Siants Training Camp

Saturday morning after I drank my cup of coffee, I decided to make a marathon trip to Jackson, MS and back, to check out the 2nd day of the New Orleans Saints training camp, and hopefully get Evan, my oldest son some autographs to add to his collection. I ended up piling Evan and two of his buddies, David and Jackson, into my little Honda Civic, and away we went.

Right after I filled up with gas and got onto the interstate, not a mile down the road, I was whacked in the rear end by another Honda, by a driver that wasn't paying attention to traffic on the bridge. A couple of hours later after the accident report was completed by Bay St Louis Police, we headed up the road to find some cheap Mississippi engineering, some clothesline cord and a few gator clips, which with duct tape and a glue gun, I can fix anything. Once I secured the right rear quarterpanel that was falling off, we headed off to Jackson and never looked back. The trip was a success and Evan got the autograph of Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, and the new tight end, Jeremy Shockey! What a trip! Hope you enjoy a few snaps from the trip. -m

Carpe Diem!

Wendy first contacted me a few years back about photographing her daughter, because she was looking for some beautiful black and white pictures and knew that I enjoyed photography and shooting people. I've known Scott and Wendy since youth basketball days and have watched all of those kids in basketball grow up to become young adults and teenagers. As often happens in life, time slips away, our lives get very busy and hectic, and things get reshuffled around as life throws us into many different directions.

Fast forward a few weeks back, Wendy contacted me again with her desire to have some pictures done, but she really had a renewed importance and really wanted pictures to capture Kelsey's journey into becoming a young adult, a teenager. During our shoot yesterday, as I chatted with Wendy and as I was shooting, I couldn't help but reflect on how often we take the stages of our childrens growth for granted and fail to really capture it in a way that we can look back on and remember the small details. Wendy seized the opportunity, although her life has been far from easy over the last few years.

Knowing Wendy's story and why these images are important, gave me food for thought to stop and evaluate my own life and cherish each stage in my children's development. As a photographer, I often fail to really shoot my wife and kids because I'm so busy shooting other people. Being married to a carpenter, doesn't mean the things in your house will be fixed, and so it goes with photography.

Enjoy a few images of Kelsey and take the time to grab your kids and go out and photograph them being kids. Before you know it that time will be gone!

How did it get so late so soon?
It's night before it's afternoon.
December is here before it's June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?
~Dr. Seuss

The Bucket List!

I actually sat down by myself last night, with the kids playing video games back in their bedrooms and Robin out with a friend shopping, and watched a great movie called "The Bucket List." I had never heard of the movie but knew both actors and knew their work was always great so I decided to snag it from Netflix the week earlier.

What a profound movie, "Did you find joy in your life...and did you give joy to others?" In two simple but monumental questions posed during the movie, as they sat on one of the seven wonders of the world, what often get cluttered and confused in my life, became very very simple.

It's often easy to get off track worrying about schedules, time lines, activities, obligations, events, success, failure, or even commitments, but we often overlook our priorities, our relevance, our purpose! I'm afraid in my life I have a whole lot more work to do finding the true and lasting joy in my life, and more importantly, bringing joy to others. But my hope, my desire, and my goal is that when it's time for my bucket list (hopefully a long time from now), I will be a lot closer to answering both questions with a "Yes!"

Bike for Sale, What a Way to Go!

I've decided to sell my motorcycle, which hardly gets ridden, so I brought it down to the beach to get a few snapshots that I could use to help sell it. As I was heading to the house to get the bike, I thought, wouldn't it be nice to get a few cool model images with the bike before I let it go. I hooked up with one of my favorite models and a model that I've shot for the last few years, Amanda!

She was awesome and always helps create great images. She is getting so good and really hits the look and is very creative, which makes my job so easy! Hope you enjoy!

Taylor

I recently had a chance to get back together and work with a model that I had worked with a lot last year before she graduated from high school. Taylor was always highly motivated, focused, and hard working, and those same characteristics showed in her modeling career. To be so young, so beautiful, and most importantly, such a great person, the treat was all mine.

Taylor is presently attending Ole Miss, majoring in Economics, and maintains a 3.8 grade point average. I hope you enjoy!