Loneliness

I've never shot in the rain before, well never on purpose. The other night I went out with my cousin to get some pictures downtown. I went down trying to capture a theme. With the rain falling on a cold night I decided loneliness would be a fitting theme. Here are some of my results:

Debbie's 50th Birthday!

The other night I had the awesome chance to shoot at a local party. It was a fun night filled with lots of fun, laughter, cake, and beer. I got a chance to capture some of the fun moments through the night as well as update some formal pictures of their sons. Thanks for having me guys, it was a lot of fun!

East Avenue Commons

I know, I know I've been doing way too much talking and not enough picture posting. Well here is one of my favorite shots from the Sunday night when I went out shooting downtown in the rain. The colors were just fantastic and really attracted my eye.

What's with all the great news lately! More awards!

I don't know what the deal is with all the good news all of a sudden! First my car situation finally worked out! Then, a few weeks ago I found out that 6 of my images were published in the Capture Rochester Book. Then yesterday I come to find out that one of my images was used in the 2009 Democrat & Chronicle Calendar that is sent out to thousands of people each year, here is the image used (one of my personal favorites!):

Then after all this I come home and I find out that the results to an Automotive Photography contest I entered almost a year ago. No, no I didn't win it. But I was runner up, which comes with a $1,000 cash prize!! It is pretty ironic that the same day I find out the results to the contest was the same day I found out the car in all the pictures was totaled. Here's the winning shot from the automotive contest:

For this shot I actually climbed 30 feet up a chemical silo and hung off the side of it, shooting my Nikon D50 and 18-55mm lens (at the time) with one hand. Pretty risky shot, but it paid off! Whats going to happen next!! Looks like Christmas came early this year! God is so amazing!

Stay tuned, I have lots of great stuff to upload soon including some great downtown shots in the rain, some portraits from the other night, and another wedding!

God is so amazing

There is just no way! That's what I have been telling myself over the last few weeks. 

As some of you know I was in a car accident a few weeks ago. I was merging onto I-85 in South Carolina and as I was coming on the onramp there was a pretty sharp corner and I lost control around it. (Sure maybe I was going a little too fast) Anyways I ended up spinning into a guard rail at probably 35-40mph. I have to thank God for keeping me and my passenger safe through the whole thing. No cuts, bruises, scrapes, or severed limbs.

So I had the car towed to a towing shop in Greenville where it sat for awhile while I could get the insurance paperwork together. I started looking at new cars to buy. I was pretty much sure the car was totaled because it looked like this:

Well they didn't total it. They wrote up an estimate of $8,325 and gave me a list of shops in Greenville that would love to fix it. I was NOT ok with this. First of all, there was obviously more than $8,325 of damage to the car. They would have to replace at least the front bumper, hood, front fender, both front headlights, radiator, rear quarter panel, rear bumper, rear taillight, ABS sensor, and a good portion of the engine bay.

I'm sure you wouldn't want to be driving a car that was so disfigured at one time. Neither would I! So I was trying to figure out a way for them to total the car, and my boss recommended that I try to ask the Insurance Company for the diminished value of the car. Just to expain diminished value, basically if you are in a serious accident and your car is not totalled, your car has lost value due to it being an accident and repaired. Sometimes you can get this difference in value from your Insurance Company, but since this was my fault I was not able to collect on that. I was pretty upset at this point, stuck with a car that needed over half of it replaced, and burdened with the fact that when I go to sell the car I'll have to take a major hit on the resale value. 

I was also faced with the problem that I was moving back to New York and the car wouldn't be able to come with me. I could get the car fixed but then how would I get it back! Thankfully, we found out that State Farm would cover $400 of the cost to get the car shipped up north and repaired with a collision shop we have had good service with in the past. So I got a bunch of shipping quotes and found one that could do it quickly (we were paying $25 a day for the car to sit at the lot, out of pocket). So we arranged for it to be shipped from SC to NY, and faxed the estimate of the damage to DC Collision (which is a great Collision shop if you need one!). 

I was still upset but I was glad that the car was going to be fixed in NY. But just before the car was ready to ship up to New York, DC Collision called us and told us that the car should be totaled (it was just about totalled and if they found any additional damage not on the original estimate it would push it over the edge). And sure enough, when the car arrived here, DC took a look at it and totalled the car. State Farm finally agreed and after a month of drama I will be getting the check for the car in a few days.

Thanks everyone that prayed for me over the past few weeks. God really came through in the end!

It also looks like I am going to have an awesome opportunity to buy one of my dream cars. I'm sure some of you can guess what it might be. Stay tuned!

Chris & Andrea's Wedding: Part 2

After the awesome ceremony we did some formal pictures and went off in the limo to explore the town. We then arrived at the Inn on Broadway for the reception. It was a really beautiful location with lots of holiday decorations and great food for everyone! Enjoy!