River Arts Fest

Here are a few of the images I shot at the River Arts Fest last weekend in downtown Memphis.

More Flowers

I'm having fun with these flowers. I shot these magnolias at Rhodes last night. Then, when I got up this morning and took Emma out for her walk, the light mist on the green leaves was calling me.

Fun with a Macro Lens

Lately I've been pulling out all of my old manual-focus lenses and working them back in to my shooting. As it turns out, I like them better than my hot new zooms. These old things are like tanks–huge and heavy. But they also have just beautiful glass and make some really nice images.

I feel like most photographers today wouldn't know what to do if I gave them a full manual camera and told them to go shoot. Sometimes I think I rely too much on the technology. Lately I want to get back to my roots. All manual, all the time. That's how I shot all of these flower images. Tell me what you think.

A Big Girl Haircut

As promised, here are the images from Sarah’s first “big girl” haircut. My favorites are the ones with the lolly-pop. No matter how hard she tries to be big, I think she secretly wants to remain small.

I love you, Bear.

More from Mexico

No, I'm not in Mexico, but this weather has been making me want to go to the beach. It's getting warm and everything is blooming, so here are a couple of images to get you in the mood.

St. Louis, Part 1

We made a quick trip to St. Louis this past weekend to shoot some pics. It was snowing when we got there.

I really like St. Louis. I think I like its grittiness. I like the old industrial look from the 20s and 30s. Anyway, here's the first part of what I got...

Flowers

While I was shooting food last weekend at the Brushmark in the Brooks Museum of Art, I grabbed a few frames of a flower sitting on the table. Here's what I got...

I'm thinking about adding a section to my site of Fine Art images for sale. These might be my first additions.

Food, Glorious Food!

Over the weekend I shot some publicity images for the Brushmark, which is the restaurant in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out. The restaurant has such good light. All of these images were shot with only natural light and a gold bounce card.

Special thanks goes out to Stacy, Heather, Andrew, and of course Chef Wally Joe, for making it a wonderful shoot. The best part—I got to eat the props when we were done!

Have a look at the rest of the previews here.

Snow! IN MEMPHIS! (for real this time)

You did, in fact, read that correctly. We did have snow in Memphis last friday. Enough in fact that the college was closed and I had a snow day at home. So, of course, I pulled out the camera. Too bad it didn't last much longer than it took for me to take these pictures.

Random Image Wednesday

Today I'm posting a few images just because I like them.

You're thinking, “How is this different from every other day?”

Well, it isn't.

This is one of my favorite images of Jack. I think it captures his personality just about perfectly. It isn't new, but I love it anyway.

Snow! IN MEMPHIS!

Nah, not really. We can only wish. But you would have thought it was real from the looks on these kids’ (of all ages) faces.

I shot an event for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art yesterday. The free event for the people of Memphis featured carolers, face-painting, "stained glass" ornament-making, dreidel play, carriage rides, tons of food, and of course Santa Claus. The place was wall-to-wall people. I think the thing that the kids enjoyed more than anything else was the snow machine at the front door. Have a look...

Random Images

It's Thursday. Not much is going on. I'm trying to get another magazine out at the office before the holidays. I figured I would post a few random images.

The first one I shot while in Mexico on my honeymoon in 2004. There was a storm coming in from the East coast of Cozumel.

The next one I grabbed with a point-and-shoot while we were in Florida on vacation a couple of years ago.

I took the next one while I was in San Diego on business. I highly recommend visiting San Diego if you get the chance.

This one was shot through the windshield of my car while tooling around Memphis.

This last one is of Ya Ya, one of the pandas here at the Memphis Zoo. It became the cover image for an issue of the Rhodes College alumni magazine.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

As promised, here are a few more images from Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, Part 1

I figured it was time to post a few images of the other members of my household. These were all taken over the Thanksgiving holiday.

First, this is Jack. He's 8 and the greatest little boy a parent could ever ask for.

Next up is Emma. She's our blond, and boy is she. Since we lost Cooper, Emma has been the beneficiary of all of our displaced love.

Here's a little detail I shot of an old rusty plow, just for good measure (note: the plow does not live with us.)

Check back soon for part 2.

December

It's December already. Where the heck did this year go? 2006 has been pretty good to us (with a few notable exceptions), but I think 2007 is going to be even better. Look for some great new stuff from KB Photography in the coming year. I want to share some of the new developments, but for now they have to stay a little hush-hush.

The image above is from a tree right outside my office window. This is what it looked like just a few weeks ago. Most of its leaves are gone now.

Only 24 more shopping days left.

LUNA

October 6, 2006 was a perfect night for shooting the moon. Not only did we have absolutely perfect weather—clear skies, cool temps, virtually no humidity—but as it turned out, the October full moon happened to be closer to the Earth than most full moons. The moon’s orbit around Earth isn’t a perfect circle, and so there’s always a time each month when the moon is closer to Earth than at any other time—called its “perigee.” Only on rare occasions does a full moon occur at perigee. The beauty of this, for a photographer, is that the moon was actually about 20% larger in the sky than normal. So, like I said, with perfect weather—and a perfect moon—I couldn't resist.

I had actually wanted to do this for some time, but I'm glad I waited. I feel like the results, had I done it earlier, wouldn't have been as breathtaking. I shot this with a tripod-steadied Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 lens, using its dedicated 2x teleconverter. When you take into account the 1.5x multiplying factor that my Nikon D200 imparts, I had the equivalent of a 900mm lens! You can see for yourself, the result was amazing.

I designed the poster you see above for my son, Jack's 8th birthday. He's a space nut and needed a cool new image to be the focal point of his newly decorated space-themed room. When I went to have it framed, the guys at the frame shop went nuts and begged me for copies of their own. I figured, why not make them available as limited edition, signed-and-numbered prints. I decided to only make 10 signed edition prints available, and naturally Jack got number 1.

So here goes, get them while they last. I have only 6 prints remaining available at $99 each (not including shipping). Each one is 16"x20", color, with a white border. The prints are made on 100-year archival satin photo paper, at 2880dpi, using an Epson 9600 printer with Ultrachrome inks. Trust me, these are fine prints. If you know someone who is a space nut, think about giving them one of these as a Christmas gift.