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Archive for November, 2008

Thanksgiving: Family, Food, & Football . . .

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

For years, I’ve maintained that Thanksgiving is all about family, food, and football (in that order). My wife and daughter would add parades to that list. I’m not sure I would disagree, so long as I’m free to do other stuff and the parade is more of a background item. Besides, I tell them, “parade” doesn’t start with an F — so it doesn’t work for me . . .

Really, which sounds better: The 3 F’s of Thanksgiving, or 3 F’s and a P?

Thanksgiving is foremost about family, and is a time of gathering. It’s an opportunity to rekindle familial relationships that time and distance may impair. It’s a time to celebrate the good in our parents, siblings, and children.  It’s a time to remember and to be grateful for all those blessing we do enjoy.

All The Grandkids

All The Grandkids

I had the pleasure of photographing one such gathering of family on Thanksgiving morning.  They hadn’t all been together for many years and, to celebrate their reunion, they invited me to spend some time with them and provide images to cement memories.  I was happy to help.

They were a large, diversified group: some who would rather soothe a rattle snake than to pose before a camera.  I assured them that I feel the same way; however, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun in the process.  And, so, we did.

Fun . . . Thanksgiving is all about Family, Food, Football, Fun, and sometimes Parades.  Hey, that’s kinda like the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y . . .

The images interspersed in this post are from my time with this kind, friendly family, and I thank them for entrusting me to help preserve their memories.

Hope yours was a happy Thanksgiving!

Cheers,
-Mike.

Shoot! Halloween (2008) Showcase

Friday, November 7th, 2008

There are too many terrific images from our 2008 Shoot! Halloween promotion to do them justice in this short entry.  My job, here, is to present only a few images to give the viewer an overall flavor of the event.  I’ve selected three images from what I view as three distinctive categories: children, parents with children, and adults.  I chose these three images to best illustrate the diversity I find in Halloween.

Cuddle Bugs

Cuddle Bugs

Cuddle Bugs:

Too cute for words?  Oh, yes, I think so.  These young ‘uns embody the essence of cuteness.  If you don’t think I’m a qualified judge in such matters, talk to their parents.  I think you’ll find they agree!

Proud Papa

Proud Papa

Proud Papa:

The cowboy and the baby.  The thing I like best about Halloween is that it draws the generations together.  For instance, this young father taking time to share the evening with his daughter.  I was pleased for the opportunity to photograph these two together.  As an aside, he said he’d come straight from work and didn’t have time to dress in costume . . .

Costume Award

Costume Award

 

Costume of the Year Award:

This husband and wife team simply caught me off guard.  How cool to see that Halloween isn’t just for kids, nor is it only about collecting hordes of candy.  In fact, I don’t recall seeing these guys carrying bulging pillowcases of candy at all.  They said they were just out for an evening’s stroll, to enjoy the nice moderate temperature.  In any case, I’m glad they strolled by.  With these killer costumes, they simply made my night!

Cheers,
-Mike.

Shoot! Halloween, postmortem (so to speak) . . .

Saturday, November 1st, 2008
Shoot! Halloween 2008

Shoot! Halloween 2008

We’d like to thank everyone who stopped by on Halloween night. Your visit helped make the promotion a great success! We expect to have your images posted to your secure gallery by Monday evening.

We received a number of comments on the set we built for the shoot. Thanks! We’re glad you liked it. It’s amazing what you can do with a few bales of straw, some pumpkins, and other seasonal items once the creative juices start to flow. However, a cool set was just the beginning.

The real benefit to those taking advantage of our promotion was dramatic lighting. Combine the cool set and dramatic lighting, and you get memorable pictures that will be shown and treasured for years.

We’ll be posting a small sampling of images from the shoot here, on this page, in a few days.

For those of you who may have missed our 2008 Shoot! Halloween promotion, we’ll likely run it again in 2009. Meanwhile, be sure to take advantage of our services for all your photographic needs.

Cheers,
-Mike.


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