I snapped photos of these two little girls at weddings last year. They loved having their picture taken.





Of course not all kids are as cooperative, and once in a while you just need to wait until nap time.


Regardless of which type of child you have, there's no better time to set up a photo session than right now.

To get more people to visit my new blog and to reward those who visit regularly, I'm going to start offering some random photography prizes. Today's prize is a free baby portrait session. The first person to email me and set up the appointment will receive a complimentary session in their home (or location of their choice) for their child and a free 8x10 print from the session.

Details: No purchase is necessary. The child must be under 1 year of age and cannot have been photographed by me before. The session location must be within Knoxville or Farragut and must take place on a weekday before March 15.


Also, there are only a few more days to take advantage of February's portrait special. All sessions booked within February and shot before March 31 will have the $125 session fee waived.

In preparation for the Oscars tomorrow, I wanted to see one of the Best Picture nominees at the theater today. Unfortunately, Marcus has a cold and didn't feel like going out so we stayed in and watched An Inconvenient Truth instead. It's one of those movies that I've wanted to see and knew I eventually would, but I was afraid it would be a little boring. I agreed to watch ten minutes of it if we could then turn it off and watch something else. Ten minutes in, I didn't want to turn it off. Everyone should see this movie.

It isn't as entertaining as March of the Penguins, and Al Gore isn't as animated as Michael Moore. Still, in my opinion, this is the most important documentary film. Climate change isn't a political issue, it's a human issue. It's much easier to just go on with our day-to-day lives and ignore the problem, but the very least we can do is understand and acknowledge what's happening.

I love shooting weddings. They’re beautiful, happy days filled with wonderful emotions, and most couples understand how important it is to hire a good photographer to document the day in photographs. However, when it comes to documenting our children, these precious little people that fill us with such love and happiness, parents don’t always appreciate the importance of hiring a professional photographer.

Just consider the time and money that you may invest in your family. You purchase a nice home in a good school district and decorate it to be comfortable for your family. Buy a new car that’s large and safe so that you can take your kids to play dates, sports practice, and music lessons. Start a college fund. Take your family on vacation every year. Outfit the children in new clothes. Purchase toys, books, games, and movies to keep them busy.

However, when it comes to actually documenting the children themselves and your relationships with them, how much do you spend? Imagine that you have portraits of your family from last year, five years ago, or ten years ago. How valuable would those photos be to you? When your children graduate high school, get married, or have their own families, how much will they value the photos that they have from their childhood? How valuable is a photo of a mother with her child when that child grows up and is one day burying her mother or if, god forbid, the mother is one day burying her child?

In my mind, photographs are more than just ink and paper. They can be one of the most important, priceless investments that you can make for your family. Sure, life is busy, but children grow up almost before our very eyes. Don’t be left with only memories. Create something priceless for your children.

I just saw this great first dance video on youtube and had to share it. The bride is actually photographer Julia Boggio. It took them 6 months of practice to get it all together. I've photographed a couple of choreographed first dances, but this one takes the cake.

Around Halloween last year, I was in NYC for a photography seminar with a couple of really great photographers - Jessica Claire and Liana Lehman. At the xtreme seminar, we focused a lot on the business of photography, but we did have some creative shooting time as well.

The seminar was held in a really cool Chelsea loft with large windows that created some great afternoon light. Jessica Claire invited some of her clients to come in so that we could practice some new techniques with them, but I'm just now getting around to working up a few of the photos from that session. These little girls were adorable and very good at just playing and ignoring the fact that they were having their photo taken.