Morton Graduate Portraits

Meet Amie Morton!  Amie is finishing her Master's Degree in Communication at SFA this summer.  I've known Amie for several years.  I met her through her sister, Mandy.  Amie is an athletic, outgoing gal with a heart for adventure and a real enthusiasm for living life to the fullest.

Amie was a little uneasy on our shoot at first, mostly because she's had some bad photography experiences in the past.  We talked for several minutes about her concerns and expectations, and her favorite styles of pictures/poses/etc.  Amie is really easy to work with, and my camera seemed to love her!

We started off in Pecan Park in "the Golden Hour" just before the sun starts to go down.  Natural light is usually best during this time of the day, and today was no exception!  Our random moment of the day came when I was in the middle of composing a shot and a whole pack of disc golfers came right on to us.  I wasn't even paying attention that the bench we were shooting on was at a tee box for the disc golf course!

After the park, we drove over to the SFA Arboretum and spied a few great spots to shoot.  We captured my favorite shot of the whole session on a grassy knoll in the middle of the woods next to Lanana Creek (don't worry, no Presidents were harmed in the making of this portrait session...).  All in all, I think we had a great time out there and I can't wait to see Amie's reaction to the pictures.  Congrats to Amie Morton on the completion of her Master's Degree!

Creativity, Originality and YOUR story.  A thousand words aren't nearly enough...

  

Sterling-Mckind Senior Portraits!

This week, I got to shoot the son of one of my co-workers, Allen Sterling-Mckind!  Allen is a graduating senior from Nacogdoches High School this year.  He's a vibrant, outgoing young man who was eager for our shoot.  Allen had a lot of ideas for pictures he wanted to see, so we had a lot of fun brainstorming our way through the shoot.  We started off at the library on campus, so we could get some classic cap and gown shots by the books.  Allen's mother, DeDe, came along for the shoot, so we were able to bounce some ideas off of her as well, and give her the opportunity to input ideas.

After the library, we headed over to the recently landscaped area on the northwest corner of SFA's campus.  I've never shot over there before, so it was really enjoyable to see some new perspectives.  Allen is a very creative young man, and he had several ideas we ran with.

The shoot ended at an old train engine and the bridge by the ag pond.  I ventured out into new territory on this shoot!  Allen wanted to know if I could do a multiplicity shot at the train.  I've never done a shot like that, but I took all the pieces and researched later how to make it happen in post-production.  You can see the result below.  All in all, I think the shoot was a great success!  Many congratulations to Allen on his graduation!

Creativity, Originality and YOUR story.  A thousand words aren't nearly enough...

Random Fun: Duke and a Beehive!

Earlier this week, I spent some time visiting my folks and my yellow lab, Duke.  My parents have been kind enough to dog-sit for us while we grow some new grass in our backyard.  Duke has been with them for about 6 weeks now, and he seems to be loving it!  I recently purchased a new lens for all my portrait work, the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8G AF-S.  I've also used it for the Victorio Baby Portraits shoot and the teeball pictures for Micah Spradley.  This lens is simply superb!!  I'm flat out amazed at the optical quality it's capable of producing.  I've never done a pet portrait shoot, but practicing on my own dog is plenty of fun.

We are visiting my in-laws for Mother's Day this year.  My brother-in-law, Stephen, is an amateur beekeeper.  As always, I had my camera with us on the trip, and Stephen went out to the backyard to check on the beehive.  It was late afternoon, and the bees were pretty active as you can see in the pictures.

This little friend belonged to a neighboring hive.  He happened upon the hive in our backyard here and was greeted by an army of bees who treated him like an unwelcome intruder.  After being attacked by about a dozen scouts on the front door of the nest, he stumbled around on the grass by the hive just long enough for me to get some great closeups of him.

This is my first time taking pictures of bees, and it's inspired me to get a teleconverter to extend the range of my zoom lenses.  That way, I can get a whole lot closer to things in the future.  All in all, this was a really fun couple of shoots that are in the same album for your enjoyment.

If you have an event, a wedding or need for portraits, please click the contact button at the top and we'll get in touch with you ASAP.

Thanks for stopping by!

Victorio Baby Portraits

Last week, I shot some baby portraits for some friends from church.  Their daughter, Alexa, is almost 8 months old.  With all the hustle of life, they haven't ever had pictures taken of their beautiful daughter.

It was such a great morning for shooting!  We went out to Pecan Park in Nacogdoches about 10:00am.  I really enjoy shooting in Pecan in the mornings, the sun and trees work together to create some gorgeous backdrops!

This picture to the left is one of my very favorites of the shoot.  Alexa's eyes sparkle so well here!  She really is a beautiful baby.

Alexa is easily one of the most relaxed and content babies I've ever seen.  Arely, her mother, put a blanket down in the middle of the park and then put her out with a couple of toys.  She just sat there looking at me (completely adorable, btw).  Of course, the most difficult thing about shooting children, or especially babies is that your window to snap a great shot is just razor thin!  I think we ended up with one or two good shots for every ten taken.

This is the first time Ballenger Photography has ever done a baby shoot, and I don't think I could be happier.  Alexa didn't want to smile for the camera, but she has so many great facial expressions that it didn't really matter.  Arely and Fransisco must be some very proud parents!

 

I hope you enjoy the shots!  As always, Ballenger Photography is eager to capture your memories and enshrine them forever in stunning prints for you to enjoy for years to come!  Please click the contact button at the top to get started!

Thanks for stopping by!

Micah Spradley Teeball!

Last Thursday, my wife and I had the real treat of watching young Micah T. Spradley play teeball.  His parents, Ty and Elizabeth, are very dear friends of ours and helped with our pre-marital counseling.  We'd been planning to come cheer for Micah for several days, and the little slugger didn't disappoint one bit.

Running in with the boys...

The little slugger waving for the fans

It was my very first time to ever see a teeball game since that wasn't an activity we ever did when I was Micah's age.  Those little guys were just adorable in their pristine uniforms, running around like miniature versions of the stars on TV.  It was quite a fun way to spend a sunny Thursday afternoon.  I definitely look forward to my next opportunity to catch some rocking teeball action.  Please check out the gallery for all the great shots of the future famous home run slugger for the 2029 Texas Rangers, Micah T. Spradley!

The Great Easter Egg Hunt of 2011

Today, I got to be a part of something really cool.  My church, Fredonia Hill, held the biggest Easter egg hunt I've ever seen.  The last few weeks, thousands of invites went out to the community, and in the newspapers and TV.  Over 5000 people showed up for the festivities.  In addition to over 15,000 eggs, there were also several inflatable games, face painting and crafts for the children and families to enjoy!

The highlight of the day for me was a helicopter fly-over by the Easter Bunny himself!  He flew over a large field at the park and dumped 4 large sacs of eggs, which were added to the thousands of eggs the volunteers had already spread out.  Once the kids were unleashed, every single egg was snagged in less than 30 seconds.  It was a real stampede of kids!  About 5 min later, the Easter Bunny came back around for a surprise second pass, to the delight of all the youngins.



Afterwards, lunch was provided to all in attendance.  The over 200 volunteers from Fredonia Hill got to show Jesus' love to our community.  It was a wonderful morning!  Happy Easter to all.  He is risen!

Theta Chi 50th Anniversary!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of capturing the 50th Anniversary celebration for the Epsilon Tau Chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity.

I'm an alum of the chapter, so it was a particularly personal experience getting to be around so many of my fellow alums and most of the active chapter from SFA.

The day started off with a 4 man scramble tournament at Woodland Hills Country Club near Nacogdoches.  The day was tailor made for golf, even if it was a little windy out there.

Later on in the evening, everyone gathered in the Banita/Rusk room at the historic Fredonia Hotel and Convention Center for a nice buffet dinner and some revelry.  A good time was definitely had by all.  Here's to another 50 years of success at SFA, Brothers.  Love and respect.

SFA in bloom!

This week I had the joy of getting out and shooting the absolutely gorgeous flowers in bloom around the campus of SFA.  I really should put the disclaimer out that God created these flowers to have a lot more beauty than a camera is capable of fully capturing.

I spent about an hour just walking around searching for the right shots.  For the picture shown here, I spent almost 5 minutes trying to get this little guy perfectly in focus.  He was shy at first, but finally let me get the shot I wanted.



I hope you all enjoy the shots, I think they turned out really nicely!  My wife says she wants to put one of the shots from this album on our wall.  As always, Ballenger Photography is eager to earn your business!  If you are getting married, have an event coming up, or just want some professional family or senior portraits done, please fill out our contact page and we'll get back to you ASAP.

Thanks for stopping by!

Britta & Allen's Wedding!

Allen & Britta Scripsick's first dance

This was my first trip to The Legacy, a very classy and well designed venue located just outside Jacksonville, TX.  I arrived about 12:40pm, and went about doing my scouting before anyone else arrived.  The Legacy has everything for the wedding under one roof, with the ceremony and reception areas connected by a short hallway.  So needless to say, I was in hog heaven from a logistical standpoint.

Britta and her entourage arrived at about 1:15, with all the decorations for the reception.  Everyone decorated for a while, and I was able to grab most of the "stuff" pictures I like to get (decorations, bouquets, etc.).  After a little while, Britta and her bridesmaids began the makeup process, with various family members joining in the festivities for hair and all that "get pretty" time ladies need for the big day.

About the time Britta was getting into her dress, Allen and his groomsmen arrived (perfect timing, right?!), so I shifted my focus to them for a while.  I got some shots of Allen and his guys, then caught the finishing touches with Britta.  The ceremony started a little after 6pm, with over a hundred family and friends in attendance.  The ceremony was short and sweet, and was presided over by Allen's uncle.  After the guests were dismissed, I put my wedding planner hat on and got everyone on the same page so we could get all our pictures done and start enjoying the reception.

The theme for the reception was a masquerade (FUN!), and the decorations and lighting had a real french or cajun feel to them.  There was lots of dancing and revelry, with Music Masters of East Texas providing a great mix of good music.

A little after 10pm, Britta and Allen made their grand exit via Limousine and off to enjoy their honeymoon and their new life together!  All in all, it was a wonderfully fun wedding with a great venue (thanks, Susan!) and I have had a blast working on all the pictures.  I hope you enjoy them!

As always, if you have a wedding or event coming up, or need some professional portraits done, Ballenger Photography is ready and waiting to capture some wonderful memories for you!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Britta & Allen Engagements!

So, a few days ago, I got to shoot the engagements pictures for Britta & Allen, an awesome couple whose wedding is coming up March 12th! I was really excited for the shoot because Britta is such a fun gal with great facial expressions and my camera loves her! She's extremely easy to work with, as you can tell from her bridal shoot. I was also excited because it was the first time I got to meet Allen, the groom-to-be.

We shot first in historic downtown Nacogdoches. It's my favorite part of town to shoot because there's so much cool looking old stuff around. Several alleys have old murals, and most of the area still has all the original architecture. So, Britta, Allen, their mothers and I pretty much just walked through downtown, stopping to take pictures as we went. We got to Lanana park at the end and then headed back to the cars, but not before we took some pictures with an awesome vintage 1930s Ford truck.

After downtown, we drove to Millard's Crossing and took the rest of the pictures, including my personal favorite in front of the chapel there. Britta & Allen are obviously very much in love and they really play off each other for some fun shots. The weather wasn't great at all, but thankfully the rain held off until we were all done. In fact, it started coming down as we were walking back to the cars. All in all, I had a blast! I really can't wait for their wedding. They're going to have a masquerade themed rehearsal, which should be a ton of fun.

That's all for now.

If you have a wedding or an event coming up, or just want some portraits taken (Senior pictures are right around the corner!) then just fill out the contact page, and I'll get with you ASAP. Thanks for stopping by!