Lighting. Lighting. LIGHTING!! Let me just say that this wedding could not have been any better lit… and I had nothing to do with it! A few weeks ago, I shot Cara and Kelly’s wedding at the Puritan Mill in Atlanta. It had actually rained the night before and that morning, but managed to clear up just enough to leave bright and cloudy light spilling everywhere! Simply beautiful. Almost every picture shown here was shot with available light.

[+] Can you guess which ones weren’t? [+]

++ ATTENTION: GI-NORMOUS NEWS BELOW! ++

I’m not even sure if you put a hyphen in the spelling of ‘gi-normous’… but you get the point. Anyhow, the aforementioned news. For the last 3 years I’ve been blessed to work for myself in a profession where I meet amazing people, travel, be as creative as I want and take pictures along the way. It’s also a lot of hard work… but either way you look at it, I love my job! But as much adventure as the last few years have brought me, there’s been another love waiting to take me on a new one. Quietly waiting its turn, teaching has been on my heart for the past 8 or 9 years. I guess sometimes good things do come to those who wait.

Recently I was presented with the opportunity to apply for a teaching program (TeachForAmerica) that places new graduates and professionals in ‘high need’ classrooms for 2 year periods. Their goal is to bridge the achievement gap between students in varying socioeconomic communities. Last Friday I was accepted into this amazing program! And after careful consideration, I’ve decided to join the frontlines of this battle and get back into the classrooms. Chalk in hand, I’m going to spend the next 2 years teaching adolescents in Atlanta!

What does this mean for you??

No worries! By and large, it shouldn’t mean much change at all for BTO. I still (and always will) have a passion for photography and how I can use my talents to bring great pictures to amazing people. I’ll just have to take rockin’ pictures part-time instead of my current around-the-clock schedule. So tell all of your buddies (and your buddies’ buddies) to book me early from now on ’cause space is going to be limited!

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I spend the next few years investing in our country’s teenagers. This is going to be a wild ride!

Remember January’s snowball fight / E-Shoot?  Well we had a blast then, and we certainly had a blast at their wedding too!  Jill + Darren had their wedding ceremony at Fayetteville’s First United Methodist and a beautiful reception following at Flat Creek Country Club.  While the rain tried to spoil our fun, we were able to keep a close watch for breaks in the weather to run outside and grab some sweet, milky-soft lit shots!  Here are just a few of the adventures and characters from the day.

I LOVE this little moment with dad.

And there’s nothing wrong with a little eager waiting for some delicious cake. 

Like I said… we had a blast!  Congrats again guys!!

Meet Sara and Aaron. This week I had the pleasure of shooting them in the very spot they got engaged… Piedmont Park! What a place. Parking may be a bit rough, but it’s totally worth it once you’re there. Imagine acres of green grass, trees, biking/walking/running paths, a dog park and a mean city view. Oh, and a creek too. Not a bad place to shoot, right? Even though we didn’t start until a little after 6:30PM, the sun was out and in full force… but luckily we caught a great view of the skyline at dusk to send us off! Check out a few to see what I mean.

Coffee meeting, live accordion music, custom built diffusers, photo shoots, road trip, pizza and one-act plays - These would be a good start to describing the whirlwind of a weekend I had in Texas… but still, just a start. What a weekend! Originally, I had scheduled a trip to Dallas to meet with a rockin’ Baylor couple and shoot some bridal portraits for their upcoming wedding in May. I won’t go into too much detail here… (and I’m sure Paige would appreciate me waiting a bit to share some of the pictures) but let’s just say we had an incredible shoot! Bob and I even rigged a 6′ x 7′ diffuser out of pvc pipe and a white blanket from Walmart just for the shoot.

But since that doesn’t take all weekend to do… why not schedule in a little fun too? The following is a medley of pictures partially documenting this past weekend’s insanity. Enjoy!

This is Bob and his two dogs, Molly and Kona. Every day Bob ties a stuffed squirrel to a rope and just swings it overhead. Needless to say, his dogs really like squirrels. Especially Molly.

The future of golf… today? Top Golf is a huge golfing establishment that blends the driving range with certain aspects of an arcade, putt-putt and darts. Strange? Kind of. Fun? Absolutely!

Usually, as a photographer you tend to have very few pictures with your family.  I mean, taking as many pictures as you do for everybody else… you seldom have the time or energy to be in front of the camera yourself! This is was the case for Bob and Mel. We decided to take a few shots of them before their baby boy arrives in June! This b&w is quite possibly my favorite picture of them ever. Well, for now at least.

And capping off our trip - a road trip to Lubbock, TX. One of our college roomies, Ryan Gibbs, entered a writing contest for Texas Tech University and was granted the production of a one-act play from his submission! He’ll be going to grad school for Fictional Writing… so basically his writing rocks. Unlike mine. Which is illustrated with that last sentence fragment. So Bob, Mel, Holly, Aaron (Weed), Tig and I made the trek to Lubbock to see the last few showings of Ryan’s play. The pictures above provided by the one and only Mr. Bob Sutton.

Just for reference… Lubbock is a LONG drive away. Well worth it though… CONGRATS AGAIN GIBBLES!!