Help-Portrait.com | We just want to give back!

For those who may not have heard about it, Help-Portrait is a collaborative effort made by professional photographers all over the world to provide professional portrait photography to those in need on December 12, 2009. The artist behind this selfless project is none other than the talented Jeremy Cowart of Nashville, TN. Jeremy has built a reputation as one of the industry's young leading photographers with his laid back personality and great success with creating commercial portraits.

Help-Portrait is for those who have maybe lost their job, have fallen on really hard times, or have never felt beautiful before and now is their chance to be in front of the camera and look great!

I feel very honored and privileged to be working with so many other photographers and volunteers who want to give of themselves in order to bless others. On December 12, 2009, myself, Nancy Ray, Scott Clevenger and Kristin Cook, will be hosting a Help-Portrait session at North Wake Church in Wake Forest, NC.

For more details on our event times and specifics please visit my site: Always Autumn Studios. We could use more volunteers: Make-up artists, Photo Assistants, Post Production Editors and we have a few spots available for Photographers who would like to shoot. If you're at all interested please email me: contact@alwaysautumnstudios.com

Include the text "Volunteer for Help-Portrait" in the subject line. We appreciate your support and we're excited about giving back to our community!

Keeping it Green...

About six months ago I switched to only using rechargeable batteries: in my flashes, in my remotes and of course my camera came with a rechargeable battery and along with the camera I picked up an additional battery. I shoot a Canon 1D Mark III. Great camera, really fast and perfect for just about any project I have. The battery for the Mark III is rated to handle about 4,000 shutter clicks. That's a lot of clicks but recently I've been keeping an eye on the battery just to make sure I'm getting the best performance possible. Just before I changed out my battery this weekend I checked the battery status and was shocked when I read that I had 13% battery left and had taken 6,581 photos with the one battery. Anytime I can exceed my own expectations I not only feel like a dork but I'm pretty happy! You'll have to excuse the noise of my iPhone photo but here's a kinda blurry shot of yet another one of my batteries keeping me green.

Chad Lister CD Release Party

About a week ago I had the pleasure of hanging out with my friends in Chad Lister's band while shooting for his CD release. Their performance was amazing. I love music and I love getting to know the guys who write it so having the opportunity to see these guys in action was a lot of fun. I am seriously impressed with these guys...they're so young yet so professional and really talented. Be sure to check out Chad's Schedule to see when he'll be in your area. Here are a few shots from the big night.

A Little Extra Cash at Christmas Time

Yesterday I spoke with one of my old friends from college who I hadn't heard from in a really long time. As conversations go there was the usual "how are the wife and kids" and the always promising..."So what are you doing now?" I have successfully managed to baffle people every time I'm asked this question probably because I never tell them what I'm actually doing now...at least not the first time they ask it. Call it inconvenient, call it random, I like to call it A.D.D. So I of course explained to him that I was now delivering large packages shipped with C4 to absorb the shock of being moved around the country. After his long drawn out pause of complete silence he asked, "Really?"

OF COURSE NOT! So I explained that I was still a photographer and that Always Autumn is busy and life is good! Then when I asked what he was into, this philosophy major with an IQ twice that of anyone else I've ever met said..."Oh, I get paid to give my opinion!"
What? That actually happens? Apparently it does and he's doing very well with it.

All that talk got me to thinking: I love great referrals, I really like my clients, what if I could offer them something that would provide a little extra cash for them between now and Christmas?

So here's my idea: For every new wedding booking that you refer to me from today, November 10, 2009, until Christmas I will give you $50 in cash. There's no catch, it's real cash that you can spend on Christmas presents or put aside for a rainy day.
Here are the details:

1. It must be a client who is interested in wedding photography.
2. They must book before 2010.
3. They must mention that YOU referred them to me.
4. You do not have to be already be a client who is making the referral...it can be a friend of mine, family member, avid Apple lover, or someone who just happened to stumble upon my blog through Google.
5. The booking clients don't even have to get married in 2010, it can be 2011...wow that's far away.

As long as you refer the clients and as long as they book before 2010 the cash is your!

Fall is busy but awesome!

I was a little shocked when I logged into my blog tonight and noticed that it had been almost two weeks since my last post. It's not been for lack of work that I haven't posted. I've been really busy with great families and happily engaged couples. I've got A LOT to post here but for now I'll just post a few shots from one of my shoots from this weekend. I talk about him all of the time but I'm not sure that anyone really knows who he is. Scott Clevenger is a great friend of mine and we've been shooting together for almost three years now. This weekend I had the honor to run after this fast paced family with my camera and capture what I think were some really precious moments. Scott also grabbed a few shots of Laura and I but that's a part of my "more to come" that I'll have up later this week. So for now...I give you the Clevengers!

Andy + Carolyn 10.24.09

This weekend was amazing. I woke Saturday morning to watch our son kick around inside mom's belly and a front yard full of rain. I was bummed that it was raining and I was to shoot a wedding...not just any wedding but Andy and Carolyn's wedding! Andy and Carolyn are probably one of the sweetest couples to come out of Apex...ever! But when I arrived in Apex the clouds seemed to part and the rain STOPPED and we got some great shots!!! Here's a few to tie everyone over for the week!

Update on the Free Engagement Shoots & Adrian + Lauren Vanderburg

As you can imagine my inbox blew up! After sorting through all of the emails and finalizing plans with couples and then losing those plans and then finalizing new plans I did book 5 great couples. In the weeks to come I'll have a lot of photos to sort through and I'll be sure to post a lot of them online. Thanks again to everyone who got in touch with me and to those I couldn't schedule I wish you all the best in preparing for your wedding day! You'll love being married! On a side note, because of how successful this promotion was, I'm thinking about new promotional ideas that I can offer possibly every quarter. So keep coming back to see new work, catch up on our little Navey Bean and to see what promotional I might be offering next time.

For now here are a few shots from Adrian & Lauren's wedding in Tennessee this past weekend.