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Last night I was able to witness a really cool lightning show. This week I’m on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina and thus far the weather has been perfect. Tonight we had a bit of a rain storm with some pretty strong winds and it brought some amazing lightning. As the storm progressed into the night, it felt like our house on stilts was going to blow away. We had large hail and lots of rain. The storm reminded me of God’s power and this fierce storm was nothing for Him.

I thought I’d try my hand at some long exposures and try to get some neat shots of the lightning on the beach. I’ve never really shot anything on a long exposure before. I really didn’t know quite how to set the shot up, besides setting my shutter to 30 seconds and hoping I got something great.

I had these dramatic, dark, and award-winning pictures in my head of how my exposures would turn out. I could see myself blowing up this pictures of the fierce storm and how everyone would want to have their own copy of it.

I quickly realized I have a long way to go before I win any awards for my lightning photos. It seemed as though as soon as my shutter closed from the 30 second shot, I’d see a brilliant display of lightning. Or as my camera was processing the information, yet another bright flash of lightning would spread across the sky and I’d miss another shot.

The hardest thing for me with these long exposures was finding something to focus on in the pitch dark. I did manage to have a few pictures that were in focus, but after 45 minutes or so trying my had at long exposure, I came inside to peruse my pictures.

None of them turned out well enough to showcase here, but I hope to get more opportunities to continue to learn about long exposures. Anyone have any tips for me on perfecting long exposures?

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I once had a history teacher in high school who would constantly tell us these random facts. He’d call them random facts to know and tell.

Today’s post has absolutely nothing to do with photography and nothing remotely to do with myself. Why blog then right? This is a photography website and I’m the photographer. Don’t you want to know more about each of those things? (please don’t answer that, it was rhetorical).

When pondering what to write about today, I came across this Interesting Facts single page web page. I found several of them amusing and thought I’d share my favorites with you. If you are interested in reading all 327 random items, feel free to do so. I picked out my top 30 to share with you today.

1.  A 10-gallon hat barely holds 6 pints.

2. 315 entries in Webster’s Dictionary will be misspelled.

3. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

4. A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana (I had to put this one in here since I went to high school and church in South Bend growing up).

5. According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. Offenders could be hanged for trying.

6. An average person laughs about 15 times a day.

7. Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball.

8. Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.

9. Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight.

10. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn’t wear pants.

11. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

12. Einstein couldn’t speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.

13. Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio (this one is for my mother).

14. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

15.  If you bring a raccoon’s head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town (this one is for my friend Jessica).

16. In 75% of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills.

17. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

18. It’s against the law to burp, or sneeze in a certain church in Omaha, Nebraska.

19. “Kemo Sabe” means “soggy shrub” in Navajo.

20. Los Angeles’s full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula” and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its original size: “L.A.”

21. More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world.

22. More people use blue toothbrushes, than red ones.

23. Over 1000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.

24. Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.

25. The average American drinks about 600 sodas a year.

26. There wasn’t a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses.

27. You’ll eat about 35,000 cookies in a lifetime.

28. The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello.

29. The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.

30. The average bank teller loses about $250 every year.

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I love it when family comes into town and ask me to take their pictures! Not too long ago my sister-in-law and her husband drove up from Atlanta to visit with our family. Rebekah asked if it would be okay if I took some pictures of their family. I played it up of course, and told her I’d have to check my schedule. I’m in pretty high demand these days as a photographer!

Unfortunately that’s not quite the case. . . so I did have a free schedule and we set up a time to meet.

We had time for a quick session and I was shooting like crazy. The last time I took pictures of my little nephew, he cried. A lot. Of course the little guy was only 10 days old, but that’s beside the point. I tried to take advantage of his semi-happy time and take as many pictures as possible.

I think these turned out really well and I was excited I could take pictures for Justin and Rebekah.

 

Click to view all of the Jarrett Family pictures.

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This phenomenon has been around for several years now and I think it adds a whole new arena to wedding photography. It’s simply a way for the bride to try something new and not be afraid of getting a little dirty. On your wedding day getting your dress dirty can rank right up there with natural disasters, it’s tragic and not something any bride wishes.

A trash the dress session gives brides the opportunity to expand from their formal wedding day pictures and have fun in more of a relaxed environment to let the creativity flow. I’ve seen some extreme shoots where the dress has been spray painted or cut or even torn almost in two! I’ve seen some trash the dress sessions that don’t look like fun. I’ve seen some really funny sessions as well! I think my taste is more along the lines of let’s-get-the-dress-wet-not-trash-the-dress-session.

Ever since I’ve heard of these sessions, I’ve always wanted to try one, both as the photographer and photographee. This May I’ll have the opportunity to experiment with one. My family is taking a week-long trip to the gorgeous Isle of Palms, SC and renting a house on the beach. This house offers both a pool and the ocean, plus Charleston is a mere 15 minutes away.

I’ll be photographing both my beautiful sister, Kelly and gorgeous sister-in-law, Katie, during our stay at the beach. Now, these girls were in no way going to ‘trash’ their actual wedding dresses, so we needed another alternative. Thankfully, there are some bridal dresses aren’t terribly expensive and they both found affordable dresses they didn’t mind getting a little dirty. It’s been a fun process, almost like getting a second chance to wear a different wedding dress. In both girls’ cases, they chose dresses that are completely different from the ones they wore on their actual wedding day.

Here’s where my dilema comes in. As I mentioned above, I’ve never shot one of these types of sessions before and I need your help. If you have any good advice or fun posing tips, I’d love to hear them! Feel free to leave me a message in the comment section telling me about your favorite trash the dress ideas. I’d love to start offering this to clients, but I need some practice first!

I can’t wait to see what you guys think! Leave me a comment and I’ll try to use as many ideas as we can fit into the session!

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I’ve known Ann and Jackson for a couple years and have practiced my photography on their handsome little man, Gabe. A few months ago, Ann approached me about doing some pictures of their new baby boy, Adrian, and Gabe. Of course I agreed, who wouldn’t want to take pictures of those boys? They are adorable!

We scheduled a day and simply waited. As Saturday approached the forecast was calling for a torrential amount of rain and high winds. I told Ann we’d play it by ear and see what the weather was doing around 4 pm. Our shoot was scheduled for 5 pm. Since it was in Greenville and we didn’t have far to drive, I figured we’d give the weather as much time as possible to cooperate with us.

Thankfully, it stopped raining around 1 pm and the sun started to peak out! All I was worried about then was that we wouldn’t loose any kids with the wind! It was something almost right out of the Wizard of Oz. I was half expecting to see Dorothy and Toto at any second pop out of the barn.

The session was so much fun to do! I was so excited as I was taking the pictures, I couldn’t wait to get home and look at them on the computer. This was definitely one of my favorite sessions. I know I say that about all of my photo sessions. I mean it every time.

This little fella is certainly going to be a heart-breaker when he gets older. I mean, he knows how to work it for the camera.

Not to be out done is his younger brother, 3-month-old Adrian.

Of course we did the fun family pictures too. Aren’t these guys just awesome?!

To end the session, we did a couple of quick pictures of mom and dad.

Thank you so much for trusting me to take your family pictures! I had such a wonderful time and I can’t wait to do it again!

To see all of the pictures from Ann and Jackson’s session, click here.

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