It's been too long!

hello all...it's been too long since i've posted. nearly 9 months! here are some updates:

Black and White Services - we have switched photo providers to a new company, Exposure Manager. We feel this will give us greater flexibility and provide you with better service. Our photos can also be viewed at school now!

Personal - still enrolled at AU's bachelor's plus program. keep your fingers crossed that i can get a job in the ashland city schools. also, here's hoping i can complete the columbus marathon. my training has not been the most consistent :-(.

my first wedding!

first off...i was not married. but this past saturday, i photographed my first wedding! a special thanks to Richelle and Ben for asking me to share their special day with them. after being asked to photograph and the initial excitement subsided, the nervousness set in. what if i messed up? what if my camera malfunctioned? what if i missed "the" shot? both Richelle and Ben were great, relaxed and it turned out to be a very enjoyable experience.

hopefully, within the next month i will have a sample gallery for you to view my work...just in the off chance you need a wedding photographer or you know someone who might :-).

i have a potential wedding lined up in may and look forward to another challenge. one of the best decisions i made was to bring an assistant who could help me pose the individuals, set-up/tear-down the equipment, and keep a check-list of shots.

finally, it sure helps with the extra income. since no longer working at ashland first umc, income is no longer guaranteed with substitute teaching and going back to school. jobs like this sure do help. who knows, maybe i would even photograph for food. you might just see me on a street corner holding a sign, "will photograph wedding for food"...or maybe not :-).

i'm still here...sorta

it's been a while since i have posted. it's not that nothing has happened, it's just been that i have been to busy to post! hopefully now that i am back in a schedule with night classes and subbing, i can find time to put some unique posts up. thanks for at least checking.

Experiencing Christmas

this time of year, as the gifts are wrapped and the food is getting ready to be prepared, it's easy to to lose sight of what is important. there are some changes this year to my family's Christmas gatherings. this will be the first year we don't open gifts at my parent's home, this will be the first year i don't see my grandparents on christmas (but rather on saturday), and this is the first year we will celebrate at my sisters home as a new tradition begins with my young niece! this is also the first time since being in ashland that i will attend Christmas Eve service as just a member and not an employee.

despite all these changes, i feel as though i have already experienced christmas! yesterday, i drove an hour to akron to witness something so special that it took the akron police, akron fire department and hundreds of volunteers to make nearly 1,000 young childrens' Christmas holiday brighter. elves and more of north east ohio (<---click for link) became santa clause to one akron neighborhood giving away 1,000 bicycles to children who might otherwise not have the ability to enjoy a new bicycle.

as the caravan of semi-tractor trailors packed full of bicycles, the school bus hauling the volunteers and the akron police cruisors and fire trucks winded back and forth through the neighborhood that had no idea of what was to come, the sirens became the christmas bells that so many children associate with the arrival of santa clause. however, it wasn't santa that passed the bikes out, but the spirit of Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas that was on display.

as each young child pushed and pedaled their new, shining bikes home, smiles adorned their faces as ornaments adorn christmas trees. the children got to pick their new bikes out as they entered the street. they pointed and ran to their new bike almost as if the bike chose them. i feel honored to have been there to photograph the day, especially since one of the co-founders of this group is my cousin brian, who you might have seen interviewed on news channel 3 out of cleveland. you can learn more about elves and more by visiting their website (link above). they are always in need of financial support to purchase additional bikes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

a night "off"

yesterday i took the day off from photographing and traveled north to the great city of cleveland. loaded in a minivan with my sister, her husband and his brother, we stopped on our way for a bite to eat and then off to the "Q" for a cavs game. although we didn't stay until the end of the game, we did get to see this amazing play by lebron james. even though i was not there shooting officially, i had along with me my trusty canon powershot and grabbed this sweet pic :-). if you click on it, it gets bigger...the wonder of technology! every now and then it's nice to take a break and enjoy the action like the rest of the fans in the stands.

Rabble-Rousers?

do these four look like rabble-rousers? hardened criminals? up-to-no-gooders? i think not! today, they were ejected from the ahs girls basketball game for apparently...well, no one really seems to know. as the official seemed to "snap", everyone, including the adult that was seated right behind them wondered what the heck had just happened.

the identity of the official has been obscured to protect the...here's to you for moving us one step closer to silent games! here's to you mr. official thrower-outer. you threaten ejection and strike fear in the hearts of young children. when no one's looking you chuck the thumb in a discerning way that sends an unexpecting fan out to the car.

i've been to quite a few games in the past several years and never before have i seen something like this before. needless to say, this added a little excitement to the game.

We're #2 (and #8)

Recently, we were contacted by Shutterfly, the company that hosts and sells our photographs for us. They have requested to "possibly" use us as one of their featured pro-gallery owners to show other photographers the success they can have with partnering with Shutterfly. If that actually happens, we'll be sure to share the link with everyone.

We were also just told that we are #2 in Ohio and #8 in the US in sales of photographs! It's you the customers that have helped us reach this impressive ranking in less than two short years! THANK YOU! (Wouldn't it be great if we could be #1...of course that means you would have to buy more photos)