Immediately after shooting a wedding in Baltimore I headed straight to the Best Christmas Party Ever. The hosts really go all out in planning it, and everyone is dressed to impress; so I offered to setup a photo booth and capture the fun. In addition to printing the photos on-site, I also uploaded them to Facebook in real time. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. See for yourself.

So there was this cool circular bar, but from a photographic standpoint I was up against two challenges. 1.) The best way to capture something like this is from high above, otherwise you can’t tell it’s a giant doughnut. 2.) It wasn’t lit well. The outside of it was covered in tiny mirrors like a disco ball, so I knew if I threw a little light on it then it would really come alive. Sure enough I got myself a ladder, set up my lights, and fired away.

Maybe this will be the year that I go out with my dad and shoot this photo with the moon in the frame. We tried doing it last year, but we were about two hours too early and we really didn’t feel like freezing our butts off any longer.

On another note, I went to a photography workshop today… Got all kinds of inspired, and now I’m left feeling like all of my photos are terrible. Hmmph…

One of the greatest things about my job is the wide variety of things I get to photograph. I was put in touch with a local residential architect (who is amazingly talented, btw!) to shoot photos for her portfolio and website. Another awesome friend of mine not only helped me out during the entire shoot, but she’s also designing the architect’s website. I love me some collaboration!

I’m working on a series of photos for a DC client and I get to shoot all around town exploring different neighborhoods. It seems like this park in Georgetown was under construction forever, but it has turned out to be a very cool place now that it’s finished. Hopefully I’ll be able to write more about the project in the near future.

This was the third year that I’ve had the privilege of shooting Gaylord National’s Christmas Grand Opening, but it was the first time I had my wife with me =) She got to watch the whole thing right next to me while I shot away.

Crisis Chaplains is a new non-profit here in the DC area. When Chuck first told me about the idea for the poster I knew it was a project I would enjoy working on.

The shoot itself took me a while to find my groove and start making pictures that I was proud of, but sometimes you just have to keep throwing stuff at the wall before you find something that sticks. I shudder to think of what the poster would have looked like if we stopped early…

Unlike the other posters I’ve made this one was a collaboration between the client and myself, and we finalized the design in about a quarter of the time I normally spend working on these. Sometimes the best way to get things done is to involve other people.

Lori and Robert hired a photographer for their small, mid-week wedding, but for some reason the photog had to cancel a few weeks before the big day. Emily Chastain stepped in to cover it and she asked if I could help out too. Usually when we work together it’s at a large wedding that needs more than one shooter, so this was a welcomed change. You can find more photos here.

Crystal City just wrapped up a month of weekly events called Wine in the Waterpark. They asked me to shoot the event, and I knew it was gonna be a challenge given that it was outdoors after sunset. I rocked my 50mm f/1.8 lens the entire time, which is quite different for me, but the wide aperture proved helpful. For this particular shot, I wanted to capture the colorful laser light display thing. It took a lot of fiddling, but I finally came away with a shot I am proud of. You can see some of the other highlights here.

For years I’ve said that restaurant menus should have pictures of everything instead of descriptions. It seems that some places are finally starting to get the idea. Today I shot an entire wine list for Old Hickory Steakhouse. Despite the repetitive nature of it, I actually found it to be a very creative challenge.