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.

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.

Bound By Grace Ministries Thrift Store

A couple weeks back I went to a seminar on Internet marketing for small businesses, and it gave me an idea for a service I could provide (see that post here). Just the other day, I went to a Tallassee Chamber of Commerce event (see that post here), and there I ran into Debbie Lusk of Bound By Grace Ministries which runs a thrift store in Tallassee.

I said to myself, "Self, that's a store that could use a better Internet presence." And as often happens, I agreed. So I told Mrs. Lusk that I was going to come take pictures of her store, and that I was going to do it for free. She felt quite special. Then I told her that I was using their store as a guinea pig, and she didn't feel so special anymore. Oops. You should always err on the side of leaving people feeling special.

These pics are now visible in their Google+ Local listing. I've posted my top five here, go see the rest on there. I have also posted them on my @PEaCe Photography Facebook page.

They have a lot of really interesting stuff. I was there half an hour longer than I had intended to be because I keep getting distracted by looking at their wide variety of...well...everything. Thanks Mike and Debbie for letting me shoot some sample pics in your store. I hope it helps us both.

Yates Lake Trip from August 2012

Back in late August, my in-laws rented a house on Yates Lake just on the other side of Tallassee, AL. Here are some pics I took while we were there. All of the portraits were taken with either natural light only or with a little bit of flash just to fill in the shadows. These were taken with my Nikon D70, which does a great job at outdoor pics.

First, we have some shots of the cutest kid EVER, Peter.

Next we have a shot of Paw-Paw through the back windows of the house and high school senior cousin Rachel on the back porch.

And the last thing I have for you are some lake scenery shots. It's fine by me if you right-click and use the pics below as desktop backgrounds, just so long as it doesn't keep you from getting anything done by making you daydream about being outside at the lake.

One Wetumpka Sunset

On June 30, 2012, I met up with a family in Wetumpka, AL to take some portraits. These are not those portraits. These are some random landscape shots I took while checking settings and after they left. Some actual portrait samples may show up in an upcoming post, but I have to get the pictures to the customer and get authorization to post samples here before that happens. Enjoy!

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy having Adobe Lightroom4? Because it's great.

Tallassee Sunset and After

A couple weeks ago, I grabbed my camera and took to the streets to get some pictures around Tallassee of a sunset. Here are the best of that outing:

 A few nights ago featured a so-called "super moon," the moon being at its closest point to Earth in its orbit and full. I was leaving Montgomery after shooting the Huntingdon College graduation, and the whole way back to Tallassee I was contemplating pulling over on the side of the interstate to catch the moon close to the horizon (the moon is magnified by the curvature of our atmosphere when near the horizon). I held back until I got to the where Hwy-229 crosses the Tallapoosa River on the way into Tallassee. Here's the best of my attempts to shoot the moon, plus a bonus pic looking down the road.

(The one above was actually taken after I got home to my 170-500mm lens and better tripod. Thank you again, Diane Koart.)

These images were made possible, in large part, due to the fact that my wife allowed me to purchase Adobe Lightroom 4 as a reward for getting our taxes done. I've really enjoyed it.