Tallassee Homecoming 2013

Tallassee High School's Homecoming was last week, and that meant there was a homecoming parade last Friday. I was going to be there in support of the students in my youth group, so I figured I'd take some pictures while I was at it.

I posted the pictures to Facebook in two separate albums, and prints are available for purchase through my SmugMug.com site (it's a trial membership which I may not keep, but I figured it couldn't hurt).

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the day:

My camera's for the task were my Nikon D70 with a 170-500mm lens attached for close-ups and an 8MP Sony Cybershot for wider shots. (Yes, I know I'm in need of an update to my personal equipment. It wasn't worth the trip to borrow a couple D90s from Village Photographers. I do have a newer/better point-and-shoot, but I can't find the battery charger for it. I digress.)

I got swarmed by kudzu bugs, and most people assumed I was with the newspaper, but it was a good learning experience. I should have bumped my ISO up another notch and gone with a tighter aperture for a greater depth of field; there are a few pics where the float rolled quick enough to bring part of the subject(s) out of focus. That's just part of the trick to using a long lens on approaching subjects, I guess. A headband would have also been nice too keep the sunscreen and sweat from running into my eyes. A sign reading "Smile and Wave!" would also have been helpful.

Good times. I'm looking forward to the Christmas Parade already. Tallassee, AL is a fun little town to take pictures in.

Montgomery Dragon Boat Race and Festival

The Montgomery Dragon Boat Race and Festival was August 24, 2013, and I was happy to be on the scene shooting all sorts of pics with Village Photographers as the official event photographers for the entire festival encompassing--I'm guessing--a couple thousand people. I know I shot around 2,000 pictures. You can find those pics in the mix with other photographers' pics through the Village Photographers website. I started the day by the stage and in the Athlete's Village and moved to the marshaling area after lunch. (Thanks for the tasty vittles, Dreamland BBQ!)

Here are some pics I took on my iPhone 3GS just to document the day and catch some cool moments:


Beginning of the day:

Overlooking the Athlete's Village, Stage, and River: 

Big Al pitching a fit after the Oar Eagles won the Battle for the Iron Paddle (War Eagle!):

Overlooking the Riverfront and Marshaling Area from the Harriet II:

On the Harriet II (Happy for some cloud cover!):

 End of the day bad duck-face selfie:

 Dramatic lighting on the Riverfront sign:

Cool old advertisement for Wrigley's Spearmint Gum:

Troy University Sorority Bid Day Kappa Delta Group Pics

August 10 was sorority Bid Day at the main campus of Troy University in Troy, AL; and I was happy to be on the scene shooting with Village Photographers. Bid Day shoots involve both candid and group photographers. Early in my days with Village, I shot the candids. I graduated to shooting the groups a few years ago. Thankfully we had enough photogs on the scene that I didn't have to pull double duty. Also thankfully it was a beautiful day and easily ten degrees cooler than last year.

Below are some shots I took on my iPhone 3GS during some down time. Again, these are random iPhone pics I took to document the day, they are NOT pictures taken for Village Photographers on a professional camera.

Ian's Cap and Gown Portraits

When I'm not being a photographer, which is most of the time, I'm a youth pastor. As a fundraiser a while back, we auctioned off many of our youth as slave labor. I auctioned myself off too as a good model of expecting no more from others than I am willing to give.

I went for $60, and my task was to take some cap and gown portraits of the (follow me here) boyfriend of the oldest daughter of a lady in our church.

After shooting two graduation ceremonies for Village Photographers that day, I met up with Tallassee High School class of 2013 graduate Ian et al for the pics below. These are my ten favorite, but we got over 20 really good photos at two locations in just over an hour.We started at the Patterson Log Cabin, the oldest home in Tallassee, AL. Our second location was below Thurlow Dam, also in Tallassee.

I shot using my Nikon D70 and SunPak 522 (or just natural light in some shots).

 

It was a great experience, and I'm glad my photography skills were able to bring in some funds for the ongoing ministry of our youth group. I'm also thrilled to finally get these posted here.

Tallassee High School Spring Show 2013

For the last three years, I've been missing the real Spring Show. The last two years, I was fortunate enough to substitute teach on the day they were performing for the 4th graders, but it's not the same. Not this year! I had to drop money off at the school early on a day I was headed out to of town to shoot a graduation and exchange a bunch of text messages with one of my LibertyYouth, but I would not be denied.

The young men and women of Tallassee High School's various choirs put on a great show. Choir Director Mr. Cunningham put together a wide range of songs--serious and silly--pulling from current radio, Broadway, YouTube viral videos, and classic hits. They even sang my Thompson High School class song from 1999, "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan. And let's not even go into how many costume changes they rolled through. Wow, just wow.

I took my 170-500mm lens and my regular 18-70mm lens with my Nikon D70. This was a great learning/reminding experience. The harsh realities of setting my shutter speed to low and shooting without the help of a tripod made me cull a load of shots; camera shake can't be helped in Adobe Lightroom. One of these days, I'll be able to upgrade to a camera that can really get the job done in lower light. But the short-comings of my equipment aside, I still got a few great shots.

You can find the other reasonably decent shots on my Facebook page.

Music in the Park...in the Dark

Blah, blah, blah... I'm tired but wanted to go ahead and post these photos. I'll write more tomorrow.
: P

[ADDED]
It's well past "tomorrow," but something needs to be said about these pics. What follows are some photos I took when my wife and I attended "Music in the Park" in Tallassee, AL, on April 12, 2013. It was a fund-raising event to benefit the restoration of the Mt. Vernon Theater in historic downtown Tallassee.

The pictures were taken with my Nikon D70, which is a poor choice for night photography, but it's all I had. I can't for the life of me remember the guy's name who was playing while we were there, however he was really good and played a broad selection from old Blues Traveler to new indy-pop hits you would recognize from commercials.

Good times. I wish there were more things like this going on in Tallassee more often.