99 flavors. pure enjoyment.

This past Saturday was my one non-wedding weekend for June, and what did I do? I scheduled a portrait session. What was I thinking? (oh wait, I remember, I was thinking I'm trying to make some money, and I have a hard time saying no to my customers.) The session went really well; it was a quick family studio sessions with adults—no kids, so it was totally painless.

After the session I headed over to the local snow cone shop before making the trek back to N Raleigh. Hills of Snow makes the best snow cones I've ever had. They boast 99 flavors, but it might be more than that—either way, whatever you want, they have, including brain freeze and a sugar rush. mmmm.

So if anyone comes for a visit or consultation at my studio, I'll be happy to introduce you to the best snow cones ever. Or, we can check out one of the other great local shops—thats one of the best parts about working in a small town.


yep, its shaped like a snow cone.


cranberry & orange-pineapple. 14 oz ended up being almost too much; next time i'll try not get so excited and only get a 10 or 12 oz cup.

2009 Senior Portraits ~ Free Stuff

YEA!! School is officially out for the summer. Woo hoo. I know most of the high school students finished with exams last week sometime, but now everyone is for-real done for the year.

I’m so excited about photographing the rising seniors this summer. I’ve found an awesome new album company so I’m going to be offering some sweet memory books from your senior portrait sessions along with all the standard wall portraits and wallets for friends. And I’ve worked out some amazing promotions.

Basically, anyone can be a rep/ambassador or whatever other studios call it. I’m not doing an application/interview process—if you want to participate you can, or if you just want the great photography and products at great prices without being a part of the studio 310 “street team,” you can get that too. Either way you’ll be getting a excellent photography. So here’s the deal:

••• for every booked referral you get for Studio 310, you’ll get $25 off your order. There’s no limit on the number of referrals or discounts you can get.

••• help me with 20 bookings, and you’ll receive an iPod shuffle.

••• book 45 referrals, and you’ll get an iPod touch. Awesome.

So whether you refer 1 or 50 other students, I really appreciate your help and your business, and I think this is the best way I can say THANK YOU.

Just one more way to get free stuff—and this one is super easy. Contact me. Leave me a comment here, message me on facebook, become a fan on my facebook page, send me an email, call me, talk to me about booking your session . . . now through the end of June, and I’ll enter your name into a drawing for your choice of a $15 iTunes gift card or Starbucks gift card. Any photography related contact will count, and this one is for everybody (including all you other photographers = blog stalkers) or anyone reading this, not just the seniors and their parents.

I’m looking forward to hearing from everyone.


Memory Albums: (I swiped these images from the album company's website; they belong to another photographer. But I've ordered samples of the smaller album, and I'll make a sample of the bigger one after I shoot a few seniors this summer.)


Get a shuffle with 20 booked referrals.


45 booked referrals


Every time you contact me you get entered in the drawing.

In the News

Well, sort of. If you regularly read Raleigh's paper, the News & Observer, you probably didn't miss the series of articles about a week and a half ago about the director of one of the state's mental health hospitals and her oil painting. Basically what I understand is that this director commissioned one of her employees to paint a portrait of her and paid for it with money that was supposed to pay for other things.

But probably the most interesting thing about it is that the painting doesn't really look like her—it might look more like how she'd like to look. And its all out of proportion, and in general, very strange looking. So this strangeness sparked the interest of a writer for the News & Observer, and from it he wrote an article for the paper yesterday about how people want to be portrayed etc.

So how I fit in: the writer, Peder Zane, contacted me, randomly I think, about my thoughts on retouching and editing photos. So some of my quotes and thoughts are used towards the end of the article. It's an interesting article; you should read it here. And you can compare the painting of the lady with her actual portrait, but you have to click the link in the caption for more photos.

Just One

I had an absolute blast Sunday afternoon photographing Stephanie for her bridal portrait, and I know she totally enjoyed her modeling debut. We spent well over 2 hours shooting in the heat and humidity, but Stephanie was such a great sport. She'll know it was definitely worth it when she gets to see all her photos. (But you have to wait til August to see more.)

Workin it, towards the end of the shoot.

Change is good

I want to let all you blog readers know about a big studio change I’m making over the next couple weeks—and I’m so excited. I’ve been renting some of my studio equipment over the past few years, and I’ve finally decided take the big step to invest in more of my own equipment and stop renting. So, I have a new studio set up with new lights, 6 new backdrops, yea, and some other required, boring, equipment. I’m keeping my same office and studio location.

I have one last formal bridal session scheduled with the current equipment for this Saturday afternoon, then I’ll be making the transition. The new stuff is going to be great for family photos, kids, high school seniors (more on seniors’ summer specials soon), etc. I’m not sure how formal bridal portraits are going work in the studio after the change, but I have an AMAZING back up plan. Oh, I’m so pumped!!!

Right now I have a couple brides scheduled for location bridal shoots. One is this Sunday, and the other will likely be in early fall. I’m really looking forward working with these ladies outside the studio for some amazing pre-wedding portraits. I’ll have to see what I can do about posting one or two images from this weekend, before the wedding. No bride wants to spoil the anticipation of the dress, so I’ll have to be careful about what I choose.

Here are a few quick wedding day shots so you can see the potential. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend and we can get some gorgeous outdoor portraits.