Sun, Fun, & Shooting Along The Way

I kicked off the month of July with a vacation on the Outer Banks for the 4th of July. Well, that was what I'd planned until Hurricane Arthur popped up out of nowhere. Instead, I worked on June's weddings and headed south on Saturday morning to salvage a couple of days of relaxation. There wasn't much in the way of surf so I enjoyed the sun, time away from the computer, and snapped a few shots here and there.

Around 4pm on July 5th the state re-opened Highway 12 south of the Bonner Bridge. Traffic was backed up for a couple of hours but those who left a little later were treated to an open road and great post-sunset colors.

The following week I was contracted by the City of Newport News to photograph the City Council's Organizational Meeting. During this meeting Mayor Price and members of the City Council were sworn in. 

The next day there was a little trade swell coming in (not anything great) and since Arthur stole most of my vacation, I headed out to Virginia Beach for two hours.

 

That weekend I had an engagement shoot with Theresa and Frank. They came down from Harrisburg, PA for their annual vacation in Sandbridge and I wanted to get the shoot out of the way for them so they could enjoy the rest of their week. 

On their second day in town we headed out to the beach for their session. That evening the wind was howling out of the south but we made the best of it and ended up with a great sunset shot too! I had a great time working with them and I look forward to shooting their wedding in Harrisburg coming up in October.

The following week I had a shoot with an upcoming local band; Kepone Cowboys. I did a mix of things including documenting one of their rehearsals. Good times! I can only show you a teaser silhouette for now (few photos to come in a later post) but you can find them on Facebook.

A couple of days later, there was another bump in the ocean. I had a busy weekend coming up so I went out for a couple of hours to get an early morning saltwater fix.

With that out of the way, I had Zack and Nicole's wedding on Saturday. They were married in Hampton but their prep location and reception were at the Marriott in City Center Newport News. The weather held out and the night was a big-time party! I had a blast working with the two of them and their families!

 

The very next day I had a engagement session with Christina and Ralph. Earlier I was scouting a third location for the shoot and as I was driving by an office park, I saw a bit of fountain spray between two buildings. I turned around to check it out and found this neat little spot. 

From the office park we headed out to Grandview to catch the sunset. It was another great shoot with a great couple! I look forward to shooting their wedding in August.

The next thing I knew it was the last week of July. One couple had to reschedule their engagement session so there was only one more shoot left on the books.

As you may or may not know, there are a handful of things I do not photograph: nudes, maternity, newborns, families, and children under 5 years of age. Why? The reasons vary from it is just not my cup of tea to my skill set lies in other areas. 

Last year a wonderful couple, Bridgette and Jonathan, who I've known for a long time and whose wedding I shot in 2011 asked me to photograph their one year old son. I was very apprehensive. I've worked with a lot of very young children during weddings and the results are often mixed. Sometimes it works out and sometimes the child has a meltdown. When it comes to a wedding day everyone understands, so we do what we can and move on. 

So in 2013 I photographed Haze just before his first birthday and it was a first for me to do a session with someone that age. Things went very well and we were all very happy with the results! The last shoot on the books for 2014 was to photograph Haze for his second birthday. Once again he did a great job!

Working with Haze has been an experiment in pushing my comfort zone as a photographer as opposed to testing the waters to jump into portraits of children under five. I believe that in order to grow one needs to push oneself but at the same time I'm not opening the door for the things I don't shoot because it would be a disservice to those clients. There are plenty of talented folks out there who shoot those things and shoot them well; I want you to come to me for the vast array of genres in which I excel!

I do think this could turn into a neat long term project of photographing Haze over the years and one day shooting his wedding too!

So here we are on July 31, 2014...my birthday! It has been more than a decade since I've been able to surf on my birthday because it is usually flat this time of year. 

I was born at 8:17AM and all these years later at 8:18AM here I am. The kicker is that the original capture number of this image ended in 73...how about that!

A modest early morning birthday gift from the ocean to me...

See you next month!

Summer Is Here!

After a busy winter and spring, I started off the month with my first early morning session of 2014.

Feeling recharged, I got back to work on last month's weddings. I worked non-stop the rest of the week and started to pack for a weekend camping trip on the Outer Banks. I took my nephew with me and we met up with a good friend of mine and his son. 

On the first day the wind was blowing onshore so there wasn't much to ride except the shore break. The kids took advantage of that and I fired a few frames from the comfort of a beach chair.

 After a full day on the beach, we headed back to the campsite for dinner and hoped the winds would switch offshore like they were forecast to.

We woke up early the next morning to find a light offshore wind and a clean, knee to stomach high wave in the water. Not wasting any time, we packed up our stuff and drove back out on the beach. My buddy worked with his son on surfing, my nephew played on his bodyboard, and I spent an hour picking off anything I could ride.

My nephew asked me if I'd teach him how to surf. The conditions were perfect for learning so it was time for his first surf lesson. He picked up sitting on the board with no problem and we worked on a few of the fundamentals. The hardest thing was getting the "pop-up" right. It takes a little time but he was able to get to his knees a few times. With a little more practice he should catch on.

After a fun weekend it was time to get back to editing for the rest of the week. 

The following weekend I was in Doswell, VA to photograph the Tough Mudder race. I was contracted to shoot the race as part of GameFace Media's photography team. GameFace is the nation's top provider of free race images. Nearly 12,000 people ran the 10 mile obstacle race that weekend. I was stationed at the Warrior Carry for those two days. It was a long weekend of shooting out in the sun but I really enjoy shooting action and GameFace is a great company to work for. I shoot to their cards, so I don't have race images to show but I did take a selfie with my GoPro.

I delivered the last of May's wedding packages and prepared for my first wedding in June. Back in April I had an engagement session with Katie and Donnie and now their big day was finally here...the first day of summer!

Katie and Donnie's wedding was at the Chestnut Hill Bed and Breakfast in Orange, VA. Orange is about halfway between Charlottesville and Culpeper. The day started out with a few sprinkles here and there but nothing major. Later in the afternoon we managed to sneak in their first look.

Shortly after the first look, there were rumbles of thunder and the sky was getting dark. The rumbles became more frequent and it started to drizzle so we headed inside to check on the weather. There was a single, slow-moving thunderstorm heading directly for Orange. The ceremony wasn't supposed to start for another hour and a half so everyone waited it out. A lot of brides would be freaking out at this point, but not Katie. It is always amazing to work with such easy-going couples like Katie and Donnie!

The thunderstorm fell apart as it approached but there was still an on and off drizzle. About twenty minutes before the ceremony, the sky cleared up and the sun came out. The last few drops of rain ended (you can see a few rain drops still coming down in the photo below) and the ceremony started right on time. 

When the ceremony ended, the clouds moved back in but the rain held off for the rest of the evening.

It turned out to be a beautiful night and it was a great setting for an intimate reception with their family and friends.

 

Katie and Donnie made the walk through the garden from the reception tent and back to the house at Chestnut Hill. I headed back into the tent to pack my gear. As I closed my camera bag the sky opened up and it started to pour. It stopped raining just before the ceremony and held off until just after the reception ended. You couldn't ask for better timing!

I really didn't have any free time since the start of the month so I decided to pick up in the middle of the week and headed down the Outer Banks for two days. There was a moderate onshore wind, so I wasn't able to surf, but it was a gorgeous day on the beach and I took my GoPro 3+ out in the water to play around in the impact zone.

Late that afternoon I grabbed a campsite. Before I made camp, I decided to set up my GoPro Hero 2 to shoot a time lapse of the passing afternoon clouds. I set it on the roof of my truck, under my board, and planned to let it take a photo every two seconds until the sun set. About an hour and a half later, I got everything ready to make dinner. 

Then I realized I didn't have enough charcoal. No problem, I'd just go across the street to the fishing center and get a bag. So I hopped in the truck and did just that. 

As I was leaving the fishing center with the charcoal, it hit me...I left the GoPro on the roof! I stopped and looked. It wasn't there. Further down the road I saw the waterproof housing lying in the intersection. The housing was there but the camera wasn't in it. A few feet away, face down, I saw the mangled piece of plastic that was the Hero 2. It must have popped out of the housing when it hit the asphalt.

The camera was destroyed but all of the images on the card were fine. Here were a few of its last moments as I drove off. It slid across the roof and shot one last frame before it hit the ground. The camera was run over by a vehicle behind me:

In the future, I will make sure to tether the camera so this doesn't happen again. The next day it was back home to edit for the rest of the week and get ready for my next wedding.

This past Saturday, Keith and Suzy were married in Virginia Beach. The ceremony site was on the beach right smack dab between 4th and 5th streets. This is a very busy part of the beach and tourist season was in full swing.

Earlier in the day I mentioned to Suzy that, in most cases, it would be pretty easy to remove beach-goers from the photos. She said, "No, I think it would be hilarious to have people walking around or laying out in the background while the ceremony is going on." 

Keith and Suzy have a great sense of humor and were really fun to work with. So keeping with that sense of humor, when I was shooting the dress, I noticed a warning sticker on the balcony's sliding glass door and I couldn't resist.

In the next two photos, although this is a really busy part of the beach, you really don't notice any people but wait until you get to the third shot...

They had a mini-beach ball send-off as they went down the aisle! 

We did some fun shots at a couple of the landmarks along the oceanfront and we did a few serious ones too. In the photo above, we are at the intersection of Laskin Rd. and Atlantic Ave. There were a lot of people waiting to cross the street on both sides. As we waited for the crosswalk signal, I was hoping the crowd of beach goers would end up crossing all around them. We ran out in the middle of the crosswalk to shoot and everyone stopped even though I kept telling them, "It's okay, we want you to walk through the shot." It was very courteous of everyone and the shot still works.

Around sunset we did a couple more serious shots while the guests were served the wedding cake. Suzy and Keith wanted to do one last fun shot and then we needed to get back inside. I was pacing around the dock brainstorming. Get them on the back of a boat? No, hopping on a stranger's boat isn't a good thing to do. Then it hit me, "Well, umm...no." I stopped because I didn't want either of them ending up in the water. Suzy pressed me a little and then I told her I thought it would be funny to make it look like she was pushing Keith into the water. So we worked it out in a way everyone stayed dry...

You can't tell now, because I took it out in post production, but about a foot and a half below Keith was the dock and Suzy was on a slightly elevated portion of another walkway.

Then it was back inside The Water Table on Rudee Inlet so they could enjoy the rest of their reception.

It was another fantastic month working with great people and it was nice to have an opportunity to start enjoying the summer. See you next month!