Burger King and hit the road pretty quickly. But I'm really looking forward to checking out that Five Guys Burgers joint, I hear they have some awesome hamburgers.......

Lauren's senior session, part 2

The time came to finish Lauren's Senior Photo Session. Last week, we couldn't do the outdoor part of the session due to inclement weather. So we decided to try again on Friday, meeting at the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens and then proceeding to Landmark Park after that. We got to the Botanical Gardens just when the light was starting to get good and stayed there, fighting the gnats and heat, for about 45 minutes.

When we got to Landmark Park, we had a couple of things in mind. First, we wanted to get some nice compositions of her against the wall of the red schoolhouse. See above for that.

Next, we went inside the old church to get a few windowlight photographs. We shot some traditional stuff and then I got the idea for the image below. It looked good in color, but I thought this one just begged for a black and white treatment.

I'm really proud of both of the portraits posted on this entry. We had all of the elements to create some spectacular images: great light, a great location and most important of all, a GREAT subject. Way to go, Lauren, you look FANTASTIC! It was both an honor and a lot of fun to do your senior portraits this year. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Lauren's Senior Session, part 1

Well, we kicked off what will be a VERY limited high school senior portrait season with the lovely Lauren. (REMINDER: if you're thinking about having us do your senior portraits, call NOW to set up a time. We don't have many sessions available and once they're gone, they're gone.) Our original plans were to have an indoor/outdoor session on a Friday afternoon but alas, the weather didn't allow us to even attempt the outdoor part of the session. It was raining HARD and there was lots of lightning in the area.


I think Lauren and her mom were a little curious as to how I would accomplish the feat of creating studio portraits inside their home and they were very interested in watching as I set my equipment up. We moved a table and a foot stool and before long, a real live photography studio occupied their living room. It included a backdrop, four studio lights and a couple of props. Lauren also had a bunch of stuff that she wanted to include in some of the photos and we made good use of those items too.

After we got the session started it became readily apparent to me that this would be a very good experience for both Lauren and myself. We had lots of fun, joked around and generally had a great time. Every few minutes we'd stop and I'd show the tiny previews on the back of my digital camera to Lauren and her mom, Cherisa. I was really happy with the images we were making and each time I showed them something new, they seemed to be more and more excited. That's a good thing. The preview book for Lauren's session is going to be incredible.


After we finished up with the indoor photos, we decided to finish the outdoor part of the session a week later at the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens and Landmark Park. I'll have a few photos from that session in "Lauren's Senior Session, part 2."

Meredith and Mitchell

I've known these kids' mom (Deanna) since, well, forever. We grew up in the same church and it's hard to remember a time when I didn't know Deanna and her family. I must say I was really happy when she called and wanted me to do a portrait session with her two children. I remember when they were born. Life goes by quickly, indeed.

We met at Maria's Vineyard, one of my favorite places for location portraiture and got to work straightaway. The weather was beautiful, though hot and we worked our photo opportunities in the times between the bright sunlight and puffy clouds.

We also took advantage of some sweet light on the back patio and underneath the arbor. It didn't hurt that Meredith and Mitchell were so cooperative and photogenic!

Drew and Gavin at Maria's Vineyard

We met Mike and Sarah a couple of years ago when Mike was working for a local paving company. My wife Carmen met Sarah and her kids during story hour at the library. We hadn't known them for more than about six months when Mike accepted a job with his old company back in Bowling Green, KY.

We photographed their kids, Drew and Gavin, just before they moved to Bowling Green in July of 2007. Carmen and Sarah had hit it off very well and were already fast friends themselves so they've kept in touch during the past year. Because of that, when Sarah came back to the area to visit her mother (who lives in Bainbridge, GA), she wanted to carve out some time for us to have another portrait session with Drew and Gavin.

I'll have to say that it makes you feel good as a photographer when someone who lives hundreds of miles away wants you to be their photographer. Sarah brought the boys WAY out of their way for me to photograph them at Maria's Vineyard, one of our favorite places to have outdoor portrait sessions.

Of course, my two kids were more than excited to see their old friends and we even grabbed a couple of images of all four together. It was a good day. Hot, but good, and I'm so glad the kids had some time to renew their friendships.



And did I mention, Sarah is expecting twin girls? They'll be here in November, I think. Congratulations, Mike and Sarah!

Jeremy's First Portrait Session

Well, it's been a busy month for us. I'm starting here and working mostly forward to bring you a few thoughts and a couple of comments from my recent photo sessions.

In this post, we'll meet my nephew Jeremy. We made these photos when he was around 9 weeks old. We set up the studio in my living room and did the session in about 20 minutes. This profile image is one of my favorites from the session.


To me, he kinda looks like his big brother Justin, especially when he has a certain type of expression on his face.

I've gotten in the habit of photographing a newborn's (or in this case a two month old) face really up close and personal. If they're awake, they usually just lie there and stare at you and occasionally make a silly face or even cry. I like to capture all those expressions because that time of a child's life is so pure and innocent. It's almost like you can tell what the child is thinking. Here's one of those closeups of Jeremy: