Anticipation

The buds are about to bust. Time to get excited. Maybe this year I'll actually get down to see the Cherry Blossoms. Its only been about 20 years.

Ride Willie Ride

I did a shoot today for my new good friend Wilard (Willie) Arendt who is about to embark on an epic cross country cycling journey from L.A. to Boston. Willie is raising awareness and accepting charitable donations to support The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). The photos are intended for Willie's blog. He will be posting updates as he travels across America. I will let you all know when his blog goes live. So think about being a real FAAN, visit FAAN or Willies blog to see how you can help. Good Luck Willie.

Pack 976 Rocks; Year In Review

We have a lot of fun in our Pack. This slideshow sums it up. I love what the Boy Scouts program has done for my children.

New VTLA President Sandra Rohrstaff

One of my portraits found its way into the Virginia Lawyers Weekly. A while back I did a photo shoot for the fine folks at Weiner, Rohrstaff, and Spivey PC in Fairfax VA. Congratulations Sandra....er.....President Rohrstaff. And might I add that you have never looked so good. Would you be in need of an official staff photographer for all your history making decisions?

Here is the original as the newsprint version doesn't really capture President Rohrstaff's natural beauty.

Baaaack in the Saddle Again....

The shoulder is on the mend and today I actually got out for a ride. Feels good. Cycling is in the air once again. These shots are from last years CSC Invitational Bike Race in Arlington. Its a great spectator friendly event. If you have never been or seen a pro race you should consider making it a family affair. Some of the fittest men and women in the world will compete once again this spring. Consider checking it out. They should have new info on their website soon.

Local Favorite Big Bo Lee...a good friend of mine.

Yes this guy actually has a tattoo on his face. He is a very popular rider for Rock Racing.

Always love to watch and learn from the other pro photographers.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Hope everyone had a great day. Would you believe I didn't have a St. Pat's themed pic to post. So I stole my sister's. Thanks Eileen! She took this at the Parade in Old Town just last weekend. She is a bit of a shutter bug herself and getting better all the time. She has inspired me to dig up my honeymoon slides. Many years ago (16) my wife and I toured the Southwest Coast of Ireland on bikes only. When I think back I have to sigh and think how ambitious that was. We went for 2 weeks...no car...no kidding....and on our honeymoon! I've got some great shots here somewhere buried in my office. I'll have to see what I can find and share some in the coming days.

Whalehead Club

A photo I've been working on tonight. Its an HDR (high dynamic range) photo of the Whalehead Club at Currituck Heritage Park on the Outer Banks North Carolina. I took this shot back in the summer of 08 while vacationing with my family. The look reminds me of the old style of watercoloring on top of a black and white photo. Looks like an old post card. The Outer Banks is a great place to shoot.

Happy Birthday Reilly!

It was my youngest son's birthday a few weeks back and I fogot to blog him. He called me on it the other day....asking why not? So here you are son, Happy Birthday! Hope you enjoyed your good ol fashion bowling party!

DC Nightlife

I'm laying low this week. Had some shoulder repair work done so my creative arm is a little tender. Here are a couple more from the other night's DC Photowalk.

A view of Rosslyn from the Memorial Bridge.

And the majestic Lincoln Memorial.

Night Time Photowalk

My wife and I joined a large group tonight, including my photographer friend Mike Palmer, on a night time photowalk in DC near the Lincoln Memorial. The weather could not have been better as was the company.

Camera specs: Canon 40D, iso 200, f28, 30 sec exposure, using a f28-135 mm zoom set at 44mm.


Camera Specs: Same as above at f2.0 and 10 sec.

Leap of Faith

Through the encouragement of my wife (who put an iMacPro Laptop under the Christmas tree for me) I am making the jump to Mac. It has been rather involved as I had no Mac software to speak of. So there has been a little more investment required to get up and running with transferring my photos and work tools. But I am loving it. Both Adobe Literoom and Photoshop CS4 really sing on this set up. With the purchase of a $30 adapter I can use my very nice HP widescreen from my previous set up. Mac has a great program for using dual monitors and its pretty cool. Really enhances the work flow as does the addition of the Wacom Pen tablet (they say once you go pen tablet you never go back). I am also now backed up with a desktop 1 Terrabyte external hardrive and a rugged portable 250 GB hardrive for on the go. Apple also offers a One on One training program at the Apple Store in Tysons' Corner Mall for one hour a week for a year. I hope to add Mac Guru to my list by the end of the program.

A Little More Petey

After finishing processing my photos for my clients I usually end up with several that did not make the cut for one reason or another. If you try hard enough, you can always find a way to be creative and make the most of your session. My clients version has Peter's birth name at the bottom.

Miss Julia

Miss Julia wasn't so sure she wanted to be photographed last week. But persistents is key. Just when you think you have nothing, you end up with a shot like this. OK ....I'll fess up, the pose was my sisters idea. She was sitting on a stool backwards and looked over her shoulder at me. I cropped it high to get this great angelic look. Camera specs are the same as Peter below. Thanks sis.

Introducing Peter

Gotta love those baby blues. Peter is a vivacious 15 month old young man I had the opportunity to photograph this past week. I first caught him in a casual photo some months back, fell in love with those eyes, and couldn't wait to get him in my studio. It was worth the wait.

Photo specs; Canon 40d, f9.0, 1/60 sec, at 65mm. Two strobes left and right blowing out the white background, one strobe shot through an umbrella to camera left. Enjoy.