Braxton is TWO and Brady is three months!

There are few families that have documented the growth of their children as well at the Romeyns.  I'm always happy to get that quarterly text message from Lexi that she needs new photos of her little ones.  Braxton turned two years old in October and Brady just hit her three month milestone.  We had a great time a couple of weeks ago enjoying/destroying all of Krister's piles of raked leaves.  All in the name of good photos, right?

Keri tells me only at this age is it a compliment to call Brady a cute little chunker.  I'll keep that in mind.  :)

Double-Header + 2 Portrait Session Weekend Teaser!

My friends generally know that I often have busy weekends.  However, this weekend was my first wedding double-header in a while- one Friday and one Saturday.  On top of that I had a maternity/family session on Sunday and a 3-month baby session on Monday.  Needless to say I was a bit nervous about it all week.  My main fear, oddly enough, was that I throw my back out at the Friday wedding and was unable to shoot the Saturday wedding.  That obviously didn't happen, but I did find out for sure that I have begun getting tennis elbow from lifting about 15 pounds of camera, batteries, battery grip, flash, and wireless flash trigger over 1,000 times each day with poor form by my right arm.  Both nights I actually had to ice my elbow!  I'm getting old!

Both weddings went great.  If you were outside at all this weekend you know the weather was some of the best Atlanta has to offer.  Blue skies, warm days, cool evenings- just about everything you could ask for in a wedding- both of which were outdoors!  I'll give more dedicated posts on both weddings once I get through editing the photos, but I will say I had a ton of fun all weekend.  Rachel and Andy had such a fun group of guests and bridal party at Park Tavern that I ended up spending most of my time on the dance floor!

Here are a few photos from Rachel and Andy's wedding:

Lindsey and Mario had a beautiful wedding at Donaldson Bannister Farm in Dunwoody- actually the very first one that the venue has seen!  I initially thought they "just" planned the wedding (note: the word "just" is in quotations), but after the ceremony Mario told me the ceremony site- a beautiful grassy garden area on the property- was a swimming pool just about a month ago!  He laid all of the sod and did the landscaping himself!  Here are a few from their wedding:

Now here are a couple from the Sullivan family shoot followed by two from my sister's 3-month old- Hudson.  I know I know- I'm an incredibly efficient blogger!  I say that jokingly- more on these 4 events to come!

The Romeyn Family

This may be the first time I was reprimanded by someone for not doing a blog post.  Last weekend I was hanging out with the Romeyn family at BBQ that Keri and I hosted.  Lexi Romeyn turned to me and said to me "ya know, I was kind of offended that we never got a blog post for our last portrait shoot."  I apparently forgot to put these photos up!  Sorry about that Lexi!  Now that Lexi is just a few months away from delivering their second child, so she has bigger fish to fry than me.  Nevertheless, here is the Romeyn family from April in Norcross!

...and now for my favorite.  Braxton in a "wife beater" shirt.

Holiday and Greeting Cards

Just a fun little reminder that when you have a portrait session with Alex the Photo Guy, you get a nifty online gallery of your photos to share with family and friends.  Along with that gallery you get access to all kinds of exciting gifts, prints, canvas prints, and cards.  The cards are super easy to make online with hundreds of customizable templates.  Here are a few from recent portrait sessions. 

Click on the cards for a larger view.

Happy Holidays from Alex the Photo Guy!

Isabella McKinney | Norcross Photographer

Had a busy couple of lunch breaks last week full of newborn photos.  Here are a few shots from Monday's shoot of Isabella McKinney.  She's just a few weeks old and already has more facial expressions than a teenager.

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.

The McCombe Family | Atlanta Portrait Photographer

Lauren and I have known each other since 6th grade orchestra class.   I was always second chair to her, though I never minded.  I just loved hearing her play... plus it took all the pressure off of me to lead the basses.  :)  I always knew her as Lauren Cauthorn and I actually had to check facebook before writing this post to find out her married name.   Granted she has been married to a charming British bloke man for a few years now, I just don't pay attention to silly details like "names." This set of photos, much like the Giles family post earlier took place at Thrasher Park.  I knew it would be a good spot for them because Cameron loves trains and they run past the park about every 30 minutes.

The Giles Family | Atlanta Portrait Photographer

I can say the Giles family is one of my favorite repeat customers thus far.  Granted, most of my shoots are weddings and it would be terrible to say I have favorite repeat customers there... though I really toyed with the idea of a company motto that read, "If you aren't happy with your photos, you're next wedding is free!"  Most people probably wouldn't get the humor as a lot can be lost in translation on the interwebs. These photos were taken at Thrasher Park in downtown Norcross.  It was a great spot... actually a little too great as the place was PACKED with familes and kids running around everywhere.  In fact, I think there were 3 other professional photographers there doing the same thing I was. 

And finally, the "why is this guy following me around???" look.

Pete & Chloe (and a little of Charlene)

Not surprisingly this is way overdue.   I had such grand plans of updating my blog with all of my 2009-thus-far photos in one week, but with my laziness I've treated each entry as if I just shot them.  After this post, I think I just have one more "post-post" blog entry, then I can move on to shooting more and trying to keep up. Here are Pete and Chloe.   Beautiful children of my friend Charlene.   We did this shoot just outside of downtown Norcross, GA in the midday sun.  My biggest rookie mistake- don't shoot in direct harsh sunlight unless you have to!  I did my best to counterbalance the shots in the sun with fill flash, but all in all I should have taken a lot more pix in the shade as they were the ones that came out best.  This was one of those shoots that when I left, I thought "holy crap, I made a bunch of rookie mistakes and may have a very unhappy client."   But as it turned out, she's ordered more prints than any of my wedding clients.  :)

Pete, Charlene, Chloe:

As tough as it is having your picture taken anytime in your teen years, Charlene told me Pete even thought he looked like Tom Brady in this pic.  I have to agree with him!

Chloe was quite the ham...