The big wedding day had finally come for Angie & Eric Scissom. I had met these two earlier in the year when I took their engagement photos. Now we were back in the same exact place for their wedding ceremony and reception.
Click to view Angie and Eric’s Wedding Gallery Web Site
It was an outside wedding, and the temperatures were anything but typical for mid September. It seems that summer wanted to hang out like a drunk who doesn’t know when to leave your house party. It was over 90 degrees that day and extremely humid. I soaked 3 shirts, and I felt a few pounds lighter when I got home. I was hoping not to get heat exhaustion.
I tend to go into high gear when working a wedding especially if I do not have a second shooter with me, and I try to be everywhere at once. To make a long story short, the wedding went beautifully, the reception was wonderful and the spirits of everyone involved were high. Here are a few of my favorite photographs from that day.
Every year I make a habit of enjoying the incredible fall colors of Atlanta. I am amazed at the combination of hues that come and go in just a few weeks. Here are a few photos taken right behind the studio.
This last one was taken with my iphone which exaggerated the blue in the asphalt.
The law firm down the hall works hard, but they try to let off a little steam on special occasions… like Halloween. This gave them the excuse to act silly for a costume contest. Again, me and my office mates were asked to be judges to choose the SCARIEST COSTUME, the FUNNIEST COSTUME and the MOST ORIGINAL COSTUME. It was a tough call but we all agreed the ribbons were handed out. After the contest we invited the participants back to the studio for a quick costume portrait. Here are a few of them.
These brave women chose to impersonate their bosses. Luckily they have a good sense of humor.
This gal claimed to work at “King Burger”. She said I could have it my way… but don’t get crazy. Think lots of ghetto attitude and you can imagine what she sounded like. The hair and nails are fakes. She had everyone laughing so she won the FUNNIEST COSTUME award.
This mummy won the scariest costume award, but really we thought she was pretty cute.
Aftert this chamber maid had her portrait maid, I asked her id she could do a little dusting.
This “lady” had more chest hair than me, and her husband would not kiss her goodbye.
This contestant had a bewitching classic costume. We can’t wait to see what they do next year.
Last week I was asked to be one of the judges at Halloween Pumpkin carving and contest. Only a few people entered, but a lot of effort went into carving these little works of art.
The one above was an instant favorite. The man who carved this pumpkin is a gifted wood carver and it took him 90 minutes to make this face in the pumpkin.
I asked if I could take a few photos in the studio so that the winners would have something to remember long after the pumpkin rotted away.
I made this book about my father last year, but never wrote about it in this blog. Some of you may already know the book or own it, but for anyone else stumbling upon this, these are the actual page spreads. You can view The Sceret Forest of Charles Hughes as a PDF file here.
This is cover and introduction page.
On a trip back to Virginia, my father, Charles Hughes, took me to see his classroom at the Maritime School in Norfolk, Virginia. My father has spent a majority of his life teaching children and young adults of all ages.
His classroom is very unique and you likely will never see another room like it. There are scientific treasures everywhere that you look. Most of them collected and preserved by Charles himself.
You could easily be looking at exhibits from a science museum with strange collected creatures and live animals in aquariums.
Behind the school, the teaching continues in a unique outdoor classroom under a single pine tree. A circular bench was constructed where whole classes of children could be taken and taught about nature.
Beyond this point, behind an unassuming chain link fence is a truly magical place… the place that I call the “Secret Forest of Charles Hughes”.
The forest is rare to the east coast of Virginia because it contains extremely old and large live oaks that could be hundreds of years old.
Many of these forests were destroyed for fuel or building materials so the fact that this one survived in such a populated area is surprising.
Though the forest is protected now by a fence, it was not always so. The community came together to run off vagrants and remove thousands of pounds of trash from the forest. Some of the damage can still be seen like these huge fire pits.
My father and others realized the important ecosystem that was a few hundred yards from the school and the fantastic opportunity to save a unique place for future generations.
I took photos in the classrooms and forest so I could make a book about it as a present of appreciation for my father. I know that he liked it and so did many of his friends. The library of his school asked for a copy so the kids would know more about it.
This project is the closest one to my heart and tries to capture the dedication of a man who has taught over 50 years, and a genius who has inspired generations of students into knowing that not all knowledge comes from a book…. some of it has to be discovered for yourself.
Today, I got a real treat. Scott Dorman of Small Dog Imageworks gave me a one-on-one look into the his world of high-end photographic retouching. I consider myself to be pretty good at Photoshop, but to see a gifted master at work was a wonder. After a couple of hours, my head was spinning with the possibilities.
Scott Dorman works with some of the brightest photographers today, and his unique composting and illustration techniques, along with his attention to detail and color make him more than just a retoucher. He becomes the photgrapher’s secret weapon to fix flaws and take the mundane to the fantastic.
I was hired to design a logo for a investment consulting firm. The pine cone was requested by the client for personal reasons, but it is supposed to symbolize growth of wealth from small beginnings.
The line art of the pine cone drawing was a collaboration with Jim Schuknecht, a illustrator and designer that I have worked with for many years. We refined it many times until it had the look correct balance.
Then, I modified the flat art to make the logo look like an embossed etching.
ne of my oldest friends, Scott, had his 40th birthday this year and his wife, Maura, went all-out to make his big day special. Anyone that knows Scott knows that he is a huge gear head and loves anything with a motor and 4 wheels. The more exotic, the better.
Scott’s automotive collection started moestly way back in college when he drove a “Vette”. No, not a Corvette, but a Chevette. Later as Scott become more successful, he was able to trade up. Now he owns a rare BMW M-Coupe, a car designed by Chip Foose and a sweet customtized Mercedes.
For his birthday present, his wife gave him a chance to spend a day in supercars that very few people have the chance to see, much less drive. Here’s where it gets good for me. Maura gets motion sickness and cannot stand to be in fast cars. I was asked to make the ultimate sacrifice and take a day off to go with him. It took me about 1/2 a second to make up my mind. It was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced.
The tour is unique in the fact that you drive ultra-exotic machines on public roads for at least 30 minutes per car. There were 5 cars and 8 drivers so there were 3 instances where each driver had to be a passenger, but I don’t think anyone minded this because it let you expereince the car from a different perspective.
My whole day was spent as a passenger, and there is a very good reason these cars are named supercars. They accellerate faster and stop harder than anything on the road. I come from a motorcycling background and they are on par or exceed the performance of those. I had to recalibrate my mind with the compressed stopping distances, the “stick-like-glue” grip and pure grunt of 400-500+ horsepowered vehicles.
And even though we were warned to obey all traffic rules and that the driver would be responsible for speeding tickets or car damage, the cars were put through their paces. I rolled video of the several people driving and I noticed that I was laughing nervously in some of the turns. I am glad that I had something to occupy my mind from the terror.
The cars were mind-boggling expensive with the priciest one topping $500,000. The cheapest one of the bunch was a measly $237,000. So, next time you think you want to buy a house, skip that and see if the bank will give you a loan for a car.
My wife and I were invited to participate in one of Atlanta’s coolest yearly events… the historic ghost tour in Oakland Cemetery. In my opinion this is one of the most peaceful and beautiful places in the city. Unlike today’s fields of fake flowers, this one has amazing sculptures, monuments and mausoleums. And it has almost 70,000 souls buried there.
We arrived right before sunset which is the perfect time to see Atlanta’s buildings and grave markers blend together into some ghosty city.
The view changed by the second as the sun raced towards the horizon.
Some of the mausoleums were open giving a rare glimpse inside.
The moon was rising over the city at the same time. I should also mention that all of these photos were taken with my phone. I left my camera at the house so I could be social and not “on the job”.
We were met my the “ghosts” of six people buried in there. They told us their stories and how they each got to where they are today. Some of the stories were funny, and others sad.
Each one was a real breathing person once, now words to read on a stone.
The guide told us that it is said people die three times. Once on their last breath, once when they are laid to rest and the final time when they are no longer remembered.
Some people may find this place scary or creepy, but I do not. To me, these are monuments to loved ones, friends and family. We already plan to make this a yearly event.
Did the dead know were were there? Did they see us visiting?
I may have seen a ghost on the way out… What do you think?
My good friend, Kris, needed a simple web site for his freelance tennis coaching job. He asked me a year ago and waited patiently for me to get to it. I promised I would do it this week.
I took some photos of him playing tennis on a beautiful fall day, and I designed the web site for him. If you are ever in need of a tennis coach in the Marietta, Georgia area, give check him out at www.TennisKris.com.
