Photography straight from the heart.

I had a great lunch meeting at Tumbleweeds with one of my June brides today. Amber, her mother Crystal and Grandmother met me at the west side eatery. It was so much fun going over the plans and throwing ideas around between the 4 of us!

It is going to be a beautiful outdoor wedding with a beautiful bride. She has the most gorgeous blue eyes.

I’m not sure if her mother was kidding or not when she talked about taking group shots from the roof to have a great perspective. LOL Guess I will have to pack my safety harness just in case. You know how it goes in this business. Whatever it takes.

Misty and Bryan are such a fun couple. Their wedding is August 12th. We met at Audubon Park in Henderson. Audubon is one of my favorite places for portraits. The museum there is a beautiful stone castle and the grounds are so lush. We took a few portraits around the castle and then moved around the park to some different locations.

The lake was like glass this evening and made for some great backdrops.

We continued to the Henderson Riverfront. There is a restored L&N Caboose at the railway museum which makes for nice props.

Mesker Park Zoo was the setting for the Party for the Planet. As usual I felt right at home photographing the events, the animals and the crowds. The docents had a variety of animals out for the day and the children were so excited to be able to touch and feel them. Max the python was a particular crowd favorite.

It was an honor to be allowed to photograph the baptism of Kyle at St Agnes Catholic Church in Uniontown, Kentucky. The beauty and splendor of the church itself could not overpower that beautiful baby and the looks on his proud parents faces. Rev. Terry Devine was pleasure to work with and very open and receptive to photography in his parish. Afterwards we did a few family portrait shots on the parish grounds.

Met with 3 different families at Audubon State Park. It was such a pretty day and all the kids were my perfect little models. We all had a lot of fun and got some great shots. I still have a bit of a backlog, so I will post a few pictures in a couple days when I get caught up.

What a beautiful morning we had at Howell Wetlands. Their Earth Day Celebration was the best. On the drive in town, Austin and I talked about ways to protect our Earth and the animals so that we can continue to enjoy their beauty for a long time. The booths and activities at the Wetlands reinforced our talk and made for a fun morning. Austin got to dip bugs from the pond and look at them with the microscope, listen to the story lady,  make a Friend of The Earth Bracelet and see a demonstration of Raptors. They had the Barn Owl and a Red Tail Hawk on display by Wesselman’s Nature Center. Austin also received a Cypress tree to give to our neighbor John and one to plant in our yard.

Howell Wetlands can provide a ton of photo ops! Their is such diversity there. Even with the crowds there were geese and ducks on the waters and of course your plethora of dragonflys and other assorted winged creatures. I’m sure on a quiet morning or peaceful evening the wildlife would be out in full force, unlike on Earth Day with 100’s of people walking the grounds.

Well the new tripod came in. Picked it up last night.

They gave me a different head than what I had originally ordered.
I had ordered the 322RC2 head and they gave me the 3265 head.
I do like the joystick grip on the 3265 vs the trigger grip on the 322RC2.
My main concern when researching tripods was the weight that they would handle.
With my 20D, Bigma, Battery Grip, 2 batteries, Sigma Super DG500 plus batteries, I’m well over 7 lbs. The 3265 is rated for 5.6 lbs. It’s going back. I’m not happy.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

To get out and meet local photographers and people who share the same interest as I do. To join the Fine Arts Camera Club. To put more effort into my photography. For the past 1 1/2 years I have been working my buns off learning more and more about photography and my cameras. I’ve done a few paying jobs in the last few months, but still feel the need to learn and improve. I want to step it up a notch. To find more local photographers who are interesting in going out on shoots to various places around the Tri-State area. While I do enjoy, at times, going out alone and just enjoying the scenery and nature, it sucks to always go alone.