How soon the color goes...

Why is it that Summer seems to last forever, Winter seems to drag on well past it's welcome, Spring hangs around long enough to make you sneeze but Fall only lasts a week ? It doesn't really seem fair at all!!

This images was taken in Rising Fawn a few months ago. Rachel, Ricki & I first found it while on an outing sort of by accident. We had stopped to shoot a railroad bridge and discovered a beautiful creek right behind it. Only 10 or 20 feet from the road but completely hidden from view.

Drift Away

Have you ever wondered about the distance traveled by a floating leaf? If all flowing bodies of water are connected to one another and all water leads to the sea, then just think of the things that can be seen by an ordinary leaf growing in any given neighborhood. Those, of course, that fall to the ground will soon suffer the end of life in a trash bag or fire, but the lucky ones who live life near the open waters will fall from grace into the pool of wonders... from limb to water, from lake to stream, from stream to river and from river to the sea. I suppose, if I had to come back and live as something in a 2nd life, a leaf housed along the water would be a great thing to be.

Things to ponder...

Mirrored & Swimmin'

The reflections of this boat house in the lake at Desoto Falls makes for a great image. It has just a touch of my famous fog effect which I really like here. It's not much of an effect, just enough to make the left of the image hazy & soft. Incase any of you out there in cyber land wishes to practice this genius trick, simply blow hot air on the end of your lens... I would recommend a UV protective filter to protect your actual lens coating though.

Inferred & loving it!

Alright, so as a break from editing maternity photos, I've taken some time out to update my blog and edit some of my own personal photos. Here is an image of a beautiful fall colored tree... of course you can't tell it because it's an inferred black and white photograph now. I'm really rather happy with how it all came out, actually I think I like it better this way than in color.

On the business front... I've been attempting to come up with a bio for myself and my company to post on my website. I've actually tried to do it a few times before but I can't think of anything to say about myself... Anyone would want to hear anyway. LOL

I'll keep you updated on the process of my unprogressive attempts...

Washed Ashore

A little toy tug boat sitting lost and lonely on the shore of Desoto Falls. Abandoned and forgotten by it's once small owner. I'm rather in love with this photo, it's super simple but full of color. A total "story" type photograph.

Derailed

Enjoying the view and waiting for a train to come, Rachel and I having a bit of fun while out shooting down near Rising Fawn, GA. I can tell you that rails aren't really that comfortable to lay on so I know those who choose to end it all in that way didn't have a comfortable wait.
I had forgotten all about these photos, we shot these back in the fall so they've just been sitting on a disk waiting for me to remember them. They look better now that I remember them looking, I found a few dozen good shots, granted it was a full day shoot and I most likely have a few 100 photos.

Glow & Blooms

Alright, so I took this shot a few months ago while on an outing to Desoto Falls with Rachel. I have no clue what type of flower this is but it was really pretty. The photo doesn't really do it justice. I've never exactly seen anything just like it. It was glowing in a Church garden in Alabama so I'm not sure if it was planted there or if it grows wild. Any thoughts?

Framed Perspective

So I'm organizing this week and actually planning ahead for things. I've never done either before so I must say, it feels pretty good. I'm still far from where I want to be but it's getting better. I've never been organized before but I've always been the kind of person who is always annoyed when things aren't in order... so, you would think I'd be the "everything is in it's place" kinda gal.

I've also started back with my healthy eating and exercising. I hadn't workout out in a good month at least, mainly from the frustration of it all. I was working my butt off but it wasn't actually getting any smaller... so you can imagine the horror of it all. I'm reading this new PCOS book that is actually written for people with all my symptoms and it says that even though your eating the right things and doing the right things as far as exercising you may still not loose weight or if you do you may only loose 1 lb while someone else would've lost 10lbs. It's all just one huge headache really...

Death... take me now!!

Alright so... a funny story...

I had just dropped off a photo album to a client of mine and was on my way to Chattanooga to have some images printed and stop by Hobby Lobby for a thing or two when my friend Hollie called to invite me to an early dinner. Well, neither of us has much of a gift for decision making so we decided to go to the ole trusty Panera Bread. For what may be the first time ever in the history of doing anything with Hollie, I actually arrived before she did so I thought I'd kill 5 mins by going to the restroom. The front door of Panera & the restroom are a good 100 ft or more from eachother and in order to get there you have to walk right through the area where everyone sits to eat. Well, you know how when people are sitting and eating they always look at someone when they walk by... well I got that but thought nothing of it.

Well I got to the restroom, did what I had to do and went to wash my hands when something on my pants reflecting in the mirror caught my eye. So, I look down and see that there is a good 8 inch rip from the zipper area of my pants to nearly my knee... exposing all in it's wake. Alright, so if you know me you know I don't really tan and given that it's winter time I hadn't exactly shaved my legs in a good 2 days. I don't believe I've ever been any more embarrassed than at that moment. I had wondered WHY people were gagging and puking after I'd walked by, I thought it was just the food or something!! :o)

In an enormous attempt to hide my problem from the world I escaped through a back door of the restaurant all while trying to walk bent over all the way back to my car. Alright so, given the fact that my rip was on my right leg, added to the fact that I drive an SUV, you would think that it would've dawned on me that lifting one's leg may cause a larger rip... of course it didn't... until after I'd done it.

Okay, so let's recap, here I am with a HUGE rip in my pants with no way to hide it, my friend Hollie only minutes away from arriving for dinner and me with no extra clothes in the car. Thank God it dawned on my that I had some tape in the car, it really did save my life! I managed to poorly tape the rip together and heading into Target to find a pair of pants. Let me just tell ya... when cheap Dollar Store tape is the only thing from exposing you from the world, you tend to walk rather funny!! I grabbed a cheap pair of sweat pants and headed for the restroom for a quick change of attire.

Well, naturally I called everyone I could and informed them of this lovely event... none thought it was as bad as I did... funny never the less. With the craziness of it all I completely forgot to go to the print lab or Hobby Lobby and it didn't even dawn on me that I didn't do it until I'd gotten all the way home. So, the pants purchased are now my new "never leave the car pants" so that if this ever happens again, I'm totally prepared!!!

Where I really long to be...

The urge to get in the car and head to the coast seems to be becoming greater these days. As I sit editing thousands of photos, I can't help thinking how much more fun life would be if I were editing them on the beach in a comfy chair.

This image here was taken on the sands of Mississippi, which, more than likely, no longer exists. I ran away to the coast on a whim with my friend Amanda back in 2003. I had the week off work and she managed to talk her husband into believing that it would be a great idea for her to go have a good time while he stayed home, worked, cleans and baby sit.

Good times I tell ya!

Ahhh... the beginnings!

As said yesterday, I found some images I had long forgotten about. I shot these in 2002, it's amazing to think that it's been nearly 4 years ago when it seems like yesterday. I'm not sure if this kid made it in the world of modeling but he sure had the looks for it, and the eyes. Wherever he is... I wish him luck. :o)

I'm recovering all sorts of things that were lost and or hidden in the jungle once called my bedroom. It's shocking the amount of junk one can fit into such a small tiny space. Other than fixing up some things around here, I've also updated my website today. I listed a travel pages and updated all my prices last week, this week I've gone and built a page with my album information on it and I must say, I really like how it turned out. It's not at all what I had planned on doing when I started designing it. My plan was to design the standard page with a picture of what I was talking about and a small description with a price. What I ended up with was a bit of class, creativity and mystery all rolled into one. Here... see for yourself... lemme know what you think... http://www.ledfordphotography.com/product.html

LOST: The saga of the messy room...

So today I spent trying to organize my life. I figure if I'm going to be busy this year with my booming business I may need to accomplish this now. So, I was sorting through piles of papers and such when I came across this unmarked CD. So, I popped it in to find images from a portrait shoot I did a few years ago. Back in the day I was charging 150.00 for unlimited time and would give the negatives. Now I don't get out of bed for less that $300.00! My how the times have changed!!

This little boy, I can't even remember his name but I do remember that he needed shots to send in to a model agent. I'm not sure what ever came of it all, for all I know he might be the spokesman for the Gap or something... Anyway, considering the fact that I shot with all slide film and didn't have the opportunity edit them at all after processing, I'd said it all came out pretty good. :o)

Classic, Sweet & Timeless

I'm currently building an album of Morgan's photos. It's proven to be a difficult job as I have over 600 finished images and only 30 pages to work with. Morgan's mom, Melissa did do me a huge favor and weed out 100 images from the 600+ that were her favorites.

I swear this little girl is the cutest thing... I wish all kids had her personality because during our whole 1 1/2 hour shoot, this 2 year old little girl tried her best to do all we wanted her to do, she went with the flow, she was happy, awake and completely sweet the whole time and wore a smile even though there were 3 picture surrounding her with cameras and long lenses!

Shhh..... I think I hear something...

A soft, sweet moment from the daddy to be. You know, I really have got this man trained, when I did their engagement shoot last Summer this guy was nearly hopeless... just look at how far he's come!!! Of course I'm sure a nod should go to Trinity as well.

I can't wait until the baby comes, we're going to do newborn portraits.. I'm so excited! Once we've done those I'm going to build them an album with their Maternity & Baby photos to make one big, sweet as pumpkin pie book. I can nearly wait!!

Have I seen you somewhere before?

I'm sure everyone remembers Eddie & Trinity, I shot their wedding a few months ago. Well, their bun's been baking for a good 8 months now and so I went to shoot their maternity portraits. Alright, so I must say that taking photos of a belly is a bit different than a bride and I'm sure for the belly's owner it's a bit odd for other reasons. I went to their house and spent a good 3 hours with the happy couple. I must say, I think they're going to be wonderful parents, both are laid back and easy going & I don't sense rage issues... it's the perfect combination.

I see the light at the end of this tunnell.... finally!

How exciting, I have a logo now... Well kinda, I mean I'm using it on my smugmug hosting site. Alright so, I'm actually motivated and excited about my business. You would think that you would be all those things and more at any given time but that, in fact, isn't so. I have 4 dates booked thus far for the 2006 year and given that there are only so many Saturdays in a year, I'd say it's a pretty good start.

Last year, because I didnt exactly shoot that many of my own weddings, I helped Ricki with hers as her backup photo assistant. So, this year I had planned on being busy with my own weddings and of course, naturally, so was she. But, in a wacky turn of events, she only wants to shoot 1 wedding a month so I believe we're still going to try and work it out where we continue to help eachother. This is actually a really great thing because I only had one person that I actually knew who could help me with weddings and that person was Rachel, who isn't returning my repeated emails and calls ... so apparently she's super dependable!!! Perhaps if I post her worthless slacker story on the interest I'll get better resolutes.. so YOU NEED TO CALL ME RACHEL OR AT LEAST RETURN ONE OF MY 200 EMAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweet Delight

Have I mentioned that I love to update in the past? Because I do! Of course when you're reading this in the present this makes no sense, so nevermind.

I wouldn't say that I've been busy here lately, steady might be a good word but I still wouldn't throw it around none.

I met with a bride at the Panera Bread in Kennesaw here recently. I guess you could say the interview went alright. I wasn't on my A game by no means. The Panera was in the mall and with it so close to Christmas, naturally the place was packed. The fact that I got lost on the way there didn't help matters any. I was out of my element, I didn't really think it would matter but apparently it did. It was a scatter-brained display of gibberish basically. Luckily the bride, who had been in tow with 2 of her friends to all her wedding like interviews, was also in the same boat as I because neither of them could make it. Yep, we both just sat there, a few dozen "uh's" per minute. I had my first ever experience with the wedding albums. She didn't really like them. I love them, so it's hard for me to imagine the type of person who wouldn't love them, it was a bit odd. She was a young girl, younger than me, having a creative, non-traditional wedding, yet she was only interested with old fashion traditional wedding albums. You know, the kind your grandparents and parents own.

A voice message later I did get a response from her. She chose a different photographer who offered the old fashion albums. She included a name so I wondered over to their website. They only offered 10 or 15 wedding images in their gallery, all of which were posed as if taken by a family member and all were "flash photos" meaning they had blown out skin, red eyes and were surrounded by shadows. The sad part was that their prices were still more than mine.

Is it wrong that I actual feel bad for charging a lot of money for my services. I guess I'm still coming to terms with the fact that it IS a service, that being a photographer is apparently a gift, meaning one is suppose to have rare talents and qualities. I think of other people that way, I think of myself that way and laugh though. I guess life really does come down to self-esteem?

Tis the season....

...to have your family portraits taken! My long time client & friend, Angie, decided that 11 years was long enough to go without having a family portrait taken. I couldn't agree more so we gathered her ever growing family all in the same place at the same time for a super quick photo shoot. What might be a record, in just 30 minutes I did there photos and ended up with 36 good images. I swear I think that might be the least time and photos I've ever had of anyone, it was a bit odd, until that is, I went to edit them and was completely finished in less than an hour. You have no idea how happy that made me! Usually I have anywhere from 300-3000 photos from a portrait shoot so this was a pleasant change... I should do more like that!

I'm also happy to to report that I'm still alive. I've had what might be the worst stomach virus known to mankind. It included all the usual 'comings & goings' of an ordinary virus but also carried with it a high fever, which I don't remember having before with a stomach bug. It all started with my niece Summer who then spread it to her dad Joe before it was then pasted on to me. The first day of my spout with death began at a lovely 5:03 am and as of day 4, hasn't went away yet. The night of the 1st day I racked up a 17 hour straight deep sleep and was told that I had a huge fever and wouldn't wake up for anything. The second day didn't bring as much sleep but I can't say I got out of bed but for a few times. That night I did get brave enough to try to eat some soup that seemed to agree with me. My sister & mom also decided they'd join in the fun of the traveling virus and began their fight for the death with such a beast. For the 3rd & 4th day I've been sick to my stomach, tired & sore all over. I recommend that everyone stay as far away from me as possible and if you see someone looking a bit off color, you should spray them with germ-x and run the other direction while holding your breathe until in the safe zone.

To those out there home from work or school battling the toilet wars, I wish you a speedy recovery!

Spying From The Bushes

For those of you with good memories, a few months back when I did the engagement portrait session with Eddie & Trinity, I had a piggy back images kinda like this one. I loved it so much I thought I'd give it a whirl while out shooting this pint size bundle of fun. I must say, it worked better when the passenger was over 3 feet tall.

To get this images I crawled in the middle of a big bush or patch or weeds or something, held my breathe to prevent from inhaling the little fury things growing on the weeds and hoped I'd come out with a few good pictures. Naturally I would've liked this one better had it not had a weed running right across the mom's face but I take what I can get. I have others, this would be the first I've came across thus far in my attempt to reach the bottom of the photo pit of Morgan pictures.

Did I mention I love Black & White...

Not a common scene

While shooting at Coolidge Park I saw this fellow riding around on his seated tire. I do have a few questions:

1.) How does one get on that thing to begin with?

2.) What does one do when you need to get down?

3.) Is one still able to reproduce when one slips and falls off and/or able to go #2 (depending on the direction in which you fall) ?

Let's all think about that shall we...

Merry Christmas to Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you all know and remember well, my world was traumatized when some evil being took off with the only flash I owned. Finally, after months and months of working I've managed to get another one! I got it in the mail just yesterday! I haven't actually put batteries in it and used it yet, I have taken it out of the box though, which some of my friends can tell you is a major improvement from past purchases. ;o)

It's a Nikon SB-600 and works with every digital Nikon camera on the market today. I had debated over a SB-800 for sometime, which cost $350.00+ but knew I'd found my new blinding baby when I came across a review from Ken Rockwell online about the SB-600. It has all the features I use, minus the bounce flash card, and it works wirelessly with other Nikon flashes. Best of all, it was $170.00! I was nearly giddy at the sight of such a price!!! I figure that I can purchase one of those super nice bounce flash systems for $30.00 that I've been debating over for years to use with it so basically I saved $150 and I still have a GREAT flash! I'd like to have one more of these for now, as a backup and also to use with the wireless feature and then hopefully before too much longer I'll have a few Nikon D200 cameras and can get even more of these little beauties!

I didn't stop at the flash though, no way, I also order a Lowepro card & battery case for a cool $8.99. I had bought one just a few months ago at a camera store in Atlanta and had just learned to love it before it was ripped from it's home. Even better, this one was cheaper than the first and a bit of a larger version.

Ho Ho Ho everybody!

Digital Reflections of Tomorrow

Here is a rough working images of my latest 2 year old subject. Her mother had the great idea of building a book using the lyrics of the song "In My Daughter's Eyes" so I've been repeatedly listening to it over and over painting ideas in my head of what I want each page to look like. I have 30 pages to work with and judging by the cute pictures I have and the fact that I have 2134 of them I'm already wishing I had a lot more pages to work with.

The line in the song " A reflections of who I am and what will be" gave me the idea for this photograph. This isn't real water you see in the photo, however, would you have known that if I hadn't told you? I created and built the pond & reflections you see here with my editing software. To much surprise, it only took me about 20 mins or so to do. (Turning up nose and giving a little laugh) Since creating this image I have thought of a better idea, which would be getting a photo of the mother and using it as the reflection you see instead of the little girl. It's a working progress, it's all just a rough draft living in my head at the moment. I'm maybe 5% finished editing the photos from the shoot so I have a long way to go before I actually get to build anything for the album.

Expect regular updates for, most likely, a good long while...

Sweet Droppings of Youth

I'm torn between this image and that posted yesterday as to which is my favorite. Here I've managed to make a 16 year old look sweet, something not easily accomplished, so I'm told.

I do have happy news to report, I have managed to completely pay off one of my credit cards, and on the date it was due for this month too! As always, not a moment too soon! Granted my balance was less than 1k but the interest rate was 34% which only kicked in last month so I'm thrilled to be out of the weight of such a debt. Finally I can say that I actually own my new digital camera! :o)

Speaking of digital cameras... Nikon has released the new Nikon D200 SLR 10.8mp camera. A cross between a D100 & a D2X. I would so LOVE to have one! They're actually not bad in price, a cool $1699.99 for the body. If anyone out there is cyber land has an extra $1699.99 + shipping laying around I would greatly appreciate it! What a great Christmas gift that would make, don't you think! Or I'll even take a smaller amount to be put towards the purchase of such a wonderful piece of equipment. :o)


Excuse me while I go daydream...

Eyes That Lure

I've finally finished editing the images from Kendra's portrait session. There were a good many of them so I put it off for as long as possible, mainly out of pure laziness. I have found out that she loves black and white, which is a GREAT thing because I LOVE black & white! Finally, someone with some smarts in em'!

As mentioned before, I'd love to drag her up to Coolidge Park and do some photographs. After much talk she has agreed so now all we have to do is pick a day. Mainly I think she agreed so I'd shut up about it, but I'm not so proud that I won't accept anyway. It's great that the Christmas Holiday is coming up, we'll have tons of time and hopefully a warm day!

Panning for rays of gold

Immediately after taking this photograph I looked down into the LCD screen on the back of my camera and became insanity crazy with happiness. The sun had fallen into just the right spot for me to capture the golden rays shining through the windows of the Carousal at Coolidge Park. The bride was having a bit of fun riding a horse side saddle and waving her vail behind her which made a perfect pose for such an art-like photograph. I got many good images from this portion of the shoot, this might be my favorite, it's so hard to decide!

Adding a Door to my Wish List

I'm a bit in love with this old door. I came across it 4 or 5 years ago in the Coolidge Park area while out shooting one day. I've used it in main of my photos and then of course let Ricki in on the secret of it's location for some reason, so now she's stolen it and used it herself. I love everything about the old door, the fact that it looks old is the best part! Even the cobb webs that grow and live there are a charming piece of it's mystery.

Here again in this image is the bride from Ricki's bridal session. With the fur and bling bling, I must say, it was a bit like an old Audrey Hepburn movie. I was wearing 2 shirts, a sweatshirt and a jacket along with jeans, 2 pairs of socks and shoes while on this shoot and I was still cold. You can see here that her dress had no sleeves and of course her legs were exposed to the cold air. I must say that she did a great job on controlling her facial expressions, sometimes we'd have to remind her not to look as though she was freezing her tail off, but for the most part she managed to hide it well.

From a personal stand point, there is nothing in this world that would make me want to wear barely nothing in 40something degree weather for a photograph. Of course from a photographer's stand point I commend those who will and even try to talk them into it now and again.

I'm a bad puddy tat.

Angles & Tricks of the Trade

I assisted my good friend Ricki with a Bridal Portrait shoot at Coolidge Park in Downtown Chattanooga recently. It was a full day's work, I had a portrait session with an adorable 2 year old girl which was immediately followed by a bride in a sleeveless dress in 49 degree cold.

It goes to show that there are no limits in which I bride will go to for her wedding day! The actual wedding isn't until January, but seeing that it'll be even colder then than now, I suppose it was wise to go ahead and get the whole thing over and done with.

When I assist Ricki with a shoot, I'm usually the "back-up" shot photographer. I get mainly a lot of the same shots she gets, just incase by freak accident something happens to her stuff. On this shot here, you can see they're both hugging the wall a bit and it was flat out impossible to get that shot from behind Ricki because her big head was in the way, so I went with this lovely image instead. You can see in the far left side of the photo another lens which belonged to the 3rd assistant Erika. Traveling in groups of 3's with usually one or more of us having 2 or more cameras around our neck does usually cause some people to stare, not to mention the fact that we're walking around with a lady in a wedding gown in December in a public park.

Go Figure...

Village Square Clock

A Chat with Santa

Haaaaaaaappppy Buuuuuurrrtthhh Day

I just love snowman! Shame it doesn't snow in the south!

Holiday Festival Celebration