It’s a wonder how being younger I couldn’t wait for my twenties, and now that I’m in them I feel like a kid wearing daddy’s shoes and trying his best to play house. And it’s always sad when no one will accept my Monopoly money as payment for bills, no matter how many times you tell someone they could buy both Boardwalk AND Park Place with cheddar like this.
It’s kinda that feeling that made me start wondering why I wasn’t shooting senior portraits. Don’t get me wrong, I love engagements and weddings, but I really do think I’m not only a kid, but also a portrait photographer at heart. And so I’ve been starting to shoot sessions with young ladies (and gentlemen, if I can find any) to see if my hunch was correct.
Oh was it ever.
Weddings can be stressful and hectic and so caught in the moment this-is-once-in-a-lifetime-don’t-fudge-it, you can start to lose sight of the things that really sparked your passion. This was the beginning of a reminder in why I do this. Laine was absolutely the perfect person to remind me that photography doesn’t have to be attached to any stress at all.
Thanks Laine.
Get ready for it — the Photopocalypse has fallen upon this blog. Prepare yourselves for four, count ‘em, FOUR posts in one day! (Technically, five if you count the outtake I posted a few hours ago… but I really shouldn’t naysay myself.)
First up is Hailey and Russ. Now I’m going to be honest, most brides that contact me don’t have much of anything planned out. And while that’s perfectly okay — and I even find myself helping some brides through the process — that’s not the vibe I got from Hailey; in fact, it was quite refreshing to be contacted by a bride that knew exactly what she wanted. Hailey knew when she’d be available, knew that she wanted the session in Augusta, knew her wedding date, and was ready to meet and book her date all within the week she contacted me.
Seriously, if you haven’t ever been married or haven’t started dealing with planning your own wedding yet, lemme let you in on a secret — that’s frickin’ amazing.
Seriously.
So Mel and I packed our bags and traveled up into the wild blue yonder (a.k.a. North) to Atlanta and skipped on over when it was the day of the session. Not knowing Augusta very well (read — at all), I put my full faith in Hailey’s and Russ’s ability to pick out good locations, and they did not disappoint!
I also like to shoot portraits of the individuals in engagement sessions. Here’s one of Hailey that turned out to be simply stunning.
And as one last interruption before I just slap the rest of the session on up, Hailey and Russ asked if the dogs could come by for a few portraits. How can I say no to animals? The answer — not very well.
Sidenote: That’s Hailey’s sister Taylor that’s hiding behind the big-eyed puppy.
Now I need to stop running my mouth/fingers and just post what I know you’re more eager to see. 
I’m here to ask the hard questions. Hard to call this one an outtake with how much I find myself liking it.
Caution: This is warm-up. I’m about to drop a photo bomb on this blog the likes of which haven’t been seen since the 1924 World’s Fair. Just sayin’.
I was looking through some photos and stumbled across this one. I think I originally put it in the trash pile for being a little out of focus, but it’s growing on me.
That’s all.
EDIT: And here’s the one I took just before it. It’s like finding little treasures when you look back on pictures several months removed.
Ever been nervous? Like, so nervous that you didn’t even know how to explain how nervous you were? I was, and actually, I still am.
Golf Business magazine contacted me about possibly shooting some stuff for an upcoming issue. How they heard of me, I have no idea, but they sounded quite sure that I was the man for the job. I gladly accepted and began an immediate crazed search for any and everything that would help me prepare for this shoot, including contacting the subject of the article Steve Singley, General Manager of Kinderlou Forest Golf Club.
Now this isn’t my first rodeo, so it might sound weird that I emphasize how nervous I was; however, shooting for a magazine is a completely different beast than shooting just about anything else. Unlike portrait or engagement sessions, I have to walk into a magazine shoot with something halfway solid in mind, since most everything needs to be set up and ready before the subject even gets to the camera. Closer to being more like a wedding in its you-get-one-shot-make-it-count feel, it’s even more demanding since the total time you’ll spend shooting is limited. Today, I think I spent a total of 10 or 15 minutes with the camera actually in hand.
Two hours into a wedding, I would have undoubtedly taken around 200–300 pictures. Two hours into the magazine shoot: 14. And 4 were retakes because of blinking.
Either way — and I hope I don’t sound cocky when I say this — I feel I did a solid job. And on top of the knowledge I got 10 solid shots, I was also granted a golf cart to drive around the course in for an hour. Fact: Grown men turn into 10-year-olds when given access to a golf cart. (You’d think being an adult who drives a real car on a daily basis would cause golf carts to feel tiny and unexciting. But you’d be wrong.)
I’ll post something else up when I hear exactly how my shots will be used in the magazine. In the meantime, I’m going to go find some pliers and untie my stomach.
Sidenote: I’m incredibly happy with the above picture. Why? It’s the first shot I took of him, almost straight out of camera. Nailed it.
