Alisa & Kelsey - a little more

Kelsey, Alisa, and Sheryl,

Thank you for inviting me into your home again. Here are some samples of what I took while there. I really hope you like them. I L-O-V-E them. There are few variations on the rings. So forgive the selections.

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Thanks a bunch.

See you soon.

Meeting an Icon in the Photography Biz

I had the great pleasure of meeting David Jay, yes, an icon in the wedding photography business. He was in town, Atlanta, on the last leg of his Freedom to Succeed Tour and I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend and meet him.

David has made a positive impact not only in the business arena for wedding photographers, but on the personal lives of so many people. I am one of them.

All I have to say is keep up the good work. Here is a pic, yes, only one, of me and David.

WOW! Alisa & Kelsey - Their Wedding

What a fantastic day Alisa and Kelsey had. A very beautiful Bride and handsom Groom made for a beautiful wedding. Things started out a little bumpy but everything got in the groove and we had us a great time.

Alisa and Kelsey, thank you so much for letting me be a part of your wedding. The Lord blessed this day. Enjoy your trip to Cancun.

I have posted a few of my favorites from your wedding day. Your slide show is coming soon.

J

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Enjoy and remember!

Kelly and Chris - Engagement

A couple of weeks ago I had the most fun and the best time ever with Kelly and Chris (Oh! and Missy). We had a great time at Stone Mountain's Grist Mill and Covered Bridge. The lighting was great and the folks were relaxed. Makes for a great time together. I am a little behind in posting these blog photos because of vacation and some computer problems. The latter pretty much behind me with a couple more tweaks.

Anyway, Kelly and Chris. I had a great time. It was cool getting to know you both better. I would even say Chris started to relax there at the end. A little more smiles. I hope you enjoy these pics and I look forward to your wedding day. Stay in touch.

J

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Here is your slideshow. I will be posting all of your pictures on Pictage.com shortly.

Enjoy!

Testing Sending Pic via Mobile Device

I am testing out my new PDA and trying to send a pic to my blog. If I get this to work, i can post so much more. Stay tuned.

Celebrating Memorial Day

Hey all. I am ending my day. Another Memorial Day. How did you spend your day? I bet it was about family. Cooking out possibly. Going on a picnic. How much did we pause to remember the reason for the day? I pray most stopped to ponder what the meaning of this day really means to them. I am guilty like most where this day slipped by with very little thought to the meaning for me. I have two boys. Boys that I pray grow up knowing the sacrifices our fathers (and now mothers) have made to secure our freedom. It is mostly, if not all, on my wife and I to make sure they develop a value and learn to cherish the country we live in. The Godly biblical principles on which this country was established.

On a day like this if you are one who has personally lost someone, I thank you. I thank you for your sacifice. Your strength. I thank your Loved one for sacrificing their lives for me, my two boys and my wife. I realize these are just words. There is not much I can do at this point to justly show my appreciation. All I know is that I need to live my life to honor the sacrifice my fellow countrymen have made.

In small tribute, I want to make mention of just a few soldiers who exemplify the American spirit. Examples of true sacrifice. I cannot name all those who follow in this American spirit, so I mention those that have been awarded the Medal of Honor most recently due to the current War in Iraq. Please, join with me in honoring these fallen soldiers and the many others along with them. Please leave a post. It does not have to be long. Simple words can express our thankfulness.

You can get a full list of past recipients along with a full description of each recipients heroic actions listed at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's website. For more information about the award and it's criteria, please visit the Department of Defenses information page on the Congressional Medal of Honor.

If any of these links fail, you can do a google search for "Congressional Medal of Honor". You will get ample links to follow.

April 4, 2003 - Paul R. Smith
Army, Sergeant First Class, 11th Engineer Battalion
Held the enemy at bay allowing for the wounded to be carried out.

April 14, 2004 - Jason Dunham
USMC, Corporal, 3rd Battalion 7th Marines
Fought Hand-to-Hand with the enemy and selflessly hurled himself on a live grenade to protect fellow Marines.

September 29, 2006 - Michael A. Monsoor
Navy, Master at Arms Second Class, Seal Team Three Delta Platoon
Saved the lives of his fellow SEALs at his sniper position by diving on an incoming grenade.

Thank you for your sacrifice. Each and every soldier past and present.

God bless you and your families.

VBC Startlight Night

Growing up. Maturing. Prom. Honoring the Lord. These are all things I am seeing in the teenagers at VBC. Especially my son Jordan. A couple of weeks ago, our church, Victory Baptist Church of Loganville, held a prom alternative event for our teen ministry. Here is a slideshow of those pictures.



Your print pictures are coming soon.

Please see Chad if you wish to have the electronic file for additional printing.

Thank you everyone for letting me share in your "life moments" that help define our future.

God bless each and every one of you.

Alisa + Kelsey - Together

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Alisa and Kelsey a couple of weeks ago. They are so easy going and fun loving. We had a blast together down at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta Georgia. It was beautiful and busy. Alot of folks were hanging out, enjoying the weather, and taking in the scenery. We were fortunate to find so many spots that were secluded and just right for our engagement session.

Alisa and Kelsey, here is your slideshow of that special day. You can link to them here: http://www.hardeephotography.com/slideshows/alisaandkelsey. Remember to bookmark this link.

PS. I am uploading all of your engagement photos to www.pictage.com at the time of this blog entry. I will email and call you when they are ready for you. You can link to them here: http://www.pictage.com/479982. Don't forget to have your family and friends visit and check out your pics.

Alisa and Kelsey - Romance

We had a blast yesterday. Alisa and Kelsey are a fantastic couple. Both have a very sweet manner about them that just makes you want to be around them and share in their relationship.

One thing I like about them is they love to hug. They come from a family of huggers no matter who you are. I too came from a family of huggers and think it is the bomb.

We met up in downtown Atlanta (the big ATL) at the Centennial Olympic Park. We had perfect weather and a perfect location. It was busy this day but we were able to find some secluded spots to get some fantastic shots.

Alisa and Kelsey, here are a sample of pics from your session. Hope you L*O*V*E them. They turned out great.

PS. Love the kids. They are both so sweet and adorable. You should be proud.

Enjoy and See Ya.

#1 - Some of the Atlanta skyline from the water fountain


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#3 - The park entrance, a special place


#4 - Kelsey and Alisa


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#8 - The Family


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PSS. Thanks so much for the fun.

Got my Goose

I was doing a portrait session for some very special folks today. I am not posting anything of them just yet because it is going to be a Mother's day present.

Although I can't post pics of the folks in my session, I can give you some pics of these geese and their younglings. We were just minding our own business at the bank of the lake and they literally walked right up to us. Within 5 feet. They came and just stayed. As long as we stood still, they just stayed there with us. We moved toward them, they would move out of the way, but they did not seem afraid of us too much.

This made it possible to get these pics.

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Enjoy the fuzzy little things.

See ya.

New Logo

What do you all think of my new logo.

Here is a pic with the logo watermark on it.

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William Brown - Senior

I had a great time hanging out with Will this Thursday. We were trying to get something going last Saturday, but schedules didn't permit (paintball got in the way, right Will? LOL!). I kid around with him and his Mom about the perfect weather we had for us last Saturday and "it is OK that we couldn't do the shoot".

Will is a young man who attends our church faithfully, a senior, and a great fella. Before church Wednesday night, they approached me about a reschedule and after a little ribbing about the missed session, we decided to do the shoot the next day and fit it in-between setting up for a Teen Yard Sale at our church and dinner that evening.

We had perfect weather again (minus a few clouds) and got to know each other a little better.

Will is a senior and is going for his Eagle Scout Ranking this Saturday. Wish him luck. He doesn't seem too worried though. He's been at this for a while. After high school, he will be attending college and then going straight into the Army. With his degree, he will go in as an officer. He has a full next 10 years. So pray for him that the Lord will guide him and keep him safe as he goes off to protect you, myself and our families while serving his country.

God bless you Will. Thanks for toughing out our photo session. It wasn't so bad after all, was it?

Here are a few pics. Enjoy.

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Kelly and Chris - Meet and Greet

I just met two fantastic people this evening. Kelly and Chris are getting married in October. They met in high school but didn't start dating until a year or so out of high school. We met tonight for our initial consultation. It was a blast just relaxing at Ruby Tuesday and getting to know one another. Kelly was a bridesmaid for a bride from one of my weddings back in April of 2007.

Kelly and Chris, I want to thank you for letting me spend some time with you. I look forward to getting to know you both better. I wish you all the best.

God Bless.

Atlanta PUG Meeting Tonight

I am really looking forward to attending the Atlanta Chapter PUG (Pictage User Group) meeting tonight. It is the first night this year that it was not on a Wednesday (conflicts with my mid-week church services). I am also stoked because it will be very close to where I work. Maybe this will be the new permanent meeting place. If not, I probably will still go.

I am really looking forward to networking and making some connections tonight. Hopefully I can setup some options for 2nd shooting and/or meet-and-greets. Or even some mentoring (I would be the mentoree).

I will be taking notes and paying special attention. I will blog about my meeting and what it means to me personally and maybe some ideas that will help in my business.

Maybe the information will help you too. Check back soon.

See ya.

J

PS. I finally took some pics of my oldest son's football practice. It is his first year and I am really really such a proud papa. Jordy is such a stand up young man. I have been so blessed of God to have a great son such as Jordy. Stay Tuned.

To Blog or not to Blog

Sometimes I could kick myself. Everything I have read about on OSP and a million other places along with the success I see others have with Blogging, you would think it would sink into my head, DO IT Man!.

I have been remiss in Bloggin. I apologize. Sometimes I wonder if anyone is reading my blogs. That shouldn't matter though. I have had a number of ideas to blog about, great ones I think. Some ideas that would relate to others just starting out.

I have to commit to it, but just haven't. So, if you will just bear with me, I will get things in order and blog blog blog like crazy.

One of my BHAG (thanks Liana) is to increase my networking and bloggin 10 fold by mid year 2008. How, you might ask? 1) Post more on other forums (that I love being on), such as OSP, with constructive content as well as more of my pics for feedback. I actually have been sort of uncertain as to the response I would get. Mind you I am not scared to get negative feedback, it is just that first step I guess. 2) Blog on a daily basis. Whether it is personal or photography related, blog something. The third is to hook up with some local photographers who are where I am in my professional career or longer and hang out, share war stories, share referrals, 2nd shoot and all that jazz.

Ramble, ramble, ramble. That is exactly what I just did. I started writing this blog entry just to apologize and promise to blog more. Look where I went with it.

Thanks for listening.

I would really like to know if anywone is reading my blog. Especially if you are a local Atlanta photog. Drop me a comment. I would love to hear from you.

As they say in looney tunes land, That's All Folks.

See ya.

J

Bookkeeping, Taxes, Finances

Some of the "ugly" things we have to do to run a business. Some gravitate to doing the business side of a business, but some don't. I have been around financial applications all of my technical career. I have been involved with financial practices in some form and feel I am quite versed in its application.

BUT I HATE DOING THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MY PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS!

Sorry about that, letting off a little steam.

I met for a few hours with my accountant this past Thursday. He took the time to review how I was tackling my finances and gave me some pointers; helped me setup my QuickBooks the way I want to conduct my business, not the way Uncle Sam wants me to. I can still tie back to what Uncle Sam needs so I am not worried about that. It was productive though and I am good to go.

I still have a lot to do to get everything done that I need to so that things are running smoothly and I don't have to worry about it.

So pray for me. Let me know if you have any "tax season" stories to tell or if you want to share some of the things you do that could be considered creative when running your business.

See ya.

J