Archive for March, 2008

Spring Brings a New Logo!

March 30, 2008

Some of you astute readers have noticed that I changed the banner to my blog and put up my new logo! Like it?! The fine folks over at Gil Shuler Graphic Design came up with that and I love it. I am in the process of getting all new business cards, letterhead and envelopes printed and I am anxiously awaiting their arrival! They are currently being letter pressed up in Charlotte and apparently P. Diddy’s holding up the press with his own stuff. Unfortunately, I do not rank as high as P. Diddy on the importance scale. Oh well.

The other big news is that I have a new website launching in a week or two. It’s got lots of new photos and they are big and bold and easy to see. And there are a bunch of new ones on there. I can’t wait for it to be up! I’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready.

New Logo

I was talking with someone yesterday about what it’s like to be the photographer in the family. And when there are little kids involved, it turns every family event into a photo shoot. He was lamenting the fact that his fiance sometimes feels left out when he goes crawling on his knees to get cool shots of the kids, and she’s left standing there.

I, on the other hand, come home and realize that I’ve gotten photos of everyone at the family event and yet there’s not a single photo of me. So it’s the proverbial, “If a tree falls in the woods…” dilemma. Was I really there?

This, by the way, is one of my three nephews, all of whom are brothers. I love the color and the look on his face in the second photo.

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I took this photo of my niece Mary over the weekend and it’s one of my favorite new photos. But perhaps what I love about it is that she watched me taking pictures and then went and found her own camera and told me very confidently that she is a photographer. They say “imitation is the greatest flattery” and I was definitely flattered.

It also cracks me up because I imagine her reminiscing about how her own career was started when she was given her first digital camera for Christmas one year…

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Happy Easter!

March 22, 2008

I’m here in Raleigh spending Easter weekend with my family. Easter’s a lot more fun with kids! My 3 nieces and 3 nephews who spent the whole afternoon hunting Easter eggs and looking for the “golden egg”, which contained not only candy, but money!

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U Truth

March 19, 2008

My friend Ida has recently embarked on a very enviable and ambitious trip. She is planning to travel around the world for a year on a quest to find out what YOU believe to be true. She is asking people from all over- people of every background & ethnicity- from along her route what they believe to be true. She has deemed this The U Truth Project and you have to check it out. It’s fascinating. Each day, she posts a person’s picture and their “truth”.

I was honored to be one of the chosen Charlestonians to speak my “truth” before she left. You can see mine here.

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D300

March 17, 2008

I have a love/hate relationship with new technology. For the most part, I love everything about it…. we get faster cameras, excellent resolution, self-cleaning sensors, higher ISOs with less noise, etc. But I hate the fact that every year it seems, I want to buy the latest and greatest camera that Nikon puts out!

You can’t get attached to these things anymore and think that you’re going to use that $5000 camera for the “rest of your life”! Really, you’re only going to use it for 2-3 years until some camera technology break through happens and you are on to the D4, D5, D6… You have to think of it more as “leasing” the camera because in 2-3 years time, you will be putting it on eBay to help you afford the upgraded version.

I recently sold my Nikon D200 and got the D300, as it is much more sensitive to light and allows you to photograph in low light conditions with out a flash and with out “noise”, the digital equivalent to grain.

I had to try it out as soon as I got it, and who’s a better subject that my dog? Here’s Bella photographed at f/3.2, 2000 ISO, 1/40th sec. I printed this as a 17×22 inch print and it’s sharp as a tack and without any noise/grain at all!

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For those of you who have seen the photos I have up at MUSC or have read the earlier blog post about “Things from My Grandmother’s Kitchen”, I thought you might appreciate seeing what the actual kitchen itself looks like!

I’ve gotten such a big response from the photos of the individual items I photographed from her house and kitchen, that I think I’m going to have to go back and do some more and make a book just of the objects she collected over the course of her life.

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For the past few days, I have been photographing various events that the Design Investors have been having in Charleston for their 2008 Design Summit. This is a group of the States most established architects and interior designers coming together to be inspired and share information.

I’ve gotten to see some amazing guest speakers, such as Paige Rense, the Editor-in-Chief of Architectural Digest, who spoke of her experience of being the editor for over 30 years. And tonight there was a very interesting “armchair conversation” between the Architecture Critic for the New Yorker, Paul Goldberger, and Jaqueline T. Roberson, an architect who ranks in the realms of Philip Johnson, Richard Meier and Michael Graves. This was held under the Spanish oaks at Drayton Hall.

I’m really there to capture shots of the speakers and participants, but I couldn’t resist some shots of Drayton Hall tonight.

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