Have you ever taken the time to explore your own backyard? Between the long summer days and my efforts to take one photo each day, I've been looking in places I wouldn't normally look to find interesting things to photograph.

Here are two recent favorites from exploring my backyard.

Yesterday, Adrian and I did a post-wedding photo shoot with Ashley and Ben, who got married in April. I'm still working on their photos (which you'll see after their photo presentation session), but wanted to share this beautiful orchid from the Orchid Garden at Vizcaya in Miami. They have so many different types of orchids there, more than I ever knew existed. If you ever get the chance to visit Vizcaya, it is definitely worth a look!

Yesterday, I attended the Florida Renaissance Festival once again with the South Florida Camera Club. The Ren Fest is something that the club does every year. Last year was awesome, and I got so many great images. This year far surpassed last year! I was able to photograph many of the same people that I took pictures of last year, and I definitely made some new friends at the Festival. Here are many of my favorite images from yesterday!

Look! It's me! :)

I had the opportunity to spend some time with Lindsay, the gypsy with the green parasol! I took one of my favorite photos last year of Lindsay, and I was so happy to find her again this year!

Last weekend I went to the Florida Renaissance Festival with my good friend Frank Fradella. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have been helping Frank with his photography since he bought a new camera for his recent trip to Shanghai, China. He's been loving his new toy, so I invited him out with me to take some photos at the Ren Fest. Here are some favorites that I shot throughout the day:

You can see all of my Ren Fest images on my Flickr!

Part 2 of this is coming next week, as I'll be going back to the fair this weekend with the South Florida Camera Club.

On Sunday, I headed to South Beach to spend time with my friends from the South Florida Camera Club. The club is a mix of hobbyists and professionals who all enjoy shooting and learning together. We decided to go to the annual Miami Beach Art Deco Weekend to do some street shooting. Unfortunately, it was raining most of the day, so the performances were all canceled, but I had the opportunity to meet some nice people (and dogs!) and see some pretty cool classic cars... not to mention hanging out with my friends, which is always good. :)

If any of the dog owners whose pets I photographed come across this and would like a copy of the image to print up to a 5x7 without my company watermark on it, please contact me by email or phone (954-753-3933). Thanks for letting me photograph your animal!

Anyway, Here's what I saw and did:

First up were these three adorable dressed up dogs as soon as I arrived to where my friends were waiting

The classic cars were hot! I loved the designs on this neat red car!

This cutie dog was afraid of having its picture taken, but I got this shot while she wasn't looking. :)

This lovely girl is Ginger, a rescued greyhound dog who was showing off at the greyhound adoption booth!

This is my friend Danny's daughter Sierra, who is learning how to be a photographer and has a Nikon Digital SLR of her own to practice with. Keep up the good work, Sierra!

There's that awesome red car again. I thought the sign was appropriate considering all of the classic cars parked on the street. ;)

It certainly was a good day to just sit out and look at the dunes or listen to the ocean.

Meet Onyx- aren't her hair bows so pretty?

What a dreary South Beach day! Despite the rain, cold, and wind, I still had a great time!

The office still isn't completely set up, but we're getting there.  If you click on a photo, it'll take you to my Flickr and if you have an account and you're signed in, you can click the "All Sizes" icon above the photo to see a larger version with more detail.

Heading down the hallway:


Turn around and look back toward the reception area:


Looking into the office, we see Karen hard at work:


Here's my half of the office with my tiny little Mac Mini computer, with what used to be our home-office desks:


This wall is still empty, but we'll fix that sometime soon.  Karen is hard at work on her 4 processor Mac Pro workstation with 9GB of RAM, about 1TB of drive space, a 30" Dell monitor, and drawing tablet... which she hates not having at home to work there too:


Sometimes we turn off the lights and work. Here Karen processes a photo from our last wedding in Adobe Lightroom, which we switched to from Apple's Aperture:


No photos of the conference room yet, as we haven't finished setting it up.

Our good friend Frank Fradella, fantasy writer extraordinaire, also happens to be an excellent film director. I shot stills on the set of one particular scene of the film version of his awesome novel, The Valley of Shadows. It was a fun time featuring some talented actors and the direction of Frank and his Cinematographer, Allyson.

Frank shot at an awesome little ice cream shop called Sima's Place that was perfect for his scene. Check it out!

The aweeesome camera, in all its glory.

Frank shakes hands with Meir, the owner of the ice cream shop where the scene was filmed.

Frank & Carina, the actress playing Vanessa.

Mmm. Toppings.

Allyson shows off her mad camera skills!

Frank, the director!

Allyson & her mom... like mother, like daughter!

The camera looks pretty impressive!

Frank directs his actors.

Carina's handmade shirt was super cool!

Frank assists Allyson with cinematography.

Lookin' good!

Allyson rockin' the steadicam!

Frank and crew simulate Jessica's character being run over by a car. Cool shot!

And that's a wrap!!!!

Frank, thanks so much for letting me shoot on your set! I had a great time!

As you may expect, as a photographer, I take a LOT of photographs that don't even have to do with weddings or portraits! HOWEVER, because of all of the other work that comes first doing weddings and portraits, I often don't get to share (or even process, in many cases) any of my personal work. This means that there are hundreds upon hundreds of photographs laying about my hard drive that I've barely even looked at, let alone shown anyone!

Since I want to post more to my blog, I'm going to start posting some photo shares of personal work.

To start off with, here is a picture that I took a few months ago when Adrian and I were doing an engagement session. I saw this woman sitting on the beach by herself reading a book and looking completely serene and beautiful. I could not resist taking a few photographs. This one became my favorite, and for some reason, it drew me back... It's the kind of photo that when I look at it, I want to make up a story about her in my head (I think it's an only child thing!!) - Who is she?... What's her job? What's her name? What book was she even reading? Why was she by herself? The questions are simply endless...

Enjoy the photo:

About a week or so ago, I was driving home from a friend's house when I spotted a sign for the Delray Beach Municipal Cemetery. I had all my camera gear with me, so I couldn't help but investigate and see if there were any beautiful shots to be found.

Right as I pulled my camera out, it began pouring rain, but I was able to get this photograph of a Korean War Veteran's headstone. I hope that you all can appreciate this image as much as I do - the lonely, bleary day, the vibrant green grass, and the small American flag, struggling to wave as the rain began to pour down upon it.

On Saturday, I decided to attend the Renaissance Festival with a few friends from a local camera club. It was a lot of fun to take pictures there, as most of the attendees were dressed up fabulously and very open to having their picture taken. Here are a few favorites from my visit back in time on Saturday!