A wild day at the beach

The whipped wildly all day long. The rain came falling at 4PM. We fed the seagulls at 4:30PM. The wind howled at 30mph.... the rain fell sideways.... the seagulls stayed in one place in the air, head into the wind waiting for their next bite of bread from my finger tips. I would not even get my hand more the a six inches from my body and the bread was stolen away in the yellow beaks of the swooping gray bodies. My wife and kids acting like scared little girls as twenty seagulls hover a mear 12 inches from our heads. I am giddy with laughter and joy and I reach for another piece of bread. With two pieces of bread remaining I reach for the best camera I have... the one that is with me. My trusty camera phone makes the last slices all that much more fun.

A Day in the Life of...

It truly shocks me at the number of opportunities that have opened since my dark days of December. In less than a month I have opened a studio (with two other photographrs and a makeup artist), I am co-developing a workshop series with local fine art photographer Joel Zak, I am shooting images for display and sale in a gallery (a group event). I have portrait jobs lining up and there is so much more on the horizon it amazes me.

Today when I arrived at the studio I look out the back window and I see the park socked in with fog. I grab my camera and proceed to walk over to the park ( four minute walk) and shoot some images. It is random, exploratory and experiemental; yet refreshing and soothing. I spend five minutes at the park and proceed to walk back to the studio since the fog is burning off due to the sun. 

The flowers above were completely random. A boquet of colorful flowers were stuck in the fence of a roundabout walkway. I found it odd, yet interesting due to the fact that the flowers were the only color in an area of concrete, fencing leaf-less winter brush. Oddly enough is is the only photo of  the day with a resemblance of strong color as well.

This was my view as I walked back to the studio. I couldn't help but stop and capture the clarity that I was feeling at that moment; the choices I made were and are the right choices. Things are going good. I am feelings good. I am in a good place mentally. Why wouldn't I be... I am blogging from my studio, instead of my apartment. I am excited for what I have now and for what is to come. This is a typical day in the life of this photographer. How could it be any better?

Studio247 After Dark

Studio247 (pronounced Studio-Two-Four-Seven) kicked off our door opening last night at the downtown Salem event known as First Wednesday. Our gracious host and partner was the wonderful Stephani Sachs, owner of The Space Between which is located on the bottom floor of the Reed Opera House. We had a stellar turnout of fun people for the kick off event. With Stephani's help, and the use of her space, we offered free Facebook portraits to anyone willing to come in and join us for the celebration. We had friends, family and complete strangers joining us for a fun session of fun Facebook portraits fun. We will be doing this again next month... so stay tuned for the announcement. Even with the ate night last night, I was in the studio this morning at 6:10 PM. Yes it was the butt crack of dawn, but was also absolutely worth it. See the image below.

So who is Studio247? We are Nathan Smith, Elizabeth Smith (no relation to Nathan), Jonathon Fraga and me. We came together to join forces to make our dreams come true and to give us a place to expand and explore our creative visions. You will be able to see more about soon by going to Studio247.biz.

We have a lot in store for the new studio, but for now we are getting settled in.

See the full gallery on posterous

We do things a little different, but that is a good thing. We have a lot planned in the work, so more exciting things are coming. Contact us and find out for yourself just how different can be great..