Photographic Expressions

Click here and check out a behind the scenes look at just what is Photographic Expressions and just who is behind that camera.

Filmed by the talented Three Ring Media

I have never made resolutions at New Years. Like most people I can’t keep a resolution for very long. Because my birthday isn’t too far from New Years I have always used it as my benchmark for my next year. This past year I set out to use my 26th year to really focus on my photography and to move forward with my passion. I would say that I have definitely exceeded my goals and learned along the way.

I’m still deciding on what to make my goal and focus for my 27th year. Photography is very much my focus and interest for this next year but as I near the beginning of my third year of marriage, I want to carve more time for my husband. I’m hoping for more movies on the couch, more homemade dinners and sitting at the dinner table, more road trips and singing out of tune to the radio, more date nights, and enjoying the teamwork with even the most mundane chores.

Life is short and though I’m only turning 27 today and it isn’t old, I have been reminded several times throughout the year to take time to notice the little things, enjoy where you are in life and stop wishing your life away and as Ellen would say, “Just Dance!”

~C

Nine months of relentlessly searching for houses.
Four houses that contracts fell through.
Three months waiting on the bank to work on a short sale.
Two days of moving into ‘the’ house.

Finally sitting at the closing table and being able to crack open that bottle of champagne to celebrate…PRICELESS!!!

“My only regret in life is that I did not drink more champagne.”
~ John Maynard Keynes

Earlier this year the moving bug bit me. Hard. I was bound and determined to pack up two dogs, a house full of furniture and hit the road Southbound. We temporarily stayed with my dad as we hunted for a house, THE house. Merging two households into one is no easy feat and somehow my office managed to work out of boxes. It was a goal of mine to take advantage of moving ‘home’ to finally get in the kitchen and learn how to cook from my dad. His skills are out of this world and our guest room has been converted into a walk in pantry with food and kitchen equipment. It’s crazy! But as it turns out, I’m a much better food taster and enjoy the outcome of cooking but the process….not so much.

During this food tasting time, Josh and I hit the road, the internet, everything searching for houses in the Middle Georgia area. Several houses/lots peeked our interest but nothing worked out. I seriously think it was having our house hunting roller coaster continuously hit bottom that planted seeds of doubt in Josh’s mind. Soon I was being propositioned to move back. Yes, back to the mountains, Jasper and his home. Seeing that the Macon area was a bust for houses, I couldn’t help but look, because looking never hurt right? Wrong move, we fell in love with not one, not two but several houses and gave North Georgia a try again.

So the house hunting drama of 9 (yes n.i.n.e.) months is finally over and I’m not in boxes anymore. Well there is an occasional box here or there but we found THE house, we are back in the mountains and enjoying this new chapter in our lives. I love getting to know our neighbors and hanging out with friends all over again. If you find yourself up my way, I would love to have you over : )

~C

Hello everyone!!! Not to worry, I’m still here but I’m currently knee deep in moving boxes and wrapping paper, and moving exhaustion. My husband, two pups and I have journeyed back up to the mountains to our new home in Jasper. Bolingbroke/Macon will forever be my home and I still base myself in that area part time for weddings, photo shoots and get togethers. In the meantime I will be away from my computer until I can get internet set back up in the house but I’ll have my iphone close and can respond to emails and take phone calls.

Stay tuned for Melissa and Jay’s wedding! It was one fabulous evening that was truly special.

~C

Growing up with a mom for a teacher, it was always assumed that I would teach too. I was quick to squash any notions that I was going to teach, teaching school kids how to conjugate a verb was not my thing, I mean I have problems with comma splices. Though I do have a bad habit of correcting people’s grammar (yes it’s true-but only to close friends and family-namely my husband, haha) that is as close as I want to get to teaching. I would prefer to be the student.

I met my husband four years ago this month. Just days after meeting him I jetted out to Yosemite for a photography workshop for a week. Turns out cell phone coverage was nil in the valley of the Yosemite mountains (who knew?) but I certainly found time to talk to him. I distinctly remember sitting in my car, pulled over on a mountain pass, overlooking the valley and talking to this new guy that had captivated my attention. The conversation was full of me sharing the latest tricks and ideas that I was learning in Ansel Adam’s very own personal darkroom. I was on a contact high just by being there. Back then and even today, Josh would end the conversation with ‘be a sponge.’ The first time I heard it, I couldn’t figure out what North Georgia nonsense he was saying but he explained, ‘be a sponge and soak up everything you can.’

Four years and many workshops later he still to this day, continues to say ‘be a sponge.’ Tomorrow I’m heading into Atlanta with fellow photography buddies for a WPPI road trip conference. WPPI is ‘the’ photography convention in Las Vegas that is held annually but I’ super stoked that they put the show on the road with four stops including Atlanta. Love jump starting my creativity with classes, meeting other photographers being inspired, and being that sponge.

Below is an image that the ever so talented Corey McNabb captured of me a year ago at his workshop in Asheville.

~C

I was always a planner growing up as a child. I enjoyed ‘checking’ off the next item on my Life Checklist. Finish my seventh year so I could enjoy my eighth birthday; boy did that seem to take forever. Finish high school and start college. Graduate college and take on the world. Basically, take on whatever life handed me running at full speed.

As life would have it, there were a few detours along the way and I could no longer speed through life. I met my husband and was soon swept up into a new family. This family was none that I have ever known; the family of a firehouse. It’s true when they call it a brotherhood and I certainly believe I have a sisterhood with the fellow wives. I have stood with this family as we supported each other during celebrations of marriage and new babies, and have shivered together on a cold December day as one of our fallen firefighters was laid to rest.

In a marriage, each spouse brings their own interests and passions to the table. Though my husband hasn’t developed an obsession for high heeled, peep toed shoes nor does he understand my fascination with anything on the HGTV channel; his passion for public service and the fire department has become infectious. In my husband’s hungry quest to absorb all things in his field, I was merely a bystander. I’m not sure where in my day to day life it will help to know the capacity of a 2 1/2 inch nozzle with a 50 foot hose on a particular fire hydrant but I do.

To all my fellow firefighter families, police and military families that support our family members as they put their life on the line every day; I honor you in your courage and support. To my husband, whom is working today on the anniversary of one of America’s tragic history, thank you for being the kind of man that unselfishly serves others. I love you!

~C

So I have been working with the fabulous team at Three Ring Media on a project for the past few months. Just the other day I met up with Jeremy and Suzanne with Three Ring Media and Melissa and Jay, you may recognize them from the Savannah engagement shoot. We put the finishing touches on the project at the uber cool, fabulous tapas bar adjacent to the restaurant in Forsyth called Grits Cafe. (If you find that you are in Middle GA, do yourself a huge favor and stop in for a phenomenal meal or grab a drink at the swanky tapas bar) I’m not prepared to reveal all information but I will show you a behind the scenes look. Stay tuned!

~C

“I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I’m doing.” -Marsha Doble

Ok, is that not just so dang funny? It’s perfectly fitting as hubby and I are trying to motivate ourselves to get back into running. Argh, the overwhelming desire to watch another episode of HGTV and not get up to battle Georgia’s humidity. 

Wish me luck!

~C
Posts are so much better with pictures. Here is Lucy riding shotgun this past weekend. Love that my iphone was able to capture some awesome lens flare, haha

Yesterday I drove up to visit mom as she put the finishing touches on her classroom. Thirty years of teaching behind her and she still loves to show off her room. I can’t count how many times I have seen the bulletin board featuring the reading tree with animals balancing on branches with books in their hand, paw, hoof. Every year it’s the same but I can’t miss the excitement in her eye and how proud she is to have physically changed classrooms (again) and how she miraculously got it all set back up in the nick of time. I won’t interject here and say that she pesters the janitors into letting her into the school several weeks prior to school starting, we’ll just forgot that ever happened, right?

After saying for the umpteenth time that the room looked fabulous, your students are going to love it, No I don’t think it’s cluttered; we made our way to the office to turn back in the keys and to scram. Oh but it wasn’t going to be that easy, of course not! So after mom introduced her ‘oldest’ (I’m not ancient!) daughter to the new principal, the head janitor (poor soul that she pestered) and the other secretary; mom informs me that the secretary’s son was also married around the same time that I was. And before I knew it, it happened. The next statement fell out of her mouth like anvils, making potted marks on the floor as they made contact. She turned to look at me and asked, “And guess what she has?”
Without hesitation and with a sigh escaping my lips because I failed as a daughter; I responded, “A grandchild.”
“Yes!,” exclaimed my mom proud that I, her oldest but not ancient daughter, got the answer right.
Feeling down but not out I retorted, ” But you have two grandchildren.” (a word that she uses and not something I call her)
That’s when she gave up, threw her hands in the air and admitted in defeat that Yes, she has two grandchildren but they have tails and 4 legs, so evidently those don’t count.

Though Josh and I don’t have it marked on the calendar as to when babies will be on the brain, we have nothing but furbabies on the brain right now. And how can you resist these cute faces? We certainly have our hands full at the moment.

~C

Our first furbaby, Levi

Our spunky furbaby, Lucy

Lucy is always following Levi, taking cues from him and of course to steal what latest treasure he found. Just like brother and sister.

Such a funny collage of out of focus Lucy. She loves to get superclose to the camera. Love how I managed to capture the ‘Lucy pose’ with her head cocked to the side and one paw bent.

Levi at his finest, going where ever his nose takes him and Lucy not far behind.