GPPA Print Competition

I am a member of the PPA (Professional Photographers of America) and the state affiliate GPPA and SEPPA ( Georgia Professional Photographers of America and South Eastern PPA) Each year, each organization has a photograph competition with hundreds of photos being submitted to be judged by other PPA members who have been certified as judges after taking the judges class and exam ect. Anyway I entered the GA competition a few weeks ago at the annual convention held in Athens, Ga.
Well, all 6 of the 16x20 prints I entered earned Merits with 3 being scored in the "Distinguished" print category for scores higher than 80. I know that in High School and 80 is only a "C" average, but in the world of print competition it is very high. The photo of the High School Senior with the saxophone called "Jazz on the Docks" scored an 86. (Scroll down to a blog post from July called "SENIORS") It won first place in the Teen Portraits category, The Distinguished Award, Best of Show for All Portraits and the biggie, The Kodak award for Photographic Excellence. I was floored when I opened the big box that the UPS guy drooped off yesterday. See the photo below of all of the awards.
I really do not like to show off, but this was a really big thing for me and I just had to tell somebody.
Also, to see a video of the wedding album I designed from the wedding I shot in New York 2 weeks ago, click here to be taken to my album video site. http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=79060 When you get to the video site, it is in the Sub category called RECENT WEDDINGS

NYC

This last weekend I shot a rather large wedding in Manhattan. It was raining all weekend. The UN was in session. President Bush and the jack ass president of Iran were both at the Waldorf Astoria hotel at the same time and security on the East side of Manhattan was INSANE. 4 police officers on every corner . Most with automatic weapons. Security check points, and me with a wedding taking place in 3 different high profile venues right in the middle of all of it. I was staying at The River Club at the end of 52nd Street east right on the east river. Great place. The staff was so cool and helpful. If you have $600.00 a night to blow on a hotel room that is the size of a walk in closet and looks like the extra bedroom at your great grandmothers house, I highly recommend it.

The photos are from the album I am working on from this wedding. One from the inside of Christ Church on Park Ave. where the ceremony took place. One is a 2page spread of Times Sq. The photos with the red circles around them are photos of the bride and groom that I inserted in place of the HUGH signs and video screens that are in the Sq. (No the Red Circles are not on the photo for the album, ) And the one with the elevator buttons is the last page spread in the wedding album. The photo of the cab has me looking out the window and the add sign on top has a photo of the bride on it.

Scot's Big Idea

I started a new blog the other day called Scott's Big Idea.. Basically it is a kind of "Lets see what works " kind of site. I will throw out ideas, you guys shoot them down OR add suggestions.
Only one post is on it at the moment. Hopefully, we photographers can expand ideas on money making topics. More post on the new site are on the way. see the new blog at www.scottsbigidea.blogspot.com

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 !