On my recent trip to NYC, thanks to a friends referral (THANKS Renea!!!!), I was able to pick up NY area actor Christine America as head shot client. Love my friends!!!

Christine & I talked maybe twice before actually meeting & we clicked. I love when that happens!

We settled on meeting at Battery Park, which was pretty interesting. I say interesting because I showed up maybe about 30 minutes early & actually just sat at a bench & watched the tourist be tourist.

It was quite seeing people be so excited about the city, taking pictures & boarding tour buses etc. I guess because I love watching people I found it more amusing than maybe I should have.

So, during my session with Christine, all I did was laugh & sweat. She’s quite the comedienne & it was soooooo hot out.

I teased Christine for having a ready-made electric smile & she kept bringing it making my job smooth. Going through Christine’s images was a joy, because I just saw so much to work with & that smile was popping.

It will be great if she can attract some acting work with this fresh batch of head shots!!! My last headshot client has been hot ever since I did her head shots. She actually landed a VERY nice role in a movie staring Gerard Butler where she has some hot & heavy scenes with him.

Anyway, I’ll be back in NYC in a month & I’m hoping to pick up more business. I just don’t know how to go on vacation without incorporating a little work to balance out my fun times.

Looking forward to my lovers road trip get-a-way this weekend to celebrate my 11th wedding anniversary along with BFB & The Good Dr. Long, who will be celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary.

During the trip, we are doing nothing specific so I’m hoping for tons of random goodness.

I know one thing, Suite Suzy & I are looking forward for adult time together! Kids are a challenge in the summer time & its certainly time for a break from these crumb snatchers.

While in NYC, I plan on photographing elements the city in 36 frames with my Mamiya/Sekor 500DTL camera. My theme is somewhat determined but I will see how it flows once I get on the ground running. Stay tuned!

On another photography note: I have a scheduled photo shoot with a NYC actress, which should be pretty cool. From our initial conversation, I know that she will be quite fun to work with. Get money!

I know I said I was gonna be on a lovers road trip get-a-way but a brotha has to make some cash!

Photo history:
Taken with my old iPhone 3Gs on top of Rockefeller Center, processed in Adobe Lightroom.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this was the 1st year that I ever attended the Detroit fireworks. This occasion was also the 1st time that I photographed any fireworks & it was quite fun to do.

Once I had my settings in place (each image was shot at f/16 with a 6 second exposure & 200 ISO.), the rest was history. I may try to make it to another local fireworks display in the next few weeks to give it another try to see if I can get sharper results as a test to myself. We’ll see! For now, I hope that you enjoy this 1st attempt!

So I get a call from my little cousin Precious Jules earlier saying, I think I see you daughter on a Citgo ad. I’m like no way.

Minutes later I had a screen shot in my inbox.

Upon opening, I was like OMG! Look at my baby snaggle toothed baby on a Citgo “Fueling Good” ad campaign.

I guess I’m just really happy that the ad was not for BP.

My images sell all over the world via Getty & I never know their final destination so this is quite funny. And ironically, I ran across a thread on the Getty contributors site where a photographer wanted to know what his photographs were being used for.

As a matter of fact, it is highly umproefessional/inappropriate to contact clients who purchase your images through a stock agency. When you sign on as a stock seller, you give up certain controls. It’s business & it is what it is.

Original image here.

Remember little Kellen? Well, he recently turned one.

In Korean culture, the one year birthday or “Tol” is historically very significant.

Way back when, due to Korea’s climate, and many childhood illnesses, childhood mortality was extremely high. Many children unfortunately died within their first year of birth.

After the age of one, the survival rate improved, which made this a significant moment for the child & their family.

Tol has two meanings in Korean. The most common meaning is a child’s first birthday. It can also be used as a generic description for birthdays: Chut-tol (first birthday), Du-tol (second birthday), Seo-tol (third birthday), etc.

According to my favorite online source; Wikipedia, A boy would traditionally wear: pink or striped jogori (jacket) with puple or gray paji (pants), striped durumagi (long jacket), a blue vest printed with a gold or silver pattern or a striped magoja (jacket), a jonbok (long blue vest) with a gold or silver pattern, bokgun (black hat with a long tail), and a tarae-busun (traditional socks).

And as you can see, Kellen was a #1 Stunna!

Thanks Brandon & Kathleen for trusting me helping you to preserve Kellen’s special moments!

You can see a few more images from my session with Kellen here.

This past weekend, I worked the wedding of Jonathan & Eric Edwards with my home girl Cousin Dee. Jonathan & Erica’s wedding was on the large side so I totally needed back up to make things happen the way that I wanted to.

The cool thing is that Cousin Dee & I have a similar style but unfortunately, she shoots with a Canon. I’m not saying that shooting with Canon products sucks, but I use a Nikon so lenses etc are not compatible. This also sucks when trying to organize the photos in Lightroom but not a total biggie. I wish, she would just switch to Nikon but I know it’s not all that easy.

Anyway, between the two of us, we captured around 1200 images (wow!) and after I got rid of the bad ones, there are about 1000 to work with. After I clear my mind a bit, I will make a second sweep.

So over the next few days, I will be grinding away putting things together to present my young, hip & newly married couple.

In the meantime, check out a few snippets here.

This evening, I got a text from actor, client and friend Misty Mills letting me know that she landed a role in “Machine Gun Preacher,” which stars Gerard Butler!

The role she scored is quite surprising and I will not spill any details except to say that it involves a raunchy bathroom scene where Misty and Gerard…

Misty of course is very excited about this opportunity and attributes her recent surge in auditions to her headshots, which I did this spring.  I say it’s a combination of her awesome talent, personality AND kick ass headshots.

I love seeing my friends reach their goals big and small!

Go Misty!

In other good news, I got my Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens back from the repair shop today! Midwest Camera Repair is all about their business! They were able to get it back to me in less than a week, which is just in time for a wedding this weekend. So lucky to have a Nikon authorized service center near me!

While my baby was in for repairs, I rented a replacement lens from www.barrowlenses.com and I must say that they are kick ass! Competitive prices, wide range of products and 2 day business shipping is standard! If you’re in a pinch or want to try that lens that you’ve been lusting after, check them out for sure!

I met Jessica Zmich about three years ago when she waited on me & Suite Suzy at now defunct Twingo’s Euro Cafe.  I think we met a few months before Twingo’s up & closed out of nowhere.

Boy was I devastated when they closed because I loved that spot. The food was always good, they were open late & they were centrally located. Sigh!

Fast forward three years later, Twingo’s has been replaced by some other restaurant that I have yet to try & I have come back in contact with Jessica.

Much to my surprise, Jessica is working at my new favorite sandwich spot, Mudgie’s.

A few months ago, I was very happy to see her because she really knows service & is just totally a cool person in general.  When Jessica is in the house, I know that I will be taken care of no matter what.

This past Saturday after my photo shoot, I made my way to Mudgie’s for some lunch & Jessica waited on me, which is when I asked if I could take her photo.

Her bright eyes & Mia Farrow-esque hair cut really inspired me.

On another note, this is the first image that I found it necessary to use the content aware fill option in Photoshop CS5. Worked perfect & I bet you photo savvy readers can’t even tell where I used it.

Here’s a quick snapshot from a senior portrait session that I held this weekend out & about downtown Detroit with Breya Bogs.

Breya is currently a graduating senior from Detroit’s Crockett high school & she will be a freshman this fall at Eastern Michigan University.

My session with Breya ended much more smoothly than my last senior portrait session. Namely it ended well because I didn’t drop any lenses & my car was not vandalized.

I also must say that I returned to my car nervously hoping that nothing happened to it. As we all know, It’s so cold in the D!

Here’s to more drama free photo shoots downtown in the COLD COLD D.

Looking to next weekend; I’m photographing the wedding of Jonathan Edwards & Erica deBardeleben Saturday then I’m chilling for a couple days and looking for some Memorial Day BBQ.

BTW, you can see a few more outtakes from Breya’s shoot here.

Expecting? Know someone who is? Let’s talk about a newborn photography session!

This has been a very busy & trying week but I’m still here.

To help decompress from all my mini drama, I’ve been working in my gardens cleaning, clearing & pruning for the summer blooms.

In the midst of pruning one of my Rose of Sharon bushes, I discovered a robin’s nest. I got so excited. As you can tell, it doesn’t take much to get me excited.

I’m taking this finding as an indication that I will have a great weekend.

As of now, I have 2 photo sessions, an event & tomorrow I will find out if I’m shooting the Jill Scott/Maxwell concert. I’m pumped & ready for all of this to happen cause poppa needs a brand new bag.

On an unrelated note, I started a clearance sale earlier this week. I’ve been fortunate to move 2 pieces so far with 9 pieces still looking for nice new homes. Have a look around, get inspired & help keep me busy by buying one of my most popular macro prints.

How did this slip into a cheap sales plug when I started off talking about finding a birds nest?

Anyway, buy some of my stuff! OK. Thanks. Buy!

Here’s a quick snapshot from a senior portrait session that I held this weekend out & about in Detroit with Allyson Lloyd.

My session with Allyson was great & moved rather quickly because I am finding my groove with moving locations quicker & dealing with fewer changes (I had to switch my packaging/change options up after my last shoot).

Midway through the session, I made a careless move when switching lenses & neglected to zip my camera bag. Next thing you know three lenses crashed on the ground.

Fortunately, Nikon pro lenses are built like tanks but my primary lens (Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8) did sustain some damage but it still works & that is the good thing.

After our session was up I made my way back to my car which was parked downtown Detroit to find that my passenger side front window was smashed. Whoever smashed the window did not manage to get into my car & for that I saw some comfort.

Looking at the bright side of things, I would rather have a smashed car window vs smashed lens glass. That is FAR much worse.

So tomorrow, I will be arranging an appointment to get a new window & processing the rest of this week’s photos.

Life goes on & I’m booking shoots so there is a reason to be happy.

BTW, you can see a few more outtakes from Allyson’s shoot here.

This morning I had the chance to meet little Madisyn Skye for a newborn shoot. Isn’t she precious?

Madisyn’s parents were the winners of one of my newborn photo sessions that I gave away last month.

Madisyn was a fun challenge to photo & I learned a few things from her like:

• When dealing with nude babies, keep plenty absorbent towels nearby
• Redos are not allowed
• The baby runs the show
• Keep your room as warm as possible

The sessions was planned for two hours but by the time it was over, it was three hours as I was on Madisyn’s schedule. It was all good & I enjoyed rocking her to sleep, which was totally not part of my deal ;)

I have to credit my photographer friends Kristen Caldwell & Maya Henderson for helping pull up the strength & nerve to a) offer this contest & b) actually pull it off. Thanks so much for the encouragement & creative ideas!

Over the next few days, I’ll be working on Madison’s photos & will post a few more so you can marvel at my amazing skills.

Accessories:

• Bracelet: Pier One Napkin holder (yes, it really is)
• Lace Baby Wrap: Springtree Road Handspun Yarn & Fiber

Help feed a starving artist by taking advantage of my massive sale. I have 9 pieces left.

Well today was my big Adobe Lightroom presentation at the Ann Arbor Flash user group “Flash Focused”

My presentation was focused on some of the key features of Lightroom & my own workflow.

I had been going back & forth over how I was going to pull it all together for over a week but it all came together last night.

After setting up my Keynote presentation & setting up some test files, I was ready to go!

So I get to the venue 15 minutes before the meeting started & found out that they did not have a way for me to connect my MacBook Pro.

With some quick thinking, a Windows based laptop, & free wifi I was able to download a trial copy of Lightroom & upload my Keynote presentation to Google Docs.

After about 1 hour of waiting for the download I was able to present without further drama. Well, no, there was a little drama. I had to get adjusted to using Lightroom on a Windows PC.

When all was said & done, my presentation went well & I covered everything that I planned. I also now know that I need to get an adapter so that I won’t have this issue again.

After my presentation, there was a raffle for some fun little Adobe swag & I managed to win an Adobe notebook of graphing paper.

AND THEN…… there was a larger raffle for CS5 & your boy won the copy! I am now the proud owner of a fresh copy of Adobe CS5 Design Premium. I’m still too excited & basking in the afterglow of a very nice win.

In other news, I sold an image of Kwame Kilpatrick that I took a couple years ago.

The purchaser was Detroit Clear Channel station WKQI FM 95.5. They used the image on a 14ft billboard on I-696 & John R, which shows Kwame with a caption that reads “It’s fun til ur caught.” I love it & I love the check that comes along with it.

What a GREAT Monday!