Saturday, October 27, 2007

Diamond Sluggers VS. The Wildcats

Todays pictures and slideshow are thanks to Dave Williams. He asked that I come out and shoot the Diamond Sluggers game as well as capture some individual and team shots.
The game was on Tuesday the 23rd and it looked like it might not happen due to the weather. But aside from some occasional drizzle the weather cooperated and it made for some cool shots as well.
The Wildcats were the opponents that night and they benefit from Dave's request as well. With some many good looking gals on both teams, I had to shoot 'em all!
The slideshow has a handful of shots to wet your appetite but there are a few hundred more online at Pictage. You should be able to view those, at the latest, on Monday the 29th. I have the pictures there in categories according to team. Diamond Sluggers - I have multiple posed shots of each player and ten team pictures so you can pick the one where you daughter looks the best!
I had a great time at the game. Thanks to both teams for letting me be part of your night!

The girls rocked, their pictures rocked, so their slideshow's going to rock! That's how I roll.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Extreme River

Here's some cool lads that I met up with last weekend.
Shawn, Barry and River.
Shawn saw some of my shots from a previous shoot and asked if I'd be interested in coming out to Flat Rock to get some pictures of River. Well I was and I did and we had a great time walking around the Carl Sandburg property and getting to know each other. What started as a River shoot turned into a full-on family shoot. And what appears to be a perfect shoot still had it's pitfalls: Barry spent some time doing recon for a lost set of sunglasses, Shawn had an unpleasant encounter with a goat that required some hand sanitizer, River cut his gums chewing on grass and I locked my keys in my car.
I must have made a good impression because these guys were so awesome; they drove me all the way back to my house for my other set of keys. A good 65 miles - Cool lads indeed.
I'm definitely going to have to pick up the dinner tab next time we get together!

The weather and the light were perfect though and we came away with some great images.
Check 'em all out!





Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Extreme Sharp

Alicia keeps my head fat.
She is on the blog everyday and is always leaving comments on how amazing my pictures are.
Well her day has arrived. Finally Alicia has some amazing pictures of her own!
This had to be one of the most easy-going shoots I've done. Alicia and Donald are so mellow. We just wandered around their property talking about cars and work and their cool old-school tractor!
Donald builds high-end custom staircases but with his steady and soothing baritone voice he could easily work in radio.
Another amazing couple I never would have met had it not been for photography.
Do what you love!

Here's the slideshow!





Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Extreme Adam

I don't know how I keep ending up with beautiful people to shoot but, Adam and his parents are certainly no exception!
It's so cool when you drive to a shoot and you don't know who you're looking for and a pretty woman walks up and says, "Are you Zac?"
That's exactly what happened when I drove up to the Sky Top Orchard to shoot Adam.
Adam took a little time warming up for the camera but after a bottle, some burping, and a fresh diaper - he turned on the charm and shot some grins our way!
We had a great time and came away with some awesome shots! Check 'em out!

The slideshow's right here!





Monday, October 22, 2007

Learned I am, and booked too!


That's what we're going for anyway.
I signed on the other day for Corey McNabb's Rockstar Wedding Photographer workshop.
Corey McNabb is a national speaker and was named one of the top wedding photojournalists in the world in 2006 and one of the top 100 in North America.
So I'm pretty stoked to be fortunate enough to attend the Asheville native's workshop.

ADDITIONALLY:

Book me now for the 25th of October, otherwise I'll be busy with shoots and the workshop through the 4th of November.
Now is also a good time to reserve your shoot date for the month of November, while I have a good chunk of my calendar still open.

Stay tuned for pictures from my three shoots this weekend - they all rocked!

Friday, October 19, 2007

When I grow up...

Gryphyn and his classmates got a visit from the Asheville Fire Department yesterday.
They stopped by and showed off their firetruck to the different classes at Mother's Morning Out.
Here's a few shots of the cool firemen and their cool truck - everyone was highly impressed!
Thanks guy's for coming by, you're awesome!



Extreme Harris

Dana Harris knows a good deal when she sees one.
Dana was the first to take me up on the Extreme Hookup and once she got her images she called me right back to schedule another shoot with the rest of her family!
Avian (who has become the star of my blog) is Dana's daughter and she is now joined by her brother and sister, mom and dad. And a special guest - see if you can spot him.
In an interesting turn of events, I lost track of some of the images from our shoot and only realized it after I had finished editing and making a slideshow. So, the Harris clan receives a second slide show an no additional charge. Oh wait, there wasn't even a charge for the first one.
Sounds to me like someone's getting an Extreme Hookup :)

Slideshow one - Slideshow two





Thursday, October 18, 2007

Extreme Huebner

I've mentioned the awesome Huebner's in another post and you've all been wondering, "well how awesome could they be" right?
Well, let's settle it.
Scott and Ginger are both way into their kids, Mia and Felix. That puts them into the awesome category straightaway in my book.
In addition to that, Scott is an architect working for a pretty cool looking firm here in Asheville called Carlton Architecture. They've got some pretty rad projects on their page so, check them out if you're in the market.
And Ginger is an artist with a purpose (and a pretty sweet little studio space by the river). I was cruising her page the other day and digging some of her stuff. Definitely check it out at GingerHuebner.com

Here's a few teaser images from our shoot.
Check out the whole slideshow here!





A cool find

I was driving on Riverside Dr. the other day to go check out an old train I was told about. I've had some clients express interest in getting some shots done with it and I thought it would be a good idea to look it over ahead of time.
There's a group of five or six cars slowly being reclaimed by the earth, sitting directly in front of the GDS trash facility. Some interesting smells occasionally wafted my way. Pleasant, yes? (that was for you, Mandy :)
One of the managers came over and asked if I worked for the company that owned the cars and would I be taking them away. He wasn't really pleased when he found out I had no idea who owned them.
They're surrounded by weeds with lots of thorns - which had me walking on top of the cars mostly. But then there were the numerous spiders with their gigantor webs that made it fun climbing down. I came across a huge bee/wasp? that was fortunately chilled out enough to let me get a few inches from him to get a picture.
So, here's a few images that I came away with.






You can just start to see the train tracks emerge from the undergrowth towards the top of the image.
I thought it was pretty cool.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Does it work?

SWEET!
I've been trying for days to figure out how to get bigger images on the blog. No more thumbnail dorkiness!
Livin' Large Baby, YEAH!
The Family Man

Hominy Valley Baseball

ALRIGHTY!
Here we go!
Pictures from October the 12th.
There are 300 more pictures online at Pictage so check that out too!
I missed most of the Diamond Slugger's game that night so I'll be back out on the 23rd to get team pictures, individual shots, and shots throughout the game. I'm stoked!
See you then!

The Pictage images are up! As of Friday at 1 a.m. - I'm dedicated baby, whoo!
I'm going to go dedicate my head to my pillow for a while now.

Haw Creek Baby!

Here it is!
Sorry it took a few days to get it online but, these are shots from the 11th as well as last night - the 16th.
Shooting t-ball is awesome, I had such a good time. Kids this age are great!
The slideshow has 62 images in it but I've got 567 pictures uploaded to Pictage. If you don't see what you're after in the slideshow then check out the rest by clicking here.

Play Ball!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Little China Doll

I was shooting the awesome Huebner family the other day in Biltmore Forest and we came across another pretty little girl who was also named Mia. In the 10 seconds or so that I interacted with her mom I learned that her name was Mia, that she had peanut butter on her face and that she was adopted from China.
She just looked perfect so I had to grab a few shots of her.
I hold parents that adopt in very high esteem. The selflessly volunteer their life to change the course of a child's life that they don't even know. Such a contrast to so many examples of "parenting" today.
Parent = Selfless. They're synonyms - at least they ought to be.

Rock on.

Getting Behind

Wow, am I behind!
I've got a few nights of baseball to get online yet, along with hundreds of gymnastics shots, a few family shoots and before that's all done, it'll be tomorrow night and that'll add another evening of baseball.

WHAT I HAVE THAT ISN'T UP YET:
- Haw Creek Fall Ball, October 11th
- Hominy Valley, October 12th
- Hahn's Gymnasium, girls gymnastics - October 10th
Two families that have taken advantage of the Extreme Hookup:
- Extreme Huebner
- Extreme Harris

If what you're looking for falls into one of those categories - stay tuned. I'm still pluggin' away behind the scenes!
Here's a taste of what's to come!




Saturday, October 13, 2007

The Family Man

You didn't think I could go a day without taking pictures did you?
Well I did go a whole day without taking pictures of anyone but MY family.

I tried to set today aside as a family day and I was mildly successful. I only checked on one location for a shoot, met with one client, and spoke with two others on the phone. I checked my email BUT, I didn't send any.
Gryphyn and I took a trip to the Home Depot and he got to ride in dad's VW bus - one of his favorite things :)
We attempted to take a trip to the Nature Preserve but it was mobbed with people (police directing traffic, etc) We went on from there to take some family pics but the light was horrible and the Men fell asleep while we were driving so we headed home for naps.
After naps I broke out the Nikon and instead of grabbing some of my awesome new glass, I went old school with my 50mm f1.8 - A simple setup for all of today's shots.

We even took some time after shooting to try a Thai place on Patton that we've been meaning to get to. It was very much a hole-in-the-wall: the entire menu hung from the ceiling over the counter, there were four tables total, one big TV with rabbit ears, a cork board full of old business cards and Christmas lights and brass elephants for ambiance. Two whole employee's - the Thai cook in a t-shirt and backwards baseball hat and an Australian guy who took our order from behind the counter (while we were sitting at the table). The food was palatable but, I think were still looking for "our" Thai restaurant.

Jolene got the boys to bed - multiple attempts with Gryphyn. He did get up once and pee'd in the toilet for me - my big Man!
Then we sat down and watched "300" which we got in the mail from Blockbuster the other day. Sort of a Braveheart/Gladiator hybrid filmed on the set of Troy and doused with some Sin City. It's not in the league of the former but way better than the latter. Pretty cool overall.
Now I'm blogging my day and headin' to bed.

I think this is our first real family picture since Vahn was born. FYI - this is probably what I'll be rolling up in if you ask me to take some pictures for you.


My big Man

Also a budding Apprentice

Mr. Smalls

I'm blessed - I'm well aware