Greenville, SC Art Stuff

Today I am in Greenville, SC. I came up here to see a photographer that wanted me to check out his new showroom . While here I met some of the coolest people in this artist community along a newly developed area of snooty shops and stuff. One of my new friends here is Ric a fantastic artist who is setting the trend in Greenville for high end art. I shot a few photos in his gallery so that he can get some exposure. Ric will be setting up his own new web site and blog soon and I will give a link to from here. Check out the photos.
The two guys are Scott Holloway , "Great Photographer" and Ric the artist.

Family !!!!

You will do things for your family that you would not do for any one else. Just a few moments ago, I was in my car on the way to South Carolina to visit a photographer and see his new studio when the cell phone rings. It is the youngest child of my brother. My nice Erica. She has one of those cushy jobs at a bank where they will loan you money for your dreams and then feed you laxatives and prune juice before you go to bed so that those dreams will never be quite what you thought they would be. I think she is the manager of the customer relations department which explains why she has nothing to do at work but to sit with her friends in the big cushy office and surf the web and look at my blog.
So Erica says, "I was sure that you would have posted the photos that you took of my son at Christmas while we were all down at your house." Yeah, Like I haven't posted anything in over a month, but she was sure that I must have woken up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night and said to myself " I MUST GET UP RIGHT NOW AND POST A PHOTO OF MY NIECE"S SON IN THOSE GAY LOOKING PANTS UP ON MY BLOG !!!!! "
But I didn't.
SO just for you kid because you know I just love you to death. Here is the photo you asked for.

Now if you had just called and said: "Hey Uncle Scott, would you put a photo of Cooper on your blog so my friends at work can see it ?" I would have done so right away. But since you added "And don't put any of those snide comments on it like you do everything else" to your request, I had to write what I was really thinking. And why do you not have any wallet sized photos in your purse. Or one of the larger prints on your desk. I'll bet you husband has one on his desk. I gave you 15 of them before you left at Christmas. You know,the ones that I made in my office while y'all were all in my living room watching football and drinking wine. I would have been in there with you , but no one plays baseball on Christmas. It is a much more noble game. The smaller the ball, the smarter the athlete. And golf is not a sport.

Call me .

Heegh ! Good God !

I know it has been over a full month since I have posted anything. I have not disappeared or anything, it is that this was the first Christmas season that I have operated without a store front shop and a full staff. That did not stop the 173 customers for photo restorations that I had from Thanksgiving weekend until Dec 24th. I did not even see the Christmas season. I was stuck in my Restoration "Hole" as the kids call it repairing and restoring other peoples lost and fading family memories. I have been known as The Image Doctor for 26 years now and really enjoy restoring photographs. In the last 4 weeks I have worked on 319 different photos from color snapshots to 145 year old Daguerreotypes. Over the next 2 weeks I will be in hiding, spending some money and recharging. Mid January should see the NEW Image Doctor Web site. Disks 1 and 2 of my DVD series for sale on line on the new site and other stuff.
But that is not why I am posting today. Many of you that know me or follow my blog know that I love music. My son and I snuck out of town a few weeks ago to go to Canada to see one of my favorite bands "The Who" and it was a great trip. But today I am remembering one of my favorite performers who died here in Atlanta this morning. The Godfather of Soul, The Grand Master of Funk, Soul Brother Number One, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business Mr James Brown. I have seen him live several times over the last 20 years and was even listening to his Christmas album the other day. (Yes he had a Christmas Album ) It was not Bing Crosby I promise you, but it was a funky kind of change.
So James, Good Bye, I will try to continue to work as hard at what I love as you did.
HEEGH !!!!!
Does anyone know how to spell Heegh ! ? As in Heegh ! Ighhhhh!, Good God ! I want to Jump Back and Kiss Myself!

Wedding at Berry College

These images are from a wedding I shot with my son at Berry College in North West GA. It was the first weekend in Nov and the Fall colors were fantastic. The shot of the couple on the bridge was taken from in the water at this small pond with 3 giant snapping turtles hiding in it. GA snapping turtles can weigh over 100 lbs and be down right nasty. But, as many of you know, I will do whatever it takes to get the shot. However I must admit that in my hurry to get in and out of the water my mind was not on my camera settings. To see what this photo really looks like when you do not have the white balance set correctly on your camera see the photographers blog at www.image-doctor.blogspot.com on Monday night.
The fine looking young man in the other photo is my son Garen. He is no where near as good looking as my daughter who is just to good looking to put up on the web.

Thanks for Looking

A big thank you to WPPI for making me "Member of the Month" in the newsletter. When the e mail newsletter first went out, they had one of the photos wrong. The first photo of a bride looking out a window from behind was not one of my shots. They have fixed it now on the e newsletter, but I do not know if it will be fixed in the paper version.
I want to personally thank those of you that were new visitors to my site and BLOG. As of 10pm on Nov 2nd I had viewers from Plymouth UK, Winnipeg Manitoba, Bowie MD, Staten Island NY, San Jose and San Francisco CA, Lola KS, Chicago, Louisville, KY and Kent, Ohio. And a bunch of folks around Atlanta. Thanks again and check out my BLOG for Photographers at www.image-doctor.blogspot.com

New Blog for Photographers

Let me take this time to announce my new BLOG just for photographers. I made this new blog to go along with the all new Image Doctor site that is in the works. Each week I will post some new tip , Photoshop lesson or some video from one of my photo shoots. Some of the content will be bits and pieces from my new DVD series. This week , if you would like to see how I went from the color photo on the left to the B&W on the right, just see the new blog at
image-doctor.blogspot.com

Hi to Kansas

Everyone in Kansas send me an e mail

Moving to the Lake House

I am moving to the new lake house this week. I may be a little hard to get in touch with for a few days. There is a lot going on at the moment. The new Image Doctor web site is under construction by the very talented Chris Hayes. He designed my Scottevans.com site and has a whole lot of new things that he will try to teach me.
The new Image Doctor site will be for photographers mostly and have a special section where I can post a Flash movie showing anything from a Photoshop trick to behind the scene's at one of my photo shoots. There will be a new movie each week that will replace the previous weeks movie. There will also be a page for each of my Instructional DVDs and of course a way for you to order them.
But for now, I am sitting in my office with limited production equipment waiting on the carpet installers. I have about 6 wedding albums waiting to be printed but I will not be doing that until next week when I bring all of the printing and production equipment to the lake house. I will have so much more room at the new place. The photos are of what I see out my new office window. And from the dock.

Time for me to Toot My Horn !

I want to start this off by saying that I hardly ever toot my horn. But this weekends VERY SMART bride and groom are very lucky that they chose me as their wedding photographer instead of one of those "Shoot and Burn" photographers. A Shoot and Burn photographer is one that will show up at your wedding, take about 800 or more snapshots "many redundant" and then burn them to a CD and give them to you with no color correction or cropping ect. No Album no page design, just a CD full of photos by a beginner who has the best of intentions but not much experience.
I will set the stage. The photo of the Groom and his Mom was shot next to a hallway at chateau Elan . The same location that is in the photo on the opening page of my web site. The photo of the bride was "RETAKEN" (more in a minuet) in the seats that the wedding guest sat in.
The reason the bride photo was retaken was that right after I shot this photo the first time , some ass wipe snuck over to my camera bag a picked it clean of all the gear that was in it. I lost 2 high end digital camera bodies. A Nikon D 200 with battery grip and 2 batteries and a Fuji S-3 and Four lenses. All Nikon. an 80-200 2.8 12.5 mm fisheye 85mm 2.8 and a 50mm 1.8 and a light disk color balance device.
The strange part is that I was only a few feet away when it happened. I finished shooting the bride and individual bridesmaids photos like the one of the groom and mom in the hall next to the area where the wedding was to be held. That was done with the camera on the tripod. See the photo below.

I took that camera and 80-200 lens off the tripod and put it in my gear bag. I picked up my other D200 (I had 2) and photographed the bride in the chairs with the 85mm 1.8 lens while the bridesmaids were moving to a spot I asked them to go to. Total time about 1 minuet. After shooting the bride I put that camera back in the bag and picked up the other D200 and changed to a wide angle zoom lens , an 18-70mm , and walked around the corner to shoot the group photo of the bridesmaids. The timestamp on the file of the bridesmaids showed 5:35pm and the next photo, a candis of her mom back at the hall location showed 5:36 a one min time span ! While I shot the Bridesmaids some one stole everything left in my bag. INCLUDING all of the images shot on the Nikon D200. The Fuji was a backup camera and had not been used. I quickly searched the area, did not tell the bride ( As to not freak her out) called security and with now about 15 min until wedding time, ran out to the parking lot to scan the scene and to change into my suit. (In the parking lot next to my truck) Cheatu Elan's security cameras caught that but not the theft.
A snappy , snappy, snappy, burn and shoot photographer would have melted down about that time. I did not. The wedding was going to go on . On time and I had to photograph it. This is where experience comes in. You see, I have been photographing weddings for 27 years. Longer than many of my brides have even been alive. Way back in the good old days we shot something called film. We could only bring as much film as we could afford to shoot. It used to cost about $1.25 every time we pushed the button on the camera so we did not blow a lot of shots just to have something to do during a 4 hour reception or on tons of candid photos that we knew would never make it into the wedding album. Snappy snappy snappy photographers do not understand that quality is so much better than quantity.
Another problem that I had was that the stolen Nikon camera had my other two camera batteries in it. And since the camera that I still had was the one I had been using most that day, a good bit of it's battery power was drained. I knew I had to conserve my shots for the very best ones. And I did. Very much to the dismay of the brides sister who felt that I should be in the reception photographing various people while they were stuffing food in their mouths. (I never shoot that anyway) I was across the room when I saw the brides sister screaming at someone on her cell phone. Two hours later when I checked my messages, I found out that it was me she was screaming at. Saying that she did not see me and that I was missing the entire wedding and that she (not my bride or groom) demanded that I be in the room with her. I was, she just did not see me as I was not photographing her or her kids on the dance floor as I had already done and had the shots of them that I needed My cell phone was in the truck, but I wish I had had it and could have walked up behind her as she was screaming and tapped her on the shoulder. Then took her photo. But my bride and groom were great. You can tell they are so much in love. And he loves her even more than golf. And from what I heard from guests, that is a lot.

So Early this morning, I was calling friends to get back up gear , lenses and extra special camera batteries so that I can shoot tomorrow. I will replace about $ 8000.00 worth of gear on Tuesday.

So, how was your weekend ? Please e mail or post. Yeah POST that would be such a nice gesture from the 342 people that have visited this blog more than 10 times each. I do keep track .

Memphis

I did not get to spend to much time in the land of Elvis, but I did get to do a photo shoot in the cold and rain. This shoot was for an engagement photo for a couple whose wedding I am photographing in November. I left Stockbridge on Wed at 8pm after my son's school football team whipped the snot out of the Stockbridge Middle School football team 38 to 8. He played well against his former buddies and even told me that in the bottom of one of the pileups while waiting for all of the other players to get off of them, he had a nice conversation with the opposing team member that he had just tackled.

Wedding Day in New Port

Just a few photos from yesterday. I must be quick as I am off to photograph the Sunday Brunch for this group of people. Home to Atlanta late this afternoon. Appearance at Georgian Gallery tomorrow. My daughters birthday all day on Wed. Then off to Memphis for a photo shoot and some work on the DVD set and then back to Atlanta on Friday for a wedding on Saturday. When do I get to stop ?

New Port At Night

These are just a few night shots. For you photographers that read this, the techno stuff on the night shots were as follows. The Bridge: 20 seconds at f8.0 ISO 1200. The Mansion : 20 sec at f8.0 at ISO 1200. The Bonfire : 5 Sec at f5.6 ISO 400 with fill flash.

I enjoyed the Beach Bonfire the best. The only thing that kept me from ripping all my clothes off and running into the water with the bridesmaids was having seen the opening scene of the movie JAWS to many times as a kid. I think it was filmed somewhere around here.

Harbor Sailing

This morning I shot some photos at the rehearsal over at Castle Hill. After that we all went on a lunch cruise around Newport. It was cold and windy. The view was wonderful all around.

New Port , Rhode Island

OK OK OK .

I know it has been a while since I last posted. I get you e mails every day. Since my last written post, I have done the following: Bought new lake home. Started Fall Baseball with my son. Still involved with school Football with my son. The new home is under some minor renovation. New floors , paint, serious yard work. I have photographed 3 off the most spectacular weddings that I have done in a while, and this weekend I will shoot another one.
This weekends wedding is at the Castle hill Inn in New Port, Rhode Island www.castlehillinn.com check this place out.
The photo is of my view of the yacht club at my hotel. I will update all weekend.
The next photo is of the gift basket that that was left for me at the hotel. What a nice touch.

Wedding Show and Other Stuff

For those that were at the wedding show and are looking for the link to see the latest wedding albums that I have produced, click on this link. http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=79060

Today I had one of the best wedding shows I have had in a long time. I started talking to brides the moment they opened the doors at noon and did not stop at all until the thing closed down at 5:30. I am very tired. I was at a wedding until midnight at the Fox Theater in Atlanta last night and then up early for the show today. I will post stuff from last weeks and this weeks wedding in the next few days. I know that it has been a while since my last post, and have been getting e mail asking if everything is OK. Everything is fine, it is just that EVERY DAY IS FULL OF STUFF TO DO.
If it is not favors for other photographers, it is take kids to school, pick kids up from school, drum lessons, football games, baseball games, football practice, baseball practice all for my son. Then my daughter, the lovely Marah Evans has dentist appointments, a list of boys on the social calendar and a phone stuck in her ear. I have not moved to the new house yet, but the kids now go to school just 3 miles from the new place, 22 miles from where I live now. Every school day I drive at least 88 miles just in the back and forth commute to school. To top all of this off, a very dear close person to me had major surgery last week. She lives alone and has no one to take care of her. So, she is recuperating at my house. She can not drive or lift anything more than a Coke bottle for the next 3 weeks.
I am up to my neck in STUFF TO DO. So, as I have said before. If you are looking for a favor for free, GET TO THE VERY BACK OF THE LINE, because it just ain't happing this month.

Today's Wedding

I had a really good time today. It was not as hot as last weekend, but I still was a sweaty mess when I left the church. This church was one of those classic old time churches right on Main Street in the town of Conyers , Ga. I really like shooting in old churches. I guess it just reminds me of my childhood when I would spend half the summer with my cousin Mike in Virginia. His dad, (my uncle) was a minister and his church was an old one in Richmond . I even like the way an old church smells. Kind of dusty, but clean, but not as clean as your grandmothers house.
Anyway, enough about the good old days in the 60's Here are a few photos from today's wedding. All of these photos were shot in that dusty old church. I have a new DVD that I am working on called "Making Something from Nothing" I may use the before and after versions of these images in that DVD. Oh, and that crazy ass music that you hear is from the post about 4 or 5 down the list from the Durham wedding. The music starts playing automatically and I can not figure out how to stop it.

My New Home

I have not been posting much as I have been working on the extra DVDs for the DVD set and buying a new home. I close on the new place in 3 weeks and will start modifications right away. It is on a lake south of Atlanta and I have the whole point with a great view.
I will put in a work room, editing room and a small showroom. I don't know how I will get any work done after it is all ready as the 180 degree view of the water from the editing room you just will not be able to stop looking at. After the first of the year, I may add a studio.

Frogtown

Today I did a bridal portrait session at a winery in the North Ga Mountains called Frogtown. It was a very long ride but I think well worth it. I like the 2 photos from the shoot below. Her wedding is going to be there in Sept and it looks like a cool place to have one. See the web site at www.frogtownwine.com

Still to much happening to sit down and write.

It just sucks that I have no time at the moment to put together something meaningful or informative. But in the last week I have placed an offer on a new home, Started a new DVD title called Something From Nothing. The kids started school. Football try outs. Designed 4 wedding albums, one from a wedding I did not even shoot and was struck by lightning. NOT KIDDING ! Just call me "Johnny Volt" that is my new nickname. I am fine by the way.
So , you get to see video of my son Garen hitting, again. I promise that this is the last baseball video that I will post until Fall Baseball gets going.
Next week I will post something useful.
On another note. I have a very good cool friend that will be in need of a good job at the end of September. She is the executive assistant to the president of a fortune 300 company. A loyal employee for almost 20 years, and will be job hunting as her company National Linen is to be sold at the end of the month. You will not find anyone better for your top level position than her. Be prepared to dish out some cash, she is not cheap. I thought about asking her to do marketing for me, but if she did she would generate to much and I would have to work more than I want to. Plus, she will not put up with my Loony Tunes way of doing things, and we have history. A disaster in the makings.

Just more good hitting

Everyone thought this one bounced over the fence holding him to just two bases. But he knew what was going on and just kept on running. This was a BIG field. 400 ft to center field. Just remember, he is only 13.

Durham Wedding Album

Wedding Album that I photographed and designed from a wedding last month in Durham NC

Son's Homerun

I am lucky that I get to see this type of hitting very often

To Much Going on to Post

So much has been going on that there is no time to get photos together or even decide what to write about. Next week I will have a lot to say. In the past 14 days I have had two different friends fathers pass away, photographed 3 weddings (2 out of town) , taught the July class in Alabama, dropped my son off at aviation camp, sent my daughter to FL and built my brothers web site. Tomorrow I will design a DVD for Mr Romance and put together two wedding albums. Then at 7pm I will hit the road to Huntsville for my sons graduation at Aviation Challenge on Friday at 10am. Then home with a wedding on Saturday.
So, if you are a tele-marketer, or want something from me for free or need a favor, GET TO THE BACK OF THE LINE . Because as my good friend Scott Holloway says " This ain't no $^%$*& hobby."
In the absence of photos, click on this link ('http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=79060');and it will take you to my video sharing site. Today you can see 3 different albums that I have put together in the last few weeks. After you click on a show to view, give it about 10 seconds to start up and then click on start or loop all. I can't remember. April and Kurt is a wedding in St Simons Island. Birthday party is the job I shot in New York. Burt and Jeannie is from my friend Burt's wedding. It was a small affair but a great story. This couple was married in 1973. Divorced in 1974 and lost touch with each other. Burt's wife of 30 years Lynn, died 2 years ago. While on the Classmates.com web site Burt started looking for old friends. The rest is new history.

Mr Romance

I have to make this quick as I am out the door to a destination wedding for this weekend. I can't say where or who and will not be posting any photos from it per request from the bride and groom.
The photos that are posted are from a shoot yesterday at a winery. Girls grab some tissues, guys read on, it will work in your favor later.
This guy sent his girlfriend on an all day long scavenger hunt all over town. Everything from eating breakfast at their favorite place to digging in her backyard and dress shopping. About 10 places in all. At each place the manager or an employee would give her a clue written on a parchment paper thing that sort of looked like a treasure map. The thing she dug up in the backyard was a wooden box that was locked. She was to carry it around all day. Her goal was to find the key to the box so she could open it and see the treasure. After 10 hours of driving all over, she gets a phone call as her last clue. The caller is her Father. It says to drive to the winery and see the manager. She did and the manager gave her instructions to follow the pink ribbons along a trail threw the vineyards. My big behind was hiding in a tree in the middle of the vineyard. When she passed me, I snuck in behind her and photographed her long walk down one of the rows of grape vines. She never knew I was there. At the end of the row, up walks Mr Romance in a suit and tie. When she sees him she starts to run, so do I . When she gets to him, I started shooting as he gives her the key to the treasure. She opens the box to find a note and a hand mirror. The note says to "Look in the mirror to see the treasure" She is the "Treasure" She cries, and then he gets down on one knee and proposes and slides a rock on her finger that makes her walk like a gorilla.
Girls, blow your nose, Guys, start drawing a map. I'm gone to the Islands, be back Tuesday.

Hit Bull, Win Steak

Tonight I am in Durham , North Carolina. I have a wedding here tomorrow and the Bride and Groom threw a private party bash at the Durham Bulls game. The Richmond Braves were whipping the snot out of the Bulls when I had to leave in the 7th inning.
I went to buy a hot dog to use in a photo and my wallet was not in my pocket. I thought I had lost my wallet, so I left to start making the phone calls to the credit card company, but, it was in the rental car. So not being able to get back into the game, I came back to the hotel. The Richmond Braves were great, but not as good as my son's team the Fairview Vipers. He was playing in a State tournament in Fayetteville, Ga He hit a single, double and a triple and scored twice. They won 14-6 and made it into the third round of the playoffs. I would have loved to have been there instead of getting updates over the cell phone.

If you ever saw the movie "Bull Durham" with Kevin Costner, well this is the team he was on. In the movie there was this sign in the outfield that said " Hit Bull Win Steak, Hit Grass Win Salad" The photo at top is of me standing under the sign. The sign was moved from the old stadium that was in the movie to the beautiful new one that they play in now. If you are a hockey fan, (I know NOTHING about the game) I will bet you have never seen INSIDE the Stanley Cup. The Durham hockey team won the Stanley Cup this year and the hero of the team , the goalie, drove the cup around the warning track and threw out the first pitch. See a photo that I took of the cup from above.

This Mornings RUSH Job

At Midnight last night, Scott Holloway who is a photographer in Greenville SC calls me up and says. "Hey Scott, I shot this photo of a hotel and then I shot some photos of the fireworks on the 4th of July and I need to put them all together and I need it at 10 am." It took until 1:30 am to download the photos because of a computer problem on his end so after downloading I went to bed. I knew I could do this in about 20 minutes. At 8am I was on it and after trying to upload this monster sized file back to him for an hour it finally went threw and made the deadline for a local Greenville, SC magazine. The photo at top is the finished job. The photos below are what he sent me. Total time 3 hours with 2 and 1/2 of that being internet problems.

Baseball game tonight. Tomorrow is on to Durham, NC for a 3 day wedding. I will post stuff from Durham.