What Are You Doing?

I've been visiting many professional photographer's blogs over the last couple of days and have noticed something very different about mine and theirs. First, theirs are usually updated on a more regular basis. OK, I'm a bad blogger.

But the biggest difference is that many of them use their blogs to display new work. It occurred to me that people might be looking here and wondering what I do with my time. I do post some new work here, but not very often. Usually only if it's off beat or if I've photographed the President or I'm getting nostalgic.

While I don't blog much about business, I do post new images from every wedding within a few days of the wedding. These wedding previews are a small representation of what we shot that day. You can find our wedding previews at hasselweemsweddings.com

I don't post family portrait sessions online because we usually proof in person on the day of the shoot.

Family Road Trip

As I wrote a couple of days ago, we are about to enter wedding season. Our little family took a quick weekend trip to a few Georgia State Parks that we had never visited. We have been to quite a few already, our favorites being Wormsloe and Cloudland Canyon. High Falls and Indian Springs are close to us, so we visit them fairly regularly.

On Saturday we visited the museum and bought freshly milled corn meal at Hamburg, then we saw the wild alligator and turtles at Magnolia Springs. We got up Sunday morning to revisit Magnolia Springs because we had missed the closing time of the freshwater aquarium Saturday afternoon.

After the aquarium we dined on a gourmet meal of Subway sandwiches and headed for George L. Smith near Twin City. (Not Minneapolis - St. Paul, but Twin City GA which boasts "Twice the fun, twice the nice" or something like that.)

We parked the truck close to the office, intending to rent a canoe right away. It was closed for lunch, so I grabbed the camera and walked up on this scene.



The ranger being out for lunch was perfect timing. If we had been on a canoe I would have missed this picture that was only available for a few minutes. The wind was blowing the rest of our visit, and this reflection was no longer visible in the smooth as glass black water.

This picture is from the digital camera, but I also shot it on 6x6cm film. I'm planning to soup the T-Max 100 in Rodinal and then get it drum scanned for a huge print.

We did end up renting a canoe and paddling through these trees for about an hour. We had a great time. The State Park system seems to have undergone a renewal of sorts. Many of the buildings we saw were new or remodeled, and the parks were well staffed.


On the subject of state parks, I am shooting a wedding at Jarrell Plantation later this year. It's going to be incredible.

It's That Time of Year - Wedding Season

I can hardly believe it's here again. Wedding season. Bene' and I had one wedding together in January, and I shot one by myself, but it has been all portraits and corporate/charity events since then. The relaxation ends this month with a long string of great weddings through the Spring, Summer, and Fall. We do still have a few good dates available, but we are fairly close to capacity for 2007.



This picture is from Staci and Simon's engagement session. We went around Piedmont Park and had a blast. This wedding is going to be a lot of fun, and what's even better is we get to see some previous wedding clients again. We shot Simon's brother's wedding a little over a year ago. That wedding was the occasion of Simon and Staci's first meeting. Bene' actually got a photo of them having their very first conversation. How cool is that?

Do You Come From a Land Down Under?

Where do you take an Aussie for lunch when she wants to see the best of American culture? Chik-Fil-A.

Our good friend Jane Gibbons-Eyre from Australia is here with us for a few days. She's been educating us on the finer points of Aussie culture. We learned that he Outback Steakhouse isn't very accurate (the menu gave her a good laugh) and that my fake Australian accent is more of a half-baked Monty Pythonesque atrocity.

Anyhow. Jane held true to one stereotype. She did bring us some Vegemite. That stuff tastes like anchovies who lived on the wrong side of the law.

Jane is here on a big US trip. She's going to see parts of the country I've never seen, and I've been in the US my entire life, if you don't count a few hours in a Mexican borer town tourist trap market during a trip to Texas about 15 years ago.

She'll leave GA for Boston, then on to Milwaukee, Chicago, Vegas, The Grand Canyon, and Los Angeles. She will be staying with photographer friends all along the way.

What, I didn't mention that she's a photographer? Yep, she's a super extra good children's photographer. Take a look.

Teaching Photography

The digital photography class I taught at the Locust Grove library on March 5 went well.

I took some questions at the end of the class, and it seems like the biggest problem people have is getting good color. This is good because there is an easy fix. All you have to do in most cases is to set the white balance on your camera to the appropriate light source.

Unless you have trained yourself to see color casts, your eyes lie to you about the color of light. We thing it's all white, but in reality it rarely is. The bulbs in your house give off a yellow-orange light, while the fluorescent tubes in the office are green. Daylight is white, unless you are in the shade which makes it a little bluer. Etc.

When talking about white balance, the "A" setting doesn't really mean "automatic." It means "Almost Always Wrong." Take a few seconds to change your setting and your pictures will improve instantly.

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I was asked by a home school group in Macon to teach a photography class this fall. I will post more details later about the class and how your children can attend if they are home schooled.

WPJA Creative Portrait Award Winner

I took 6th place in the WPJA Winter 2006 Contest with this photo from Nattaya and Aaron's wedding at the Georgia Aquarium. Does anyone besides me see Mr. Limpet applauding?



These images were also recognized as being in the top 20 of their categories.

Action, from Laura and Adam's wedding in Canton.



Mirrors, from Sally and Stephen's wedding in Flovilla.




The WPJA is the Wedding Photojournalist Association, a group that recognizes photographers who record weddings as they happen. It holds 4 contests each year with thousands of images submitted for judging.