Innerglow Photography

Sunset on Little Harbor

2011-12-11T17:42:00.003-05:00

Had a great Sunset Family Photo Shoot at Little Harbor in Ruskin. Kelly and I met with Simone, Anthony and 2 great kids, Zack & Reagan. (Hope I spelled Reagan correctly) These guys had great personalities and were just a blast to work with. We started shooting a little after 4:30 and had to work pretty fast as sunset was at 5:30.

Little Harbor is a cool little place in Ruskin on the water with a view of the St. Pete skyline in the distance. There is a little restaurant on the private beach called Sunset Grill and they ended up staying and having dinner there after the shoot. As the sun was setting we were able to capture some pretty dramatic sunset images with the help of Kelly holding the softbox with some fill flash.

Here are a few of our images.

2011-11-06T16:32:00.002-05:00

One of the styles of Photography that I really seem to enjoy is Street Photography. Although I don't often have a chance to do it, I find it very interesting and exciting. Capturing unique looking individuals can be fun and also a bit intimidating. The question is always to ask permission to take the photo, or simply snap away paperazzi style. I've done it both ways and the more often you ask for permission, the easier it is to do. However, I do remember a specific time photographing homeless people in downtown Lakeland for a Project. I was accused of being a police officer undercover and taking pictures to turn the people in. In hindsight, I should not have done that project alone as I was quickly out numbered with my only weapon being my camera...and quick wit. :)

Longer Exposures

2011-08-26T21:11:00.006-04:00

We had the good fortune to spend some time in upstate New York near the Catskill Mountains. Even though the I would have much preferred to see the fall colors, much rather have seen them, we settle for the greenery. As it turns out, the Catskill Mountains and the surrounding areas seem about 40 years or so past their prime.
I say this due to the many homes and businesses that were either closed up or in a condemned state.

That, however did not slow things up too much for taking photo's. Along one of the drives during a misty afternoon, Kelly and I came upon a Stony Creek. We pulled the car over as I wanted to grab some shots. I will admit that this was not the best time of day for this as I was hoping to get some shots of the river with longer exposures. 1:30 in the afternoon could not have been a worse time to shoot this scene. I had recently purchased a filter called the "Fader" which will help knock down some of the light getting into the scene, in order to gain a longer shutter speed. As it turned out, I was only able to bring a small and pretty unstable tripod with us on the trip. I had to keep jockeying for the right shutter speed for the scene and at the same time a short enough shutter speed to keep the tripod sturdy long enough to get a sharp image.

For the Color image above, the settings were; ISO 100 f/22 at 1/8 of a second.

For the Black & White image the camera settings were: ISO 100, f/29 at 1/10 of a second.

Click on the images for a larger viewing size.

Class of 2011

2011-02-23T22:26:00.004-05:00

We had an amazing Senior Portrait Session with Amanda Curry this past weekend. We shot at my favorite location. It's a dump of an abandoned building, but makes for just the greatest backgrounds with amazing textures and light.

We used an off camera Canon Flash with a small softbox and my Rachel was the best assistant.

Rachel and the abandoned Building

2011-02-05T20:37:00.002-05:00

I really love shooting at this abandoned Citrus Building. The contrast between the destruction, run down, dilapidated vs beauty has always appealed to me.

After purchasing my newest lens, the Canon 85mm f/1.2, this gave me the perfect combination to go along with the Canon 5D Mkii camera. The way the lens blurs the background is second to none. Shooting mostly at an aperture of 1.2 opens up the lens to its largest opening and offers the shallowest of depth of field. You have to be very careful keeping your main subject, or eyes in sharpest focus. Here are a few of the images shot with that aperture setting.

Camelot

2010-11-14T09:10:00.005-05:00

What an amazing job from the kids at the Harrison Center for the Visual & Performing Arts! The production of Camelot was just over the top. These kids worked for months and the hard work and effort paid off in spades. Congrat's to all who had a hand in this production, from the costumes to the set and all the back stage help. These shows can not be down without the help of dozens of volunteers. Here are a few of the scenes I was able to capture during the dress rehearsal...

What a beautiful Wedding!

2010-08-01T09:14:00.004-04:00

Lauren Nute and Kyle Collins tied the knot on Saturday, July 31 2010. The service was at the Chapel of First Baptist Church at the Mall in Lakeland, Fl. These 2 make a great couple and they made it so fun and easy to photograph their day. Here are just a few of the images...

This was fun!

2010-07-18T23:30:00.003-04:00

This was one of the cutest little girls to photograph. She was such a ham and a performer, you would have thought she graduated from the Tyra Banks school of modeling.

She would pose, then give instructions to her older sister and whisper into her dads ear on what to do. So cute. Here are a few of the photo's we took.

Welcome Aulbree

2010-06-04T23:05:00.004-04:00

I had a great time photographing little Aulbree, Megan's precious little girl. She would just fall right to sleep after her feedings and we'd have a few moments to shoot.

2010-03-14T19:50:00.002-04:00

Kyle & Lauren are engaged and are getting married July 31st. They are an adorable and a good looking couple and we had a blast taking some photos today. We took some photos in my studio at the house and then went outside to get some more casual shots. And...man was it windy! I had Anna trying to block some of the wind with a reflector, but that didn't work very well, as it was almost knocking her over. So, we just shot had to wait for the very short moments where the wind would die down for a second or two.

Here are some of the shots...

1st day of vacation!

2009-12-19T18:40:00.003-05:00

Started my vacation on December 17th and headed out to take some photos. Kelly was at work and the kids were still in school so I headed over to Lake Howard for an hour or 2. And the next day headed over to the Circle B in Lakeland in the early morning. Both days were awesome with over cast skies. I got a bit of rain on the 18th at Circle B, but only when I arrived and then again, when I decided to leave. Here are a few of the images...shot with the 100-400L lens.

More of the images can be seen by clicking here... http://innerglowphotography.com/nature/

More Family photos!

2009-11-09T20:05:00.003-05:00

It's getting pretty busy trying to balance work with passion. I fortunately work with some great people in the ole' day job and we've been trying to get together to do some family portraits for a while now. Well, over the past week I was able to photograph 3 families and we had a great time doing it. We went to Lake Parker Park in North Lakeland and the weather has been just awesome for these shoots. I hope to be able to get a few more sessions over there while the humidity is low and the temps stay out the triple digits. Here are a few of our shots together.

November 15th Due date!

2009-10-18T23:19:00.002-04:00

Creighton Adkins is due November 15, 2009. I am so glad Ashley and Jeremy asked me to shoot her maternity photographs. They are such a sweet couple and Creighton will be loved by the whole family. Here are just a few of the images we took together....

Amazing Bridal shoot!

2009-10-11T20:29:00.002-04:00

Well, Lindsey is getting married in mid November and we were able to get together to take some Bridal photographs. I have the say, the home we shot these images at, in Plant City was every bit as beautiful as Lindsey. It made for a great combination. We started shooting about 7pm and headed outside while we have some great light. Unfortunately we had some great humidity and the heat chased us inside. But not to worry, inside worked our just great and here are just a few of the images we made. Hope you enjoy...

It's official! Calvary Kids Preschool has the cutest kids!

2009-10-03T20:42:00.002-04:00

Well, it's official! The kids at the Calvary Kids preschool in Winter Haven certainly have the cutest kinds in the world. I had the pleasure of photographing these cute girls and boys this past Friday and had a blast. The staff and children were so much fun to work with.

We took the photographs outside to get candid shots and headed to the playground. I must have heard about 100 times..."Mr. Andy push ME on the swing now!" It was so much fun and I sure hope the parents like the images.

Jim's Big family

2009-09-30T21:54:00.003-04:00

So, Jim one of my good friends at work added to his beautiful family 2 weeks ago. Jim and his wife gave birth to their 8th child! And Jim actully delivered the baby at his home...very brave! I had the good fortune this week to go to his home and snap a couple of photo's of their new son. And also had the chance to meet the rest of the children and they are all just great kids and not camera shy at all. These are just a few of the images we took.

Staci & Seths's Wedding Slideshow

2009-09-25T23:33:00.000-04:00

http://www.shareitvideo.com/watch.php?v=241555572554381#

Staci & Seth

2009-09-07T15:46:00.005-04:00

I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding this past Saturday for Staci & Seth. Seth is in the Army and the wedding was originaly planned for next year. As his military plans changed the wedding date was moved up...way up. Both families were a pleasure to work with and Staci and Seth were a beautiful couple and just great to photograph. We were able to squeeze in an engagement session just before the rehearsal the day before the wedding. Staci's backyard just the perfect outdoor setting for this. Here are a few of our images.

More North Carolina shots

2009-08-06T22:18:00.003-04:00

These were some photo's shot on our vacation in the NC mountains. We made a little trip to the beautiful town of Highlands and I had to take some shots there. Even though my wife hates to have her picture taken, she was a trooper this time and let me take a few...Isn't she beautiful!!!

I love this one of Rachel, she is so photogenic and is always there for me when I get that photo urge.

And Anna's beauty speaks for itself. She is one of the prettiest girls ever! I'm not even biased!

Here were some more shots from our North Carolina vacation. The waterfall is Dry Falls near Cashiers, NC.

Our North Carolina vacation

2009-08-02T22:08:00.004-04:00

What a vacation we had in the North Carolina Mountains this July! Unfortunately our Meghan did not make it as she was performing in the production of Thoroughly Modern Millie during the time we would be away. We did see her perform the 2st 2 shows and the finale one too, it was just great. We took Anna and Rachel and tow of their friends, Roqi, and Heather. We went hiking, white water rafting, panning for gold...or gems, swimming, waterfall chasing and so much more. The mountains were beautiful as always. Although nothing can compare to seeing them in the fall as the leaves are changing. That is something to behold.

Here are a few images of Brett and Cristina Cohs twins. I had the chance to photograph these very cute kids in July. On our way to our North Carolina Mountain vacation, we stopped off in Tucker Georgia to see Kelly's Aunt Valerie. Fortunately Kelly's cousin Aaron and Brett were there with their kids and I had the chance to take these photos.

Katie & Jake

2009-06-27T21:44:00.001-04:00

I'm so glad Katie and Jake asked me to photograph their special day. They are a beautiful, sweet young couple and are very much in love. They were married at Calvary Baptist Church in Winter Haven and the reception was at St. Pauls Church. As with most weddings, the day seems to get more stressful as the time gets closer to the moment of truth. Katie did a great job handling this and seemed to have some fun getting ready with her friends and just looked beautiful. Here are a few of the images.

More photo's from Katie & Jakes wedding

2009-06-27T21:36:00.003-04:00

2009-04-13T09:04:00.004-04:00

Ok, so Mitch, who I work with says to me on a Thursday that his photographer bailed out on him for his wedding on Saturday. Yup, in 2 days. He is begging me to photograph his wedding in 2 days. Fortunately I was able to make arrangements at work to allow me the day off and agree to shoot for him and Bonnie. The wedding is to take place at the very beautiful Honeymoon Island on Clearwater Beach, FL. When I arrive the winds are blasting a steady 30 mph with gusts to 40. This would have mixed sand with my camera equipment and been very scary. There is a wicked front moving in from Canada and it means business. The poor beach workers are trying desperately trying to put up a canopy, but no way was this going to happen. There is a great little picnic area just around the other side of the beach with wonderful palm trees, oaks and plenty of shrubs to block the wind. The day turned out just great and the wedding was a treat to shoot. Thanks to Mitch for not letting me say no...

2009-01-11T22:40:00.004-05:00

A few months ago we were heading to a Memorial Service at a local cemetary. While en route we came across a wonderful abandoned building, which I immediatley thought would be an amazing spot to photograph. Several months later, I finaly found the time to take a couple of my daughters there for a photo shoot. Anna came with me 1st then Meghan when she came home from college for Christmas time. Broken concrete, shattered glass, paint ball wars, exposed insulation...it all makes for beautiful images.

Florida's Cow Camp

2008-11-15T23:04:00.006-05:00

We recently went on a photo trip to Lake Kissimmee State Park. There is a place there called Cow Camp. It's a throw back to Florida of old where cattle roamed free and wireless internet was hard to come by. It's like stepping back to the 1800's. It's an awesome place for photo opportunities and I had a great time shooting with the lens baby and getting some great blurring effects.

Pirates of Penzance

2008-11-01T15:47:00.007-04:00

Just finished photographing the theatre performance of Pirates of Penzance. This was performed by Harrison School for the Arts, in Lakeland Florida. This was just a great job by all the High School performers and the staff. It was wonderfully entertaining. If you missed it, I encourage you to try and catch other performances by this school as they do a top notch job.

Drops of reflections

2008-07-11T15:26:00.004-04:00

So, I woke up this morning and had a hunger to photograph something. I grabbed my camera with the macro lens, a spray bottle filled with water and my tripod and trekked all the way to the backyard. The sun was still pretty low in the sky so I was able to get some soft light on these flowers. I needed a bit more light coming in from the side so I ran back inside and wrapped some aluminum foil around a piece of mail and used that to reflect a bit more light in from the other side of the sun and this was the resulting shot...ISO 400, 1/200 f/9...

Bok Tower Trip

2008-04-19T23:00:00.002-04:00

Well, members of the Polk County Camera club made a trip to Beautiful Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Saturday April 19th. We spent the morning taking and working on some macro photography. The lens I used was a Canon 100mm Macro f/2.8 and my 40D. It was a perfect spring morning with most of the flowers in full bloom and it was hard not to find great subjects to photograph. Here is one of my favorite shots from the morning. I love the blurred background and muted colors in this shot.

The meaning of Life

2008-02-24T22:44:00.002-05:00

I had the opportunity to photograph the new born baby, Hannah. Hannah was born to a coworker, Todd and his wife. Hannah was not exactly in the mood for photographs this evening as she seemed, of course much more interested in a bit of nourishment. After a few bottles she started tp relax a bit and then didn't mind. This was one of my favorite shots from the night.

Choreography Class

2008-01-20T22:11:00.000-05:00

This is a shot of Meghan during one of the dances choreographed by Harrison School of the Arts' Musical Theatre Dept. The seniors choreographed thier own pieces and performed them Tuesday Jan. 15th, 2008.

Fog horn!

2008-01-01T00:22:00.000-05:00

Took a quick trip to Lake Morton in Lakeland in late December and snapped a few shots on a foggy morning. Here is one of those shots that I thought came out pretty well.

More wedding fun

2008-01-01T00:12:00.000-05:00

This was one of my favorite shots of the wedding from Britany & Ryan. Britany was getting ready in a motor home on site of the wedding and the room was a bit tight. Even so, we still managed to get of quite a few shots that I was happy with. This wedding was especially enjoyable for me as my 14 year old daughter, Anna assisted me. Anna took some wonderful and creative shots. I hope to bring her along to more weddings. Here is one of the young bridesmaids from the wedding and one of my favorite shots.

Photo Contest Winner

2007-10-14T21:46:00.000-04:00

I recently entered a photo contest sponsored ny the New York Institute for Photography. One of the photo's I entered has been selected as one of the top 16 photo's, which is pretty cool. They are going to be printing and framing the photo in a 16 x 20 size and displaying it along with all the other winning photo's at 11 Madison Ave. in new York city from October 22 through Nov. 2. They should be selecting the overal grand prize winner shortly with the top prise being a trip to New York and some nice photo gear. This was the photo I entered.

2007-09-03T21:26:00.000-04:00

We had some family over to the house this Labor day and it was a great opportunity to take some photo's. Our nephews son was being a bit shy with the camera at 1st, then he turned into a camera ham and you would of though he had a modeling career. I used an off camera flash and he was pretty intrigued at it. This is one of the shots as he looked into the flash that was sitting on the coffee table...

Jumping for joy!

2007-08-22T20:09:00.001-04:00

Rachel and I had some fun a couple of days before School started. We headed out to the back yard and Rachel had a blast on the trampoline. She jumped and I shot. She was doing what she loved and so was I. I took about a hundred shots of her jumping and spinning shooting in continuous mode. My camera shoots at about 3 frames per second but it was still very challenging to get the perfect shot. This one was one of my favorites, I just wished I didn't crop the top of her hair. I would love to hear your thoughts on this shot.

HDR

2007-08-13T21:32:00.000-04:00

This is a shot of the golf course at the Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando. It was my 1st attempt at HDR which stands for High Dynamic Range. It is a composit of 6 different shots ranging from 3 stops over exposed to 3 stops under exposed.

Portraits

2007-08-06T19:22:00.000-04:00

It is senior time for my daughter Meghan and that means time for some senior portraits. So, the other day we set up camp in the family room at the house and set up a mini studio. I had purchased some material from the fabric store and tacked it up to the wall and set up a couple of off camera flashes. Here are a couple of the shots...You can here to view a slide show of more of the shots...

Meghan

2007-07-26T20:49:00.000-04:00

Well, Yesterday brought quite a scare! I went to book up the old computer in the morning and got this error message that said...Corrupt windows root>sysytem32/hal.dll please reload file before rebooting. The hard drive was not looking good. After a search online on another computer searching that error message, I was left with a very sick sinking feeling. I have told myself dozens of times to make sure I back up my files, and read horror stories online of people who haven't. I would always get around to it or do it next time I had some more time...as you know that time never seems to come around. I did however invest in a 400GB external hard drive and may have backed up a fraction of my photo files, but thats about it....Thanks so much to Harold at work, in out IT department. He broke out the old defibrulator and somehow rebuilt Windows XP without losing my files! WHEH! I can breath again. Needless to say, I will be spending quite a bit of time backing up files and looking for a software product that can do this automatically. Here is a recent shot that I almost lost...

Limkin, aka "the Kirate Kid"

2007-07-15T15:41:00.000-04:00

I recently caught this shot of a Limkin at Saddle Creek park in Lakeland, Florida. It really reminded me of the scene from the Kirate Kid movie...I must not get out much.

New Flower shots

2007-07-02T22:58:00.000-04:00

Ok, it's been a while since I posted here so it is time to put up some stuff. Life has certainly not been slowing up with kids out of school. I had the recent pleasure of spending the day with my brother Marc and we drive around Lakeland and Winter Haven shooting fence photo's. At the last house we stopped at, aw we were leaving, I noticed this small garden between by the driveway and had to take some shots with my 50mm lens. I love this lens as it takes some of the best shots you can imagine. This is one of the shots after I cropped in quite a bit in photoshop and thought the image came out looking quite nice. I suppose I ought to post a fence shot as well.....

Name this Orchid

2006-11-23T20:11:00.000-05:00

My Mother-in-law had me shoot this shot of her "award winning" orchid on Thanksgiving day. But, I do not know the name of it, so if anyone knows the name of this orchid, please let me know. The sun was shinning directly on this flower, so I had my daughter grab a clump of moss hanging from the tree to hold it up in front of the flower to difuse the sun and create some nice shadows...

Candle Trail.

2006-11-05T21:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, this one was fun to shoot. My Daughter Rachel and I set up a candle on the kitchen counter with a black foam board in the background. Set up the flash off camera and to the right of the candle with some tin foil on the left side to reflect some light on that side. Rachel blew out the candle and I hit the remote shutter release to get this effect. We thought the shot came out pretty cool.

The road to Highlands.

2006-10-30T20:18:00.000-05:00

This is a very simple looking shot, but I love the way it came out. It was taken in Highlands Nort Carolina in October at the peak of the Fall leaves changing ceremonies. I used a tripod and shot at 100 ISO F8 1/10, using my Canon 20D and 28-70 F2.8L lens.

Perfect timing!

2006-10-26T21:14:00.000-04:00

Well, My lovely and talented wife, Kelly and I made it to North Carolina to celebrate number 18 together...and they said it wouldn't last. Our timing couldn't have been better for the weather and the leaves changing to thier beautiful fall colors. We stayed in the town of Glenville in the Great Smokey Mountains. Here is one of the shots I took at Whitewater Falls...

Florida Sunset's

2006-10-18T23:07:00.000-04:00

Well, just as the sunrises have been spectacular as of late, the sunsets have been running a close 2nd. This shot was taken over Lake Howard in winter Haven, Florida at an ISO of 200 f8 1/2500 in manual mode with a 28-70mm 2.8 lens. These shots are getting more dificult to catch as it is getting dark earlier and earlier and work calls...

Beauty Evolution (You have to watch this video)

2006-10-18T22:44:00.000-04:00

I found this link on one of my frequently visited sites. I am not famliar with the orginazation that made this short film, but I thought it was worthy of posting this link to view it. Please check it out, as it is a shorty but goody...

Beauty (short but sweet)

Florida Sunrises

2006-10-16T23:21:00.000-04:00

Well, lately the sunrises around here have bee breathtaking. It makes it hard to get to work on time. I forturnately live across the street from beautiul Lake Hamilton in Florida and often stop in my car pull out the camera and tripod which I try to have with me many days. Although the Florida heat prevents me from taking it to work and leaving it in the car to bake all day. Here is one of those beautiful October mornings. This was taken at 100 ISO f9 20' in Aperature priority with my Canon 20D.

My wife, Kelly and I will be heading to the mountains in North Carolina shortly and hopefuly can catch some of the leaves changing colors.

The Great Pumpkin!

2006-10-14T22:42:00.000-04:00

Ok, today we headed for the pumpkin patch in Lakeland, florida in search of Charlie Brown and the great Pumkin. I think this kid spotted him. I didn't get this kids parents' name unfortunately as I would have loved to give them a copy of this shot..

2006-10-13T22:05:00.000-04:00

Working on trying to improve on my photo skills, a group of us from our local camera club had an outing. We took off one morning and went to the Hillsborough State park, near Tampa Florida. We were working on the topic of reading exposures and I shot this shot of the river. It was taken at 100 ISO f18 5''. What do you think?

2006-10-12T22:44:00.000-04:00

1st blog

2006-10-12T22:18:00.000-04:00

Whew...45 years old and this is my 1st "blog." Who whould have known what a blog was just a few short years ago. I thought I was doing well when I figured out this whole email thing, on the cutting edge of technology. Then, Bam! here comes the BLOG. My 13 year old daughter is my more technology savy that I am. What happened?

Anyway. This was just some idle thoughts I wanted to throw down on paper...oops...the blog.

Photography is my hobby of choice and it seems that if I go a day without shooting a few shots, I start having withdrawls and have to pick up the Canon and get a few shots of something under my belt. More later...