Everybody Loves a Parade!

We Americans love parades! Doesn't matter what time of the year it is, summer / winter / spring or fall. If you have a cause, you gotta have a parade. Holiday coming up? Get the floats ready. I think parades are a love / hate thing for most people. Either you love them and get all giddy or you absolutely detest them and would rather burn leaves in a 50 gallon metal drum. I guess I like parades since it gives me the opportunity to shoot photo after photo of talented musicians (like my daughter now and my son several years ago). I like the antique cars that seem to show up in all parades. And how can you forget the sadistic candy throwers who try to pelt younger kids in the face with hard candies? Ohhhhhhhhh, parades are just swell.

Sports and Pet Photography

I'm trying to improve my sports and pet photography. So, I went to a recent dog show event. My ket take-away from this event is learn how to anticipate the action quicker. If you blink, you'll miss the great shot. Take a look at the photos to the left.

Loves Me Some Sunflowers!

People from the Memphis metro area come in droves to see, touch, smell, and pose with the surreal looking sunflowers that pop open during the last week in July. Photographers and families snap photos of the sunflowers and pose their family members among them. Lovers come out and walk hand in hand past the sunflowers and if the guy is romantically inclined he will bend down and twist off a sunflower and present it to his gal. Toddlers and young children ooh and ahh and point at the yellow jewels standing before them. I'm excited each year to take lots of photos of the sunflowers, and it has become an annual tradition of mine, however, I'm also a bit sad knowing that these beauties will fade away and dry up by the end of August

Don't Forget That Shot!

How many times as a photographer have you been driving down the road or through a small town and saw things that would look great as the subject of a photo? It usually happens to me while I'm working or rushing to the next meeting. Then when the weekend rolls around I struggle to recall where these potential "captures" were and I don't capitalize on the opportunity. Earlier this year, I decided to be more pro-active on getting more of the award winning ( I hope!)shots and I now take a journal with me that allows me to add street addresses, street names, landmarks, suburbs, time of day, what was special about the subject, etc. I also read in the local newspaper about special events that will happen over the weekend and then attend the events. Sometimes I go to events that wouldn't normally excite me. Photographically, I think I bring a different perspective to shooting due to the fact that I might not be a fan of the particular sporting or entertainment event. I tend to focus on the human element instead of the actual sport itself. The more interesting photos are usually 180 degrees in the opposite direction from where your camera lens is pointing. Do the unusual and point your camera where no one else is pointing.

Stop Motion Photography

Man ...life moves so quickly sometimes. I think that's why I like to take photos that stop motion. Click the button on the camera and stop a speeding car or a child swinging on a swingset. We don't have much control on most things in life, however, set your camera to 1/500th of a second and capture a stream coming from a waterhose or catch a horse and rider in mid-air jumping over a hurdle. Take photos of your children jumping off the slide or diving board. Have your daughter put on her tutu and twirl about in your living room.

Taking Photos of Your Children

A quick post for new parents about taking photos of their children. Those of you with newborns, try to take photos everyday. It's amazing the changes that occur with these little bundles of joy on a daily basis.

• Take all of the clothes that were given to you for the child and dress them up in those clothes and have a fashion show. I know, it sounds a little frivolous and goofy to do it this way but it's a great way of documenting the clothes and then being able to send a photo to each "giver"to show what the child looks like in them. If you're lucky, the child will get to wear the clothes maybe 3 times before they outgrow them!


• Another photo idea regarding toddlers is to take close up photos where you focus on their eyes (show those baby blues) or teeth (when they start teething) or that lock of hair with a bow in it.


• Once the child is able to stand up, start measuring them on a door frame that has been pre-marked in foot and inches and take photos of each occasion.

Kids grow up fast so take tons of photos when they're younger and more cooperative and you'll be able to enjoy the photos in later years.

The early days ...

My love for photography comes pretty naturally. My grandfather, Earl, always took Polaroid photos (for you youngsters look up Polaroid on wikipedia) of family events. My father, Roy, built a darkroom for us in our garage storeroom. I loved to see the Polaroid photos develop into real photographs in about 90 seconds and see photos emerge from murky chemicals in a deep sink. In our family, seeing someone with a camera in their hands was always expected. We could pose with the best of them faster than Madonna could say "Vogue".

One of my pet peeves with earlier photography was the atomic strength of the light bulbs that were inserted into the instamatic cameras. One flash of the light bulb and a person was blinded for about 5 minutes! "Mom, Dad! Where are you? I can't see ... " "Son, we're over here, walk toward the sound of our voices".

The first Christmas gift my girlfriend, now my wife, bought me was a Pentax K1000 SLR film camera. Being the joker that she can sometimes be, she first handed me a wrapped box. While I opened the box she told me that the old Polaroid camera that I was now looking at was onced owned by Elvis!!! That's great! I'm a huge Elvis fan and I was estatic about this gift. Then she laughed for a couple of minutes and told me that the old Polaroid was just that ... an old Polaroid camera. Yuk! Yuk! Yuk! I was happy either way.