Holiday BBQ & HD

We've enjoyed some down time during the holidays. We closed the studio Tuesday before Christmas and will reopen on Friday 1/2/9. Our daughter has been home and we have treasured some wonderful time together as a family. We did create a new picture for our Christmas card after Janell got home from North Carolina - that's on the front page of the web site.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was as gorgeous a day as you will ever find in Atlanta in December - Sunny & 65 degrees. My friend John and I just had to take advantage of that weather to get the motorcycles out for a spin. No long trips - just a run out to Winder for a BBQ lunch and some riding along some of the back roads of Barrow and Walton County. I'm grateful to Nancy and Janell for their willingness to take some time together to go shopping at Phipps so that I could go out and play.

Since our friend Mark was on the road driving his family through Tennessee we had to occasionally send him a text or a pic to be certain he knew he was missing a great day for riding. Here's a pic John made of me just before we went in to enjoy that sandwich and cup of stew.

Hope you all have had a wonderful celebration of Christmas and that your New Year's Eve will be safe and enjoyable. We've got some great special offerings coming in 2009 that I know you will enjoy. Some will be posted right here on the BLOG and offered by e-mail. If you'd like to be certain you get these offers be sure to send me your e-mail address and request being added to our list. Mail to: glenn@martinphotography.com

Lawrenceville Kiwanis Christmas Kids

For over 10 years now I've had the joy of serving as the official photographer for the Lawrenceville Kiwanis Club's Christmas Kids Party. This local service club has made a difference in the joy of Christmas for local children for many years. With the help of folks like you the club has been able to provide presents as well as a party for over 300 local children. With the challenging economic times we're in we had no clue how the public might respond this year as the children's wish lists were distributed (these are children involved with Gwinnett DCFS). Folks amazed us - I think this year we had more gifts - including bicycles - than ever before. I guess that hard times make us appreciate what we have and encourage us to be more aware and giving with those around us with real needs. Thanks to everyone who contributed - we gave each child a sack full of Christmas presents, a party and a picture from a visit with Santa. Here I am with Santa during a break in the photography. Among the Kiwanians present were 5 Judges from various courts in Gwinnett County. We took advantage of a great opportunity to make this pic of Santa with Judges Greene, Washburn, Mock, Hutchinson and Clarke.
Hope you all have a great Christmas - I know a lot of kids that are thanks to you!

Sibling Smiles

The other evening we had a brother and sister in for a session . It's always interesting when we get teenagers together in portraits - posing close takes just a little encouragement. However, these two fell right into the portrait mood and we created some wonderful images. These are fun portraits that their parents and grandparents are going to enjoy for many years.

Here's a good opportunity for me to remind all of you about the difference it makes when you plan your clothing for portraits. Notice the dark solid clothing. Then notice how the white accent on each coordinates and dresses up the portrait with just a bit of formality without being stuffy. The pearls and the tie keep a fun teen look but give the portraits just a touch of dressiness. Probably you didn't notice this at all - that's because it works! When properly selected the clothing really shouldn't be a focal point in a portrait at all. The clothing is just a palette for showcasing faces!
I'll climb off of my soapbox now and let you go back to enjoying the portraits.

Christmas At Biltmore (actually birthday!)

Last weekend we made yet another pilgrimage to The Biltmore House in Asheville. We've been fans for years and have always made our visits in the spring & summer. Each time we'd visit there would be conversation about wanting to see the house decorated for Christmas. A couple of years ago our daughter made that visit and then came home talking about how wonderful it was. Well, we made plans to make a Christmas visit ourselves. Several months ago I "informed" Nancy that she needed to schedule a Friday off for a long weekend trip to celebrate her birthday - a surprise, destination unknown type of trip. Usually she will trust me so she indulged me on this one. Though she did keep wanting to know how to pack.
Since her birthday was actually a few days prior to the trip I did let her in on the destination on her big day. What I didn't mention was the fact that we would be joined by some friends for the trip. Not until we were leaving town and ran by a friend's house and they came out with suitcases did Nancy know that Mark & Carolyn would be traveling with us. Our trip us was pleasant and we caught up on all the news in both families. We checked in at the Inn On Biltmore on a cold afternoon that promised an even colder evening for touring the house. Here's a view of the house from our room at the Inn - look carefully, it's there! We had dinner reservations at the Bistro there on the grounds and yet another surprise when we were joined by another couple from home for dinner and celebration of the birthday girl - thanks Steve & Joy!
After a great dinner we took the van over to the house - outdoor temp was in the 20s so we never took our coats off in the house. The decor was as wonderful as we'd heard and imagined. We fully enjoyed our 2 1/2 hour stroll through a Christmas wonderland. Though we had to agree with a quote from an actual guest that stayed at Biltmore one winter - "it's bloody cold".
Saturday morning we awoke to a brisk 22 degrees and a beautiful sunrise out our window. After that heavenly breakfast buffet at the Inn (the main reason we keep returning to the Inn at Biltmore) we headed back over to the house for a Behind The Scenes Tour. If ever you visit Biltmore take this extra tour - we've done it before and it is constantly changing. Likewise, in warm weather we highly recommend the "Legacy and the Land" tour. Thanks to a couple of nice young ladies who took the "blog cam" and made a picture of the 4 of us. It was a great weekend with good friends. We're grateful for all of it.

Christmas Portraits - Aurora Theatre Ad

We've had a great November and December for creating family portraits for Christmas. Last week 3 of my favorite subjects came in for a family portrait for their Christmas card. Nothing like three fun ladies to work with - you just can't miss on creating a really fun portrait. We knew we wanted something really fun so we went for a little attitude...... Of course, whenever we have folks in the studio all dressed and ready for a family portrait we want to make a few individuals as well. these girls were most willing to share a smile with me. I had a difficult time picking just these few to share with you.

Nancy and I are great fans and supporters of the Aurora Theatre here in Lawrenceville. If you aren't checking out the great productions at the Aurora you need to call today and get your tickets for the Christmas Canteen (678) 226-6222. Anyway, we have an ad in the Aurora Playbill for each production. This week I was creating the ad for the winter production of "Corpse!" and wanted to feature our Business Portraits and Head Shots. Strolling back through the files of recent portraits to pick ad models I kept thinking of the pose of younger sister from the above session....so I used that and a couple of adults that came to mind as well. I'm constantly astounded at some of the pictures folks use in their ads and publicity. Your portrait represents you as an introduction long before you get to talk to anyone. Actors know this and place appropriate importance on their Head Shot. Like the ad says....You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Christmas Portraits - there's still time!

What a busy week we've had working on portraits for Christmas. We had a wonderful weekend with a number of families in the studio for our Christmas Special and that has not stopped. Add in some location portraits and a lot of fun sports pictures and we've had a wonderful week! Saturday morning I had a visit from my associate photographer, Dennis and his family. We talked about the big loss for the Spartans football team the night before at Callaway. Dennis covers a lot of sports action for me and had followed Coach Ken and the Spartans again this season. Somehow, through all the fog Dennis came out with some great pictures of Spartan Football. Friday evening I'd been photographing some Spartan Swimmers. Anyway, we did take time photograph Dennis and his family for their Christmas Card- here they are for you to enjoy.

OK decoration procrastinators - I had a session early this week in a home completely decorated for Christmas - yep, trees, lights, wreaths, garland and more. How neat to be able to make the Christmas Card picture prior to Thanksgiving in front of your own decorations. You'd never know these three had made it through a whole day of school prior to this session - thanks guys, I had a great time working with you and everyone is going to love the pose your mother picked for the card.

Sometimes we need an excuse or just a "gentle shove" to get us into action on those family portraits. We all want them but they can be a challenge to coordinate on the scheduling end of the deal. I recently read an article about how a family's pictures are the most prized possessions in the house. How many times have you heard, or considered yourself, that if you had a fire the one thing you'd try to save would be pictures. They are indeed priceless. I think one reason that I encourage family portraits so much is the fact that in my growing up years my family did not have portraits made. I think that weddings were the only time we were all in a picture together - before I started insisting on portraits a Christmas. But by then I was grown and a photographer and everyone expected that. I'd give almost anything to have a picture of all six of us in my childhood family - but it doesn't exist! Sure it can be a challenge to get it scheduled and get everyone in the correct outfit - but you are not only recording the moment to enjoy today - you are creating a treasure for generations beyond today. Really, let's schedule your family for a portrait treasure - there's still time before Christmas!

Baby Portraits

While I'm updating I could not resist adding in these two sweet faces from last week. Both of these two are special because I've photographed their older siblings as well. Hope you enjoy the smiles!

The Church Staff Came To The Studio

Last week I had the joy of photographing the entire staff of Brookwood Baptist Church. The folks at that church are working on their web site and updating materials so they wanted current pictures of all the staff. We blocked an entire morning in the studio and they each came in for a session. The ministerial staff brought several outfits and we created a varied set of images for them. Pastor Dean Oliver was a super guy to work with and put up with all my abuse in wonderful style. Sometimes it's a casual portrait that best describes a person - so we took that approach with Pastor Dean. Here's some of what we created for Dean.

John Ross - Painter

Catch up time......I'm determined to become a better blogger!!!

One of my great joys in this profession is working with all the folks at Greater Atlanta Christian School. I've made lot's of friends through the association there and I'm always meeting new ones. I've been their official photographer since 2001. Last week I had a chance to photograph at a student chapel session when a great guy from Las Vegas shared his witness through his painting. Jon Ross is a Harding Univ graduate whose life story is inspiring - he's overcome some major medical issues and in that process discovered an artistic talent. While the students sat quietly listening to inspirational music, Jon transformed a blank canvas into a glowing image of Christ. His technique is to use his hand as a brush in rather bold strokes. He started with painting just words on the canvas setting a tone for what was to come. As he painted he changed the message of the words until in the end the face of Jesus had consumed the entire canvas. I saw him do this tiwce - once for the Jr High students and then for the High School. Both groups sat almost transfixed as they watched Jon create. I hope you enjoy seeing these pix of our worship last Thursday morning.

Boston - what a great place to visit

BOSTON - the lobsters were GREAT!!!

We made a quick trip to Boston recently - purely pleasure! As many of you know, our daughter works in Admissions for Elon University and travels representing the university. She's been in Connecticut and we thought we'd see her and Boston at the same time. What a deal.



Nancy and I headed out on a Thursday afternoon on Delta. It was a wonderful flight up and we came up the coast at dark as we descended into Boston. What a fun time spotting lighthouses from the air. We checked out the city on Friday before Janell came in that afternoon. It's a compact city and walking is the best way to see it - so we did. Here's some of the pix from my pocket camera. With no eyes checking to see what the professional is using my handy pocket cam works great for vacation pics.

Nancy and I thought that we might be able to force ourselves to live in Boston if we could have one of these condos on the waterfront. Then we took a look at some of the real estate brochures on those very condos.......WOW!!!!....but they come with the boat slip ......but since the boat wasn't included we decided to pass.



Here I am at CHEERS - could not find Sam at all.

We loved every minute of the visit. It's one of those places we'd visit again!

Now that I'm back to blogging I promise to do better!

SMART

July 2 of last year - yes 2007 - I ordered a SMART FOURTWO CABRIOLET. We picked her up at SmartCenter Buckhead on Saturday morning, Sept. 6, 2008 (our 28th wedding anniversary). We'd already named her Blue Belle. Yes, naming cars is very serious business in our family.

For those unfamiliar, the SMART is a product of Mercedes Benz that is manufacatured in Hambach, France. If you've been to Europe or Canada in the past few years you've probably seen them. I became intrigued by them last summer on the 3 Braothers Motorcyle Trip to Canada. These fun little buggers have a 3 cylinder 1 liter engine and are a blast to drive! You order them online and wait - currently about 15 months is the projection.

Our fist stop after picking up Belle was my brother's house to give them a look. Tod instantlly asked for the keys and headed off. I later took my nephew for trip around the neighborhood. We made it back to Lawrenceville for lunch and a chance to park her on the square. When parking in a standard space it's best to leave about 5 feet between the front and the curb so that the rear end of the little pup shows at the end of the space and she desn't get smushed.

All weekend we found reasons to go places. Just as much fun as driving is watching the reactions of other drivers people on the street.

More on the Smart as we dive it more.

www.smartusa.com

I'm still trying to get caught up - I've got to get into a rhythm here with the blogging.

Anyway, one of the fun things we do here in the studio is our sessions that celebrate new smiles. We work with a couple of local dentists and an orthodontist to provide a portrait of their patients who have just completed their treatment. It's a blast to have folks coming in that have endured those braces for 2 or 3 years just beaming away with that great big smile.

We make this a fun session with just a few poses that really capture the new look. Generally we are close so that the smile really dominates the pic. Here's a look at some of the recent smiles we've had beaming away in our camera room. It's fun to create these portraits and then instantly sit down with the "smiler" and his or her mom (you know we see a lot of moms) and view the poses on our 50" plasma monitor. Whoa man - those smiles really are big! We take a look at all them and work through to establish the favorites. We're loving the big monitor!

These two are a brother and sister that came in together. Don't you know that mom is glad to be done with the orthodontist - but wasn't the effort worth it!

If your orthodontist isn't giving a celebration portrait when those braces come off then I'd suggest you have that Dr. give us a call here at the studio to talk about our Smile Portraits.

You know, Christmas is just ahead! Watch the web site and the blog for information on Portraits for Christmas.

"Ride it like you stole it!"

2-Day Walk For Breast Cancer

Saturday was the Awareness EXPO and practice walk for the Atlanta 2-Day Walk For Breast Cancer. Yepper, I was there with the H-D ready to ride and make lots of pictures of all the fun. All the images are posted on our Online Order System but I do want to share a couple.

Here's three of the wonderful group know as MotoCrew Atlanta. These are a great group of bikers that volunteer as safety crew for the Walk. They ride the route and guard intersections, interact with walkers and keep a helpful eye on everyone. Nobody has more fun than this bunch great volunteers. It's my privilege to hang out with them since I ride as well while I'm photographing all the 2-Day events.

Saturday morning there was a rather popular corner on the walk route - you know it - the Krispy Kreme Korner on Ponce!!! Thankfully the service was quick and everyone who stopped in didn't miss anything. Here I am on that famous corner with Tasha and Chuck. You'll see walkers in the background crossing the street under the watchful eyes of other MotoCrew members.

The big event - the actual 2-Day Walk - is September 20 & 21 in Atlanta. The Marriott Marquis is the host hotel and we'll be working out of Olympic Park. Put it on your calendar and visit us for the closing ceremonies on Sunday. If you do then you will definitely be a walker or volunteer for next year's walk!

See: http://www.itsthejourney.org/2day/

Yikes! I'm really behind!

What happened to July? I promise that I had all these great ideas for the blog but, thankfully, all of you wonderful clients keep me so busy that blogging has to be a low priority. However, It's a new month and I promise to be a better blogger. Probably over the next few days I'll do multiple posting to get caught up with all the fun goodies I have for you.

Summer is a popular time for children's portraits and this year has been no exception. Here's a look at a session with three siblings recently. We had a great time playing together as we created some really fun portraits for Mom. I couldn't resist really hamming it up with one pose when I saw the "hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil" picture coming together. However, you might notice that "Mr. See No Evil" is actually peeking!!!

Did you notice the new portrait of Molly on the opening page of our web-site? You know she loves the attention - she will be waiting to greet you at the studio door next time you visit!

Stay cool - it's supposed to be a hot one out there today!

Vacation

Last week we spent some relaxing time at Amelia Island - what fun! One of the highlights for us was taking a Segway tour through Ft. George Island State Park. We had never ridden Segways and found them to be even more fun than we had imagined. Our hosts were Marin & Greg who operate the business called EcoMotion Tours - what a great couple who truly enjoy their business. They gave us a wonderful introduction to riding the Segway and made certain we were all in good shape for heading out on the rustic trails of Ft George Island. We rode for about an hour into depths of the island to the National Park’s waterfront Kingsley Plantation- the best example of an 1800’s sea island cotton plantation in Florida. After a walking tour of the plantation we returned to the Segways for some more fun - this time Greg had decided we were all proficient enough at riding to raise our max speed to the medium setting (9 mph) for even more fun. Riding on flat ground is one thing - but it really gets exciting when you start going up & down hills.

Greg and Marin have a great office - they just pull in with the Range Rover and the trailer and open the door. How neat that they had tucked a bottle of cold water and a bag of pretzels into the carry-pack of each Segway.

After the introduction to riding Greg assisted each of us onto the Segway for the first time. I think we had an exceptional group - not a one of us fell off!!! Nancy wasn't impressed with the whole helmet thing - well, the safety was OK but the prospect of hemet hair wasn't to have been on the agenda. We were all amazed at how sensitive the Segway is to respond - even moving your head would cause some movement. It's basic though - lean forward (or bob your head) to go forward and lean back to get it in reverse. Steering is with the grip on the left hand. Let me assure you that these do not steer or handle like a Harley despite my trying to encourage it to do so. Now, getting off the darn thing is another story - don't hesitate at all just step off backwards - quickly - otherwise that little dude becomes a bucking bronco and you will be greatly relieved that no-one had a video cam operating (trust me - that's a fact).

Out on the trail Greg (in the lead) and Marin (as caboose to keep us all rounded up) gave us a great commentary on the wildlife and habitat we were cruising through. Regularly we'd pass large gopher tortoises on the side of the trail or hanging out at the entrance of their burrows. The trail winds through an old golf course that the Park Service is allowing to return to nature. All 9 of us in the group appreciated that Greg was at the lead taking the hit from the massive spider webs that would cross the trail. Occasionally we'd have to all stop while he would clear the web from the trail.

As I mentioned, riding on flat was simple but taking hills was a great adventure. We had several spots where there would be a small series of hills to navigate. Greg would warn us through the radio headsets we were all wearing and we'd each take a turn at the hills so no-one was rushed. Remember the leaning to make it go - yep, you have to lean forward going downhill to make that little bugger move. I'm still wondering if Greg had let us use the ultra-experienced level of speed if I could have jumped some of those little hills. My trail bike days really aren't as far behind me as some might think.

Did I mention spiders? Greg really enjoyed talking about all the spiders. Janell, who truly can't stand spiders wasn't too impressed by all the conversation. Try to create a mental picture of Janell sneaking (yea, on the Segway) by a huge spider whose web had just been moved. In this pic Greg is moving a web so we can all pass. He kept telling us that we had not seen any of the really big ones and that these were all non-poisonous varieties - not much comfort for those arachnophobics in the bunch.

One of the neat things about these Segways if that they are the XT versions with the large, soft tires that are perfect for trail riding. Though one in our group did contemplate climbing a tree with hers she decided against it and returned to the trail (or at least that's a good way to tell that story).

Late in the trip we stopped in a wonderful clearing and Greg made pictures of us. I thought for a moment that I might not get my camera back from him - funny how you always wonder when you hand that Nikon over to someone else. No, he did a great job and we are delighted with this "family portrait" One family didn't have a camera with them and I made their picture and sent it to them. By that time I was pretty good at balancing and staying still on the Segway to be able to shoot without having to dismount. Once we got back to the parkinglot Nancy wanted to take the camera to make my picture. She tried the shooting from the Segway move and move would be the operative word......staying still isn't always easy.....I had to keep rotating as Nancy circled around me taking the picture. I'm thinking that the Harley shirt may not have been the most appropriate choice for that morning - but then again, maybe it does give a bit of a knarley look.

If you are ever in the Amelia Island or Jacksonville area you really do need to take this tour. Just call our new friends Maren and Greg Arnett at EcoMotion Tours. See them at www.ecomotionsours.com



Live To Ride - Ride To Live!