Lucy Comes to Town
Posted on August 31, 2008
George & Lauren came to town and brought their Dachshund, Lucy. She’s a good puppy, so I decided to take some pet portraits of her. George helped me find the last couple of jumps I needed on Burnout Paradise. Heck yes!
-JG
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Long Days, Dual Ceremonies
Posted on August 3, 2008
Two posts in one day!
Yesterday Leigh and I photographed a dual ceremony downtown Charleston at the William Aiken House. We started at 7:30am and finished up last night around 11:30pm. Can you say exhausted?! The first ceremony was a traditional Indian ceremony and the second a Christian one. Both were beautiful, and I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to photograph them. Anyway, I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of these photos, but wanted to share one of them that stood out to me.
The second photo is one that Leigh snapped of me during a tripod plate change while she was holding my camera. I usually cringe at photos of myself and even though I’m a bit self conscious, this is one I can live with. One benefit to being a photographer is that your photographer friends make better better photos of you than you are usually capable of (see some of my old attempts at self portraits…they usually involve me jumping or something stupid as not to feel too vain).
I hope to post a whole bunch from this wedding soon.
Off to the Apple store!
-JG
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Alyssa
Posted on August 3, 2008
An old friend of mine from high school got in touch with me a few weeks ago to get some headshots/portraits for her press kit. She’s a conductor, clarinetist and trumpeter. She was a class or two behind me in high school, but we were in school bands together (marching, symphonic etc.). She was very dedicated and talented then and is still very dedicated and talented now. We had a really good time tromping around downtown Charleston looking for good spots for her photos. It was so hot and the light was still very harsh even in the evening…one of those days that epitomizes Charleston in the summer. We still managed to beat the heat at its game and get some good photos for her press kit. Here’s a few.
Good luck with your endeavors Alyssa! I look forward to getting together again soon!
-JG
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Tracy & Thomas - Hampton Park
Posted on February 3, 2008
Yesterday Jessica and I had the pleasure to photograph a mostly kid session with Tracy and Thomas. We met up at Hampton Park downtown Charleston by the Citadel for some fun portraits. Thomas had so much energy and had no problem yelling “cheeseburger!” every time I came around.
Here are a few of my favorites from the session.
View the slide show of all the portraits.
-JG
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Clean Up
Posted on November 5, 2007
A break from work for a moment. I don’t smoke, so instead of going out to inhale, I’m taking a moment to exhale. Work has been extremely busy for the past few months. Well, make that years. It’s all relative though.
I need to update my portfolios on my website. I have so many new photos to put up there. I’d like to do some web updates too to increase the speed.
I’m trying to stop updating with posts about things that are coming soon, because “soon” is never soon enough.
I entered this portrait into the Coastal Carolina Fair this year. I didn’t get any ribbons, but it did get accepted and scored pretty well. I got a 19 out of a possible 22 which translates to something like 86%…maybe a B+. I knew when I entered the photo that it wouldn’t be a ribbon winner. It’s not photo journalistic, nor is it a member of Charleston’s seagull or pelican population. However, for me it was an accomplishment. It was taken around 10PM I think. Either way, it was pitch black. Jay was helping me scout locations for a bridal shoot I had coming up. Jay Nelson is an aspiring writer. You can read his blog here. His “pen” cascades vocabulary that can come close to lingering on pretense at times but always has scars that twitch with reality, humor, and honesty. Just enough to subdue any judgments of a writer loving the internal sound of his superior vocabulary. Jay, if you’re reading this I don’t mean it in the negative at all. It’s kind of like when you think the dip you’re about to try will taste like crap because it looks like crap, then you take a bite and it becomes your new favorite snack. Jay’s style is poetically digestible.
So Jay and I are tracking along Brittlebank Park on the way back to the car, and I say “hey Jay, check out that playground…that alphabet is pretty cool”. He sits on the platform. I set up two SB-600s shooting through 41″ umbrellas on some light stands, my tripod, and my camera. It’s too dark to find a focus through the lens, so I break out my trusty pen light and shine it on Jay for a few seconds until I can get the focus ring to the right spot. I set a decent depth of field and start banging away. It’s blinding to go from pitch black to lightning. Jay’s a trooper though and appreciates the effort put into a nice portrait. We pack up and head home quickly as there are some shady folks in the immediate perimeter. Late nights in dark parks with expensive gear aren’t that great of a mix. I get home and upload the shots and there they are. Photos that don’t say anything. They’re just portraits of a writer.
-JG
