Johnson City, TN Wedding: Emily & Eric

Emily and Eric were married last month in Johnson City, Tennessee. I had never been to that part of Tennessee before but it was a really pretty part of the country, with grassy rolling hills leading up into the mountains. The wedding was at Boone Trail Baptist Church and the reception was held at the Storytelling Center. We were all happy to have beautiful weather the day of the wedding, since the day of their engagement portraits ended up being the coldest day of the year and there was the threat of thunderstorms the day I shot Emily’s bridal portraits.

Spartanburg, SC Wedding: Ellice & Charlie

Ellice and Charlie were married at Westminster Presbyterian Church and the reception was held at the Piedmont Club in Spartanburg, SC in June. Southern Panache Events did a nice job planning the rehearsal dinner and the reception, keeping things running smoothly and on time. The reception was especially entertaining, with a rockin’ band, a caricature artist on the patio, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Chick-fil-a nuggets brought in.

Wofford College Bridal Portraits: Emily

I shot Emily’s bridal portraits on the campus of Wofford College. It was a really overcast day – in fact, there was a really bad storm coming through Greenville when I left for Spartanburg. Based on the radar, we weren’t going to have a lot of time to shoot before the rain hit Wofford. Fortunately, the rain held off long enough for us to shoot.

Emily and Eric’s wedding was this past weekend in Johnson City, Tennessee.

VBS Set Design

This is the background set design that we put together for our Vacation Bible School last week at Lifepoint. I hadn’t ever worked on putting together something like this before and it was a lot of work – but it was also a lot of fun.

It’s amazing what you can do with some cardboard, duct tape, foam and paint. We were actually able to find a lot of materials lying around, or donated from someone that was about to throw it away. The backdrop was assembled from three pieces of foam, with the shack built out of a fourth piece. Although we all pitched in here and there on the backdrop, most of the painting was delegated to Ben. The boat was constructed from an empty grill box. The dock is a piece of staging with cardboard on top and the railing is made from two long cardboard tubes cut into sections. We laid down green cellophane for the water and the plants were already part of the church decor.

Overall, we put this together for less than $100, with the only expenses being the cellophane, the foam, the Spanish moss  and the paint.

Gresham Woods Website

Client: Gresham Woods Homeowners’ Association
Address: http://www.greshamwoodshoa.org

The Gresham Woods neighborhood was in need of a website refresh in order to provide current information to residents. This site needed a user-friendly content-managed back end that multiple people could update, so it is built in WordPress. Some features of this site include contact information for the Board of Directors, quick links to local areas of interest, a neighborhood business directory and a neighborhood news section.

Greenville Rec Website

Client: Greenville Rec (via Drum Creative)
Web Address: http://greenvillerec.com

We launched the new website for the Greenville County Recreation District earlier this week. At close to 260 pages at launch time, this was by far the largest and most complex website that I have built to this point. Since the site is built on a content-managed back end, I expect that number will continue to grow.

The website design is a mash-up of several concepts that Ben and I put together. After we presented all of these to Greenville Rec, they identified features of each that they would like to incorporate. Ben took this feedback and created the final mock-up. From there, I took the design and built the site in WordPress, creating the CSS/HTML, PHP commands and implemented several scripts. I also got to shoot a couple of photos that are found in various locations of the site.

The site features several dynamic components right off of the home page, including a Twitter feed that gives updates on field conditions and closings, a listing of upcoming events (sorted by the closest to the current date), a drop-down menu system and a featured blog posts section. We also implemented a park locator that can give directions to parks within a given radius from an address. We have helped Greenville Rec launch a presence on Facebook and Twitter, which are also linked from each page.

There are several different templates deployed onto the site, which give a unique look that compliments that particular park or program. Each template also pulls events that are specific to that park or program. The website has several advertising zones, that allow for targeted ad placement. Because GreenvilleRec.com is a naturally heavy site and we anticipate close to 1 million visitors this year, it is being hosted on a dedicated server.

I have to say that this website was a lot of fun to work on with the folks at Greenville Rec and at Drum Creative. In the process, I have learned a TON about WordPress and building themes. I’m excited to monitor the traffic and watch the site continue to grow.

Lydia Grace

Here’s a shot of our new niece, Lydia Grace, born last week to Keri and Alex.

Downtown Photo Walk

I spent some time wandering around downtown Greenville on Saturday afternoon. It’s always fun to just walk around without any specific purpose and just observe everything going on. Every time I am down that way, I always find something new or interesting. Posted below are some of the shots I got. My favorite shot of the day was the picture of the daylilies by the Reedy River with the Swamp Rabbit Bridge and Larkin’s on the River in the background.

Wofford Commencement

I shot my sister’s graduation from Wofford College on Sunday. The ceremony was outside in front of Wofford’s “Old Main” building and the forecast called for rain showers throughout the morning. It had rained off and on the night before, so every time the wind blew the trees above all of the guests, I had to scramble to cover my camera. Thankfully, the showers held off until just after the commencement ceremony had ended.

Anyway, the full set of shots are up here.

Japanese Maples

We have three Japanese Maple trees in our yard and they are all this really nice shade of purple right now. I took advantage of a short break in the rain showers tonight to go out and snap a few shots.

With all of the rain we’ve been having lately, the miscellaneous vegetation that has laid dormant in our yard has really grown up. Good thing I got a weedeater for my birthday, so I can keep everything under control.