I had the pleasure of photographing Billy & Jennifer’s Wedding on August 22 at The Cotton Barn in Fort Valley, GA. This was my first wedding at The Cotton Barn, but I hope to visit again. The setting was absolutely beautiful. With full access to a fully restored barn, a Victorian home, pecan orchard, and acres and acres of beautiful scenery, it would be hard to make bad photos. Here are a few of my favorites, but the link to the event is at the bottom.
I took this photograph in May of 2008. I don’t know who the men are, and I probably never will, but they saved the day for one of my customers and they’ll never know it. Their heroic act of self-sacrifice started last fall when a friend purchased this picture for her husband as a Christmas present.
A few weeks ago, i got an email from her asking if she could get a replacement image, because the original was messed up. I called her to make sure I had the size and all correct and she told me what happened to them. Her husband hung the picture on the wall above his desk. It’s the only picture on this wall, and it’s a block wall. Well, a few weeks ago he told her – “That picture is starting to look funny.” It turns out that water was seeping in under the roof and running down that wall. The only way they found out was by the picture warping when it got wet! So I got her a replacement picture since the last fishermen went for a little swim.
Just by reading the title of this entry, you have probably already guessed that I am not writing about the safest day spent in the studio. What you are about to see is a result of my overactive brain at night. This idea came to me one night as I was trying to get to sleep. Of course then I couldn’t sleep until I had the details figured out, but nevertheless i ended up sleeping and a few days later I was determined to try to get the shot I saw in my head.
The shot i had pictured was an exploding light bulb, but instead of glass, the bulb was water. I’ve seen shots of water balloons popping, and if you catch it at just the right moment, the water retains the shape of the balloon. Well, I wanted to take that shot a step further.
There is no safe way to break a live bulb and a water balloon at the same time, so I knew that I would do each separately and then combine the final images in Photoshop.
First I set up for the bulb breaking. I wanted to see the threads of the bulb, so I soldered a cut extension cord to the threads and the base of the bulb. Please don’t try this, it can be very dangerous (or deadly). I set up my flashes, one to camera left and one under the bulb.
I was standing to the right of the camera with a pellet gun and a remote. I shot the pellet through the bulb and into the cardboard box you see on a backdrop stand. Here are a few shots of the bulbs bursting:
After the sparks ceased, the smoke cleared, and I cleaned up all of the glass, it was time for the water balloons. The setup was similar – i just added an aquarium to catch the majority of the water. The balloons were popped with a safety pin on the end of one of those sticks you open and close blinds with. Again, i just tried to time my stabbing of the balloons with clicking the remote which resulted in several hits and misses.
The setup:
And some of the balloons bursting:
From there I was pretty sure I had what I needed after 5 bulbs and about 20 balloons. It was time to take everything into Photoshop. One note – once i opened the files in photoshop, i rotated them all 180 degrees so the bulb would be facing up in the final images. Without further ado, here are the final images so far (note the first image does have a filament from another shot photoshopped into the bulb):
To view all of the images, please visit my Flickr Page
I finally got my first exposure on a cover. This is the Extracts Literary Journal for Middle Georgia College’s Humanities Division. They created the journal through a grass roots arts grant and it contains artwork as well as poetry and writing from local artists and writers.
I went to Atlanta yesterday to meet with Andrew Kornylak, a photographer/friend who’s career is where I strive to get to, and I also roamed around the city for a little while before heading back to the studio. Walking around the city made me realize how long it has been since i’ve gone out just to shoot. I get wrapped up in the events and portraits and it’s been over a year since i’ve just gone out for myself. So the creative wheels have started turning again, cracking and groaning through layers of rust, but i forsee getting out very soon for a project as soon as I get it mapped out in my head.. Here are some of the shots from Atlanta, oh and The West Egg Cafe has an amazing Fried Egg Sandwich!
To see more, visit my Flickr photo stream…
The Livebooks transition has taken effect, and the new site is live. Let me know what you think!
For the past month or so, I have been working with Livebooks to redevelop my website. I wanted to use Livebooks because I love the simple yet professional look they offer and it can still be customized as much as you want. I worked with Julie Lee on my design and I told her that I just wanted it clean. I wasn’t picky, i just knew the current site with random HTML links here and there, tilty picture galleries, etc had to go if I wanted to move towards more professional jobs. So hopefully within the next few days the new site will be up, and there shouldn’t be any disruption during the switch.
This past weekend was a busy one, but a very good one! Friday night was Jess Darsey and friends playing bluegrass at the Cochran Bleckley Arts Alliance. I could only stay for a few minutes because I had to go finish the indoor prom set. It had been flooding for several days and there was no way we could have pictures outside. Prom was also a huge success. 40 couples came through on Saturday and braved the rain to have their pictures taken. Luckily the weather finally broke before their walkthrough. Thank you to everyone who came for your prom pictures!
Yesterday while I was waiting for my computers to convert some videos i decided to explore a couple of old houses. Here are some of the shots from them, i also went back to shoot a new self portrait…
View them all on my Flickr Page: http://flickr.com/photos/edgewatermedia/
It’s been way too long since I updated my blog, so i’ll try to fill in the almost 3 month lapse. I am happy to say that the lapse is due to being busy, and not due to job hunting in the current economy. December was filled with Santa pictures and Christmas portraits and cards. I’m currently working on (and almost finished with thankfully! 
) a 50 tape home movie conversion. I also have a set of 1000 35mm slides to scan.
With the new year, i’m also trying to ramp up the Vanishing Cochran Project. I had to put it to the side during the holiday season. I have had some great responses and found one priceless gem – the head of the MGC library found a book from 1948 from a student, George Noah. It was a multi page scrapbook with scenes of the streets, parades, and various other scenes around Cochran and the college. Mr. Noah went on to be Cochran’s most well known photographer for many years. You can see all of the Vanishing Cochran pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgewatermedia/sets/72157608882881430/
Thanks to a donor camera, I finally got my Rebel XT converted to Infrared. I took a dremel tool through one of the ribbon cables, so it’s been a paper weight for months. I tried it out at Gully Branch a month or so ago when it was about 18 degrees outside. I figured it would be a good time to get some winter shots. You can see one of the Infrared GB pictures below.
Also, here are a few shots from the recent months: To see more of my pictures, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgewatermedia/
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