Alex the Photo Blog

I was talking to Keri the other day about a photo contest I submitted to recently.  It wasn’t so much about the contest, but about looking through my catalog from 2012 for photos to submit.  I realized that the downside to a good business year can sometimes mean the lack of personal projects.  I ended up finding something to submit, but it was a slap in the face to realize I had done very little shooting for myself this year.  This is why I was ecstatic when I spoke to Marc Del Santro about photographing the recent meteor shower.  It was about as last minute as can be when at 2pm he said “I’m heading to South Carolina in about 9 hours to shoot from midnight until dawn.”  To which I replied “yes, Marc- I will invite myself along.”   It was exactly that- finish up a shoot at 6pm, go to band practice until 10pm, then head to SC for shooting until dawn.  Marc also brought along the incredible Nadia D.  I can’t tell you how much fun I had- not only for the photography and friendship, but for the fact that it was photography for myself.  Plus the meteor shower was pretty insane.

Light painting and general goofery provided by Marc Del Santro and Nadia D.

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.

Of course my typical portrait session is 1 to 2 hours and I enjoy every moment of photo taking.   However, this one was cut to just 15 minutes due to technical difficulties… as in my camera died 15 minutes into the shoot.  “ERROR99″ is never a message you want to see on your pride and joy (I have no kids, so my camera holds the title of “pride and joy.”  However if any of my kids ever get a tattoo that says “ERROR99″ I’ll have bigger problems).

This is why I endorse (but get no endorsement commissions) SquareTrade.  They offer warranties for all types of electronics, including many used ones at 25% of the price other retailers offer.  I never thought I’d have to use a warranty, but now I’m really glad I got it.  SquareTrade says they’ll have it for me in 5 business day.

But like I said, with beautiful subjects, you really only need a few minutes.  Here is the Giles Family.  Stephen, Kathy, Norah, and Caroline.  Enjoy!

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The next day Curt and I went to Mt. Rainier and hiked and camped there.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  The mountain was amazing (and intimidating), the flowers were blooming all over the place, and the views were incredible.  I can’t say we even made it halfway up, though we got close.   We had views of a glacier and waterfall and came up on the most amazing bathroom I’ve ever seen.  Aside from a delta flight, I can’t say I’ve been to a toilet at such a high altitude.   We camped at “Cougar Rock” campgrounds.  The name was incredibly misleading as Curt and I found no older single women looking to prey upon younger men.  Maybe it just wasn’t hunting season.

These first few pictures were from a “rustic garden” on the way to the park.  It was too ridiculous not to stop and take pictures.  I’ll stop and let the pictures do the rest of the talking…  fun trip.  Highly recommend it to anyone looking for some beautiful scenery and good camping.

Sneaky Maytag....

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Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to head to Seattle and Portland for work.  Since it was essentially a free flight for me, I decided to take advantage and bring Curt along for the ride.  Neither of us have really spent any time up there, but we heard the hiking and camping was awesome.  Absolutely the truth.

This first post is photos are from camping on the west coast at Rialto beach (near the town of Forks, WA where they filmed Twilight).  We drove from Seattle to the coast and it was sunny and 75 degrees the entire time…. until the last quarter mile.  The scenery literally changes in a second to fog, mist, and 65 degrees.  The beach was like no other place I’ve been.  It felt like we were hiking the Scottish coast.  Fog, rocks, driftwood, rock formations… it was pretty amazing.  Very different than Florida’s white sands and abundant amounts of retirees.  We camped just off the beach that night, built a fire, cooked some hot dogs, then hiked back the next morning.

My goal was to get these photos up before I left for Chicago tomorrow.  I got through editing about 60% of them and realized it was midnight.  Luckily, the ones I hadn’t edited were the Mt Rainier daytime shots (to be in the next post), so they really didn’t need any editing.  They were great straight out of the camera- even shooting RAW!

Check out the new “lightbox” feature here on the blog.  Click on a photo and you can look through the entire post’s photos in a lightbox format.

Crescent Lake

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