Making a Racket!

We just finished up a great year of tennis and I am really proud of the team I coached this year. My number one player came in second in the conference and won a match in the Regionals held in Greenville, NC. I always enjoy taking the team photo every year. I bought each of the girls an 8 x 10 of the team photo. Funny story, as I was passing the pictures out to the girls at school. One of the girls showed her pictures to one of the volleyball players. They were really jealous and wanted me to shoot their pictures. They asked if it was shot on a green screen. That's quite a compliment.

Finalist-Outdoor Photography Magazine

I was really excited to find out that two of my pictures are finalists in the Sony contest of Outdoor Photography Magazine. They are called Spinning About and A Little Tipsy. There is a $3600 first place prize and publication of the photos in the magazine. If you happen to be reading this you are welcome to look at all the finalist shots and vote for the pictures if the notion strikes you.

SPINNING ABOUT

A LITTLE TIPSY

Smooth

I have been using a new editing program on portraits this past week. It is incredibly fun to use and I have really enjoyed finding out how it ticks. Here are just a few examples.

October portrait dates are filling up so, be sure and book yours before all the colorful leaves disappear.

Is that really me?

It feels like my birthday when I get to order new software for the photography business. I ordered Portrait Professional Studio 9 today! It is really amazing software that not only smooths out blemishes, it can actually warp any aspect of the face while controlling color, shadow and texture. I was skeptical at first, but after testing out the free download, I was sold on the product. I will show some examples in my next post.

Published in Cruzine Magazine

I found out this week that my photo of three wine glasses erupting in color(A Little Tipsy) is being published in Cruzine Magazine as part of an abstract photo article.

Cruzine Magazine Link

My photo is a little more than half way down in the set of about 25 photos.

A New Addition to the Lens Stable

So much for updating this place in a week! It turned into a whole month! Sorry about that!

Anyway, I have recently acquired a Lensbaby and have been practicing with it the last couple of weeks. For those of you who have no idea what a Lensbaby is, I will explain how it works. It is a sort of an inexpensive Tilt Shift lens that allows you to bend the lens to various focal points. (Some parts will be in focus and the surroundings will be soft and blurry.) You have to manually focus it, which takes some practice. You can see stars in the background in some of the photos, because of the accessories that come with the lens. You place a disc with a shape on it, in front of the lens and it makes the bokeh turn to that shape. It is a fun lens that adds another creative element to your photography. I can also do macro photography with the lens as well.

Busy Busy Busy

Getting ready for a wedding this weekend in Foxfire, NC. I am going through my ritual of cleaning all the lenses, charging the batteries, getting table cards ready and making sure I don't forget anything. I always over pack!

We are heading to Sea World in Orlando for a week! So I hate to let down the faithful readers of this blog, but I won't be updating it for a week.

That is a picture of me shooting a wedding this summer in Corolla, NC. Enjoy it! You won't see very many pictures of me on this blog!