I’ve been watching a website lately called You Are Not a Photographer. I love it. They make fun of all the trendy junk I dislike. I agree with their premise… it seems everybody who gets a camera a website thinks they are a photographer worthy of being paid. The site makes fun (just like I do) of the cut off heads, tilty pictures, trashy Photoshop spot color work, lens flares and all the junk you see from newbies all over the Internet.

Oh my. Looking at beginner’s websites make me just shake my head. I think they all see each others work and copy it. Granted you have to imitate before you can innovate… but copy a style that is good.

The trend right now is for newbies to get lens flare from the sun in their lens on purpose. Never mind if it blocks out the face of the family in the shot… it’s cool, right?

And of course… let’s photograph the little boys in the family and “capture the moment” by cutting off their heads and showing only their lower bodies. And why, oh why, photograph a engagement couple from the thighs down?

Ooh. And yes, lets put a chair somewhere unusual. How about in a field? Better yet, let’s put a couch out there. Maybe on the railroad tracks. Oh, let’s put it in the road!

Note to beginners: The tilty, tilty, tilty stuff you think looks artsy has been down since Hitler’s time… used heavily by the propaganda film makers.

Once the beginner has their tilted, lens flared shot of a family sitting on couch in the road showing nothing but their legs… finish it off by making it black and white and color nothing but their blue jeans! Now we’re trendy!

Our first class offering through Living Social went better than we dreamed.  We were hoping for about 20 people. It went waaaay over that. The email went out last weekend and we’ve spent the week fielding questions and lining up folks for the Saturday that fit their needs. It looks like we have some more class offerings in the works!

This weekend Keith (on the left) and I met tons of nice brides-to-be at the Wedding Festival show at Carolina First Center in Greenville.  This is us at our booth. Hopefully you’ll remember us and contact us soon about any wedding plans.  My other assistant Megan also had a display too. Between the three of us booking weddings together (and separately) and the upcoming classes, it is going to be a crazy year. I will certainly have limited availability, so don’t wait too long!

Shooting bands is somewhat like shooting wedding receptions. You never know how the lighting will be and you shoot whatever happens. We love music and never pass up a chance to shoot a show. A few days ago we did photos for a couple of groups in Greenville. Hey, is Greenville becoming little Austin TX or what? There is some great stuff going on here on the weekends! I’m sure we’ll be hearing more out of The Explorers Club and Crowfield. Excellent music!

The Explorers Club

Crowfield

Yep, our specialty is wedding and portrait photography… but we do more than that. Here is a slideshow we just put together. The shots you’ll see are from Greenville, to Cleveland, to New York and out to California. It has music… so if you are at work, be careful. You can click on [ ] on the right hand side to watch in in full screen high definition.