High Point Restaurant Wedding Monteagle, TN

A call came down the line back in the fall from my cousin. She was getting married and she wanted me to capture all their special moments of the day. I was thrilled! But, I was even more thrilled when she told me the location.

High Point Restaurant

Now if you've never heard of this place or had the pleasure of dining there, you're truly missing out on an amazing experience. Legends & stories surround the old stone house that's nestled in the Monteagle Mountains. Stories of under ground tunnels and escape hatches on the roof run rampant through these parts.

As legend will have it, Al Capone helped fund this magnificient three-story house. He used it to transfer liquor in the 20's & early 30's. He thought it was a good middle point between Chicago & Florida.

Can you even imagine the feeling you get when you step in this place!? Thoughts of intrigue and mystery paired with images of secret rendezous' and deals gone bad make for an evening to remember. A step back in time.

So basically, shooting at this location was thrill enough for me. Imagine my surprise when they emailed saying how much they liked my images and they wanted to use them for their website! Ummmmmm, Yes please! You can view them by clicking HERE

A Big Thank You to Jama & Sherry for working with me on this

& for providing an exceptional backdrop to work with!

Brynn Turns 2~MURFREESBORO, TN PHOTOGRAPHY

My Darling Daughter turned 2 this past weekend.

The theme was

2 Sweet Candy Shop.

What better way to celebrate than with an extremely large lollipop

and an impromptu photoshoot!

SWEET CAROLINE

This past week I had the pleasure of photographing Sweet Caroline again! You may remember her from her Sleepy Newborn phase HERE. Well, Miss Caroline is not so sleepy anymore! She is an adorable little gal who was such an easy subject to photograph. Kelly, thanks for entrusting me to capture these moments for you. I had a BLAST!

This Expression is PRICELESS!! I'm thinking large framed picture here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nashville PhotoWalk

Last Sunday started like any other Sunday in Nashville.

In the middle of February.

COLD!

But I woke with a little PEP in my STEP!

I was going on a PhotoWalk. In downtown Nashville with a group led by the uber-talented Michael Howard

What's a Photography Walk you ask?

It's when a group of photographers (any skill level) gather in a select location and

SHOOT!

You learn from each other
You get inspiration from each other

You share tips & tricks with each other

You make new friends in the process!

How did I find out about such an awesome opportunity you ask?

You did ask right?

Good.

BLOG READING!

It's one of my favorite past times

Plus, the ones I love, are usually very informative in regards to Photography.

One of these being I Heart Faces.

The Founders of I Heart Faces, Angie & Amy, were going to be in Nashville

Blissdom

A Huge Blogging Conference!

Ohhh how I wanted to go.

Money for that, however, was not in the budget.

Then Angie & Amy put out an invite to a free PhotoWalk

Scheduled for the last day of the conference

I JUMPED at the chance!

FREE

INSPIRATIONAL

PHOTOGRAPHY

I HEART FACES

MICHAEL HOWARD

Yes, please!
We met on the corner of Broadway & 5th

Smack in the middle of downtown
30 of us braved the cold whipping winds of the day

It Was Worth IT!

Oh So Worth IT!

We walked & walked &

talked & shot & learned

It was truly a great day

Spent with some amazing people!

A BIG

HUGE

GYNORMOUS

THANK YOU

To the Beautifully Talented

Angie & Amy from I Heart Faces

For organizing the event!

It was so great meeting both of you

I had a blast!

To View the Full Set

Click Here

*all images were from our Adventures in Downtown Nashville*

What a Lens can Do For You! And the Difference Between Manual & Automatic

There is so many wonderful people/photographers out there that take the time *almost daily sometimes* to give others tips, tutorials, useful links, etc...! I've learned and grown through many of these and wanted to take a minute to give a little back.

Today I got out my handsome son's old Thomas The Train stuff for my darling daughter to enjoy. Thomas was a huge part of his toddler years and I wanted to capture them playing together. I strive to always shoot on Manual with no flash.

Well this morning in the playroom we had both windows open (no overhead light) and I just couldn't quite get the Exposure right!

I had on my standard Lens that came with my Canon.

You'll notice that the Aperture only opens to f3.5 but only to 5.6 most of the time.

So with my Apreture as low as I could get it (5.6)

My ISO at 1600

(I hate hate hate going higher than 400 because of noise but nothing was working this morning!)

And my shutter speed was 1/50.

A good rule of thumb is to not take your shutter speed down lower than the focal length of your lens. The focal length on my lens is 55mm so I was actually a little low.

Confused by all this Shutter Speed/Aperture/ISO talk?

Go Here

Anywho, this is the best I was getting using no flash:

Noisy!

Dark!

BLAH!

THEN I decided to bust out my new Lens!

You'll notice you can open the Aperture to 1.8

However, the lens is at a fixed 50mm (no zooming) which is hard to get used to but with a $100 price tag it really can't be beat!

So with my Canon on Manual

Using No Flash

I took my Aperture down just a tad to 3.2

ISO still 1600 *Gahhh*

Here's what kinda yummy light I was working with

Still a little noisy for my taste but much much better overall!

No editing was done to either of these.

Please ignore her blank like stare and food stained mouth (hence the no editing)...

we've been sick around these parts.

And again with the same settings...colors are true to real life:

And just to give you an idea of what the photo

would look like shooting on Automatic with a flash:

YUCK!

Lesson Learned:

You don't have to spend fortunes on a lens to make it work for you.

Know the Exposure Triangle!

Love It!

Play with Settings!

~The Only Source of Knowledge Is Experience~

Albert Einstein

What do you do...

In the middle of January

When the weathers been freezing

Snow has fallen and then

Thunderstorms roll through for days?

Eat a Popsicle with your sister

And dream of summer days ahead!

I Heart Faces...

One of my favorite photography blogs to visit I Heart Faces is celebrating it's 1st Birthday today!

They have weekly photo themes and this week is "Best Face Photo".

When I captured this shot of my darling daughter a few days ago I knew I had the perfect shot to join in on the contest!

The blistering cold that TN has been experiencing finally paid off and we got some snow!! Well maybe just an inch but, SNOW nontheless. This is her first real experience with the beautiful blankets of white that you can see reflected in her eyes.

Thanks for stopping by!