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!"