VOTE FOR TOBY

For those who know me, you know that my wife and I have had a furry member of our family around for almost 9 years now. Recently my mother-in-law mentioned to me the Bissell MVP photo contest where you can submit a photo of your pet and have it voted on at their website. The winner gets to have his/her photo printed on the boxes of Bissell's products. Very cool. And since I'm an avid photographer for our dog...mostly because he's just so photogenic, I made sure to submit a photo. Here is the photo:












Now the voting has started and I call upon you to help vote Toby to victory. Toby needs your help to become the Bissell's Most Valuable Pet 2009 photo contest, and all it takes is just a minute or two to cast your ballot.

Here's Toby's call to vote: (translated by me, of course) ;-)

"Mr. Toby needs your help to become the Bissell's Most Valuable Pet 2009 photo contest. He's already making a lot of promises on his campaign trail including a reduction of pet dander, more compromises during bath time, and friendlier relationships with both friend and foe alike. For too long Toby has stood by while the masses continue to sniff each other's rear ends and mark their own territories. Not this time. This is a campaign about change, people (pets), and change is something we can all believe in. So if you believe in our furry 9 year old friend the way we do, cast your vote for Mr. Toby Barnes today."

(all proceeds will go towards Toby's continued fight against fleas and backyard domination of the squirrels)

Follow the link below to cast your vote:

Springtime Afternoon

The last few weeks have been pretty brutal at my day job. I've just been so overloaded that I've ended up working late into the evenings at the office at least a few times a week. Of course, during that time we've somehow emerged from Winter and are now enjoying the first stages of Spring. There are flowers blooming and birds chirping and that warm air all ready to greet us now.



Some of you may already know, but for those who don't...I will be shooting free Spring/Easter mini-sessions at Marietta Square on April 4th. If you're on the fence or needing more reasons to come out, just take a look at these Spring photos of my daughter. With my wife's help we were able to shoot several photos in just a span of 20 minutes, and this is the amount of time I will be dedicating to each time slot. If you're interested and want to know more, or better yet just need me to sign you up please let me know via email or phone. We still have a few time slots left for that day, so hurry up and take advantage of my free mini-sessions! :-)

Abby & Winnie the Pooh

I know this is my photo biz blog, but since I have a 3 month old at home that I take plenty of photos of, I occasionally have to share them with all of you. Not only is it a way for me to show off the cutest baby girl ever :-), but it also gives some of you a chance to see what those casual photo shoots at home may look like. Those posed photos are always cute, but sometimes it's nice to have some more casual images to show off as well.

So this past Saturday night my wife and I were enjoying a wonderful home cooked meal and our daughter, Abigail, was sitting in her bouncy lounger on the dining room table while we ate. I handed Pooh Bear to her so she could have some company and was surprised to see how interactive she was with it. I've seen her sort of hold onto something before, but this time she was biting it and holding it and staring intently at it. Lots of talking to Pooh as well.

Casual Photo with Family

We traveled to Tampa this past weekend to see family, and during our weekend we visited the Florida Aquarium where I took plenty of casual photos of everyone enjoying their visit. Since I'm planning our photo sessions here in Marietta for kids on April 4th, I went back and found a few our cousin's 3 year old that I thought were cute enough to share in case there are some of you stopping by my site to see more samples of my work.

Springtime Craziness

Over the past few weeks I've been meaning to build on my first few posts as I slowly get this photography business up and going, but having a 11 week old daughter at home and working long hours at my day job lately has really set me back a little. I guess it doesn't help that my wife and I seem to fill every available weekend we have with trips out of town or other things.

Despite the overwhelming start to Spring that I'm having, there's no better time to be excited about my photography. The days will continue to grow longer giving us all more lighted time outdoors. We're already beginning to see the vibrant colors of blooming flowers here and there, as well as the return of lush greenery all over the ground and in the trees. All of this bodes well for new endeavor into my "natural light" photography.

In the next several weeks I should be increasing my activity on the blog to reflect everything that I will have going on from weddings to pregnancy shoots to kid photo sessions.

KIDS - SPRING/EASTER PHOTO SHOOT: I just wanted to announce that on April 4th, I am planning to do some mini-photo sessions for kids at Marietta Square beginning around 10am. The shoots will last about 20 mins, and the best part is I'm offering this for free. I will provide the photos I take on CD or online free of charge as well. The details are still being worked out, but if you're interested please email me or give me a ring @ (770)428-2248. I will have more info posted in the coming weeks.

WEDDINGS: We're about to experience 3 weddings in 3 different states all in 5 weeks beginning in April. I'm officially only the wedding photographer at one of these, which is my 84 year old grandfather's wedding on Mother's Day weekend. I will probably be sharing duties with my cousin, Chad, who's been a professional photographer for some time now. Since I've never actually shot any weddings, I'm dually excited about this event. We'll have family from as far away as California coming into town, and I can't wait to capture the day in photos. Beyond that, I've been asked to bring my camera and be the "unofficial" photographer at a friend's wedding in Tampa, so we'll see how that goes. I definitely don't want to step on anyone's toes or show up the main photographer. The last wedding is in Mobile, AL for another friend and I will either be taking plenty of photos or not many at all. :-)

PREGNANCY SHOOTS: I'll probably be doing a few of these in the next few weeks. Our good friends from Birmingham coming into town, and they are expecting in July. Also, my sister is expecting in July, so we'll probably schedule some time to due some photo sessions with her as well.


Sorry for the long post. Stay tuned and definitely give me a buzz or make a comment if you enjoy what you're seeing.