A Bunch of B's

Bands, Baseball, Bride, Blue Angels and Burned. In that order.
Friday, I went to a concert with Janet. Saturday, Garen had a ball game, and he hit a home run in the 2nd inning. Then a wedding that night, and the Blue Angels on Sunday. Where I got sunburned. Bad. Next week is photographing a golf tournament in Peachtree City and a wedding on Saturday and then the Drag Races on Sunday.
All of the photos and video, if I figure out how to post it were and will be taken with my new Nikon S-6 camera. It is a tiny little point and shoot that has a 6 mega pixel sensor and is about the size of the stack of credit cards that your girlfriend takes from your wallet to go shopping with without telling you. I am about to nail down a new studio and showroom location and when all is finalized, I will post it here.

Hilton Head Island Wedding

What a fun bunch of people. Ashley and Britton finally go to have the big wedding they had hoped for. She was absolutely beautiful and he was sharp in his dress uniform. The weather was fantastic and the cops only came one time. The fantastic crew at the event facility Windows on the Water took care of the police. They must have slipped him a $ 50 or gave him some food because 10 min later he was gone and the music never got softer. The evening was closed by Ashley and Britton running threw about a half a mile worth of sparklers and then they left by boat from the marina. Check out how much in love this couple are by looking at the photos. To have a wedding at Hilton Head, contact Julie Miller at www.celebrationevents.net or call (843)-689-7526 They run all of the best places in town.

Hilton Head, South Carolina

I am in Hilton Head for the long awaited wedding of Ashley and Britton. They were married the night before he shipped out to Iraq a year ago. They had planed a large wedding , but had to scrap those plans due to the news of his deployment. A few days before he left, they decided to go ahead and get married quick. Their wedding was in a small chapel on the base in Texas and none of their friends and family could attend on such short notice. So, when he left he told Ashley to plan another big one. Britton served a full year in Iraq. While training Iraqi solders to take care of their own country, Britton was in constant combat with Al-Quedia backed insurgents Britton came home a few weeks ago and here we are.

The original photographer that they had reserved for the originally planned wedding, took a huge deposit and when Britton found out that he was to be deployed to Iraq before the wedding date they called and told the photographer 4 months in advance. They had only booked her a few weeks before. She refused to give back ANY portion of the deposit. She even went as far to say that she could give the deposit back, but because of her political views on the war and her hatred of the President that she would in no way give any refunds. Pretty much punishing this wonderful couple because he was about to go off and risk his life for his country and this womans own personal security in the future. Can you believe that? I do not normally get political on my web site or BLOG. But when I heard this today, it just really set me off.

Anyway, here are some photos from this evening. This place is beautiful. It is a shame that I am here alone, this sunset should be shared with someone.
And on another note, to Beth whom I met at the Pizza Place, I don't believe all that stuff about you being 41 on Sunday. I am thinking more like 31. Anyway, enjoy Atlantic City, and good luck.

Y'all Are All Just Chicken !

Every day I get e mails from people who read this BLOG. If you have a question or comment, please post it. I think y'all are just chicken. Afraid that someone will see what you wrote, and know who you are, and think to themselves......."What A Sick Freak That Poster Was !"
Well calm down, no one really cares what you write to me except me. And even then, only a little.

For some reason, someone named Susan e mailed me today and said she reads this BLOG and asked me if I was real. "What kind of question is that ?" I thought.
I am real. I have two kids, a house, two dogs and I do normal things. ( Normal to me anyway)So these photos are for you Susan, who ever you are. They are of my daughter Marah. My son Garen and a couple of his girlfriends. And what I bought at the convenience store when I filled up my pickup truck with gas. $ 63.00 to fill up, that sucks.
Tonight Garen had a baseball game. His team won 9-3

Just Wait Till Next Year

Next year, I plan on entering every category of the 16x20 competition with at least 5 entries each. Ryan Schembree took first place in the International Print competion in the Wedding category. I guess 2nd place is still pretty good and I am happy with that.

There were over 9000 photographers here over the weekend and this week. Ya'll should have seen the Vegas Strip after the awards ceremony let out. Within about ten minutes about 800 photographers were storming out of Ballys with cameras and tripods photographing all the lights and water shows. Everyone was in every one else's way. Flashes were popping everywhere, it looked like a whole cruise ship full of Japanese tourist had just come into port. Casey took this photo of Erin and I.

There were some new products and a lot of new album companies at the trade show. Nikon was showing off the new D200 and S6 cameras. I liked them so much that I bought one of each.

This Place Never Sleeps

As promised, I have a new photo. This is Erin Hicks. She worked for me at the Fayetteville store from around 1993 until 1995. She now has a very successful photography studio in Laurel, Mississippi. Around 10 or 12 years ago,Erin helped keep my Image Doctor shop running during a very difficult part in my life. She still looks today like she did 12 years ago. Back then she was young and beautiful and she still is today. Erin and Casey are here for the convention and have been a lot of fun. We had dinner with Atlanta photographer Scott Holloway and his wife Leigh tonight.

Las Vegas April 10, 2006

I made it here just fine. My hotel room is nice. It feels like Dean Martin will walk around the corner any minuet and give me a martini. I will post photos of people and things late tonight.

Rome, April 6th 2006

Tonight we caught the Rome Braves (A Atlanta) home opener. It was a vast change from the other night in Nashville. In Nashville for a AAA game there were about 80 people in the stands, and admission was free. Tonight in Rome, GA Cheap tickets were $ 17.00 and I think it was a sell out. The photo is of Garen with his Nashville Sounds hat on. We did not get any foul balls tonight, to much competition. Earlier today we toured a Civil War battlefield in Tennessee. We will be back home tomorrow night as I have a wedding on Saturday morning.
I will be off to Las Vegas on Monday morning to the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention. I am up for the "Wedding Photograph of the Year " Award. My photograph, "After the Storm" is the photo you see when you first come on to my web site. It won First Place in one of the 4 competitions that were held this year with photos coming in from all over the world. I am up against the winners from the other competitions. Wish me luck !

Oh, but the best news today is that John Paul made it home from Afghanistan safe and sound and is at this moment enjoying that Grandson of mine. Thank you to the 160th Special Operations Air Regiment "Night Stalkers" Air Assault

Nashville

Today, my son Garen and I took a little road trip. He and my daughter are on Spring break from school. Marah, had to stay home and work so this trip is just Garen and I. We do this from time to time. We just pull out of the driveway and flip a coin as to which way to turn and we wind up wherever. This time we went up I 75 North of Atlanta and stopped at the museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennasaw , GA . After that we both decided to head up to Kentucky and see the grand baby. On the way we checked on minor league baseball games that were to be played this evening. Turns out that the Nashville Sounds (AAA Milwaukee Brewers farm team )had a pre season game at Greer Stadium in Nashville. When we got there we found that admission was free. It is a decent little stadium. There were about 3 people there when we got there at 5 pm, one hour before game time and by the bottom of the 6th when we left the Sounds were winning 10 to nothing and the crowd had swelled to about 80 people. I wonder how many would have been there if they had to pay to get in ? Anyway Garen got 4 foul balls and got them signed by some of the players.
We made it to Christina's late tonight and will hang out here for a while tomorrow and then who knows where. John Paul, Christina's husband will be getting home from Afghanistan on Thursday so we need to scram so they can have some time together.

St Simons Wedding

It is 3:30 Am and I am changing the ice pack I have on my eye at the moment. I was debating on calling this post " Black Eye" or "Drunken Jerk". But since there was only one drunken jerk out of a crowd of about 150 I just decided to go with St Simons Wedding.
First off let me say that my bride and groom today were the dream couple that I wish I could photograph every weekend. They were so open to suggestions for photos and you could tell that they are really in total love. The photos in this post are from today "Duhh"
Anyway, when the evening was over tonight, my bride and groom were running out of The King and Prince resort on St Simons Island amidst a big blanket of bubbles that were being blown into the wind by all of there wedding guest. Another wedding couple had just left the King and Prince also and instead of bubbles, they for some stupid reason were throwing bags of beach sand. Some of these bags were littered all over the ground at the front door of the hotel. Here is where the drunken jerk comes in. While I was taking a photo of my bride and groom getting into the vintage 1940's car, some one with an arm like an Atlanta Braves closer threw one of those bags of sand and hit me in the left eye. The bag exploded and sand filled my eye, camera equipment and mouth. Sand also got in the eye of a young lady standing next to me.
I think it would have been a lot worse if I had not had my glasses on.
But Anyway, the King and Prince is a fantastic resort and I would recommend it to anyone wanting some peace and quiet. But bring a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly because the kitchen and bar close here at 10 pm. Enjoy the photos.