Working on a Dream.....

Happy New Year!

2010-01-28T02:11:00.000-05:00

Shame on me, its been a month since I picked up my camera! It is definately time to get with the program again! Here is the first image I took of the New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2010-01-28T02:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T12:52:00.001-04:00

4 years old today!

2009-09-09T09:56:00.008-04:00

Today we are celebrating Anika's 4th Birthday! I cant believe it has been 4 years already, she has given us so much joy and I cant wait to see what her 4th year will bring! Here are her 4 years in pictures.....

A closer look.....

2009-09-07T00:19:00.003-04:00

Its amazing what you can find if you have 10 minutes in peace and quiet outside in the yard and a camera with a really long lens.....

Anika on my new floor

2009-09-06T23:49:00.003-04:00

Had finally purchases some new flooring for portraits! Love the way it looks and especially that I got a huge deal on it! :) Here is one shot taken on it with my little princess....

Anxiously awaiting.....

2009-08-20T16:39:00.005-04:00

Just recently I was able to do a maternity shoot with a great friend of mine. She is on bedrest so we couldnt get all crazy, but I was able to get several great shots. Here are some of my favorites.....

A "new" tradition I started...

2009-07-12T19:21:00.004-04:00

I am taking a pic of my son with the school mascot every summer after his finishes another year(and soon of my daughter as well). Just for comparison I posted his shot from last year too (2nd picture) And of course while I was there I took a few other shots......

Just realized that I never posted any of my last newborn shoot...

2009-07-09T01:41:00.002-04:00

....so I am proudly introducing baby Ethan! Thank you Dana and Joe for letting me come to your home and capture your beautiful family!

playing with my friends lens....

2009-06-07T00:32:00.002-04:00

borrowed my friends sigma 70-300mm for Hunter baseball games to get some action shots (will post some of those soon too) and here are 2 shots I liked from today.

Went to Chattanooga...

2009-05-13T20:24:00.004-04:00

....and took some more pictures of Anika. One would think she is my only child....when school is out I will be using my male model as well ;)

Silly Girl...

2009-05-07T02:01:00.005-04:00

I love my new background stand and seamless paper, but wish I had a bit more room for it! Its a bit challenging to work in such a small area, but I do need to play with it more. Here are 3 of Anika that I liked that day. (click images to see them bigger)

New toys at least!

2009-04-08T18:06:00.003-04:00

I finally bought a background stand and some seamless paper. So far I only got to play with it for about 10 minutes. I did not even set it up all the way, that is why I only have a headshot. I love the color of the seamless paper, its very girly but not too bright. I also bought a sky blue, chestnut brown and thunder grey. I cant wait to use all the other colors!

Baseball Season 2009!

2009-04-08T01:56:00.003-04:00

I love spring, its when the earth comes back to life after a long cold winter, and it is in the spring when the first flowers begin to bloom and the green world begins to return after its winter slumber. It also means the start of a new baseball season! I am hoping to get some great action shots of my sons games this year!

Spring is near!

2009-03-11T10:21:00.002-04:00

With all this new life sprouting in my yard, hopefully my photography will be sprouting as well!

Sweet moments like this that make my heart melt....

2008-12-30T02:45:00.002-05:00

..and there is no doubt that they love and cherish each other! I captured this wonderful moment on our way to Mamaws house on Christmas Day. I wanted to take a picture of the 2 and Hunter said how about you take a picture of me kissing my sister! How could I say no? ;)

Merry Christmas and Fröhliche Weihnachten

2008-12-23T01:20:00.002-05:00

.....from my home to yours! I hope everyone will enjoy their families and friends over the holidays and will have a happy and healthy New Year!

Just a couple from recently

2008-11-14T00:04:00.005-05:00

Mr. GQ all dressed up

Absolutly LOVE her smile, melts my heart!

The leaf monster :p

Beautiful fall colors in my own front yard

A couple from the park today...

2008-09-24T20:12:00.004-04:00

I really dont know if I am improving at all in Photography, I get so frustrated and dont even want to pick up my camera most the time. Of course it does not help that my screen is calibrated completly wrong and that thing just wont let me change it. These pictures look good on my monitor, so not sure if they will look off on a calibrated monitor....anyways, enough yapping...here are the pics.....

Little Dancers!

2008-09-19T00:50:00.009-04:00

I was just going to post a couple of my favs, but there are all just so darn cute! We took these little ballerinas to the ballet school to take some pics for a friend to show her handmade tutu's and hair accessories, too stinking cute!

First picture with my new Lens!

2008-09-19T00:50:00.002-04:00

Woohoo, I finally bought the Tamron 17-50mm 2.8! It is used but so far it seems to be a pretty good copy! This is the first picture I took with it!

My first Newborn shoot!!!

2008-08-30T22:26:00.004-04:00

I just realized I have not posted these yet! This little beauty was born on June 6, 2008 and in these pictures she is 13 days old. Introducing: Miss Emma Elizabeth!

First day of kindergarden!

2008-08-26T21:07:00.002-04:00

Boy this summer went by FAST! Hunter started school this week and loves it! His teacher is very nice and seems to care a lot about the kids and their education. So now its just the girls during the day! I guess its time to dust off my camera and practice while the house is quiet!

O'Charleys after the Remodel

2008-08-12T23:56:00.003-04:00

Here is a little aftershot I did of the restaurant. This is actually my first attempt at hdr, probably not the best pic for it, but wanted to play with this one.

Ashley and Logan

2008-06-23T01:28:00.004-04:00

This was the wedding of my friend Ashley and Logan at a beautiful location in Benton, TN on May 10th. I shot this wedding as a 2nd shooter with talented Photographer Melody Hood of Innamorata Photography.

My first Maternity Session

2008-06-23T01:00:00.004-04:00

I am so happy that I finally got to do my first maternity session, and even better with such a beautiful and very fit girl! I took these pictures when she was in her 39th week and she delivered a beautiful baby girl 8 days later!

Michelle and Shane

2008-06-14T01:47:00.004-04:00

Here are 2 of my favorites that I took at a wedding that I shot with the wonderful wedding photographer Jason Connel on May 30th in Hixon, TN.

Some more pics of things in Cleveland

2008-05-27T13:01:00.003-04:00

Some of our schools for my Cleveland Project!

2008-05-09T08:49:00.006-04:00

Here are all the pics I took for my boss of some of the schools. I must say it is very hard to take pictures of our schools because in my opinion most of them are extremely ugly!!

Vacation Time!

2008-04-15T00:48:00.010-04:00

We toook a family vacation at the end of March, beginning of April in Orlando and Jacksonville. I got lots of pictures of course and here are some of my favorite ones taken with my new Canon 30D :)

Some macro shots!

2008-03-02T02:03:00.002-05:00

I got to play today witht he Sigma 105mm today and got these 3. Love the 1st one, very shallow DOF I know, but it kind of reminds me of a painting. I hope to be able to play with this lens some more soon!

The first sign of spring!

2008-02-22T10:08:00.002-05:00

Yay! I am so happy to finally start seeing the start of spring! I am looking forward to green grass, colorful flowers in my yard and the blooming bradford pear trees. I am anxious to get out more to shoot, whatever comes in my way LOL

Jaz is not a little puppy anymore!

2008-02-19T10:24:00.000-05:00

It is unbelievable how fast Jaz is growing! He is now 6 months old and getting close to the size of a horse (in my kids eyes LOL) He is a pretty good puppy but gets a bit too excited at times.

Little Artists!

2008-02-14T10:10:00.000-05:00

My first studio work!

2008-01-29T01:14:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my friend Dennis, I got to play with some studio lighting! I was very overwhelmed since that's new territory to me, but had fun taking some shots of Anika!

I was actually in front of the camera!

2007-12-28T10:08:00.001-05:00

My friend Dennis Sprinkle who is a wonderful and talented photographer wanted some more practice and asked me if he could shoot me. I am a person that definately prefers to be behind the camera, but I did want to help him out and also would have been nice to actually have a decent photo of myself! Here are some of my favorites.....

This one is my #1 favorite (the one above)!

Two more for my project!

2007-11-29T23:43:00.001-05:00

North Cleveland Church of God

First Baptist Church

A Boy and his Dog....

2007-11-24T10:44:00.000-05:00

The ferocious beast!

Fall Colors at Ocoee!

2007-11-04T23:56:00.000-05:00

Went Saturday morning with a couple of photographers to Ocoee to shoot some landscape. The colors were amazing, I think I was able to capture them pretty well!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T22:41:00.000-04:00

Meet Jaz!

2007-10-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

This is our new addition to our family "Jaz" a (in these pics) 9 week old full breed boxer pup!

Pumpkins!

2007-10-22T10:43:00.000-04:00

Some more of T&T

2007-10-19T22:55:00.001-04:00

LOL I was just going to post a couple but it is hard to do since I have so many favorites!

Fun at the park with T&T

2007-10-16T01:10:00.000-04:00

I had a chance today to photograph this beautiful 2 year old and her handsome almost 5 year old brother. It is not hard to get good shots with eyes like these 2 have. So far, I only have 3 pics to show, but will work on some more tomorrow and might post some more then!

Classsics on Mainstreet

2007-08-27T08:19:00.000-04:00

I am not a huge car fan, but I do appreciate the beauty of a well maintained classic! Saturday evening was our monthly Mainstreet Cruise-In. Of course I had to snap a few pics!

Not a little boy anymore!

2007-08-11T21:12:00.000-04:00

Hunter started pre-K this week and I still cannot believe that my little baby boy is now going to school! Maybe now I can practice taking pics more while he is in school and Anika is napping. I am disappointed in myself that I still have gotten nowhere with my photography skills. I took this picture today of Hunter, Anika was asleep and he actually wanted me to take a pic of him! :)

Ap 2.8 SS 400 ISO 100

Lollipop!

2007-06-28T02:55:00.001-04:00

Been a while as usual, really need to take more time for myself so that I can practice with focus, exposure, etc. Anyway, today I bribed the kids with lollipops in return for a few pictures ;) It unfortunately only worked for less than 10 minutes, but I did get a couple of pics I like.

My Town

2007-05-10T21:39:00.000-04:00

My boss gave me this project, he wanted to display pictures of landmarks of our town at the restaurant and this is what I got so far!

Cherokee Chieftain

Old Library

One of the oldest churches, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

Monument dedicated to a little girl behind the church

Craigs Miles Hall

New Library

"To Our Known and Unknown Confederate Dead"

Museum Center at 5ive Points

The Old Post Office

Corner of First and Ocoee Street

The Old Courthouse Bell

SkyRidge Medical Center

Scarlet

2007-05-10T09:37:00.000-04:00

This beautiful girl is Scarlet. I couldn't resist those eyes and she finaly settled down enough for about a minute so that I can take a picture of her!

Introducing, Mr. and Mrs Gill!

2007-05-07T00:06:00.000-04:00

This was a beautiful wedding I shot as a 2nd shooter on Cinco de Mayo out on the Ocoee River where they had the 1996 Olympics. Couldnt had asked for a better location, and eventhough it rained several times that day, mother nature was nice enough to let them have the ceremony outside and also take most the bridal pictures outside without getting soaked.

Play Ball!

2007-05-03T02:04:00.000-04:00

I have been going to my friends son's baseball games a lot lately to practice action shots. Jonathan pitches and catches for his team the indians. Jonathan has a lot of talent and one hell of an arm! The first 5 pics are a series of captures of the same pitch, the last one is unfortunately not in focus, but its the end of the pitch so I just had to include it!

Graduating with high honors!

2007-05-03T00:56:00.000-04:00

Congratulations Tina, I am very proud of you! Took this one of my friend Tina for her Graduation invites, she is graduating on cinco the mayo with high honors!

Beautiful Blue

2007-05-03T00:47:00.000-04:00

I am very proud of this one, took this of Hunter while he was just staring out the car window into the sky. I doubt he even noticed me taking a picture of him. Could he be any more beautiful?

Trip to the Tennessee Aquarium

2007-03-14T23:08:00.000-04:00

Saturday we went to the Tennessee Aquarium and I got to play with my camera a bit. Was not easy though! First of all because I was holding Anika a lot of times, then there were a lot of people there (everyone here is on spring break) and it was pretty dark. So most of the pics are not as clear as I want but that is also because I havent learned my camera all the way yet! SO much to learn so very little time! As you can see, Hunter had a blast touching the stingrays! :)

Finally have my new camera!

2007-02-08T15:53:00.000-05:00

Well, actually I have had it since Christmas but have had only about 5 hours total to play with it, since I was too busy with packing, moving, working, dealing with the kids, etc. My new camera is a Canon Rebel Xti woohoo and I love it, I just havent fully mastered it yet. I do have a few pics from my new camera that are pretty decent and when I have more time I will post some of them.

Stuck

2006-10-19T20:29:00.000-04:00

I really hate not having my new camera yet. I do not even take many pictures anymore, becuase I feel I have majorly outgrown my camera and I cant capture images like I want to. I am kind of hoping that the birthday fairy (LOL) will bring me one in 2 weeks, but I know better since we just cannot afford it.
So at our last playdate I did take a few pictures, and actually got a few that I really like!

One from a Session from last Spring

2006-09-16T01:46:00.000-04:00

Did a session with my friends 4 children last spring and this one was my favorite!

The sun finally came back out to play!

2006-09-16T01:42:00.000-04:00

Its been quite a bit cooler her and its been raining several days. Autumn is defintatelly close!

Playing in the yard

2006-09-06T00:31:00.000-04:00

It has cooled off a lot in the last few days, so we got to play outside today without sweating like crazy. Took a few pictures that I thought were cute. I sooo cannot wait until I can practice with a the Canon Rebel XT!

Anika's Birthday Invitation

2006-08-22T13:36:00.000-04:00

Thought this was cute and will probably use it as her invites to her first Birthday party! :)

Anika's First Birthday shoot

2006-08-22T13:17:00.000-04:00

Anika's birthday is not for another 2 weeks, but wanted to practice of course and wanted to make invitations for her birthday. After taking 211 pictures I was a bit disappointed that most of them are too dark! Guess I have to work more on my lighting! But after playing in PS I was able to fix some of them. Here are some that I like :)

Finally back in town for a few days

2006-08-18T01:40:00.000-04:00

Haven't had much time to take many pictures since we have been in and out of town, but did take a few this time, some that I think that turned out really nicely! The last 2 I thought were pretty neat, but would have been better if I would have remembered to up the ISO, so they would not be blurry. Oh well, will know better next time I guess! ;)

Not much time right now

2006-08-14T01:39:00.000-04:00

I have been really short on time lately with the yardsale and going back and forth to Cleveland (actually going back for a few days tomorrow!) But I am planning on doing Anika's birthday pictures very soon! I already got several yards of white fleece and a big piece of plexi glass! Now all I need is a day with a little more time and a cake LOL I definately need to do this before her birthday, so I only have 3 weeks to do this!

Think I got some good ones today!

2006-08-01T18:50:00.000-04:00

I am really happy with my results today! It was way too hot to even be outside, but I did take a few pictures. The ones of Anika I took under our carport, which seems to have the best lighting to work with. The ones of Hunter are in the partial shade on top of his playset.

ISO 100 SS 200 AP 3.5

ISO 200 SS 200 AP 3.5

ISO 200 SS 160 AP 4.1

One in B&W

2006-08-01T16:21:00.000-04:00

This picture was from my first photoshoot I have done with my kiddos with a backdrop. This one was my favorite from that day!

Some more....

2006-08-01T13:50:00.000-04:00

Burgess Falls in the Winter time

A few from this years 4th of July fireworks show

Some of the pics I have taken so far (out of 1000s lol)

2006-08-01T11:36:00.000-04:00

Took this past xmas.

Love this one of Hunter, took this one almost 2 years ago with my old Canon S100.

I love all these pics, but I know they are far from perfect. Hopefully soon I will be able to capture beautiful pictures like some I have seen from some of the wonderful photographers on ILP.com. :)

Today I thought would be a good day to start recording my progress!

2006-08-01T02:35:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking for a while now I should create a blog to keep up with my progress in photography. I am glad I finally did, seems like an easy way to see if I am getting any better in taking pictures.