More Seniors

This was a very full day. I got to the studio at 8:30 this morning and left at 9:30 tonight. During that time I photographed 25 corporate head shots and designed matching security ID cards for those head shots then printed them. Knocked out 2 photo restoration jobs, Booked 1800.00 worth of new work and then did two senior photo sessions starting at 4 and 6m. These photos are from the senior sessions. All sessions are photographed in my studio or the alley behind he studio. I am getting bored with the alley and am looking for new locations within walking distance of the shop. I have a few locations in mind and will post photos from them when I shoot them.

Wedding School

Wedding School is will be going on soon, just 4 weeks to go. I have 7 spaces left open. If you want to check out the info go to my other web site at http://www.imagedoctor.com/ and see "Workshops and Classes" Also, Next week on Thursday I will be giving my Photoshop Basics class from 7-10 at my shop in McDonough, Ga. The two photos are of Taylor. She has agreed to be the bride model at Wedding School.

Seniors

I have been photographing high school seniors all week. It has been very time consuming but I have really enjoyed it. So far 10 out of the 24 that I have contracted for have come to the studio and had their formal cap and gown photos made and 5 have done extra sessions. All sessions were shot in the alley behind the studio.
These photos are from 3 of them.

Classes, Workshops and New Web Site

I have just finalized the dates for the Wedding School 2 and 3 day Workshops and 1 night classes. I have also re made the http://www.imagedoctor.com/ web site please check it out. There is tons of new stuff and I will be adding a lot more. All info about the classes is there as well as a link to buy tickets. I figured I would announce all this on the blog first, and on Monday I will mass email all those on my mailing list. So, readers of my blog. Please check out the new site and tell me where the mistakes are. I know that some links are not active. I have not converted the files that the links go to to PDFs yet. I hope all is well. I am falling asleep at the keyboard so it is off to bed for me. Please send any feed back to scott@imagedoctor.com Thanks everyone for reading.

Happy 4th of July and Win a Hat

I hope everyone had a safe 4th of July. For those of you out side the USA, the 4th of July is a national holiday celebrating our declaration of Independence from England over 200 years ago.

I celebrated as usual. I was working. I opened the shop for some special customers at 10 am and then went home and found friends sitting on my dock having their own 4th of July celebration. I guess they were going to invite me to the party if I showed up. ( At my own house) Anyway, I hung around a little while and then went back to the shop to open up for our annual "Ice Cream Social" on the town square at 7pm.

There were a lot of people there and several of them found their way into the shop. I met a nice couple that are opening up a photography studio a few miles away and we had a nice chat.

I went back to my house and the party had disappeared, so I sat on my deck and waited for the locals to shoot fireworks off the dam at the lake where I live.

Each year if I am home, when the locals start shooting fireworks, I bring out the Marshal Stack, plug in my Stratocaster and play the Star Spangled Banner in the Jimi Hendrix style. At a very high volume.

As I was warming up, two guys on a pontoon boat that had heard me playing tied up to my dock and walked up to the back deck . They had had a few. Anyway, one of them took the photo in this post of me playing. So, here is the "Win a Hat" part. The first person that e mails me and can tell me why their little point and shoot camera underexposed the photo of me playing my guitar will win an Image Doctor hat like the one I am wearing in the photo. (I have 3 left) You must include a mailing address in your e mail so I can send it to you. Send e mails to imagedoc0@gmail.com I lightened the second version of the photo by just doing a "Levels" adjustment.

While the fireworks were going on, the police showed up and ran everyone off. So I turned the volume up and played it again. Now my house is across the lake from the dam and it takes the police a few minuets to get to me. I am sure someone complained as they always do , so I turned off the lights and waited a few minuets. I know that my buddy Wes who is with the Henry county police was not one of the officers on duty as he would have known exactly which house to go to. Wes is a great photographer who I met when he attended one of my classes.

Some Recent Work

Here are a few photos from my last two wedings . I have new web sites in the works for both scottevans.com and imagedoctor.com They are both down right now as I switch hosting companies.

If You Need To Send Me A File

Use this link. http://dropbox.yousendit.com/ScottEvans764186

Nashville, Chicago, St Louis

So Thurs my son and I took off for a 5 day road trip. I did a show in Nashville, a wedding in Chicago ( for 14 hours) and am now in St Louis sitting by the pool as I have a corporate head shot job for Equifax in the morning from 9am until 12:30. Then we head home so that I can open the shop on Tuesday.

For the wedding we shot photos all over Chicago. We followed the Bride and Groom as they went from spot to spot in town that they went to on on their first big date. We parked in every no parking zone in the city and I would leave Garen sitting on the back of our car as if it was broken down so that the police would not give us a ticket or tow he car.
See the photos from Chicago below.

This Weekends Wedding

With so much going on with opening the new shop, I just have not had much time to keep up with this blog. I have had several weddings and am working on all of them at this time to get them ready for presentation and album design. Yesterday I had a wonderful wedding at Barnsley Garden resort in Adairsville, Ga. There was something special about this one that just made me want to post some of the photos. So , here they are. Please give me some feedback.

Hockey Playoffs

Tonight after I left the shop, my son had a hockey playoff game. That is him in the White and Gold. He blocked 2 shots on the goal with his head, got into it with an opposing player, almost scored and was in the penalty box twice. My daughter, changed her hair style and then went to a talent show at her high school. I drove them all over the county. There is also a new post over on my other blog. http://image-doctor.blogspot.com/

May 2, 2008

No silly stuff today. But I did post over on my other blog. See it here. http://image-doctor.blogspot.com/

Just Got Home

I have been on the road since last Wed . Lets see Wednesday I did a show. Thursday I helped another photographer shoot a prom. Friday morning I started shooting a 2 day destination wedding. Sunday night I did a show in Jacksonville Fl. Monday night a show in Anniston , Al and Tuesday night a show in Huntsville. I got home at 4:30 this morning and slept till noon. Then went and took possession of my new building. See my other blog at http://image-doctor.blogspot.com/ to see what is going on with that.
The photo is from this weekends wedding.

Also,

Hey you in Va Beach. Is that you Mechelle ? It has been almost 10 years now, why don't you drop me a line.

Just Dreaming

For all of you that run your own photography business, y'all all know how complicated it is. You spend very little time photographing and tons of time on production, advertising, getting this piece of equipment and that piece of equipment etc. Those of us who run our photography business according to the "Rules" also have to deal with INSURANCE, CITY CODES, LOCAL ORDINANCES, SIGN PERMITS, SALES TAX, CITY TAX, INVENTORY TAX, OCCUPANCY TAX, THE OLD LADIES AT THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, THE MAIN STREET COMMITTEE, and the DUDE THAT CHECKS THE PARKING METERS AND WRITES OUR CUSTOMERS TICKETS. AND last but not least, some of you (Not Me) have some terrible employees. Some EMPLOYEES are a bigger pain in the ass than the CUSTOMERS.

Now if you have ever met me, and we talked for more than 10 minuets, you know that my DREAM JOB is not what I do right now. Although I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a photographer, sometimes it just gets to be to much. Believe it or not, up until last week, my dream job was to be the guy that picks up the trash at a state park. You get to be outside. Nobody bothers you and you get to carry a sharp stick. If I had found a park that paid 300K yearly for picking up trash I would have been there. But that is now the #2 job on my list.
I found my calling last weekend. All I have to do is loose 150 pounds.
I want to be a Barny Fife Impersonator.

This guy was great! He even had a Mayberry patrol car.

Prom Girls

I called an old friend of mine today that I have not seen in a few years and she was not home. But her daughter was. And when I told her who I was she said "Do you still do pictures ? What are you doing tonight ?" Next thing I know, I am sitting on a bench outside of my soon to be new shop waiting for her to show up for some photos before she goes off to her Jr Prom.

While I sat there waiting, I watched about ten prom couples and their parents walk up to the center of the park in the middle of the town sq and pose for photos. I had NO PLANS on photographing my friends daughter and her friends at the same place as everyone else from her school. We went to my favorite alley behind my shop just 1/2 block from the sq. In this post are 4 photos from their session.

The Image Doctor Inc. Photograph Restoration

This post is just a reminder that I do still enjoy photograph restoration. I started my company The Image Doctor Inc. over 25 years ago. As the Image Doctor , I and my small but smart assy team restore photographs for museums, historical societies and individuals and have been doing so for a very long time. 2 years ago, I decided to take a well deserved break and stooped advertising The Image Doctor and closed our retail store. Erin wanted a break. Melanie wanted and demanded a break, and I wanted to do some different stuff. So, we all took a break. Melanie tended to some family needs. Erin restored a hotel. and I created instructional DVDs, gave seminars, shot some great weddings, fished and flew all over the country to see concerts that I wanted to see.
Well Play time is over. We are all getting things together for the reopening of the retail shop and school. Joining us will be Melissa Custer. And keeping with the Image Doctor tradition, man is she good lookin'. Also, an addition to the staff that really gets my tears flowing is that my daughter Marah (also very good looking) will be working with us for the first time this Summer.

What a Day

Schools out here in Ga this week for Spring break. Kids are going here and there doing this and that.
Today at the batting cages I had to explain the "shot gun, a shovel and 40 acres" concept to this local dope dealing 19 year old punk that was messing with my daughter. He called the police and said I threatened him. The policeman was very nice and said this kid was always calling the police when people run him off trying to get whomever ran him off in trouble. I am in no trouble, and I am sure this punk doesn't want to see me again. Don't mess with my kids.

I have a wedding tomorrow and then corporate head shots to do all next week. I will have photos in the next post.
Also, I have a new way for you guys to send files to me for "File Pimping or Printing" Just use this link http://dropbox.yousendit.com/ScottEvans7759107 You can send multiple files or send a folder and it is VERY EASY. Also, it will not get caught up in spam filters like an e mail attachment will.

Nothing

Today was the first Saturday in a while that I have not had a wedding or some kind of event. All my wedding albums that I needed to design were finished this week so today I just did NOTHING.
Well, I did mosey on in to town and stoped by the antique store that will be my new shop in about a month. I bought this cool change maker. Lets say you were a shop owner in the 30s or 40s and and you had to give a customer change for a purchase. If the change due was say 47 cents, well then you just push the number 47 and out comes a quarter, two dimes and 2 pennies. The money falls into a little cup and when you push the cup in the change falls into your palm. I thought this would be a great way for the kids to get their lunch money in the mornings and they could get the exact $1.75 that they need instead of snagging a 5 out of my wallet. EACH.

I also have put it by the front door so that they will now remember to go out of the front door when they leave for school instead of going out the garage door and leaving it up so that the squirrels can get under the hood of my truck and eat the wiring up again. Everything I do has a purpose. Tomorrow, I Fish.
Oh, and the Braves beat the Mets. What a great day !

Big News

OK, so the big news that I have been working on was finalized today. I just acquired a commercial building on the town sq of McDonough. It is in the perfect place. Right between the court house and the only 2 restaurants open for lunch in town. For those of you who have seen my "50 Things" seminar, it is right next door to the restaurant that I hung my Faces of Town photo exhibit in. Why is this a good location ? Because every Monday I get approx 150 new people from all over the county who are forced to be on the town sq because they have jury duty. They have nowhere to go for lunch except the two restaurants that are to my left. The court house is on my right. Every one of them has to pass me twice. I will have retail merchandise in the shop for folks to spend their money on and a portrait studio. My Image Doctor Inc. Photograph Restoration business will be there as well as the BIG NEWS item.

The Big News is that I will be doing 2 and 3 day workshops at this location. Also, my seminar shows as one evening classes. There is a new bed and breakfast hotel opening 100 yards away from my front door so there will be plenty of room for everyone. Workshops will start in June after I finish my seminar tour. Dates to be finalized this week I hope.
I know it has been weeks since my last post but I have had 4 weddings, a big Father Daughter dance at the school that I just picked up the photo contract on for next school year, 3 full days doing corporate head shots for Equifax, and a private seminar. All in the last two weeks.
And last night a great photographer named Ernie Russell threw a dinner party for a lot of the big names in the wedding photography industry in Atlanta at his home in Ackworth. (About 80 miles from my house) it started at 6pm and myself and Rachel LaCour walked out at 12:15am. I got in bed at 2 am and then had the closing today and a photo shoot. The one photo is from today's engagement photo session.

Greenville, SC as a 2nd Shooter

This weekend I helped another photographer, Scott Holloway http://www.scottholloway.com/ photograph a large wedding. This was a very big deal of a wedding for him that should break him into the Greek community and get him a lot of large Greek weddings.

This was the first time in my life that I was a "2nd Shooter" and it felt very weird not to be in charge of everything. It also felt great not having to try and out do whatever I did at the last wedding and have to worry about every detail. All I had to do was show up and shoot what I saw. It was very relaxing. Scott Holloway was my assistant in Atlanta for a while when he was just starting out as a wedding photographer. These are some photos that I took. There will be big news in my next post.

Watching the Eclipse

This image was taken while my son was sitting down by the lake at the fire pit waiting for the eclipse to start tonight.

Exposure was 25 seconds at f 8 ASA/ISO 400

I liked it so I thought I would share it.

Valentines Day Wedding

This post is a short one. I had a wedding yesterday at the Ritz Carlton. I won't say where but it was one of them within 10 driving hours of my home. It was a small very personal and private affair with selected guest. I have photographed this couple before in New York and Rhode Island. I was not even going to post anything about this wedding as it was very private, but everyone just kept on and on about her ring. A several carat deep pink dimond plus extras. Now I don't normaly do the "Black and White Photo with selective color added thing" unless someone asks me to. I used to hand color my photos with oil paint but now everyone is doing it with their computer (and quite badly I might add) So I just don't do it that much anymore.

But I felt that just for this blog post I would do it to show her ring. It is BEAUTIFUL. I hope you can see it. I could see it all night last night from across the room. I like this shot. She was laying across a bed full of rose petals.

Faces of Town Display and Summer Tour

This post is for the folks that sat in on my show "50 Things Every Photographer Should Know" in Indianapolis, Indiana and Savannah, Ga this last week. During the show I showed images of the outside of the restaurant but not the inside where the display was hanging. Stupid Me ! Several people wanted to see what the display looked like.
So, these photos are of the inside. I took the interior shots of the restaurant with a little point and shoot camera that I always keep in my pocket so don't send me e mail about the bad quality of the photos, I know they are not so great.

All of the portraits hanging on the walls are of local people that work on or just hang around the town sq of McDonough, Ga. The print sizes are 30x40, 40x40 and 27x40 gallery wrapped canvas. All printed and stretched by me on an Epson 9800 using Premier Art Water Resistant Canvas and stretched on hand made stretcher frames built by my father. Next month in March I will be bringing the "50 Things" show back to Savannah and then on to several cities in FL. Details are being worked out now. You will be able to register on line. Advance ticket price is $49.00

$79.00 at the door seating is limited. If you Purchase a Gold ticket in the amount of $ 99.00 you get to select one of My DVD titles to take home with you PLUS a one on one portfolio review and consultation after the show. Space is very limited for Gold tickets.

If you want to be on the E mail list for the announcement of show dates please e mail me directly at scott@scottevans.com In the Spring I will be taking it to Alabama, Mississippi and North and South Carolina. Early Summer will be Nashville, Louisville, Chicago St Louis, Somewhere in Kansas, Memphis, Dallas and the Live Music Capitol of the World, Austin, Texas.

Indianapolis, Indiana

Hi Folks,
Yes, it has been a month since I posted anything. I have been covered up with work. This weekend on Saturday night I did my first public showing of my "50 Things Every Photographer Should Know" show or seminar or class or whatever you want to call it in Indianapolis, Indiana. I had a good time and the people in the class were really great and were good sports about getting up and telling the stupidest thing that they ever did in their business. There were some good ones.

Why All the way up in Indiana ? Because I was speaking at the Professional Photographers of Indiana Annual Convention. There were a whole bunch of very cool people there and they were so full of hospitality that I could have sworn that I was in Macon , Georgia. But given the fact that it was 3 degrees outside with the wind blowing like crazy I very quickly realized that I was not in Georgia.

Another cool thing was I got to see the old actor Micky Rooney in the hotel lobby this morning. His latest film was "A Night at the Museum" He was the short little old security guard that was full of piss and vinegar. He was pretty much acting the same way this morning.

One more cool thing, My latest DVD is ready and it is a good one. It is called "Photoshop Tips for the Working Photographer" it has over 30 lessons for Photoshop that all photographers should know. If you would like to have one, just e mail me. Each of my DVD titles are $ 99.00 each with a deal at the moment on a 3 in 1 package of my titles "Photoshop Basics for Digital Photographers" , "Album Design from Scratch and the NEW one "Photoshop Tips for the Working Photographer" All 3 FOR $199.00

All 4 of my web sites are being redesigned at the moment so these prices are not on the web site. Just e mail or call me 770-355-9644

See Some of my Wedding Albums

The link on my web site that shows many of my wedding albums has just disappeared. So here is the link for anyone interested. Also, my 30 minuet portfolio is there. It is the first video on the top row. I would love some comments. Click here to see them.

Be sure to check out the second page full of thumbnails as some of my favorites are on that page.

You may have to download the viewer, it only takes 10 seconds or so and my be blocked by an "Active X" control but it is totally safe to download.

If the link does not work, copy and paste the following into your browser http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=79060

Some People !

The other night while I was watching the Sugar Bowl, I had my laptop in my lap. I decided to write an e mail to the over 2500 photographers that are on my newsletter list. Now my laptop is 3 years old and has been all over the country with me. The key board is on its last leg and many times when I press a key the letter will not be registered on the screen. I am not a stenographer, secretary, keyboarding guru or English professor. I am a photographer. I look at the keyboard when I type.

However, some people must have a LOT of time on their hands and feel that they must take it upon themselves to find and then point out the mistakes of others. So just for those 9 people that just had to point it out, read below.

I know the difference between the words career and carrier. A Career is what you do when you go to work for 30 years and send 1/3 of your money to the government to cover the expense of national defense and national infrastructure and to cover the cost of the 1/3 of the population that just want to sit on their ass and have me pay for their expenses. That is a career. A Carrier is what you use to haul your baby around. Also I know I used the phrase "Fess Up "instead of the proper "Please Confess"

Now, on the other side I received over 50 quick notes from photographers that were very complementary. Also 7 photographers sent letters up to 3 pages long voicing their opinions and situations. I loved it.
Thanks to the following photographers : Enchanted Acres Photography, Ezekiel Holliday, Santa Barbara Photography, Affordable Photography, Insight Pictures, Paul Wingler Photography,Shane Durrance Photography and several others . If I left out your name it is just because I am running out of time. I am off to Tampa in a few moments.

Merry Christmas

Last night we did the big extended family and friends Christmas dinner. I love getting together with my family and just hanging out. I hope all of you who read this enjoy your family as much as I do. As we were driving home, instead of singing Christmas songs, the kids and I sang the different harmonies of a lot of Beach Boys songs. I recommend the "Endless Summer" Greatest Hits CD.

Also today a question. For those of you who are going to Imaging USA in Tampa, would you like to get together one evening for dinner and discussion. I know some folks from Kansas and Indiana are going and want to get together, everyone is welcome. Lets e mail back and forth and set something up.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Horn Tootin

I just got this e mail from one of my brides. Thought I would pass it along.

Hi Scott. I wanted to let you know that we received our albums. They are beautiful. We couldn't be happier with the end product. You exceeded our high expectations. We enjoyed working with you and will happily pass your name along to anyone we know who is in need of a photographer. In fact, one of my co-workers wants your number as soon as she finds a suitable man to marry.

Thanks again.

Happy Holidays.

Amy Freed

I love hearing back from my customers.

Augusta, Ga

This week I am at the Marriott Riverfront in Augusta, Ga. I am photographing a job being preformed by a woodwork retouching company. Basically they make all of the wood trim and panels in the hotel look new again. Over the years the wood work such as base boards , chair rails and furniture gets all dinged up. It is much less expensive to retouch it than to replace it. As I was watching them work and making photographs I made the stupid mistake of telling these guys that what they were doing was a lot easier than retouching a photograph. Back in the old days before Photoshop and computers, I retouched photos for a custom color photo lab. Back then I used paint brushes , air brushes and other art mediums to fix the mistakes of many of Atlanta's best (and sometimes WORST) photographers.
I said too much and next thing you know some one handed me a paint brush and a jar of stain and said "Put up or shut up". So.......in between photographing I am retouching wood work. They charge$50.00 per hour to do this. I wonder if I will get a check.

This Weekends Wedding

It is 3am in Auburn Alabama. I am in my hotel room editing the stuff from today's wedding. It is really 4 am in my time as I live in the Eastern time zone and Alabama is in the Central time zone. (Or as we say in Georgia, Central time 1972) Sorry ! Had to say that. I must say that Auburn is the nicest , most clean college town I have ever been in. The streets are filled with beautiful girls and it makes me want to go to college. Anyway, I have just started editing and have in now way even looked at all of the photos, but these two jumped out at me. The groom holding her shoes while we walked threw town just kind of says it all. I wish that kind of love on everyone reading my silly little blog.
One more thing. If you are having a wedding or corporate party any where in the Southeast, 1) Hire me to photograph it and 2) hire the band Bobby More and the Rhythm Aces at (615) 254-7553. These guys are GREAT. I promise you will have a "Funky Good Time" My other favorite party band is The Neons at http://www.theneons.com neons.com