Daughter Turns 13!

My one and only daughter turned 13 this past weekend.  I'm not ready for this!!  She is a really great kid but come on now... I'm not ready for having a teenager :-(  She's excited though and we had a lot of fun on her birthday.  Thanks Kim!  For letting us use your pool and letting Kenna hang around one of her best friends :-) 

A little thumbs up on mom's birthday breakfast. 

 One of my issues with her becoming a teenager is her starting to wear makeup!

The cake ended up in other places besides the mouth :-)

3 more years and she will be driving :-(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNA!!!!!! Mom and I love you!!

Photographing Kids

Hi All,

Kids are a lot of fun but very challenging when it comes to photographing.  The most important tips I can give when photographing kids is that 1)  you have to get down to their level (or lower).  At the very least, don't just stand at your normal height to take the photos.  To be different, getting really low or really high angles can really help your photos stand out.  2)  Take photos with a partner.  I am fortunate that my wife (also my best friend) is very good with the camera.  She is also very good with people and why I find myself "getting into the zone" as my wife will point out, she is busy either communicating with our clients or taking photos from off angles.

We try not to pose kids.  We let them do what they want to do and follow them around, capturing the moment as it happens.  Dad was having some fun here :-)

At the other side of the court yard, Michelle was capturing the same moment from a different angle.

While I was taking photos of little E walking to mom and dad, Michelle was off to the side again, getting some great shots.

Can't get much lower then this :-)

Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard

A couple of weekends ago my wife and I met up with some friends at the Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard.  They were having a wine festival where we got to drink some fine wine and listen to a good band called The Kelly Band. We pretty much dance the night away even though the skies opened up and it poured down rain.  Didn't slow us down a bit but I did have to put the camera away :-)   The band was excellent in fact we plan on seeing them again at the Tarara Winery on October 1.  If you have the day free, please plan on joining us out there.  

Oh and by the way, my wife and her good friend Theresa made it up on stage with the band.  This is pretty much the norm for those two (by this time it was pouring down rain so I had put the camera away already so I wasn't able to capture the moment, but I know it will happen again so until next time :-)  

Take care  - Steve and Michelle

Bride to be! :-)

ThumbTack.com

Heard today about internet service that helps you easily locate services in your area.  It's called ThumbTack.com.  All you have to do is go to their web site, enter your zip code, pick the type of service you are looking for.  For example, I typed in "lawn mowing service" and was greeted with a list of local lawn mowing services along with a small map of where they are located.

It's free to list your own service so I decided to give it a try.  You can connect directly to our listing by clicking on the following link;  SteveBeltzPhotography

In later postings, I will let you know how well it does :-)

Take care everyone - Steve and Michelle

Camera Lens Rental

Hi All,

We had a couple of photo shoots this past weekend (wedding and senior photos) so I decided to try out a lens that I have been thinking about buying.  I really like my fixed focal length lens; a Nikon 35mm, f/1.8 and 50mm, f/1.4 lens.  The photos are crisp and play to my short depth of field techniques.  They are also very affordable but have the obvious limitation of not being able to zoom in or out as needed.   I have had my eye on the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 but at about $1,700 it’s a little on the pricey side so you had better be sure it’s something that will work for you before you buy one. 

That’s what lead me down the rental trail for the first time.  I follow a lot of photo blogs and there is one company in particular lately that has been mentioned quite a bit.  LensProToGo.  About a week out, I went to their web site to check it all out.  I found the lens I wanted to try and signed up for a 4-day rental.   The 4-day rental cost me $84 and included shipping in both directions.  As I recall, there was a $12 insurance coverage but I opted out because I already have business insurance. 

Signing up was painless and efficient.  About 5 minutes after I placed my order, I received a phone call from the company.  Very personable and they wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting and exactly what the lens was good for. 

The lens arrived on the day I requested by UPS.  Signature was required (as expected). 

Inside the box, I found a protective Pelican case that contained the lens as well as a return address label. Also a lollipop that my kids were immediately were attracted to :-)

I put the lens through its paces over the weekend shooting about 3000+ photos and it worked great.  On the 4^th day, I placed the lens back in the Pelican case and back in the box it came in, resealed it, placed the return UPS label on the box and dropped it off to my local UPS store. 

The whole process worked very well.  Look for future posts of the photos we took with the lens. 

500px.com

Came across a very cool site.  If you are looking for inspiration or want to show off your portfolio, take a look at www.500px.com.   A great collection of portfolio's from some very, very good photographers.

Photo Hikes

In our house, we like to go for “photo hikes”.  On mother’s day this year we went to a place called Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.  Michelle and I were able to get some nice photos of the flowers there. 

This little tyke was fun to watch :-)

Lake Watauga

Finally… a little down time with family and friends.  We rented a lake house in NW, Tennessee and spent a whole week of doing nothing but playing.  We didn’t even have cell phone coverage and it was great!

Lot’s of toys.

Did a little emerald mining.  My daughter is holding a big chunk of “fools gold”.

I think there was an old barn every mile or so. 

Of course the local Wal-Mart kept us entertained… “Banana – Bagged” was actually “Tomato’s – Boxed” :-)  

Mexico City Trip

Had a recent trip to Mexico City.  I had a great time and found the locals to be very friendly.  My hotel was right across the street from a Bentley dealership;

I made it my mission to find the best cheese enchilada dish I could.  I even resorted to having an interpreter write down exactly what I should ask for so there would be no mistakes (and trust me, there were a lot of mistakes… which probably had something to do with me not being able to speak very good Spanish :-)

I found it!!!