Lou and Erin Not Posing

If you are an avid reader of Alex the Photo Blog (and I know you are!), then you know Lou!  Well, back in 2010, Lou let me test out my latest lighting setup for a studio shoot for his newly launched website.  We came away with a bunch of fun photos, one of which ended up making it's rounds at the office and on his Match.com profile.  Little known to the two of us how much one little photo can impact the rest of your life.  His lovely fiance, Erin, was searching around on the site in late 2010 and clicked on it simply because she thought it was so unique, sending him a little message that would change his life.  Now they are engaged to be married in September (and you-know-who is the photographer!).  I am so excited for the both of them, and also so glad I could be a part of how they met.  :)  Since then, I've actually been hired for a few online dating photo sessions and have fun doing them.  Who knows what a new photo could do for you...  here's the one of Lou that made all the difference:

For their engagements they hired me to come hang out with them for a day.  They said they would not pose for any photos (unless they were funny).  Of course everyone needs a little guidance on how and where to do what, but these two were just naturally comfortable in front of the camera making my job much easier.  I'll start off with the one that got such great buzz on Facebook with almost 100 "likes."

Then our loose-take on Annie Lebovitz' John and Yoko Rolling Stone photo (no, Lou didn't want to get naked).

Lesson Learned

Though these probably aren't photos to put on a postcard because they were taken at the worst part of the day for lighting, I thought I'd try my hand at some neat "waves crashing on the rocks" photos while hiking around Half Moon Bay in California.  Check out these sequence frames from a sunny afternoon and the lesson I learned.

... and then I got wet.  So naturally, I moved farther back:

... and then I got wet again.

So my lovely wife suggested:  "maybe you should come up here and take photos."

So I did.

The lesson learned is that you can take awesome photos close to the action and get a little wet (this is why you spend the the money on weather resistant cameras and lenses), or you can take pictures of flowers.  Both are fine, but I'm glad I got wet.  :)

Baby Karla

In California this week for a wedding and Keri and I are spending a few days with my cousin, her hubby, and their 18 month-old daughter, Karla.  Karla is one of the most chill kids I think I've ever hung out with.  She's so sweet and happy all the time and is such a pleasure to be around- even though it took her a while to warm up to me (most kids do).  Here are a few shots we got in the backyard in San Mateo playing with bubbles.  When I say playing with bubbles, I mean that Karla asked to play with them, but as soon as we started blowing them, she had almost no interest and instead found joy in climbing into and off of adirondack chairs repeatedly.  :)

Exit Through the Gift Shop

My 22-year-old cousin came into town earlier this week.  He called me on Tuesday and said he was driving into town the next day to audition for an acting agency and if he could crash at our place for a night.  I told him I wouldn't be home until 10 or so, but that he was more than welcome.  When he arrived we caught up for a few minutes and got on the topic of street art and the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.  Will told me that in his spare time away from student government, tearing up dance floors, and beginning his senior year of college, he has started getting into "street art."  On a whim (and with permission from my awesome wife), we set out around midnight on bikes to the old Atlanta Waterworks near Mason Mill Park so I could show him some of the really awesome art there.  Plus, he may or may not have brought some paint: my only rule was they he didn't cover up someone else's art.  :)

This was also a good chance for me to test out my new (used) Canon 5d Mark II and it's ISO expansion capabilities.  In retrospect, it was a terrible test idea because a lot of the shots were taken in pitch black... so the Mkii could only do so much.  Here's what I got:

Jessica and Jeff Engagements

This shoot may have been put off a little long, but between bad weather and busy schedules, I was excited to finally photograph Jessica and Jeff for their engagement session... a week before their wedding.  :)

Their wedding was an incredibly fun time and I plan to have those photos up here in a couple of weeks, but for now check out their engagement photos from Mason Mill Park!

Ryan and Melissa's Photo Chosen as DP Magazine Finalist!

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 Teaser

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.  :)

Barnhart/Lord Wedding

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.  :)

Jazzfest, Day 2

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:

Greetings from New Orleans!

Though I still have plenty of photos from London to share, I decided my blog time would be better spent live blogging.  Wednesday, Keri and I traveled for 17 hours on planes, trains, and automobiles to get from London to Atlanta.  We did laundry, slept, re-packed, and left the next morning for JazzFest in New Orleans!  I love vacations like these, but I will say the lack of sleep is finally catching up with me.  I noticed it at about 2am last night at the Anders Osborne late night show at the Republic.

I've posted about JazzFest before, here and here.  This year was no different.  Keri and I joined some awesome friends down here at hit the stages yesterday with plans to hit them again today in about an hour.  I have figured out a pretty good system in order to get good pics while also spending time with the group.  I'll pick the shows I want to see and when the band hits their first few notes I'll walk straight up to the stage with my Canon 5d and 70-200mm lens, stay for 2 songs, then get out of there before security gets annoyed with all of the photographers crowding the stage.  The trick is to walk with the lens in the air looking like I belong there making no eye contact with anyone- just focus on the spot at the stage you're aiming for.  The lens in the air serves two purposes- one is to show the bouncers that you have the right equipment and the other is to somewhat block their view of my face and the fact that I have no credentials.  The best one yesterday was going to see Bon Iver- the closing show for the day at one of the main stages.  It was pretty slammed,  but I was able to sneak past security using these tactics so easily that I almost blew my cover by stopping short before the stage.  Instead, I had to go full throttle and get right up to the stage in one quick move, otherwise my cover would be blown.  I snapped enough photos for 2 songs or so and go out of there before I was kicked out.  I knew I didn't want to make myself known in case I wanted to get up there today.   It all worked like a charm!

Bon Iver:

Slavic Soul Party:

Eric Lindell:

Chuck Leavell:

... and randomly saw a girl get engaged and run to tell her friends, so I naturally snapped a few shots and congratulated her.  It was really sweet and I hope she emails me so I can send these to her!

Greetings from London!

Keri and I touched town at Gatwick airport at 7am Wednesday morning (2am EDT).  We haven't gotten too much done due to jetlag and a sinus infection/cold, but we have walked around a good bit.  Our good friends Trevor and Sophie have been nice enough to let us crash with them in their flat.  Below a shot of their living room/kitchen/dining room/office/laundry room.  It looks like one of the "living in 412 square feet" displays at Ikea.  They also have a bedroom off to the side and a bathroom just out of frame.  You can see all of the bedding and suitcases piled up from Keri and I.  Today we plan to see the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, and Big Ben.  Hopefully the rain will hold off so I can keep my camera outside of my rain jacket.  More to come hopefully!  

A chance sighting of Kylie Minogue apparently filming a new music video.  We just saw pedestrian traffic stopped and had no idea what was going on.  Moments later, a short pop star ran by with film crews chasing her.

Barnhart/Lord Wedding Teaser

There is plenty more to come from the Barnhart/Lord wedding I shot 2 weeks ago in Athens, GA.  I just thought I'd post a couple of them from this great Athens wedding!  So fun in fact that they had an 8-year-old break dancing.  No joke!  

Contest Winner! Guess the Lucky Girl!

We have had a great response from the people guessing about who caught the bouquet at last weekend's wedding.  Some of you may be surprised at the results.  Here's a reminder of the scene:  

And here are the results, shot by shot!

There was a bit of a twist in that I think the bouquet clipped a chandelier.  No matter, because you can still see the girls diving for it!  The victor was the Sister of the Bride (Girl #5)!  Congrats to Sarah Barnhart for catching the ever elusive bouquet and congrats to Molly Perry for being the winner of the drawing out of all the correct guesses!  Thanks to everyone for playing.  I hope to have more fun contests on the blog!  If you haven't done so already, please stop by the Facebook page to like Alex the Photo Guy so you can keep up to date on contests in your news feed!

Contest! Guess the lucky girl!

I've never had a contest on the blog before and I've always thought this would be a fun one to do.  Of all the photos I take at weddings, one my of my favorites is always the half second before the bridal bouquet is caught.  Seeing the facial expressions of all the girls on the dance floor ready to dive at those tossed flowers always makes me smile.  I would say the same about the garter toss, but we all know most of those end up with a guy saying "um, here- you take it!"   The following photo is from the Barnhart/Lord wedding I shot last weekend in Athens.  You have to guess which girl caught the bouquet based on the following choices:

#1:  Girl in orange looking suspiciously calm #2:  Bridesmaid with tasty beverage in hand looking for the left hand snag #3:  Lavender dress girl potentially screaming in flower girl's ear #4:  Flower girl (always a sleeper in these contests) #5:  Sister of the bride readying herself to dive based on the left hand skirt pull #6:  Little girl in blue with two hand grab possibility #7:  Other little girl that looks like she may have a good vertical #8:  Blue dress girl with the two handed long reach

The rules are simple.  Everyone make a guess in the comments below or on the Alex the Photo Guy Facebook page (I'll count both locations, but only one vote).  For those that get it right, I will draw a name and email you a $5 Starbucks Giftcard!  Yes- a real prize that will at least buy you a cup of coffee!  Contest ends Friday.  Good luck!

Happy Friday!

Just thought I'd post something from my outdoor office.  I've been able to successfully cut back my hours at my day job in real estate and it is helping a ton with the photo business.  There are days like today though where I feel I'm just spending all day catching up on stuff from last week.  I guess it's part of the business.  The good part is that I can take my new laptop just about anywhere, including the back porch.  I'm all caught up on emails and most of my editing.  I've got a wedding this weekend in Athens, GA that I'm really excited about.  Wedding season, here I come!  I hope everyone out there has fun plans for the weekend!

Company of Thieves & GIAC @ Vinyl Atlanta

Something that may not be a surprise to you is that I love music.  I've been playing in a band for a few years with good friends and I love seeing live shows whenever I can.  When I attend shows around town, I always try [when I remember ahead of time] to work a trade deal with one of the bands playing:  put me on the list, and I'll shoot and I'll give you photos for your website.  Though it's a bit more work for me than it is for them, I love taking photos and seeing shows for free.  :)  Most of all, I know that I'm supporting musicans at a time where it is increasingly hard to live on the income.  I can speak to it first hand that trying to make money on your music is nearly impossible- between producing an album and EP, instrument repair and replacement, and gas money our band is well in the hole... but we love it and we still do it.  Knowing that I can mix my photography passion with my music passion gives me all kinds of warm and fuzzies on the inside.  Here are photos from a recent shoot with Company of Thieves and Girl in a Coma at Vinyl Atlanta.  The lighting was pretty tough in here, so I ended up mostly with singer photos.  The next show I shoot at Vinyl, I plan to try and work out some lighting... or invest in a camera with better ISO performance.

Headshots and Happy Hour!

I was approached a couple of months ago to participate in a new Vanderbilt alumni networking event called Headshots and Happy Hour.  The premise is simple.   Send out notice to the alumni association about a networking event where you can come hang out, have a few beers, and mingle.  The neat part is that for a small fee, people can have a professional photographer (me!) snap a couple of pix of them before they get too many beers deep.  That way they can update their Linkedin or Facebook profiles without the crappiness of mall photo studios or paying a few hundred bucks for a full session fee.  All in all I really enjoyed.  I got to meet a lot of new people, give out business cards and tell them about Alex the Photo Guy and take a few pix along the way!  Here are some of the shots we got with a simple white background and 3 lights.

Boyce/McCollister Wedding: Part 2

Here are some of the other highlights piggybacking on the Part 1 post from Alex and Ryan's wedding!  Can you tell by this photo that Alex is super excited to be married?  

This is a shot the girls wanted.  It's a recreation of the of a photo taken after Micah (top middle) won the Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right on July 4th, 2011.

Boyce/McCollister Wedding: Part 1

In January, I started wedding photography season a bit early with Alex Boyce and Ryan McCollister's nuptuals in Woodstock, GA.  I've known Alex for years as she played softball in middle and high school with my sister.  She is one of the sunniest people I have ever known and it's no wonder that she has found a career working for The Make a Wish Foundation helping children with terminal illnesses live out lifelong dreams.  We were all very excited when we learned that she had found a new boyfriend in town and lo and behold, she was engaged within a few months!  Of course, everyone thought it was so soon, but whenever I spoke to her I knew it was for real- and so did they.  The ceremony at the Woodstock Baptist Church was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun- especially with her group of bridesmaids.  They were all a hoot on the dance floor!  (Yes, I said "hoot")  

My First Two Days + Will 4 Prez

I am on my way!  Last week marked my first step in going full time photography.  I was able to work out a deal with my full time employer to have two days off a week with the intentions of cutting back further (or completely) in the next month or two.  It's a scary and exciting feeling at the same time.  I know I want to do photography, but it's REALLY tough to give up a steady paycheck working with great people.  Right now I feel kinda like I'm ending a serious relationship for a new love, but still calling the old flame... on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I have been basically working two full time jobs for the past couple of years between real estate and photography.  I'd love to say my first two workdays dedicated solely to photography were very proactive, but in reality they were spent catching up on a backlog of items.  My to do list for getting the business in order is still a mile long and I've barely made a dent in it.  Over last Wednesday and Friday I was able to catch up on some editing of an impromtu executive shoot, get my new laptop, and clean the home office to about 40% organized.  The highlight of my Friday was meeting with a bride-to-be and mother for a wedding I'll be shooting in Athens in a few weeks.  Keep a watch out on here for the Barnhart wedding, because Megan is going to be a stunning bride.  On the docket for this week:  meet with my CPA about taxes, change over my personal and business insurance, and blog about my headshot sessions.

Now, because this is a photo blog- where would it be without photos?  I didn't happen to take a single photo of my (still) messy office and my PJs, so I thought I'd include a photo session based around politics given tomorrow is Super Tuesday.  My cousin, Will, attends Southern Wesleyn College in South Carolina.  Growing up he was a quiet, bashful kid that, like me, grew up being more musically inclined than his sports-oriented younger brother.  Since graduating high school and moving off to college, he has come exploding out of his shell.  He actually was one of the highlights of our wedding with his shaggy Mick Jagger haircut and non-stop moves on the dance floor.  He had everyone asking "who is that crazy guy on the dance floor?" and at one point challenged one of Keri's bridesmaids (a professional dancer) to a dance-off... and won!

He let me know a few weeks ago that he is running for Student Government President and needed some pictures of his cabinet.  They drove down to Atlanta donning suits to show they mean business. Will even cut his hair (somewhat) shorter. I was happy to help out because it gave me the opportunity to get out on the windiest day of the year in downtown Atlanta and shoot... seriously- it was comically windy.  Like lean 45 degrees into it windy. I'm glad I packed light, because there's no way I could have used any strobes or umbrellas for this shoot because they'd be in Montana by now rolling with the tumbleweeds. Everyone seemed to have a good time despite the weather and I hope that the marketing materials for their campaign pay off!

(Can you tell I was thinking The Colbert Report for this one?)