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The phone rang and on the other end was Swirl Films’s executive producer – Eric Tomosunas. And within hours I was being introduced to another Eric, veteran actor Eric Roberts. He was in town working on the locally produced family-friendly flick called The Perfect Summer. It’s a story of a single mom, who along with her teenage son, has to move back in with her dad until she can get back on her feet. He lives in a little shack right on the beach. A young surfer girl enters the picture, stalked by her over-bearing old boyfriend. Dad decides to teach his grandson how to surf in order to blend in, and catch her eye. Throw in some awesome sun-rise surfing scenes and just like that, you have all the ingredients for a fun movie. So if you’re landlocked, but need your beach fix, check out this movie on the UP network. No sunscreen necessary!

 

One of my photographer friends (and clients) asked me to photograph his family the other day. And even after doing this for so many years, I still got a little nervous about saying yes. Whenever I shoot for other shooters the pressure to come through is definitely ramped up a bit. Thankfully, they’re really laid back and we scored a gorgeous afternoon before the heat of summer set in. Plus their little boy is a model in the making. He’s obviously the apple of their eyes. Here are a few of my favorites from the selects folder. Thanks for a great shoot, guys!

 

Got a call from the media director for Port City Community Church. They needed a quick portrait for the flyer complementing their latest message series titled “That Guy.” An hour later, after hashing out some details with their talented graphic designer, we had the shot. The series is designed to help folks deal with difficult people. Our pastor assigned the homework of asking ourselves, “What’s it like to be on the other side of me?” Guess we can all be That Guy (or girl) sometimes. Thanks to our talent who worked right through lunch and wasn’t any trouble at all!

The year was 1992. The Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl, Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd president and Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” was the top-selling single. Meanwhile in Atlanta, I was making the transition from photographer’s assistant to shooter. And like many others who stay focused on their dream, I got a break. A men’s clothing company called the Italian Design Group was rolling out a new line of Vito Rufolo neckties and belts. They needed a product shot for an ad running in Gentlemen’s Quarterly magazine, better known as GQ. I had already been shooting for a while at this point, but I consider this achievement as the start of my career. I’m posting this milestone to make a point: experience counts. Recent improvements in digital photography have made it easy for anybody to own a high-quality camera. But as someone once told me, “Anyone can buy a chainsaw, but that doesn’t make you a lumberjack.” CDP has been making clients happy for over 21 years. That’s a lot of lumber.

 

There’s a very nice young woman who leads my daughter’s Sunday school class. She has big green eyes and some great cheek bones. I asked her if she had ever done any modeling, and she said “no.” So I suggested she let me take her picture, just for fun. Now I know how this can sound, and believe me there’s a fine line between classy and cheesy. I never want to come off as the latter. Well she agreed, so I called up a new makeup artist that I been wanting to work (click here) with to see if she would help me with this sample shoot. The next thing you know we are shooting on the downtown streets of Wilmington one cloudy afternoon. These are pictures from my friend’s very first shoot EVER. Maybe I should be an agent?

The calendar says November and everyone is in fall mode, but there are a few souls who love to stretch out summer as long as they can. Hank and Luke are prime examples. Their parents hire me each year to capture their boys as they grow into young men. This year they rented a house on the beach for a week, so we went for a late afternoon stroll. Below are some of my favorite images from our time together. You can almost smell the sunscreen.

 

My friends over at Mungi Bands called back with a new challenge. They were hearing that some people online could not figure out how the magnetic silicone bands connected. He thought a video would help demonstrate, but with such limited action to it, I suggested another solution. By using some simple layers in Photoshop you could show the motion of the two ends coming together. A clean white background and a single word of type kept the eye on the “action”. It was fun getting back to my roots of studio photography. It’s all about visual problem solving. In this case, to the benefit of one of my best clients and hopefully several new customers for them.