092608 Car Shopping :^(

A god among men, Damien Tepe comes from a long line of hagglers, Salesmen thawrters, and dealsmen. It was with great honor that we welcomed Damien (of TepePhoto.com) to accompany us on our automotive quest.


There is a back story with Oksana "I have to eat too" Car Saleswoman. Ask Damien if you would like to hear it.

Though my beautiful wife knew what we were looking for, deals were not to be had this day!



The scenery was picturesque, alas, we came away with no car. If you are selling a late model Toyota give us a call... :(

092608 Gels with the Amazing Tepe

As I said Damien Tepe is one of the most interesting photographers I have had the privilege of working with. I am grateful that he stayed with us after the car hunting to lighten my week with a little photographic playing (pun intended). I needed it.

Following exclusively Damien's instruction we constructed some interesting photos with gels and multiple strobes. (This is my favorite of his... Ah editorial control!)


These are my interpretations of the gels and light setup from Damien.

081208 The Studious Erin (B is B)

Look at this!!!

I owe and apology to this lovely young lady! I totally forgot to post any of her shoot a month ago when we went out!

Erin is pretty awesome. Not only is she smart, but she knows how to have a good time too.

092608 Wedding Order! (B is B)

I just finished a wedding order for the beautiful Brooke's father. I thought I'd share some with you.

Once again, this lucky chap is Robb.


092708 Misc

I took this while car shopping.


This, my friends, is my chocolate/Raspberry salt water taffy danish (I rolled up two flavors). Turns out that salt water taffy is some sort of colloid or something. It flattens over night. We at the office (and by we I mean Tina) bought them because you can throw them but they aren't as hard as starbursts.

091308 Miranda Rocks (Business is Business)

Miranda is a Hip City Girl...


And into sassy street art.




And photography!



But most of all, she too likes to have a good time. We had a blast photographing this urban artist!




092008 Spring Grove Cemetery Photoclass Shootoff

Mrs. Terri Viltrakis had a class outing at Spring Grove Cemetery this weekend where She, Damien Tepe, Trevor Sears , and myself showed the students some tips and tricks of professional photography.
Here's the group [sans Kiki, Nat (who were already zombies), Trevor Sears (who shot the photo) and Damien Tepe (lighting on the photo) ] this saturday.


This is Dani.


This is Naomi.



This is Nat and Kiki's Zombie love Photo from this weekend.
Perhaps you remember Nat from his senior portraits.
Dot was there too!


This is Mr. Quackers, Damien Tepe's squirrel.

Mr. Quackers and Nat just didn't hit it off.


This was a photo by Naomi (the second portrait in this post).

091308 Gels, Flash, Gels

After finding Michael Bass' website I contacted the genius and purchased an adatpter for my Canon 580 speed light which just won't fire optically. Not that you care, but that means no fun. Michael makes specialty stuff to let you do what you want with your equipment. Genius!


The result... I can make really cool lighting now! I have all kinds of colored gels from my lovely wife and model. So I can add neat effects.


092008 Misc

This was from the day we photographed Cassie. It is the sky I edited into the "eden" photo.





Dragon Fruit!


091408 Used Saturn For Sale (Wind Disaster)

Anyone in the market for a lowrider crop-top Saturn SL2?
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Here's a little video of the wind Sunday while Terri and I were out killing time until the power was back on
(before we found out disaster had happened).

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Click here for a slide show of that day complete with the destruction photos.

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Some of my favorite interchanges of this experience have been:

#1. Me: The tree knocked the pole down and all of the power lines off of several houses on the street.

Duke Energy: Where is the tree now?

Me: On my car! (Laughing)

#2. Info: This driveway is across the street from mine.

Neighbor: My name is Rod and I live in that house (points), what are you doing parking in the driveway of my neighbors who are on vacation?!?

Me: Well, it's real hard to get under that tree to park right now.

#3. Billing Software Support: Hi Nicholas can you do a remote support so we can see your desktop?

Me: Nope. There's a list of reasons why I cannot do that. Would you like to hear some of them?

(Sound of a chainsaw ripping in the background 2 feet away)

Billing Support: Are they cutting down trees over there?

Me: No, I am.

091608 Cleanup Part 1

Ok, so we have no power and there is more than one tree on my property and not pointing toward the sky...



Terri's dad and I got rid of the unwanted and dead rubbish.



Then, after all that, my stupid car broke! It was fixed though.

Still the stress of being carless was immense.