A Ghost Town...

Recently, my friend, Megan, invited me to do a little location scouting for future photo shoots. This is something that I wanted to do more of since Atlanta is a big town with lots to see. I had tried scouting last year resulting in me bottoming out the car on a sandy car trap of a road. I was able to use a boulder and loose board to free the car before the tow truck arrived. Whew...saved $100.

I hate to admit that I do not fully take advantage of this beautiful city so we set off in search of some interesting vistas. We went to 2 parks which I could not name. Magically the GPS got us there. The first was a park with a Civil War era homestead. The second was literally a ghost town with many rustic shacks. It was a fun day.

 

It's All About ME ME ME!

Usually, I am not one to sit around and take a bunch of photos of myself. Heck, I barely look in the mirror. I am much more used to being on the other side of the lens where it is safe. What in the world possessed me to take photos with the camera pointing in the wrong direction?

I did not have any photos of myself with shaggy hair and I knew I would probably not grow it out again any time soon. I have kept my hair short since the mid 90's and about 7 months ago, I just quit cutting it as an experiment. I was wondering how long I could hold out as the hair on the back of my neck started tickling me... and then annoying me. Windy rides in my convertible would make me look like a Japanese anime character. Old ladies would clutch their purses when I would approach, and knew I had to do something soon. I had a short window of opportunity since my wife graciously scheduled me to get a hair cut.

All the photos were taken within 2 hours of each other. I tried to make them all look different. As you can see, I don't worry about embarrassing myself... notice the bowl cut in the lower row.

I call this my punk rocker yowl!

I call this one the unicorn.

I originally did a similar project back in my B&W film days of college. Here are 2 of the series. And yes, that is technically a mullet I was sporting, but I swear that it was popular back then. I can't say the same thing about the enormous owl glasses. Somebody should have had a style intervention for me. It is interesting to see how much I have changed over the years, but so too has everyone else.

Camera Angles and Funny Faces

Just for fun I decided to see if I could make myself look different without any retouching, Photoshop filters or special lenses. I used an iphone and camera angle to alter my appearance. Of course I did scrunch up my face to exaggerate my chin... but the point is that it does not take much to change your face... for better or worse. In this case I made myself look like a salty old sailor.

Photos for the Humphreys Family

Lisa is mom raising to kids and running a boutique cake company in Atlanta. Needless to say, she has her hands full most of the time.

We had been trying to coordinate our schedules before all the fall leaves disappeared. Yes, I am a little late blogging about this portrait session from last year, but they got their photos within a week.

We decided to meet at a duck pond in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. I took several photos of her and the kids who were getting much taller than I remembered from past sessions. We had a grand time shot up until it was almost dark.

There were some great bridges to pose near and the fall colors were very vibrant.

This is a family with good genes in the looks department with blond hair, blue eyes and killer smiles.

No bridge was left uncrossed...

... and no tree was left unclimbed...

I will definitely remember this spot for the future.

FinancialConnex.com Launched

I built the basic structure of FinancialConnex.com a while back, but it took many months to get the content added and approved by lawyers. In the theme of full disclosure, I am a client of Financial Connex and a friend of Mark Koppelmann who has been handling my finances and investments for several years.

Before him, I had been through a quite few advisers in my investment career, and I felt that they were lacking. Mark has been the best by far. In a nutshell, he is trustworthy and can explain the small print to me in a way that makes sense. I know in the past some of my advisers set me up with real dud investments that probably benefited them more than it did me. I never feel that way with Mark Koppelmann. I feel like I am in good hands and highly recommend Financial Connex.

Family Portraits With The Caponis

Several of my friends are in the process of expanding their families and I have become the "unofficial" family photographer taking portraits every few months. This keeps me involved as the honorary uncle and let's me spend time with the little munchkins that grow like kudzu in the summer.

 The Caponis wanted some 9 month photos of little Allessandra so I packed up the portable studio and went to their home. We made good use of our time taking photos of both parents, grandma, the dog and baby.

We took some photos of Mom and baby, Dad and baby and Grandma and baby.

 

Allesandra has Grandma's deep blue eyes and looks like a mini-me version of her.

 

Here are three generations together. Talk about a family resemblance.

 

Allessandra was dressed to the 9's with a flower headband and striped trousers. Cute!

 

Woman's Best Friend

Who says dogs are just "man's" best friend. Why can't the same special bond exist between women and canines? My wife calls our 2 Boston Terriers "furry babies" and they are truly part of our family. They are our kids... no if's, and's or but's.

During a recent family photo session, we decided to take some portraits of Amber and her dog, Roscoe, who was Amber's four-legged baby before her beautiful daughter came along.

Many dogs get relegated to the garage or back yard when a human infant comes along, but Roscoe has remained an important part of the pack.