May 2009

Savannah Georgia Part 1

I’ve always thought that my photography was better than simply a snapshot, but it lacked a little something that I couldn’t put my finger on. So to help my progress as well as just get out of town for some R&R I signed up for a photography workshop through The Mindful Eye (http://tmelive.com). The workshop was 5 days and taught by Bryan Allen (http://bryanallenphoto.com), a skilled photographer out of Knoxville, TN.

Bryan Allen

Once we sat through the initial classroom session, we headed out for a casual walk on our way to dinner. During this walk we were paired up and told to capture images of our partner. We could shoot however and wherever we liked. I was paired with Usha. She has a unique look so I thought for a while about how to capture her…

Usha Hidden

Usha Stairs

Grabbing The Light

After a great dinner and getting to know the other 6 people in the workshop, we split up…some went home to the hotel, and a few of us headed out to check out the local night life. First stop was a local tavern with a funky Irish singer, Gabriel. He was surprisngly quite good and entertaining for being a one man band! After the show we continued to several other bars, each time clicking and snapping away at anyone and everyone who would we could get our lenses on.

Gabriel

Close and Personal

Lead Singer

Rack'em

Nicole’s First Shoot

Nicole was kind to at least call about once for each hour she was running late (3) and when she arrived we were working under somewhat of a tight schedule. So after a quick hello it we were off taking some test shots. It wasn’t long before Nicole was comfortable enough to start suggesting poses of her own and also off and changing to a dress she bought down in China Town. This was her first time in a modeling type of shoot but working with her was as smooth as could be…aside from my cat, Sushi trying to take center stage by working his way in front of the camera constantly. Towards the end of the shoot Nicole felt comfy enough to let loose and take some more funky shots…

How it all started…

Back in 2003 I attended a wedding in Europe of a family friend with my mom. It was one of those party weeks/fun weddings that made me realize there was no longer any need for me to ever strive to have a cool wedding of my own, and just think of that one if/when I ever got hitched myself. I’m pretty sure that a drive-thru quickie wedding in Vegas is more up my alley anyway.

Great, now what does that have to do with photography? Well, for this trip my mom had purchased a camera for us to document the trip. This was the first digital camera that I had ever had. It was a good old Sony 3 megapixel pocket camera. Actually did a nice job and still does. Now for the most part, my photos were what I would call ‘snapshots’. They captured a moment where you look back and smile, but there was no story being told and very little to keep a viewer gazing at one of my shots for longer than a second (including myself). But when I got this shot and loaded it on my computer…I was somewhat pleased with myself. Not the best image in the world, but certainly not bad for a guy standing in a tux during a heat wave in Europe with a pocket camera on auto mode. Not quite sure it matches Victorias beauty, but it was the best I could do 🙂

So before I knew what aperture was, or what shutter speed to use, or how to better frame a shot, or that this image looked even better because it happened to be taken during the ‘golden hour’…there was me and my pocket cam in auto mode. It was only a couple years later when I began paying closer attention to photos that I would see and start asking “how did they do that and how can I do that”. And eventually that lead me to where I am today which I would describe as being a ‘goal-oriented’ photographer. Which basically means that while I’m not the best or a pro, I certainly would like to get closer to that higher platform.

Archives