Robinella's New Album

Wow, we take a vacation and it takes me two weeks to recover. I guess that's what we get for choosing Disney World as a "vacation". I love that place, but there really isn't too much that is relaxing about it. Our girls loved it though, so I guess that makes it all worth it. Since our return, I've been busting booty trying to get caught up and blogging keeps getting passed up. Well, I'm back in the saddle today and ready to share some fun photos from a freelance job for a cool artist.

Recently, one of our past brides, Robinella, contacted us about doing some photos for her new album. In case you haven't heard of her (and if you haven't, where the heck have you been?), Robinella is a super talented jazzy bluegrass singer/songwriter from Maryville and she's been working on a new CD, which will be released at a performance this Friday, Dec. 18 at the Square Room in Market Square during WDVX's Blue Plate Special. We had a blast photographing her at her Maryville home. She's so fun and laid back that it's really not fair to call this "work". It was like hanging out with an old friend. The only direction she gave us was, "I want to look friendly." With that great smile of hers, our job was in the bag. :)

We are very excited to be a part of this project and can't wait to see the CD in real life! Until then, check out a few of Robinella's favorites...




























Later,
Wes

Coming next: Katie and Will's downtown Knoxville engagement session!

The Tennessee-Florida Game 9-20-08

Alright, this post will be light on words and heavy on photos. I've got a ton of work on my plate, but I needed to get these images moved out of the way so they're jumping to the front of the blog line.

Last Friday, I was contacted by a magazine in Florida to cover the Tennessee-Florida game. I jumped at the chance since that's one of the few things I miss about working at a newspaper. I covered UT games every year for 10 years while working at the Daily Beacon and the Daily Times, so last year was a little sad for me since it was our first year doing this full time and I didn't get an opportunity to shoot a game all season. Danielle said I was like a kid in the candy story Friday night preparing for the game!

Yeah it was a sucky game if you're a Vol fan, but I was just stoked to be back on the field again, deafened by the roar of the crowd and roasted by the afternoon sun. I have to admit, it was a little strange focusing on the visiting team instead of my alma mater, but I got some great images nonetheless (it helped that Florida beat the crap out of the Vols).

Here are a batch of some of my favorites (although I wanted to show you all 1200 I shot):

[NOTE: Remember that we own the copyright to these photos. DO NOT steal these pics and use them anywhere else. I hate that I have to say that, but I've found my photos of the Eric Berry and Aryan Foster scattered all over the net since my blog post a few months ago about a freelance assignment for another magazine. Don't steal. It isn't cool. And I really don't want to have to hunt you down. Thanks!]

I'll start off with a little self-portrait. A BIG thanks goes to my buddy Patrick Murphy-Racey for loaning me a 400 (that's the big white lens you see there). I sold off my biggest telephoto lens long ago because I couldn't justify keeping such an expensive hunk of glass when I just wasn't using it that often. Yeah, I could have gotten by with what I have, but I wouldn't have gotten nearly the amount of great moments without this lens. Thanks again Pat!


Four separate frames from the student section.


The Honor Guard prior to kickoff.


Alright, here's where I'm going to slack off. Instead of taking the time to tell you every guy's name, rank, and serial number, I'm just going to let the photos do the talking.








The Vol is Brandon Warren... I covered him when he played at Alcoa a few years ago.


Gettin' stuffed. This pretty much sums up the Vols Saturday.


Everyone always asks me what it's like being down on the sidelines. It's work. A lot of kneeling, running up and down the sideline toting heavy gear, dealing with morons who shouldn't be there, the heat, the noise, the pressure to get "the play"... it's not easy that's for sure. But it's still a ton of fun! Here's the view during a timeout.




























There you go. I hope you enjoyed them (better than the game at least). Be sure to let me know what you think. Maybe things will start to look up for the Vols this season. And maybe I'll get hired to shoot more games. I certainly wouldn't mind!

-Wes

It's Football Time in Tennessee (almost)

**PLEASE NOTE: It's come to our attention that there has been a lot of stealing of these images. Please know that by copying photos from this blog and reusing them in ANY form is a violation of copyright laws. We appreciate you viewing and enjoying the photos, but do not steal them. Thanks! **

Whew, we've been busy this week! And it's still coming with another engagement session today. I thought I'd go ahead and edit my shots from a freelance gig this week. I was hired to photograph University of Tennessee football players Eric Berry and Arian Foster for Tennessee Football magazine (which will hit newsstands in August). It was a fun assignment that took me back to my newspaper days, when I used to take all these "sportraits" and try to make something that looked like it belonged in Sports Illustrated.

First up is sophomore defensive back Eric Berry:






And running back Arian Foster:








Both of these guys were great to work with. Patient and willing to do anything I asked. Thanks again Eric and Arian!

And of course the obligatory silliness. We had a few minutes between shoots and you know I had to play with the props. Thanks to John Brice, a former coworker from the Daily Times who is now a freelance writer (you can see some of his hard work over on Volquest) for snapping these of me goofing around.

I seriously thought that I might have to call the rescue squad to cut the helmet off my big melon.


And this is about as athletic as I get. Though I did think about checking to see if I had any eligibility left so I could walk on with UT. John wisely advised against it.


I'm still working on Kore's wedding and I'll have a couple engagement sessions to show you soon.

Later!

Wes

Maryville College shoot

As promised here are a few shots from my shoot at Maryville College last Wednesday. MC is re-doing their look for some of their promotional material and website. As part of the campaign, we shot real students in front of a white seamless background with a prop they brought themselves. Here are a few favorites:





Discs are real popular on campus. We had about 10 different kids show up with discs (I was corrected that Frisbee is a name brand... I can't gripe though, I used to do the same thing when I had a Jeep and someone called any old 4wd a Jeep.)


The OC meets MC. Longboards are also "in".




Yep, that's a snake.


This guy is the only male on the dance team. The MC crew sort of put him on the spot to dance for us and he was flummoxed. So I cranked up some music on the iPhone (just another reason I'm glad I have one). Yeah, it was Ben Folds Five and not really something dance-worthy, but he still tore it up.


Playing with the school tartan.






The obligatory self-portrait. I just thought I'd show the setup in the board room of the college. When they can't come to the studio, the studio comes to them!


We're all surviving. Danielle has been having a little more baby-related sickness then she had with Maddie (I'll spare you the gory details). And little Miss Maddie has a bronchial infection and start of an ear infection. Yeah, fun stuff at the Hope house! Aside from being Husband and Dad of the year, I'm starting to get caught up on some album orders. Hopefully I'll have a layout to show by the middle of the week.

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

-Wes