The Mother Of The Groom

This is an older picture of Patrick dancing with his mother at his wedding last year. The room we were in was not the most photogenic, thus demanding extra creativity in framing.

Mr. and Mrs. Charlton

I don't usually like posting photos of clients until they have seen them, so now that Mike and Melody have their photos, I am going to blog them. Of course, if you know Mike, and are friends with him on Facebook, you'll probably get to see them all pretty soon.

Here is their first dance as Mr. and Mrs. Charlton. I snapped this with the 15mm fisheye lens I try so hard to use sparingly. It was perfect for this shot, but really hard to get away with. I shoot with prime lenses exclusively, which may seem like suicide for wedding photographers, but it's worked out pretty well so far. I use two bodies and four focal lengths to choose from in my shoulder bag. I could use some more telephoto lenses, but my style centers around the wide angle more than the tight crop, as you can see by the photo above.

Old Man And The Bride

One of my favorite shots from a wedding I was second-shooter for. Not much to say about this one except how much I love his little "I (heart) Jesus" button. Old people are so cute.

This was shot in a gymnasium with a really really high cream-colored ceiling. I bounced my little battery-powered SB-28 strobe straight up to get some bounce. I had that little guy turned all the way up for the whole reception, and I was just going through batteries like a hot knife through butter.

Celebrating One Year

I gave Heather a hard time about going to great lengths to decorate a cake for Zoe's first birthday. I can imagine a baby would think of it as an edible punching bag, but Heather treated it like a wedding cake. It really was beautiful.

Every time I would say something about it, Heather would respond, "It's for me" and I would assume she meant that she was putting work into it because she wanted something to do, and perhaps that was the truth, but I realized something else.

Zoe doesn't care about her first birthday. She like the attention, she likes playing with toys, but she really don't understand the concept yet. To her, it's not unlike any other day. However, I can say with certainty that she understands the concept of treats and toys.

Heather, on the other hand, understands the idea of birthdays and anniversaries. Heather understands milestones and accomplishments. Zoyenka turning one-year-old yesterday had less to do about her age, and more to do with what Heather accomplished one year ago, and the 9 months prior.

I love one-year celebrations. "It was one-year-ago since..."

So, my wife had proper reason to go to infinite lengths to decorate the cake and to make it as special for her as possible. And then, we watch as Zoe smears it into oblivion.

Happy Birthday Zoyenka

This is a photo of my beautiful wife Heather holding our daughter Zoyenka a few hours after she was born exactly one year-ago, today.

First birthdays are less about the child, and more about the mother. And, about everyone's reaction to the baby digging into the cake.

Happy Birthday, Mother Dear

Today is my mother's birthday. Being the second oldest of seven children, I cannot overstate how wonderful my mom is. How do you describe a woman who gave girth to seven kids, home-schooled them all, cooks, cleans, sews, writes, and works part-time? Seriously. What do you give that woman as a gift? Really, there's nothing that can come close.

My mother, Sara, is on facebook now, but she's not a stalker mom. I'm sure she would love it if you posted something on her wall.

The only problem with writing a blog post about your mother is that you're bound to get an email about how many grammatical errors there were.

The above photo was taken at Christmastime of 2008 in my parent's abode in Chesapeake, VA. Shot with available light and a 28mm lens on my old, trusty Nikon d50.

Downtown Upstairs

I don't know why it stood out to me, but I really like the scooter at the bottom of the stairs.

Taken in downtown Winston-Salem, NC while I was down there for business.

Using only available light and waiting until there was no car or person walking by, I snapped this at an excruciating 1/25th of a second, handheld. Like some sort of Russian sniper.

Sand, Glorious Sand

Zay really likes getting his photo taken just so he can ham it up and then see himself on the back of the camera. And Zoe really likes to do whatever Zay is doing.

My kids, Isaiah (Zay) and Zoyenka (Zoe), right after we wrapped a photo shoot with a friend of mine at the Virginia Beach oceanfront.

Auto Sale

I snapped this photo of a body shop on Highway 58 in Suffolk I would pass all the time, but in the past there was never a rooster hanging out. So clearly there wasn't a real photo opportunity in the past.

Shot from a stopped car using my Nikon d200 and a Nikkor 85mm lens.

Deeply

He was praying.

Out The Window

I snapped this photo during a friend's wedding reception in downtown Norfolk, VA.

That is my brother Jared holding my son Isaiah.

Bound4LIFE Wants You

This is a shot I can file away with other happy mistakes.

I was on assignment for Bound4LIFE, taking shots of them praying in front of the Supreme Court in DC during a 40-day intensive last year, and snagged this shot of my very good friend Ian Kelly. Ian is a gentleman of high standards and deep convictions in whom I put a generous amount of trust. His character, candor, charm, and wit make him a brilliant speaker, writer, and thought-provoker. Follow him on twitter.

I highly encourage you to check out the Bound4LIFE blog, and all the exciting stuff that is going on this year.

Right now, I'm working a lot with Bound4LIFE and JHOPDC while I'm in Northern Virginia. I love these people, and especially what they stand for and fight so hard to see accomplished. Tomorrow I'm going to their headquarters on Capitol Hill to shoot some lifestyle photos of the internship there and of the weekly prayer "rumble" they host in the basement of a condo just blocks from the capitol building.

Bombs Bursting in Air

Oh Zay, can you see by the donzerly light?

18 years underage

This is my son Isaiah with his best friend in the south, Gill. I bought Isaiah a pack of candy cigarettes, and he's sharing them with his friend. I'm limiting him to a pack a week.

Gill belongs to Jordan and Kristi, and is one of the coolest kids I know.

This was shot on a rather sunny afternoon in the shade, lit with a soft box over my Alien Bees B800 and a Nikon SB-28 off to the right with a green gel providing some subtle rim light.

What An Honor

Last week, Chase Jarvis, one of my favorite photographers who I follow on Twitter, held a contest. With the arrival of the new iPhone 3GS, he was giving away his current iPhone 3G to the person with the best photo taken with a mobile phone. I entered. I didn't win.

Beside lauding due praise on the winning photo, Chase also chose 100 of his favorite images out of the 3500 submitted, and posted them in a gallery on his blog.

There are some amazing photos in there, one of which is a photo I took of Zoyenka, pictured above. I am very honored to have a photo of mine anywhere near Chase Jarvis' name, let alone on his website. It's a photo taken with a cellphone, and all the the photos in the gallery are, so it's just shows to go you*, it's not what you use, but how you use it.

(congrats to Omar, winner of the iPhone)

*Ten points if you can tell me what movie the phrase, "It just shows to go you..." is from.

Cool It

At the Norfolk Zoo there are these fountains of water splashing up from the ground. These kids had the right idea on that Friday afternoon. It was about 80 degrees in the shade, and if I wasn't carrying a camera and wearing jeans, I just may have joined them.

Monkey See...

This is my beautiful niece Isabella getting the attention of a monkey at the Norfolk Zoo during our last family visit to Virginia.

Rest Stop Self Portrait

I had a legitimate reason for stopping at this location at 11 o'clock last night, but this is the only part of that journey that I will share with you.

This is a 30-second exposure, with me standing there for about 20 seconds or so.

Drive-By Storm

This one was taken out the driver-side window while traveling south-bound on Interstate 85 last night. 4-second exposure with traffic going the opposite direction, and I got lucky.

Lightning on the Highway

If my wife knew how many times I almost died in order to get this shot, she would kill me.