Alex the Photo Blog

Did I mention who took the photo?  :)

Out of the 2,800 photos submitted from around the globe for the 3rd Annual Digital Photography Magazine: Perfect Portrait contest, the judges have narrowed it down to their favorite 100 photos.  I also feel pretty honored that out of the 100 finalists, my submission is only one of two apparent wedding photos.  The voting is open and you can log in through Facebook!  Go ahead and vote to your heart’s content- not just for me but for the beautiful Melissa McIver and her handsome husband Ryan!  Click on the photos below for the page to vote or click here to see the rest of the gallery… not that you need to.    To be honest, prizes sound nice, but it would be incredibly more flattering to see one this photo printed in an internationally circulated magazine.  Thanks to everyone for your support!

Last weekend was one of the busiest I’ve had in a while.  I had two engagement shoots, a wedding, a bride consultation, a Match.com profile photo session, and after it all had to wake up at 5am Monday for corporate portraits at the Ravinia Crowne Plaza at Perimeter.  Though I plan on taking this weekend off to relax at the lake, I’ll still probably squeeze in some photo editing since I now have a LOT to do!  Here are a few teasers from the weekend, starting with Friday’s engagement session with Lou Davis and Erin Winters.  I was told they would not pose for any photos at all- unless they were funny.  Here is pretty much the only posed photo I got out of the session and I think it ranks up there with possibly my favorite engagement photo.  On Lou’s facebook page, it already has roughly 80 likes.  :)

Next up chronologically was the wedding of Jessica Gay and Jeff Manning at Whittier Mill Park in Smyrna followed by a beautiful reception at the Granite Room in Castleberry Hill.

Sunday morning I had a bride meeting with Sallie Watkins who is getting married in a month in Asheville, NC (!).  This was immediately followed by a Match.com photo session for my good friend David Oliver.  We had hatched all these crazy plans of ridiculous photos, but only ended with enough time for a few setups, though we hope to have more soon.  Essentially his plan was for a few serious photos accompanied by a number of off-the-wall ones in order to attract women with a good sense of humor.  Here are a couple:

Immediately following the Match.com photo session were engagement for Adam Bryan and Rebecca Flowers who are getting married in a month a half in Roswell, GA!

And as I had mentioned, I had to get up at 5am after these shoots to do some corporate head shots for the company I work with part-time… the following isn’t one of these shots, but you get general the idea.  :)

This is to build on the teaser I put up a couple of weeks ago found here from the Barnhart/Lord wedding in Athens, GA.  The ceremony was great and the reception was jam-packed full of  fun, food, and dancing.  As much as I love DJs and recorded dance music, it’s hard to beat a good wedding band.  The the Bride and groom were happy as can be and were not fearful of bustin’ a move on the dance floor!  As usual, I’ll let the photos do most of the talking.  Brides don’t typically hire me fore my literary skills.  :)

The bride’s daughter was able to watch the “first look” from a window nearby.

One of my favorite things about this church was that the kids were able to ring the bell after the ceremony.  How cool is that!?

This happened to be a photo taken by accident when my on-camera flash was switched off… and I liked it.  :)

With the late night show Friday night keeping me out until roughly 5am, I was much less ambitious with photos on my second day at JazzFest.  Not to mention there were easily 30% more people on Saturday vs. Friday meaning that if I wanted to push my way up to the front of some of the more popular stages (CeeLo, Tom Petty), it would mean telling Keri and my friends goodbye for the next few hours.  I decided to spend most of my time sticking around my friends and snapping photos of some of the people of JazzFest.  It’s funny that one of the common themes I found throughout the day was lots of love in the air.  Coupled with the engagement I saw on Friday, there were lots of lovey-dovey people all over!  It was all really sweet to me.  While I came for the music and the food, others came for love- maybe just bringing couples closer together.  I decided to feature some of of here in addition to the shows I caught.

Though these next two in these photos aren’t together, Alex and Allie just got married in October and are a very awesome couple… especially since they bought matching RayBans at the ‘fest.  :)

Now for other photos.  Here is Feist on the Gentilly Stage:

Carolina Chocolate Drops:

New Orleans Bingo Show on The Gentilly Stage: