Anna's 13th Birthday

Anna turned 13 today, and instead of taking the same boring pictures of opening the gifts, blowing out the candles...etc, we decided to just grab a few good portraits of the birthday girl!

It was pretty cold outside, so we only spent about five minutes, but she is so beautiful, it makes it easy to get gorgeous shots quickly!

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Georgia Lizard

While we were down in Georgia for my brother's wedding, the kids were excited to see lizards in their natural habitat for the first time. 

We found this guy scampering around, and of course, had to grab a few shots to remember him by. :o)

Is it just me, or does the matter of insurance cross your mind when you look at this picture? :o)

His sticky claws could hold onto any surface.



Luke was the brave one to take a picture with the lizard on his shirt. He wasn't so excited though, when the lizard decided to crawl up on top of his head!



Results for the cell phone contest!

The voting results from blogger and Facebook are in and the winner is...drum roll please....

David Garcia! 

Thank you to all the friends and family that supported him, he did a great job with his picture.

Shout out to David Daudelin for being off by only one vote.  So close!

The official results are as follows:

1. Aaron Hacker - 7

2. Amanda Thacker - 21

3. Ashley King - 11

4. Brett Reed - 2

5. David Daudelin - 30

6. David Garcia - 31

7. Eli McDonnell - 10

8. John Hanlon - 2

9. JC Burnett - 5

10. Levi Arnold - 12

11. Pam Lennard - 0

12. Rick McDonnell - 0

13. Stephanie Gilbert - 1

14. Stephen Wesco - 13

15. Wade Reed - 3

16. Katie Taylor - 21

17. Amanda Nero - 8

18. Britton Felber - 0

Wait, there's 18 pictures now!

Yes, I know another picture just "appeared" on my cell phone contest post.  #18 by Britton Felber.

I made the exception for this late entry based on two things.  1. Britton has been a huge help to me in getting me started into photography as a business and I consider him a mentor.  2. The picture is totally awesome! :o)

So if you are not already voting for a family member's picture or a friend who sent you here to vote for theirs, you have yet another excellent option to choose from.

Final voting results will be posted on Monday!

Cell phone contest final voting!

Okay, so I know I said I was going to limit the pictures down to a few that I liked, and I could have done that.  However, I wanted my readers to see the great variety of pictures that were submitted, so I entered them all for the final voting.

Great job guys with the pictures!  You truly have some impressive creativity.

Remember, send people directly to this link: http://photographybyjackmcdonnell.blogspot.com/2011/02/cell-phone-contest-final-voting.html to vote on your picture!

~or~

Send them over to vote for your picture on the Facebook page. (They will need to "like" the page in order to comment.)

But hurry, because voting ends on the 20th, so you only have two days to vote.  Anyone can vote, including yourself, but only one vote per person please.

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1. Aaron Hacker

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2. Amanda Thacker

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3. Ashley King

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4. Brett Reed

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5. David Daudelin

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6. David Garcia

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7. Eli McDonnell

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8. John Hanlon

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9. John-Clay Burnett

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10. Levi Arnold

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11. Pam Lennard

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12. Rick McDonnell

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13. Stephanie Gilbert

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14. Stephen Wesco

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15. Wade Reed

16. Katie Taylor

17 . Amanda Nero

18. Britton Felber

Click here to comment:

Thoughtful Thursday

This is a late night Thoughtful Thursday so most of you will probably see it on Friday, but sometimes I am a lot more thoughful later on in the evening, once I have laid my work aside and the house is quiet.

So the thing to ponder today is: Are you a professional or hobbyist?

Sometimes people who think that photography is the only thing they want to do, end up taking another job and losing interest in it.  Others, just enjoy shooting as a hobby and one day realize that they could use their skills as a business.

Regardless if you are a casual shooter or a professional, it is good once in awhile to re-evaluate where you are at with your photography and why.  Photography as a business may be the worst idea ever for you personally, or it might be a great way to really love your job. 

Just consider the possibilities either way.

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Last day for cell phone contest!

Tomorrow I will be posting the cell phone contest pictures, so if you haven't got yours sent in yet, do it now!

http://photographybyjackmcdonnell.blogspot.com/2011/01/photo-challenge.html

Looking forward to sharing these pics with you and seeing who gets the most votes!

David Chin

Recently, while at my brother's wedding photo shoot, I had the opportunity to shoot a few portraits for my friend David Chin.  He was one of the groomsmen in Rick's wedding as well as playing several pieces on piano before the ceremony. 

David has a great gift of making beautiful music and is currently studying at Eastman School of Music in New York.  I expect to hear of him making worldwide tours someday as a internationally acclaimed conductor

I loved the colors that Bethany and Rick chose for the groomsmen!

We found a beautiful back porch on the plantation mansion to shoot pictures.

The brick walkways and neatly trimmed bushes added to the southern charm of the plantation.

Someday you will see this man on a stage leading a world famous orchestra.

Thank you David, for being a Christ honoring musician, and a good model for young people to follow!

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REMINDER!!

This is a reminder!  If you haven't entered the cell phone contest yet, be sure to get you picture in.  


http://photographybyjackmcdonnell.blogspot.com/2011/01/photo-challenge.html

Only three days until the submissions will be closed and you can see the great pics people sent to me!

Photo Tip Tuesday #3

For this Photo Tip Tuesday I am going to keep it short and sweet.

Shoot more pictures!

I know it sounds silly and simplistic, but it took me awhile to learn. (I am still learning it too!) After reading and hearing the same piece of advice from my favorite photographers, I finally realized that it is a real problem in the photography community.

There are many people who work so hard to read up and "study" photography, yet they don't get out and shoot in different situations and gain valuable experience.  


Now don't get me wrong, I think photography resources are VERY important and I study and read up on photography all the time.  You just want to make sure that you have a ton of mileage on your camera trigger finger, to back up all those things that you learned by reading and listening.  


One really good way to learn is to combine the two together and attend a workshop taught by a professional that will let you shoot pictures while learning form their experience.  I know that has helped me take leaps and bounds with my photo work.

A few Florida pictures

Morning breaking over Indianapolis

These clouds looked remarkably like snow drifts from the plane's view!

A random cool building in the historic section of downtown Pensacola.

I was a bit of a bird watcher/photographer yesterday afternoon out on the pier.

These seagulls had almost no fear of humans at all!

A few pelicans joined in the party...

As well as this tall gentleman!

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My first canvas!

Okay, so I was super excited when I heard Rick was going to propose to my sister Lizzie and I decided that this would be a great time to order my first canvas as a gift for them.

I love how it turned out!  It is so crisp and clear and the colors are perfect! Thank you Mpix!

Anyway, without further ado, here are the pictures from last evening when they got back to the house.

We are planning on doing a real engagement photo shoot later on, but I grabbed a few snapshots to share with all our family and friends right away.

Did I mention that I love canvas prints? :o)

They are such a cute couple!  Looking forward to shooting lots more pictures of them together!

Musical ring picture!

Think they are happy about this decision?

Note to self: Buy a chalk board for future photo shoots.

~ Proverbs 18:22 ~

Thoughtful Thursday

Do you ever mix up your editing?

Let me be clear, I am not talking about overall personal style here.  I am talking about getting out of a rut, mixing up your options and trying something new.

Sometimes as a photographer, I find all my pictures looking the same, not bad, not even boring, but a bit repetitive.   When I see that, I try to use something different, whether that means going B&W, sepia, more or less contrast, or even a little Photoshop design.

Maybe it's time to check out a new technique that you have never tried and give it a shot.  But once in awhile, do something different with your photos, just for the learning value if nothing else. 

You may surprise yourself with the fresh results that you get!

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Missing Tip Tuesday

Hey guys!

As you may have noticed, Photo Tip Tuesday is missing.  That is due to the huge blizzard that came through here yesterday and kept me from my computer that I use for the photo tips.

So until next week, thanks for understanding!