Sadie, our fashionista

We're participating in "The Bridal Market." a bridal show in Birmingham this week hosted by The Perfect Wedding Guide and The Wynfrey Hotel, and wanted to have a couple of beautiful girls in our booth.  So, we naturally thought of Sadie and Hallie, our two granddaughters.  They will be wearing flower girl dresses from our studio's next door neighbor, Bella Couture, one of Birmingham's premier bridal shops.

Sadie came out today to try on the dress she will wear.  Naturally I, grandpa, had to make a few photos.  Some were just elegant, but most were just fun. 

Casey and John

We're gonna get to photograph Casey and John's wedding in a few weeks and we're pretty excited about it.  They came to the studio the other day and these are a few of the great images we got of them.  Can't wait for the wedding!

Green Wedding

A few months ago we were fortunate to photography Michelle and David's wedding (see the blog post: Michelle and David got married.)   Their wedding was at Ozan Vineyard & Cellars, one of Birmingham's local wineries.  Carol Bennett of Wedology Green Wedding and Events, was their wedding planner and coordinated a beautiful, "green" wedding for them.  Below is a two-page photo spread that Portico, one of our premier magazines in Birmingham, used in an article.  We're always happy and proud when our photos are so appreciated.

Thanks Michelle and David, Carol and Portico for letting us work with you.

Read the online article in Portico.

Snow Day

I was born and spent most of my growing up years in south Alabama along the gulf coast.  Then my family moved to Atlanta during my teenage and early adult years.  Needless to say, snow is not something I grew up with.  However, in my adult life I've lived in Texas, New Jersey and Germany.  So I've seen my share of it in my life.

But, we've been back in Alabama for about five years and snow has been a rare experience for me.  They tell me that we receive a pretty good snow last year, but I was in Belize on a mission trip when that happened.

It snowed today.  Not much by the world's standard, but a near blizzard by Alabama measurements.  We closed the studio and went out and made a few photos.

Click here to see the gallery

 

 

Anna and Cole

I don't know if we're just lucky or living right, but we get some of the cutest kids at our studio. Ann and Cole are no exceptions either.

A Date With Sadie

OK, I admit it.  I had a date with a younger woman today.  It's not the first time either.  For the past six years I've had a real love affair with two girls, Sadie and Hallie.  For the past couple of years, Charlie has also been in the mix.  And it's great being their grandpa.

Today we took Sadie to the Galleria for lunch and just to hang out.  Of course, I took a camera.  She's such a model.

See all the photos click here    (All photos shot with Canon G11)

 

Brooke and Dewayne: Their wedding story.

We photographed Brooke and Dewayne's wedding the other day.  The wedding and the bride were both beautiful.  Dewayne was great also, as was the entire family.  This little slide show tells the whole story.  We hope you enjoy it.

How long have you been a photographer?

That's the question lots of people ask me.  My answers range from, "forever," to "over forty years,"

to "depends on what you mean."  I usually tell people that Joy, my lovely wife, bought me my first 35 mm SLR for our first wedding anniversary in 1971 and it's been a love affair with the camera since then.  It became an obsessive hobby and I began photographing weddings and portraits for money in the mid 1970s to help support my hobby.  As you know, photography can get expensive.

But, the story really goes back even farther than that.  I don't really remember the first time I got to use the family camera, but I do remember what camera it was -- a Brownie Hawkeye, built in the early '60s.  My mom liked to take family photos of my dad and family of four boys and this was the camera that she used to make many of those photos.  Lately I've been on a project to scan all of our old family images and store them digitally.  I love the way we were usually posed in front of the family car.  My dad worked for the Studebaker and one is often prominent in our family photos. 

Another common theme is the Christmas morning photo of our living room showing us marveling at all the good things that Santa had left the night before.  It's usually a photo of me and my brothers standing around in our under pants.  I guess we never wore pajamas.

All this to say, the Brownie Hawkeye had a great influence on the path I would eventually take.  Below is a photo I made of my maternal grandparents on Dauphin Island in the mid 1960s with that camera.  Then there are the close ups showing the camera today.  When I was a cub scout, my mom finally gave me that camera.  You can see where she wrote my name and troop number on it with India Ink.  We didn't have Sharpies in those days.  You can see by the electrical tape repair that I made many years ago that the camera was well used.

I still have it.  It sits on a shelf in our studio.  I'm not even sure if you can buy film for it any more, but it still means a lot to me.

 

Don't blink or you'll miss my photos in this video.

A little while back I went along with Rick Sutton's video crew as the still photographer on a project for the International Retinal Research Foundation.  It was a lot of fun, got to dress up in scrubs and all.

Rick sent me this link this morning.  Granted, only a few of my stills are included and just for the last couple of seconds.  But, it's still some of our work.

My First Billboard

It may not seem like a big thing to a lot to of people, but it thrills most photographers to see how people use our work.  If you drive south on I-65, just north of I-459 you will see the billboard for Valleydale Dental.  That's one of our headshots of Dr. Gonzalez up there. He and his family have been customers of ours for the past few years.  If you're looking for dentist, he's your guy.

This should also settle the question I often get about just how big can you enlarge a digital image.