Bobby Cox's last regular season game

Though this is definitely way late, I still figure I'd post about it.   Each year, Dad goes in on season tickets with a big group of friends.  I'll usually have a chance to make it to one or two of the games and of course I'm always asked to bring my camera and "the big lens."   These types of pictures are always a challenging balance between taking pictures and actually enjoying the game with whomever is there.  I never really get up and walk around because I don't want to be rude, but at the same time pictures are often blah sitting in the same spot. Overall I had a great time at the game and, as my brother predicted it, Dad definitely got a little teary eyed at Bobby's last goodbye.  I guess in retrospect, I should have too seeing as every Braves game I've ever attended had Bobby as coach.

Here's dad signing the thank-you card from the season ticket holders.

Apparently they haze rookies by making them wear kids backpacks for their first season.

And of course, Bobby Cox:

New Alex The Photo Guy site is LIVE!

I've owned the domain since college.  Three years ago I re-upped it's registration and I contracted my good friend Greg Vilines at Webnormous to begin work on the site.   Then a combination of producing an album, playing in a band, get married, and having his house burn down slowed Greg's progress on the site a bit.  A combination of helping with the album, buying a house, running a photo business, general laziness, and getting engaged slowed me down too.  I know my excuses aren't as valid as a house fire, but regardless of the timing, it is finally LIVE! Greg built the whole thing from scratch and he did a damn good job on it.  I know I was a difficult client at times but in the end we got it all worked out.  There will be a few tweaks made in the coming months, but since it's 99% done, we figured why not launch it?  This will be a soft opening for my six blog readers and facebook friends until I get it 100% finished.

Keep in mind the new site isn't going to be a replacement for the blog- just think of it as a "best of Alex the Photo Guy."  I'll still keep you up to date with my crazy photo antics here on the blog, so don't stop reading!

Let me know what you think!  Many thanks again to Greg who did all the hard work.  All I did was take a few photos.  If you need a website, let me know and I'll get you in contact with Webnormous.

Masters 2009

Yes, sadly it says "2009" above.  I made the dumb mistake of passing up 2010 Masters practice round tickets because I couldn't find anyone to drive out there with.  In retrospect, I should have made the drive by myself and met up with my parents who were livin' it up in the IBM cottage with free food and drinks...  I know.  Dumb. However, I do have some photos to show you.  Because I didn't have the blog up and running this time last year, I figure I can share some of the photos I took from the 2009 Masters' practice round.  As you may know, the practice rounds are the only days where they let anyone in with a camera (but still no cell phones).  There's no real competition that happens other than a few side bets I'm sure, but all the players have a good time hanging out with each other and generally interact more with the crowd.

I guess the Masters crew is also a little more relaxed during the practice rounds as well... and as always- click on the pictures to expand them.

As part of the "crowd interaction" players often attempy to skip the ball across the water on #16.

"Do we really need to keep score during practice rounds?" 

I couldn't tell if the make on this lawnmower said Gillette or Norelco:

Studio Shoot with Lou

Two weekends ago I had the pleasure of shooting a good friend in a makeshift studio in his living room.  Though Lou and I work together at Wells Real Estate Funds, we both have outside endeavors and passions that just happen to involve blogs.  My blog of course is all about photography and his is an inspirational site based on self betterment.  As he puts it, the Lou Davis blog is about "becoming the best version of himself" through various life challenges and goals. Lou was looking for some new photos for his blog and I was recently inspired by Zack Arais' blog about white seamless backgrounds, so I figured I should give it a try to push myself beyod my usual "available light" photography bounds.   Lou and I met for brunch at Ria's Bluebird Cafe and from there went to PPR to pick up the background.  I usually do my local Atlanta shopping at Showcase, but for some reason PPR was $25 cheaper for the exact same background.  From there we went to Lowe's to pick up a sheet of tileboard and (very poorly) secured it to the roof of my car.  Luckily we were only headed half a mile.

Lou was a good sport as I spent so much time screwing around with settings that I neglected to give him good direction.  Luckily he was a natural model, even if he needed a little direction from the peanut gallery (a few friends drinking and playing poker in the kitchen).

Here's a shot of the setup in Lou's living room.  White seamless on my background stand with one softbox on the right loaded with my Canon 580EX.  Also had a Vivitar 285 flash on a chair aimed at the background (though it's hidden by blue cardboard as to not spill light onto Lou).  Ideally I would have had 2 flashes aimed at the background, but the Canon 420 EX I borrowed from a friend unfortunately didn't have any manual settings, so it was of no use firing only at full power.

Here are some of the final photos, starting with my favorite:

Hi- I'm a Mac:

...And I'm a PC:

Corvette Museum

Nothing ground breaking here, just wanted to post some of my favorite photos from 4th of July weekend in Bowling Green KY.  It's late, I know, but I want the world (or my 3 friends) to see them.  :) These are from the world famous Corvette Museum.  AKA: The only thing in Bowling Green, KY.

Scott Kelby Sports Contest

Scott Kelby has a pretty fun photo contest up on his blog.  Basically, enter your best sports photo and if you're chosen, he'll fly you to an FSU football game, rent you nice lens, get you a media pass, and have you shoot side by side with professional sports photographer, Mike Olivella. Sounds like fun to me.  Here's my entry.  I shot it back in college when I worked for The Vanderbilt Hustler (student paper).  Didn't have the money for digital, so I shot it on Fuji Neopan 1600 ISO film.  Worked well, even with the grain.  Click the photo to see it on flickr, then you can click here to see the rest of the entries.