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Each year, around Thanksgiving, I, my wife Kim, and (now) the 3 boys, head due west for the enchanting land of Western Oklahoma.  That sounds a bit like the beginning line of a National Lampoon movie, but such has been the routine (at least for me) for the last 7 years (Kim has been going back since her initial ‘vacation’ East in 1996).  Kim’s entire family is from either the panhandle of Oklahoma, or Southwestern Kansas.  It really is a magical place… and, apparently, they all decided to stay…for some reason.

I don’t really mind the trip.  It usually falls at a time where even the nothingness that is Oklahoma seems like a vacation, and I usually welcome it.  This year was the first trip with the boys, and we decided (our bank account decided) to drive instead of flying, as we normally do.  We decided to take about 3 1/2 days to get out there, not knowing how the boys would do with the monotony of the driving, and not really wanting to do the entire 21 hours straight ourselves.  The boys did great.  Between their ‘discs’ and the truckload of Hot Wheels that they brought with them, they occupied themselves for the vast majority of the trip, with little to no brawling.  PTL.

Being a photographer, and the fact that Kim’s entire family knows I’m a photographer, I usually have a small bit of equipment with me on the trip.  This time, because of some additional projects that got planned for me, I had a bit more.  Not really an issue…I really do like the projects.  I’ll post some of the images from those later.  But, what really interested me this trip was….actually, I should go back a step.  One of the sides of Kim’s family lives outside a town called Keys, Oklahoma, which barely even shows up on Google Maps.  Her grandparents have lived there for over 60 years.   They live in a structure called a quonset.  Never heard of one?  Me either.  Picture a huge, round, grain storage container, roughly 60 feet in diameter.  Cut it in half, and tip the sucker over on it’s side so it forms a dome top.  Well they got one of those, and built a house under it.  While inside, you’d never imagine what the outside looked like.  It looks and feels just like any single-family home anywhere.  Of all of the images I took while we were there, none of them were of this fascinating place.  Nice one.

Anyway, here are some images from AROUND the home, but not of the actual home itself.  Maybe next year…

The place is really one that time has passed by.  There are remnants from their farming past, old vehicles that were ‘some-day’ projects, toys from decades ago (they made them differently then), and an aged earth that is reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic future.  I only scratched the surface this time, but I hope to really document the place next time we visit.  Here is a taste.  Have a great weekend!

Senior portraits can take many forms.  Sometimes they are sweet…sometimes they are stylish…  Sometimes they are tough.  We shot this set for Zane recently, and their only request is that he look ‘tough’.  Having worked with his football team throughout the last several years, I knew that the football route would be the way to go.

We shot this on a relatively warm evening, but when we start spraying him down with water, it actually took some ‘toughness’ to push through.  Thanks Zane for a fun shoot!

Here are some images from the shoot…  For the photographers, most shots were shot with a 2-3 light setup.  Usually 2 strip boxes on camera right and left, and a key that we switched back and forth between a 22″ beauty dish, and a 3×4 softbox.  Have a great Monday!

Well, it’s been a few weeks since our last post, and the clouds seem to be clearing a bit.  Lots of shoots to share…   Here is a shot of an interior we recently shot for Kade Homes and Renovations of a beautiful kitchen remodel they did.  Have a great Friday!

One of the more interesting, albeit understated, parts of being a photographer, are executive portraits.  They can be challenging, and most of the time, they push you both from a technical standpoint, and one of time-management.  In most instances, you will be very limited in the amount of time you have with your subject, and everything should, in a perfect world, go relatively perfectly, in terms of your execution.  Again, in a perfect world…

I had the opportunity to shoot another local attorney, Bill Dillon, that works in the fabulous Candler Building in downtown Atlanta.  It is one of ATL’s oldest buildings, and had a ton of spectacular architecture and character.  I shot in one of the upper floor offices (here) some time back, and I always wanted to shoot in the lobby also.  We were able to work it out this time, and tried not to make a spectacle of ourselves.

The lobby is relatively grand, especially with it’s ornate marble carved starcases, chandeliers, and, who could forget, the marble gargoyles.  I always thought that the staircase would make a striking background for a portrait, so we used it this time.  

We had shot in one of the offices earlier in the morning, and the lobby shots were going to need to be quick.  We had requested permission from the building management a day or two before, but, as we found out later, the building manager was on vacation in the Caribbean, so permission wasn’t going to happen.  Forgiveness over permission was going to have to be the rule of the day.  Luckily, the ‘stand-in’ for the manager was very nice, and was more curious about the shoot than she was concerned about us shooting there.  We had about 10 minutes to set up, and I needed every second of it.

This was a 4 light setup (all speedlights) with the key being a 28″ Wescott Appolo with a 1/2CTO, a bare speedlight with a grid for a rim, a bare speedlight in the background camera right to open up the shadows on the stairway landing, and a last bare speedlight in the background camera left to open up the shadows from the landing below.  The room was a mix of tungsten light (from the chandelier, and sconces throughout the room, and a ton of daylight coming in from both sides of the lobby.  I gelled the key with the CTO to bring the subject in line with the room, and left the rim and 2 background lights at 5600K for some color contrast.  I wasn’t going to be able to kill the daylight, and I kinda liked the feel of the more blue ambient in the room.

All in all we had a great time, and the subject really liked the final images.  Can’t wait to shoot here again!

Here is one taken a while back while shooting some footage near the Perimeter.  Have a great day!