She said YES...Capturing the beginning

When choosing a setting to photograph a newly engaged couple it can be important to get to know they clients. Do they have any fond memories, and important places.  Some of those fond memories can be connected with the first moments they met and laid eyes upon each other.

Luckily my most recent engagement shoot was of one of my oldest and dearest friends Amber and her fiance Andrew. I myself have fond memories of their first encounters.  I remember very vividly her stories about this guy named Andrew that she met in one of her classes at school.  For her it was LOVE at first sight!  It was not long after their first meeting in a class at Georgia State University that their blooming relationship began. Because,   Georgia State University in the heart of down town Atlanta was the start of the rest of their life together it was very important to include these important locations and memories in their engagement photos.

We started the afternoon off walking around Georgia State's Campus and reliving many memories. Then headed over to Little Five Points not far from Andrews college apartment.  Little Five Points is a great eclectic town in the heart of down town Atlanta which allowed form many urban shots as well as a few natural shots in the near by parks.

Precious Gifts

There is nothing better than getting to share in the joys of an expecting or new mother!  I’ve recently gotten to share in this joy with two lovely women:  Molly Howard, and Amanda Skrobot.

Molly is expecting a bouncy baby boy in October, and Amanda recently had a beautiful baby girl. Being able to bring children into this world is such a wonderful gift, and I am glad that I have the chance to represent that through my photography.

                                                 

Jack of All Trades

I want to do it all!!  If only I had the time, space, and money!

I spent this weekend in Helen, Georgia with my parents.  Helen is a cute little German  town nestled in the foot hills of North Georgia. One of the great things about Helen is the surrounding areas are filled with artist, especially potters.  Georgia has many artistic roots nestled into the red clay in the surrounding areas.  Face Jugs have been a craft perfected in North Georgia over many years, and because of this Potters flock to this area.

There is a cute little pottery shop called Mark of the Potter that sits on the banks of the Chattahoochee River.  Visiting this shop flood back memories of my time spent in a Pottery studio. I don't claim to be a master at the pottery wheel, but it sure is therapeutic. All I could think about all weekend is how I would love to take some more Pottery courses again, so that I can get back on that wheel.

Then we entered the next shop, one dedicated stain glass. Through out the shop were many different glass techniques.  I had the chance to take a glass fusing class a few years ago, and loved the experience.  In this shop all I could think of was buying a glass kiln and creating my own glass pieces.  It did not help that my Dad worked with stain glass in the past, and was feeling the same bug to get back into a glass studio.  I had to immediately come home and hang-up the glass plates I made a few years ago.  It is finally time for them to be displayed!

How can I choose just one, when there are so many amazing art forms out there.  Is it possible for me to do it all?

Check out my new possible logo...

Tell me what you think.

Proud just like a Mama

As, I may have mentioned before, I have been teaching art for three years now.  Two years at the high school level, and one at the elementary. Teaching is full of its challenges and rewards.  There have been many moments in my teaching career that I have wondered why I am doing this, and then there are the moments that make everything worth it. It is those worthwhile moments that I live for.

One of those moments came to me in an unexpected place the other day, 

during a girls night surrounded by close friends. 

The date was set, we were excited to get together, but the inevitable question always arises: What should we do?  Dinner's great, but what do you do for the rest of the night? Movies don't allow socialization, and we knew we did not want to just sit around watching TV at someone's house...

A trend has started popping up across Georgia...Places where mainly women can go to drink wine with their girlfriends and be guided by an instructor to paint the painting of the night.  I've done this before, and had fun; but for an artist it's not really challenging. It's what I like to call, follow the leader art. Great for non-artist! Regardless it's still a great thing for me to do with my friends who don't normally paint or create.  Although, there was one problem none of us liked the painting that night. Why spend $30+ on something I'll probably paint over, and the other girl's wont hang in their house.  So I got the big idea to pack up my art supplies, and do our own version of this, but each of us got to paint what we wanted.  I wasn't sure how this was going to work considering they haven't really painted since elementary school. I was pleasantly surprised!  All three of us turned out with very different awesome paintings, and they did all the work themselves with minimal assistance.  Getting to see their results really gave me that proud mama feeling!

This was what I was able to complete during our time together. 

I love painting with others around. I feel less anti-social that way. 

And these two painting were painted by two people who haven't painted since elementary school.

Aren't they amazing!?!

The Flood Family Photos

I had the pleasure of photographing the Flood Family a few weeks ago.

When photographing on location a photographer always hopes that the natural lighting will work in the photographers favor, but that is not always the case.   When I arrived on location the lighting was perfect, but I knew that this would not last for long a storm was fast approaching. Luckily we had a covered area that we could keep dry or semi-dry, and continue the shoot without having to reschedule.   With the help of my new 35mm lens I was able to capture the detail even in a low light situation. 

Challenges of Non-objective art

I love working non-objectively it suits my impatient nature at times.  It allows me to work much quicker then if I were painting something that required a lot more details. However, non-objective art creates some very unique challenges. I'm never quite sure when to call a non-object piece of art work finished...

Tell me what you think?  Does it need anything else?

I really love the process that I went through in creating this painting.  This piece was commissioned, but the only requirements given were that it needed to be non-objective, similar to the painting I have over my couch (can be seen in an earlier blog: Fear and Loathing Art Making), and it needed to include blue. I started the yellow back ground months ago but was not ever really sure how I wanted the painting to end up. It was not until I found the rectangular, rusted metal object on the left side of the painting that inspiration hit, and the rest is history.