Do you Do "City " Weddings ?

I advertise all over the US on a web site called WedAlert. I guess it is a cheesy play on words for "Red Alert" Most of my brides were not even born the last time the term "Red Alert" was ever used. It means that The Communist Russians were attacking.
Anyway, I get e mails every day from brides all over the country because I advertise in every state and county in the United States. It cost a FORTUNE and is really not worth the time and effort it takes to respond to so many e mails from folks that just might not have the photography budget to cover my services. But, I respond anyway. A few weeks ago, I got this e mail from a young lady in New York. I guess after viewing my profile and seeing some of my photos on Wed Alert she decided that she liked my style and had to inquire about my services. I will say that I was just dumbfounded for a few moments when I read her e mail. It Said "I see that you are in Georgia, do you do "City" weddings.
Well after laughing I got to thinking, the only news coverage us Southerners ever get is when a Tornado goes threw a trailer park, and other such stuff. Later that day while in the grocery store I was in the check out line and this photo caught my eye.

The real reason that I took a second look is that I thought that I knew the guy in the foreground.

Now for the truth about me. All of my family lives in the Appalachian mountains. Except me.

My parents spent there honeymoon in 1950 on Lake Burton in the North GA mountains. They bought property there in the 1960s. I spent a lot of time there. Maybe to much time.

I know how to make a Moonshine Still. (Got suspended from school and won the Clayton County science Fair in 1979 all at the same time !)

When my parents retired and moved to the lake in 1980 we had to start telling my mom to put her shoes on when she came to visit. See the photos below, the kids and I still have to remind her. Please do not misunderstand me, the people that live in the North GA hills are not all banjo totting inbred albinos. (Well MOST of them aren't)) The homes on the lake can not be bought for anywhere less than one million dollars, and 3 million is not uncommon. My parents live there as do my brother and his wife Marie. I will be there as soon as the kids leave for collage in a few years. Photo is of my much older brother Allen, he is 13 years older than I. I was a "miracle" or "Accident" child, depends on who you ask. Photo shows my parents and my brother standing in front of my Dad's wood work shop where he builds the coolest tables, beds and benches.

And of course I do City Weddings. I will post photos from the job I am shooting this weekend in Manhattan. The event is on a yacht and we will be cruising the Hudson river and New York Harbor with the New York skyline in the background.

Portraits

As I get a little older, sometimes I think about opening a Portrait Studio. Everyone who knows me knows just how much I HATE having to go to a specific place every day to go to work. That is why I quit my job at the custom pro lab 18 years ago in 1987. And that was just a Part-Time job.
The showroom space that I am considering has FANTASTIC LOFT STUDIO SPACE !!! It is actually larger than my old space in the loft in McDonough. Almost 4000 sq ft. See some photos below. Also see a few of the portraits that I shot of my assistant Erin yesterday. Tell me what you think.

Below are inside photos of Showroom and Studio space.

The Horses are Fine

Many of you have seen the story of my bride and groom from last weekend that were hit by a van while on a carriage ride. I got 38 e mails asking, how they were, was I there, did I see it, ect.... Twenty of those e mails asked about the horses. The horses are fine. The driver and his assistant are now out of the hospital and are very rough looking. Scroll down to see my posts from last week to see photos from the wedding.

Horse and carriage is a Bad Idea in a Busy Town

If you check out the post below, you will see my lovely bride and groom from this last weekend. We went to the Marietta Sq to take some photos at around 11pm Sat night. After I left and they were on the way back to Brumby Hall they were hit by a car who then left the accident scene. The carriage driver and his assistant are in Critical condition and my bride and groom got out of the hospital today. Broken leg and lots of stiches for the groom and neck injury for my bride.
See Fox 5 News at 10pm tonight for the details. I just finished sending the photos to the TV station.

How to get a Fat Lip at a Wedding

What you do is ask a bunch of groomsmen with a football to kick it. If you say "Don't hit me now guys" it will not work.
See photos below from tonight's wedding. I have had 6 weddings since the last post and have been very busy trying to nail down a new studio and showroom plus buy a house. If anyone needs to rent a 5 bedroom house on the South side of Atlanta( Stockbridge), call me.
If I did not post photos from your wedding, sorry, but I just can't do them all. It does not mean that I did not like your photos ( I like them all because I take them !)

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.

St Simons Island

This weekend I am on the coast of Georgia for a wedding on St Simons Island. I do love to do beach weddings and will post more tomorrow night from the beach. The photo shows the view from my hotel room. The place is called The King and Prince and this evening after supper I sat and watched the tide come in. I almost fell asleep it is so peaceful.
Earlier today, I had a meeting with a couple who's wedding I will photograph over 3 days in New Port, Rhode Island in October. They live here in St Simons, so it was convenient for us to get together here rather than them drive 5 hours
to Atlanta. I liked them so much that I just can't wait for October. "Plus just skipping summer in Atlanta would be a dream " So lets all just think real hard and wish June,July, August and September plus all that humidity away until next year. I will post again tomorrow.

Now You Have To Deal With Us!

Tonight my son and his cousin Dalton played their first gig as a band. Keep in mind that Dalton is a 6th grader and my Son Garen is in the 7th grade. Dalton called 3 weeks ago and asked Garen if he would play drums at the school talent show.

So the band was formed and since the singer and base player quit, they had to change what they were going to play and do an instrumental. It started off with The Who's "Can't Explain" with no vocals and then to a little guitar flat picking and then to a power chord riff that Dalton came up with. All of this from time to time run threw a Jimi Hendrix style Wah pedal. They sounded FANTASTIC ! and just blew everyone else off the stage. I knew it would be wild when Garen first walked on stage and grabbed the microphone away from the MC and said "Now You Have To Deal With US ! "
If I can figure out how to put video on this blog I will post some of the show. But for now you just have a few photos