This day has always been a tough day for me.....

When I left for Basic training, I wished that my father was there to say goodbye.  After my graduation, I searched the crowds of families hoping I'd see him.  I was told during my promotion that it was a great honor to be the first airmen to be pinned our by new commander, but I really wish it had been my father instead.  When I completed my service and returned home from Germany, he still wasn't there.  He was activated and deployed yet again to the middle east.

Though most military families count their time of separation from their loved ones in months, we literally count his time in years.

During my time in the USAF, and all these years after I've been kind of bitter.  The one thing I wanted most during my service was to stand before him and throw him the proudest salute ever. 

It's not until now that I've realized that what he was doing for me and the rest of us was his way of saluting me. Thank you Chief!

Explanations of insanity...

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been on here.  Looks like I need to blow the cobwebs off and explain a few things.

First a picture, as no one really reads blogs, they just want images.  lol

Monae, Straight out of camera.

A friend of mine made a comment to me on facebook the other day stating that she was worried about me due to some recent posts of frustrations, so I thought I'd post what's really going on.  It's not that any really reads my blog anyway, but it's another way for me to put down what I think as I don't normally have anyone to verbally express it to.

I am just fine, just a little frustrated.

I am not that great of a photographer, at least not where I want to be.  It will come with time I'm sure.  The problem is that I've come to a point that to continue progressing where I want to go where I can't do it on my own, nor do I really know anyone here yet that is willing to help me reach these goals.  To make the images I envision requires talent beyond me like wardrobes, hairstylist, location, assistants, etc.  I'm still relatively new here to Charleston, and still haven't really formed a network of the above.

Going to these resources as an unknown, no one seems to help unless a dollar figure is first asked.  I understand this and whole heartedly believe in paying the professionals, but I can't give what I don't have.  I do not yet get paid as a photographer, nor does anyone want to pay a photographer that isn't already being paid it seems.

I know it sounds pathetic, but being a photographer is all I think about.  I loose too many hours of sleep thinking about shoots, when I do sleep I've even found myself dreaming about being at workshops of those I really admire.  When I look at people walking down the street I think about how I could compose them, etc.  Sometimes, I even get worked up to the point that I even feel sick when I want to do something in particular and not having what I need to pull it off.

Sometimes, I do think that I get a little too excited and annoy the few friends I do have asking for help and just wanting to always talk about shooting.  For this I apologize, yet I don't as it's because it's what I love to do.

Through the lens of a 7 year old.

Today I would like to grace you with the art of my 7 year old son Mathew.

Last weekend, my brother and I took my son with us for a little bit of street shooting on King Street.  When we got there we decided to arm him with my wife's Canon G10Canon Powershot G10 14.7MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom.  It made me proud seeing how into it he was.  I expected to see him just randomly pressing the shutter button, watching him composing shots was so cool.  I can only hope he maintains the interest in photography that I have.

I shot a little a little bit myself experimenting with just shooting from the hip literally, hence my photos not being sharp.

On to the little photo masters pics!

My Brother, Ashley.

My ugly mug.

I really like this image for some reason.

Kinda Cool, probably could use B&W.

I can't figure out why but this one is freaking awesome!  I like creepy shots like this.

Pitt Street Bridge....

Sorry I haven't been posting much.  New work schedules and other things, life as usual.  I have still been shooting lately, a lot actually.  Especially with lighting with my new ring flash.  I'll get caught up and get them up on here eventually.

Today after a lot of the usual house work I just needed to get away for a bit.  I didn't really have any inspiration so I just went down to the Pitt Street Bridge in Mt. Pleasant to walk about.  Of course, how could I go without my camera?

Of course, I'm not really one to just wander aimlessly.  I really like to plan my shots, so naturally I had to throw away a lot of images as they were just crap.  These here really aren't that good, but decent enough that I'm not too embarrassed to post them.

Frustratingly, I went the whole time shooting with my 70-200 2.8 and forgot that I had my 300mm lens with me.  That would've been much better as much of my shots were of birds.  Hindsight is always 20/20.

Sneak peak pics from the Sensuality Project...

Wow!  Two posts in one day!

I must say that shooting in a venue like this is much different than anything else I've shot before so please go easy on me.  The rest of the photos are uploading and will be available in a day or two.  You can find them in the client gallery section of http://www.MGimagery.net

So, let's get some pictures going...........

The beautiful and talented Diana Deaver herself (on the right)

Lots of Beautiful people there tonight.

The Man of most awesome talent himself Eric Bradshaw enjoying Diana's work.

Fine young couple there.

So many expressions in this shot, I wish I knew the reason for this one.

Models everywhere!

We had a shootout :)

I love this guys style.  When you see him around you know it's a party!

What's a party without some music?

So many ways I could caption this one...

The Sensuality Project by Diana Deaver

The other night I got a call from a dear friend of mine, Diana Deaver asking me to come out and shoot at her premiere of The Sensuality Project at the Torch Velvet Lounge.  Her work is brilliant and to be asked to come out and shoot at her event was a bit overwhelming but an honor as well.  If only I could have a sliver of her  talent!

I must stay for those of you that did not make it out last night to see her premiere, you really missed out on a great time.  Fear not though as her work will be on display for the next month.  I highly recommend stopping in to check out her work.

Pics to come soon of the event!

Family day downtown

All weekend I've been tearing myself up trying to come up with ideas for things to shoot, frustrating.

I just gave up and decided to spend the day with the family and just have a good time and put the camera down.  Even though the day was meant to just spend time with them, we still ended up lugging around reflectors, umbrellas, light stands, etc...

Here's some random photos from today, nothing real serious.


Though I don't really care for shooting wildlife, I like to shoot these guys when I can just to practice panning.  They move really quick and it takes a lot of work to follow them smoothly with a 70-200 2.8 lens.

Tanya asked me to shoot this real quick, but since she was in a good bit of shade and the background was much brighter I decided to light her up.  To do so, i set my sb-800 camera left set to 28mm and bare to bring her exposure up.

Just a quick capture of my wife and son.

It was a crazy bright day and they were in the shade so I just quickly set up my reflective umbrella and sb-800 to light them up.  Unfortunately the background is still brighter than I'd like but I was already maxed out on shutter speed (gotta keep it at or below shutter sync), even at ISO 100.  If I had the time I would just up'ed the power but they were getting restless.

GOYA shoot with my brother....

If you don't know, GOYA is a term I picked up from Zack Arias  It means "Get off your A&$" and shoot. So that's what I did.

My brother decided to drop by and hang out and being a shooter himself, I got him to tag along.  Here's some random pics from today that I kind of liked.  Enjoy.


You Can't help but shoot the birds when you are down at the battery!

Had to go to -5 EV to get this...

Sometimes I like to do patterns and textures. Who knows, could make a good background for a later image.

Moultrie

I just needed a little more courage.

I loved how the light hit this one.

Served.

You see all kinds of artists here at the battery.,

My Bro and his F100 film camera...

My boy being silly on the wrong side of the diffuser panel.

Results of the diffuser panel.

Strobing to kill the sun with a bare SB-800

My favorite things...EYES