So, today’s my birthday. Unlike many people, I don’t see birthdays as a day off. It was the day I was born some years ago, and a celebration is certainly welcome.
But I also do not dread my birthday. We all get older, right? There’s nothing you can do about aging… so go with the flow. I feel a few signs of the aging joints from time to time, but I’m far from worrying about things like wrinkles and age spots. The biggest concern I have about aging is not being able to eat all the foods I enjoy so well. But if I want to hang around a little while longer, I’ll watch my diet.
This is nothing more than a little tidbit on how birthdays for me have been over the years. As a child, I remember a big party at one of my birthdays. That’s not to say there weren’t more, but I don’t remember them (one of those signs of aging). As I grew older, I found the parties less and less important, but that recognition was always welcome. I’d not had a big party of any kind, even at my 30th birthday – which was marked by coworkers with a chocolate cake and a few people coming and going.
But my 40th birthday was different in a big way. We were just building our new studio in Shepherdstown when Diana said we ought to stop by and see how things were going with the walls and stuff. It was an exploration type of visit if you will. Since we didn’t have a door where it is today yet, we had to go into the building through the front door. The owner had left a key for us and we helped ourselves. I was already anticipating seeing the progress when we walked in, only to be shocked by the cries of 15 or so people shouting “Surprise” and “Happy Birthday!” My darling wife had pulled one over on me. I was none the wiser. It was a nice little party with just the right number of people, food (always a plus), and presents (also a favorite). It was a very nice birthday.
Today I’m 47. And it was marked appropriately with a very special card from my wife, a small cake which I shared with my employees, and frequent hugs and kisses from Diana. I do have to work, though. I’ll be doing one of my favorite things – taking pictures of children. I’ll share some photos with you later.
Next year about this time I’ll be another year older, perhaps wiser, and I will have forgotten at least one more thing. But it will be another day, marked in time. And I’ll smile at the fun. Hopefully, I’ll get to photograph children.
Tony
You ever start a project that you’re very excited about, and you are still excited about it half way through, and then at some point you wonder “why did I get into this?” While I haven’t gotten to that point with my house painting, I am seeing things on my house that I would never have known about if I hadn’t been within two feet of them. For example, did you know that sideboards on a house only overlap and that there is NO seal between one and the other? Does their need to be?
Anyway, we didn’t paint on Sunday. I was so sore and tired from my twelve-hour day on Friday and a long day of sittings on Saturday. We did go to a movie, though. Saw “The DaVinci Code,” which I really enjoyed. There were a couple of slow spots, but they made a lot of sense in the end. We also did our weekly shopping. Nothing spectacular there. Afterward we went to Jerry’s Subs for a Dijon Chicken and an Angus sub. I wasn’t impressed with the value (the size is kind of small for the $$$), but they tasted pretty good. Also, Jerry’s needs to reconsider how they build their sandwiches. They put the veggies on the deepest part of the inside of the roll, then the meat and sauce. It makes things really messy and the meat falls out and onto your lap – not fun at 55mph. The best sandwich builders of national chains is Subway in my opinion, although they sometimes soak the bread too much with the sauce. Quiznos does a pretty good job, but their meats are sometimes more fatty than others.
Today we were lazy getting started and just before we did, Tari Jo called and needed two more pictures for her ads. We went into the studio where Diana printed them out while I went and got gas for the mower and ran another errand.
When we got back to the house, Diana put a second coat on the back door. I finished edging each of the windows on the back of the house (except for our bathroom window which has a considerably large Holly bush underneath which needs to be trimmed). I also edge-trimmed the door on the side porch, but that’s the side of the house that’s going to need two layers of paint – I’m hoping that the power sprayer will be sufficient in one pass for that, though.
We quit early because we’re both sore and tired. I’ll pick up my task on Thursday, since Tuesday and Wednesday nights I’m shooting dance action photos at Academy of Dance. I look forward to the dance action each year. All of the dance studios we shoot have very different approaches and styles. Of course, the similarity is the real reason I do it – the kids. 🙂
See you all later this week!
Since starting the Impressions service, we’ve converted many images into stunning pieces of art… Diana’s department I assure you.
Before you continue with this entry, though, go see the original picture of Jane on her wedding day, getting ready for the ceremony —> PhotoGeek: Jane and Rob
Now, take a peek at the same image with Impressions applied.
See what I mean? The image is the same. The difference is so dramatic it seems like a completely different image.
Diana has made a huge difference in what our studio can do for our clients. And that has inspired me to be even better at my job, so she can be even more creative in hers.
Zach worked for us for about three years as a sports photographer. He was pretty good at it, too. When he left, it was a blow to our sports department, but we couldn’t be too upset because he was making a better life for himself.
I’ve never gotten the whole story on how Danielle came into his life, but for a long time I knew her only as his “Snowflake.” He lit up when he talked about her, so I knew his feelings were more serious than a casual relationship.
They announced their engagement a few months ago and sent us a nice “Save The Date” card, opting to have us as their guests – which honestly is fine with me (I like being the critic of other photographers once in awhile). They did come to us for their engagement photos and we couldn’t have been happier.
Her bright smile and his happy eyes made for a great pairing. Like Monica and Joe earlier in the day, Zach and Danielle were happy to take photos in the studio and down in the park (I LOVE that place!) There were about 50 images, and this is just one that stood out (for them and for me).
Zach and Danielle are getting married September 2, 2006 in Gettysburg. That is the day before mine and Diana’s anniversary, so it will be kind of nice to have a wedding to go to and celebrate someone else’s wedding. 😉
You all have a nice weekend! If you’re good, I’ll take some pictures of the painting (no laughing, please) and post them.
Stephanie Smith has been a very good client of ours for some time. When she knew that her daughter would be in town with her grandchildren, she set up a portrait sitting in her own garden with them. It’s a lovely garden, complete with a sandbox, sunning area, what I might call a “tea spot” and lots of lovely growing things (also called plants). 🙂
Anyway, Tucker is the oldest and he was instrumental in making the session a success. He’s shown here holding his 3-month-old baby sister, Charlotte (who is referred to as Charlie). Cameron is in the blue shirt, is two years old and was barely able to sit long enough for this and a few other shots of him and his siblings.
Stephanie and Tiffany (Stephanie’s daughter) were great throughout and I enjoyed showing their photos in the studio. Diana did some great mods on a couple of the images to make them just perfect for the sizes that Stephanie wanted.
We love the local park, and the spring house at Morgan’s Grove gives us an opportunity to combine two great faces with a little bit of rundown architecture.
Monica and Joe are getting married on August 19, 2006. They are both in the healthcare profession and are just great people. Joe has a lot of stories to tell, and Monica listens a lot – how perfect are they!?
We did quite a few shots of them, but this quickly became a fan favorite for all concerned. We’re looking forward to photographing their wedding later this summer.
From the beginning, I could tell that Jane was a kind of force. Everything works out for her, but there’s always going to be a bit of a struggle to get there. Her wedding was no different.
The florist thought that the wedding was on Saturday, and hadn’t delivered the flowers by 30 minutes before the wedding. So at 7pm on a Friday night, as many as four people were trying to track down the florist, while another relative was headed out to try to buy other flowers at local stores.
Meanwhile, Jane was busily getting ready.
At 8:10, the bride walked down the aisle to marry her sweetheart of 14 years. Her son Nathan escorted her. Twenty minutes later, Jane and Rob happily made their way past throngs of supporting friends and family.
Inside, the cake was wonderfully decorated.
There weren’t a lot of formals… Jane and Rob were more interested in the photojournalistic aspect of their wedding. But we did like what we managed to get, despite having gone past the sunset.
Congratulations once again to Jane and Rob and Happy Birthday to Jane’s son Nathan, pictured to the right of her (with the beard) in the picture above. They also provided him with a cake and a round of the birthday song.
Yeah, I knew you’d look at this post just based on the name. I would, too. What IS the original sin, you may ask? Well, if you read your religious text there are many different ways to learn the answer. But in the case of this post, the Original Sin is a heavy metal band for which we did group and individual photos.
The group is an eclectic mix of five guys you might not ordinarily put or see together and say “there’s a heavy metal band waiting to happen.” No, these guys are unique personalities that all seem to get along quite well. Unedited, this is one of my favorite shots of the band as a group.
We took two sets of individual photos of each band member. One without instruments and one with. There’s something about one of the band members that just screams “heavy metal” to me. It’s one of the images I like the most. Everyone else seemed to like it, too.
The guy in the black sleeveless shirt in the group photo is a close friend of my younger stepdaughter, Tara. Of course, they came to us for their first album shots and publicity photos. I think things went pretty well.
On the complete other end of the spectrum, I also did a wedding tonight. I’ll post that in my next entry. I have three portrait sittings on Saturday, so look for the wedding and portraits later in the day, maybe even Sunday. 🙂
G’nite!
Most people don’t ask. They just trust that we are handling their wedding photos with care. We are, but there are a lot of “what ifs” floating around out there that can completely destroy your wedding images – forever.
Before arriving at a wedding, the storage and security part has already begun. I bring a lot of digital memory cards with me to record onto. At least four cards and at least 8GB. That will usually be good for around 2,000 images. Larger weddings will obviously need more image space, but that’s another subject.
At the wedding, I carry a device that is basically a portable hard drive that reads and stores memory cards. At critical moments during the day, I put the memory card into this device and copy all the files off the card and onto a hard drive. I can then reuse the card or continue taking photos in addition to what is already on the card – I just put them on the hard drive as a safeguard measure.
Once back at the studio, all cards and the portable hard drive are copied to our main server. After I’ve verified that the images are all on the main server, I make a backup disk of the files on the hard drive – usually onto a DVD. That DVD is filed away and then the images are copied onto my laptop for editing and publishing.
On my laptop is where I edit out blinks, bad pictures and the like. After editing, I renumber the images into their chronological sequence. This puts the pictures into a sequence of the way they occurred, since I use multiple cameras at the wedding. Once the sequencing is done, I do basic color correction for those that need it and publish them to the online site for the wedding couple to review.
After publishing, I move the edited and resequenced images to the main server and off my laptop. The original images are still safely tucked away on a DVD and we print from the edited images.
Any questions? 🙂
Not every senior season starts with someone who has already graduated, but this isn’t a normal year anyway.
Joelle graduated from Musselman High School a year early, taking some classes in the summers to help complete all her high school requirements early. She told me she has an older sister in college, a younger brother in high school and plans to attend Shepherd in the fall.
With a great interest in small animals, she wants to explore veterinary service in some way.
We took about 30 photos of Joelle in several outfits. She arrived early and we were done with her sitting in about 45 minutes, including a drape shot and several formal photos. This close-up ended up being her mom’s favorite.
Congratulations to Joelle and best wishes for her continued future success.
