Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Berry!

Occasionally I get to photograph a wedding and being as I'm not actually a "wedding photographer" so to speak, more often than not the wedding is of a friend. I'll have to say that I'm starting to enjoy them more than I used to. I've done a small handful in the last 2 or 3 years and they really are getting easier. The fact that I've been able to enlist the help of my friend Bridgett has made a world of difference. She really knows what she's doing I'll have to say.The aid of an assistant can be the difference in a good set or a really good set of wedding photos.
All that aside, these are my friends John and Debbie Berry. They tied the knot November 20, 2010. I should say that I felt honored to be asked to do their wedding. I really mean that. For someone to trust me to take photos of  what will be memories of a lifetime well, there's just not another word that conveys how I feel about that. Thanks John and Debbie for putting your trust in me! May your life together always be filled with laughter as it is here. I know that it will be just for the simple fact that I know you have God in your hearts!
 
Congratulations to you both and I wish you nothing but happiness...

From Thy Bounty...

 Well, I'm plenty full of turkey, ham, smoked pork and all of the usual assortment of casseroles and veggies. Not to mention more desserts than "Man vs. Food" could manage to eat in his usual allotted time. (It's a television show- you'll just have to look it up... )    So, I just wanted to say "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone.I hope that there's never been a moment on this blog that I haven't conveyed how thankful I am for all of the blessings I have in my life...

A Place In Our Hearts...

 I'm not sure which I like better, the big red barn with it's loft full of hay and the rope and pulley hanging out over the hay loft door or the old weather beaten, run down barn with it's boards that no longer hold any paint (or many of the  nails for that matter). Barns have always had a place in American literature and therefore a place in our hearts.
  There's the barn with the loft that became the secret hiding place for many a child that grew up out in the countryside where the neighbors were few and far between. A secret hiding place to escape the daily chores or maybe even the switch for trying to escape the chores!
 Sometimes the barn was the next best thing to a ride at the county fair when the rope acted as a swing for a young daredevil to launch him/herself into a mountainous pile of hay below, oftentimes resulting in the acquisition of a new cast on one limb or another.
 Then there were those times that the old barn acted as a hide out for some outlaw that was on the lam. Of course more times than not he was the victim of an over zealous law officer who happened to catch his girl giving the aforementioned outlaw the eye which resulted in his unfortunate and untimely incarceration which, in turn led to his escape (with her help of course). All of this culminating in a showdown at the barn that, unfortunately but most probably, led to the barn burning to the ground after the lantern is knocked loose from it's perch during the scuffle between "good and evil"!

 Whew! All that being said, you can't deny the romanticism of the barn. Now I know that there are plenty of other situations that the hay lofts of America might bring to mind but I won't be going into all that here. It's not that kind of a blog...

Ol' What's His Name

 Once again I'm at a loss. I've got a great site for bird identification - The Cornell Lab of Ornithology; All About Birds. For those of you that are interested you can find it at :
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1189   Just in the browse for name and/or shape section there are over 400 different bird pictures! 
  I'm pretty sure that I've scanned every picture therein in hopes of identifying this particular bird. But nooo. I haven't been able to even come close as far as I can tell. I know that I should know what it is. I've seen several around. As far as I know, it's probably one of those that is so common that the site doesn't bother identifying it. Surely you know what that is! Everyone knows what kind of bird that is! I mean, come on...
 But I don't. I can't find it at all. So I guess we'll just skip the formalities and move on. This particular "bird" here made him/herself known to us last Sunday evening when it decided to try and fly through the window not once, not twice but over and over and over again. Now I understand the "clean window" thing but what makes a bird fly repeatedly into an obstacle that it obviously cannot pass -whether it can see it or not? This photo was taken as it was resting in between kamikaze attacks. Maybe it was planning a new strategy, I'm sure I don't know. But apparently, if it was, it decided against whatever new approach it might have come up with because the bombardment repeated continuously until dark.
 Maybe, even in the bird kingdom there are a few crazies out there. Maybe once in a while a bird has had all it can take for one day. And I suppose that maybe there are some things that are just enough to make a bird cuckoo...

Just To See What There Is To "C"

 This is Commercial Street at sunset. I, like I'm sure a lot of you are, am very attracted to the older architecture in my town. I'm compiling photos from around the Springfield area in hopes of doing a photo book in the near future. You know, not something from a major publisher but one of those web sites that you can do the layout and they send you back a nice book. I've done one so far - a compilation of different subjects- and was very happy with the results.
 But anyways, as I was saying, this is Commercial Street at sunset. Obviously Commercial Street is in an older part of Springfield. There's a lot of history on Commercial Street. At one time it was the dividing line between North Springfield and Springfield. This was way before my time though and I don't intend on giving a history lesson about this particular subject just now.
 I do remember being dragged by my mother in and out of various stores and agencies back in the 60's and that it was a pretty busy area back then. In the 70's and 80's it's reputation grew as a more shady part of town, getting most of it's publicity for the hole-in-the-wall bars that lined the street and for the unsavory characters that frequented them.
 But now thanks to the North Springfield Betterment Association there has been a major overhaul of the area and it is quickly becoming an attractive place to frequent. As a matter of fact, the building in the photo was once a firehouse ( probably had more calls on the block than not ) but now those windows are the view from somebody's loft. Lofts, coffee houses, clothing stores and yes, a bar or two line the street now and people actually come to C-Street as it's more commonly referred to these days, just to roam around and see what there is to "C"!

And So It Is...

 Well it's up and at 'em again for me. Started a new job Monday and I'm once again amidst the ranks of the employed. I wasn't really unemployed for that long and don't think for a minute that I'm not thankful! But when the lady called Friday afternoon and asked if I was ready to come to work on Monday what I really wanted to say was "No, no probably not this Monday. I'll need a couple of weeks to go hiking and get in some quality photo time. I'm still working on the man cave and there's the spare bedroom to get back in order once the last remnants of the guy room have been transported out back to become a part of the aforementioned man cave. I've got some senior pictures to do and a family portrait sitting lined up and I really need to do them at the right time of day- lighting's very important you know. And maybe I'd like to sleep 'till 9:00 a couple more times. No, this Monday is probably out of the question. But I'll tell you what. Call me back in two or three weeks and we'll have a deal."
 But I didn't. I said Yes, ma'am I sure would! And so it was and so it is. Up at 5:30 and off to a new beginning...

Sorry I'm Late...

 Alright. I've decided that I'll no longer apologize for missing or being late with a post. I mean, sometimes it's just unavoidable. Sometimes I just can't help it. Sometimes I just have too much going on. I need a break, a little rest, a breather- you know, a time out... aw what the heck. I hate it when I miss a post! This blog has grown to be such a part of me that I actually feel like I've left a friend behind when a Sunday or Wednesday has come and gone and I didn't share some part of myself with the rest of the world. That's what we do you know, we photo bloggers. These photo blogs that some of us are fortunate enough to be a part of - they're just extensions of ourselves or maybe I should say our inner selves. A window to our souls if you will and sometimes we like to give a little glimpse of what's going on inside.
 Well anyway, I am pretty tired tonight. Last night I was just busy. Busy, busy, busy. But tonight I'm tired. So tired that I think I'm just rambling.(I wanted to say "rambling, rambling, rambling" here but I wasn't sure if you'd catch the humor or just think that I was delirious!) So I believe I'll just leave it at that. You can take it for what it's worth and know that I only speak for myself  and I'm not the voice of photographers everywhere. But the next time you look at a photograph, really look at it and ask yourself who you think it is behind the lens. You may make a new friend without ever meeting them...

One Way or Another...

 I happened to be watching TV the other day when I came across Roger Ebert on one of the channels. Roger Ebert, as many of you might know, is one of the most (if not the most) powerful film critics ever. He's also a screenwriter and an author of over 15 books - the latter of which I did not know. He was apparently talking about his career as a writer when he made the statement that inspiration does not come to you before you begin to write. It comes to you during your writing. In other words, you just have to jump in and get started and let it come to you.
 This is interesting to me in the fact that many a time I've sat at this computer and tried to put something of interest down to accompany my photo only to sit and sit and sit waiting for the right words to pop out of my fingertips through the keyboard and onto the screen.
 I like to write. Actually, I always have it's just that it kind of got pushed aside for a lot of years - that is until I started this blog. Don't get me wrong, my real passion is for photography. I don't know what I'd do without it. But the writing is starting to push it's way through and I'm liking it.
 Recently my friend, Larry Whitely gave my blog a look. Larry as a matter of fact, is a writer himself. He writes a column that's published in over 3,000 newspapers, he has a syndicated radio show and he also writes for six other magazines and web sites here in Missouri! Not to mention that he's one heck of a nice guy! I guess the reason that I'm telling you all of this is just to say that Larry sent me an email that was so flattering and was so encouraging that I've kept it and I often go to it and read it for inspiration. I'm currently looking into a few publications to submit my work. What the heck, huh? Maybe that's my niche, maybe not. But I'm going to give it a try. I do believe that the good Lord has given me this option in life and intend to do my best to give it all that I've got in return. One way or another, it'll come...