a little neglected...

I'm guessing my blog feels a little left out. And perhaps you do too, that is, my loyal fan base. My avid readers who wake up early to read my blog...my imaginary friend.

Anyway, I've been dying to write some new stuff, but my focus has been on my photography site. It just got a new look and it's taken some time to get it rolling. If you haven't seen it, check it out!

In the coming weeks, I hope to move my blog over to my photography site and start blogging more about photography and life over there. I'll probably stop writing about politics and such...I know some of you will be glad about that. My hope is to use my blog as a way for potential photography clients to get to know me a little better and a way to better showcase my recent work.

I'll let you know when I make the switch!!! Thanks for checking in...

a neighborhood wedding!

Sarah and I had the pleasure to shoot a beautiful little wedding right here in our own neighborhood this evening (only about 125 yards out the front door!). Here are two of my favorite shots so far. You can see a few more on my photography blog.

is this thing still on?

Wow, I feel like it's been too long. I've had a hard time as of late logging on and getting a chance to blog. This blogging stuff is therapeutic and I miss it! There's nothing like getting out deep thoughts for a million of your closest friends to see! Here's what's been happening:

1. I hit my blog-o-versary! That's right, as of January 13, I've been blogging for a year now. 181 posts later, I'm still running strong. When I first started, I thought this blog might end up getting trashed like a treadmill that someone buys and only uses twice. But like I said, I've found blogging therapeutic1

2. Photography is booming! That's actually the main reason I haven't blogged much recently. My free time has been taken up with photography - but I am certainly not complaining, I love it! I recently shot team pictures at my school, I'm shooting a wedding tonight (crazy story you have to read about!) and another in April. I've got a Bar-Mitvah lined up as well as a few other possible weddings in the spring and a few other gigs in the works. Not too bad for a side business. I truly feel blessed!

3. I'm planning out my first photography workshops! I've been having a lot of conversations lately with people who buy fancy new digital cameras but don't really know how to use them. So I've been cooking an idea of teaching several workshops this spring to help amateurs build their skills. I have a lot of it together except for the dates and the people! You can check the info out on my website. They're called Beyond the Snapshot: Surpassing 1,000 words with each picture and Going Further. If you'd like to attend or know someone who would, let me know! I hope to have it all hammered out by the end of next week!

4. The Philippines! We're still hoping to move this summer to the Philippines for mission work. We're putting as much money as possible from my photography towards our moving costs to help us get there. Our church, Next Level Church, also agreed to act as our sending agency and are willing to collect the money we raise! We did have one huge answer to prayer recently! Our good friends behind us told us that her brother is moving to Charlotte this summer and would possibly like to rent our house! Is that awesomely perfect God-like timing or what??? Keep praying!

retiring a giant...

I read the other day that Polaroid was no longer manufacturing film for its line of instant-film cameras. My first reaction was "Wow, they still make Polaroid film?" I remember having lots of fun with Polaroids many years ago. They've been around for 60 years and were really an amazing breakthrough in photography. I was also shocked to read that 8 years ago, the same amount of instant film cameras were sold as digital cameras! We've come a LONG way in just 8 years!

Anyway, here is a great 1981 commercial for a Polaroid camera. I found it quite funny to go back and watch. I wonder what we'll be saying in 25 years about the commercials for our super-awesome digital cameras we have now! Oh, and be sure to watch through to the teaser for the upcoming "Father Murphy" episode where there is a wild horse that "only a young retarded girl can race." We certainly have come a long way!



Here's another video of a recent news story about the end of Polaroid film. Some people are very upset (savepolaroid.com)!

crazy shots...

I've been experimenting with some different lighting and flash techniques over the past few days and I thought I'd share a few from last night. They turned out pretty crazy and I promise that I didn't do anything to them after I took them!

swamped...

I know I've kind of left you hanging after my previous posts about decision making and the future of the Davis family. I promise it's not on purpose! I've been completely swamped in photography! I'm certainly not complaining here because this is exactly what I've been wanting to happen for quite some time. Sarah and I shot two weddings last month and in the last week, I've had 5 portrait sessions and I've got 6 or 7 in the next week! I'm hoping that this keeps rolling, but it is quite tiring! It seems like every waking moment that I'm not teaching or taking care of the kids, I'm working on photos. Ok, I'll even admit I've worked on pictures even while I'm taking care of the kids...

Anyway, I'm sure it'll slow down sometime soon as we get closer to Christmas. I'll try to get some more writing done as I can, but in the meantime, check out my photography site to see what I've been up to! But seeing that I'm up to midnight yet another night, I should go to bed.

weddings...

The past two weekends have been full!! Last Saturday, Sarah and I headed down to Asheville, NC for a little getaway. We stayed just a little north in Johnson City, TN and drove to Abingdon, VA the next morning for our friend Molly's wedding. She asked us to photograph her wedding a few months ago and we were so excited to do it! A huge thanks to Sarah's parents and the Creehans who watched our kids so we could go. It was a beautiful day as you can see below.

On Friday, Sarah left at about 6:30 to be with her first Doula client (she became a doula - a labor assistant about two months ago) who was in labor. She did a fantastic job (at least I believe she did since I obviously wasn't there) and helped the mom deliver her first son that night. On Saturday afternoon, we headed Southeast into the far reaches of southern North Carolina. We passed through Monroe, Marshville, Peachland, and Polkton, passed over the bridge and turned right onto Old Prison Camp Dr. to head down into Wadesboro to shoot another wedding. It was a small wedding in an old Baptist Church. We had a good time and got to eat some good food in the end. We tried to leave without eating (it's my own personal view that I shouldn't eat while I'm being paid to work), but the mother of the groom wouldn't hear it! Southern hospitality at its best! Anyway, here are a few shots of the weddings. To see more, head to peterdavisphotography.com. I'll post more up there later, but for now I have about 2200 images to go through from the 2 weddings! If you're looking for some shots of our trip to Asheville, look here. Enjoy!

Son, this here is Canon Town...

I'm getting ready to shoot two weddings in the next two weeks and I'm pumped! This weekend, Sarah and I are headed up to Abingdon, VA via an overnight trip to Asheville without the girls! So, as I'm preparing for the weddings, I'm thinking about some gear I'd love to rent...nothing I really need, it would just be fun to have with me and would give me a few more options.

So I search for camera rental stores around, and I find one place...Biggs Camera! Well, it seems that Mr. Biggs must be a Canon man. The only problem with that is that I shoot Nikon. I talked to a friend who has a coworker with the license plate "NIKONFAN" or something like that. She told him that there is nowhere in town to rent Nikon! Craziness! In LA, there were rental places on every corner that rented any piece of equipment one could ever need. Oh, Sammy's Camera, where are you in my time of need???? I guess I was a little spoiled.

My next thought was to look for camera stores that might sell a few little things I need to pick up. So I search for camera stores near me. Biggs is a little too far away. My other options are about 20 Wolf Cameras (the twin brother of over-priced retailer Ritz...bleh), Best Buy, and Circuit City. Not exactly my idea of places I'd like to shop. I guess if I need equipment ever again, I've got to think way ahead and buy it online.

my two interests combined...

I get to write one post about photography and politics. I caught the end of the debate tonight and managed to stay awake. The thing that caught my eye the most was after the debate ended.

The candidates and their wives began working the room and shaking hands. One guy caught my eye because he whipped out a Kodak disposable camera. I thought, "I wonder if he snuck that in or if he's allowed to have it." Then a minute later I noticed another disposable camera being used by someone else. Then another and another. It might just be my nerdy photographer self, but I had to laugh. The whole stinking room was using Kodak disposable cameras. I guess Kodak must have been sponsoring the night. I didn't even know they still made those things any more.

vacation!

Have I mentioned that I love Craigslist??? Probably only a thousand times. I recently posted my photography services on the bartering section trying to see if I can maybe get some work done on the house or a vacation or free dentist appointment or something.

A few days ago, I got a reply! I spoke with the woman last night and we bartered a portrait shoot/large print and CD for a week long vacation at her beach house in the Outer Banks!!! She said we could go on the website and pick any week available! How awesome is that?

new photos...

I posted a few of these pictures on the blog on my photography website, but I thought I'd post a few here too. I took these shots a few weeks ago and I'm excited about how they turned out!

turning down business...

By the title of this post, you might think that my photography business took off over night and that I am now traveling all over the place for photo shoots and simply don't have time to take all of the requests for my services. I wish that were true, but I'm not quite there yet.

I got a request to meet a client at a nearby downtown area for a portrait shoot. We chatted on the phone and I requested that she email a picture to me so that I could just get a quick idea of style, personality, etc before the shoot. We set up a time and place to meet and all seemed well...until I got her picture. She appeared quite young in the picture and I recalled her saying she mostly wanted to have pictures of herself to send to friends and post on myspace. So I did a quick search on myspace and found out she is only 14!! Yikes!

I quickly wrote her back and let her know that if she was under 18, I needed a parent present for the shoot and to sign the contract! She called me back and said that she actually turned 18 today. How ironic...so I had to write her back and say thanks, but no thanks and I told her I would not do the shoot. That is not a road down which I am willing to travel!

my first employee...

I got a phone call yesterday from a guy interested in working for my photography business! Of course, he had no idea that Sarah and I are all that make up my business, but it was pretty cool talking to him for a while. He wanted to know if I needed someone to help run my studio...hmmmm...studio...yeah, I would love to have one of those!

Anyway, he sent me his info and I told him that if business picked up and I needed some extra help, I'd give him a call. On a side note, I did have a successful day of connecting with some wedding and event planners in the area. I sent out a bunch of emails this morning with my website and a little info and I got several positive responses! I also added a corporate section to my website to see if I can attract any business clients...not my favorite area of work, but you never know what can happen! We'll see. Anyway, I go back to work at school on Monday so I'm trying to get as much together before then because things get pretty crazy once the school year begins!

my website is back...

After several months of not having a photography website, I finally got one back online. I think I wrote a while back that the last site I had was great, but it cost too much. Then my friend Peter Guy wrote and said he'd host a site for me! He pointed me in the right direction and I put it together over the past week or so. Thanks Peter! I still want to play around with it some more, but it works for now! Check it out:

www.peterdavisphotography.com

it wasn't me...

It seems that part Universal Studios in LA is on fire! I know that some of you may assume that I had something to do with it given my history of fires and movie studios...but I promise I have not been near Los Angeles since Thanksgiving!

For those of you unfamiliar with my story, let me share. In September 2006, with some help from my friend Ben who worked for Sony, I landed the biggest photo gig I've ever had. Along with several friends, I photographed Sony Electronics' Global Marketing Division conference at the Sony studios near our house in Culver City. All the big wigs from around the world were in town and my job was to document the conference with group photos, candids, and pictures of worldwide execs with the CEO and President of Sony Electronics.

At any rate, on the first day, we were setting up our rented lighting equipment in a theater in the middle of the studio backlot when I started to smell something burning. I sniffed around, but didn't see anything and quickly dismissed it because there was so much other electronic equipment in use. When I came back into the room, I looked down at one of the power supplies for our lights and saw a six-inch flame shooting out of the side and coming within six inches of the large curtain surrounding the movie screen!

I quickly unplugged the power supply and the flame disappeared. But much to my chagrin, one of Sony's techs came down to investigate the smell. He and I quickly ran the power supply outside before any alarms sounded. My heart was in my throat by then because we were running a tight schedule and had to get the lighting setup (and we were now down one light). I was also nervous about leaving a piece of rented equipment on the curb out back, especially since it was a mysterious little grey box with buttons and knobs! So I stuck my business card on it for any inquiring minds and ran back in to finish setting up.

After a few minutes, I got a chance to meet the nice gentlemen from the Culver City Fire Department who were called by someone who had smelled the smoke. Thankfully, they weren't rushing in with hoses and hard hats, but they just came to investigate. They were very nice! Then I got to meet the fine gentlemen of the Sony Security Department who wanted to file a report. After all was said and done, I was a nervous wreck and had earned the nickname "Smokey Pete" from the Sony techs who witnessed the whole thing. We got the burned out power supply replaced that night and the shoot was flawless over the following two days. But just to reiterate my point, I had nothing to do with this Universal fire!

more pictures...

Here are a few more pictures from Saturday's wedding...

more wedding pictures

I got through a few more of the pictures from Saturday's wedding...

wedding pictures...

Sarah and I shot a wedding here in Charlotte on Saturday night. It was a beautiful wedding outside on a gorgeous night. Here are three pictures from the night. As I finish editing them, I'll post a few more up here.

getting back in the game...

After not having done much with photography for the past few months, I'm finally beginning to get back into it. The last wedding I shot was for our friends David and Noel in Los Angeles over Thanksgiving. I'm not really sure why I hadn't been advertising at all, possibly because of busyness of life and possibly because for a while we thought we might be moving overseas this summer.

At any rate, Sarah and I are shooting a wedding here in Charlotte next weekend, one I've had booked since last fall. Sarah has been my assistant for the last two weddings I shot which was quite nice. I shot my first several weddings on my own and after having help, I don't think I'll go it alone ever again! Sarah is a huge help, especially making sure I catch all the details. She also enjoys getting groups of people together at the reception for shots, which is not my favorite part. Her eye is getting really good and she's grabbed some great shots! The best part is that I don't have to pay her! :)

I posted an ad on Craigslist early last week and I booked another wedding for October! My hope is that I can get at least one photography job per month. I'll let you know how it goes! On another note, I had to cancel my website (www.peterdavisphotography.com) a few months ago because it was getting too expensive. It was nice while it lasted, but I just wasn't using it to its fullest potential. In the meantime, I've posted some pictures on my Flickr page and I'll be posting more as time goes on.

moo.com

In the latest issue of JPG Magazine, they had some great ideas on framing these collages made out of small photo cards from moo.com. I went to their site and found that they have a lot of creative things you can make with your own pictures including sticker books and post cards. I thought it was pretty interesting, so I thought I'd share. Here are some shots of their products: