So, I am finally getting around to trying to catch up on my blogging and other internet stuff! The desk is done! More about that in a future post.

With our unseasonably warm winter, the dogwoods came out early this year. I shot these photos back on March 24th. The dogwoods were everywhere by then and looking spectacular. If you don’t know, the dogwood is one of my favorite trees, I just love the shock of white in a brown forest that signifies that spring has indeed, arrived. I try to shoot a dogwood portrait every year. It seems I have missed the last couple of years, but here are a couple of old posts from 2008  &  2009   ( on a side note, I just realized that I have been blogging for over 4 years now! March 26th 2008 was my first post! I’ve made 190 posts, including this one! )

I still haven’t picked which one is my favorite yet. Any suggestions?

I love this time of year, the reawakening! It is like someone flipped a switch! Flowers are blooming, trees are leafing out, tulips are popping out and pollen is covering the cars! Work had been great and busy. I am busy working on an update of new work for the website and a new published section. I am busy trying to finish my desk/office project and then I need to get out on our gardens. Weeding and planting both have to get done soon! And some fishing, of course! As a great musician once said – I’ll sleep when I’m dead.

Happy Spring everyone! ( on a technical note I played around with these photos in an App called ‘Instant’ for the Mac. It mimics Polaroids. Kinda fun! )

I am just now seeing this. Kristen who is the brains behind a sweet print shop here in Charlotte, Three Little Birds, gave me a nice shout out on her blog! Kristen does great work, she has made note cards for me, made our wedding thank you notes and she does incredible invitations.They should be your No. 1 stop when looking for printed products! I had an idea for red envelopes with a white lining and even though they couldn’t find them, Kristen just went ahead and made them for me! Then, on a reorder she went on step further and added my logo and info printed on the inside flap of the envelope, you can’t have too much branding! Check em out and say HI! to Kristen.

Check out her blog post about my cards here. Not sure about the World Renowned part, but maybe…….

Thanks Kristen

The other night I was talking with a photographer friend and she was lamenting how she didn’t have anything to post on her blog. Her ideal blog post is a portfolio level image. I suppose that is all of our ‘ideal’ blog posts, but it doesn’t happen all that often. When we are out shooting assignments for someone else, you don’t always get a portfolio level photo. You get great photos and photos that solve the clients problems and fit their needs, but they are not always at portfolio level. When you do some testing or shoot a personal project or just shoot for fun, that is when you have a better chance of making a portfolio level shot. So I was trying to tell my friend that the blog and other social media is not always for the top level photos. To me, your web site is where those go, your portfolio website. The blog is for fun stuff, a look at who I am and what I do. A glimpse at a set, at a client, at a subject, at my wrap party, with my friends and family. It is where I say things like ‘Whoa! I got to meet Mario Andretti last night!’. It is for that shot of the clouds that look like Homer Simpson or the car covered in bumper stickers that you saw at the coffee shop parking lot. A shot of my dog, or your cat, laying int he beautiful light while you work on the computer and wish you were shooting. Basically a look into what is happening in my/your life. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. I think many of us hold off on posting stuff until we think we have something profound to say, and then it is 4 months since you last post and the guilt and pressure builds until you are frozen by the weight of having a GREAT post to make up for it! I was of the same mindset for a long time, until I did my ‘summer photo of the day’ project last year. It was an eye opener. I could post a fun photo that wasn’t maybe the ‘greatest’ photo.

I meet with a group of 6 photographers every other week and we discuss all sorts of things about our professional and personal lives. We help each other edit and make up marketing schedules. We come up with different ways to display each others work. We talk about estimating and local vs. national clients. We talk about what might make a sweet set of photos or which project to work on next. We drink beer and wine. We also discuss social media. My original friends in the beginning of this post is a member of this group and I know that about half of the rest of the group struggle with or don’t care about social media or blogs or twitter or facebook. So I decided to challenge the group to a 30 day social media posting party. I came up with, stole got the idea from a something that is going around in the mommy blogs these days. They are doing a photo a day for each month of the year. Someone makes a list and it flies around the interwebs world and other mommy bloggers jump on it. I made up a list, stealing borrowing some of the mommy ideas and some of my own and presented to our group last night. I said here is the list of loose assignments, here is why, here is when. I didn’t want this to sit around for a week, so I said let’s start this tomorrow, today. This was met with some cheers and understanding and some skepticism and doubt. But after a bit of discussion, we all are more or less on board and here is my first photo. I wont post to the blog everyday, but will post at least to facebook everyday.

Day 1 – This is me.

Got a call to fill in for a photographer friend who was stuck on an airplane and needed someone to shoot a gig for him. I of course said sure, whatcha got. It was to provide some photos for SPEED TV’s presentation of the SPEED Performer of the Year award.  Oh, and Mario Andretti will be presenting it. Are you kidding me?

Mario.

Nothing more needs to be said, we all know about Mario and what he has done – He is one of only two drivers to win races in Formula One, Indy car, World Sportscar Championship, Nascar, midget cars, sprint cars and drag racing. I could go on and on and on and on but you get the point. Oh yea, and Mario tweets like it is his job! follow him @marioandretti

Ok, so I am in for this gig and I arrive at SPEED TV’s awesome Charlotte facilities not really knowing what to expect from them, not ever having worked with them before. I have quite a bit of production, set and TV experience, but each crew is different and each show has it’s own attitude. Well, these guys were awesome! I have never worked with a more accommodating and professional group. And when I was told that the winner of the award was none other than Tony Stewart, I had some apprehension. Tony has always been one of my favorite drivers but his relationship with the media has had its ups and downs, to say the least! Well again, Tony was super accommodating and very professional. He had an outstanding year in Nascar last year, won the Championship,  and even won a World of Outlaws event! ( love the Outlaws! ) He is well deserving of this award!

Anyway, it all went well and I had a great time working with SPEED and meeting these two legendary drivers! Here is a quickie Instagram shot from the iphone and the shot that SPEEDTV used on their website.