I absolutely love that dog.

Mom wasn’t thrilled about having her photo made but I promised her I would do a good job….I am really happy with what I got!  Hopefully…she’ll at least pretend she is happy with them too!  :)

I wanted to put them in parts of the house that were relevant for each of them.  The room below used to be my sister’s room when we were growing up.  It has since become a guest room and it reflects my Mom’s style and artistic ability.  If I’m not mistaken the two paintings over her shoulder are ones that she painted.

The room below was my room when I was little.  I stood there thinking about how I wanted to set up this photo and it hit me how much bigger I remember that room being.  This room is quite the multi purpose room now.  Guest room….grandkids room….work room…etc…  But the reason I wanted a photo of her there is because of the mural she painted for my nieces and nephews.

This is Albert.  The most obese Jack Russell Terrier to ever waddle this planet.  He’s getting pretty old now but he’s a sweet dog.

Now the hard part will be deciding which images to print and hang in the house.  Now on to my brother…sister…sister-in-law…and brother-in-law….not necessarily in that order.

On Monday of this week I spent part of the day with my parents and shot portraits of them.  The photo above is from that session.  It is a hat that belonged to my granddad.  It was really fun and I have several others that I will share here on the blog later this week.  When I was editing through them it hit me…if I wouldn’t have made the effort those wonderful portraits wouldn’t exist.  I know it sounds simple but I am guilty of getting wrapped up in photography as a business.  I am commissioned by my clients to create portraits of them and I do…and I love that.  But it’s all the other pictures that are falling through the cracks.  I hear and read from other photographers all the time who stress how important it is to shoot for yourself.  I have always agreed but rarely acted.

The awesome thing about being in a creative field is that I can get off the couch, go out for a few hours with my camera, and actually create something out of nothing.  So here is my challenge for all of you especially those of you who are creatives.  Quit talking about it….quit thinking about it….quit planning for it…just go do it.  Go create.

Anna tells everybody….and I mean EVERYBODY that the reason she looks so good in my photos is because I do a ton of touch up work.  That is not true.  Not to call the wife a liar….but she will exaggerate.  I do subtle touch ups to her images just like I do any other portrait…but simply put…she is beautiful.

So tonight’s post is for Anna.  She is an incredible wife and she supports me in all I do…except my attempts at humor.

Here are a few of my favorites from over the years.

This image was shot in the living room at my first house.

This next image may be my favorite photo of her.  She has to argue with a lot of people to convince them that this is her…I’m not sure why.

This next image was one of those times she wasn’t crazy about me shooting pictures of her.  But I wanted to play around with some odd lighting and I also wanted some photos of her with her hair curly.  Anna has curly hair…I mean…wow…crazy curly.  This is what her hair does naturally.  Also if Phi Mu had bouncers…this is what they would look like.

I just realized that she isn’t smiling in any of these.  Well that’s because Anna lost all of her teeth 9 years ago and she is a bit sensitive about her gum heavy grin.

Ok…that’s a lie.  Her childhood orthodontist would hunt me down if I didn’t show off her grill.  Here you go.

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God has blessed DHP so much in 2009 and He has used so many of you to do so!  The friendships and experiences that we have gained from this year have been awesome and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who chose to do business with us this year.

Merry Christmas everybody!

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My friend and fellow photographer Bailey Eaves let me know about a little get together of local photographers to work on off camera flash techniques a few weeks ago.  Due to some unforeseen circumstances we couldn’t shoot at a nearby indoor location as planned so the shooting all took place out on Bank Street in Decatur, Alabama.  Several of the photographers had arranged for some models to come for us and it turned into quite the geek fest (myself included) right there on the street.

Zack’s quote is a pretty simple idea but it is extremely important.  Shooting with a flash on camera is like getting up before daylight….you should only do it if you have no other choice.  :)

I cheated a bit on these next two.  I did light Caitlyn with off camera light…but it was from a reflector being held at camera left.

This cute little thing wasn’t technically there as a model….her mom Autumn was….but we all had a hard time resisting those blue eyes.

…this is Autumn….and that is a dumpster behind her.

I cheated again here….this one below is all natural light with a reflector in front.

Thank you Bailey for the invitation!!

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This was Anna and I after last year’s 36-0 thrashing of that team.

We weren’t in Bryant Denny Stadium this year….but I’m certain I had that same look on my face when Roy Upchurch caught the game winning pass from Greg McElroy with 1:24 left in the final quarter.  I don’t remember exactly what happened but at one point I was jubilantly carrying a five-year-old around the kitchen of someone else’s house.

Yes those were matching rain suits.

To the Wallaces!

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Anna says this first one makes her sad because he looks so sad.  I think that look was more confusion than anything else.  He was wondering why I was making him sit and look at me so much.

This is his Elvis look….notice the snarled lip.  His favorite Elvis song?  Hound Dog?  Come on…really?  It’s Jailhouse Rock.

Here are a couple of recent videos starring Wilson.  The first one is what at typical night is like when I tried to go to bed.

This next one is what it is like every single time I mow the grass.  He’s like a little shadow.

Ok….dog time is over.  Back to people.  The last wedding of my year is coming up!

….and because this wedding was too awesome to not post a serious teaser…..here’s one of my favorite pictures of the lovely bride Cilla and her bridesmaids.

A full post of Ryan and Cilla’s ceremony is coming soon!  So is Devin and Heather’s wedding as well!  But before that….a 30th Anniversary Celebration!

Now if you’ll excuse me…I need to go work on my list 100 things I like better than the color orange.

We shot some long overdue pictures of the boys at my parents house a few weeks ago.

These guys kept me laughing the entire time.

I actually had one of those moments of clarity that will hit me as a photographer every now and then.  I was shooting pictures of three of my 5 nephews…sure…but I was also creating something that these guys will look back on one day as brothers.  It’s rare that we appreciate the importance of a photo when it is being created.  More times than none it takes drastic change to reveal the true value in an image.

The mailbox below belonged to Mr. Phillips who lived across the road from the house I grew up in.  When I was first taking an interest in photography I would take Dad’s Canon AE1 out and shoot pictures of things around our property.  For whatever reason….I shot a ton of pictures of this mailbox.  That mailbox and those little California Raisins they gave away at Hardee’s.

Not long after I took the photo above I asked the boys to smile.  Kacen….far left….decided that this was the smile he was going with.  After I cracked up the other two boys looked over and this is what that looked like.  I just thought this series was funny enough for an animation.  This picture below should be moving for you….

Finally….their new Halloween shirts.

It’s always fun photographing you guys and I hope I have many more opportunities to do that as you grow up!  May you never realize that your Uncle Dave isn’t as cool as you think he is now.