I got a new camera!

I am too excited! I recently purchased my new camera, a Canon 5D, from Carol Melton, who is like my photography role model to me. She taught me everything I know about manually working my camera and so much about lighting, and just everything. She and her husband Paul recently retired, and she was looking for someone to buy her camera. I didn't have $1250 dollars, but Carol told me I could make payments on the camera. She gave it to me near the end of November, but as soon as I got it home, one of the interior mirror lenses fell out (Turns out it is a known camera defect), so I had to ship it to the Canon factory.

Now I have it back and I am waiting for the perfect opportunity to find someone or something to photograph. Since I name my cameras, I named my 5D, Cameran Canon. Catchy, huh? :)

The Things You Do For Photography

My friend Ashley Walden approached me and said she wanted to take some pictures. I agreed. I told her I needed modeling practice and she said she needed posing practice, so it all worked out. I told her that I had always wanted to take pictures in the river, and she agreed that she was willing to get in. So....we made our way down the sandy riverbank and Ashley entered the river.

Now I didn't get in the river. I didn't want to take any chances of messing up my camera (Who's name is Cooper, by the way. Don't judge me!) So I stayed on the riverbank as Ashley crossed the river.

This is a shot I took of Ashley getting into position for her photos.

The original idea I had was for Ashley to get on top of the concrete bridge support, but as soon as she got to the final steps to get up there, the water went above her knee, so we decided she was more important than an awesome shot.

Her session turned out to be really awesome. The sun was still a little brighter than I would have liked, but we made it work and I got a cool shot. 

Angles Make A Difference

This is my first post in my blog. I'm kind of excited to start this! Since I have such a busy schedule, I hope I will be able to keep up with a few posts a week. I will have a photo blog where I will post some of the images I have taken and talk about them.

I love photography. It's a hobby that I started in high school. I was in a yearbook journalism workshop in Roanoke, Virginia the summer before my junior year of high school. One of the speakers was an Award-Winning photographer who had worked for National Geographic, and other magazines. I was amazed by his images and I decided that one day I would be that good.

So now you know why I started photography. Another thing I love is old buildings. I am fascinated by the architecture and style of different buildings. When I was younger, I wanted to be an architect, but I soon found out you had to be good in math to be an architect. So, I'm an architecture admirer. I was walking the Riverwalk a few weeks ago, and decided to take a route I hadn't been down before. That's when I saw the back of the Dan River Inc. Research building. I had driven past this certain building many times, but I never really noticed it until this day. I fell in love with the different angles and heights of this building. I was with my friend Sam and she just didn't understand why I was fascinated with the building. I took several shots of the building and it's different angles. This particular shot I posted is my personal favorite. I sat down on a small hill across the Riverwalk path and got down as low as I could. When I saw the image, I was so happy. The tall grass in the front and the beautiful blue sky gave a great backdrop to this awesome building.

This blog will mainly be about my photography, and the backstory to how I took the image. I hope you all enjoy...